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GELEK RINPOCHE ABOUT JEWEL HEART

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I think it is a very good time to introduce ourselves. In case you are wondering who I am, I really don't know who I am. However I do have a label to identify myself. The label I identify with is my personal name, Ngawang Gelek. Gelek is my surname. Ngawang is my first name, but nobody can say that properly in the West, so I have put that aside and go by Gelek. And then people put Rinpoche underneath so it becomes Gelek Rinpoche. Remember, Rinpoche is not a surname. That is me. I like to say a little bit on Jewel Heart. What is Jewel Heart?

Audience: Jewel Heart is a circle of students around Gelek Rinpoche that came into existence because people became attracted to his lessons.

Rinpoche: We have Jewel Heart in Holland, in the United States in Michigan, Chicago, New York, Nebraska and Cleveland. We do also have Jewel Heart in Malaysia, Singapore and three small groups in India. There are two kind of membership in America, a little over 200 are members of the core group and then in US we have close to 1600 people on the mailing list, outsiders who come now and then.

Here in Holland, how came Jewel Heart about? I had a very nice friend, who had been studying with us in India. She was in Dharamsala when I met her. That was late Hélène van Hoorn. She was studying before with Kyabje Ling Rinpoche. He was the senior teacher, the senior guru, of the Dalai Lama. I think Kyabje Ling Rinpoche had told her to go and study with me. That is how I came in true contact with Hélène. She was studying under great difficulties in India, there was tremendous heat. And she had learned quite okay and so I suggested her to go back to Holland and be in her own land. Whatever she had put efforts in, could benefit the people of Holland. With a strong persistent request and some pressure she was ready to leave, which was very hard because she didn't want to. Then she wanted me to visit here. So I came in l985. At that time we gave teachings at the Maitreya Institute in Maasbommel and about that time a group began to develop. We did not plan to make a group.

That point here is very important. Some people decide to have an organisation, saying: 'We get together, organise, this is our aim, this is our object, these are our rules...' etc. Jewel Heart did not do that. In the beginning there were Hélène, Piet, Marianne, Len, Marianne en Marijke. Even today I don't really think we have a policy, a planned, organised organisation with aims, objects, rules etc. But we do have one object. The object is to benefit people, benefit the people who came in contact with Jewel Heart, even briefly. Benefit to bring them peace of mind and to uplift the individual, to bring the individual closer to enlightenment or whatever. This is an important point we insist on.

In case our work is not doing that, we choose to close. This is the principle we keep. The aim is helping individuals, whatever it may take. And if we are not doing that the institution is not important any more and we have to close. This is one line we have, a very important line. Otherwise we function in family style, sometimes we are happy, sometimes we quarrel I am sure. It is alright, it is not important, you can go ahead, it really does not matter. But what does matter is: the moment you know it is not helpful, you have to shut, no matter whatever it may take, how painful it might be to some people. The moment it is not serving the purpose, you have to close. That is what we keep as principle of Jewel Heart throughout the world. That is it.

One thing I more like to say on this. We have another principle: When somebody likes to quit Jewel Heart, the door is always open, always open. In US we do like this: if somebody says nothing and just stays away, the person gets one phonecall to find out whether you are okay or not. That is all. Nobody will chase you, nobody. That we keep as important too.

Here it was in the beginning Hélène who really wanted to benefit her fellow country members; that was her dream and her ideal. It really began and started with Hélène. If Hélène had not been there, there would have been no Jewel Heart Holland at all. And it benefitted a number of people, as we can see today. Unfortunately she is not with us today, so it our duty to pray for the well-being of her future-life. I have no doubt she will do well, but still we should always -let me use the new age language- send her our good thoughts. If you are comfortable with praying, pray.

The Jewel Heart logo

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What you see here is the Jewel Heart logo. It took us a couple of years to develop this. The reason why it took a long time is that the picture was something which I had in mind but which could not be translated on paper because I cannot draw a line straight. So it took a lot of efforts to get that idea take shape. At first when I started talking to an artist about the picture in my mind and he started drawing, it became like a beach ball, and the lotus was not right and the fire was not right. To draw the fire rightly, it took a german. Then for the final shape, it took a dutch, Marianne van der Horst. During our summer retreat in USA 1991 she finished it. It is a very important logo. It took a lot of time and it has a lot of meanings.

In the middle it looks like yin-yang, but there are three instead of two. There are three jewels in the centre, representing three things. In our ordinary live, everyday's life it represents birth, death and bardo. That is our base. In practice it is Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. At the result stage it is the dharmakaya, sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya, three manifestations. So it is not so simple.

Then you see a lotus here. And again the lotus is grown out of mud, but there is no fault of mud there, there is no swamp in the flower. It is like our life. We grow in samsara, it is a suffering result, we are filled with suffering, but we can come out of it as a pure being. And also the lotus represents compassion and love. A lotus is very attractive, people like it, it draws the attention of people, makes people feel happy; that is why it represents love. And also as a lotus it can make people happy and so relieve the suffering; that is why it represents compassion. So you have love and compassion.

Also you see a fire around here. The fire is wisdom-fire. Fire has the power of burning. Right? If you put wood on the fire it burns. Similarly the wisdom fire burns ignorance, thus it burns the delusions.

So: wisdom and love-compassion inseparable together, which is not separated from our ordinary life of birth, death and bardo as well as inseparable from Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, as well as dharmakaya, sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya. All is combined together, that is the logo.

2B In short, the path given by Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is able to transform our ordinary death, bardo and rebirth in the extra-ordinary dharmakaya, sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya. Did you get the picture? And that also through the path of love-compassion and wisdom. So it is an interesting logo. It is not just one of the tibetan or chinese lucky signs, it has a lot of meaning behind. When you look at the logo, this is the information you get.

It also indicates that the work what we do, is to transform our ordinary death, bardo and rebirth into extra-ordinary dharmakaya, sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya, which means we are not only working on a mahayana path but on the vajrayana path too. That is what this logo is. So when you look at the logo, you have to get this information. And when you get that, you get a big message.

The name Jewel Heart

When we set up the thing and were looking for a name, we considered tibetan names, of which there are hundreds. Then we thought very carefully and said that as we want to serve the western people, we would like to have a name that the western mind can identify with. So we had the jewel in mind, representing the internal purity of a human being. That is why jewel came up in my head at that time. And one of our older friends, Sandy, said: heart. The heart is the human heart, the warmth of the human basis. That is why we chose this name Jewel Heart. It indicates not something external but internal. And since the english language is able to communicate everywhere, it makes sense to westerns, it can be identified easily with. That is the main reason we have chosen a name in english. And also there as a reason behind that I would like to part the tibetan culture. You know as the Buddha-dharma, buddhism, came to the West, it should adapt to the western culture, because it has to work with the western people, it has to deal with the western life, you can't sort of keep a tibetan culture in life with that. All names we usually carry for buddhist organisations, like Döphan Ling etc. are originally from sanskrit and translated into tibetan at the time. We in Tibet generally don't use sanskrit names any more, so now it is time for us to use western names, to integrate in the West. So for these two reasons we use Jewel Heart rather than a tibetan name.

Also the name does have an outer, inner and secret meaning, but it might not be the place to mention this actually.

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Jewel Heart mission statement

Jewel Heart is dedicated to the preservation of Tibetan Buddhism and to the practice of this rich tradition within the context of contemporary life. Through activities such as ongoing public programs, study groups, sponsorship of cultural events, and retreats, Jewel Heart's principal goal is the fostering of inner development. Its programs teach practical methods for translating the meditative states of love and compassion into effective action. Jewel Heart's spiritual director Gelek Rinpoche is committed to furthering these aims through teaching and practicing the tradition of Je Tsong Khapa and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

This is the outer mission statement of Jewel Heart. The inner mission statement of Jewel Heart is within this. That is: 'Jewel Heart's principal goal is the fostering of inner development. Its programs teach practical methods for translating the meditative states of love and compassion into effective action'. So we do not so much try to preserve the tradition, but whatever benefits there are in the tradition, bring and put into contemporary life, practical whatever is helpful to the people; that is our inner mission statement.

When we say tradition it does not necessarily mean the tibetan tradition, but the buddhist tradition or whatever tradition, the tradition which we can take advantage of and then make the basic framework of buddhist principles effective to the individual's contemporary life.

The secret mission statement is this tibetan letter: AH. You know why? Ah is the principle of the life of sound. If you cannot say Ah there is no sound. All the letters, sound-expressions, are based on Ah. So Ah is the most important sound. So it is the fundamental basis. And Ah expresses emptiness. There are a lot of reasons anyway. That is why in eastern religions they make OM AH HUNG important. Out of OM AH HUNG, the Ah is representing the speech. And the most important activity of the buddhas and his followers life is the sound activity, the speech activity. Physically what they did is not important, the experience they shared to others through the expression, of sound, speech, teachings. So it is important. That is why we chose Ah as secret mission statement.

This does complete the introduction of Jewel Heart. So it is up to you. If you like it, you can be within Jewel Heart, if you like it you can be a friend of Jewel Heart, you can be on the mailing-list, you are welcome. It makes no difference to Jewel Heart whether you become part of it, it opens opportunity for you. If you like yourself, if you care for yourself, it is not a bad idea.

People may think: 'I cannot be part of Jewel Heart, because I am part of this and that. I don't think we have any objections. We do have a tremendous amount of people who are Rigpa member as well as Dharma-dhatu member as well as Jewel Heart-members. As a matter of fact we do not call them Jewel Heart member, we call them members of the Jewel Heart mandala. There is more meaning for that; mandala is environment.

Bodhimind – the altruistic mind

What is the bodhimind?

Tsong Khapa says:

The ultimate essence of love and compassion is the bodhimind.

Known as bodhicitta or altruistic attitude, deep down the ultimate love-compassion is the bodhimind. We can talk about love, we can talk about compassion, but ultimately, when you ask what is the top-level of love and compassion, it boils down to bodhimind.

What is bodhimind or – in sanskrit – bodhicitta? Bodhimind is a two-pronged mind, two sides combined in one. What are the two sides? Maitreya said:

(1) Bodhimind is totally being dedicated for serving others

(2) In order to fulfill this purpose, one seeks the total enlightenment of the buddha stage.

Not every buddhism does seek the state of a buddha. In the theravada tradition the aim is not to seek the state of a buddha but to seek total freedom from the suffering of samsara. So the result they introduce is the arhat-level, which means free from samsara, outside the circle. They do not seek the state of buddhahood.

In mahayana, when you develop the bodhimind, you begin to seek the state of a buddha. Until then you don’t see the necessity to become a buddha. Until then there is no necessity. Why should I become a buddha? What is the big deal with a buddha? The only thing I care for is freeing myself from the suffering. I want peace, I want pleasure, I want to be free from the suffering, for which you do not need to become a buddha. But the love and compassion compels us to seek the state of a buddha, because the love and compassion makes me, the individual, to look a little more in the open rather than looking only at myself. I have to look outside, I have to care for other beings, I have to care for my friend. It is not only me in the world. That is what love and compassion makes you do. Did you get me?

If you don’t care much for love and compassion, then you have only me, me, me, I want to be free, I want to be happy, I, I, I. Each one of us, even if we pretend to be mahayana, even if we pretend to be vajrayana, each one of us has that feeling with us. Everyone of us has: me comes first. You don’t believe me? If somebody walks in through the door with a gun, you will know. Who is hiding behind whom? That will tell you exactly.

So the self-interest we have is strong. It is not a bad thing, I am not denying self-interest. We need it, but we also need to care for the others. We share things, we depend on others. The world is too small today, we depend on every human being for our existence. You europeans notice that, right? You want to become one big Europe, because you can see how interdependent everything is. So you are willing to sacrifice a little bit for that purpose. As to what I can see, e.g. the dutch are willing to sacrifice even their good social system for the benefit of the people from Spain etc. That is mahayana view to me. That is half a joke, half an example, so that you will remember it.

The benefits of the bodhimind

The ultimate love and compassion is the bodhimind, which is the backbone of the mahayana practice. Tsong Khapa says that it is the backbone of the mahayana practice and it also helps us to develop a tremendous amount of merit as well as purification.

A lot of people think for purification you have to do the Vajrasattva practice. Vajrasattva is very popular among european buddhists. I do not know why. Ever since I came here a number of people told me: ‘I am going to do a retreat on Vajrasattva’. It is a good thing, but in order to purify non-virtues bodhimind is far better than the Vajrasattva-business, really. Bodhimind is fantastic! You have no idea. If you don’t believe me, read Shantideva’s The bodhisattva’s way of life. In there it says :

Just like the fire at the end of an age,

It instantly consumes all great evil.

So, such powerful non-virtues can not be overpowered by anything else but the bodhimind. That Shantideva says. I am sure each one of you can read it. So the spiritual benefit you gain out of the bodhimind, is fantastic, a great purification. Not only that. The moment you develop the bodhimind within you, as The bodhisattva’s way of life says:

It is like the supreme gold-making elixir…..

It is like a golden solution. Not gilded outside. In the earlier period they developed a certain solution, which if put on any metal, it turns the metal into pure gold. It has been used in the early indian civilization, really true, no joke. A few indian saints knew that [alchemism] and did use it to fight the british during the indian freedom movement. Similarly, if you have the bodhimind with you, all other virtues become like pure gold. So the benefit of the bodhimind is as The bodhisattva’s way of life says:

… For it transforms the unclean body we have taken

Into the priceless jewel of a Buddha-Form.

The ordinary body of ours which is filthy, which is a result of suffering, full of pain, a creation of suffering, is able to transform into a pure body, like a buddha body. That is the power the bodhimind has.

I give you one little example. If you have the bodhimind, the ultimate love and compassion, what will happen? The buddhas will not hesitate to help you, to protect you. The example is this statement the buddhas made:

If there is a young bodhisattva who needs to play with a horse-cart and there is no horse, the buddhas will not hesitate to take the bridle on their head and pull.

That much the buddhas will care for the young bodhisattvas. They also gave the example:

You praise the rising sun, not the dying sun.

The buddhas also have said:

The small flowers that grow need a lot of care, not the fully-grown flowers.

So you see how important this love and compassion really is.

Some remarks on meditation

Sitting meditation practice like in the zen tradition, is very important. We do have a few student friends who did fifteen years of zen practice and now are learning tibetan buddhism. Those people are finding it very useful and very effective. Sitting, either through the zen tradition, or the theravadin tradition or the vipassana tradition helps tremendously in getting deeper into tibetan buddhism. It is very complementary. Tibetan buddhism may not emphasize so much the sitting – they emphasize it later – but they give you a lot of information, a lot of background, show you the stages, show you the path. Zen and vipassana show you the sitting. Tibetan buddhism gives you the subjects on what you sit and zen and vipassana will give you the manner in which you sit. So it is very complementary.

When you look at the different forms of buddhism, you’ll find certain buddhism is very much disciplined, certain buddhist traditions are a more relaxed in discipline, deal more internally, and certain buddhism is even more relaxed than that, becomes very casual and deals with delusions. A friend of mine told me once a personal observation. Theravadin, zen and Tibetan monks were sitting together. The zen and theravadin monks were sitting completely straight, not even looking right and left, but the Tibetan monks were moving here, moving there. So they do have slightly different ways of approaching. Buddha has told:

If your delusions are completely strong and you are not having that much intelligence capacity, your wisdom is weak, then it is recommended to turn to discipline. If you are a little different from that, then go a little more relaxed, yet quite strong disciplined. And if you are absolutely intelligent, then you transform it.

Then you can transform it and that is very important. So everybody, whether needing discipline or not, has room to play in buddhism.

The necessity of developing the bodhimind

As I told you, we will do the last portions of two texts of Je Tsong Khapa. We do them side by side. And I give the oral transmission of it too, that is why I am saying the words in tibetan. From The foundation of all perfections:

Sensual gluttony is a gate to suffering

And is not worthy of a lucid mind.

Empower me to realize the shortcomings of samsara

And to give birth to the great wish for blissful freedom.

The subject of this verse is covered by our talk of last night as well as the talk of wednesdaynight. The worldly pleasures, the pleasures that we take in this world in a worldly manner, give no satisfaction. We cannot get satisfied with those worldly pleasures. The reason why we cannot be satisfied? First of all we are always greedy, we’re always wanting. Secondly habitually we are always looking forward to making more. We sometimes take pleasure out of things, but we are not satisfied, we want to repeat it again and again, believe it or not. If there would be some satisfaction, fine, but we are never satisfied. Our habit likes to do it again. That goes for cigarette smoking, drinking alcohol, and even sex. We always want more and more. If you smoke one cigarette and you get a good kick and you are satisfied, it is not going to harm you, but when you take more and more it harms your body, it makes your lungs chop up, like Allen Ginsberg sings: ‘Nicotine, nicotine, cough, cough’. That is it. This is a again habitual patterns we have set up. We don’t satisfy, we want to repeat again and again. And if you repeat things again and again, even the kick you get gets weaker and weaker, so you keep on increasing the doses, take more and more. That is how we get into addictions, total addiction of whatever. That is why Tsong Khapa says ‘as it does not satisfy it is a gate to suffering’. This was the basis of my talk In the moment from habit to awareness. Some people may think that is not buddhism, because it is not labeled in buddhist terms, like bodhicitta or suffering, but it is the essence of it.

The last two lines deal with seeing the problems: there is no essence, there is nothing to hold on to, samsaric pleasures we cannot rely on. Once you recognize the unreliability of the sensual gluttony, then you seek to get out of it. Which means: awareness. And if you are sitting, you sit on that, awareness; if you meditate, meditate on that; if you think, think on that; if you debate, debate on that; if you argue, argue on that; if you discus, discuss on that so that you get benefit!

That is why Tsong Khapa prays here: ‘May I develop the great wish for blissful freedom’. The great wish for blissful freedom means nirvana. We talked it this morning, when I said that theravadins will aim to reach the arhat-level; that is nirvana, blissful freedom. It is freedom because there is no suffering. It is blissful because there is no pain. So it is a joyful state, away from samsara. That is called nirvana. From The foundation of all perfections:

And empower me that with mindfulness and alertness

Born from thoughts ultimately pure,

I may live in accord with the holy Dharma,

The way leading to personal liberation.