Archive Result

19960813GRAABWL

Tape 14 side A - 08/13/96

We have been talking about verse twenty-one and twenty-two. The other day we talked very little, so I think we should go over it again.

Verse twenty-one

If even the thought to relieve

Living creatures of merely a headache

Is a beneficial intention

Endowed with infinite goodness,

Verse twenty-two

Then what need is there to mention

The wish to dispel their inconceivable misery,

Wishing every single one of them

To realise boundless good qualities?

The translation you get here, does not go easily when translated directly from the Tibetan. If you read the Tibetan, the English does not make much sense. I have to explain on the basis of Tibetan rather than English, because I do not know English. Anyway, the first two lines talk about the wish to relieve all beings of headaches. The bodhimind, ultimate love and compassion, is focused on all beings, all sentient beings. The object of great compassion is all sentient beings. Its aspect is the desire to help and relieve suffering. That is the main reason why it is so tremendously beneficial, even if you just have a simple wish to help someone to relieve a headache, either through medical ways or healing or mantras. The traditional Tibetan way of healing is different from the Western way. Here you just go and see any doctor who will probably give you some drugs, whether they know what is wrong or not. We don’t do it that way, although we also have our family doctors. But even before people go to a doctor they will go and see a spiritual master who can tell them which doctor is best in order to cure a particular illness. The spiritual masters somehow have ways and means of checking and they will sometimes recommend to see a medical doctor, sometimes they may recommend a spiritual healer, sometimes they will send you to some physical massage therapy- type of treatment, sometimes they will send you to a person who works through mantras. Even to cure a headache, there may be medicine or advice on what to eat or what not to eat, or there may be mantras or spiritual blessings.

So we are talking about the desire to help someone get rid of their headache or any other illness, with the sincere desire to try to find a way to help the person - without any personal agenda. You know a personal agenda is a problem. If somebody asks you something, you probably have ways and means of checking that person and you have to check with the sincere desire how karmically that person can be helped and what could be done, rather than thinking, ‘I will be the instrument to relieve that person’s suffering. I will be credited with that.’ The moment you think like that, it becomes a personal agenda. If you have a personal agenda, even if you have a desire to help, it does not become the flawless love and compassion. It becomes faulty. So when Shantideva says, ‘Even the thought to relieve a headache’, this means wishing to do that without a personal agenda at all. Such a thought will bring boundless good qualities. Remember here we are in Buddhism 102, not 101, where we are only seeking freedom for ourselves. 102 will tell you that the way to seek for freedom for yourself is by helping others, not sitting there and thinking, ‘How can I get out of suffering myself?’

The head ache is just one example. You can take any simple suffering. Even wanting to relieve that with a sincere desire and without any personal agenda, ‘boundless good qualities will be realized’. In other words, you are going to generate a tremendous amount of good karma. This is because of the compassion, the love, the caring, and because you don’t have any personal agenda at all. If that is so, then with the bodhimind, which is real ultimate love and compassion which wishes to free all beings, not just some, limited by creature, color, citizenship or anything, without any limitations, directed at all sentient beings - if you can’t think of all sentient beings, than at least all human beings, - if you have that much, the object of your wish to relieve suffering, is expanded. It has gone beyond ‘fellow citizens’. Since the Republican Convention is on right now, I am using that term. There is no limit. That is why we realize boundless good qualities. So even if you wish to relieve just one or two persons of a simple illness, such as a head ache, that realizes a lot of good qualities. If you do that for all the boundless beings, lets say all human beings, gone beyond the citizens of the Unites States, even legal aliens and illegal aliens - in other words all human beings - the number of objects of your caring has expanded tremendously. Secondly, your desire of relieving them of their suffering has gone beyond a simple headache. It has gone to relieving all of their suffering once and for all, cutting the root of all suffering. That is what you are going to bring in. Unlimited, unconditioned love and compassion will take that direction. If the limited and conditioned wish to relieve one person of a head ache brings tremendous good qualities, then the expansion of that wish to all sentient beings and wishing to relieve them totally from all suffering, is bound to be more beneficial than that.

Not only that; you not only wish to relieve their physical and mental suffering, but also bring the qualities of the enlightened beings to them. Such a mind, even if it is only in the wishing form, wishing all beings to have these qualities, will bring countless numbers of merit and tremendous, boundless, good qualities for yourself. So the way to bring those qualities to yourself is not by asking, ‘How am I going to get them?’. The question is ‘How can I help all beings? How can I relieve their pain and how can I bring all the good qualities to them?’ Even doing that on the wishing level alone brings countless good qualities to you. In other words, if you keep on saying, ‘How am I going to get them?’, you are not going to get them. On the other hand, if you keep on thinking, ‘How am I going to get it?’, you will not find the way out; you are also going to bring a tremendous amount of anxiety on yourself, and that is followed by all sorts of problems we can see around. All that is just because of focussing too much on yourself.

The only way to help others is by trying to bring oneself to the level of enlightenment. First Buddhism 101 will tell you that you have to be free from your own suffering. You have to make a strong decision that you have to be free and that you like to be. Once you have made up that mind, you immediately turn that point on the others and observe the people that you deal with. You will find out that they all have the same problems as you do. You really need to exchange the focus on yourself and put the other people in. Try to see how they are. Then, instead of asking, ‘How can I help myself?’, you look for ways to help them. In the beginning it is only wishing to do that. You wish them to be free and not only that, you would like to bring the qualities of total enlightenment to them. This is how you learn. First it is just through wishing. That itself is of tremendous benefit to yourself. The bodhimind does bring benefits for oneself also. It is a two-pronged mind. There is the mind that wishes to attain enlightenment for the sake of others and the mind that wishes to help beings. The mind wishing to help all other beings is the vehicle that delivers you to enlightenment, not the desire to obtain enlightenment, although it is part and parcel.

Remember, the other day I shared an example with you of somebody who had some kind of terrible machine on their head, running around, seeing that people are suffering tremendously and that person wishes to relieve that. In reality it might not be a physical machine, but sometimes a mental machinery makes us suffer tremendously. Our funny thoughts are worse than those Dutch windmills. It is more than a windmill that we have on our heads. That tortures and makes the individual suffer tremendously, ‘What shall I do? Should I go ahead or not?’ You pull this way and then pull back. All this push and pull we have. Earlier they gave you examples with metaphysical terms like somebody with a big machine on the head that made him suffering. But the real machine is the mental machine and when somebody can really think, ‘I wish I could take that and relieve that person.’ With that very thought the person wishing that died and took rebirth in a perfect angel realm.

We also mentioned before that according to the Mahayana tradition the Buddha first generated bodhimind while in the hell realm. He thought, ‘I wish I could help the person that is working with me, pulling the horse cart of that terrifying hell guardian!’ The moment he had this thought, the hell guardian hit him on the head with a hammer and said, ‘How dare you think like this in the hell realm!’ So that hit with the hammer made this person die and he got reborn and became the Buddha. This is really showing us how such a thought has so much power to uplift the individual towards enlightenment. That wish has tremendous power to bring the good qualities to our level. This mind itself does that. You don’t really have to do it physically or mentally yourself. This mind itself does that. It is the power of love and compassion even just by wishing, even if you actually don’t do anything. This is what this particular verse (verse twenty-two) is telling you.

Let us read the next verse

Verse twenty-three

Do even fathers and mothers

Have such a benevolent intention as this?

Do the gods and sages?

Does even Brahma have it?

Normally, the father and mother always have to desire to help their children. They love them and try to help the children to help themselves. Even the small ‘g’ gods and sages are like that. They have the desire to help, but they don’t have the desire to bring total spiritual development to the people. No matter how much love they may have for their children, no matter how much they care, no matter how much they care about their companions and everybody, they don’t have the mind of bringing them to enlightenment, do they? There is boundless love and compassion there, but all these beings don’t have the mind of bringing ultimate spiritual development to them. Firstly, they don’t know about it and then, even if they do know, they are very sceptical. Even if they are not sceptical, they will be afraid for their children. For whatever reason, they will not buy the idea or in any case, they will not help. They don’t have that mind. Not even the samsaric gods have that. Basically, that is talking about spirits, etc, In the Tibetan tradition they like to refer to them as gods too. So when it refers to gods, it really means good spirits, angels, and so on. These have also a good mind of helping, but they do not have a good mind of bringing the people to the level of enlightenment. Neither do the sages. Then the text mentions Brahma. That is a Hindu god. He has an immeasurable, great desire to help all sentient beings, but even though he has a good mind which is kind and compassionate, he will not have the desire to bring all sentient beings to the ultimate spiritually developed level. The possibility for us, that means you and me, on the level of ordinary human beings, to be able to do that, really puts us spiritually even higher than those beings. This is because of love and compassion. I am not saying that, it is this book right over here. You can read it here in these verses.

Verse twenty-four

If those beings have never before

Even dreamt of such an attitude

For their own sake,

How would it ever arise for the sake of others?

Almost all of us ordinary beings - forget about for others - but even for ourselves, do we really have such a mind that wants to bring enlightenment even just for ourselves? No, because most beings have not met with this path, they do not have this path. So they do not have that desire in their ordinary thinking - not even in their dreams. You can get all sorts of funny dreams. But the desire to bring all sentient beings to enlightenment does not even happen during dreams for ordinary beings. Did anyone of us ever dream that? We get all sorts of unthinkable, unimaginable dreams. But we never get a dream of bringing all sentient beings to the level of enlightenment. This is not a joke. It does not happen. You know why? Because we don’t have that level yet. We are lucky, we are fortunate, no doubt. But we also have our limitations. When you go deeply into the spiritual path, you begin to see those things as well. When we dream, we dream about things we don’t normally even think about - all sorts of things, good, bad, enjoyable, miserable. But we don’t get that dream.

What that is trying to tell you is that this quality is even superior to ordinary angels, small ‘g’ gods and sages and even Brahma. You are getting better than that and it is all because of the benefit of love and compassion. We are in the chapter which describes the benefits of love and compassion. Somehow the Bodhisattvacharyavatara chooses in its first chapter to start with the benefits of the bodhimind. It tells you what love and compassion can do and what others cannot do.

I am not sure whether I should go on, because I have covered two verses already. I don’t think I should go further. However, in the next verse, the bodhimind is introduced as precious mind, as ‘jewel of the mind’. We might as well read it then.

verse twenty-five

This intention to benefit all beings,

Which does not arise in others even for their own sake,

Is an extraordinary jewel of the mind,

and its birth is an unprecedented wonder.

We don’t really get even a dream of bringing all sentient beings to the level of enlightenment. Why is the level of enlightenment important? Because that is the ultimate spiritual development on which you are free of all neuroses and causes of neuroses. You also ensure that you have the best methods to help others, to free them. You do that on the basis of your own experience, your own development. This is the best level you can get. That is why the mind that is seeking this is referred to as the ‘jewel mind’, in other words ‘Jewel Heart’. This is true. In the tradition of Asian cultures and thinking, the heart is the basis of the mind. In the West they think that the head is the basis of the mind. In the East the heart is the basis of the mind. So when we call our organization ‘Jewel Heart’, we are really referring to the love and compassion, the basis of the bodhimind, the basis of the ultimate, unlimited, unconditioned care and love, the way you can practice it.

What we do here, we focus only on sharing the teachings that Buddha has given, sharing the message that Buddha left. We try to share that with you. We do not focus much on how you sit down and meditate. We focus on talking about this, give you the message, give you the essence and do expect that you go back to your own home and meditate in your own four walls, that you think and analyze. For analyzing and meditating, you don’t need so much assistance. We have limited time. You have limited time, I have limited time. We don’t have unlimited time at all. We are all working, we are all paying our bills one way or another. So our time is limited. So with this limited time we are doing the best we can, share the ideas which are based on the Buddha’s personal experience, shared by the great teachers, masters. We share that with you.

You then keep that in your thoughts, go back to your own home and in the time that suits you, think about it, analyze it. I am not telling you to meditate, but to think about it. Thinking is meditation, analyzing is meditation. You may sit cross-legged and turn your eyes blue, black, yellow or whatever. You may do that or not. You may sit on the pot or in a nice, warm shower and think about it. But what happens is that the thoughts, ideas, the analyzing and remembering should effect your mind stream. That is what we are looking for. That is what spiritual development is.

Spiritual development is not to be able to fly in the air. I was watching the Republican Convention and there was a guy who was flying in the air with different colors. I don’t think that it is spiritual development. On the other hand, it is material development. You have to remember that Buddha has said repeatedly that the material power, the mantra power and the spiritual power are all equal. Two thousand five hundred years ago Buddha repeatedly said that they are equal. Whatever you can do materially, you can also do spiritually. Whatever you do spiritually, you can also do materially too. When talking about the material, don’t think money, but different chemicals, etc. So it is equal.

But what is lasting? Everlasting is only the spiritual development. It does not depend on other external materials, like chemicals, etc. The material development does depend on them. If the guy at the Convention did not have those balloons, the would have flatly landed on the ground rather than flying around. The spiritual development does not have that. The worst is the mantra power. You may think that the mantra power is great, but it is the worst. Mantra power is more unreliable than material power. Buddha put them in this ordeRinpoche: mantra power, samadhi power, material power, spiritual power. Out of these spiritual power is the best because it does not depend on anything else. The material depends on other factors, can go wrong, but is still very reliable. Samadhi power depends on the samadhi. The moment the samadhi is finished it is like hot air going out of a balloon. That is why it flops. Mantra power is even worse than that. So these are the four powers which are equal, according to what Buddha said two thousand five hundred years ago.

Flying in the air is not spiritual development. Birds fly around all the time. Nor is remaining under the ground spiritual development. Worms remain under the ground all the time, even possums and moles do. They come up from under the ground and look up. So all of that is not spiritual development. Spiritual development is making a difference in one’s life, one’s attitude, one’s mind. It is making a person kinder, gentler, better. That is making a difference. That is development. That is also building up and that is solid. Whenever we say that you need a solid foundation, that is what we mean. The solid foundation is the positive karmic change you need. You are the one who has to work for that. When you think, when you analyze, it influences the way how you deal with the world. It makes a difference in how you deal with the world, and through that, it makes a difference within you.

If you are a very angry person, and normally break everything, you then can be a little kinder, a little gentler. That does not mean that you will not lose your temper. You still will, because we have very powerful negative addictions within us which will make us get angry, lose our temper. But it should be a little weaker temper, not so long lasting. If you feel like killing somebody, that temper should go down and you may only feel like slapping the person instead of killing. When these bad things get weaker, that is improvement. We are really at this level. We are in the top level of negativity. We have the best development of hatred, anger, jealousy. We cannot go beyond that level any more - we are at the top level. We are really at the peak level. So the only thing we can do is try to come down. When it is coming down it is an improvement to the person. When you work for your spiritual path, that is what you do - trying to get that down, further down as much as possible and finally, completely eradicate it. So when you lose your temper, don’t ever feel bad. We are bound to do that, because we are born in that way. This is our way. Dharma in Tibetan is called ‘chö’ which means ‘correction’. We have to correct our negative ways into positive ways. That is really Dharma. ‘Chö’ really means changing, bringing improvement.

end of side A of tape 14

Tape 14 side B - 08/13/96

It is better to go slowly and steady rather than making big steps and then stop. That does not work. I don’t know whether the example is English or Tibetan, but in Tibet they would tell this: There was a competition between the rabbit and the tortoise. In English is the same story? Okay, so the rabbit may jump around a lot, but in the end he will lose. The tortoise goes slowly and steady, but gets it done. A person who is intelligent, but very emotional, will act like the rabbit. Don’t do that. Act like a tortoise. That is how you go.

Audience: Does material development include scientific development?

Rinpoche: The scientific development is based on the material. It is all external things. Not just money, but scientific knowledge, technology and everything.

Audience: If yearning to be free is Buddhism 101, what is trying to make the world a better place?

Rinpoche: Yearning to free yourself is 101 and making the world a better place is 102. Lets put it that way. Today we said that very strong care and loving, without having any personal agenda, trying to go in there and help, really wishing to be helpful to the person and totally dedicating that work will be perfectly good love and compassion. But that mind should also know where the limitations are. If you don’t know where your limitations are, you could go on and say, ‘I am the great savior, I am supposed to save you.’ You cannot do that, there are limitations. So within the limitations you can help. If you are going beyond the limitations, you will never be able to help, because others are not willing to accept you. So it is good to say ‘without any personal interest’ and you have to go with these conditions and if you have any anxieties about that, it is a good thing. But if you want to push yourself without any limitations, not knowing your limits, that is the wrong thing to do. So anxiety is good, but within the framework.

Audience: We talked before about bodhimind as it relates to the paths and stages and how one had to have a solid realization of the determination to be free, before one even got to the wishing part of the bodhimind, as referred to by Shantideva. But last week you said that you can pray for it and that works too. I am wondering how is it that that works.

Rinpoche: Without really having the development of the first principle, the Buddhism 101 level, wishing for oneself to be free from suffering and the cause of suffering - without such a desire for yourself you cannot develop a strong desire to do the same for others. It is on the basis of the personal experience that you have to develop that understanding. With that understanding you can also go, even though it may not be perfect. But we can also go in a sort of semi-perfect manner. We should actually go in that manner and we are doing that, and that becomes a wishing form. So in that way we are going after the bodhimind. We try to behave and act like the Romans in Rome. It brings benefits and makes a difference to our lives, both others, and ourselves. That is what I meant. The word prayer in Tibetan is mön sem which is really a praying mind. So when I said we can develop by praying, that is what I meant - developing that sort of mind. In Tibetan the praying mind and ‘prayer form’ is the same word. So prayer, which in Tibetan is mön lam, and the wishing mind are going together and that is probably how that word mön sem came about.

Audience: Is that what you talked about a few weeks ago when you explained that artificial form of mind which is going towards the wishing form of bodhimind, like a pre-fab sort of bodhimind?

Rinpoche: I think we are talking about the same thing, yes. Right now, what we have is an artificial or as you said ‘pre-fab’ mind. We don’t have the real path with us. Whatever we have is only on the level of information. We don’t have it actually in our hands and we are training our mind to be able to get on the path. So it is pre-fab right now.

Audience: With developing our compassionate nature, should we be seeking out circumstances where we might feel uncomfortable? Is there a benefit there?

Rinpoche: Let me express it this way. Compassion and love, particularly pure love, and attachment or desire, are very close, extremely close. Sometimes it is very difficult to make distinctions between pure love and attachment. Whenever there is uncomfortable feelings or aversion, when it gets to that level, it might be a good idea to put the love over there and observe it a little bit. Check where it is coming from and why is it arising. Is it really a desire of relieving pain and being of service or is there some hidden agenda within your own mind? So focus on that love, put it over there, observe it very carefully from the front, sides and back and ask yourself where it is coming from and why you have it. To do that is a very good advice. And if you see that no personal strings are attached, then it is pure love and it is something great. Whenever there are strings attached, you have to cut those strings. When you do that, you really get the basis of building a pure, wonderful love. The First Dalai Lama had some interesting advice. He said, ‘When the ghost is in the east, to throw all your gifts and mantras to the west is useless.’ I hope I am not doing that with you. So when you discover that there are personal strings attached, you have to cut them. It used to be rather uncomfortable for me to talk about that, but now it is becoming rather easy. I don’t know why.

Audience: I heard also something else in that last question. If as beginners, we are looking at developing compassion, should we spend more time around people that we don’t like and don’t get along with and confront situations that we don’t like?

Rinpoche: Thank you, that really clarifies a lot. There are two things. A number of people could handle that. For example a few weeks ago we had teachings on Chöd. This is a technique where you use really awkward situations, like going to cemeteries where there are lots of ghosts. That is one way of handling. But if such a way of handling is suitable for all of us? The answer is ‘Certainly not!’. We don’t have control over our own mind. I know people don’t like the word ‘control’. So let me say, we don’t have a smooth mind. When you sometimes get into odd situations like this, there is a danger of pulling you off the path, off from what you are trying to do, rather than helping you. My personal way - that is my own way - is to go a smooth way rather than do that. That is why I don’t do Chöd myself [laughs]. It is probably a weakness of personality, not so brave.

Audience: Can you say something about how to cut the strings of attachment?

Rinpoche: I did not say how to do that. You are right. But realizing that you are held by strings like that itself cuts the strings half way through. If we actually realize that and feel a little embarrassed, that way it will cut the strings - at least half way through. You know it is interesting. Buddha listed two mental faculties in that context. One is getting embarrassed in front of yourself and the other is losing face among others. These two were mentioned a lot by Buddha as helpful and effective in cutting down negativities and bringing disciplines. On the other hand I know that in the West people have a problem using these.

Audience: What is the difference between a mind that wishes to be able to remove the suffering of others and the mind that wants to take on themselves that suffering?

Rinpoche: That is almost the same question we had just then. Yes, it is true, Bodhisattvas are always encouraged to take over the suffering of others, but I do not know how. You can always wish to take them over, but unless you develop some kind of very powerful level, it is hard to take suffering from others. Right now we are talking about the wishing bodhimind, not the action bodhimind. When we talk about the action bodhimind, we will talk more about that.

Audience: You said that noticing that strings are attached will cut them half way already. I don’t know how that works with oversensitivity. When I am oversensitive to something, I can notice it, but how do I make it stop, so that it does not burden me any more?

Rinpoche: Listen to yourself. You said ‘I realize that I am a little oversensitive and I don’t want that’. That itself is the answer. Your saying, ‘I don’t want that’, is giving you the message, the understanding. That will gradaully build up and if you support that, the problem will be reduced. Nothing will go away once and for all in a moment. You can’t say, ‘Now I have cut it, I am not going to get it any more’. This is not going to happen. It is a gradual process. It has been in our life stream for millions of years. So over night you cannot switch it off. But the recognition itself is extremely important. That is how it builds up.

The other day the Dalai Lama was in Chicago. He was giving a speech. He said, ‘A lot of friends ask me, “What is the quickest way I can get this or that”? and he said, ‘The next thing is that people will ask, “What is the cheapest way?” So there is no quickest way and there is no cheapest way.

end of side B of tape 14