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We will go from Three to Five with a 5-minute break. Will you become the timekeeper? Good. The thing is I believe the last time Supa has been here and he talked with you people. Do you have any questions? Are you comfortable over there? He’s not comfortable. Anyway, if you have any questions regarding your spiritual practice or anything. It’s interesting, there are some people who wanted to meet on Tuesday. After then, right? It’s so funny because he came to the session and asked how you are supposed to eat and wash! Take a bath. Wash your hands. Don’t wash them together. I was even confused myself. He said don’t wash two hands together. What is this? We are reading the Bodhissatva Caryavatara. Somebody said it’s because it’s just a Hindu system. I said, oh yeah, that could be the reason. The right hand eats, and the left hand does something else in the Hindu system. That’s why if you are eating don’t wash your two hands together. I don’t think we have to worry about it because we don’t use it. It’s an old Indian custom, we are reading. Before that, they say how much you should eat and how much you should have in your stomach. One person should be full, and another person has gas, and another person empty so they can move. I mean this is not a dietitian thing. The verses go on and on and I don’t even know what to do. It says don’t wash two hands together. Things like that.

If any of you have any type of questions, I would be happy to discuss. (inaudible). I think that question comes out of refuge. When you take refuge to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha energies are coming out. Originally, like earlier, in India a couple of thousand years ago that was the only thing available. Then it is a drawing. When you come to the drawing an artist who took so much effort. We all know how much work they did, how much effort they put in, how difficult it is, how wonderful it is, and we appreciate. There is no choice but to be respectful to those. Then in the case when dharma comes, dharma information, it is very careful. It’s not like today, we take notes. It’s very easy. Even though we take notes, it is very easy. We have every color of ink or ball point pen or pencil or whatever you want to. You can pick any colors, whatever you want to. It doesn’t matter how your handwriting is, as long as you can read it yourself. Sometimes we can’t even read what we put down. You write down and no one else can read it. That doesn’t matter to us today. On the other hand, there is a tremendous amount of duplication and life is much easier. You know the colored lines and it is not so difficult to make one into a hundred thousand of them. The effort that what he did, naturally it’s valuable. Then everybody sends them to everybody by whatever, greeting cards and so on and all kinds of things.

There are two things, advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is sometimes people like it. Sometimes get their attention drawn to it even they don’t know anything about Tara. Like a picture of Tara. A picture of Tara comes in and probably people think what is this? It has some kind of attention. If there is a karmic connection it helps. If there is no karmic connection, there is probably no transmission. So, there is the advantage of that. (10:00) The disadvantage is too many of them. They are everywhere, too many of them. A. It is a picture of an enlightened figure. B. The artist worked so hard. C. There is a spiritual value and a monetary value. There is no question. Now so many post cards, there are karma pictures with colors, good lines and very helpful for those who want a good picture to meditate.

For me personally when I get a post card having images and things like that it makes me very uneasy. I don’t know what to do with that, and somehow these enlightened beings are being over-used as messengers or message carriers. Also, I don’t know what to do with it. In Jewel Heart Ann Arbor we used to make them into reusable. Many are not reincarnate-able, but some have a little piece of glass. We used to burn them; you know like Indian style. You know jumping over them, walking over them, sitting on them are negatives. Not breaking vows but going against advice of refuge. That’s why it becomes disrespectful, and we try to avoid. We used to burn them. I did the same thing myself, used to. A number of them during the Tibetan, Chinese and western New Year periods. There are so many of them going in the garbage can. It’s not someone else, I noticed myself and that’s what is happening. I believe it is some kind of a different thing. You cannot put them all on the altar either because it’s going to be huge and messy, every sort of some guardian, deity or lama or something. Take them outside and burn to avoid. Some people do have all kinds of things and have a messy altar, and then they collect dust. It is easy to make it messy. I think you got to destroy them. Otherwise, you create not only a negativity for yourself and others, but they also don’t know what it is. Then they walk over, jump over, all kind of things. You know you have it on your coffee table and some guy comes in and it creates an unnecessary, uneasy feeling and maybe there is some negativity in that. So why create difficultly? Put them together in an envelope or something and then after a while burn. I don’t know. This is a new problem coming out of an easy life. Easy to produce. It costs a dollar or two. If you like it you can send it to a person. If you have an open mind, you can say It’s part of an Asia tradition or new age, all of these. You have to keep it for years. Also, in some places you have snow coming down, right? I really don’t know.

When I first came in nineteen eighty-seven, I started making bonfires outside and everybody screamed, and the police came. They did not notice until I collected quite a bit. You are not supposed to do that in the city. Where I live you can’t do that. Not only I could not do that, but I was also a little worried this time. There was a huge number of them there and I had fires, like five different fires. I called and said I need help. I had a huge bonfire. I do have permission from the city for a fire puja, (20:00) and the inspector came and made me put cement on the floor. It’s amazing I didn’t set a fire maybe because of the snow maybe.

Anything else? Yes sir. (Inaudible). Last night, I drove from Ann Arbor to here. Normally, I came in the morning to try to make heads or tails of it. Last night I spent the night here. Maybe I waited too long on the first light. People get very impatient like me. He tried to get in and take over. He tried to take over, so I slowed down. He’s going but he’s going very slowly, very slowly. So, I said, oh, he’s trying to send me a message, go slow. Okay. Then he slowed down. Then the car went away. In my information classes I go slowly. Then I went at my own pace for quite a while. He did not overtake. I guess that is an easy thing to do. That’s an example. Is it mine? No, it’s not mine. The principle I’m trying to talk about is things are impermanent. Don’t challenge the irritation from another entity. You take over or I take over. It is an irritation or something, every possibility you know of getting hit or banged or something, whatever. Don’t challenge an irritation. After a little while they forget about it, then I noticed cars getting banged and things like that.

That is easy when you are driving and things like that, but how about irritations in life? You see the person. You have an encounter with that person and the person comes out to challenge you. Somehow the person is not satisfied or wanted to teach a lesson or wanted to punish or something. Then it’s not that easy. It’s not going to go away that easily. But if you constantly pay attention to that. Then somehow the problem is I guess, understanding. But the funny thing is I’m here talking to you. I think it’s about two or three cases I was talking. Some kind of politics came up. There is a guy there. I don’t know him personally. He is very angry with the policies of Clinton or something. Something about goal or Clinton. I said goal or Clinton. He said I’m not talking about Clinton and I’m not talking about the goal. Besides if you make it an issue and you go over it again, again and again. Don’t make it an issue. Let it die, it will die. Bring that to somebody who embarrasses their children. I thought and then I said I never thought that was an issue that would cause him to get upset. The thing is sometimes someone hears and sometimes someone doesn’t hear. That’s what (30:00) I was thinking. That was over a year ago.

I’m thinking about the person I see. As long as you are upset you cannot hear. I guess that’s what it is, and as long as people don’t let it die, it is continuously too. As long as it continues that’s what makes it uneasy in life. That is the individual. Another thing you can do is you can say, well I received this as the consequences of my negative karma. By experiencing this suffering I’m going to exhaust a huge negative karma, going to hell, and be able to substitute for this. That’s another way of thinking. Another way is to think of it internally as a karmic result. And also, if you want to be bodhimind love compassion oriented, then think I am not the only person who is experiencing. There are many other people are experiencing this. So may my experience substitute for others. So many things you can have in this culture. Number one, meditate on Bodhisattva Caryavatara and all of those.

You know if you keep on thinking there is a division between you and me. There is a division between mine and yours. There is a division of ours and theirs. There is a division of my type and their type. It is never ending. That division is never ending. You know the black is different from the white and the white is different from the yellow. The yellow is different from the red and the red is different from the whatever, green maybe. That’s my thought. In one way it’s great, but on the other hand is not so great, yeah definitely. All these are there. Then there’s another group of people who are going to be exploited, right? I think the bottom line comes down to me and you, your side and my side and mine and yours. Then you have all this. You don’t have any shortage of that to to be able to use as examples. To be able to think how to deal with them, there isn’t any shortage of examples. Then there is an opportunity for us to practice equanimity. There is a tremendous amount of all kinds of any divisions that we want to make it. There is no shortage.

If you are not the type of person who makes these divisions then there are no divisions. We are all human beings together simply trying to make a living, simply trying to make our minds a little easier. Nice human beings, try to make the mind easier. For each and every one of us, these divisions, if you think of them from the division point of view, then you are going to have all these divisions. All of them are built on this and that, right? That idea. From their point of view, they are right. They have every right to be. You have to push yourself. You have to look on your own perspective of it. From their point of view, they probably think it should be this, it should be that. They are probably thinking they are protecting themselves. They are protecting themselves from others. They are protecting themselves. That is the way how they work. It’s amazing. Even looking back in history, all of those. I think it is the way in history of protecting your own limited superior way of thinking, everywhere. Everybody, the Europeans have done that. The Chinese have done that. Everybody, even the Native Americans. Perhaps the whites have done that. The Africans, I don’t know. Maybe they do, who knows.

What’s really happening is the ego. As long as we have the ego, and present ourselves as superior, and others are inferior, then all these activities come in to protect the superior ego. All of them come in on that point. In order to protect me.

Then there is punishing whether it is the individual, or a group or the society, or whatever it has to be punished. All of them come from that. They spent two years, the last two years of our life. People are talking about punishment. (40:00) First, they have to punish Bill Clinton. I am talking about punishment. I am a believer in God. It’s my duty to punish; someone says I’m God’s agent to punish somebody. I have a very very difficulty to deal with the word punishing. Especially, I have a tremendous problem with this capital punishment. I have a problem with considering prison as punishment rather than opportunity to rehabilitate. I’m not the only person I’m sure, but I do have a problem with capital punishment. I do have problems with that. Why don’t we kick them all out? I do have a problem with that. That is horrible. That is a horrible thing. That is another problem, the administrator person and the judicial person. It’s a big problem. It’s not like paradise, it’s a prison. It’s not like a beautiful, nice, enlightened society. It’s not. Believe me it’s not. You know the first problem is one person, the administrator, whoever that person is. We are talking about a craftsman, not about a superior person who can question and challenge. It’s quite clear to me. There are a number of people who simply serve to change the system in prison. So, one reason why the communists develop in China. I remember ten or fifteen years ago a person living in Asia. He was a Chinese person, definitely almost second-class citizenship. Fifteen years ago. He didn’t want to give it away. A person would like to do that, killing people. (A long stretch-inaudible) (50:00)

Interesting, isn’t it? I think it’s really simply a matter of the individual understanding the situation. Even if the bodhissatvas go through something terrible, they see benefits to be gained by that. Simply terrible for that person. No doubt about it. That’s what it is. We have a division now Clinton as a human being and Clinton as a president. We try to split the person. I don’t have an answer to that. I think so. Interesting. (A long stretch-Inaudible) It’s gone on for a long time. I don’t know what you call it. I said no. Can I live in your house, no. Can I drive your car, no. (1:00:00) Samsara, right? I have done that a number of times. A number of people do that. (Inaudible-back and forth with audience) No, I don’t think so. He got so upset. He went on like that you know. Probably he was a little crazy. The crazy person is not really crazy. The person who is entertaining the crazy person is the real crazy. The person who is crazy creates more problems. (110:00) That’s the policy for two reasons. At that level it might be okay. Very interesting. It’s hitting your ego, rather than yourself. (Inaudible stretch with audience about how to deal with an angry person.) I think not. If I’m in that situation, I draw a line there. It’s easy. Sometimes he’s a very angry person. Some people do that. I think it doesn’t help. It’s amazing. Whatever, you know. It’s not helpful at all. It’s extremely important. You want to benefit the person. I personally don’t recommend. I don’t think they like that either. It may be helpful to them, (1:20:00) but if you do that, they might not like it. If they don’t like it, they hate it. It creates unnecessary negative karma for everybody. You do whatever you want to do. Dharma practice is a way to combat it. Maybe you want to provide an opportunity. Never ask them to do this or do that. It’s their own fault. Don’t do that. Sit down and meditate. That’s a good idea. So, sit down and have a cup of tea. That’s very helpful. In Jewel Heart in Holland, everybody doesn’t want to do anything else except the meditation. In Jewel Heart Holland they have something to do every day. Okay, we have talked been talking about Clinton and this and that.

We are talking Odyssey to Freedom. I’d like you to see Odyssey to Freedom as a totality rather than seeing it as individual subjects here and there. Out of the totality even more important is the first one, the guru business, I’m talking Foundation of All Perfections. The first one is guru devotional practice. Guru devotional practice I talked a lot about this year, much more than the other subjects. It is a sensitive subject and an important subject and a necessary subject. It really becomes the link between the individual and enlightened beings. Individual is me. I’m a human being, and between me and the enlightened beings is my root guru. It’s very important. It’s almost like one cannot do without it. It is necessary. On the other hand, there has been a tremendous amount of controversy in the sixties and seventies right up to the nineties. All kinds of things. So, it’s important to have it and it’s important for the individuals to protect ourselves, not to subject ourselves to “abuses.” Yes? There are quite a number of abuses. It is taking advantage of an individual over another human being.

I think there is a very clear point, Guru devotional practice is a two-way street. It’s not a one-way street. It’s a two-way street. Guru devotional practice has to be done with good motivation, and honesty and sincerity. Not one way. If it’s just one way, you give opportunity for all those abuses. There are all kinds of things around. So, we do it. A number of people have tried it, and it really didn’t work. It is necessary. It is important for you to have that guru. Taking teachings is good. One takes initiations, but I think one has to be very careful because otherwise, people like the flower lamas and there is a mandala retreat. You go there and sit and watch the mandala. Then they also sometimes practice initiation together. One has to be a little careful. In the guru devotional practice, one has to maintain a guru disciple relationship. (1:30:00) One has to maintain it properly because it has become a link. That is important. Other than that, I think you should also know the person for a number of years. Be careful. There are Vajrayana teachings are taught here. Other than that, I don’t think we have lama disciples here, we don’t do that at all unless it is a Vajrayana initiation. That’s different. Otherwise, we don’t do that. I think it’s very nice. Everybody thinks someone is wonderful. Taking an initiation and bowing down and making mandala offering like this. It almost establishes a guru disciple relationship knowingly or unknowingly. I think one has to be a little more aware of it because then it becomes another guru over there. This the root of all development which is necessary, without which I don’t think you will develop much. I think it’s been proven again and again. I’d like to say be very careful with that.

Then also you should meditate on that. Those who have a guru disciple relationship you have to meditate on that. A person who represents as your guru should be able to present as a guru and present as an enlightened being. In the Theravidin or Hinayana tradition you perceive the person like a Buddha. In the Mahayana level you perceive the person as a Buddha. In Vajrayana level you perceive the guru is inseparable from that of a Buddha. So, there are the relationships that are maintained. Are there any questions?

What we do is establish a relationship first and then encounter problems later. That’s why it has become a trouble. It has become trouble in the sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties. We don’t want that to be a trouble in the year two thousand, but they will be. Buddhism has to be protected by yourself, nobody else can protect you. A number of different things you know. This is a very sensitive subject. It’s been discussed so much. Not so much by myself, not so much by Jewel Heart members, but in general, particularly in Tibetan Buddhism.

Lately it is about the Karmapa that came out of Tibet, very nice. One Karmapa who came out of Tibet is wonderful, definitely. It is a single person. So, then the Chinese communists wanted one for their society. This is great. At the same time the controversy became so much, so much so that I was bombarded by Tricycle. Then even in magazines, the latest issue of In Buddhism Today, the magazine called In Buddhism today. It came out about the other Karmapa, saying how a young Karmapa came out of Tibet. There are two Karmapas and there were six thousand people in Europe attended his initiation and accusing this other that came out of Tibet, and how it’s not true and all this. His initiation was in the New York Times Magazine I was reading last night and saying blah, blah, all kinds of things and it was a big scandal. I don’t think Buddhist people, right now we don’t need the confusion. We don’t need the controversy on which lama it is. It’s not only the Karmapathing. The controversy continues in the Nigma tradition which says reincarnation is there. There are two of them, one is right, one is wrong blah, blah, blah. The Dalai Lama recognizes one and the communists recognize the other, blah, blah, blah. Also, within Gelupa there is the protector issue and this and that and all kind of scandals and controversies.

I really don’t think Western dharma practitioners have to be exposed to that at all. There is no reason why they have to get involved in that at all. That’s my feeling. What is guiding everything is putting it in public. What is the use? Why do we want it? We have enough problems, more than enough problems in our life. We have more than enough inner problems of our own life, more than enough problems of our own emotional problems. We have more than enough problems of paying our own bills. We have more than enough problems of our obligations to society. We have more than enough of our Democrat and Republican problems. We don’t need (1:40:00) any traditional Tibetan problems. Our role here is good enough. Really, I don’t think so.

There will come in our society this guru devotional practice. That’s why it is very very important for people to able to see what you are doing. Bottom line is don’t do things when you don’t know what you are doing. I think that’s very important. That’s part of the guru devotional practice. When you practice it in the West, it is extremely popular in the west, in the east, and not only in Tibet, but also in Mongolia. It is absolutely necessary. We take refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, not to a particular lama or a particular dharma center. No one belongs to anyone else. If you want to be a member of any dharma center or sangha society, you are welcome to be. It should be your own choice. No one else is pressing you to do it. This is America. This is the year two thousand. No one has any control over anyone else. It is your choice. You know what? People can take advantage of you. Things are not very clearly known to people. Guru devotional practice, it is not widely known what it is. It is important, people are put on a cloud. It becomes part of guru devotional practice and therefore it becomes a package for you, and you got to take it. That’s not right. Guru devotional practice is a devotional practice. It’s not something you have to buy it. That’s definitely what it is.

So, that’s important to find out what it is, you know? Don’t do things you don’t know what you are doing. It is the same thing. Learning dharma, attending dharma practice, supporting the visiting monks making their mandalas, or whatever they do, whether it is authentic or not, or it is created whatever it is that’s fine. Whatever the dollar you spend on that goes a long way to support a large number of monks. It’s okay. Doesn’t matter. You have to be aware of initiations and you have to be aware of dharma society and guru relationships. It is very important. It is interesting today. It is very interesting. Consider what you are doing very carefully.

Another point I mentioned to you about centers you belong to. No one belongs to anyone else. You decide for yourself. It’s not right. If you’d like to be part of a dharma center, your own choice, that’s great, wonderful. If you would like to be part of Jewel Heart, we welcome you, as long as you pay your dues! (Laughter) I think that’s what it is, really. Nobody else owns you. Don’t let anybody else push you around. That is important. What I’m noticing is a lot of critics, I think in Ann Arbor and then in New York too. There is no lack of critics. There is a need to be critical of Buddhism and of Tibetan Buddhism, particularly. The critic has to be a good critic. If you don’t know, you can be stupid. What you are critiquing is important.

Al Gore and the Buddhists. That’s a Buddhist monastery thing. For the monks in a Buddhist monastery, they raise money. I don’t think it is a problem. It’s really so. What is it? Why they do so much of it? The idea really is biggest reason is money. That is problem. What they did is they have a number of people go over and they raise thousands of dollars. It’s not individuals, Individuals have nothing to say. They think the monastery should give the people back the money. That is a problem. It raises money. It’s a Buddhist thing. That is the problem. It raises money. Hillary Clinton goes to ask for money. A number of Republicans go and says Al Gore says the Buddhist monks go and take a vow of poverty. Now the keystone person is they talk about poverty. It is understood. But for Buddhists it is not a problem. In Buddhism it is not a concept. They don’t think about it. They are not part of it. Here you go on television and expect them to break a vow. What vow? If you want to criticize you have to critique the right thing. People think that is the criticism they can critic. That’s wrong, it’s a bad thing. If the critic doesn’t know what to critique, then it becomes funny. I think a lot of criticism is our problem, particularly those guru scandals, guru abuses, sexual and all this. Those critics, they don’t know exactly what they did and what is supposed to be and not supposed to be. (1:50:00.)

A very intelligent woman whom we know and is a very good friend of mine and came to a Jewel Heart retreat many years ago, a winter retreat. In the middle of the retreat, she said I don’t know if I can do it all week. That was early in the morning, in the cold winter. Then the whole day she goes on like this. On the other hand, at the end I said what do you think? She said I know it’s supposed to be Vajrayana so I don’t know what I have to do. It is true. She is a very intelligent, tremendously well-known person. She was not a stupid person at all. She was a society person with high standards. I don’t know what to do and she thought it was Vajrayana. The Vajrayana is not learned in one day, thirty or forty years, but that’s okay.

I think not knowing what is supposed to be is giving room for abuses. We have to avoid that. We have to protect ourselves, really protect ourselves. If you don’t know what you are doing. If you do something and you don’t know what you are doing, then you do this. I think it is important. This Lam Rim and Odyssey to Freedom provides you all the information. Number two point is life, and life is important. We recognize how important it is. How difficult to find. It sort of really reminds you to meditate. If you don’t meditate, simply you read from that angle what will happen is it becomes intellectualized. If you meditate on that it becomes your spiritual development. Without knowledge you cannot even meditate, what are you supposed to meditate? Everybody accepts meditation. But most of the people who talk about meditation, they think meditation is only concentrated. They pick up passive meditation. They do not pick up active meditation at all. Passive meditation the one that gives you calm and harmony. The active meditation is what really makes a difference in your life. Your development comes out of active meditation, not from passive. You need to know it. If you don’t, I realize it’s very lazy.

You know there is a book called The Jew and the Lotus. There is a movie, they made a movie out of it, The Jew and the Lotus. There were persons in New York City, and they wanted me to be commenting on that in a new Jewish Center in New York City. They were supposed to be commenting on the presence of the The Jew and the Lotus. They sent me the book and the movie. I could not read the book, but I just been able to run through the video like ten minutes before it started. Then what happened was persons were there around seven. They showed the movie for an hour and a half and then an hour and a half commentary. Then what I was surprised about was statement after statement in that from good Jewish people about how wonderful the Buddhism is and how they had adopted and saying how much in Judaism background was people out of the holocaust and started in the United States and about building infrastructure, temples and all this. Sort of each and every one of them had not reached their spiritual path to that level, and when you really read it and get into it, they turned to Buddhism. How Buddhism is so wonderful, they give you a five-minute instruction on how to meditate, and you can go and meditate and do that for year after year. I was thinking, “Wow.” Another person from Jewel Heart Ann Arbor, a well-known person, said whenever I got instruction, I received meditation instruction twenty years ago. Today it is still the same thing.

Then I began to really notice after The Jew in the Lotus. I thought oh my god what is really happening is a simple passive meditation style, Shamatha style. They bring that over and then concluded they can do that any time anywhere after five minutes instruction. You’re okay. Then I began to realize (200:00) the most important, active meditation, has been totally ignored, totally neglected. After that I began to emphasize this because you know here you really see. There are well known Jewish Buddhist leaders, teachers and they follow them. There are hundreds of books that have been published and you know things like that. I began to realize how much what was offered was simply sitting meditation alone, how much it was simply sitting meditation alone.

That doesn’t end there we know. We all know. If you just read through the outline of The Odyssey to Freedom, you know better than that. There is no question. It is amazing. It’s not done if teacher doesn’t know. The public doesn’t have it. They will talk according to whatever is in the public part of the teaching. So, I thought it was really amazing. I even wrote a letter to each and every one of you I think, as part of a newsletter. I thought we really have a challenge. The challenge is to augment the spiritual path in the United States today. Really, I am really sorry to say. It’s much more than anywhere.

I’ve been everywhere, but the people of Jewel Heart know much more than people anywhere. I’m really sorry to say. That’s really funny. We have been together in Ann Arbor since the eighties. People will come to Jewel Heart, starting with three or four. Even today there could be a hundred people here today, but there is not. It is coming, even from the Dalai Lama’s office comes word saying that that Jewel Heart is one of the best available, the best available they say. From the knowledge point of view, from the people who think, it’s among the best available in a Buddhism, in a Tibetan center they told me three or four times. That really surprised me. We are not the largest meditation retreat center, certainly not. The oldest center, I don’t think so. Dharma teachings for twenty years? I don’t think so. The Karmapa Center, two hundred and fifty million, is the richest. That’s why it is the money that’s behind it. Maybe we are lucky. We don’t have any scandals or any money! It may be okay. That’s because there are quite a number of intelligent people in Jewel Heart, and they work hard, and they do very much. I’m not talking about the organization. I’m talking about the spiritual work, the information. They are writing, they are editing, and they are contributing. It makes a big difference. What did I say that for?

Active meditation, the knowledge, information and knowing and then doing active meditation. This is important, the active meditation, not the passive meditation. You cannot manage with just passive meditation. You cannot progress yourself without active meditation. Active meditation is nothing more than challenging your negative emotions, challenging your ego. That challenging part is making it part of your life, becoming your spiritual vehicle. Did you hear me? Challenging your negative emotions through active meditation and adopting that in your life becomes your spiritual backbone. If you can’t do that, you know it’s a lot easier to do love and light. Everything’s beautiful, light, everything’s wonderful, aaaah. What else can you do? That’s what it is.

I’m sorry, really. What really happens is a spiritual revolution that takes place within the individual. It is an internal revolution. It’s not external, an internal revolution. Really teaching it, how you think, what you value changes. What you value goes on changing. You are a wonderful human being. What do you value? Question: what is my value? If it comes from the right-wing Christian religious people, they will tell you one value. That is your value. Liberal left wing, whatever, you know, they will tell you another value. In between that you find another value. You don’t know what it is, you presume. I like to do the right thing. How many people say, I like to do the right thing.” How do you know what is the right thing? What is the right thing? Who knows? Everybody will come and tell you this is the right thing to do. Why can’t you know? You don’t know because you can’t think, because you don’t have any information. You don’t have the value within yourself.

When you build value within yourself. When you understand and do passive and active through meditate together you will develop your own values. (2:10:00) You will notice that the values what you have will be changing. Right now, right or not, we value money a lot. You may not like to accept that. Our value is green. No really! It’s the green dollar. Yes, we value it. You will notice within yourself you are shifting that value. When you shift that value within yourself, you begin to establish your ground and begin to go on the spiritual path. Up to then you are flying in the air, love and light. It’s so funny we should look at that here. It’s a wonderful tremendous value of the Christian tradition, it’s wonderful. But then the preachers interpret it so much and then after a little while others give them hell. If you don’t do this, you will go to hell. Buddhism you don’t have hell. Then in the counterculture business comes out there is nothing called hell. Everything is wonderful, everything is beautiful. Everything is so nice. Take you to another extreme. In the middle of that we don’t know where we are, what we are. We don’t know what our values are. That’s what it is.

Then simultaneously the scientific development comes up, life is getting so fast. We are losing the point of reference. Life is getting so fast. So, you begin to notice six-year-old kids getting shot this year. Where did that come from? A number of kids getting shot, that school, Columbine. Everywhere. Where did it come from? It comes from the extreme right, extreme left and scientific development which is coming in between our values. Why are we lost? It is also very interesting if you really think. It is not the fault of the Judeo-Christian tradition. It is not the fault of the new age. It is the fault of the interpreters. The persons are in between and are presenting. Instead of presenting the spiritual path as a method of helping the individual. You know what I mean? As a method of helping the individual. It is threatening persons. You will be punished if you don’t do it. This punishment is terrible. Fear has been utilized, and the punishment has been used to threaten the individual. Also, we as an ordinary human being you and me, our understanding level is not that understanding level of two hundred years ago, or one hundred years ago. The old techniques they used two hundred years ago or whatever it is you are going to hell; it doesn’t work anymore. You know, it does not work anymore for us. They will not be able to substitute it. It is funny. I’m talking about the drugs, the chemicals we get. The chemicals, the drugs used as treatment of the people, with medicine to help the person, from the person as a human being point of view are a problem. It is very similar to this, religion has been used as threatening, creating a fear and all this. It is no longer helpful. People withdraw. They don’t want to say anything bad about the religion, it’s a religion. Ultimately society is without. I think that’s where they are.

I think the purpose of what we do in Jewel Heart is not necessarily to convert people to Buddhism. It’s not at all. It is to present an opportunity for people to think and to utilize the reasons why and use them to improve, not only ourselves, but others too. Honestly speaking, using sort of normal American language I cross my heart. I don’t care if someone is a Judeo-Christian follower. I don’t care. I honestly don’t care. But I do care if you help yourself and if you help others. That’s what I look for. Any method we use from Judeo-Christian tradition, from Tibetan Buddhism, or from any other tradition has to be proved to help. That’s what we need to do. What card do you carry? I don’t care, couldn’t care less. Whether you carry American Express, Visa or Mastercard, I couldn’t care less what card you carry (as long as I get money…laughter). I couldn’t care as long as you get help. But I belong to Buddhism. That’s what I know; that’s what I’m talking about. The whole purpose is to help yourself and to help others as well as yourself. Anything you do to help can be the vehicle, no doubt about it. First and foremost, if you know how to help yourself you can help others (2:20:00). How can I help you? I have a joke about that. How can I hep you? If you don’t know how to help yourself, then get out of the picture. Great, how can I help you. Okay, that is Odyssey to Freedom. Anything else you want to talk about? Anybody?

From audience: how does that make you angry. GR if you have anger, sometimes it becomes so much and it challenges you. Very true. I was talking to Yael, talking about a friend of ours coming to Jewel Heart. The money I need it. I’m talking with Yael, did I say that? I was saying I was talking with Yael about a friend of ours. People’s anger is so much, sometimes, that particular person who is well known.When she comes and talk to me, I try to find how she can help herself. But there is no way I can talk to her. Every single person we talk about it, single organization is “I can’t do that, I can’t do that, I can’t do that,” including her own needs. It does not need to be done. It is a terrible miserable condition.

Where does the enemy come from? It comes from this sort of condition, anything whatever it is. The more desire you have the more it the chance is it brings this sort of picture. Why? Where does the anger come from? The further you come from the lack of recognition of her own fault, so much so that anybody who comes in contact with her she bites them. Whether it is a professional, a volunteer, or an organization, she bites them. If you keep on biting your clients, the clients aren’t going to stand there. They won’t like you at all. They will go somewhere else. You may be great, but you are so hard to deal with as a person, they are going to go somewhere else. Your clients won’t tell you. I keep on telling her it’s your fault. “Yes, I know it’s my fault, I’m too tired.” You know. I spent hours and just did not get the message to her. Anger usually comes out from dissatisfaction, failure, lack of success. It comes out from failure to understand the situation. There may be the fault of the other person; it may be their fault. Whose fault it is, your fault or their fault, is not that important. You have to recognize the condition because it is impermanent, changeable. If you change the condition the whole thing will change. When you cannot change the conditions, the conditions build a wall and become more harder, and the anger arises. Make it more difficult and it becomes a total failure, spiritual and material. Just because of that. That’s what I can see. My reading. I’m sorry it’s not funny the reason, but that’s what it is. The reasons why they fail, because they could not change it. It is always me right, they are wrong. There may be truth in that, whatever it may be you have to see it and change it. You know the problem is one person’s sees it as that guy’s fault. The second, same failure. All right, it’s that guy’s fault. The third time same problem, it’s that guy’s fault. Somebody said that. It may not be the same person, different person. You have to put together and observe. It’s a great thing, nothing wrong.

It’s like you have a physical check up and see what is wrong with you. It looks like bad news, whatever you have, it’s bad news. At the same time it’s good news, it can be treated. There is a tremendous opportunity to change. The person says, “I can’t be wrong. I’m not going to change; I’m not going to change. I’m not going to help me.” It’s the same thing. “I’m right, I’m wonderful. I’m this, I’m that.”The same person was telling me other people in Jewel Heart, they found some incident where they may be able to sell it and make money. I don’t know head or tail about computer or internet or anything. (2:30:00) “I’m an expert but I couldn’t make it work, make money out of that business.” It’s very clear. I could see the problem in the individual. He would not acknowledge. “I’m not going to do that.” He wouldn’t really look at the problem. He wouldn’t recognize its bad news. I think about it, its recognition, recognize its bad news, my fault. The good news is he could change it. I can change it. You change it and the conditions will be better.When I first came in America in nineteen sixty-four, the Coca Cola slogan is, “Things go better with a Coca Cola.” So, he used the same thing, “Things go better with Gates.” So that’s it.

What do we have to say? Does anyone have a question? I won’t be here in April. (Comments from the audience on schedule.) I will be out of the country. I will be in Washington. That is the Tibetan Festival. At the end of August, we will have summer retreat. I would really encourage you all to attend summer retreat. My comings will be becoming less and less. If you don’t come to summer retreat, then you can’t be much helpful to each other. We can help you. Even if it’s difficult financially for you to make it arrangements can be made. Try to attend. What we did last year was we did Odyssey to Freedom almost halfway through. Then we did winter retreat. What we are going to do is do first part in one session and second half in other sessions. Right now, have a lot of time. It’s going to be August twenty-seventh through September third. Put your name. Even if you don’t come. So, the maximum people sitting is two hundred and there is always more than two hundred who want to come for last two three years. So, put your name in for the summer retreat even if you are not sure you can come. The advertisement will come. Last year, it filled up second day after the advertisement. Don’t wait for that. So, I’d like to say that and quit. Good luck.