Application of the Five Dimensions to Relation with Yidam

We have done a similar type of analysis in terms of the relationship of a student with a Buddhist teacher. Next, what we will explore is the relation with a yidam that we would establish as a tantric practitioner. The first question, of course, is what is a yidam?

Yidam

The word yidam in Tibetan means some figure with whom we establish a close bond or relationship with for our minds. In Sanskrit, the word implies a deity or some special figure that is wished for, in the sense that we are aiming to become like that. Please be careful when the term “deity” is being used for these figures. Don’t confuse it and think that we are talking about a sort of god in the heaven or a creator omnipotent being. It’s not that at all. 

These are meditational figures, also sometimes called Buddha-figures; however, let’s just use the Tibetan term and refer to them as yidams, as it is easier to say. These are forms in which a Buddha can manifest in order to benefit others. A Buddha can appear in any form that is going to be a benefit to others, even if as a bridge. There are even some accounts of this. These yidams are specific forms that are helpful for practitioners to work with in order to attain enlightenment.

It is important to remember that a Buddha doesn’t have any form established from his or her own side. The form that a Buddha appears in arises dependently on the being that the Buddha is trying to benefit. It’s the same type of question that is analyzed when a Buddha speaks and everyone can understand in their own languages. The question is what language is the Buddha speaking in? We can’t establish what language a Buddha is speaking in just from the side of a Buddha. That’s the voidness of a Buddha’s speech. We can only establish what language it is dependent on the person hearing it. It is the same thing with what a Buddha looks like. It’s established on the side of the being who perceives the Buddha.

Two Types of Yidams: Infographics 

Basically, there are two types of yidams. There may be other types, but we will address these two. Some of them are infographics. An infographic is a graphic image that gives information. It can be geometrical, like a diagram. In this case, if we use the example of the figure Yamantaka (Vajrabhairava), this figure has 34 arms, and if we add to that the body, speech and mind, it makes 37. This gives us information; these represent the 37 practices that are done on the way to enlightenment. The nine faces represent the nine categories of the Buddhist scriptures. The 16 legs represent the 16 aspects of voidness. Like that, the figure is an infographic, or diagram, that represents many different aspects of the Buddhist path and teaching. By imagining ourselves in this form of Yamantaka, for example, it helps us to keep in mind what each of the anatomical features represents. 

It’s a very sophisticated system. In fact, the form of a supreme emanation, a Buddha that we find in sutra with the 32 major features and 80 minor features of the body, this is also an infographic. Each of the 112 features represents the cause that a Buddha built up while practicing as a bodhisattva to reach enlightenment. When we see a painting or a statue of Buddha Shakyamuni, we can gain much more from it than just looking at it as a piece of art. There’s a tremendous amount of information depicted there in this represented form.

To repeat, the infographic is one form of a yidam, a representation of aspects of the path. The other form is also an infographic; however, in this case the various features of the figure represent aspects of samsara, our uncontrollably recurring existence with problems and all of what we are trying to purify. A good example of this is the figure of Kalachakra where the 24 arms represent the 24 phases of the moon during the year, the 24 half cycles of the breath during the day, and together with the body as a whole, the 25 features mentioned in the Samkhya philosophy in their analysis of what exists. Kalachakra helps to overcome the confused beliefs that come with that system. 

Visualizations within the Context of Mahayana 

Therefore, these yidams are very useful vehicles that can help us in our practice along the path. Although we can focus on them in front of us in visualization, in tantric practice, we also imagine ourselves arising in these forms. Remember, the word for yidam in Tibetan means something that we make a close bond with for our mind. Because it’s with the mind, then in yidam practice, we always visualize with our minds. It’s not that we stare at a painting or a statue of these figures. We either try to visualize the yidam in front of us or ourselves in this form. In visualizing ourselves in one of these forms, while trying to keep the understanding of all that it represents, this acts as a more efficient cause for actually being able to manifest in various forms to help others when we become a Buddha ourselves. 

Yidam practice must be done within the context of Mahayana practice, specifically in conjunction with the generation of bodhichitta. If we try to practice visualizing or imagining ourselves as a yidam without bodhichitta, then it is said that this is a cause for being reborn as a ghost in the form of one of these figures. This is quite an advanced practice and quite dangerous if it’s not done properly. We can understand this on a very simple basic level. If we haven’t dedicated the practice toward our attainment of enlightenment, then it’s only going to affect our future samsaric rebirths. That’s why we would be born as a ghost in this form. However, there’s a much more profound level of understanding.

Relative or Conventional and Deepest or Ultimate Bodhichitta

What is bodhichitta? Bodhichitta is a mind aimed at our own individual enlightenments that have not yet happened but can happen on the basis of our Buddha-nature factors. It’s our own individual enlightenments, not the Buddha’s enlightenment or some general enlightenment. It hasn’t yet happened but it can happen. Why? This is because we have the various Buddha-nature factors, the networks of positive force and deep awareness, the voidness of the mind and so on. With the proper causes built up, this will allow us to become enlightened. 

The bodhichitta mind is supported by love and compassion and the exceptional resolve to make the firm decision to work to benefit all beings. Bodhichitta itself isn’t identical to compassion. It is supported by compassion. What is it aimed at and what are we focusing on when we speak about our own individual enlightenment that has not yet happened? We have the division of conventional or relative bodhichitta and deepest bodhichitta, or sometimes called ultimate bodhichitta.

They are both aimed at Dharmakaya, which has not yet happened. Dharmakaya is the corpus or body that encompasses all dharmas or all things. Dharmakaya has two parts. Conventional bodhichitta is aimed at what I call the Deep Awareness Dharmakaya. This is the omniscient mind of a Buddha that has a huge list of qualities. Not only is it omniscient, knowing all causes and effects, etc., it also has equal love for everybody and so on. The deepest bodhichitta is aimed at the Essential Nature Dharmakaya, the individual Svabhavikayas that have not yet happened but can happen. It’s aimed at the voidness of the Deep Awareness Dharmakaya and the true stoppings of suffering and its causes that have been attained. 

I am going into this detail about bodhichitta because very frequently it’s not so clear what it actually is. When we are aiming for our own individual Dharmakayas, one of the qualities of the omniscient mind of a Buddha is that it can appear in any form to benefit others. This would include these yidams. When we are imagining ourselves in the form of one of these yidams, this is based on bodhichitta. We are aiming at our not yet attained enlightenment and the Dharmakaya can appear in these forms. 

The Self as an Imputation on Every Moment of Our Experience

We have explained how the self, this “me,” is an imputation on every moment of experience made up of the five aggregates. We don’t need to go into this detail; however, every moment of our own personal experience – from the moment that we are conceived and born until the moment of our death – all of that is “me,” isn’t it? It’s not somebody else, even though we’ve grown and changed in each moment. Even at the end of our lives, it’s still going to be “me.” We can still say that “me’ is an imputation on the last moment of our life; although it hasn’t happened yet, it’s still “me.” 

Buddhism asserts that this mental continuum, each of these moments of experience with the self as an imputation on it, has no beginning and no end. The “me” is a valid imputation on that entire continuum. That entire continuum could include when we become enlightened. It’s not necessarily true that we will all become enlightened and that each moment we are getting closer to this. We have to build up the causes in order to become enlightened. Nonetheless, we all have the ability to become enlightened. This would be somewhere way down the line on the continuum of our moment-to-moment experience. “Me” would be a valid imputation on that as well.

Therefore, we visualize ourselves in the form of this yidam in tantric practice as a method to help us attain that enlightened state more quickly. We keep in mind the infographic and all the things that it represents. We usually use the word “visualization” but that is a bit too limited. I think “imagination” is better; we imagine that we’re in this form, not that we just look like that. We speak, think, act, enjoy things like that, and all senses are involved; it’s a full imagination. 

Preparation for Tantra Practice

Before we can practice tantra, we need a firm foundation in the sutra teachings. First, we have renunciation, the determination to be free. This means that we are determined to be free and renounce our ordinary appearance, way of acting and our ordinary way of relating to others because of it being filled with confusion and problems. We have to be willing to renounce these and give them up. To be sincerely determined to be free of these things is not easy. We need a firm development of bodhichitta, as has been explained. We also need a correct understanding of voidness and the reality of what we are doing; otherwise it’s no different than a crazy person imaging that they are Cleopatra, Napoleon or Mickey Mouse. A Buddha could manifest as a Mickey Mouse, I suppose, if it would help somebody. 

We also need to have completed an appropriate amount of preliminary practices in order to build up the positive force or potential that will help us to overcome mental blocks that we might have in this practice. We need guidance from a qualified teacher, the appropriate tantric initiations and keeping of vows. We also need correct instruction in the practice and a good level of concentration, with the ability to imagine and visualize. 

This is what is optimal for tantric practice.

Conventional and Deepest Obstacles

The conventional obstacles would be when we lack any of these. The deepest obstacle is when we identify concretely with being a yidam. For instance, we think that we are already that when we are in fact not. We think that we are already a Buddha. For example, in Dharamsala there was a woman who thought that she was Tara, took off her clothes and ran around in the marketplace naked proclaiming that she was Tara. That’s certainly the deepest obstacle to think that we are concretely this figure.

We can’t really analyze the relationship with a yidam unless we have a clear idea of what it is. Keeping in mind what yidam practice is, then we can use the five dimensions of relational reality to examine the type of relationship that we establish between ourselves now and our not yet happening self in the form of the yidam. It’s very delicate. How do we relate to this yidam that we imagine ourselves as?

Please keep in mind that these yidams are not like a saint. We aren’t praying to Saint Tara to help us. We’re not talking about that type of relationship, not at all. These yidams aren’t saints.

The Dimension of Factual Variables

Optimally, the factual variables such as our personal circumstances and surroundings shouldn’t affect the practice at all. It doesn’t make any difference how old we are, where we are, where we come from or our culture, not at all.

Conventional and Deepest Obstacles

Conventional obstacles would be if we had any serious physical or mental disease. For instance, if we are in a lot of pain, it can be very difficult to practice at that time. Also, if we are in a situation of extreme danger to our lives, such as torture, earthquake or tsunami or something like that, we are just overwhelmed by the circumstances. Actually, this type of practice of imagining that we are a yidam is something that we are supposed to do all the time. When we are distracted by entertainment or by anything in life, this can be very difficult to remember and to be mindful. To be mindful means to remember. However, optimally it shouldn’t matter what we’re doing. 

The deepest obstacle is concretely identifying with our biological sex and believing that we can’t imagine ourselves as a yidam of a different sex. For instance, a woman might say that she can’t imagine herself in the form of a male yidam; or a man thinks that he can’t imagine himself in the form of a female yidam.

Remember, we are only a specific sex in one lifetime. We have infinite number of lives and we have sometimes been male and sometimes female. We’re not established permanently as one gender. For most of us gender is a very strong part of our concrete identity whether males, female or whatever. Actually, when we imagine or visualize ourselves as a couple, as the yidams are often coupled, we imagine ourselves as both members of the couple. We’re not just one of them with another figure that we are embracing. We are both. They represent, on the simplest level, method and wisdom and we’re both.  

In many of these practices, we imagine that we’re a very large group of figures and we are all of them. There are 722 in Kalachakra. However, it is not only the figures; we imagine that we are the building in the mandala as well. The “me” is an imputation on all of that. If we think about it, similarly, the self is an imputation on all the parts of the body including the digestive and circulatory systems, the skin, the sense organs and all the psychological and mental factors, etc. The self “me” is an imputation on this huge collection of things, even conventionally. 

Therefore, there shouldn’t be a problem of the “me” being an imputation on all these various figures and the building as well in the visualization. However, if we identify solidly with just being one solid “me,” there is difficulty in doing the visualization and it’s a big obstacle. 

Another deep obstacle is when we identify with our culture and say that we can’t visualize ourselves in the yidam form because “It’s too Indian or too Tibetan – why can’t we have a Western form?” This is forgetting that these forms are infographics.

The Dimension of Psychological Variables

In the dimension of psychological variables, optimally, we need to have sufficient cognitive abilities such as intelligence and understanding to be able to gain a firm foundation in the sutra teachings. We need the ability to visualize, sufficient discipline and concentration to engage in long-term sustained meditational practice. The enlightening qualities of the yidam, such as compassion, understanding and so on need to take precedence over our ordinary unenlightened qualities. At least we can imagine these things. For instance, when we find ourselves acting like an idiot, we’re able to remember that we are Chenrezig and Chenrezig doesn’t act like an idiot. We are able to use this practice to overcome acting in very foolish ways. 

Conventional and Deepest Obstacles 

Conventional obstacles would include our lacking in any of these. The deepest obstacles would be concretely identifying with the yidam and deluding ourselves by thinking that we’re already an enlightened Buddha. This means that we’re thinking that we’re already enlightened when we’re not; and also believing that if we engage in this yidam practice, we don’t have to do any other practices, as this one is enough. 

The Dimension of Systemic Variables 

How does this apply to the dimension of systemic variables? We don’t have the ordinary systemic interactions with the yidam as we would have with an actual person because it’s imagined. However, we do have things like making offering to the yidam and to ourselves as the yidam and there is a certain system of practices within which we interact with the yidam. Optimally, we engage in this yidam practice following all the procedures and steps of a traditional sadhana. A sadhana is the traditional practice that we do for transforming ourselves into this yidam. The system in which we engage in yidam practice is made up of all the procedures of a sadhana.

Conventional and Deepest Obstacles

The conventional obstacle is engaging in this without all those procedures, outside the system presented in the sadhana. A sadhana is like the script of an opera. There are many scenes taking place with offering goddesses and transformations of things and so on. Most essential in the sadhana in addition to bodhichitta and all the preliminaries is firstly to focus on the voidness of the false self and our ordinary body and appearance and so on. Therefore, we focus explicitly on the absence of anything corresponding to this false self and so on. That’s the total absorption on voidness; the absence appears explicitly and this is what we are focusing on. 

Then, we have the subsequent attainment, usually translated inaccurately as “post-meditation”. Subsequent to the focus on voidness is when we imagine this yidam. This is what appears, and because we still aren’t enlightened, it appears to be self-established. That’s what is meant by the point in the sadhana where, within a state of voidness, we arise as the yidam. This understanding of voidness gets us into the practice when we get rid of our ordinary appearance. However, since the belief in this false self will automatically arise again, the main point in the practice is to focus on the voidness of the yidam and the voidness of the self imaging that we are the yidam. Again, focus on voidness and then again arise in the form of the yidam with the implicit understanding of its voidness. 

We can see the importance of the tantric vow to meditate on voidness six times a day. If we don’t do that, and we’re not really familiar with the correct understanding of voidness, this entire yidam practice just doesn’t work. This yidam practice is quite serious; it’s not a game. 

Dimension of Relational Ethics

In the dimension of relational ethics, we don’t actually have the giving and taking between ourselves and somebody else; however, we can think of it in terms of giving and receiving between the conventional self and the yidam. Optimally, we understand that our making offerings to the yidam and visualizing helping all beings are methods for building up the positive force to be able to attain enlightenment. We understand why we’re doing this. It’s not worship. Also, when we imagine the yidam in front of us and we receive inspiration in the form of lights coming into us and we receive initiations from them and so on, optimally we understand that this is a method to enhance and stimulate our Buddha-nature factors to grow.

Conventional and Deepest Obstacles

Conventional obstacles would be our visualization of making these offerings and receiving inspiration becomes mechanical. It’s very easy for this to happen; it becomes mechanical and there is no feeling there. At best, it’s a cartoon that’s happening. The deepest obstacles is concretely identifying our false self with the yidam and imagining that making offerings to the false self will bring us to enlightenment. We imagine that when making offerings, the false self is actually this yidam and it is a form of worshipping ourselves as a god. We imagine these offering deities coming forth and making offerings and if we think that we are really this yidam, then they are worshipping us as if we were a god. This is crazy.

Dimension of Relational Self/Other Establishment

In terms of this dimension, relational self/other establishment, this is quite delicate. Remember, we had six different modes of this self/other establishment; optimally, it would be, in a sense, part of the first mode. The technical term for this is intrasubject counter-position. Let’s examine this. An example of this is someone who cuts themselves, does extreme sports, constantly gets body piercings or tattoos and so on. There is not a clear division between self and other; however, in feeling pain, they can establish “me.” It is as if “I exist because of this pain.” Otherwise, they have the sense that ordinarily they have no feelings and don’t feel anything. They are completely lost and to get a feeling of self, they engage in these very painful activities because they are very strong and intense. It’s fairly common with some members of the younger generation.

In this ordinary experience, people with this condition imagine that they are this false self-established concrete self and have a relation with the concrete and self-established pain. In tantra, optimally, with the yidam, it’s quite different. In this case, the boundary between the self and the yidam is not like the boundary between a solid “me” and a solid pain. It’s not a solid “me” and a solid yidam that have a relationship.

The conventional self is an imputation on the basis of the yidam, in the same way as our example of the football game as an imputation on all the different plays during the game. In that way, the self is an imputation on the end play, when we’re enlightened as a yidam. The self and the yidam are not identical nor are they truly separate. The football game isn’t identical with the last play or the score, but is something that exists totally separate from the last play or the score. It’s an imputation on that as part of it. This is one type of optimal relationship that we have with the yidam within ourselves. It’s this intrasubject or personal relation within ourselves that we have this relation with the yidam, which is not yet happening. It’s the counterbalance between the conventional self and the yidam, with the conventional self being the imputation on the yidam. It’s a balance between the conventional self and the yidam that are neither identical nor completely different.

In doing this, we establish a “we” relationship in terms of the merging of the self with the yidam. Or, if we look at the advanced guru-yoga practices, like The Lama Chopa (The Guru Puja) done in the Gelugpa tradition, there is the merging of the self with the guru/yidam. This is the self, the teacher and the yidam that make a “we.” It becomes quite complicated if we really do it properly. Optimally, that “we” relationship would enhance and increase our bodhichitta practice in terms of the relationship that we have as a “we” with all beings. The relationship of the conventional me, the yidam and even the spiritual teacher, that “we,” improves our relationship with all beings that we are trying to help. 

Conventional and Deepest Obstacles

Conventional obstacles would be when merging with the yidam, losing any sense of our individual conventional self. There’s no sense of “me” anymore. The deepest obstacle is that if we haven’t refuted the false “me,” we understand incorrectly that the false me is identical with the yidam. When we do yidam practice and imagine ourselves in the form of the yidam or, as in more advanced practices, to imagine everybody in that form all around us, the way that it’s done on the usual level is that to our senses, what we see, we see ordinary form. However, to our minds, we understand and it appears in the form of the yidam in the mandala. If that were not the case, we would never be able to cross the street without being hit by a car. It’s a mistake to lose sight of that conventional reality. 

Close Personal Relations while Dealing with a Yidam

How does yidam practice affect our close personal relationships? Optimally, we keep the practice private. When we hear about secrecy in tantra and so on, this means keep it private. We behave in accordance with the conventional roles in our family, professions and relationships. It doesn’t interfere with that. What we are doing with our minds is private. This is the same advice that we have in the Seven Point Mind Training, Lojong, where it advices us to transform our mind but on the outside, keep ordinary. Optimally, this yidam practice would enhance our ethical behavior toward others, causing us to treat others fairly. It doesn’t obscure the fact that they are still human beings who have needs and so on. 

Conventional and Deepest Obstacles

Conventional obstacles would be making known to others that we’re doing yidam practice, broadcasting our involvement and expecting special treatment from others. It would also be if our practice interferes with our ability to interact with others in an ethical way that is respectful and attentive to their needs, because we were off in a fantasy world with the yidam. The deepest obstacle would be concretely identifying with the yidam and using it to gain power over others. It would be a power trip, as if we were some forceful deity behaving in this strong manner. We might identify with a yidam and adopt a strange or rigid posture and imagine that we’re frozen like a plastic action figure.

As my teacher Serkong Rinpoche used to explain, as Yamantaka, although he is standing, of course he can sit down and lay down. He doesn’t have to hold all these implements all the time. Rinpoche said that it’s like wearing clothes. We are wearing clothes whether we are standing, sitting or lying down, we are still wearing clothes. We don’t have to constantly imagine the clothes that we’re wearing; we simply know that we’re wearing these clothes. Someone asked him if we are supposed to imagine ourselves as Yamantaka all day long, what about Chenrezig practice and reciting om mani padme hum? Rinpoche replied, “You mean Yamantaka can’t recite om mani padme hum?” Of course, he can.

It’s important with yidam practice not to make it some mystical weird trip, especially not an ego trip, but instead to integrate it into our conventional minds. 

In summary, Buddhism teaches us about dependent arising of the self, others and relationships. We already have that analysis from the Buddhist presentation. This is dependent arising because of changing causes, conditions, parts, names and concepts. We can expand that understanding of dependent arising if we bring in these five dimensions of relational reality from contextual therapy. If we can apply this expanded understanding of dependent arising and deconstruct fully what is going on with the self, other and relationships, then we become much less rigid. We see that the self, other and relationships are dynamic things that change moment to moment depending on all these aspects that affect them. If we become aware of the obstacles that can arise in any type of relationship, then we can try to avoid them by understanding the optimal way of relating. 

Although we’ve looked at three specific types of relationships within the context of Buddhist practice, we need to extend this analysis to all our relationships. If we want to understand the true nature of ourselves and others, it is an imputation on the self in all of these relationships. They are all going on and they are all changing moment to moment with all these variables going on. With this full understanding, we really have a full deconstruction of this false self and we can act just in terms of the “mere I,” the conventional self in the optimal way to be of best help to everyone.

Can you explain further about the individual bodhichitta and enlightenment that you mentioned?

We are all individuals and so we all attain our own individual enlightenments. It’s not some general universal enlightenment that we all plug into and become enlightened. All Buddhas are individual beings. They are not all one being. This is indicated clearly by the fact that there are some beings that have the karmic ability to meet with the Buddha Shakyamuni and there are others who don’t have that karma; however, instead they have the karma to meet with Maitreya, the next Buddha. Each Buddha is individual, and the karmic relations they have and so on are individual. All the Buddhas have the same qualities. We can ask the question, how can there be more than one omniscient mind? If we think of a mirror that can reflect absolutely anything, we can also have several mirrors that can reflect absolutely everything, can’t we?

To use a silly example, we all have a nose. It’s not that there is some universal nose that we all have on our faces. Noses are individual. His Holiness the Dalai Lama always likes to use noses as an example. Likewise, every Buddha has their own individual enlightenment. It’s not a generic enlightenment. 

There is a formulation that we are supposed to feel the pride of the yidam. Who is supposed to feel this pride? Is it the conventional “me” who feels this or the yidam who feels this?

This is why we have in this dimension of self/other dimension, this counter-position. We are talking about the conventional self as an imputation on the yidam. It’s not one or the other feeling the pride. It’s the merger of those two as a “we.” Having the pride of the yidam means the imputation of the conventional self on the basis of the yidam. The self and the yidam are neither identical, nor totally separate. It’s very important to understand what imputation means. That’s why I use the example of the football game because it’s easier to understand. 

Regarding the conventional obstacles in the systemic dimension, you mentioned the need for us to follow the sadhana. We have shorter and longer ones, and if we do the shorter form, some parts are absent. How should we understand this and what do you recommend as optimal between the long and short in our daily lives?

My teacher Serkong Rinpoche said that long sadhanas are for beginners and short versions are for advanced practitioners. When we have become familiar enough with the long sadhana and can just imagine each of the steps, then we can do the short sadhana and just fill in all the steps of all the parts that are missing. That of course is very difficult especially as a busy person in the modern world with a job, family and so on. Some of the sadhanas are very long. We have to be very careful not to be a collector of initiations and commitments.

That’s why when His Holiness the Dalai Lama gives initiations to foreigners, he makes it clear that there isn’t a sadhana commitment, only a short commitment to recite the mantra and so on. This is out of kindness and realizing that most people are unable to keep the sadhana commitment. However, if all we’re doing is reciting the mantra, then we should at least start it with refuge and bodhichitta and at least have a meditation on voidness first, refuting the false “me,” and then arising within that understanding of voidness as the yidam. Then recite the mantra and end with a dedication. 

If, though, we are really very serious about our practice, we should work with the long sadhana. One piece of advice that I think is very important comes from Tsongkhapa, actually. Don’t get hung up in all the tiny little details of these visualizations. That isn’t the point. Don’t worry about all the jewelry and so on. That isn’t the way to be able to visualize. Tsongkhapa states that of the two, the clarity of the visualization and the pride of the deity, we work on the pride of the deity first. We have a general vague visualization of something and the imputation of the self on that. Then, as the concentration improves, the clarity of the details of the visualization will eventually come into focus. We have this vague visualization of the yidam and as the concentration improves, we add on one detail at a time. Start with the third eye in the middle of the forehead. 

Is it possible to complete or finish practice to become a Buddha?

In theory it is possible to attain enlightenment in this lifetime; however, it is highly unlikely. If we have built up an unbelievable amount of positive force, usually called merit, if we have this built up over three zillion countless eons as described, then in that last lifetime as with Buddha Shakyamuni or Milarepa or somebody like that, enlightenment can be attained. However, most of us have hardly begun to build up that much positive force.

If we look in our lifetime of how many positive thoughts and how many negative thoughts we’ve had, most of us would realize that we have a long way to go. However, that’s no reason to get discouraged. We can make progress in this lifetime; but remember, progress is never linear and always goes up and down. His Holiness the Dalai Lama says that he finds the presentation that we need to build up positive force over three zillion eons very encouraging. He likes that very much because then, if we understand that, we don’t have any expectations. Without expectations, we don’t have any disappointments. That’s a very helpful piece of advice.