Archive Result

19980818GRAABWL

TAPE SEVENTEEN (08/18/98)

I believe we are at Chapter Four, verse 6. Basically we are talking about conscientiousness. As I very often repeat, the Bodhisattva’ Way of Life is how a bodhisattva should behave. We may think, “I am not a bodhisattva, so why do I care?” But I am a spiritual seeker, I do care. I believe the Bodhisattva’s Life is very relevant for every one of us who are seeking the spiritual path, though we are not bodhisattvas. But that is the best spiritual path available. as far as we know. That includes you and me.

Today these verses will deal with that and answer that and will be interesting. In one way we don't know, but on the other hand, we do know. We do know that love and compassion is unquestionably a great path to anybody, without any question, without any doubt, or even hesitation, adopt that. Those of us in the spiritual path. There is no Love and Compassion beyond this. This is ultimate Love Compassion activity. It is relevant for us and important for us.

And we are talking about conscientiousness. I told you even on the first day, if you have lack of conscientiousness, you don't know what you are doing. Lots of things happen without you realizing, without knowing what the consequences are. So, it is lack of conscientiousness. If there is enough, there is nothing to be squeezed by Starr! It is all lack of conscientiousness. That is a simple example. And that is applicable to everyone of our delusions whether it is attachment or hatred.

All our problems we really get into it because of lack of consciousness. If you are conscientious, you won't get into it. Due to the lack of conscientiousness we got ourselves in, we are caught in it, or whatever. Sometimes we drive ourselves crazy within certain things all because of lack of conscientiousness. That is what it is. It also says here that the lack of conscientiousness is the doorway to our problems. And with conscientiousness you have control, you can manage. So the whole chapter is about that, and I was told we are at verse five.

I have to go back a little bit, though I have read I may not have explained nicely to you. So I really like to go back to verse 2. It sounds funny. It reminds me of something very funny.

When I was a kid, we used to receive lots of oral transmission from different teachers. One of our teachers was Kyabje Labsum Rinpoche. Oral transmission normally you just read it and you just listen to the words. Kyabje Labsum Rinpoche went extremely slow, and when you have volumes to read, he went even slower. One time it happened in my own house in Lhasa, a number of people requested him for oral transmission on the Five Root texts, or five famous subject. And he started it. It was done in private and not a public teaching. The first day when he started there were about fifty people. For public teachings there would be thousands. We held it in private inside a bedroom. Then he read a few pages, and fell asleep. Then he woke up, read a few more verses and fell asleep. Then they requested me to wake him up and politely I did. Then he woke up and said slowly, “This Rinpoche told me I am falling asleep,” and he went back to sleep. He read some two pages, and after a little while he fell asleep a number of times and I had to wake him up. The next time I woke him up, he said, “This Rinpoche told me that I had fallen asleep. I don't remember where I stopped, so let me begin right from the page” and he went back. Normally the oral transmission would have been read by two days, but it went on like for twenty seven days. At the end of it, there were hardly five people there.

Verse 2

In case of reckless actions

Or of deeds not well considered,

Although a promise may have been made

It is fit to reconsider whether I should do them or not.

In normal cases, if you agreed to something without thinking properly, of course you can change your mind or change your statement. You can do all that in normal cases, as long as you do not get into legal trouble, it is okay. That happens and we do that. People accept that and forgive that too. It is almost okay you have promised something before, but you didn't really think carefully or think enough. So you can go ahead and change. That is what they are talking about that for the bodhisattva activities that is acceptable because you never thought carefully before. Or, you have lack of knowledge, information so therefore it is okay. But I don't know why this guy choose to call reckless action; the Tibetan text says of deeds not well considered. So you can change that, it is okay. It is acceptable; we all do that, don't we? So we are going to let Clinton off the hook, just joking!

Verse 3

Now let's read the third verse. It says.

How can I ever withdraw

From what has been examined by the great wisdom

Of the Buddhas and their Sons,

And even many times by me myself?

It says, in normal cases when you do not think well, when you do not do this well, you can change your mind. But your commitment to Love and Compassion, and your commitment to helping all living beings, including yourself, you cannot have second thoughts.

In normal cases, you can. But here you cannot. Why not? Because not only you but all the great ones including yourself, the great ones like Buddhas enlightened beings by their wisdom they thought very well, they checked a number of times, and did every of possible examinations and every thing they did, and they found it is right. So it is for your own benefit, and even yourself have for a number of times, you have said you would like to be loving and compassionate. You have adopted by yourself even though you are unable to put all things together yet, but still this will not fall in the category where because you don't have the full information available to you so you would like to change your mind. This you shouldn't do. Are you with me?

The reason I would like to go back because I like to emphasize this particular point, and why these words are coming together. And saying particularly emphasizing great wisdom, person with great wisdom like buddhas and their sons. 'Sons' don't think as in 'son' like a son. They are not ignoring the daughters, they are not. That is an old Indian language and I have explained a number of times. And of course, I will be happy if you say 'the children' no objection. But when you are really examining, they are not talking about like all human beings a number of times are referred as 'man'. Men and women are referred as 'man' a number of time whether we talk about man and animals, human beings and animals, they are man. Even though there are women. Likewise here they are not talking about son as a male son, and daughter. They are about one who is going to adopt the path, one who is going to be the one who is going to be enlightened. That is what they are referring to. So it is the traditional Indian culture and that is what it is. So the buddhas and bodhisattvas they are talking about, including yourself. Even though you do not have the information but you have selected that, and you cannot be wrong. This is because the buddhas and bodhisattvas have checked a number of times and they have all the information and they thought it is best for all beings, not just for you but for all beings including themselves. Another words, we don't have better knowledge and information than those enlightened beings. In one unanimous voice they have recommended that you it is good for people to have Love and Compassion. So you should not change your mind because they have very strong reasons why Love and Compassion is good for everybody else. That is what this verse is telling you. So how can one ever withdraw from what has been examined by great wisdom of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, and even by me myself. So those of us here who have examined the spiritual path little bit, not too much, we never appreciate spiritual path which tries to give ourself a kind of superior power over you, meaning the other person. We are not looking for that. If you are looking for that, we are in the wrong path. It is not a question of me over you, it is a question of helping me and you. I try to share that with you. Whenever you look at any spiritual path, and that spiritual path tries to show you 'I am greater than you',' make me better than you', if you see any of those, it is not the path accepted by the Buddha. It may be accepted by somebody else, I don't know. But what the Buddha normal tells you is when you are looking at the spiritual path that makes you 'me better than you' or 'me over you', or 'I have more power'or' I have control over you' or 'I twist you on my finger tips', any of such spiritual path with such purpose is not necessarily good. It is not good , don't follow it. It is a question of me helping me and you, and everybody. That is important. That should not be compromised, should not let it go. So we are talking about conscientiousness. And what we need to be conscientious of is not to lose that commitment of helping people, helping myself.And commitment for Love , commitment for Compassion one should not lose no matter what it takes. No excuse ever be accepted, should not be accepted. In normal cases, you say 'I did not think very carefully, but now it is clear for me, I can't do that'. Yes, it may be true, but don't give up. That is what the Buddha is saying. You may not do it right this moment but you should try. This is because this is important, and there is no substitute; this is true. I am not saying there is no substitute for Buddhism. I am saying there is no substitute for Love and Compassion. Anything else there is no substitute for that. You can try to give up Love and Compassion and try to do something which will be a power trip or ego building, or make you feel better, look better, or have power to control other people, but what are you going to get out of that? Nothing. You may gain power over somebody for a few days and after that they will change their mind too, as long as they are intelligent enough. So what do you gain from there? Nothing. And ultimately you are going to lead everybody to the wrong place, misleading them. So there is no alternative for Love and Compassion. And that is what they are talking about. Do not use excuse that 'It has been my reckless action' or 'I didn't think carefully, so I just went along with that; the wind blew that direction' and all these. So this is what happened. A lot of people have these difficulties in another way. In another way people will think,'I can't take that anymore', 'I've tried enough and I failed miserably'. Some people will think that way though they know very well they never failed. But they would like to say it 'I failed miserably'. So people will think that way. But there is nothing to fail in this. If you decided not to try , and decided that Love and Compassion is the wrong path, (thinking) 'I should not be loving anybody else', or 'I should not have compassion to anybody else' or 'I should be a power monger' - if you decide that way, then you have failed miserably. But sometimes you can't cope with it, that doesn't mean that you failed. You can't cope because of your mental situation, you may be depressed or under pressure or anything. People think 'Oh I did something wrong two years ago, or ten or twenty years ago in and I am terrible'. But look any single person within this room, forget other people, top to bottom, face by face, you go line by line, is there any single being who does not make any mistake? You are never going to find anyone; some have more, some have less for sure. That is why we are human beings. But each and every body has lots of mistakes and problems. Many of them we do recklessly without realizing. Many of them we did under the influence of many things such as drugs, or alcohol or attachment, hatred. Each and every one of us has that problem. If you don't have problem, you should be an enlightened being. But as far as I am concern, I am not. And I am sure you would say the same too for yourself. So we do have lots of problems and mistakes in our background. But that doesn't we have failed. If you have conscientiousness you should be aware that we should not go back, that we will not go back. If you do not have conscientiousness, you may slip back one or two times or maybe ten or fifteen times. Even then, the idea is not to give up. Never say never. Didn't James Bond said that? (laughter) That is what they are telling you here. You may think 'I made mistake, I didn't know enough; I did not know how difficult it is; I did not know what problems I have. So that is why I made this mistake'.So you don't have any excuse. That is what the Buddha is telling you. Besides you these great Wisdom mind, have examined this thoroughly, turned it upside down and inside out. Look very careful what they may have to do. They did it and found this is the best, so you do not have any excuse. It is not like other things where you can change your mind. In line 2, they say you can change your mind because that is normal, but in verse 3, it is different. You can't do it because great Wisdom has already checked carefully. Unless you think you have better Wisdom than the buddha or anybody else. Than go ahead, jump from the cliff, fine.

Otherwise, in the fourth verse, it says,

If having made such a promise

I do not put it into action,

Then by deceiving every living being

What kind of rebirth shall I take?

What they are telling you is they have given their commitment. Here we are talking about bodhisattvas. They have taken bodhisattva vows, and they say'I am here to help all sentient beings' ; 'I volunteer to help all sentient beings'. So they have given commitment. If you don't do it, then what happened? In normal case when someone says he or she will do it, but did not, then what happens? The person would have let you down. If they made the promise but don't do it, then that is called 'letting the people down'. Another words here they are saying, 'I have made the commitment, but I don't do it. Then I am letting the every body down'. This is not great and it is terrible. It is different than I didn't inhale.(laughter). If you are letting down it is different. The seriousness of the thing is different. So here we say 'In the presence of all enlightened beings, I would like to help all sentient beings' then if I let them down, what kind of person would I be? What kind of consequences will I have? What kind of responsibility will I have? When you are telling you here what kind of rebirth will I take, it is very buddhistic point. But what they are really telling you is what happen to my responsibilities. And not only I become irresponsible, I am letting people down. So this is why you have to have strong conscientiousness to push yourself, and to give you the support, and give yourself the reinforcement for your commitment. And particularly with regards to giving up the path of Love and Compassion which is not very good. This is because you have no better alternative even for ourself, and at the same time we are letting everybody down.

Then verse 5,

If it has been taught (by the Buddha)

That he who does not give away

The smallest thing he once intended to give

Will take rebirth as a hungry ghost

What the Buddha normally said is generosity is so important, and people should have great generosity. What does generosity really mean? It is actually dealing with your mind. We have lots of attachment and could not really let it go. It is two ways. Generosity works two ways. One way you are benefitting the people who you give and share. But the individual benefits more because we have very strong attachment. We like to collect and hold things. Do we have lots of things in the garage? The things we collect. It is simply telling you how strong our attachment is. The things we collect will be useful sometimes, maybe once in five years you may need it for one second to do something. But at the same time you are keeping it for five years, not letting it go. This is just a simple example. The simple example are little things like the screw driver, or measuring tape., or maybe that old dress? You mean the blue one? These are the examples. But the bigger we have more than that. These are the symptoms which we can really see how strong we don't let it go. Attachment for screw driver does not mean anything. But attachment for blue dress may mean something. But that is different there. But it is a symptom that tells you there is a bigger and stronger attachment which we cannot let go. The holding on, unable to let it go, the attachment, the really holding on, sticking there - that is our problem. Generosity helps to cut that. That is how it helps you better. That is why the Buddha go to such extreme. The bodhisattvas should be able to give their eyeballs if somebody asks for it. That is how extreme they go. That tells you the generosity is not only helping the person that you give, for that is not the main purpose of generosity. The main purpose is to help yourself, cut your attachment, cut your holding on. So the Buddha says the stinginess, not letting go, holding on, is the cause for taking rebirth as a hungry ghost. What makes me poor and hungry will be my stinginess. It is not my generosity. It is the holding on, not letting go. That makes me poor; that makes me hungry. Hungry because you have nothing to eat. I am not talking of the time. Buddha says when you decided to give some thing to somebody, and later when you were asked by the person for the thing which you thought you were going to give, even you do not commit in your own mind, if you change your mind, that will cause you to take rebirth in the hungry ghost land. If such a little thing can cause such a rebirth, then verse six,

Verse 6

Then if I should deceive all beings

After having sincerely invited them

To the unsurpassable bliss,

Shall I take a happy rebirth?

If normally cutting down generosity takes such a rebirth, and if I let all sentient beings down, and I invited all beings as my supreme guests, where I would like to help them to become a buddha, and where I have kept on saying 'I will liberate those who are not liberated' or 'I would help those not helped'- what kind of future I am going to get? That is why they say, don't give up.

They are not talking about you going to have these difficulties. But they are saying don't give up because you can be helpful. If you give up, then it is very difficult not only for them but for you too. It is important for us to think carefully. They are not talking about whether you are saying your prayers, or going to the temple, retreating or meditating. They are talking about your commitment to help other people. Your love, your commitment for love and your commitment for compassion, that is what they are talking about. And there is no substitute any spiritual path. If there is that might not be great. You should check...

(End of Side A)

Side B

..some temporary gain. Now, I told you earlier 'me becoming better than you' is not a spiritual path. I don't think so. Anyone of you if you are really finding any spiritual with 'me becoming better than you', that has nothing. It tells you how shallow, superficial, unkind it is. You shouldn't follow such a spiritual path which is worth 'me better than you'. If it is 'me along with you' sure, why not? Everybody show why not? But 'me better than you', that is questionable - questionable for the motivation, questionable for the consequences, questionable for the actions. It is not even controversial, but very questionable. That is the essence of the six verses so far we have read is try to tell you that. There are two points on spiritual path. One, what kind of spiritual path should be? What kind of alertness we should maintain. I think these are the two points of spiritual path. And within alertness sometimes we feel we have failed, and there if you look carefully nobody failed because nobody got anything either. So how can you fail? It is interesting the traditional teachers tell you, even sometimes if you miss your practice but if you don't have the mind of 'I am not going to do it' it is sort of okay. It is questionable, but for emergency purpose, it is okay. When you are making the mind 'I am not going to', then it is a big thing; it is letting down. Nobody else. They talk about all sentient beings, but actually you are letting yourself down. And that is important.

That is why I wanted to go back to verse two and we went up to verse six. And I am not going to talk too much. Normally I try to cover one verse and talk a lot. Today we covered six verses and talked less. And I want to give that message to you. If you want to discuss, question or something, or anybody else wants to make statement? Everything is fine?

Question: I have a question. I am starting to have bugs in my house and I am....

Rinpoche: You have bugs in your house?

Question: They came from the moths and they have taken residence and I don't like them but I feel bad to kill them..(Unclear)

Rinpoche: I am glad you feel bad about it, and I am glad you did not let them continue either. I tell you the truth, straightforward. We live in such a world there is no way we can be totally free of negativity. If we try to be so righteous you won't make it; it is not even possible. We live in 1990s it is almost new millennium. It is not even possible. So I am glad you feel bad , and I am also glad you got rid of it. Because human life is extremely important and precious, and you can achieve tremendous benefit for yourself and maybe for others, and maybe for the bug too. But if that has become an obstacle for human life, even a day's work it is bad enough. Probably it will come second or third life after that. It should say even you disturb a bodhisattva's day's work it is very harmful for living beings. It says in here in the text of love and compassion. So the human life is so precious, and if it becomes obstacle to that it is more harmful than that of a negativity which is killing a bug. It is a choice we have to make. We should help whatever we could, and avoid whatever we could. But we cannot extreme, we should think. And I do have 'All Can' (?) service. I always hope they come before the bugs. So that they don't come nearby the smell. Does that harm the individual? Maybe? But you are not going to get sick immediately, but you are not going to get the bugs either. I am sorry but it is very practical, and I am sure lots of people may not agree. You have right not to agree, and you have every right how to make up your mind. That is how I feel and that is what I am telling you. Do you have negativity by killing the bug? Sure you do. But can you avoid? Maybe not. So what do you do? Purify. There is nothing that doomed. And you know so much righteous you try to be, it never works. I am not saying that is bad, but if it works, it is wonderful, cannot be better. But it won't work. As a consequence of that you got worse result. So it is always nice to always be on the 'middle path' as what the Dalai Lama says, the middle way, centre path. Not the Chicago Airport.

Student: I am curious to know what is your opinion as to how things are unfolding with the president thing.

Rinpoche: To tell you the truth, I missed the whole thing. I went to visit Lochoe Rinpoche who is one of my teachers, and he is visiting New Jersey. I was in that monastery where there is no radio, no television . So I missed the whole thing. But I caught up on the telephone late night, sort of 12.30 or something, and I saw this morning at Island Town Airport. So I missed the whole thing.

Student: So what do you think?

Rinpoche: I am glad he told the truth. If he lies in the grand jury, that is not good. It goes against Constitution. Really, that is true. 'Against Constitution' means against the country. It maybe all sex and this and that so far, and if he lies,- this is my stupid opinion, and I don't know anything about it. My stupid opinion if he lies to the Grand Jury, it goes against Constitution and if it does, it goes against Country. And then it becomes not serious for him to have consequences, but it is become serious. So I am glad he came out with the true statement.

I am a Buddhist and what Buddha says is you purify. When you purify you can become pure. By nature it doesn't become a dark spot for human being. It is dark spot for him for a while, when he lied about this and that. But on the other hand, all politicians lie anyway. Those who are politicians and journalists who call them liar, they are all lying. And everybody is lying truly, and if you are looking from a different eye, that is what it is. It is a matter of some people got through and some not. But on the other hand if it hurts the country and the people, then it is not good.

If you look between what happened with 'Watergate' and 'Whitewater', it is big difference. I mean he did not lie to the grand jury yesterday. It is not so serious as with 'Watergate' but it is bad. Hurting against constitution is not good, no matter whoever especially by the President, it is not going to be great at all. It is not going to be great for the country, for the people. I am glad he didn't lie. People forgive or not it is up to the people. But I am quite sure people forgive. Everybody lies all the time, and somebody is caught and made a red face,embarassed. Big punishment to tell you the truth, to go up there. I know a lot of people lies all the time and got through.

Am I right or wrong? If you know how to lie, you won't get caught. Nobody will call you liar. They might tell you it is national security or something.

Question: (Something to do with attachment and ignorance) (Voice unclear)

Rinpoche: Are you clipping the branches? Perhaps you are chopping the fingers, not only the finger nails but the fingers. Did you hear me? Or, maybe you are just cutting the fingernails too. Do I answer you okay, or do you want more explanation.

Question: I think so.

Rinpoche: If you do not deal directly with ignorance, it is difficult. So when you are cutting the attachment and hatred, it is the by products. And it is the extended arms of ignorance that you are chopping down.

Student: I was wondering if somebody has a question to ask you and they don't want to waste everyone's time, do you have some office hour or something like that so that they can meet you?

Rinpoche: We try to give some time, and you have to contact Kathy for that. It is not been very active on that. But I am happy to talk to you. That doesn't mean you alone, but you all.

....only materialistic generosity. Materialistic generosity is limited. But if you look like information or education, if you look for guidance, these are very often open to benefit unlimited number of people. If you simply looking for single material thing, then it is limited. Now, the buddhas shared their experience helps the bodhisattvas and all other spiritual practitioners to help themselves better. And that information helps to benefit unlimited people. I think that is the example I can think of. Did I answer your question okay?

Question: Yes.

Rinpoche: Okay, then. Thank you.

(End of Session)