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20020305GRAABWL

CD of 03-05-02

Welcome tonight. I won’t be here for the next few weeks, as I am going to travel to India. I will be back here for the Tuesday night on April 9th. While I am away, I don’t want you to continue with the Bodhisattvacharyavatara, but would like you to pick up the Odyssey to Freedom, particularly starting with the Preliminary Practices. To do that, I want those who are going to lead the sessions, to go by the Gaden Lha Gye ma verses, with the exception of the invocation. It is mainly the Seven Limbs and then the Migstema. Every presenter should concentrate on two verses each. So that goes for the next four weeks, from March 12th, March 19th, March 26th and April 2nd. There won’t be that much meditation, but a little bit of focusing and then practicing together. That should be good for everyone. This will be called Course of the Preliminaries. I will be here for April 9th and after that I will be in London and Europe. During my absence then Aura is going to do a course on the Common with the Lower Level according to the Odyssey to Freedom for four Tuesday night sessions.

While in India, I am going to make offerings to His Holiness the Dalai Lama as well as to the monasteries. If anyone would like to make a donation towards these offerings, that would be great. It is building a connection with the Dalai Lama and the monks and nuns.

That brings me to another point. We do sell tangkas and images in our store. We do this for the purpose of making good tangkas, etc, available for people. But any profit from this must be kept separate and not used for operation expenses and things like that. It should only go towards offerings. To sell images for profit is one of the worst negativities. So any money coming in for that has to be used separately and only for offerings to the monasteries, monks, etc. This is to make sure that any members of Jewel Heart, including those listening on the internet, will not have unnecessary negativities.

Let us continue with the Chapter 6 of the Bodhisattvacharyavatara. We have reached up to verse 121. Let’s move on to the next verse.

Verse 122

Because of their happiness the Conquerors are delighted.

But if they are harmed they are displeased.

Hence by pleasing them I shall delight the Conquerors.

And by harming them I shall hurt the Conquerors.

The Tibetan original says that when people are happy in their body and mind and have joy, then the Buddhas are happy. When people have physical suffering and uneasiness and worry in their mind, that causes the Buddhas not to be happy. Therefore, hurting people hurts the Buddhas. The purpose, the goal, of the enlightened beings is to serve and help people, to bring joy to them, to make them free from suffering. When we create suffering for people it hurts the Buddhas. I am talking here from the Buddhist point of view, so I am always saying ‘Buddha’. Actually it goes for all enlightened beings. They have one goal and only one goal and that is to serve and help people and lead them to joy and happiness. If possible, they want to lead them to ultimate happiness, if not, at least make them free from sufferings. That is why in every Buddhist practice you see prayers like the Four Immeasurables:

May all beings have happiness

May they be free from suffering

May they have the joy that has never known suffering,

May they be free from attachment and hatred.

It is an unimaginable scope, but actually not the ultimate thing, not deep or anything. It is more like the ABC – type of thing, particularly for the Mahayana. It is more like an introduction or even prior to the introduction. The reason is that the aim of the enlightened beings is to serve and help people. They have no other purpose. Why do they exist? Because they want to serve people. Why did they become Buddhas? Because they need to serve people. It is the whole purpose of their existence.

Therefore, if we create suffering even for a single person they become unhappy. They look at all beings like they are their mother. It is like the mother who has only one child. This mother’s whole reason for surviving is because of her child. If you look at her mind, the most important thing on her mind is her child, especially if it is her only child. If that child is hurt, how much the mother is going to be hurt! Just like that, the Buddhas get hurt, if anyone hurts people.

That is the reason why love and compassion is so important. It is so difficult to practice. Our mind and our culture, our tradition will teach us revenge. Even those who are really good, may not say that they are looking for revenge. They will justify it by saying that they want to bring justice. It is so hard to practice love and compassion and it is not the fault of love and compassion but the fault of our negative addictions and our culture and tradition and of our ego.

It is unfortunate that yesterday we lost eight of our own people in Afghanistan. They died somewhere up on 11 000 feet, fighting the Taliban. I am sure an equal number if not more on their side died as well. There are so many things like that happening in the world today. It is true. We were sitting here peacefully, doing nothing and the terrorists did come and attacked on September 11th. Another unfortunate issue is the Middle Eastern situation, which has been going on for a long time. Likewise, there are problems in other countries. Already we are involved in the Yemen, in Georgia, in the Phillipines. Who knows what is going to happen and how many people are dying! It is not that you have to leave the terrorists to do what they want, but at the same time….I don’t know. It is very unfortunate.

From our point of view, we can only hope that innocent lives are not unnecessarily lost, whether it be American lives or any other lives. I was watching the press conference of the Secretary of Defence and somebody asked, ‘You said that all these terrorists are now gone.’ The answer he gave was, ‘I never said it is going to be easy. I always said it was going to be a long battle.’ He conceded that there must have been at least 300 people in one place fighting the alliance. When asked how they got there he said, ‘These Afghan and foreign fighters change sides so fast. Today they are totally loyal to the new government and tomorrow they are Talibans. The day after that they are something else.’ That really shows that they are not professional soldiers. They may be trained by Osama bin Laden or whoever, but they are not real military divisions. They might have had 6 months or at most 2 years of training. When they pick up a gun they are soldiers, when they put it down they are civilians. We are killing them, and there are quite a lot of them. Then also, why do we have to shed the blood of young American boys unnecessarily, at 11 000 feet up there in Afghanistan? All we can do is dedicate our virtues, so that whatever negativities they may have may be completely purified. If you come from the background of reincarnation, you can also pray that they may have a good future rebirth, different from this life, that it may not have to end in a funny way. The American people dying there are not old people. They are not 60 years old, they are in their 20s and 30s. Their lives have been interrupted. Even the loss of one life is too much. So we simply pray. Love and compassion are so difficult under these circumstances.

Somebody asked me during the retreat, “You said, when sentient beings are hurt, the Buddhas are not happy. Are you saying that the Buddhas experience unhappiness?’ It is a good question. We do say that the enlightened beings do not have pain and misery. They live in total joy and happiness. On the other hand, the statement that Buddhas are not happy when people are getting hurt, is also true. The enlightened state is free of pain, but it is not a numb or frozen state. If you are numb, you don’t know what feels good and what feels bad. This is definitely the opposite of that. If it was a numb state we would be in big trouble. We are working to develop enlightened qualities and end up with numbness? That would be like being under the influence of an anesthetic. And even anesthesia contains laughing gas. It makes you happy and you can laugh. So definitely the enlightened state is not a numb state. You definitely know what is good and bad. The question is: Do you feel good or feel bad? Being unhappy about the suffering of others, do you feel pain yourself at that level? Probably not. This is where you draw the line. The Buddhas feel unhappy and happy. They do have joy and unhappiness. But that unhappiness doesn’t bring them pain. You have to understand it in this way. Otherwise enlightenment would be a big problem.

The traditional teachings say that the Buddhas don’t have likes and dislikes. That is true. They don’t have any dislike at all. However, they need to know the difference between good and bad. If they did not know this they would become stupid. So bad things don’t bring them pain. This is an important philosophical issue. We need to have some understanding on that. There is disappointment even for the enlightened beings. That is probably the right word.

Why, if you hurt people, don’t the enlightened beings like it? If you hurt people and at the same time make offerings to the enlightened beings, but they are not going to enjoy them. The next verse is telling us that:

Verse 123

Just as desirable sense-objects would give my mind no pleasure

I my body was ablaze with fire,

Likewise when living creatures are in pain

There is no way for the Compassionate Ones to be pleased.

This is quite easy to understand. The example says that if there is somebody whose body is completely being burnt from all directions and you would offer them some goodies, how could that person be happy with these goodies? So if on the one hand you make offerings to the Buddhas, but on the other hand you are hurting people, how can the Buddhas be happy with that? This is quite sensible. We don’t have any difficulties understanding that. This verse relates back to a sutra, which talks about an event during the Buddha’s time:

Ananda (Tib: Kunga O) came to Buddha and told him, ‘There is somebody who is in the business of killing a lot of people. At the same time he is making offerings to you, Buddha, and to the monks. Is that something good?’ Buddha said, ‘How can it be good? I am burning from crown to toe from his actions, and then he is giving us food and shelter. Kunga O, is it like this: If somebody’s body is being burnt completely and you offer this person sweets, is that person going to be happy about that?’ Then Buddha said to Ananda, ‘Ever since becoming a Bodhisattva, when I see the sufferings of the people, I am never satisfied and relaxed at all. I see the suffering of the people all the time. It has given me such a sense of urgency, that I can never ever let it go. I never reach a point where I can say, ‘Oh, now my work is done and I can relax.’

It is not like that with us. When we have done a major job we can sit back and say, ‘Oh good, now it is done.’ Buddhas never have that. Well, maybe we should not become Buddhas then. Maybe we are just buying suffering for ourselves! I am joking. Don’t take that serious. I am just being sarcastic.

Verse 124

Therefore as I have caused harm to living beings,

Today I openly declare all my unwholesome acts

That have brought displeasure to the Compassionte Ones.

Please bear with me, O Lords, for this displeasure I have caused you.

You know, Stephen Batchelor, the translator of this text, is British. That must be why he is saying ‘O Lords’. It is the United Kingdom’s system. There is king and queen and lords and ladies. So now even the Buddhas become Lords - Oh Lord!

This verse is saying, ‘I have hurt people and I have disappointed the great beings. All that has created negative karma for me. I would like to purify that. Whatever disappointment I have caused you, please forgive me!’ Purification does not necessarily mean that you have to declare all your faults openly. This is a strong influence in the Judaeo-christian tradition. In Buddhism you purify everything without openly declaring it. Open declaration of faults is not even encouraged. Any institution, monastery or church, would just get another opportunity for corruption.

When I was a monk we had to do purification every forth night. The ritual was done together, with the whole group of monks. All the negativities of body, speech and mind that you are not supposed to commit are all listed in the text you are reciting. Everybody stands up, one starts reading the verses and everybody joins in and all say it together. The declaration of faults is thus done in public by everybody together. No one says to somebody else, ‘He, you stole somebody’s purse’, or ‘You had a beer last night’. Individual faults openly declared provide just grounds for corruption. If all the people involved are good people there would be no problem. But ever since James Bond, in one of his movies, sneaked into a church and sat in one of these confession boxes and listened to people’s confessions, there are no more secrets. So if the church or whoever knows everything, it may not be such a good thing. Yes, you should declare your faults. But you don’t have to tell everybody. What you need is very strong regret from your mind and a very strong commitment not to repeat that negative action. If you have regret, the decision not to repeat the action will come automatically.

When I was about nine or ten years old in Tibet, we used to get dried, sugar-coated oranges still in their skin from China. In one case there must have been rotten oranges. There is this cultural assumption in China. The Chinese think that the Tibetans must be stupid. They think you can give them anything, you just have to put some sugar on it. For example, the Tibetans do enjoy Chinese tea and treat it as a great thing. Actually it is the left-overs from the good tea that has been used already. The Chinese collect these left-overs, break them up and sell that to the Tibetans. We Tibetans think it is great tea – and we do make the best of it, for sure. Anyway, these oranges I had must have been rotten. I was sick for a long time. There were no antibiotics in Tibet in those days, except anisin powder. I used to have a packet of anisin every day, whether I needed it or not. I kept on eating it. In any case, since then I could not eat oranges for a very long time – even after leaving Tibet. In India you get these wonderful oranges from Sikkim and Bhutan. They are fantastic, not like the tangerines you get here. Even then, I could not bring myself to eat them. I kept remembering the pain from those rotten oranges. I could not stand the smell of oranges for about thirty years.

This is exactly how much regret you need. Then not repeating the negative action will come automatically. You don’t want to get anywhere near. However, regret does not come to us easily. We think, ‘Well, I have to regret, but actually I did good. I really got him there. Okay, now I have to purify.’ That won’t be good regret.

Regret is important, whether you declare the action or not. You can declare that by yourself, in your own mind. Openly declaring all your unwholesome acts might not be a very wise thing to do. Do it by yourself, for your ears alone. You really need the regret.

Why do I cause harm to other living beings? Because of my ignorance, not knowing, confusion. That is the fault of my ego, which is the combination of fear and ignorance. This is what makes me confused and I thought I was doing something that was good for me. Actually I have been harming people.

I have to stop here, because it is getting late. I hope you will all have a good month and you will do something useful for yourself and for everybody else, your companions, your friends. Remember, people are important, and you cannot hurt them.