Odyssey to Freedom pdf torrent

Kyabje Gelek Rinpoche

Teachings USA 1997 and The Netherlands 1998



Welcome everybody here to this retreat. No matter who we are, we are here with a problem. We do
have problems ? emotional, physical, mental problems. All of us have them. We need to free ourselves.
When I look at Buddhism, what does Buddhism offer to people, or to society? Buddhism really offers
freedom. Freedom. It is not that Buddhism has some freedom to give to you, it actually teaches how
you can get it yourself. Suffering, pain, joy, and freedom ? everything is within ourselves. It is we our-
selves who can make it, it?s we who can let ourselves down. Buddhism gives the way for us to gain
freedom; freeing ourselves from our negative neuroses. The bottom line is the negative neuroses, be-
cause these bring pain. The cause of our pain is nothing but our neuroses. We are so used to them that
we don?t even realize we have them. We take that way of functioning for granted. We don?t recognize,
we don?t acknowledge it. Sometimes we even give great credit to having those neuroses, which are in
fact the cause of all our problems. Buddha gives us the way we can be free from those neuroses. When
you get there, you enjoy freedom. That?s why we chose to call this little bookmark [with the 64 steps]
Odyssey to Freedom.