Archive Result

19981027GRAABWL

TAPE TWENTY THREE (10/27/98)

So the verse 15,and if you look in this I believe my version is page 30. Is everybody's at 30? (Voice:31) Okay, anyway it is verse15, chapter 4. (Voice: verse16) No, I don't think so. I thought about it but did not, so sort of paying little attention. But thank you for telling me. Alright, I can make this go faster if you want to.

If the arising of a Tathagata,

Faith, the attainment of a human body

And my being fit to cultivate virtue are scarce,

When will they be won again?

This is the question. (Rinpoche reads in Tibetan) Did you say we did that already? All right it is easy for me to say okay and skip. (Voice: You did talk) Ah, I did talk. And what did I say about 'arising of the Tathagata'? John? (laughter) We talked about it. I did talk about the flower, the appearance of some kind of Hindu Buddhist mythological point of some kind of ...what happened? (Voice: You were talking about the flower that only comes like in a thousand years or so and blooms for a day or so and is very rare....) Did I say that? Really?(Voice: I hope so) I hope so too. I did remember the example I was talking about some kind of flower that blooms at night, once a year. I talked about that. I think this particular flower which refers as Utumwara flower which really sort of buds came out when Buddha was born, and started to grow big when Buddha became a fully acted Buddha, and then it opened when he started giving teaching and finally the flower died out when the Buddha passed away. I think I remembered talking about that. So I must say you remembered something, it is great. I was giving the example of the flower that comes out at night once a year, it gives very good smell? (Voice: James Coat said something, I forgot) There is a name for that flower. It blooms only once a year and whole night and that's it and gives good smell. I have seen the flower. (Voice: Is it called 'Cyrius') Cyrius, ya, you are right. (Some unclear comments).

Anyway, (Rinpoche repeats verse in Tibetan) the essence of this verse 15 is one has to be very much aware of life, because it is very difficult to find. Life which we have right now have so much qualities. Not only , you know we talked about human life having tremendous amount of quality but in addition to this, this particular life are talking lots of additional qualities that every human life did not have. For example, the appearance of Tathagatas, what they called here 'arising of Tathagata'. And also arising of faith. Faith here is not necessarily we are talking about blind faith. The word 'faith' normally translates in the minds of people particularly Catholics, ...the moment we talk about faith people will immediately try to pick up some kind of believe system such as having faith to God or something, or having faith to Buddha or something. You may think that way. But I don't think this is what they are talking about it. They used the word 'faith'. You remember I always say faith is important but we need intelligent faith not just blind faith. The blind faith is great to some people and I have nothing against those people. Let them enjoy it doesn't matter. But really one cannot rely one's life on blind faith at all. That is a very difficult point. And here Buddha emphasized so much for using your common sense and using your intellectual capacity and using your precious mind that you have. Using that to find out what is right for you and what is not right for you. It is so important. I always talk we cannot have orientation all the time. Remember what I mean by that? You cannot say everything is east. Traditionally some teachers would like to point to the west and said that 'This is East". And people like to say 'Yes,Sir, this is East'. We can't do that. That is why I say you can't have orientation all the time, pointing out to the east all the time; you can't. If you do so, you get into lots of trouble. We had lots of trouble with cult system particularly Jim Jones just because simply you point your finger anywhere, and said this is east. And everybody says 'Yes, Sir, this is East'. That is the problem, and that is coming out of blind faith. Blind faith has room but you really need a perfectly tested proof path where nothing can go wrong. In that level blind faith can work. You cannot deny the blind faith does not have room; it can work. But it has to be perfect. So it would have worked in the seventh century and it would have worked in the fourteenth century. It might or might not have worked in the seventeenth century, but you cannot expect it will perfectly function in the 1990s and it will not happen in the year 2000. Because the human beings are too witty and too clever, and we can play a lot with everything. We can say is and isn't and all these. You know what I mean? That is what it is. I am not necessarily saying Clinton is wrong, but it is is and isn't too. So this sort of time and human mind at that level, blind faith doesn't work. So really you should have intelligent faith. Without faith you cannot function. The Buddha even said 'The faith is like a mother who gives birth to child'. So faith functions in that way. But that has to be intelligent faith, with understanding and then it works perfectly. So to be able to have not only a Buddha is arising, but to have intelligent faith, life like this where we can really do and can have it. But any other life it is so difficult to find it, so difficult. Mind you even this life, this much education, even this much understanding how much cult system functions, and how many people follow blindly for nothing. If I remember correctly, few years ago or maybe couple of years ago or six years ago, some kind of radio station in Texas kept on saying 'Send money, send money' without saying any reason for what and what purpose and all these, and they found lots of money been sent to that radio station. And then they tried to prove how the human mind functions. I don't know whether anybody remembered but that was years ago. And that happened in Texas, and I do remembered that. And that is how the human mind can be persuaded. So therefore it is so important that we must utilize our own intelligent mind, that intellectual capacity what we have. Mind you we, maybe not me, you are all educated person. Why an educated person should want to behave like uneducated illiterate stupid? Really why you have to do that? There is no reason why. But maybe except you maybe absolutely lazy. You don't want to think what to do. You simply like to be told what to do, and that is big problem. Big problem in social and spiritual. Social that is big problem because you let yourself be abused by anybody else because you like to be told and do not want to do and think about it. And it is a stupid mistake in the spiritual path. And as a consequence of that, you waste your life. So that is why we have this mind here. Use that and function like a human being, and don't function like robot. That is the faith we are talking about and it is important. It tells you this life is the capability of that. And without this life you cannot. The thinking capacity of the human being cannot be challenged by any other beings anywhere. Even in Buddhism you have the six realms of existence. Human is not the best, there is the gods' realm, the small 'g' gods realm. Even in that level your capacity to think is worst that human level because you have too much joy and almost you are remaining high all the time. Had plenty of marijuana and had been remain high all the time. You capacity to think and understand is weakened. For example during the Buddha's life time, one of those Buddha's most important disciple called Shariputra, the wisdom guy... do we have those...we don't. Sometimes you find the Buddha has those two tall monks standing right and left. One of them is supposed to be the most important wisdom guy and the other is the magician guy. Magical power and wisdom power. The wisdom guy had a disciple who sort of respect him, follow him and understand him perfectly. When he was riding on elephant somewhere, he would not hesitate to jump down and talk to Shariputra, during his lifetime. This guy died suddenly. So Shariputra followed this guy and saw where he would be reborn and what happened. He saw this guy took rebirth in the small 'g' god realm. So Shariputra thought he would go there and continue to help him cut through samsara. He went up there. You have to know one thing. The small 'g' gods know their past and present just like it happened yesterday; they knew it. That is their karmic power.Sometimes they are even called the 'three timers' - they know their past, their future and their present. All these normal heavens we talked, like the Thirty-three heavens, and this and that- those of you who are familiar with the Chinese culture, they talked about the thirty-three heavens, all of them are included in the small 'g' god realm. But actually it is interesting to see that Steve Kronenberg has produced a chart, almost look like General Motors chart. We will not be able to duplicate and give it to you all the time. You may talk to other people and they may have it and borrow it and look at the chart and see every possible areas you can take rebirth. That will be fun to know because you see where are the possibilities for you when you die. You find quite a lot of them there. Some are wonderful places - samsara delights, like beautiful picnic spots there. Some are not so comfortable, a little misery there too. So all of those are there. It is good to know. Quite a number of people will have and you may xeroxed and give it back to the person or whatever. So anyway Shariputra went up there thinking he would come running towards him, so that he could continue teaching and cut through (samsara). He won't. He knew it but he won't come. He simply raised his finger as a mark of respect and ran away, all the time. Shariputra got quite upset and disappointed and went back to Buddha and told him what happened, "I went there a couple of times and was not able to draw his attention at all. He just raised his finger and ran away" So what can I do?" So Buddha said," Don't you know this is samsara?" That is what it is. What happened is up there is much more better capacity than human being but somehow they are so high, they don't know about suffering. They are out of touch with suffering, so they do not understand the need of cutting through what we are working here, even more intelligent than we are. That is what happened. That means we are not the best life, highest life from the point of numbers. We did not have the correct hundred per cent mark; we do not have it. But it is best for us. Best because this has the capacity to understand suffering, and capacity to understand the joy and able to understand and communicate, which is very important. Many of us we don't have it, even among ourselves. Even among human beings many of them do not have the opportunity, we do. That is why this life is more important. Number of people may think,"Well this life I have many good things, and many bad things. I have experience many things. I can start all over again" Forget it, it is not going to be that easy. This statement is constantly repeatedly made by the Buddha one after another, and even with Shantideva in these verses.Therefore I think it is important for us to recognize how important this life really is.

Verse 16

The next one, (Rinpoche reads in Tibetan), verse 16.

Although today I am healthy

Well nourished and unafflicted,

Life is momentary and deceptive;

The body is like an object on loan for but a minute.

'Although I am healthy' - I am not sure whether this translation is right or wrong here. I am not very sure. What they are really saying is like today where I don't have any illnesses or shortage of food, or harm to myself but I cannot take this for granted. That is what they say in Tibetan. But in English it says 'Although today I am healthy, well nourished and unafflicted' but I think you have to read it other way round. Like today I don't have any illnesses, like today I don't have any shortage of food or shelter or clothes. Like today I don't have any physical severe pain . But that moment is not permanent. That moment can be deprived any minute. I think that is what they are saying. And they are saying the moment it can go. The buddhas normally..traditional teachings will give you example it is like a waterfall. When the water gets near the waterfall it doesn't take any minute it goes down...zoom! So life is like that. We cannot take for granted . It is very unreliable. A prominent example of unreliability will be our life. It can change any minute, any thing. Human mind change, human nature change, human body change, every thing can change any minute. And not only that, we can go. There is no preparation for something called 'you are going to disappear' or die. You don't have to have a special preparation. It goes when the time comes and nobody knows when the time is coming, right? (Rinpoche quotes in Tibetan). Like the Seventh Dalai Lama said,'The moment we are born we have not a single minute to ourself to be able to hold back; we are running like galloping horse. Galloping towards death minute after minute we are decreasing our life'. You know I used to watch that soap opera 'Days of Our Life' there you go. You know that little bottle that has the sand turn it round and it goes zzzz...that's it. That is exactly the condition of our life. And number of people think 'Well, my life is bad enough, it doesn't matter. Maybe if I die, it is okay. I should go" You don't have to worry about it. The sand is running through that bottle. You don't have to do anything, it is running. It is running all the time without any rest. That is our life. Minute by minute we are getting older. Minute by minute we are getting some extra wrinkles here. Minute by minute we are getting some extra grey hair here. Like one of my great teachers, Kyabjey Trijang Rinpoche, at the age of eleven he wrote on his grammar homework (Rinpoche quotes in Tibetan) saying that 'The invitation of death is coming. You receive the invitation of death in the form of snow on your hair".Meaning your hair is grey and more grey comes in day by day. It goes that way. So we don't have to rush , we don't have to make it quicker. We don't have to abuse our body by using different substances. It is going by itself, it is decaying by itself as fast as it can go. We don't have to add up anymore. That is what it is. It is really true, absolutely. We don't have to add up more caffeine on it. There is enough there. I stopped there, I don't go beyond that. So it is unreliable. So what? Do something, that is what they are telling you. Don't just sit there and be a couch potato. Just don't sit there. Don't be lazy or busy lazy. That is what they are telling you. Do something that affects your life. Do something that affects yourself. Do something that affects other people as well, because we have the capacity. Remember even our political leaders go on and telling 'One person can make a difference'. Isn't that Dr. King? Right. Thank you. Ya, really you can make a difference. And each and every person not only can make a difference to ourself but also to the society in general. And particularly your own circle you can make a difference. You know if you try to do something good, that will help other person who is in your circle. (Rinpoche quotes in Tibetan). If you are near a precious gold mountain, then nearby every thing has gold effect may become gold.There is a chance of getting much more gold there. And if you are rotten poison everything nearby will be terrible. A poisonous effect will be there. That is how even one single person makes the difference. You may think 'This is my life, and doesn't matter I can do". Sure, it is your life,you can do whatever you want to do. But it will affect your friend, your companion, your children, your parents, your circle, your sangha and your fellow citizens. It is absolutely true. Mind you we are living in this interdependent world. They are telling us a movement of butterfly in China makes a difference in United States. A butterfly, a movement of butterfly- this is 'scientific'

discovery, really that is true. Then one person's behaviour or functioning will definitely make difference to the roomate and to the companion. It is very true. If you are a messy person and if you expect your roomate to be tidy, it will be a little difficult in the beginning. Maybe weeks later, months later it is going to be more and more messy because you are providing a good example there. Even they don't want to. Even they decided not to. But unconsciously it will affect. If you are drinking and the other person may not be drinking. But if you keep on constantly drinking there in a few months that one person will take one or two packs here and there. If you are a smoker, same thing will happen. If you are nice, kind and compassionate, and that will also affect your roomate. However that will be difficult. More difficult than that of other ones. It is easier because the negative patterns we had already somehow it is very easy to connect.But the positive patterns are difficult to build. That's why we have to work hard, we have to push ourself. We have almost to force ourself to be kind, to be compassionate. We don't have to force ourself to develop jealousy. We don't have to force ourself to get angry; we don't. Number one, we don't have to go to school to learn to get angry. Number two, we don't have to go for training on how to get angry. We don't have to go for retreat to learn how to develop anger. We don't. It is automatic with us. This is called 'negative addiction' we have. But against that we need lots and lots of effort. And sometimes we lose our will power. We don't want to do it. We have no encouragement. We don't have motivation. We don't have role model even. We don't have it. It is difficult. That is why they try to give you here the motivations. That is how they train you how to think. That is Bodhisattva's way of life. They are training you how you should think. 'Should' is the wrong word I am using. They are suggesting bodhisattvas to think this direction. If you can think this direction, you will not waste your life. All these impermanence, death and dying - all of those are not threats. It is not making you afraid. It is not a sword they carry on your neck.(Voice: guillotine) Guillotine. It is not really true. What it is is try to motivate you. Well right now it is important, because everything is in our hand. We may have difficulty because of our negative habits funny thoughts will come up. We would like to be naughty here and there. Thoughts will pop up whenever you want to do something. That is nothing wrong. It is natural because after all we have so much addictions in there, it will pop up few days. Don't worry about. Do not entertain those funny thoughts that come up, that naughty thoughts come up. Because you are intelligent, because you are educated you have to screen it, and you must know how to say "No" to them. You can't say "Yes, Sir" all the time. And that is the human quality. Basic human quality gives you this. The principal mind will be screening all our thoughts. Thoughts will pop up our head all the time. Can you imagine if you look at those pop corn machine. When you go to the movie, they have these pop corn machine, and the pop corns going pop,pop all there,right? So you have a machine here going pop,pop, pop all the time. So then somebody has to look in there and screen. That is the principal mind. They reject some of them and accept some of them. That is the human quality and human capacity and human value. So popping up thoughts is not a problem. If you entertain that it is a problem. But sometimes you may even entertain without realizing. Even then better late than never. Correct yourself. Better late than never. That is the value of this life. That is what they remind you. That is what they mean. Do something. Do those. Afterall spiritual is nothing but that of a war- war between the positive and negative. It is the negativity we are fighting, and the positivity we are building. Negativity and positivity are interesting words, but truly speaking it is the anger, attachment, jealousy and ignorance those negative emotions are the target of spiritual practice. The spiritual person what they are trying to do is get rid of those negative emotions. That is our job. This is our goal, this is our purpose. That is what we are doing. And if you reduce and eradicate, that is called liberation. Afterall we are freedom seekers. We are seeking from those negative emotions. And whatever it takes you have to challenge that. That is the spiritual path. Whatever you might be - Catholic, Protestants, Presbysterian, ..

(End of Side A)

Side B

..spiritual development. That is what it is. It is really no big deal no matter whatever you may be. Colours and labels and forget about Gelugpa, Nyingmapa, Sakyapa, or even Tibetan buddhist, or non buddhist, whatever you might be the human beings have capacity to help ourself and help others. I think I went through quite a lot on how to help yourself and how to help others. Through various ways such as setting up examples, try to effect other person way of thinking, way of functioning. And that is how we help each other. And the best is communication. This is the human value, we can communicate, we can understand. We can talk to each other, we can make or break deals, we negotiate, we can do all these. This is human capacity, human value. The monkeys cannot do that, the dogs cannot do that, the cats cannot do that. That is the difference . Life we see around. That doesn't mean dogs and cats do not have value in their life. They do very much. They are also sentient beings but they do not have that capacity. And when you look in that way, you appreciate your life comparing with that This is by chance we happens to be human beings, truly speaking. We could have been the roach that we use Raid on which we sprayed on the person yesterday, that being. We could have been the other person. But by chance we happen to be this one. By sheer luck we have this value. So appreciate this value and make the best use of it. Make the best use of it in both lives- spiritual as well as material lives. Nowadays we don't have many people who thinks that if you work for material benefit, there is something wrong, and that you are not a spiritual person. Truly speaking you are not taking from anybody else. If you cannot manage, too bad, it is bad luck., too bad for you. You have to have both life. Why can't you have the best of both? Best of material life and best of the spiritual life; you deserve it, you have the capacity. But our laziness, lack of conscientiousness is our problem. We don't have the drive. The laziness cut drive out of the person, and that is the problem. Why not? If you look at the Buddha's life story, all the people who was with him were not hippies only, there were lots of yuppies too. Right? Lots of kings, queens, ministers - all those were there too at that time. It has constantly continuously been that way. And we deserve the best of both life. Why do we have to deprive ourself? We are not taking away from anybody else. Well if somebody else is making, and you are not, fine. That is worth. But that is not true. So that is why we have to have both of the best life. Am I still stuck at the verse 17? 16? Right? (Rinpoche then reads verse 17):

And with behaviour such as this

I shall not win a human body again,

And if this human form is not attained

There will be solely evil and no virtue.

That is what verse 17 says and that is exactly what it is. If you do not take advantage of this great life, and if you still continuously let this laziness take over, if you still continuously let jealousy takes over, and continuously abuse yourself, both spiritually and materially, what are you going to get? No human life, that is what they are saying. You are not going to get another human life. There are people who may think this life is over, and they would like to start life all over again. Here you are, this is Buddha's message. Well it is already in your hand and you cannot manage, hoping there is another one like this. It is hope against hope. Is it going to work? The chances are no. Ninety nine per cent it is not going to work. While it is in our hand better make use of it. I am not saying it, but it is said here in verse 17,

And with behaviour such as this

I shall not win a human body again,

And if this human form is not attained

There will be solely evil and no virtue.

It is almost true. If you are an animal. What is the biggest problem? One eats the other. (Rinpoche quotes in Tibetan). The greatest suffering of being an animal is ignorance and also one eats each other. That is the problem. They are not vegetarian except a few. They eating life so the negativity increases. And the positive action decreases, so how can we hope to have such a wonderful life again? It is not possible. That is what they are talking about. Such a behaviour like this and it is not possible to obtain a precious human life like this. The preciousness of the human life is not that every human life has it. Not every human life has so much precious value as we do. This maybe a buddhist propaganda but it is a reality. That is why you have the buddhas coming, the opportunity available, the teachings available and you can make difference to your life once and for all. All of those are special qualities which everybody doesn't have. I am sure a number of people over here would like to have somebody else's come here and listen and talk and discuss about it. But they simply won't come because they are not interested. They think it is a hocus pocus. They think it is something else, they think it has no value, no meaning. That is how they are deprived of the opportunity for themselves to be helped, when that happens. Even you try your best to drag the person here, it won't help. You cannot do anything. And here it is not out of place to mention, that is , one should not drag or try to force other people in it. If they are interested, they are welcome. But you don't want to drag them in, you don't want to grab them in. You don't want to force anybody else for anything. This may be of great interest to you, and see this helping you and make difference to your life. But other people will see themselves. You don't really push people; you don't force them. And I always say,"We are not missionary" . We are not Jehovah Witness people, nor Hare Krishna people. We don't want to go to the airport and 'Ching, ching, ching,' over there, or train station. If people are interested, they want to come and observe, fine. There is nothing to hide.But don't try to force anybody, don't push anybody, don't try to drag anybody in. And the way and how you can help other people putting yourself as an example. Improving in way of thinking, in the way you deal with people. If you are giving a cold shoulder all the time, try to change it a little bit. Try to give something else. If other person notices it, they may be interested. That is a great way of serving that person, and helping that person- using yourself as example of improvement and better person. Truly that is how it is. It is one human being to another, affecting the other person. Not by pushing the person but by showing example, by making improvement on your way of thinking and dealing with people, or difficult situations or any conditions. By your own way of doing- dealing with negativities, your anger. And that is important, and that is how you can show to the people. If you want to help the other person. Then the person will definitely be interested. That is how you can help. Not by dragging."If you don't come with me tonight to the talk, I am not talking to you", that won't work. You don't want to twist the arms around; certainly not. Really true. And then we don't have duty of that either. We are not Jehovah Witness, I said earlier. Nor are we Hare Krishna people. They have their thing that goes 'Cling, cling,cling'. After all the spiritual path is to help yourself. And if you can help others, great, through that way. And if you can't help others, help yourself. You cannot harm others. That is where you draw the line. It is not your mission to go and do something. You know some people say,"Ya, I have to help you it is my job" and you try to force, you don't know where to draw the line. You don't know, and that should not be done. Afterall you have to remember everybody is human being and everybody has feelings. If you push yourself and force that way probably you are doing more disservice than service. You have to remember that too.

I need to tell you a little bit more. "I shall not win a human body again".If I don't explain this, it sounds funny, and threatening. There is a very strong reason for that. The human body though it is produced by your parents, however for us to get that body takes tremendous amount of positive karma. That is true. This is good karmic result for us. It is not just 'happen to be'. It is in a way, but on the other hand, everybody cannot become a human being. Otherwise there will be no cockroach left; everybody will become human beings. So we don't have any cockroach or mice, and that will be problem for us. So we don't get it. It is not automatic. So what makes we get it? It takes tremendous amount of efforts. Number one, it needs perfect morality. It is the foundation. Fundamental basis of obtaining the human life is the perfect morality. It is the ground. And on top of that you have to have perfect the six paramitas- generosity,morality, patience, , enthusiasm,concentration and wisdom. You have to have that. And on top of that, you also have to have perfect conjunction of prayer, dedication. All of those, and that is why it is not easy to get this type of life. That also makes you appreciate what you have. Perfect morality- do we have it? Should we ask Monica Lewinsky? That's a joke. That is not that. Again I like to remind you. Morality is something very individual. It is not a collective or black and white morality. It is not what we have the black and white morality. Even in this country in 30s and 40s, it is individual matter. It is really individual matter. The commitment to our freedom is also morality, individual liberty, individual freedom is also morality for us. It is definitely individual. My morality and your morality differs. My commitment and your commitment differs. It is individual definitely. It is not Mr Morality morality, the book produced in ten days. You know what I am talking about. That is not the thing. Morality is really individual matter. It is so important not to lose the individual freedom under the umbrella called morality. Morality is important but individual. You have to individualized that, not something collectively called morality. Otherwise we all go and sit in front of Bill Bennett, and learn our morality in ten day. It is not going to be definitely. It is definitely connected to individual freedom. This connects with this really. Look at the prison. I see the prison as a correction centre . I do not look the prison as pushnishment or the torture chamber. Really it is not. It should be a correction centre where opportunity is given to those addict to correct. And keeping away harming the society, the rest of the society. To me that is the purpose of the prison. And that is the way to correct, giving opportunity for ways to correct rather than punishing them. No one can punish anybody. Can you? I don't think so. Who am I to punish you? And who are you to punish me? Nobody, cannot. We can help each other to correct, and I think that is our morality. It is the basic human morality. Nobody can punish anybody else. We have been through the rulership and the kingdom, and subject and all these, and we don't like it. We changed it.

Question: (Very soft voice, not audible)

Rinpoche: Very simple, addiction.

Question:

Rinpoche: Because you have been doing it for so long. I am sorry I sort of very abruptly said that. But that is what it is. Life after life we get so used to it. We are so used to it for attachment, anger. That is why we don't have to go to school to learn how to get angry or how to get attached.

Question:

Rinpoche: Because it is habit. You know person who has been smoking all the time is automatically they reach with the fingers to the cigarette and pick up and light. It is almost automatic. Not to do that takes effort and to do that doesn't. We know this very clearly, it is addiction. Anyway, thank you. Good thinking.

(End of Session)