Archive Result

Soundfile 20020423GRNLWhoAreWe

Speaker Gelek Rimpoche

Location Netherlands

Topic Who We Are

Transcriber Dimitri Ehrlich

Date 12/2/21

I think what we call this sangha stupidity we have to put a switch on it.

I like to excuse myself not sitting up there, I’ve been sitting too long so I like to stand a little bit.

I‘m very happy to see you people, many of you I don’t know, many, yes.

And many we’ve been meeting for the last couple of years, and many of you may be quite new so if i did not recognize you, my apologies.

And since I was here last year, in between that, what had happened was this book of mine came out. It’s called “Good Life, Good Death: Tibetan Wisdom on Reincarnation.” And it is interesting, you know… this book came out very close to September 11th in New York.

So it has advantage and disadvantage, both, because of September 11th. Let me put the disadvantage first.

Disadvantage is normal expected press coverage, did not get it. That is big disadvantage. But advantage is, people are very interested because of September 11th. So to my pleasant surprise, it came as a national best seller in United States, not New York Times, but national bestseller. It was sort of unexpected, really. It’s very funny, it sold in different places where you don't expect to sell it. And what does this book talk about?

If you look at this title, it can really see you three important subjects. The subject one, is good life. Subject two, point two, is good death and point three, reincarnation.

OK, let me talk to you reincarnation first. I have mentioned in that book, reincarnation is my culture. I am not here to sell you my culture. And it is interesting, reincarnation is a very funny subject and I'm quite sure in Holland it’s not different than what happens in America. People would like to know about it. But they don’t want to talk about it. Sort of, they close half eyes and tells you, “Tell me about this, halfway!” That is the people’s attitude. At least, I noticed that.

And it’s very strange subject with Western ideas. So I’m not here to sell you the reincarnation. And I really raise the possibility, and one good friend of ours, actually, the late American poet Allen Ginsberg, who had come here a couple of times with me.... so Allen told me once, Rinpoche, I do not know whether there is reincarnation or not because I have not met anyone who tells me, “I am baaaack!” But he also says, if it is true and if I have to encounter with this, I don’t want miss my opportunity.

So,that’s why I’m not here to sell you my culture, I only raise the possibility.

But the two other points here, the death and life, and I’m very much here to sell you that. You know why? Because we have to deal with it. The life, we’ve been dealing. And will continuously deal with our lives until we die anyway. Death. We’re all going to die, for sure. No doubt about it. Again that is another point, we don’t want to talk much about it. And we like to hide that, death. We do hide a lot, you know that. Though I’m Tibetan I lived long enough in the West, I do know the Western culture. People hide death. People don’t get sick in the house, you remove them to the hospital. And people don’t die in the home. Honestly speaking, you know if you really look very carefully about death with Western culture, you’re totally hiding it. From the hospital you remove to the funeral home, you don’t even bring it to the house, many people.

And what do they do? They put make ups, and put new dresses, and looks like something different. And people don;t have conclusions drawn. You know the culture where I’m from, people get sick, people get sick long time, and people look after, and then people die, and there is a smell, there is all kinds of things, and even the children know, the grandparent died. All this sort of thing, and this thing been some kind of funny little--I mean, maybe it is nice but to me it is a little funny, it hides everything.

That’s not good death, I’m talking about it. I just mentioned it casually because I noticed it, I just mentioned casually this. Good death that I’m talking about is from the point of dying person. What kind of feelings, perceptions and seeings and hearings, and what do you go through, what do you feel about it, and how do you deal with this? This is the main point I talk about here.

So each and every one of us, each and every one of you, whether you are young or old, man or woman, no matter whatever, we will all go through this. I’m included, you’re included, we will all go through that with one day.

And that is part of our life. And people talks, people don’t talk much sometimes, but whatever little they talk they will say, oh death is beautiful and it is a natural process, and it is woeful and this and that. But don’t really talk what happens to that person. How do you feel when you are going through?

So try to give you a little idee on that, though I don’t have a complete scientific confirmation on those procedures. Not complete, but to a certain extent I do have a scientific confirmation as well.

It is important to know something about it. If we don’t know anything about it, we’re going to go through with this without any pre knowledge. And the question of “what can I do for myself?” will not rise at that level. We will just go through with whatever it is. When we know something about this, what’s happening, and when we know some of the parts of our body, when it fails to function, and then we know what’s happening with us, it is helpful.

I also like to mention, talk to you here, even before we talk about death we should also talk about life. What does life mean to you? Please think about that when you go home. When you have time. When you are waiting in the parking lot. Or when you are standing in the grocery shopping lines to pay your bills. Or maybe you are sitting on the throne. Or taking a shower. These are the valuable times we have, really truly. Or maybe you are waiting for the laundry to get done. Rather than picking up some kind of Playboy magazine, you should think about that, too, you know. (laughs)

See the difference? People try to sell you Playboy magazine, I’m trying to sell you death!

You know, to me, what does life mean? I might as well share that with you. I’m coming from the background of reincarnation and I will really see two separate parts of a human being. The mind part of it and the physical body part of it; these are the two separate things that come together.

You all know there is a genome, right? These genes. And we all have seen it, these genome charts, that charts that human genome chart, we have seen it. And we all know this genetic, we all know it comes from the parents and get to us and pass to the children and it goes in that direction. Then there is another chart. It is not a mental gene, but I like to say it is a mental gene chart. That is what we call endless knot, into the Tibetan culture with those 8 lucky signs or something, we call it endless knot, which means knot thread sort of going round, not round-- sort of square, square, square but there’s no end to it.

Then you superimpose these two charts on top of it, then there is a joining point. When that joining point gets there, then we call that life. The genes that given through the parents and consciousness running round, when they meet in meeting point as long as we have this body and mind together, we are in life. The moment the mind separates from the body, then that separation, to me, is the death. That’s my stupid thought. You can get picture.

But when you die, we separate these two. The mind and the body. And they’ve been together for a very long time, the whole of our life, really. Whole life, been together. When it is separating, it’s not that easy. We go through with a certain process.

Now for example, when you talk about the body: body is nothing more than four elements. The earth element, the water element, the fire element, the air element. Are you with me? Or you’re not with me?

The flesh and bones are our earth element. The liquid in our body is the water element. The heat, digestive power, all of them are the fire element. The circulation is the air element. And when we are separating from those elements, we have signs. And these signs we can observe. We can see it. And dying people have also confirmed many of them.

So this is what I’ve been taking on this and you should recognize what’s happening, what’s going on, no matter, whoever, doesn’t tell you or not tell you, but if I know it, I have a better chance to do something for myself.

And if I notice, I can also help the other persons, my family, whoever, my friend’s parents whoever is going there, we have a better opportunity to be able to help also, and this is important. But most important thing is the individual person.

You know, how can I help myself at the time when I am dying? The answer lies now. Not then. It’s now.

And that’s why good life is the important thing. When I am talking good life, number of people may think it is comfortable life, materially comfort life.

A number of people ask me that. And even day before yesterday, just two days ago, BBC Scotland television anchor asked me, “Oh you said godo life is important, what about the homeless, what will happen to them?”

Well, it is true, good life means different things, you can have a lot of money and it is wonderful and all of that but then I have to say I am not talking about that. Then what am I talking about it? What do I mean by good life?

I am talking about life that has freedom. I am talking about your life and my life that have freedom. Yeah you may think yes we have freedom, we are in a western civilized country, we have freedom. I will say, that may be true but we don’t have freedom. And you don’t have freedom from your anger. You don’t have freedom from the hatred. You don’t have freedom from obsession. And you don’t have freedom from fear. And you don’t have freedom from confusion. So this is what I am talking about it, good life.

And many people will think, anger is good for a while, to push you. And some people even can’t help it, what had happened on September 11th, some people even can’t help it, not to get angry.

That’s the reality. Even me, I was, as a matter of fact, I was in my nephew’s school principal’s office, and saw what was happening on September 11th. Did you hear me? I had a nephew who was getting into trouble in high school, so the principal called me so I am in the principal’s office.

Very serious discussion going on, you know, somehow the school expected he is involved some kind of gang. And then suddenly some people come in and started talking and meeting is over, with no conclusion. And then I went out and went home and watched all the television. And then we keep on watching that whole day, the planes coming, attacking, the second plane’s coming, attacking, the tower is going down. The whole day. I’m sure you all have seen it. I have seen it the whole day.

And then you know, somehow then I began to connect myself that when I was a kid, when I been kicked out of TIbet in ‘59 there is bombardments and plane flying over your head and all of them I reliving today them become together, what’s happening today and what had happened before, these two comes together and I’m totally reliving my kick out time.

And when you’re watching it the whole day, you get angry. And for me, especially, you know how did I notice that I was angry? Because by 6 in the evening--I’m talking about New York time--they announced there was a big explosion in Kabul.

So I notice myself saying Oh great, get that Osama Bin Laden! And don’t kill so many innocent people. So I noticed that I myself, is getting angry. But then don’t forget, I have been in this love/compassion business for 60 years. Even then, I’m getting angry. I notice that. Then this book of mine is coming out. And here I talk a lot about anger, you know? So. So normally what you say, you preach what you practice, right? So that is the question on me now.

Then I know, if this anger becomes hatred it is terrible. And it is very terrible. Hatred is such a terrible thing, what does hatred do? What happens if you have hatred? We don’t have to tak. We can look at September 11th This is a vivid example of what hatred does.

And that is one side of my thinking. The other point is, my anger against Chinese. When I been kicked out of Tibet in 1959, I was very angry with Chinese. Then I begin to realize Chinese is a group of people, not a person. And many of them in the same condition as I was. That reduced my anger against China or Chinese. Then you talk about the Chinese soldiers. The soldiers are soldiers and if they don't carry their orders, they will probably be punished and even shot. And that was a little helpful. Then the next question comes the communist leadership. And that was a different story for me. For a while, for a long time. And I thought, I’m quite OK. But then I had an opportunity to go to China a few years ago--a few in the sense, 4, 5, 6 years ago. So on my way to Beijing I landed in Singapore. After midnight. And I changed all my money into Chinese yuans. And there’s only one bank open after midnight. Every Chinese dollar that I got had a picture of Chairman Mao on each and every note. So I had a tough time, what to do with it. And I went back to the bank and asked that lady, do you have different currencies? And she said, no. And I went back again. When I went back to her again, third time, by the time when she sees me, she said, what's the matter with you? So I said it’s a long story! But you know it gives me creeps to put Chairman Mao’s picture money in my pocket. And that shows I still have that anger and some kind of hatred, still there.

And now this September 11th. So I had to do something with my anger. I decided to sit down and work with my anger. Because my book is here, I'm talking about it and all of those, and I sit down. And when I sit down and started thinking, my mind immediately connects with this mind of those hijackers. Those hijackers, when you look at them, they are educated people. They are trained pilot. They are not educated in Afghanistan, they are educated in America and Western European countries. So what happened to their education? And what happened to their even common sense? Some kind of twisted belief overpowered their education, their common sense--completely. And I see them, a very pathetic situation. Completely fear. And not only they took thousands of lives with them, but they also destroyed their own best available thing which is their lives, they killed themselves. For me, it is very pathetic situation.

For me, it is subject of compassion. No longer subject of hatred or anger, it is subject of compassion. And I shared this story with you because I was hoping you will get the message, how your mind can link from anger into compassion. How you can bring your mind from the anger level into compassion, this is the reason why I share that story with you.

So this is what it is. And if you don’t deal with this, it becomes hatred. The hatred will not only become terrible disaster with the people, but even with yourself as well.

Many of our illnesses are mentally connected. They are coming from there. Where is the depressions that we suffer tremendously, where are they coming from? They are coming from there. The hatred. The anger. And when you cannot hate anybody else, you begin to hate yourself. So then the hatred brings violence. And violence brings violence. There is no end to it.

Yes, the American people, not only the American people but almost the whole world was angry with what had happened on September 11th. People can;t help it. People have the right to get angry. But if you don’t deal with anger and you let it become hatred, it causes tremendous pain. What is happening in the middle east today, that’s two crazy person, namely Yasir Arafat and Ariel Sharon. And they try to kill each other for 30 years. And they can’t get rid of their hatred and how many innocent people are suffering on both sides? So this is the problem of the hatred, and that’s why we need freedom from that hatred. And we can. And we are capable. And simply matter of you making your mind and helping yourself.

This is the bigger part of the picture. And then you bring down to small, for your family, for your home. And in the western countries, I'm sure the Netherlands included, there are a lot of separations between the companions, husbands and wife, and companions, there are a lot of separations.

Where are these broken families coming from? Why you make the children suffer? It is the hatred. And you cannot bear it. You are driven to the edge. It is the hatred, that’s the problem. So the bigger between the nations and small between the family. And why do you think the kids don't like their parents? Because parents push them too hard so they didn’t like it, they hate it. Don’t think kids as kids, think yourself as kids, and look why you didn’t like your mother in law. What’s the matter, what happened?

[TRANSLATOR: When you’re a kid, you don’t have a mother in law.]

(laughs)

Ok, really, so they all hatred’s problem. So you can deal with this, spiritually. And you can deal with this meditatively. You can deal with this, psychoanalysis. And there are a lot of ways of doing it. So why don’t you pick up one and help yourself? And not only the hatred is a problem, obsession is an equal problem. The fear is an equal problem. So this is part of our life.

And that is what I learned for 60 years in Tibetan Buddhism. And that’s what I try to put in a simple little English book form, without involving to be Buddhist, or to become a Buddhist, one can help themselves. The interesting thing is, my book, in the States, you can find under “Life” not under Buddhist sections, in various book stores. And some book stores carry in both sides. But mostly Barnes & Nobles carries at Life part, and Borders carries at Life part--these are sort of big book stores, control all independent book stores in America, unfortunately.

So I have said, this is my present so I hope it has some usefulness for you to be able to help yourself and then one thing, I forgot. Come back to it.

Why did I write this book? Two reasons. Number one, I already took the advance from the publisher, I have no money to give them back. (laughs) It’s true!

Number two, it is my hope it may ease the pains of the individuals, a little bit. And what is need of today in society? A spiritual part. Who can help yourself? Without involving yourself with any denominations. People loves spiritual. There is a tremendous hunger to really get good spiritual. And people also afraid of organized traditional spiritual things like Judaeo-Christian traditions--Catholic today is biggest problem. And Buddhsim and Hinduism. So people are afraid of the yidams and names and boxes and identifications and all this. Yeah. But then I’m trying to present here, without any of those, how you can have what is the real essence of the spiritual path. That’s what little I know, I try to give you the bare bones. So this is probably, I’m talking too long, you’re probably getting tired. And I’m quite sure there’s limited--I’m very surprised to see the German translation, I did not know it’s there. For the first time I saw it right outside this door.

I know German translation’s going on, I thought it’s going to take a long time. And I also know it’s being translated into Korean language, and I think they’re translating it into Chinese, too. I have no idea, big surprise. But what I saw here is the American edition, there’s very few here. And there’s a British edition and it is issued by the Penguin Books. Penguin UK. And it is cheaper. (laughs) Quite cheaper than American edition!

I went to London so I saw that they are releasing that and I thought it is quite cheaper, $17 dollars or something, American is $24.

And if you don’t get enough, then I have a request for you. I have to request for you. The request is, if you go to your books stores, whatever the big bookstores are here in Nijmegen, if you go and ask them if you have that book, is it coming from Penguin UK and I want it, even if you don’t buy, it helps! (laughs) So that’s my request. So if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to entertain with you.

AUDIENCE: Are there any advantages of the way we treat death in the west?

RINPOCHE: Well, the advantage what I saw is you don’t have to deal with mess. It’s not really without any advantages, because you don’t have to take a lot of trouble, you don’t have to be afraid, particularly if you are a kid, and all of those, and of course, from the society point of view it has its advantage as well. Everything what is done in the old way is not necessarily the best and have the best advantage, everything what is done in new is not necessarily the best or the worst. So both have advantages and disadvantages as well, for sure.

AUDIENCE: You said we don’t have good life because we are not free from hatred. Could you please tell something about where this hate comes from.

RINPOCHE: From anger. And if we don’t handle with anger--you know a lot of people talk about anger is bad and this and that. This and that.And it’s very true, anger is bad. But as I said, sometimes we can't help it without getting angry. You can;t help it. We can’t help it, particularly people that you like it, who you love, when they do something irritating, you get angry. It is the human nature. No matter how much we pretend we’ll be not, but we get angry.

I’m telling you this, my recent experience of dealing with my nephew. So I told you, even I am 60 years in love/compassion business, sometimes you get angry. September 11th is example. So that’s the reason why I shared the story of my mind reaching the mind of the hijacking pilot, picking up the fear and yet with that tremendous fear, they still destroyed everything, including their lives.

And that shows the how can anger change into compassion.

You people are very kind person, I tell you. You know at the beginning of October when I went to book signing, and you talk about compassion, people will boo you. True! Not only I got booed, Richard Gere got booed. People boo you. Because people are so angry, you can't help it.

But at the end of the day, how can we have our life? How can we bring our children without compassion and without love? Can you imagine a Dutch family bringing Dutch children up without love? Is it possible? No. It will not be.

Not possible.

So the bottom line, down the road, at the end of the day, the love/compassion is really makes sense, peace makes sense, war does not make sense.

That’s it.

I guess there is no more question and then, and I do have a..what do I have? A teaching retreat coming up here, it is mainly for the Jewel Heart peoples, but it is really sort of very basic wonderful spiritual path, that how does one really go? What happens? And all of those. And if anyone is interested I hope there is room, and I like to welcome everybody.

OK, then that’s it. Thank you so much for coming here, thank you for all of you, and thank you you for your translation, thank you for your introduction, thank you everybody for making for the arrangements and thank you to everybody, thank you.