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19990924GRCL

How many of you are not familiar with Buddhism? Would you raise your hand? Quite a lot of you. How many of you are not familiar with the Buddha? Let me talk to you alone. This is called introduction to Tibetan Buddhism. Introduction and you have to know it is coming from India. Buddha was an Indian prince. It was two hundred five thousand years ago in an Indian kingdom. There were quite a lot of small kingdoms in India. There was quite a lot of competition among themselves. Each kingdom wanted to be the universal ruler. They were looking always for what they called Bharata Khanda which really means universal king which would make their kingdom special. They wanted a special king, looks like almost like a god. A king who can really control everything. They were praying for, working for and that’s what they are hoping for. So suddenly they found their king, naturally their hope it will be Bharata Khanda who has come and it will make their kingdom more powerful than all other kingdoms, which they were hoping, praying and working for. They called all the soothsayers and ask every soothsayer and asking them is this going to be the Bharata Khanda, the universal king? All of them said this is an extraordinary prince, no doubt about it.

So if this is an extraordinary prince, it has to be the universal king, what else? That is what they are thinking. Many of them keep on saying if you can keep the boy in home, then it will be. So then they began to worry, why can’t we keep a boy home? This is the royal family. They have very possible way of entertaining him. Every facility we have so why can’t we keep the little boy home? So the soothsayers said if the boy is happy, he will remain at home. If he is not happy, he will run away. So the royal family is looking for how to keep the boy happy.

They build a new palace for the boy, for the prince. They also arranged that the people who could be in there all have to be young, handsome, beautiful only. Anybody who gets sick, out, anybody who gets old, out. So it is a very mystical or artificial life for this little prince. So when Indians build a palace they really know what to do. If you can go today to India and see the Taj Mahal, or they call it the Red Fort or Lal Qila. If you look at them they are so beautiful. They really know what to do. So they have fresh water running through the bath rooms, and they have scented water. Not like us with chlorine. It’s not. It’s fresh running water. They know how to do that. They really built this artificial life for that one prince and they kept him inside.

So the boy is always wondering what is outside of that. He always wondered what is outside. He reminds me of my good old friend Allen Ginsberg. He went out as a kid of his home in New Jersey. He was wondering what is out there. There was a fence behind his house. The little boy was wondering what is out there. He went out when he was ten and found there was a glue factory. The little boy wanted to go out. The young boy wanted Togo out and see what is behind that. He was forbidden to go out, so he did not go out. He can’t take that any more.

So one day he sat on his horse cart and told the driver to drive now, go. He went out four times. What did he find? Illness, death, and aging. The boy had never seen before; he was shocked. What is that? The driver turns back and said if you knew Indian history you would see that, blah, blah. His driver said this is called illness, this is called old age, this is called death. (10:00). His first question is will I be subject to this or will I be immune? What about my parents and my family members? Are they subject to this or they don’t have to go through that? So naturally the driver has to tell him yes. You will all get sick and we will die. You will become an old man and all of those. Your parents will do the same thing. Then he said what about the subjects that I am supposed to be protecting? These are the real subjects. They will not avoid it at all. So the boy got very disappointed and turned around.

Then looking for something, what can I do? Is there some way I can do something? First of all for me and my family and my subjects, what can I do? And that becomes the first question from Buddha. What can I do? Can I help myself? Can I help my family? Can I help my subjects? He spent all time looking for. Then on his fourth visit he found a person sitting and meditating. When he walked up he walked meditating. He asked his driver, what is that? The driver said this is called meditation. This guy is trying to save the world. He says, “Okay, that’s what I need to do.” So he went looking for the inside, not necessarily meditation. Meditation cannot help; meditation alone cannot. It is a way you can look inside within yourself, not an external physical thing, but an internal mental thing. You begin to find that, in that direction. He began to look in that direction, and the experiment he put in and what he found was a tremendous, fantastic experience. Internal development really is fantastic. It is immeasurable, really a beautiful compassion.

Incidentally, I just returned last night from New York. I was in New York last week and doing a retreat and sort of helping Ram Das. Ram Das, many people will know, particularly of my age. Ram Das was there doing a retreat. If he has to do everything it is a little difficult for him. So he asked me if I could join him. There were a bunch of people, creative people, like Ram Das, Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg and all of those. And what they really did is they experimented. Now today he was fine. I saw a documentary on that. He was in India and looked like an Indian sadhana, sort of like a hippy. If you looked at the background of the person. He was from a wealthy Jewish family. He was in Harvard University, so these kind of people with that credentials, they started do a thing they called research on the mental mind. They didn’t know anything about Buddhism, they didn’t know anything about Hinduism. They don’t know anything about Eastern. They tried to find out what really a human being can achieve in their understanding at the human level. What is the scope. What is the limit. And out of their research all of them they conclude as part of the research what you can really get. It’s not how much you can get high, not that at all.

They found what the human being can achieve is that our understanding, our knowledge, our capacity is limitless. That or something else. All of them are Harvard professors, and all of them are trying to find out what is there. They found this fantastic capacity. It was clinical. Then they turned to the eastern religions just because some of them happened to have read The Tibetan Book of The Dead , something called book of death. They happened to read The Tibetan Book of the Dead and they found what they experienced in their clinical thing was in that book, you will do this, you do that, and this happens. They said how do people know? That’s how they turned to eastern religion. In the case of Ram Das, he had gone to India and had this Hindu guru. The human capacity no doubt about it, he went there and found out. I was asked to give my idea from the America Institute. We stayed there all week. They asked me to give my idea, a contribution, from the Buddhism pathway, (20:00) mental development whatever you call it. So my sort of thought was whatever is available in their capacity opening, and found out it’s not the drugs. You can do it without drugs and have this beautiful experiment and experience and you can last longer over there with meditation without depending on the drug. I think that’s the way Timothy Leary and Ram Das went. And the government hiding behind everything and still experimental with the drugs, and Ram Das found without drugs you can do the same thing. Allen Ginsberg and his way of writing poetry came out of that.

So I’m talking about the Buddha, not talking about Ram Das and Allen Ginsberg, right? But the experiment that they did is they had to follow the Buddha’s footsteps. The Buddha found capacity without drugs, without depending on LSD, without depending on chemicals. His experience of discovering, his personal discovery of peoples lives and their suffering and their difficulties. Talking about suffering is very easy. We all have it. If you are young, you have your problem. If you are old, we have our problems. If you are in the middle somewhere, they have their own problems. If you are rich they have their problems and if you are poor they have their problems. Mentally, physical, emotional, we all have it. Whatever it may be we all have it. But the question is can we do something for that? A lot of people will say get used to it, get out of it. Easy to say, but very difficult to do.

Buddhism really to me is nothing other than Buddha’s personal experience of overcoming suffering. Buddhism is not regret. Buddhism is not the temple. Buddhism is not the monastery. Buddhism is not even interest in knowledge. Buddhism is not even meditation. Buddhism is actually dealing with our mind and how we can deal with the problems that we see in our life, death and thereafter. Buddhism does believe in reincarnation. That’s why they talk life after life and all that. Really, Buddhism is nothing but the Buddha’s personal experience of dealing with the problems. To me that’s Buddhism. (25:00) I’m not saying there is no monasteries. I’m not saying that. That’s my understanding. I was born in Tibet and brought up. In Tibet, there is nothing so the little I know of Buddhism is that. There is nothing mystical, although if you look at it it seems mystical. Joseph Campbell and all that. There is mysticism there too. They are not lying. The true Buddhism is this. To me you, a true Buddhist, don’t have to be Buddhist. You don’t have to be a follower of the Buddha. You can be a good, kind, nice human being and you are Buddhist to me. Officially you have to take refuge to Buddha, dharma and sangha yes. But if you really look into Buddha’s message, to me Buddha’s message is based on his personal experience of suffering and how to overcome the suffering that everybody faces death, illness, aging. Can you avoid it? Not necessarily, but how you handle. That is the difference. If you look at where is suffering coming from, is it somebody else giving it to us, or forcing it on us, or is it cause and effect? You know what I mean, cause and effect.

Definitely Buddha found that, it’s cause and effect. It is one of the most important things Buddha discovered. It’s the most important thing he discovered. Each and every human being, everybody is responsible for ourself. I’m responsible for whatever I did, good or bad. Everybody is responsible for themselves, good or bad whatever you did, it is your responsibility. No one can do or undo anything. It is only you and yourself alone. That is what Buddha discovered. Also, another thing, because you are responsible for yourself it will tell you you got to do good. You got to be good to make yourself happy.

Happiness is controlled by the positive, the Buddhists call it karma, the creation of positive karma. How many of you don’t know about karma? Do you know about karma? Is there anybody? Karma, k a r m a. So really it is cause and effect normally they say. But really what it is is the law of karma really makes each and every individual responsible for yourself. I’m responsible for my deeds and so are all of you. One by one, you are responsible. I cannot do or undo what you did. It is only you that can make a difference to yourself. It is only you (30:00) can help yourself. No one else can. It’s like education here, going to the university. You gain an education. Who will get benefits? Yourself. Right? You cannot pass your learning to someone else. It doesn’t work. So just like that whatever you do, you are responsible. That is what Buddha discovered, and it is one of the most important messages that the Buddha gave to people: you are responsible for yourself. I’m responsible for myself and you are responsible to yourself.

So then the questioned arises, what makes me have those difficulties? Problems that we face, particularly we experience with other people. Why do I give cold shoulder to my companions all the time? We all do, but we don’t want to. Everybody. The last couple days were good and wonderful, but we give the cold shoulder to everybody. Why do we have to do this? Where does that come from? Are we bad by nature? These are the questions that the answer covers. You know it’s very interesting. Buddha will tell you every human being is wonderful by its nature. By human nature we are all wonderful people. As a Buddhist I should say Buddha natured, meaning every human being has the possibility and capacity of becoming a Buddha within our mind. We are that good. We are not bad. We are that good. Yet we give cold shoulder to our companions all the time. Why?

Even ourselves, how much torturing we do. We do give ourselves. We can always blame the mother or the mother-in-law. We are terrible, bad, hopeless, forget about it, hopeless, helpless. How many times we do that to ourselves? Why? How many times mental torture. How many times we talk to ourselves I don’t want to talk about it. I’m not in the mood. I don’t want to answer my phone. How many times we do? Why? What makes it? I’m talking about our suffering. I’m not necessarily talking about suffering that is going on in Kosovo or the capital of Octavia. That’s also true, but I’m talking about the suffering we give ourselves. I’m really talking about life in our own home, that type of torture we all go through, young and old. We go through this. Why? (35:00)Where does that come from? It is important according to the Buddha who says it is important to find out where is it coming from, what made it? Of course, we blame others. We say if she did not do that I will not have problem. The blame to somebody else, we are good at that, blaming somebody. We blame somebody else instead of ourselves. If we cannot blame somebody else we blame ourselves.

But that’s not true. We are missing the point here. It’s not he or she made my problems. It’s not I made my problem. It is my ignorance. It is my ego. That created my anger. That created my attachment. That created my jealousy, and that made all the problems. It is mental product. We produce these by ourselves mentally. The material that we use for that, for torturing ourselves, is our anger. It is our attachment. That is our problem. That’s what the Buddha is pointing out to us, this is the problem.

But where do I get that from? I am addicted to it. Each and everyone of us is addicted to our anger, to our jealousy, and to our attachment. We don’t have to learn how to get jealous. We don’t have to go to university to learn how to get angry. We don’t have to go anywhere else to learn how to become attached, how to develop our attachment. We will see some beautiful thing, or beautiful being or beautiful body. We get attached. We go to the extent I cannot live without you, right? We go to the point if I don’t have you I’m going to kill myself. We go to that point. We don’t have to learn that. It’s there automatically because we are addicted within our self. What the Buddha really found is the problem what we think is the problem is not the problem. The cause of the problem is the negative delusions, anger, attachment and hatred, and jealousy and all those.

So he said if you are going to help yourself, work against your anger, work against your attachment, work against your ignorance. That is the most important point. That is the religion according to Buddha. It’s not that we have to worship Buddha. That is the Buddhist philosophy, that is the Buddhist religion, that is the Buddhist mission of life, the Buddhist way of life. That is Buddhism. The purpose in Buddhism for our life is to overcome our negative addictions. A lot of people ask me what is my mission in my life. When an individual asks me, I don’t know what to say. Right? You are a lama incarnate. Can you tell me the purpose of my life? The purpose of life, the mission of life is to overcome our negative thoughts, negative actions. (40:00) That is negative karma. If you overcome that you will have positive karma and the positive results so you are bound to be good. It’s nothing mystery about it. Very simple: cut bad things out and you are left with only good things. That’s Buddhism to me. Really, truly that’s Buddhism.

I just remember about two years ago or something the Dalai Lama was visiting the United States and he was interviewed by “Larry King Live.” After that, the Dalai Lama went to see some congressmen. So Larry King asked the first question: what is Buddhism? Is it a philosophy, or a religion, or a way of life? What is it? He replied all of the above. It is a philosophy; it is a religion; it is a way of life. But if you think of the religion in terms of what we in normal American life understand. From that angle when you look at Buddhism is not a religion, really. It is actually a way how we solve our problems, our mental problems, emotional problems, not physical problems. Physical too a little bit, but more on emotional and mental, how to make myself better. How can I be a good human being? In Norma thing, how can I bring myself close to God? That’s the thing. That’s the purpose. They all ask me how do I conduct my life and bring myself closer to Buddha? I think that’s the Buddhism that I know.

If I don’t talk a little nicely it’s not right. What I have been talking to you was the Buddha discovering suffering. The Buddha called that the first noble truth. There are four noble truths. The first one is the truth of suffering which we all have. It’s a little funny. Sometimes, I think about it. You know Buddha came two thousand five hundred years ago. That guy, that Indian guy over there two thousand five hundred years ago, and what he taught about people and their lives and the suffering that we go through. It is true and relevant in nineteen ninety in the United States and throughout the world in Africa, in Asia wherever. It’s true today. It’s relevant, and it’s true. That is the guy out there. I don’t know how he did two thousand and five hundred years ago over t here ten thousand miles away in Varanai. Is it more than that? He talked about it in a little Indian place called Varanasi. (45:00) Now they call it Sarnath, the Deer Park, a nice little name, Deer Park. I don’t know if they have deer or not. The guy sat out there and said this is my experience, the first noble truth is the truth of suffering. It is absolutely true to each of us. Young ones, old ones, rich ones, poor ones, male, female. Everybody has the same problem.

Second truth, he also said where it is coming from. It’s not outside. The second noble truth. Nobody produced it outside. Where is it coming from? It is within ourselves. These negative emotions within ourselves, these negative emotions we have that are the cause of this suffering. This seems to be true today. We knew very well how these negative emotions create sufferings.

Got up early in the morning. Looking forward to a nice day, right? Whistling going around somewhere, enjoying your life. Suddenly somebody gives you a big look. Or give you a finger while you are driving. Or you left you parking spot. Somebody else took your spot. Or some guy did not tell you good morning, no matter what ever the reason may be. It gets you irritated. That irritation gives you an indication of the harm. That itself, a tiny little example, gives you clearly how negative emotions roll out. Your family too, right? When you are not happy and when you are upset, you go home, right? Bang the door, kick the dog. Then everybody else suffers, right? I make them suffer too. It is simply my action, bang the door, kick the dog, Right? Simply my own it will rob your peace and the peace of others in the family too.

So that really if you think very carefully, these negative emotions really cause suffering, that anger. That attachment, that hatred, that jealousy is the real cause of all our suffering, emotional problems. Really, if you think of it carefully, you see it. Not being happy in the home? Not being happy with your family? Not being happy in school? Not being happy at work? All of them are deep down, that anger, that attachment, (50:00) that jealousy. When we spend time and think, when we spend time to understand, you will know it. So that’s why Buddha said these sufferings are coming from these negative emotions. These negative emotions arise from negative thoughts, so they call it addiction. You don’t need to know. So anyway that’s how it works. The Buddha said don’t try to treat the symptoms here, treat the causes. When there are no causes, the symptoms will go away. That’s why he said truth of cause of suffering. How to handle?

He give the whole experience. They call it path, the practice. The bottom line practice is how to improve the human being, how to make myself better. That is the path. That is the real truth, no matter whether you talk about Hinayana, Mahayana, Vajrayana, blah, blah, blah. All of them there, but the bottom line is how to make myself better. That is the bottom line. That’s what it is. That’s called truth of path. When you follow that path and you get results, freedom, free from anger, free from attachment, free from hatred, jealousy, free from negative emotions. That’s what they call cessation. That’s the four noble truths. Did I talk too much?

So we will stop here. If you have any questions, I will be happy to. Not that I have answers or something. But we can share our thoughts and see what we can do.

Question (inaudible). Did everybody hear the question? I don’t know whether I can repeat that. Very good, very practical question. No doubt about it. Let’s take anger. Number one we cannot, really truly, identify ourselves with anger. When you are angry (55:00) I don’t think you are going to admit you are angry. Normally, a lot of people will say I’m not angry, but blah, blah, blah. To some people the anger is bad so they don’t want to associate with that. They don’t want to identify with that. To some people you bet I’m angry, they will say. You bet I’m angry. Those people probably think anger is not necessarily that bad so they are able to explain their anger and able to show. They do. So we have anger taking place in two different persons. The person who denies is worse, to me. Those who accept, you bet I’m angry. Those who don’t admit are miserable persons. He or she is miserable. They deny. When you deny your problem you can’t work with your problem. How many people say, including myself, I’m not sick. I don’t need to see a doctor. You know very well you have to, but you say I’m not sick. I don’t want to see a doctor. I deny. So I don’t get treatment. Likewise when you deny you are angry, you can’t do much. When you say I’m very angry, yes. I’m proud to be angry. For that person you can’t say their anger is bad, so I don’t do. The accepting person you say you are right, you are right to be angry. It is not easy to have that anger. Then educate, what does that anger do? Anger is harmful to yourself and it’s miserable to your companion. Your companion is your companion. Your children, your in-laws, how it makes them miserable. When people get more information, more understanding, they accept that is the wrong thing to do. I think that’s my feeling.

Criticism doesn’t help at the time. Those who are denying, you may be able to accept that you are angry. By accepting, it reduces the power of that anger quite a lot. Oh how terrible, how embarrassing, I was angry. For that person anger is bad. So when you deny and accept that you are angry, it reduces the power. If you are angry and deny that you are angry, that increases the power of the anger. I’m right or wrong? Each human being has their own way of being. I don’t think there is a universal blanket you are angry. You are wrong. Sit down and meditate blah blah blah. (100:00) I don’t think it works that way. Likewise with attachment, jealousy, hatred, all of them. Not so many will people will associate themselves with attachment. Anger yes, hatred yes, attachment no.

As a Buddha, what do I do? That is different. For me I have so many things. In my right and left ear when I see in front of me anger bad, anger bad. Anger is so expensive. It loses a tremendous amount of positive karma, blah, blah, blah. I am bombarded just like we do on television and media, right, nine, ten. So I don’t think it is great. I’m not proud when I think I’m angry.

Question. (about anger what do you do). Well, I’m not asking you to become a doormat. I’m not asking that. You remember I’m also asking stop and think. You remember four years ago there was some kind of Halloween guy got shot who does not know they are mean. I don’t mean for you to become a doormat. No one can be a doormat. You have to defend yourself. Yet, don’t submit yourself to those negative emotions. When anger is really very strong, not like you and me. There are really angry people and they really get angry and kill about half a dozen human beings. That is the anger what I’m talking about. That is the jealousy that I’m talking about. That is the hatred that I’m talking about.

Question (inaudible). The consequences are serious. Buddha says they are bad. Buddha became god. I don’t think Buddhism accepts a creator god. That’s what I think. I think Buddhism is such that among Buddhists there are cultural differences. Buddhism adopts to cultures. Among Chinese Buddhism, Japanese Buddhism, Asian Buddhism there are big cultural differences. In essence there are no differences. Culturally yes. (105:00) So the Japanese wear funny, different. Japanese look like this. The Chinese Buddhists wear the yellow robe. Tibetan Buddhists wear the red robe. All that type of thing, they are all cultural. I don’t believe in essence they are different. Some are vegetarian, some are not. All of that type of thing, they are all cultural. That’s my personal opinion.

Question (inaudible). Well, look at enlightened beings. Enlightened then, they call it. Enlightened beings are just like gods up there. And we are down here. Then the cultural, some lamas are very high. The woman coming tomorrow, she is head of the yellow hat sect. She happens to be there tomorrow. So culturally she is very high. I’m very low. That sort of thing is culture.

Question (inaudible). That is a very important and interesting question. You know I have the label called Incarnate Lama, right? Incarnate lama. If I don’t accept reincarnation I will be out of a job. You don’t want that, do you? No I am just kidding. But the thing is the concept of reincarnation, truly speaking do I know my previous life? Certainly not. I don’t. I don’t remember a thing. I know nothing about my previous life. I read about it. People told me. So I associate myself with that. I really do. I know nothing about it. But I also know this. When you die, you don’t end there. You really don’t end there. You lose your identity, the normal physical identity, when you go out of your physical body. You wander, you really wander everywhere. That’s why there are people who will talk to you. There are people who talk to you. They are called spiritual persons. This and that. All of those we see. (1:10:00) What you call them fortune tellers or what, they are psychic. Whatever it may be. Most psychics are liars. Maybe there is something. Maybe there is something continues. We also see them. We get the message we lost our loved ones that we lost. We don’t see them or hear them or smell or touch, but they don’t have a physical body. They have a consciousness and they are spirits running around. You just don’t just end when you die. When the doctor says you are brain dead, your heart may be stopped, but you are not gone. You have not disappeared. That we know. At least I know quite clearly. I know nothing about previous life. But if you are going you must have come from somewhere. Now I am applying logically. That’s why I sort of hang on to my job.

Comment (inaudible). You will hear all kinds of things. You will hear oh Buddha said there is reincarnation. You will hear all kinds of things. Who really knows the truth? Nobody. I used to be amused when I hear of people who came from that one. Right now even me, I have to draw on my previous understanding. And also lying. The human existence is not only within this minute what we see. It’s not. It’s definitely beyond it. There is a limit what we see from birth to death. That little limit we try and put in there. We try to shrink every possible and put it in there. Definitely going to die. When you look at the prospect of life and lives, you have reincarnation idea in there. Really, it’s sort of put into it, in there. True? No. Honestly.

I guess we can call it a day.