Archive Result

19960611GRAABWL

[Tape 5 side A - 06/11/96]

Last time we did verse 4 about how hard it is to find the leisures and endowments. I did not give you any opportunity to ask questions, because it was late.

Audience: Can you go over the ten endowments again?

Rinpoche: Within the ten endowments, we basically have five personal and five related to time. The five personal are about us as human beings:

1. Born in a central location

2. Having all faculties - you have all your senses intact

3. All your hands and legs are together, nothing is broken

4. You are not a closed-minded person

5. Having faith in the karmic system and the Buddhadharma

Now the five relating to time

6. It is the time in which Buddha had officially appeared

7. He had given teachings

8. The teachings are still continuing

9. There are people who are following his teachings - there are companions

10. All possible support is available.

The lam rim has the same basic qualities listed, there are some slight differences, but the bottom line is the same. What this is trying to tell you is that this opportunity is extremely rare and important. A number of people are saying that we live in a degenerate age and therefore we are not that fortunate. True, we do not live in a time when the Buddha was alive or many great teachers with great developments were available, but the time we do live in, is the perfect time, because almost every single method Buddha has shown and which people are following, it is all alive. The main point in Tibetan Buddhism especially, is the living tradition - the living practice. We are not really talking about what has happened 2500 years ago, but that since 2500 years ago up to now, what has been happening to people, what is happening, how has it developed, how does it effect people. That is why the ten qualities are extremely important. And to find another opportunity like the one we have now is not likely. That is why this life is so important.

From the point of view of our life, it is capable to fulfil whatever our desires may be, whether material or spiritual. But whether we are capable of making the maximum use of it, is the big question. When the eighteen different qualities are mentioned, what that is trying to tell you is that the life we have is great. Generally, the human life we have is capable of fulfilling everything we want. On top of that, when you have these eighteen different qualities, this life is capable of giving us the ultimate spiritual development. In this case, from the Buddhist point of view it is capable of becoming an arhat, and even a Buddha. All that is possible. From the point of view of the life, the chance is not lacking. That is why the eighteen qualities have been repeatedly taught - from the time of Buddha onwards up to now. Whether we can take the maximum advantage or even any advantage at all is totally dependent on ourselves. But from the life’s quality point of view, it is capable of delivering. That is why it is said in our text that leisures and endowments are very hard to find and since they accomplish what is meaningful for a human, if I do not take advantage of them now, how will such a perfect opportunity come about again?

This verse is also giving you a meditation on how to appreciate your life, appreciate the qualities your life has. It also gets you to meditate on the questions whether you can get another life just like this one, if this life is wasted. The answer is that this is not likely. Basically, in order to get reborn as a human being, you need as foundation perfect morality. This is the foundation to build a human life. Not only a perfect morality, but we need a lot of perfect morality. That must sound very strange to you. People must be thinking, morality is morality and if it is not perfect, it is not perfect. The morality we are talking about here, may not be the same you are used to from the judaeo-christian conservative viewpoint. I mean it is slightly different than what we hear from Pat Robertson. Here we are talking about morality from the karmic point of view. That means even one single vow or commitment [counts]. Lets say I have taken a vow, ‘I shall not kill human beings’. If we can complete that, it is a perfect morality. But we may still be killing ants, mosquitoes and cockroaches, etc. So if you take a vow, ‘I shall not kill’, and you then kill ants, maybe the morality is not perfect. From the Buddhist point of view, when we talk about perfect morality, we are not talking about what your sexual orientation or preferences are. We are simply talking about commitments, vows and karmic fulfilment. That is what morality is all about.

From the Buddhist viewpoint we are talking about three kinds of morality.

1. Protecting yourself from downfalls.

2. Accumulating positive karma for yourself or others.

3. Committing yourself to helping other beings and working for the benefit of others.

So to take rebirth as a human being, you need a perfect morality. To take rebirth as a human with the eighteen different qualities, you need a lot of perfect morality.

One of the Panchen Lamas, the second or third, gave teachings in Tibet, telling people that the qualities of a human life are so difficult to find, etc. There was a Chinese guy attending the teachings. He had very strong faith in the Panchen Lama and really liked him and was totally devoted. But he kept on thinking, ‘He is talking like that, because he has not been to China and there are so many people in China and he just has not seen that.’ Finally he could not help himself and he told the Panchen Lama about this, ‘If you go to China, you will find so many people there - so the human life is not hard to find there!’ So the Panchen Lama replied, ‘You did not get me! I am talking here about the perfect life, the life with the eighteen qualities. Even in our own life, our companions, our friends, people that we went to school with, might not have these eighteen qualities.’ This is true, whether you believe it or not. Some people will say, ‘I don’t care.’ Some people will say, ‘I am not interested.’ Others will say, ‘I want nothing to do with the spiritual development.’ Some people will prefer to remain very yuppie-like. So that is what the Panchen Lama meant. This kind of life is so difficult to find.

Anyway, there are two things to remember.

1. We have to appreciate our life

2. We have to embrace our life

We should not reject it. That is why this practice is mentioned in the Bodhisattvacharyavatara as well as in the lam rim and also in the Three Principles. So in the first place, any human life should be appreciated and furthermore, a life with the eighteen qualities should even be appreciated much more. It is extremely important and terrible to waste that. The time really goes. You can listen to one of Steve Wonder’s song I just call to say ‘I love you’. In this song he goes through the events of the year, like Halloween, etc. and if you look at that, you notice how fast it goes. The weeks go so fast, the months and years go so fast. You have no idea. Like now, the New Year has just been and now it is already June. Time even goes faster when you have to divide it up between week days and week ends, working days and holidays, etc. That makes the time go fast and easy. We may think that we keep extremely busy and have a very productive week. But at the same time, we are also losing the time. So it is extremely important not to waste the time.

That does not mean however, that you should subject yourself to a program of saying mantras all the time for twenty-four hours a day. No one can do that. It is impossible. You should simply look for a good way of training, changing every chore that you have to do into a very positive action. That is why we emphasize so much to integrate the practice into daily life. As long as your activities are not by nature non-virtuous or negative, everything should be able to be changed into something positive. As Vajrayana practitioners we are even talking about dream yoga and changing all of our sleep into practice-oriented sleep. If you can change your sleep into positive work, then why can’t you change your waking state into positive life? This is extremely important. It depends on the motivation, on the awareness. So motivation and awareness are the key, they will guide your life in that way. That is very important for everybody. If you expect to do a million mantras - maybe if we lived in the eighteenth century, it would be okay, but we are not. We are almost in the year 2000. There are so many things happening now. The world is much smaller than in the eighteenth century. We have to have our spiritual practice correspond with our day to day life.

Audience: Can you talk a little about how to reconcile the practice of precious human life with renunciation?

Rinpoche: What do you mean by ‘renunciation’?

Audience: Non-attachment to life.

Rinpoche: As far as I am concerned I never use the word ‘renunciation’. I always use the word ‘Seeking Freedom’. I am very sensitive to the word ‘renunciation’. It suggests some very strange things. People could get the idea that everybody should shave their heads and go into the forest or something. That is why I don’t use that word. But your question remains the same. I actually do not see any contradiction between appreciating the human life and seeking freedom. You are not seeking freedom from death, but from suffering. If you want to renounce anything, you should renounce the suffering. You don’t renounce life.

One beautiful quality here: Marpa, the founder of the Kargyu tradition was a farmer, a lay person with family, with children. Yet he obtained total enlightenment. He was a farmer, a villager, who grew food on the land and he was a family person. In Tibet they did not have high tech farming. The only choices of life style was to be a farmer or a nomad. These were the most common professions. So Marpa was a family person and farmer. He had a huge amount of land, considering the Tibetan hilly land and yet he became the founder of one of the most important traditions in Tibet, the Kargyu tradition. Sixteen sub-sects have come out of that. The tradition itself is great, a huge one. So the founder of that was a lay-person. Renunciation in this case is to renounce the suffering. Marpa was the teacher of Milarepa. Anybody who knows about Tibetan Buddhism knows about Milarepa. So do not misunderstand renunciation. Some orthodox people may interpret that renunciation is the most important and that you have to renounce everything, shave your head and go to a forest or monastery. I do not believe that. On the contrary - I will make sure people do not do that, unless I am sure that these people remain a hundred per cent for the rest of their lives in that manner. If that is so, it is the greatest thing you can do. We will all fold our hands and say, ‘Great!’. But in the West, you know, there are people who like to shave their heads and put on the robes and remain like that for six, seven years or some up to fifteen years, but thereafter their hair is starting to grow a little longer, their sleeves come up to here... and then the whole thing is on the way out. So that is not worth it. One of the beautiful things in Buddhism is that it is not only the ordained people, the monks and nuns who can obtain liberation, but also lay people. There is the opportunity for everybody, for lay people, men and women - everybody. It depends on the mind. It depends on the training of your mind, on the efforts you put in. It does not depend on the dress you wear or on the hair color or skin color, on any physical appearance, on whether you are a yuppie or a hippy.

Audience: You have said that it takes a perfect morality to have the foundation for a human life. How can someone in the hell realms who is only thinking about their pain, create a perfect morality - or can only humans go on to another human life time?

Rinpoche: Perfect morality is for everybody. It is not only for human beings to take rebirth as a human being. Your question will be answered by the sixth or seventh verse in our text. However, I would like to say this: even people in the hell realms have perfect moralities. You may ask the question, ‘How come they are in the hell realm then?’ It is because of karma - and you have to remember this - karma is not a dictator. It is dependent arising. Karma depends on the conditions. A karmic result can only develop in dependence on the conditions. So people in the hell realms, when they take rebirth there, somehow the conditions for a human life are not right. They cannot connect them to their positive karmas. Somehow the conditions are only right to connect them to their negative karma. So they happen to take rebirth in the lower realms. That does not mean that they remain there forever. When the karmic connection is picked, it will go. You remember, we talked about one of Buddha’s previous lives down in the hell realm, where he managed to develop bodhimind. Verse eight is about that. Buddha at that time developed tremendous compassion and bodhimind for his companion who could not pull the horse cart. So he thought, ‘I wish he would not have to pull this horse cart. I will pull it alone, so that he does not have to suffer.’ The moment this thought came into his head, the hell guardian attacked him, hit him on the head and he died as a hell realm person and got reborn in the human land. This is exactly how they connect. Karma depends on conditions. Life depends on so many things coming together. Karma and conditions come together and then you have a life.

Verse five

Just as a flash of lightning in a dark, cloudy night,

for an instance brightly illuminates all,

likewise in this world, through the might of the Buddha

a wholesome thought rarely and briefly appears.

The opportunity is rare and brief. We experience sometimes a window of a glimpse. Many had the opportunity, many did not. Those who did, got it through various ways; some with the help of meditation, some with the help of chemicals, with the help of all sorts of things. They received a glimpse of something perfect, better and wonderful. When we get this, we can see and feel it, we can touch it, but it does not last very long. Perhaps to the younger generation here this does not make much sense. But the people who [experimented] in the sixties will definitely nod their heads. That kind of glimpse of something perfect is indicating to us that there is something more than what we normally consider the dreams of our lives. Everybody has dreams. They differ from person to person. I was watching on TV recently again that Martin Luther King said, ‘I have a dream.’ That dream had an effect on a lot of people and helped them. But everybody has their own dreams and many of us have dreams that are oriented towards material success. Many people do - whether you accept or not. People may call it success in life. But there is something more than that, something that goes beyond that. What some people did in the sixties really helped tremendously to open up the spiritual path to a lot of people. There was the chance to see something beyond. So many of our dreams are only directed at material success. This is really an unfortunate thing, although you have got to go with it, you cannot fight against it. It is unfortunate, because people’s lives are measured in terms of money. It is unfortunate, but because it is all over the world, we have to also follow that. I was talking about that with Doctor Dorje, the Tibetan doctor who lives here. He recently went back to his native home land in Tibet. He spent a week there and came back. His sister lives there and she is a nomad. He told me that one of the biggest problems these nomads are facing is the lack of grains to eat. What used to happen was that the nomads provided their normal products like meat, butter, skins, etc. They used to bring these down to the valleys where they exchanged them against grains which were grown in the valleys. So the nomads came with their cheese, cream, milk and butter, etc, and exchanged that against grain. It worked for everybody. The nomads got enough grain to eat and the villagers got enough dairy products. This exchange may have happened two or three times a year, but everybody had enough.

Now the economic system based on money has been introduced. So the villagers growing the grains bring these to the bigger cities where they try to get cash for that. The poor nomads then have no way of getting anything. They have to keep on eating their cheese, yoghurt and milk throughout the year. I thought of that because traditionally the value of work was for whatever the human needs are. Today our values and success are measured in terms of dollars, or even just figures on the computers of the banks which is really unfortunate. Actually what human beings are seeking is happiness and joy. Money is incapable of providing every happiness and joy we are seeking. Believe it or not, it cannot do that. But the human qualities, like kindness, compassion and love, all of these are capable of delivering these goods. Our problem is that we are too materialistic - but we have to go along with it. If you don’t, you are neither helping yourself nor anybody else.

In the sixties, for whatever reason, whether is was as Shantideva’s verse says, ’through the Buddha’s might’ - and this verse was not written after the sixties -

end of tape 5 side A - 06/11/96

Tape 5 side B - 06/11/96

Because of either the Buddhas deeds or the fortune and luck of the individual human beings or the human beings in general, occasionally we get that sort of glimpse. Either individually or collectively, we always somehow get another little bit. Particularly, we are effected by this. It is an opening for us. Unfortunately it does not last long. Whatever the cause may be, it is not our karmic cause.

From the background of reincarnation, for many lives we have not had such an opportunity of a life with the eighteen qualities. This is also like a lightning in the dark night - a very brief period. Once, when we have the opportunity, it is time for us to grab this opportunity. Don’t let it go to waste! I am sure you people have read both, the commentaries by the Dalai Lama and by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso on this particular verse. But you also have to translate with your own personal experience and the experience that people had. A lot of people will say that their experience was a hallucination, that it was useless. Others say that it is great. But even the bodhisattvacharyavatara has made this statement over a thousand years ago. Such an opportunity appears in this world occasionally here and there, either collectively or individually. It is a great indication that one has the opportunity - it is there. It is a matter for the individual, where they want to grab this opportunity or let it go. The way how to grab the opportunity is explained in the ten chapters of this book. This will tell you how to make it worthwhile.

Audience: You said that such an experience is not our karmic cause. But I thought in the karmic system, you can only experience something if you have the cause for it.

Rinpoche: You are becoming quite some ‘Geshe-la’, aren’t you? Yes, this is just my rhetoric. It is true, for everything that happens, there is bound to be a karmic cause. This particular translation here says, through the might of the Buddhas, while the Tibetan really says something more like through the luck and fortune of all existence. You could say that is the good karma of all existence. That is why I say ‘whatever’, because it can be both. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are always there to try to show people something else. We can see Tara up there, always holding that beautiful flower - which is an invitation. It is an invitation by telling people that there is something else that is better than what we consider great. The gesture means, ‘Come over, let me show you!’ That is what it is. This is what the Bodhisattvacharyavatara says. This is what a lot of people experience through various ways. Some people experience that through meditative states, some through chemical effects, some through dreams, some for no apparent reason - it just pops up in their heads. Then some people do no experience anything. All of that happens. This is how it is explained. This is how we have to think and put efforts in. So when you have such a glimpse, you always want to go back to it and you use the same method for that. But I don’t think you get back the same feeling all the time. If you want to know why, you could have asked Timothy O’Leary. Shortly before he died, he said, ‘Why and why not?’ So nobody knows what that means. Actually shortly before that I had him also on the telephone, but he was not able to talk, he just made some aaahhh sounds, so I just chanted a little bit. His wife actually rang me and then she left the room and he tried to talk to me, but all I could hear was this ‘aaahhh’ sound. I could not hear much, so I just kept on doing whatever I have to do. So afterwards he said, ‘Why and why not?’

According to this Tibetan text the [precious human life] is attributed to both, the power of the Buddha as well as the good fortune and karma of the people. But this particular translation we have does not say that. That is why I like to use the word whatever. So it is due to both, the power of the enlightened beings as well as the power of the individual. The way the text describes it, like a lightning in the dark night shows you how the individual can get struck. You may not get enlightened, but wake up and all sorts of things can happen. In Vajrayana you can explain a lot of different things here, but in this context I would like to remain on the ground and stick with the explanation that it is the glimpse of the people. It is the people’s experience.

Audience: Is that the way you come from a hell realm experience with a lot of nasty karma, by linking up with some distant previous morality?

Rinpoche: Actually, if people die with anger, the chances are that you are likely to connect with negative karma. Believe it or not, each one of us has a tremendous amount of karma in store, both good and bad. If you do not have enough good karma you will not be able to take rebirth as a human being. The very fact that you are born as a human being, and not only as a human, but as a human being in one of the world’s most advanced and developed countries, and not only that, but the time is such that there is a tremendous amount of spiritual practice and interest is growing, that itself indicates that we have a tremendous amount of great karma in our reserves. There is no question. At the same time we also have a tremendous amount of negative karma too. There is no question. But the only question remains is ‘What is the best way to use it?’ This is, at the time of death, which karma to connect. That is what it is. If the person dies with tremendous anger, there is the great chance that the person will connect with a negative karma. If a person dies with attachment, chances are that they will connect with negative karma. If a person dies with tremendous regret, it is also not good. Fear can go both ways, but pride, etc. are not good. All sorts of things can happen.

In everyday life, when people push our buttons, how do we feel? It is the same thing at death. A tremendous amount of buttons are being pushed by nature, by conditions, by weakness and suffering and pain and losing everything. Every possible button is pushed. So at that time how you can really think makes a difference to how you can really connect with what karma. That is why practitioners have a daily practice including the death and the dying process, because you will recognize it, and you will feel which buttons are being pushed and you feel that all this is happening. So it is becoming everyday events. Then you automatically are able to think what you are supposed to think, even though you may not have made it through the great path of Dharmakaya and all this, but still, a ninety-nine point nine per cent chance of connecting positive karma is there with us much more than with anybody else. This is because of the daily practice. So it is really a big deal. When you do not think of it building up, you don’t think of it as a big deal, but it is - provided it is a perfect practice.

I was hoping to do one more verse, but perhaps not. We will be doing this Bodhisattvacharyavata for quite some time, maybe a year or two - so there is no rush.

Audience: Will all sentient beings eventually reach enlightenment or will some continue to cycle through samsaric existences?

Rinpoche: I have to give you the answer philosophically. The Buddha was asked the same question, ‘Is there a beginning of samsara?’ He kept quiet. ‘Is there an end to samsara?’ He kept quiet. That is called Buddha’s great silence. There is supposed to be a time when each individual is supposed to become free of suffering. But when and what and how, I have no idea. I have no answer for that. There should be, but there may or there may not be - who knows.

Audience: If someone was about to be liberated from samsara during death, would they have any idea about that beforehand or does it come as a surprise?

Rinpoche: I whish it is a very pleasant surprise, if that was true, but I don’t think so. Spiritual development is something that grows very slowly and steadily within the individual. You may or may not be aware of each and every time there is a particular development. Basically, though, you are aware of the general development you have. If you are not aware of what you have, then perhaps you don’t have it.

Audience: But the glimpses become more regular?

Rinpoche: The Bodhisattvacharyavatara does not say that they become more regular, it says that they come very seldom and rarely - just joking! The main point is that your spiritual practice, even if you were living in the middle of downtown Detroit in between gun shots, should be able to develop. That is the challenge. We can go to a nice and beautiful place and have nice, beautiful feelings, and try to translate that into spiritual practice and development - that is perhaps okay, but I don’t think that is what it should be. Spiritual development should continue no matter where you are, no matter in what condition you might find yourself in - under any circumstances, whether you are in the Chinese jails or torture chambers or a five star American hotel - wherever you may be, it should have the same effect for the individual. What I am about to say is not quite right. I was going to say that it should be free of external conditions. We do depend on the external conditions a lot. But it should not be. When you get to a certain level, then you don’t depend on those external conditions at all.

end of tape 5 side B - 06/11/96