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The activities of bodhisattva’s:

the six perfections

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Do kindly generate a pure motivation. The word pure here means we are not doing something just for the benefit of our material life, but to gain a better benefit for all sentient beings, as we have introduced the relationship between all sentient beings and ourselves yesterday. Keep that in mind and generate bodhimind, the mind which will seek the ultimate development in order to help all sentient beings including ourselves.

Then, just to show that this practice is buddhist oriented, we take refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Those who are not buddhist or those who do not like to take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, even if you say the words, it doesn’t matter, you are not really truly taking refuge. That takes a lot of time and energy and a certain way of doing it. And if you don’t want to say it, it is also fine.

A number of great people in the world are buddhist. If you look into the large number of people, even just figure-wise, up to the communists took over China, the world largest religion was buddhism. And fortunately or unfortunately the chinese communists have cut the number of buddhists down. Now the islam is probably the largest religion. As I mentioned to you, even today a large number of people and outstanding people are buddhist. As a matter of fact I think you should be very proud to be a buddhist, because it has a tremendous method to help all sentient beings including ourselves. It also is a very practical religion. It can be simple, it can be complicated, and it can be tremendously intellectual. Buddhism is one of the world’s greatest philosophies, yet it can be so simple that one little thing can manage [your life]. It has male and female principles, it is not a male-dominated religion. So there are a lot of advantages.

You don’t have to carry a mala, dress differently and act differently in society. If you want yourself to look like a stranger, it is also fine. Some people who like to act slightly different, sometimes can create inconvenience for other people too. You should consider that. If you are a monk or nun of a buddhist order, fine, shave your head, wear that robe and people will treat you differently. If you choose to wear normal people’s dress, you should behave normal. You don’t have to copy Tibetans.

I was having dinner last night with a philosophy professor and he was telling me about a german philosopher of an earlier century, [Schopenhauer], who had thoughts of buddhist ideas though the person had no idea of or contact with Buddhism for whatsoever.

So on the whole – those who are buddhist, will know themselves – buddhism is not so much of a religion in the western understanding of religion, it is much more a way of living, a way of thinking, a way of approaching. It is a better way of treating other persons, a better way for oneself to deal with the world affairs. It is love-compassion oriented and it carries the non-violence principle. We don’t emphasize worshipping so much. There is not so much emphasize on ritual. If you want you do it, you can, if you don’t want it, you don’t have to. It is simple, yet it has important principles. I am very proud to be a buddhist myself, luckily I am born as buddhist.

To be proud to be a buddhist is great, but you can not be a fundamentalist buddhist; that is not good. Trying to shut every door for others is not great. Openness is a very important point. Those who are taking refuge:

Visualize right in the front of you Buddha, Dharma and Sangha,

symbolized by buddha Shakyamuni.

Emphasize particularly on your own future buddha, the buddha within you,

and on your future dharma, the spiritual development within you,

and on your future sangha, the person who understands the true nature of reality, sees it face to face.

These are buddha, dharma and sangha within you. Do emphasize on that.

namo gurubhye,

namo buddhaya, namo dharmaya, namo sanghaya

namo buddha, namo dharma, namo sangha.

Now we focus on Avalokiteshvara. Yesterday we talked these non-virtuous actions; this is an opportunity for us to purify. If you want to purify, you don’t have to go and tell somebody: ‘I did this and this and I like to purify’. No. Important is that inside you regret and say: ‘I am sorry, I regret and I really want to purify’.

Keep it to yourself, don’t go to others, they may blackmail you afterwards. In the west it seems you have to go and tell the person ‘sorry’, but the person may have no idea for whatsoever and you may make the person get upset too. If you are sorry, do something good for that person, say whatever you need to say and do something, that is helpful. Just saying empty words on which you may be very sincere but the other person has no idea of, is of no use.

Avalokiteshvara is the male part of love and compassion. It is the embodiment of all enlightened beings in the male form. I say ‘enlightened beings’ here, which is slightly different from the word ‘buddhas’. That is because Jesus Christ is an enlightened being, but you don’t refer to him as a buddha. Of all the persons who are in a fully awakened state, all male energy of love-compassion takes some form and that becomes Avalokiteshvara. For that:

Visualize in front of you either Avalokiteshvara, or light, or a lotus or even any other form you are used to, Visualize whatever is convenient for you.

In true reality it is the energy of all enlightened beings, their love and compassion. Focus on that and we chant the mantra Om mani padme hum, because that is the mantra I know.

om mani padme hum

Next is the feminine part of it. The feminine energies of all enlightened beings, take physical shape in Mother Tara, or – if you wish – the Virgin Mary.

Concentrate on that.

om tare tutare ture soha

Questions and answers

Audience: You talked about the relation between mother and child. Do you have any idea why this relation often is so difficult in the west and also how do mothers in Tibet treat their children if the relationship is so much better there?

Rinpoche: I did not say tibetan mothers have a better relation to their children I am sure the tibetan mothers treat their children as the western mothers do. The problem between mother and child is a universal problem, not a problem isolated to the west. It is available in China, in Tibet, in Japan, everywhere, but the culture of China is elder-dominated, so children won’t dare to say a word to their parents. So it is more culture dominated than a different treatment. In that way the west is better off, there is freedom. In the eastern household you can’t imagine a fourteen year old kid trying to independently function in the house; forget it. Their parents will laugh at them, the neighbors will laugh behind their hands, the relations will insult them and if you repeat it, you will probably be beaten. So it is not better at all.

However, I mentioned yesterday, if you are flexible enough to look from both windows, the window of the mother to the child and the window of the child to the mother, if both mother and children could do that, you would see a difference. As I mentioned, if you are a middle-aged mother, look from the window of yourself towards your parents and look from the window of yourself towards your children and see the difference. The problem is mis-communication, misunderstanding. I do not know whether somebody can solve that or not, I am not sure. However, try to look from both windows, which is of course difficult for very young people.

Audience: What is meant with the term love for yourself. I think in the west it is easily confused with egoistically dealing with yourself.

Rinpoche: Love yourself is to me to care about yourself. You should love yourself, care for yourself. Even building up a little bit of ego to yourself is better than putting yourself down. Self-love, self-care, self-confidence. There is big difference between the ego and self-love, self-care and self-confidence. If you don’t have self-love and self-confidence, it is very difficult to manage. And when Atisha says: Love yourself, it means build care for yourself as well as build self-confidence. That self-confidence should also be built on an important reason: the basis of capability of the individual. If you know nothing about it but still you think you are able of handling the whole world-problem, then it is ego, crazy ego. As long as you do not build a crazy ego, I see nothing wrong with building self-confidence, I see nothing wrong with building self-love and self-affection. These are important things to have. If you try to push that down, you get low self-esteem, which is neither good in the material world nor in the spiritual world. Self-confidence in both you need. But self-confidence based on good reasons. That’s where you draw the line between ego and self-respect.

Audience: Isn’t it important to develop self-confidence before you begin to copy, like you talked yesterday?

Rinpoche: If you have confidence enough to copy, it is good enough. Don’t you think so?

Audience: As one of the means of developing compassion, you mentioned yesterday the method of exchange. Could you say something on that?

Rinpoche: That will take too much. Briefly I can tell you a little bit. When you say exchange, it does not mean something very mystical. It means you exchange the window from which you are looking and the window from which the other is looking. Exchange means exchange of place of others and self. Two problems are there: we have a too low self-esteem and feel: ‘I am terrible, I blow it, I can do nothing, I am incapable, if I go near somebody I am creating trouble for that somebody’, or we have a problem of ‘I want everything, I am the most important, I should build up myself, I, I, I.’ We all have that if we look carefully, pushing yourself up and pushing yourself down. And we are torn in between that and then you don’t want to talk to anybody else, you want to sleep the whole day, shut the door, close the window. All these are because you are torn between this high and low self. So the problem is you are off the balance, and the solution is to balance. The exchange-method of developing love-compassion is the method of pushing the self down a little bit. That you apply when you go very high and you don’t apply it when you are low, because then you get even further low.

Audience: Some years ago I read a book on ‘There is no self’ and after that I had lots of difficulties in daily life. Whenever I used the word I or self, there was this little voice that said: ‘Well, it is not there’.

Rinpoche: There is a selfless self, an egoless ego; because of emptiness. Sometimes the buddhist notion of emptiness and selflessness becomes a little bit of a problem. Don’t take it literally. Emptiness does not mean empty. As a matter of fact emptiness is full. Selflessness is self and selflessness is existence. I live, I hear, I speak, I feel, I see, I smell, I taste, I do exist. That is a big, solid proof.

1. Perfection of generosity

Generosity is the wish-granting gem by which you can fulfill

the hopes of sentient beings.

It is the best weapon for cutting the knot of miserliness.

It is the altruistic conduct which enhances your self-confidence

and undaunted courage to help everyone towards Enlightenment.

It is the basis for your good reputation to be proclaimed in the ten directions.

Knowing this, the wise have devoted themselves to the excellent path

of completely giving away their body, possessions and merit.

I, the yogi, have practiced just that.

If you would also seek Liberation, please cultivate yourself in the same way.

That is what we are dealing with after developing the bodhimind, love and compassion. If you have love-compassion, then what do you do? You can’t just sit there and say: ‘I have love and compassion’. Then you become a lovely doll. You have to act accordingly. Whether you have taken the bodhisattva vow or not, after developing love and compassion action is needed. There are a countless number of actions, but recommended are ten actions: in order to develop the individual six paramitas; in order to help other beings, four other activities. We are going to emphasize the six, because these are the most important for the individual

The first recommended activity is generosity. Basically you can divide generosity into three: 1) generosity of necessary things, 2) generosity of protection from fear, 3) generosity of the spiritual path,. These are the three basic generosities and you go according to whichever is suitable to the individual. The person to whom you give the gift, the giver and the material you give, all three [should be acknowledged to arise] from the sphere of emptiness, acknowledging the nature of true reality, emptiness.

Generosity is recommended and it is very important. The material benefit we have in our life, particularly the western life and in particular the dutch life, is very much the result of generosity. You have a very comfortable life. I am not sure whether you realize that or not, but this is one of the most comfortable lives in the world. In America the dollar may have more value, but it is a crazy life; the suffering is tremendous, the desire is fantastic, there is no satisfaction for whatsoever. And if you look into the third world nations.... you figure out.

Also basically the dutch are very kind in nature and have an amazingly willingness of sharing things. You only need to acknowledge a little bit more the true reality, the emptiness part of the giving. Then you almost have a sort of ready-made generosity activity.

I want you to remember, the essence of love-compassion is bodhimind, and after developing bodhimind, all activities go along with love-compassion.