Archive Result

19980716GRNY                                            19th Mar 2023

Welcome everybody here. In Mongolia, the country is old Buddhist earlier. The present government in Mongolia, the President is 31 years old, the Prime Minister is 29 and all others in the Cabinet are below that. Like 24, 25, 22, that type of thing. All have bright ideas like young kids ideas and they could not implement anything at all. They don’t know why. So now people are demanding election. They said they still have 2 or 3 more years. They said next month going to be next month. And that’s what happening. So what happen is the moment we have an idea, we try to implement that. It doesn’t work. You call it foolish people, according to Buddha. We call them foolish people. But those of you who can think, we can get an idea, who can screen your thoughts, who can put a stop and select and be able to work and go through. I believe these are called wise guys. Not wise guys, wise persons, I am sorry. Wise persons. Not wise woman. So, wise persons. So the difference between the foolish, fools and wise is really. I think Buddha tried to make between that. So, when you wanted to be wise, every thought that pops up, you don’t take action. You don’t implement. You watch. Screen and then it function. And that makes you able to cut negativities, right. That way, you will keep on building your better habits, attitudes. It is up. And that way it makes your life worthwhile. It is going to make your life worthwhile in your number of lives that you have or whatever that happen. This is an opportunity for us to cut the uncontrolled life. This is the opportunity for us to have a life where we manage by ourself according to how? In the spiritual field, in your emotional level. In the emotional standard and in your spiritual field. That’s what the Buddha was trying to say. That’s the Buddha’s message. That’s why Buddha put so much effort and so much time, sharing his own personal experience. And that is Buddhism. Whether it is Tibetan, Thai or Burma or whatever. Shambala or Theravadan, or whatever. Ushita or whatever. That is the essence of Buddhism. So Buddhism is really essence, it tells you to think carefully. You don’t have to stop every step you are taking, I suppose to think carefully. You don’t do that, but you generally puts yourself in that direction. Just don’t say it or act, whatever you think, your thoughts comes up. Countless thoughts will comes up. (0.04:35.7) You select what you want to do. You select on the basis of it is going to help you, not harm you. That is what we do. That is a normal human life. Even business people will do the same thing. Politicians do the same thing. Diplomats will do the same thing. We all do the same thing. Others too and everyone do the same thing. But somehow, still don’t have when you are looking at general life, you don’t have that when you have negativities. Here you can do that. That is most important. Mind is important. Mind is the, I hate to say it, but mind creates actions. I don’t want to say your mind is the creator. But some minds will say that anyway. So, Buddhist’s school. But really the mind is important. So what covers the spiritual practice, according to the Buddha is guide your mind. Essence. That is your principle that you carry from the beginning till the end. That’s what you have to do. But you don’t have to be very rigid. You don’t have to have no fun at all. You don’t have to do that. You can have a lot of fun in between. Doesn’t matter as long as your principle points is not shaken. You can have a lot of fun, doesn’t matter. Really doesn’t matter. But the principle thing you have to carry. (0.06:26.2) Did I waste all your time. I hope not. Really, this is what I look at the Tibetan Buddhism, I looked at the Buddhism. This is the essence of all of them. Wherever I go I said this. And I taught that throughout the world. Saying the same thing. But I could never repeat what I said yesterday. That is the funny part of it. But that’s it.

If you have some mantra to say, good. If you don’t have any, fine. But have good motivation. Every morning when you wake up, think a little bit. Give yourself a little bit of good motivation. And try to keep that motivation throughout the day till you go to bed. And if you needed, after lunch, take a little break, and regenerate the motivation. And the, what you call that, the influence of that motivation will continue till you go to bed. And if go to sleep, have some positive motivation and all your sleep will become positive too. If you go to sleep with some positive thoughts, total period of sleep will become positive karma. If you go to sleep with the negative thoughts, whole, total sleep will become negative karma. Why? Because they are changeable. There are four of them. Regret is one, understanding is another one, and sleep is one, day dreaming another one. And all of those change, you can change. It can change. It depends on the immediate mind. Mind awareness. When the mind, immediate before you fall to sleep. If it is something good, whole sleep is good. If something bad, whole sleep is bad. That is how it works. According to Buddha. So if you want to help yourself, to begin, check your motivation as much as you can. Try to correct that. Purpose of your life, is actually help yourself. The way and how you help yourself is by having a kind, compassion, kindness, love for all. That is the way to help. That doesn’t exclude ourselves too. I think basically that is Buddhism. Even if you don’t have refuge, prayer to say, if you do that, you are a great Buddhist. Even you are not, you if you think you are eighty years. You are okay. Even if you think you are a Christian. Now, really true. So, and that’s what I have to say. I don’t want to hold you too long, sorry. Anybody want to ask any questions?

Audience : ?

Rimpoche : I really think you put very good question here. Can I repeat the question to everybody here? If you know , you going to be push over the edge. Should one avoid the situation? Or should one let the situation take place and work with it. This is a very important question. It is not a first question. That question of us to Buddha, a number of disciples. Buddha gave two different answers. Persons who can handle it, who, through with the situation, work with that, get out of it. Person who cannot handle, if you are going to think, you are going to lost completely, going to cause difficulty between you and different people, whatever. Then avoid. So it has to be your own judgement, yourself. And if you can work with that, and if you can get through, this is one of the best way, getting out of that. And it is a great experience. That is also wonderful. But in case there is a danger, of person, long time, difficulty, the damage . Maybe not damage. Some difficulty. I don’t care much about short term. But long term and then then try to avoid. I am sorry. Try to advice but I am not try to be advising but I try to repeat. And that’s what it has been. And if you can and there are some people who think I can manage. But you can make a mess out of it. And that’s not managing. You know, the Buddha gave them an example. Even you are swept by the current, you continue swimming. You are not sunk yet. You been carried by current, you think you are swimming. So that doesn’t work. But otherwise I think a breakdown should be handle according to ?. It is almost everything. Attachment and all of them. If you can handle it, work through and even attachment helps. Even anger. I don’t whether ignorance help it or not. But anger, attachment, both helps. It helps to the person, more harmful than help. It harms to the people who does not know before. This is basic Tibetan example which never help in the west and I asked a number of people and they said it is not true. Tibetans used to say ( Rimpoche spoke in Tibetan) It said when the peacock goes into the poison field, peacocks can eat the poison and it builds the majestic look of, what you call that, feathers. But if a crow eats the poison, crow dies (0.14:19.7) That’s what they said but in the west, nobody says that. Many people told me that they don’t know it eat the poison. So that’s the tradition Tibetan teachings said. It is the beginning, the first word of Wheel of Sharp Weapons. So this is the point where the practice refers to the individual’s person practice. That is the ground of which difference of the Mahayana and the Hinayana. The Hinayana, I shouldn’t say Hinayana, some people gets offended. I am sorry. Theravadan. Theravadan point is through a discipline, one should avoid any condition where it arise attachment or anger. Through discipline, take a vow, take a commitment. You wont fight it this way, you wont fight it that way, you have it straight. And these are the disciplines that will come. Through discipline. But in the Mahayana level, you don’t discipline that much, but you say there are good things you can use out of those. Even attachment has a lot of values that we can use. Even anger you can work better. So I believe it depends on how the individual handles. The individual rather than blanket. Did I said too much? Thank you. Yes.

Audience 2 : ?

Rimpoche : There is a trick for that. Ambition, absolutely necessary in today’s life. You do. A lot of people will tell you, you can’t have ambition. You can’t have ambition because you should be humble. You should be satisfied. True, you should be humble, you should be satisfied yet you should have ambition. Why? That makes you successful in your profession. And when you have that compassion, and dedicated motivation, and every success, whatever you have is become a worth and ? It becomes a worth for a lot of people. It becomes worthy if it helps a lot of people. And therefore what you have, ambition, for benefiting all people, including ourselves. You should have it. Bodhisattvas in one way, trained to be humble, on the other hand, they are also trained to be very, how should I say. Aggressive? Well, I don’t like that very much. Sort of. They always becoming to be that. Because it helps other people. Because there was help coming. When help coming, no matter how big it is, how better it is, it is the helping capacity for people. That’s why one should have strong ambition. Well, if you are satisfied completely with your life, and you can live with this. Such a great again. Again that is great. That is one of the best way. I recommend it. One of Buddha’s best gift is the satisfaction. Be satisfy whatever it is. Yet we also be ambitious. Together. That is a little contradictory type of thing. But in reality of you really think carefully, it doesn’t contradict each other. For me, personally, just for me, whatever it is, fine. For helping all others, kindly be ? And maybe you are cheating yourself, giving for benefit for all beings. But is also has it’s own ? Thank you. Well, I don’t think I see any hands here, so, I like to close shop. You can’t close shop. Close the temple. And I will be here not next Thursday but Thursday after that. One friend of mine, a Rimpoche known as Chai Rimpoche? who is Secretary General of whatever, Chinese Buddhist Association or something. So I called him and he said, I didn’t know you are coming here. You want to come over to our place. I said “ Can I?” Yes, just come right now. He just sort of, by the way, you tell them near the door and just say you are from Tibet. So I got the message and I said okay. So, then we went there. My brother who came from Tibet too. So we went there and near the door, there were soldiers . No problem So what am I going to do? My brother said they will figure out. So by that time, he did not finish his sentence . Are you two from Tibet, in Chinese. My brother said yes. So, you passed as Tibetan. No problem. And I went ten times there. Afterwards those guards recognize me. Didn’t even ask questions. So it is funny. There are 50 young reincarnate lamas who are studying, receiving teachings , including Chinese recognized Panchen Lama. They selected very good, learned teachers, not from Tibet, but from the Qinghai province. It was where Dalai Lama was born in that area. Amdo area. It now comes under Qinghai province. And the Sichuan province. Also the Yunnan province. From there, they have selected a lot of great teachers. And they all seating in the school and giving teachings. And waiting for this Chinese recognized Panchen Lama to come and receive teachings. And the day I went there, it happened that Panchen Lama came. The Chinese recognized Panchen Lama came in. So the secretary told me and he had a little private quarter of his. Not his residence but in his office, he had two bedrooms apartment, in the office. He told me to go into his apartment and wait because he had to attend that Panchen Lama business. He said, we start at lunch time he would excuse himself and come over. They cooked private lunch for me at his house. Seating there, suddenly another friend of mine, a Rimpoche who used to be same, almost same age, even he was like four years older than him. We all in same period in the Drepung, Sera monasteries. Tibet. And suddenly popped up there. He was surprised. I had been here and so I came. (0.24:29.4) Because the secretary general is working under him. So he told his boss, I would like to excuse for lunch for a minute. He said, why? He said, I was waiting for him. You seat here, I will go. You be here, I am going there. So he came, big surprise for me because I am know he was around there but I don’t know where he was exactly. He happens to be the Head of the whole set up. And so, it was very much time and talking to him, and ? Rimpoche , the two Rimpoches I know. Both of them there. We had a very nice conversation and both of them doesn’t hesitate much to talk about politics also. I was the one who was scare most, not to talk but they did not hesitate much, they will tell you all this and that. And I learnt a lot of situation in Tibet from those two plus a number of relatives that came from Tibet. I learnt a lot about what exactly happened in Tibet. In central Tibet, it is very, very sad. Extremely sad in that. Last year alone, Tibet lost three teachers available. One called Lamrim meditator. I sure many of you have read did not eat any food during the cultural revolution and they said if you don’t work, you can’t eat. Which is just fine. He didn’t eat for years. The Tibetans have a little pill what they do. You either collect essence of stones or essence of flowers and they eat one pill a day out of that. You can survive for years. It was a common traditional Tibetan historical thing. Even my previous reincarnation. He went like three or four months on that. It is essence of flowers or different stones. So that works. It even works in Dharamsala during the Lama Yeshe. Those of you who know Lama Yeshe. One of his Australian student tried that and he perfectly survived for like ten months without eating problem. And after a little while you can see all the ribs and they took a photograph. Photograph first time and then six months later and eleven months later and I don’t know, thereafter. I have seen up to ten. By the time eleven months there is virtually nothing but bones standing like that. But nothing’s wrong, nothing sick. It was a perfect body. So Lamrim Rimpoche did that for years. And so nobody bothered him and he was okay. And after that he gave teachings. And he was giving teachings maybe over here, somewhere. After that he gave teachings in Drepung monastery. When he was giving teachings in Drepung monastery, there was about fifteen thousand people. It was okay and then he died. And then the other one was Duran Rimpoche who was an outstanding teacher, scholar, Rimpoche, who unfortunately had a terrible cancer and requested us, Jewel Heart, for medical help. And a couple of people here, put some money together and through their friends, they are able to bring him to receive treatment in the Segal Senai hospital in Los Angeles. He died there. Didn’t get better. The third one was Richen Lodro. Another very well known teacher. Gave great teachings. Somehow he fell down from a mountain top or something. He died. I don’t know what happened. So, all great three teachers, they were gone in one year. And plus, plus, unlike any other Chinese ?, in Tibet there is a. You know, Trinsay Rimpoche who was the Principal of that Lama school, he told me it is a unique situation in Tibet, autonomous region. Whenever we select any Lamas to be useful for future, we select their names with all their qualifications, we send the person, whoever we select. Tibet autonomous region will say no. These people cannot go. Instead of that, they sent ten different names an we reject that. As a result the fifty reincarnate lamas, not a single one comes from Tibet. Not a single one because they think they are useful lamas and Tibet government will not send. They will object and they will send the ten, fifteen different names, they will reject. So, the whole world, Tibet lose. So, that is the bad situation. And it is unique in Tibet. Also the monasteries are totally managed by the Communist members. Communist party members. That is only in Tibet. Not in Yunnan, not in Qinghai, not in Szechuan, not in even China. Not even in Beijing. Anywhere. Because monastery administrative body has been elected by the monks directly or the members of the monastery. Some monasteries doesn’t have monks but members of the monasteries were elected directly and functioned. In Tibet, there was no Governor and the order is they cannot elect. They are all appointed. Appointed from the Communist members as well as from the different areas like the Head of Drepung, was brought up like five days away from somewhere and put him there to be the Head. So it is a very, very sad situation in Tibet. On top of that any thing wrong with the Buddhism , they were immediately translated. It has something to do with the Dalai Lama. Rather than Buddhism. So, as a consequence of that, didn’t even call it Buddhism. They call it Lamaism or Dalai istic activity. So, anything, whoever, even tried to give teachings or something, they have to get a special permission. which you don’t need in Yunnan, you don’t need in Qinghai, you don’t need in all these provinces but in Tibet, you do. Well, if you going to give teachings for 10 or 15 people, underground in China. That’s okay. But if you going to have 40, 50 or 100 people you have to have permit. Otherwise you are in trouble. Not only you are in trouble but all the owners and everybody who participate gets into trouble. And the permits are normally denied. Anywhere, whatever you said, the first answer is no unless you know somebody on very high level who will, what you call that, extra interest or something. Instead of going from the front line, you come from back door and then you may get it, in exceptional cases. So otherwise, the Buddhism in central Tibet is extremely bad. And it is going to, in today’s situation, if it continues as it is, I don’t see how it is going to last another 10 years. That will put an end immediately, Central Tibet, Buddhism. But Qinghai and Yunnan province is flourishing. It is amazing. There is a Nyinmapa Lama called , suppose to be ? reincarnation. He was called Sento Ningme or something. He came, I met him two, three times last twenty years. And he had strong fifteen hundred people (0.35:09.8) giving teachings and all these. In the Qinghai province. He has fifteen hundred strong followers, not monastery but lay people and monks, mixed together and doing very well here. And there is another Rimpoche called Kungda in Tashi Chenmo Monastery. Kungda Rimpoche gave Kalachakra initiation three years ago. Six hundred thousand people attended. Six hundred thousand. It was in Qinghai province. It was Tibetan speaking area. Traditionally it is Tibet. You know when you make Tibet, normal also Tibet. Six hundred thousand people. They had to put loud speakers on the hill top. And built a tent here and gave initiation to six hundred thousand. And they were so scared. They could not report there were six hundred thousand. They reported there was two hundred thousand. That’s what they reported. But amongst themselves they said they are sure there was four hundred thousand. They reported only two hundred thousand. And then the Chinese government told them, the Beijing government told them, we received the report from Denmark. Some people from Denmark went and they had the machine to count the number of people. I have no idea what it was. Maybe they had some machine to put round them. And they asked me the six hundred and more, thousands of people. So the Chinese government said you had only two hundred thousand people but the foreign country was saying that there was six hundred thousand. What is correct? So they replied, maybe four hundred thousand. So that was normal. There was no problem in that area. But in Tibet, you can never do that. Never ever do that. But in that side, you can do. Like my friend, Sayshare Rimpoche , I met him over there. He said he did Kalachakra twice in Inner Mongolia, two years ago and last year. He said the first year, two hundred thousand people attended. For this Kalachakra in Inner Mongolia. Second year only thirty thousand people. I said what happened? He said, they received one that is good enough. They don’t want to come back. He was requested three years. He said, this year I am not giving because there will be only ten thousand will come. Then I made a request to him, please do something in Tibet. Give teachings in Tibet. He said, ya, I went to Tibet a number of times. I will be happy to give teachings in Tibet but nobody ask me to give teachings. I am not going to shout in the middle of Lhasa street and said, I am going to give teachings, you come around. That was his joking. Actually there was no request and even if there is a request, I tried, it doesn’t mean the commission in Tibet will allow the teachings. It is unique in Tibet at this moment. That is my assessment of China and Tibet situation, dealing with Tibetan Buddhism. And there is a lot of underground , the groups, a lot. And all Chinese areas but in not in Central Tibet. It is quite different there at this moment. Even the present situation in terms of , I don’t think Buddhism may , I really don’t think it can survive there, more than 10 years. I don’t see unless some situation change. If His Holiness goes back or some teachings with Dalai Lama back. Or something else happens. Otherwise it is very sad, sad situation in Tibet. But rest of China is very good. Shouldn’t say very good but seems okay. And people are , the city people are only and then the spiritual practice is side by side with a lot of underground Christian churches and that goes around the Muslim groups. Underground Buddhists, a lot of them. A lot of them, everywhere. Then I went to Mongolia after that, outer Mongolia. It is an independent nation. It was very interesting. After China, after Beijing, getting to Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar. There was no intenseness. That’s sort of the pressure is not there. That is my psychology. It is a psychological problem for me. There is nobody else putting on any pressure for anybody but I was. I stayed there like two weeks. But still, not completely relaxed, there is something there. In Mongolia there is nothing. It is very nice and extremely beautiful. Very beautiful. Completely open and the sky is absolutely blue. Gorgeous and wonderful clouds. And you don’t see so many people. It is sort of really, desert. Driving don’t see green. There is not a tree. Not so many trees. You may see one tree when you looking from the plane. Then you may see, couple of trees there and another up here. No trees at all. It is very open space. And most of the Mongolians are Buddhists. And there is lots of Christians missionaries are very active in Mongolia, teaching Christianity. And also paying money for people. That is a little funny. That’s going on there. And there was an old Mongolian monastery. There were a lot of them. I was in Mongolia, sort of guest of Bakula Rimpoche who is the Indian ambassador in Mongolia for nine years. He is very well respected by the Mongolians as a Buddhist teacher. They didn’t call him Bakula Rimpoche, they called him ElchinBagsh or something. Meaning Ambassador Teacher. So he teach and he is doing very good. He been here in Jewel Heart , both in New York as well as Ann Arbor and Cleveland, Chicago. He is now 82. He is very active and he is on a wheel chair. He moves from the wheel chair and now on walkers. When I was there, he started walking and doing very well. He is building his own little monastery. Incidentally a big, big Mongolian old monastery, just outside that. Like 50 yards outside that, he is building his own monastery. Bakula’s own monastery in Mongolia. There were about 50 monks there. He goes every Saturday with teachings for three, four days. And it looks a little funny to me, the question of 50 yards away from that biggest, oldest monastery in there and why you are building a small one here. So I asked him. And then the funny thing in Mongolia. I don’t know. They all following Gelugpa tradition for those who are in Bakula’s monastery. They are all married. Every monk is married. They said it is a Mongolian culture. It has been going for two, three, four hundred years. Every monk is married. That’s why Bakula Rimpoche setting up a monastery where the monks cannot marry. So when I sat at the biggest monastery and I had an old friend of mine called Guru Deva Lama, Mongolian. He is 89. He is very healthy, senior . He was in Tibet, Mongolian Lama Guru Deva. He was in India when he died. He was in line with Khabje Trijiang and Khabje Ling Rimpoche . He was the oldest. He was a monk. Not like me. He was a real monk. And when I saw him and after a little while he said, did you notice any change in me? I heard something but don’t really know. I did not. He said I have a one year old baby. 89 years. And even a little baby, that’s true. He said he was a monk till 1996 or something. Then I said, what happened? (0.47:49.6) He said, amazing. In Mongolia we do that. I am no longer with the Tibetan monastery. I am a Mongolian so I am doing what most Mongolians do. So funny, you know. A person who is a monk all his life, some 85 or whatever years, been a monk, suddenly. It was a very strange thing what I found. Otherwise he had no other changes as usual, he was completely, his behaviour, doing his prayers, everything. Absolutely, his usual except he had a baby. So, he was very nice. And they all very nice. They all looked after me so well. So when I was going to see the biggest monastery and Bakula Rimpoche and a group of Guru Deva’s monks. Guru Deva also principal, highest Mongolian Lama in Mongolia. And he showed me. He said, I have to show you something. I said, what are you going to show me? He showed me his passport. Mongolian passport. He had really tough time in India. He has Tibetan residency but he is not a Tibetan. He is a Mongolian. Sometimes, people don’t accept him. It was a difficult time. Very difficult time in India for several years. So he showed me this Mongolian passport. He was born in Mongolia, came out of Mongolia. So he was considered out of Mongolia. He showed me his passport. He had diplomatic passport. I said, why you have diplomatic passport? He said, I am the Head of the Mongolian Lamas. He is a little proud of that too. So anyway, both he and Bakula Rimpoche , I said, the biggest monastery, I am going to go there. I said, please don’t , I am going there as tourist. I really want to see what’s going on. I went as tourist amongst them and the monks are meeting, a big throne like four, five thrones on top of the road. People are seating and I walked by. The monks started looking at me and start looking, looking. They were not very sure who was the one walking. And there are a lot of younger monks and all these. I had difficulty walking through all these. And I noticed that there were about 200 hundred monks in their saffron robes and there were 200 hundred ladies on that side and they keeping running up and down. So it was a little strange coming out of Tibet. But later I came to know that was their system. That have been going on like 500 hundred years or something. So that’s that part of it. And I met all sorts of people including the person who was known to be mother of ? who was 70 years old in Tibet. He was labelled as Secretary who protect that. Betrayed. His wife used to be my cousin and I had three dinners at his place. And I didn’t say anything, I didn’t talk a word of politics with him. He didn’t say anything. We had three times dinner. That was five of us meeting. And his daughter too. He was very disciplined. And the Chinese government gave him the opportunity to make his State or whatever. Whether he turned down or whatever. He said he never did that. He said he had written a book through a translator and what the book said, the movie said is two different things. Maybe it is a movie, that’s why it is. So, anyway, he is 87 years old and he was the senior most cabinet minister of the Dalai Lama’s government when Dalai Lama was in Tibet. And he was telling me, I am the same old ?. And he, of course, people have to say that he betrayed. A number of Communists said that. But what I observed he definitely had a very strong respect to Buddhism. And he belonged to the Nyingma tradition and he asked a lot of questions about Nyingma and what they are doing, their activities and all these. And then after dinner, we were seating side by side on one chair. And after dinner he smoked and he started to smoke. He got up and left from there and asked his wife to seat where he was seating. He won’t seat there. And he went very down there and any cigarette he puffed up, he started to wave his hands the smoke away from me. This was the way of tradition Buddhist idea of you will not dirty reincarnate Lama or something. So, I noticed that. He didn’t say anything but I noticed he doing that , won’t stop. Probably in his mind, he is a very dedicated Buddhist but his situation is sort of ?. I guess that much my impression. I don’t want to talk too long about him. He is not here to hear that. I just want to shared what happened. So everywhere I go, whatever I see, want to, they always there with good dedication. And mind of helpful. Whatever I do. Even a simple conversation with the people. Or like Mongolia I had to give teaching in monastery. So on there, giving teachings to people or even eating or drinking and whatever. And each and everyone of them, carried with the motivation and make difference to the life of people who haven’t been easy. With talking, praying, meditating or whatever. And that’s what I learnt as a child to watch your motivation all the time. And I sort of trying to tell you it is not difficult. In the motivation, if you think sometimes, well, if I do this I may gain something. Gain name or fame, or money, and all these. The moment I have that, than I am wrong. And I tell myself, I am wrong. I had that in Mongolia. It was rather embarrassing. And there was a lot of pictures in Mongolia, of antique, beautiful, old, nice quality picture of the. It will be nice if I could get one. And I noticed myself talking to and back. And the moment I noticed, I stopped and said, look, that is a life long training not to break. Not to break. But some other person gave me the painting when I was looking at it. I didn’t take it. I really did not take it. But then Bakula Rimpoche gave me another antique book. It was even better than that. Which I didn’t had bad motivation, I took it. So the motivation, I carry all the time. So in the present, when we are looking at the spiritual thought or when we are following the spiritual thought, try to really observing our thoughts (0:59.10.1) That is no question whether you want to meditate, or whether you want to say prayers or whether you want to correct your behaviour or whether you want to change your habitual patterns, or whether you want to become a scholar or whatever you do. The most important thing is the motivation. That I learnt as a child and I continue. And if you keep that in life. There is always a self interest, somewhere it pops up in between everywhere. Wherever, whatever you do. Even you are meditating. Even you go up to the Himalayas mountains or the forests in Thailand or somewhere. Even you seating by yourself meditating. Even then the idea of hoping somebody will realize that you are there doing the meditation. That sort of idea crops up. Even to those people who doing meditation but nothing else for twenty years. We have that idea crops up. And that shows you how difficult to keep good motivation.

For me in Mongolia, you know, the next step, I really want it. Until the very beautiful blah, blah, blah, couple of times and then it gives and then it is not. I will be really happy to do that. So this is most important, whatever we do. If you are helping other people Whatever profession you may be, it doesn’t matter. Maybe you are a doctor, you may be a psychologist, maybe a healer or you may be just simply doing your job. Whatever it might be. If you carry own motivation of helping. Without any hope of getting back of anything. It is the true generosity. Giving time is generosity. Giving energy is the generosity. Giving dharma is considered as one of the most important generosity. Giving dharma. Because dharma is really the medicine that helps individual. When I seat here and talking , I am doing a favour for myself, not for you. In one way, true. In another way, I hope to help you with whatever dharma I know. And try to share with you and try to make it. Everyday life, how it make a difference rather than when I am seating and meditating. When you are seating and meditating in a nice atmosphere, you won’t have any problem. You won’t have any problem because the atmosphere is such and no disturbances. There is nobody who is going to challenge you. Sort of it is good atmosphere and you won’t get angry, you won’t get attachment. You may get attachment but you won’t get angry much, yes. So, if you are looking at the handsome guy at the centre, you may get attachment at that moment. But anger is a little less possibility. But really, that is not the point. That is not the point. Point is we should be able to reduce the anger, jealousy, attachment power when you going outside dealing with normal life. And that is the most important point. Because here in the meditative state, you don’t get opportunity for you to get angry. And when you are in contact with the things that happening outside that state, and that is the time where you have to not to give in. It is not easy. It is not easy. Difficult. But you bring it. You bring in awareness within yourself even if it is too late. Doesn’t matter. Better late than never. Bring the awareness and seeing that you got angry. You got angry. My anger ways. I laughed. People says all sorts of things. Angel, something? Flipped out. Alright. Flipped out. Went over the edge. And all these. All of those. And so, you can say that. But you have to recognize you did it. And once you recognize, some people may object that. Some people may object that but I don’t know. What I am talking to you what I know. And when you recognized you did that, you have regret. You say oh I am sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. You have all these. And those recognition. Those are great and those feeling sorry, whatever story it might be. These are the causes for you to motivate, you know. This is so important. You must take responsibility out of those. Because when you feel sorry, you did something wrong. When you feel sad, I did that. And when you regret, I did that. You did not like it, action what you did. I didn’t like it, action is really the weapon for you not to repeat that. It is very funny, it is not very popular over here as I talked to you. Because normally people will say, you know, like a Buddha recommends and strongly use, recommends us to use two mental faculties. In other words, two emotions. One is embarrassment, and one is shame. Normally people will be shame. Why? It is terrible, blah, blah, blah. Yes, it is terrible. True. Absolutely true, it is terrible. I don’t know whether it is a normal English usage of shame or whether what Buddha was talking shame. Everybody shame, shame, shame or not. I don’t know. What I know what the Buddha talked about shame. Buddha referred to shame as you did something wrong. You embarrassed of yourself. But you don’t have to be other will know and then you embarrassed. That Buddha never get as shame. In traditional Tibetan, Indian teachings. The other one is, they use it the other reason when other came to know how embarrassed it will be. These are the two mental faculties. Buddha uses it so much to help ourselves to change our negative habits. (1.08: 08.8) So when we realize, what is it. When you realize, realizing that, feeling of discomfort of that. Using that, very often, remembering that, will help us to get away from the anger. And all these negative activities. Actually I am sorry to say, the actions of Buddhism is truly nothing than that of making yourself a better person. Cutting down the negativities and building a positive karma is Buddhism. Buddhism does not depends on worship. You can worship. There is no objection. It is a good thing. You can say mantra. That doesn’t depend on saying mantra. Buddhism does not depend on becoming a scholar. Buddhism does not depends on faith. You can have faith. It works. It is fine. You can be scholar. It is great, it is fine. But it doesn’t depends on that. Buddhism does depends on cutting down the negativities and building positive. Buddha himself said ( Rimpoche talking in Tibetan). Avoid negativities, how small it might be. Build every positive karma how small it might be. It will give you a great result. Most important, watch and train your mind. And that, Buddha himself said. That’s what it is. When I was in Mongolia, I went to visit to the Bakula’s monastery. I went with suit and pants like this. I thought we were just going around the monastery. So Bakula Rimpoche sent his car when you reach near to the monastery, they started blowing trumpets from the roof top. And all the monks lined up. And I was in suit, it looked funny. I have photograph if you want to see it. Not here. It is a little funny and then the monks meeting there, so Rimpoche had to get throne for me and for himself. I sat on that. He said, Rimpoche, you have been fighting all the monks should be monks. And now you put me here and your principle argument. He was laughing and then we had tea and all of a sudden, Rimpoche turned to me and said, please give nice teachings to all these monks. Him seating there. I said, look, I don’t speak Mongolian, how ? You know I have an interpreter, another monk who speaks perfect Tibetan. He got up and started interpreting. He said, give those young monks a nice teaching. Then I did this ( Rimpoche talking in Tibetan). Avoid all the negativities no matter how small it may be. And build any positivity no matter how small it may be. It will pay you one day. And the most important and train and watch your mind. Today what I said, the first two lines. Avoid negativities and build positivities. You don’t need any explanation. But I am going to explain a little more what is train your mind. But I couldn’t repeat what I said the same thing what I said. Anyway, but. So now I am going to go my own way. If I try to remember what I said there, it is not going to work. But the thing is, it is very say spiritual, the moment we bring the word spiritual, all different people, a lot of different people will have total different idea. Some people will look spiritual is some kind of , I don’t know, meditative state, or meditation or saying prayers or keeping your commitments. Keeping commitments, I mean those who have commitments to say mantras or sadhanas. I am talking about that. And some people may say, oh such atmosphere like old Tibetan temple design, giving in there and seating, maybe a spiritual path. And all these different ideas are there. But what Buddha tried to share with us. I am not saying others are wrong. Fine, whatever it is. Doesn’t matter. We can walk on fire, consider that as spiritual. Fine. You can sink under the river, consider that as spiritual, that also fine. That’s fine. Doesn’t matter. Eat brown rice, drink wheat grass juice, consider that spiritual, fine, I have no quarrel. No quarrel. I have no quarrel. But what the Buddha shared with us, it is not the brown rice, not the wheat grass juice, not walking on fire, not remaining under the water or the ground. But what Buddha really shared with us, is how are we going to guide our minds. Mind becomes extremely important. Physical part is not that important. It is important that you have good life. Long life, healthy life. From that angle, it is important. It is necessary. It is needed. But from the spiritual angle, more important than that. You know health is very important. I have nothing against looking after yourself. I am happy that everybody is not sloppy, old, fat , oriental like me. So it is fine. But it is great. A little more than that too. It is the mind. The mind, physical, no matter how good it is. It is only for this life. The day you die, the physical conditions ends. Of course you will prolong living because you don’t have diabetes. You will not have diabetes, you will not have high blood pressure. You do not have that. Naturally you have a long life. Sure. Your organs would not get damaged anyway. That part is important. However you will die no matter how healthy you might be. I was telling you, I saw this Guru Lama in Mongolia who is 89 years old with a one year baby. He was in great health. That’s great but mind is more important. It should continue. I am coming from the background of reincarnation. It continues. This life, it is going to be ended somewhere. It is important, it is one of the best life we ever had. Will not have a better life than this. It is for sure. We have to prolong as much as we can. Same time we must turn our minds because the mind is the one who continues. We have come from previous life. We are here now, will be going. And when I said this. Normally I don’t say that because 50% of people will not buy. They say how do I know we came from previous lives to here. Of course you know. You look at the kids. You look at the kids, how they behave, how they talk. What they think. Where does that comes from? Look at the kids, you know it. You will not know it where it is from. I get a number of people who said, my child is great, I am sure he was a Tibetan monk. Oh ya, ya, okay, I will say. But excuse me, how do you know? Right? But my child had said all these and that. Think this way and knows it. Really indicates you the previous memory being there. A lot of them. Do not close your eyes, you know it. You know it, you have your own experience and number of you have the same experience. You may not know like scientifically. Or you don’t exactly like this, like that but you know it, is there. So, isn’t everyone of us, in our essence, in essence, what the Buddha said the spiritual path with us, is not only we have a heathy life, in this lifetime, but make difference through out our journey. This is part of our journey. This is part of our journey from here we go to future life. We continue. Because we knew it is coming from the previous to here. If I don’t remember anything that doesn’t mean we didn’t know. If you have a Parkinson’s disease, you wont remember your own name too. Am I right? Alzheimer, thank you. Alzheimer. Parkinson disease is the one when young. So, I am sorry. You won’t even remember your own room. That doesn’t mean you don’t have a room. That doesn’t mean you did not go. That doesn’t mean you don’t have a relation. They are all there. Because you don’t remember that doesn’t mean it is not there. Number one. Number two, you went through a shock. That is a shock. You also past time there. We forget what happened few years ago. We sometimes even forget what happened yesterday. And we don’t remember. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happened. And another thing is well, nobody came back from future lives to say hi, how are you. I am in the future. Naturally you will never find that because if you find, it is no longer future. It is the present. Right or wrong. I don’t know, I am talking silly things here. But basically, a continuum. But who is continuing? Me, the individual. Will I have good or bad or what will happen to me. That depends on the individual. Buddha’s experience and Buddha said each and everyone of us are responsible for ourselves. Good or bad, whatever we experience. It is the good or bad deeds which we have. That makes us responsible. Are you with me? That makes us responsible. So, what the Buddha was saying, you worked with yourself. Try to be kinder than what you are. Try to be more openness that what you are. Try to be helpful than what you are. These are the main points that we have to take first. And I remember I was even talking at Ann Arbor last Tuesday. Sometimes, we think we are practising Vajrayana. Here we are suppose to say mantra. I am suppose to meditate myself in the form of yidam. I am doing this. I am doing that. And we forget where we are coming from. We are coming from the point where we want to make ourselves a good and better person. Kinder and a gentler person. Kinder and a gentler person. We are coming from there and if you are reading our sadhanas and if you are saying our mantras. If you really forget that, we lose our principles. Total principles of spiritual points. We lose our basic principles. That is extremely important to pay attention. Especially those senior people. Senior, I don’t mean by age, senior by practice or whatever. And so remember that. Because if you lose that you forget where you? That’s what normally in English, they say they forgot. And all the politicians say I have not forgotten where I come from. That is the main point. As a spiritual practitioner, whatever level we go, we should never forget where we were coming from. The basic idea is to helping ourselves and to helping others. That we should never forget. If you forget that, then you become a big thing over here. Love, compassion, meditation, completion. You know, breathing air, exercise, energy exercise, chakra opening, central channel opening, and you can become a big bellow over there, no value for whatsoever. So this is very important for the senior people to be aware, not forgetting where you coming from. And for the people who are beginning or for those who are in that for a while who wanted to establish a strong ground, this is the purpose of the spiritual path you are taking is making yourself a better person. Try to copy Buddha. Not as acting, but actually living and try to become like a Buddha and try to gain the knowledge what the Buddha had. Try to gain the capability and control over negative emotions what the Buddha had. Try to gain that, for me as well as for others. So this an important point we have to remember. Otherwise we should for the benefit o all others. And then we will get the trouble with each and individual. And yet we still for the other beings. At the end there is no such person called all other beings. If you keep on eliminating everything. So, people do that. So, I really want to share with you. That should not be that. Should always remember the purpose of spiritual is not for you to fly in the air, walk on the fire, walk over rivers, but making yourself better. Cut your negativities, so that you can cut your problems, once and for all. Everyone of us, what we wanted is joy, happiness. What you don’t want is misery, problems. That is simple. But what we are creating in the pretext of protecting myself, in the pretext of helping myself, we create negativities, coming out. And even if you are a good spiritual practitioner, meditate on that. Try to find out your own way of thinking and action whether they are helping you or harming you. The day you change and that becomes, that is the spiritual path that the Buddha shared with us. That was what Buddha urged us to do. We can do it because we are human beings. If we happens to be a donkey today, we can’t do it. No matter whatever comes in our ear, the Tibetans, we have a saying, if the donkey ear, if you put sand, they won’t move. If you put gold, they won’t move. No difference, right? Because it is a donkey. But human beings are different. So, if I try to give you handful of sand and try to change your handful of gold, you will say no, right? The human beings can do that. A donkey cannot to that. Because the human being has the capacity to understand and to know, to make a difference. We seen this through scientific development to all human beings. No, God did not come down and fix all the machines. Did not done all the discoveries by God coming down. No, it didn’t. I haven’t heard that. Hear that. Unless you people know. So it is a human achievement. Same thing, that is external. Internal, you could do the same thing. You should really be a true inner science. Sciences looking after your own mind. Scientists who are observing your mind. You know why your mind is so important? Every action, whatever we do, it makes our karma. Every action whatever we take, it follows our thoughts. The thoughts are countless. It pops up. I don’t know whether it pops up in your head or heart. I don’t know. But from Eastern it always goes here, the western go up here. So, who knows what. Wherever it goes doesn’t matter. The zillions thoughts comes out, right? So what I thought, for a number of people, whenever they have thoughts, they act straight away without thinking, right? (1.30: 39.2)