How to listen to and explain the Dharma teachings

• When we wish others happiness, we need to know what happiness means and what its causes are
• The benefits of hearing the Dharma teachings
• Having an attitude of respect for the Dharma and the teachers
• Listening to the teachings by relying on the six recognitions
• The three faulty pots: avoiding the faults that interfere with listening and understanding the teachings
• The benefits of explaining the teachings
• How to explain the Dharma teachings
• Generating the proper attitude and motivation when teaching, leading meditation, or leading discussions
• How to prepare and conduct the teaching session

Gomchen Lamrim 02: How to listen to and explain the teaching (download)

Let’s really have an expansive attitude, thinking of how vast the universe is and how many sentient beings there are. All these stars we look at are actually enormous, and there are so many things out in the universe that we have no idea exist. And there can be all sorts of sentient beings in the six realms. Each one of them wants to be happy and to not suffer intensely, as we do. Just expand your mind to the vastness of the universe and then include those sentient beings and think how they are exactly like you. 

Since we are all alike in wanting happiness and not wanting suffering, we can’t really say, “I am more important than others,” Or “What I’m going through is more painful than what others are going through.” Instead of making this differentiation between self and others, try and think happiness—in whatever form it comes in—is something to cultivate no matter whose it is. And suffering is something to get rid of, no matter whose it is. And remember when you are doing this that wishing others happiness doesn’t mean we are wishing they get everything they want. Because sometimes what sentient beings want actually brings them suffering. So, we have to have a big mind when wishing others happiness, not a small mind.

Let’s recall our potential to become fully awakened and cultivate an awareness that there is a path that we can follow and practice that leads to full awakening. Following that path, for the benefit of all beings, so we can be of more effective service to them, is something highly meaningful in our lives. This is true especially since it is incredibly difficult to receive a precious human life. Let’s make that our motivation for sharing the Dharma this evening.

Understanding what happiness means

The reason I’m emphasizing this big mind of including all sentient beings is because it takes us out of ourselves. It puts things in perspective. Also, when we’re wishing for others to have happiness, it’s very important that we understand well what happiness means. Otherwise we wind up getting quite confused in what we are wishing for sentient beings. Of course we wish they have food, clothing, friends, shelter and things like that, but we don’t stop there. Just wishing sentient beings to have that stuff doesn’t solve their basic problem, which is that they get born again and again in samara. It’s a band-aid. It’s good to have band-aids; people suffer tremendously on that level, but it doesn’t solve the fundamental problem. Also, if we just think of wishing that sentient beings have the happiness of this life, and “May all their wishes be fulfilled,” without qualifying it by virtuous wishes, then somebody could say, “I’m wishing that ISIS has all of their wishes fulfilled. And that there will be an Islamic caliphate in the world. I’m wishing that all the ISIS warriors win all of their battles. I’m wishing that all the countries that want to develop nuclear weapons are successful in doing that.” Because I’m wishing for sentient beings to have what they want, is that what it means to wish sentient beings happiness? No. 

Very often what sentient beings want is not what’s good for them. It’s what creates so many problems. So, we are not wishing that all alcoholics have as much booze as they ever want and all dope fiends have as much dope as they want, so that they never have to go through withdrawal. We are not wishing that all bank robbers, murderers and people with grudges are successful in their actions so that their wishes are fulfilled. We really have to think clearly because otherwise we can get quite confused. 

Happiness and the causes of happiness

We have to think,

May sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.

We should focus especially on the causes of happiness. And then it’s important to remember that the causes of happiness are not nuclear weapons, dope, buying an election and all this stuff. The causes of happiness are virtuous states of mind: states of mind that are free of attachment, free of anger, free of confusion. And it’s important to really wish that sentient beings have those states of mind so that they create good karma and then that good karma results in them having happiness while they are in samsara. But especially, it’s to wish that they create the causes to meet the Dharma and be able to practice the Dharma and then to gain the Dharma realizations. We want to wish that for sentient beings so they can have genuine happiness, not just a lot of band-aids. 

We really have to think well about this. Okay? Because otherwise, you go somewhere and start to teach the meditation on loving kindness, and someone is going to raise their hand and say, “I can’t wish ISIS happiness. I don’t want them to be successful in all of their wars.” Or they might say, “I don’t want Assad to win the war—and that’s what is going to make him happy,” or “I don’t want the Taliban to win the war and govern Afghanistan, enforcing their views on other people—because that won’t make other people happy, and you said that I should wish for other people to have their wishes fulfilled so that they are happy—and that would make the Taliban very happy. But it sure would make a whole lot of other people very miserable.” You have to be able to answer that question if somebody asks you instead of being at a loss for words.

How to wish for sentient beings to be happy

When we think of happiness, we really have to think hard about:

• What does happiness mean?
• What exactly is it that we are wishing for sentient beings?
• What’s the cause of it?
• How can we really wish it for others when sentient beings have different things in this world that make them happy?
• What does it mean to wish them happiness?

It’s important to do this considering that there are different things in this world that make them happy. Okay? It’s good to meditate on this a bit. 

Review

Okay, so we’ll come back to our text. The Gomchen Lamrim has four basic outlines:

1. The author.
2. The greatness of the text – which we covered last time.
3. How to teach and listen to the text.
4. The stages of the path of practice.

Last time we talked about the greatness of the author, very briefly. We focused more on the greatness of the text. Now we are going to start the section about how to teach and how to listen. Actually, the section on how to listen comes first, and then how to explain it. 

The benefits of hearing the Dharma teachings

The first one is about how to listen to the teachings when we are on the receiving side. That has different outlines. The first outline is contemplating the benefits of the teachings. It begins with a quote from one of the Jataka tales¹, a verse that says:

Whoever hears this will have their mind filled with faith; they will delight in spiritual practice and be stable in it. Their wisdom will grow, and their ignorance will be dispelled. It would be worth buying even with your own flesh.

So, when hearing the teachings, if you are able to listen properly then your mind fills with faith. Faith doesn’t mean unquestioned faith. It means faith that comes from understanding the teachings, seeing the value of the teachings, appreciating the teachings. And then your mind is filled with this very joyful feeling of great trust and confidence in the teachings. So, it’s a very happy state of mind that really builds. It gives us a sense of stability, because we really see the qualities of the teachings and see how they lead us to happiness. And then it’s like such a relief to have found a path that actually works, that leads to happiness, and that people have been practicing for 2500 years and have received the results of. It’s not Joe Blow making something up and running an ad in the new age newspaper.  It’s really something that is tried and true. We can think about it. We are encouraged to think about it and understand it. We are not encouraged to turn off our intelligence, to just surrender and believe. We are encouraged to use our intelligence. We are encouraged to try the teachings and see if they work. And then when we have some experience that they work that really gives us strong faith because it’s based on our own experience. It’s something that we can trust. That’s one benefit of listening to the teachings.

Faith, trust, and confidence in the teachings.

They will delight in spiritual practice and be stable in it.

Based on having that faith, trust and confidence in the teachings, then we want to practice, and we become stable in our practice. Lots of us are yo-yos in our practice. We get these big boosts of energy: WHOO-HOO! I do 1000 prostrations and then I’m tuckered out. So, let’s sit back, put my feet up, watch some TV and have a chocolate donut. Right? And Dharma practices goes out the window. And then after a few days of eating chocolate donuts we feel sick to our stomach. And then we think, “Maybe I should prostrate to get rid of this extra fat that I’ve just put on.” That’s not the right reason for doing prostrations. When we really hear the teachings and take them in our heart and have that trust that comes from understanding, that comes from experience then our practice gets stable.

Self-discipline

Sometimes to get our practice to become stable, we need a little bit of self-discipline. Or maybe we need a lot of self-discipline. [laughter] That’s the benefit of living in a community because when the bell rings everybody gets up at the same time, and everybody goes in the hall at the same time, and if you are not there somebody is going to come check on you and make sure you are not sick. It becomes easier to practice because that is what everybody else is doing. When you are on your own it really requires much more self-discipline. You have to get yourself out of bed and to the cushion—unless you are lucky to have a cat who wakes you up. But then you have to teach the cat to wake you up at five instead of two. [laughter] So, it’s important to become stable in our practice. 

Our practice becomes part of our day, and part of our life.

And then our practice really becomes part of our day, and part of our life. We don’t miss it. The same way we nourish our body everyday by eating our meals, we nourish our hearts everyday by doing our practice. It just becomes what we do. And I must say that sometimes we feel like, “I’m just doing this practice. I’m just reciting words. I’m not really getting anywhere. What’s the use?” You know, sometimes we just feel like that. And then you think “Well, maybe I’ll just stop because what I’m doing is not real practice. It’s just blah-blah.” I remember thinking that at one point, “What would happen if instead of getting up in the morning and practicing, I got up and just started my day?” What would happen if I got up, turned on the computer, and started working? What would that be like? And then I thought, “I would be completely unprepared for the day!” To wake up and to start with email—oh god! I would be totally unprepared for the day. I would be horrible to live with. That’s when I realized that even though I felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere in my practice, my practice was actually sustaining me.

Sustainability and motivation

Just the fact of doing it every day made the rest of the day something bearable, so to speak. And then I also began to see that the mind that thinks like that—“Oh, it’s just blah-blah, so maybe I should stop”—that mind is seeking peak experiences. It’s a mind that is attached to wowey-kezowy. Yes? Every morning, I want to sit down and go into bliss and emptiness or whatever it is. That’s like a drug addict’s mind. The drug addict always wants to have a high. So, I’m just wanting a high every morning. That’s not really the right motivation for doing my practice. And anyway, those meditations you have where something clicks, and it really goes into your heart—where you go “Oh!!! Yes, that’s really true” and you put down something big—that only happens because you’ve gone through how many times of just doing the meditation and not having a strong experience. But all of those times of just doing it, it’s like drops in the bucket, and then one day it clicks. But it’s not going to click the first time you do it, and it’s not going to click if you don’t keep putting those drops in the bucket. So, then you just say, “Okay, I’ve got to be content to create the cause. I will be stable in creating the cause. And simply by creating the cause, doing the best I can—even though it’s not fantastic—my life will be better.”

Stabilizing your practice transforms the mind

And slowly the mind will transform. And then your mind becomes much more stable instead of sitting down and thinking, “Am I going to be hit by the bolt of lightning? Is the hair on my arms going to stand on edge?” Because you hear all of these things in the scriptures. I remember one time at a course for new people, one of my teachers had come in and a person I was speaking with said, “He walked in the room and the hair on my arms stood on end! And I just felt bliss! And I want to ordain!” [laughter]

I was with some other monastics, and we just said, “Oh, that’s nice. Now just calm down.“ [laughter] We said, “Do your practice. Listen to the teachings. We know he is a wonderful teacher, but you are not going to have that same feeling every time he walks into the room. Just focus on the teachings and do your practice. You’ll get ordained when you are ready.” But she said, “No! I want to get ordained now.” This is what we call “ordination fever”—it’s like: “NOW! NOW!” But we just said, “No, cool it.” And then years later, I was in Montana, and she came to the teaching, and she said, “Thank you very much for what you told me years ago.” [laughter] But at that time she was really mad at us because we weren’t telling her what she wanted to hear. Anyway, if you hear teachings, listen to teachings, repeatedly and think about them, your practice becomes stable. 

Another benefit,

Wisdom will grow and your ignorance will be dispelled.

That’s a really nice benefit, isn’t it? Yes. When your conventional wisdom grows, you understand cause and effect better; you can see situations clearer and make good decisions based on virtue. Your wisdom of the ultimate truth gets clearer. Your mind gets much less confused with attachment, anger and so on. So, wisdom will grow, and ignorance will be dispelled. 

The Dharma is a reliable refuge

It would be worth buying, even with your own flesh.

In other words, the Dharma is more important than our body. You’re going to go: “WHAT!? What do you mean the Dharma is more important than my body? My body is ME! Without this body, who am I? I’ll give up the Dharma first, not this body!” But think about it: in the big picture, long term, what is this body? It’s basically recycled dirt, isn’t it? Because it is made from the food. And where did the food come from? Go out and look in the garden. The dirt is growing and transforming into melons, beans. The dirt transforms into a lot of different things and then that stuff transforms into this body. So, what’s more important for your long-term well-being—recycled string beans? That’s what we ate for lunch, recycled string beans, tofu skin, cheese and salad. Or is it the Dharma? What’s going to benefit you more in the long run? Yeah, it becomes very clear, doesn’t it? This body made from recycled string beans is not going to lead me to enlightenment. The Dharma is a reliable refuge.

Our bodies are just recycled dirt

It sounds funny, but isn’t it true? Isn’t that what our body is? We think this body is so great, that it’s something special. This hand is recycled tofu skin. [laughter] It’s recycled salad dressing. [laughter] We have to get our priorities straight. It’s just recycled dirt. And one day, we’ll have to separate from it and go on to our next life. What’s going to be of benefit to us at that time? This body will be of zero benefit to us at the time we die—zero. It does not come with us. This body is going to be the source of pain. It’s going to be the object of attachment if we’re not careful. So, what’s really going to help us at the time of death? It’s the Dharma, isn’t it? Yes, at the time of death, the Dharma is what’s going to help us. And that’s going to be the cumulative effect of the virtue we’ve created during our entire life. And the mental habits we have, the wisdom and compassion we’ve gained, that’s what is really going to benefit us. You think when you are lying on your deathbed that if they put string beans and tofu skin around you and scatter some salad then that’s going to benefit you at the time of death? They could mix in a little watermelon and applesauce, but it’s not going to help us. 

Having an attitude of respect for the Dharma and the teachers

The second outline of how to listen to the teachings

The text says:

While listening to the teachings with one-pointed faith and veneration, free of pride and scorn for the teaching and the teachers, performing services and such and being respectful, consider the teachers as you do the Buddha.

Okay, there are three clauses here.

The first one

While listening to the teachings with one-pointed faith and veneration, free of pride and scorn for the teaching and the teachers.

Okay, this is talking about having one pointed faith: that happy mind that is really confident in the teachings. And it’s about veneration—really seeing how precious the teachings are, having that sense that “These teachings are extraordinary. And how amazingly fortunate I am to be able to sit here and listen.” When I go to His Holiness’s teachings, this is how I always feel. It’s like, “Wow, how did I get to be here?” Because these teachings are very special. This verse is talking about having that feeling. And then when it says to be free of arrogance, it means we are not sitting in the teaching thinking, “Well, I’m a very good practitioner. Let’s see if this teaching meets the standard of what I’m ready to practice,” or “I’ve heard this teaching before, so I’m going to see if the teacher teaches it correctly or not.”

It’s that kind of arrogant mind: “I’m the best disciple out of all of the thousands here. So, I know that the teacher is directing it especially to me.” It’s important to be free of that kind of me, my, I, and mine—that kind of conceit. And it’s important to be free of scorn for the teaching. We’re not looking at the teaching with disgust, like: “This is elementary stuff! They are teaching precious human life. How many times have I heard that? Yes, I know the eight freedoms². Yes, I know the ten fortunes³. This is so boring! Why don’t they teach something interesting this time? This is kind of baby stuff.” Okay, so it’s without that kind of scorn for the teachings, without deprecating the teachings. You can see how easy it is for some kind of arrogance to come in there. 

Performing services

So, we listen to teachings in that way, without arrogance.  Another part of this is about performing services, meaning while helping the teacher prepare for the teaching.  Maybe you put the text together beforehand, arrange the room, or help the teacher in some way. You do this with a mind that is being respectful towards the teaching and the teacher. It doesn’t mean you have to look at the teacher with big googly eyes, thinking “Wow!” It’s not like that; it’s not like you are seeing a rock star. But it’s with respect for the teacher. Our racism comes in different ways; it might be: “They grew up in Tibet, a backwards country. What do they know?! They’re going to teach me some Tibetan trip-thing that has no relevance to my life.” That’s one way of being disrespectful to the teaching and the teacher. Another way is to think, “Well, this teacher is Western. They grew up with Mickey Mouse like me. What do they know? What can they teach me?” Do you see how our racism can go one way or the other? It’s putting one down because they are different and then putting the other one down because they are the same as us. Neither of those attitudes are very helpful. If we don’t respect the teacher, if we don’t respect the teaching, then we don’t listen well. Our mind listens with just a mind of criticism. When you are listening with a mind of criticism, how is that going to help you? You aren’t going to learn anything. So, it’s important to have an appropriate attitude while listening and while performing services. 

Then it says:

Consider the teachings as you do the Buddha.

The way that I think is good for us to understand this is when you are hearing the teachings to think, “If the Buddha were here in this room teaching me, he would not say anything different from what my teacher is saying.” It’s helpful to look at it that way. It’s not thinking Mickey Mouse is teaching it or some kind of old Tibetan somebody teaching it. But instead, we’re thinking, “If the Buddha were here, he would be teaching me the exact same thing. This is something important. I should be really taking it to heart and really listen about it.”

That’s generating respect for the teaching and the teachers. And, again, sometimes we may be unhappy with our teachers: “Here is my teacher teaching me this, but I asked for a private appointment! And their attendant wouldn’t let me in! And I’m always getting rejected from the private appointments!” Yes, I had a problem with this before. It’s thinking all this kind of stuff. If you have that in your mind then you can’t listen to the teaching because you’re thinking, “I’m not getting what I want! I have my emotional needs, and my teacher is not fulfilling them!” And you are stuck in that kind of mind. That’s not going to get us anywhere either. “My teacher doesn’t look at me! My teacher doesn’t answer my questions! They always answer other people’s questions.” 

I remember one time in France, I used to sit right in front, and I always had a gazillion questions. My hand was always up. And I would be like, “Gesh-la, how can you say that? That doesn’t make any sense.” And then Venerable Steve and I would team up against Gesh-la. Steve would say “Yes!” and this and this and this. We would present our argument together. And then there came a time when Gesh-la would just not look at me. He’d look at the room and I’m sitting right in front with my hand raised. He’s looking around the room: “Anybody have any questions? Oh yes, you over there! What do you think about this? How about you over there, what do you think about this?” He wouldn’t look at me. Me—he didn’t look at me!

Another time—it was really hilarious—I was with Alex in Dharamsala, and we bumped into Lama Zopa Rinpoche, so we invited him to tea. And Rinpoche starts talking to Alex and completely does not even look at me. From the moment we met him in the street and invited him, did not talk to me and did not look at me. We went out to tea; he talked the whole time to Alex. Even Alex said to me at the end, “Did you notice he didn’t pay any attention to you?” “Yes, Alex, I noticed that.” But by that time, I was a little bit more used to it. I was thinking, “Okay, I know what’s going on here. I’ll just keep my mouth shut. I’ll listen to their conversation, and I’ll learn something from listening.” But it was really funny. He completely acted as if I was invisible.

Audience: Why did he do that?

Venerable Thubten Chodron (VTC): Why did he do that? Who knows. But it was a good teaching for me in terms of the mind that says, “But what about me?” I was able to be much more peaceful about it. Before I was always frustrated and angry about that sort of thing. And that time I just said, “Okay,” and then I just listened and learned from their conversation. And that was good enough. That was okay. Why do I always need to be the one that’s the object of attention? 

Listening to the teachings by relying on the six recognitions

• Relying on the six recognitions 
• Removing three faults similar to the vessels

There is one sutra called Sutra Requested by Sagaramati, and the first five recognitions come from that one. The sixth one is like a dedication. This is very good. These six are very good and we should listen to the teachings. First is:

To see ourselves as a sick person.

That’s the opposite of coming into the teachings and being like, “Pay attention to me! Look at me! Answer my questions! I’m here!” This means to realize that “I’m a sick person. I’m sick with afflictions, delusions and a whole lot of destructive karma. And I’m suffering in Samsara. I need help.” When there is the recognition that we are a sick person, we come in with a humble attitude of “I need help” instead of having a more arrogant attitude of “I need help!”

And then:

Seeing the teacher as the doctor.

This could be your teacher or it could be the Buddha—seeing them as the doctor. Seeing them as the one who can diagnose our illness, who can cure us. How do they cure us? It’s by prescribing the medicine. What’s the medicine? It’s the Dharma.

So, this is saying to see ourselves as the patient, the sick person, and seeing the teacher and the Buddha as the doctors, and the Dharma as the medicine. And then taking the medicine as the cure.

Applying the teaching as the cure

This is not just getting the prescription, going to the drug store, buying the bottle, putting it on your nightstand and then leaving it there without opening it and taking the pills. But this means to really see the teachings as the medicine, and then understanding that taking that medicine is what’s going to cure you. From our side, that means there is some commitment to putting the teachings into practice. We are not just sitting here like, “Okay, what do they have to say for themselves?” Instead, we recognize that “I’m a sick person, and I need some medicine. And I’m going to take that medicine.”

And then the fifth one:

Seeing the Tathagatas are superior beings.

This means really seeing the Buddha as the fully awakened one. Like I said, this is not a teaching from Jim Jones, who is going to tell us to commit mass suicide. It’s not a teaching from Rajneesh, where they are all doing these weird things and collecting guns. It’s a teaching that has really been tried and true, so we respect the Buddha, the Tathagata. And then with that kind of mind, we listen and take the medicine. 

The sixth one:

Really having a strong aspiration that the teaching exists forever.

We aspire that the teachings remain forever. And seeing that the teachings remain forever has to do with my listening and practicing it. We may not be lineage holders, but we have some responsibility for listening, taking the teachings into our heart, practicing them, getting the correct understanding, transforming our mind and then sharing them with others. Isn’t that beautiful? I always liked this part here. It’s quite beautiful. 

And then, also, when we are actually listening, then we have to remove three faults that are similar to a faulty pot.

The Three Faulty Pots
Avoiding the faults that interfere with listening and understanding the teachings

The first pot

The first pot is upside down. You have this marvelous nectar, but the bowl is upside down. So, you pour it, and where does this nectar go? It goes all over the floor. Nothing goes in the bowl because the bowl is upside down. That’s like our mind when we are not open and receptive to the teachings. When we are tired and exhausted, we are not listening properly. Nothing is going in. We are just totally out to lunch. Somebody asks, “What was the teaching about?” and get a blank look in return. It’s amazing how when I travel, people will remember all sorts of cute little stories about the teacher, but they will not remember what the teaching was about. It makes me wonder what they say to other people after I leave. It might be nothing of what I taught, but cute little stories, like “She likes chocolate!” Brilliant. The mind that is not receptive to the Dharma is an upside down pot. We have to stay awake during the teachings. If you have a problem staying awake, do lots of prostrations; it helps purify the karma from disrespecting the teachings that makes you fall asleep. It also gets your body moving, so you don’t fall asleep. Get some exercise. Put cold water on your face and head before teachings so you can stay awake. That’s one faulty vessel. 

The second pot

The second pot is turned right-side up, so the nectar can go in, but there is a hole in the bottom. Whatever goes in, comes out—in one ear and out the other. So again, you ask “What did the teacher teach about?” and get a long blank stare. “Lamrim!” It’s because we can’t sustain anything. So, the upside down one is when we are not paying attention, and the leaky one is where we are paying attention, but we don’t contemplate the teaching after we hear it. We don’t review our notes. We take the notes. We close the book. We go and do something else. We don’t reflect upon what we heard. It all gets drained out.

The third pot

Then the third fault of the pot is that it’s dirty inside. You may have this wonderful nectar in a beautiful pot that is filled with what the Tibetans call caca. You know what caca is? Okay. So, it’s filled or it’s lined with caca. It’s encrusted with caca. The nectar goes in, but it gets mixed up with the caca. That’s like us listening with a rotten motivation: “I’m going to listen to these teachings so that I will know a lot and then I can teach other people, and I can be a big shot. And I know teachings, and I teach them to other people. Then other people will respect me, and they’ll give me stuff.” That’s a totally rotten motivation. Or it might be thinking, “I’m listening to teachings so I can be the teacher’s pet! I don’t remember anything. All I’m doing is sitting there with adoring eyes.” Again, it’s that “Look at me! Look at me! I’m here at the teachings! Isn’t that wonderful?” kind of thing. Or maybe the motivation is that “I can ask really intelligent questions.” It’s some kind of rotten motivation, some kind of polluting motivation.

We really have to be careful when listening to teachings to have a suitable motivation. We always take the time to cultivate our motivation. With many teachers, you do the refuge and bodhicitta prayer that we chant, and they think that while we are chanting you are not out to lunch, but you are actually developing a good motivation. So, they don’t articulate a special motivation, or they do it the first teaching but not the rest of them. We have to remember when we are chanting that prayer that we are responsible for generating a good motivation. 

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: Yes, it could be that too: “I know better than the teacher. So, I’m sitting here listening to this person to see what they have to say for themselves, but I know how it really is.” Again, it’s that kind of arrogance. 

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: The name of the sutra? It’s the Sutra Requested by Sagaramati. But that’s not the three vessels; that’s the five recognitions. 

Listen with enthusiasm

So, we need to listen well and thoroughly, to retain what you hear. In brief, this is bringing together the causes to achieve Buddhahood and recalling the benefits of learning. Listen with enthusiasm.

Sometimes when we go to teachings, we think all we have to do is sit there and listen. And then the teacher does all of the work. But the kind of teaching you receive depends on how you listen to the teaching because it’s a very interactive process. If you are sitting there in front of a group of students zoning out and looking bored, that’s going to affect the teacher. You’re going to get one kind of teaching. If the students are really listening, and really taking it in, you are going to get another kind of teaching. If the students are sitting back and looking defiant, you are going to get another kind of teaching. It is a very interactive process. 

How to explain the teaching

• Contemplating the benefits of explaining the teachings.
• Generating respect for the teacher and the teaching—for the Buddha and the teaching.
• With what state of mind and what behavior to teach .
• Differentiating between whom to teach and whom not to teach.

The benefits of explaining the teachings

First, not only the students contemplate the benefits of listening, but the teacher has to see the benefits of teaching. It’s not like you automatically feel like teaching all the time. Sometimes you are tired; sometimes you are sick. Sometimes you are who-knows-what.  But you have to teach, so you have to think of the benefits of the teachings so that you enjoy doing it and do it properly. It says:

Reject consideration for gain, honors, etc. Reject disturbed thinking and incorrect explanations.

So, it’s rejecting all of those.

Teach as the Buddha taught the sutras and so on. Then you will gain the countless benefits taught in the Sutra Requested By Ugra and the exhortation to superior resolve.

So, I have the Sutra Requested By Ugra, and I checked to try to find the passages, but I didn’t find them in the outline, and I didn’t have time to go through the whole sutra to find them.  But when it says “to reject consideration for gain, honors and so forth,” it means not to teach with this idea of: “Let’s see, how many people are in the room? And if they each give $10, then this is how much I’ll have at the end of it.” It means to not teach like that or thinking: “Okay, how many people are in the room? There are a lot of new people. I can put on a good show tonight. They’ll think I’m a really good teacher. Then they will all talk to their friends and say ‘Oh! I went to the marvelous teaching by so-and-so. You should come!’”

The self-centered mind wants material gains and respect. So, it’s very important when you are teaching, leading meditations, leading a discussion group—anything—to get rid of that kind of mind. We usually start by chanting the verse that says, “A star, a mirage, the flame of a lamp, an illusion, a drop of dew or a bubble.” That verse is all about impermanence. So, the teacher is thinking, “I’m sitting on this seat for a short time. It’s not who I am; it’s not my identity. There is nothing to get attached to.” You remember impermanence. Also, when the teacher bows beforehand, they imagine the entire lineage on the seat and above the seat, so you are bowing to the entire lineage. If you are sitting there visualizing all of the lineage teachers from the Buddha down to Je Rinpoche down to your own teacher, if you really contemplate that, you are not going to be arrogant. Because you realize that compared to them I’m piddley. And then also, when the teacher sits down they snap their fingers. Again, that’s a sign of impermanence: “This is just temporary. That’s it.” You have to do that so you get rid of that mind that is looking for any benefit for this life. 

Disturbed thinking and any incorrect explanations

You want to make sure before you lead a meditation, a discussion group, or give a talk that you know the material and you can give a correct explanation. Then:

Teach as the Buddha taught the sutras.

How did the Buddha teach the sutras? When the Buddha taught the sutras, he was just telling us his own internal experience. What’s it like to be a Buddha? Read a sutra, listen to a Dharma talk: they are telling you. We may not have that internal experience, but we can give as much as we understand ourselves. 

And then the benefits:

You will gain the countless benefits taught in these sutras.

Some of the benefits are that from teaching, you learn the material better yourself. Because when you have to say it, you have to understand it. That means you have to think about it, and you have to be able to put it in your own words. So, it really helps your own education. And that’s the way my teachers trained a lot of us—after only a year or two, we were starting to lead mediations. I remember the first time I was asked to do something I said, “I don’t know anything! I can’t do this!” But that’s how you learn. 

The Buddha as a teacher

And how else did the Buddha teach? The Buddha taught with real care and affection for the people. The Buddha didn’t look at the audience and go, “Oh, these dimwits, what do they know?” The Buddha taught with real compassion and care and concern and wanting the best for his students. So, teach in that kind of way. 

The benefits of explaining the teachings

You get the benefits in terms of your own education, and you also have a tremendous opportunity to create merit. For years I resisted being in this position. I didn’t want to teach, but I kept getting put in this position—actually from very early on. It started when one of the teachers for a course was sick and I was the person ordained longest at the center. I was only ordained 2 or 3 years at that point. And they were like, “Well, nobody else is here, so you’ve got to teach.” I was speechless. And then after that I would keep going to my teacher and saying, “Please, I want to do retreat. I want to get more experience with the teachings. Can’t I do retreat?” And my teachers would say “That’s very nice. Go teach.” I thought, “But I don’t know anything. Why are they having me teach?” I really resisted it for quite a long time until it began to dawn on me that my teachers were actually giving me an amazing opportunity to create merit. It was totally an amazing opportunity. And it was an opportunity to repay the kindness of sentient beings—to actively repay the kindness of sentient beings. This was not in an abstract way, but to do the best I can to share the teachings. Then I really began to see how I benefited from teaching, and it was a great opportunity for me. And I developed a greater understanding of what my teachers go through. [laughter]

How to explain the Dharma teachings

So, when he taught “the conqueror’s mother”—that means the Prajnaparamita Sutra, which is called the mother of all the Buddhas. So,

When the Buddha taught the Prajnaparamita Sutra, the guide (the Buddha) set up his own seat; the teaching itself was the Buddha’s object of veneration. Therefore, recalling the good qualities and kindness of the teaching and the teacher, generate veneration for them.

When the Buddha taught the Prajnaparamita Sutra, he set up his own seat because he had such veneration for the Prajnaparamita. So, he made his own seat because the object of veneration was not himself as the teacher, it was the Prajnaparamita. So, he made the seat. He was just the vehicle it came through. He made his own seat and spoke the Prajnaparamita.

By recalling the good qualities of the teaching and the teacher and recalling the kindness of the teaching and the teacher, when you are teaching or leading a discussion group or whatever, have respect for them. Venerate them—really feel that this is an amazing privilege to even talk about something so precious as the Buddha’s teachings. This is important considering what we usually talk about and how our speech is usually filled with all sorts of garbage. It’s like, “Wow! This is an amazing opportunity for me to talk about something worthwhile to people. 

Generating the proper attitude and motivation when teaching, leading meditation, or leading discussions

So, this is focused on the actual state of mind.

Give up retaining information.

I wonder if that’s a correct translation—unless it means just retaining the Dharma as information instead of seeing it as something to practice. 

Give up bragging

“I’m such a fantastic teacher! You are so lucky to listen to me.”

Give up weariness with the teaching

 “Oh, I’ve taught this before. Why can’t I teach something different?”

Give up criticizing others

“Anyway, these students don’t get it! They’re such dimwits,” or “I can teach so much better than these other people do.”

Give up procrastination

“Oh! I don’t feel like teaching. They asked me to give refuge and precepts. Oh god! I just gave them and the next day they ask me again. Why can’t they get their act together? Sigh. I’ll do it later. Mañana.” And giving up jealousy, thinking like “Oh god! They are going to hear this teaching from me and then they are going to go hear it from my teacher. And then they will know what an awful teacher I am. What’s going to happen to me then?” Or thinking, “Oh! I’m giving this teaching, but they also go and hear teachings by so-and-so, who really knows stuff much better than me. So, they are going to be comparing me to that teacher. I’m not nearly as good.” Or maybe: “After they listen to me, they are going to go to that teacher. They are going to speak better so they are going to become the disciple of that teacher instead of becoming my disciple.” Or it might be getting arrogant: “They went to that teacher! I can give a better teaching. Then they will all become my disciples, not that person because I’m much better.” So, this means to give up all that kind of rubbish. 

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: Oh yes! “There’s some really smart, well-educated disciple in here, uh oh! When they hear me teach, they will see all of the holes in what I’m saying.” 

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: Oh, okay. It might be thinking, “I’m teaching them and they’re going to go out and teach and they’ll be more successful than me.” Yes. So then you compete with your disciples or you compete with your own teacher.

How to prepare and conduct the teaching session

Cultivate love for your disciples and maintain the five recognitions. See the virtue of teaching correctly as the instrument of your own happiness.

So, this part is about teaching correctly. It’s not teaching stuff you’ve made up yourself. Not teaching with the attitude of “Well, the sutra says this, but it actually means this. And this is according to what I believe.” So, it’s give up giving wrong explanations. It’s really about responsibility. Lots of time people are so eager to teach and have the idea of “I want to sit up in front of the room and teach and be somebody.” But it’s such a responsibility, because if you instruct the wrong thing people remember it. And then when they hear the correct explanation, they don’t believe the correct explanation. Because they think, “I remember this teacher said blah blah. And now this teacher is contradicting them. And I’m confused.” It’s really a tremendous responsibility. It’s not something to be taken lightly. 

Your conduct, when you teach.

Prepare yourself well. Wash and so on.

So, don’t come in directly from the forest in your dirty forest clothes, all sweaty.

Once you are clean, sit on the throne—the Dharma seat—and pronounce the profound dharani.

This is a dharani that subjugates demons. Actually, you can do the Prajnaparamita mantra: “OM GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA.” The Tibetans often think of real demons you’re dispelling, but you’re also dispelling wrong motivations in yourself and in the other person by reciting the Prajnaparamita mantra. That’s why at the beginning of things I have silence. The way I prepare my mind I have these four things I go through, and then I say the mantra and I prepare my mind that way. I feel it’s very important. I can’t just sit down and give a teaching. Actually, it’s better to not even think that I’m a teacher giving a teaching. His Holiness always says, “I’m just an older brother sharing with you what I know.” He doesn’t say, “I’m a teacher.” He’s just sharing with you. He’s so humble. It’s important to think that way. 

With a friendly demeanor, confident with the meaning of examples, use abundant citations and arguments, teach the excellent Dharma.

When you are giving talks or leading meditations, have a friendly demeanor. This is really important. We may not be aware of how we look when we are speaking publicly. It can be very helpful for some of you giving BBCs to watch your own BBCs. Because sometimes you are giving a BBC and your eyes are down. You are giving this whole talk not making eye contact with anybody. Or you are giving a talk looking at the ceiling. Or you are giving a talk using “um” a lot or “you know” a lot. And we don’t even realize we are doing it. So, it’s really quite interesting sometimes to watch the recordings, and it’s like “Oh! That’s what I look like.” Yes. We can ask, “Do I have a friendly demeanor? Can I make eye contact with the students?” Or we might ask, “Am I scowling? Am I looking bored?” Okay? It’s very good to see so we have a feeling.

Having a friendly demeanor, confident with the meaning of examples.

So, this means knowing the material and having thought about it, so we are confident about what we are teaching. We’re not full of doubts ourselves. It’s very interesting when you watch Jeffery teach, he’s really thinking about the teaching while he is teaching it. And he shares his thoughts and his doubts with us. So, it’s a way that he teaches that is showing us how to examine the teachings. He’s not teaching like, “I know the answers.” It’s more like, “Well, it says this. But what do you think that means?” It’s really good. He gets you thinking. 

Use abundant citations.

So, cite the different sutras and commentaries if you have them memorized.

Give good arguments.

Provide arguments so that it makes sense, not just blah, blah that’s full of contradictions.

And teach the excellent Dharma.

Respectfully request teachings

Differentiating between whom to teach and whom not to teach. Having been requested, teach those whose behavior is in accordance with the Vinaya when they listen.

So, people should ask us for the teachings. We don’t go into a situation like, “Hi! I’m a Dharma teacher. I’m going to teach you the Dharma!” No, people should request, and they should request earnestly. And they shouldn’t request like the teacher is their servant: “I feel like listening to teachings, so can you please teach this text?” The students should request respectfully. And the teacher should wait until they have received a request to see if they are really earnest. Usually, the request has to be three times. 

Attend teachings properly—with respectful attention

Teach those whose behavior is in accordance with the Vinaya.

In other words, when people come to teachings they are sitting up straight, they are listening respectfully, their heads are uncovered, they are not flirting with the people sitting next to them. People are behaving properly. When you teach in India—because you’re teaching all of the young travelers that come through—sometimes they come in like, “Who are you?” And then they lie down during the teaching. Yes, they lie down on their side, prop their head up and look at you. And I’ve had to say to people, “Please, can you sit up straight? It’s distracting for me when someone is lying down when I’m trying to give a talk.”

Or they are talking to each other. You are giving a talk, and they are talking to each other. Or maybe a couple are making eyes at each other during the teaching or tickling each other. People have to listen properly. It’s not sitting there eating food and chewing loudly, like they are watching TV with popcorn. It’s important not to listen like that. The students are just yawning and yawning loudly. Some people just yawn; some people do it very loudly. And they don’t even realize that they are making noise. You are trying to teach, and someone is yawning loudly or tapping their fingers or bouncing their leg. They have all of this nervous energy. They are tapping their fingers, or they are playing with their mala beads. Or they are looking around, checking out who else is there. So, you should teach people who are listening properly. 

And it’s a challenge sometimes to teach them how to listen properly—when they are not doing it at that time. 

Audience: I remember one teaching where those involved didn’t want to start with prayers, and they didn’t want to do it properly, so the Geshe just sat there the whole time and didn’t talk. And that was the teaching. It was a very good teaching for them.

Evaluating worthy recipients

When you know they are worthy recipients.

In other words, you have to examine the students. Before you teach them, you have to examine them. You don’t just teach Joe Blow.  Because somebody could be coming in with a wrong motivation. Maybe you have somebody from a different religion who wants to listen to a Buddhist teaching so that they can pick holes at it. You don’t want to teach that kind of person. Especially if you are giving higher teachings, you have to see that the people are qualified. You don’t just start teaching emptiness to anybody; it has to be somebody who can understand it. 

As an exception, when you know they are worthy recipients, you can teach even if they haven’t asked. Then you may teach informally, like sitting around the kitchen table or something like that. But normally people really need to ask. And they need to listen properly. 

Attending the teachings is not a consumer activity

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: Okay, so in many Dharma Centers you have a spiritual program coordinator who makes the program and then advertises it, and then people think that this is a consumer activity. They go, and they pay. So, it’s an attitude of “I’m the consumer, and this is the one that is fulfilling my needs.” That’s not the right kind of attitude to have when you go listen to teachings: “I paid my registration fees, so what’s the teaching here?” or “The teaching had better be a good one; it better be interesting.” That’s actually why when the program coordinator is planning the program, they should be the one that respectfully requests the teacher. At the beginning of the teaching, when you offer the mandala, that’s a request for teaching. You offer the universe and everything beautiful in it. The whole audience is chanting, and hopefully they are thinking about what they are chanting: “I’m offering the whole universe and everything in it out of veneration for the teacher and the teaching.” So, they are requesting it at that time. Because the second verse of the mandala offering is requesting teachings.  And at the end you offer the mandala again as a symbol of “I’ve received something that’s more valuable than the whole universe, so I’m offering the universe as a token of it.”

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: So, you said he goes through the six recognitions always? Yes, it’s a way of preparing the students so they can hear. It’s to help the students prepare their own minds. 

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: Then you teach to the sincere ones, and you try to add something that the other ones may understand. If you watch His Holiness when he is teaching, it’s amazing. He will weave in and out of something that is very simple and then he’ll go into something incredible, like the nature of reality. Then he’ll come out to something simple once again before going into something more complex, like bodhicitta. Everybody gets something out of the teaching. 

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: I don’t know where the sixth one came from. It just said that the first five came from that sutra. But the sixth one is really beautiful. It’s kind of like the dedication—the core of the whole thing. And the sixth one that says “wanting the teachings to exist forever” reminds us we have responsibility for this. And the teaching isn’t just about me and my Dharma practice, because so often we go to teachings with this mind of “The teacher is serving me so I can have a good Dharma practice.” We tend to do that instead of having a big mind. 

Audience: You said that before you teach you do four things?

VTC: Yes, I made them up. The first thing I do is usually to visualize Manjushri, and then I make the aspiration:

“May everything I say be correct. May I not say anything that is mistaken.”

Because the number one important thing is that I don’t distort the Dharma. Then the second thing:

“May I say what this audience needs to hear. May the teaching be something applicable to this particular audience.”

Then the third one:

“May I express it articulately. And may they understand it correctly.”

So, it’s both things, from the side of me expressing and the side of their understanding. And then the fourth:

“May we all have the correct motivation for sharing the Dharma tonight.”

And then I imagine Manjushri dissolving into me during the self-generation saying the mantra.

So that’s what I do. And before that I do the GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA mantra.

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: Yes, because whenever you do something important you have to show your sincerity by asking more than once. So, whenever people request something, they have to show they are sincere, not that it’s just an idea that popped in their head. It’s not with an attitude of “Yes! Let’s do this!” and then the next day you forget about it. 

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: Yes. That’s why I ask people to do that, because they have to think about it. And they have to say something, not just show up with an attitude of “Oh, I’m here; now you do something for me.” No, that’s not the right attitude.

Contemplation points

1. Consider the many benefits of hearing teachings (mind filled with faith, delight in spiritual practice, wisdom will grow and ignorance dispelled). Why is it important to know the benefits?
2. Venerable Chodron said that the Dharma is more important than even our own body. Consider this in light of some of the decisions you make.
3. Why does veneration for the teacher, even seeing the teacher as the Buddha, benefit the mind?
4. Describe the three faulty pots and why we want to avoid listening in this manner.
5. How does reflecting on the six recognitions prepare our mind to hear the Dharma (you as the sick person, the teacher as the doctor, the teaching as medicine, steady application as the cure, tathagatas as superior beings, dedication)?
6. What are the benefits of teaching and what qualities should we cultivate in order to teach?

Footnotes

1.  The Jataka tales (Sanskrit: birth history) are a voluminous body of literature native to India concerning the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. ↩︎
2.  Freedom for the eight states where there is no opportunity to practice the Dharma. ↩︎
3. See 10 assets on this page ↩︎