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SHANTIDEVA’S GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE CHAPTER 8: MEDITATION PART IV

Oral explanations by Kyabje Gehlek Rimpoche

20040928GRAABWL

Talk 1: 9-28-04

Good evening everybody. I have something to tell you. A very good friend of ours, a rimpoche who has been to the United States and attended our summer retreat a few years ago, Tarab Rimpoche, who lived in Denmark, has passed away. It happened last Thursday. Two of our members from Jewel Heart Holland, Ed Houppermans and Peter van Waanrooij, are representing Jewel Heart and me by attending the funeral. We should all pray that whatever wishes that he had may be fulfilled.

He was an extremely great person, absolutely clairvoyant. I was told that he was sick for a while, but was continuing to teach. Then in Brussels, he got quite badly sick. His associate, Dr. Lene Hendberg from Denmark, tried to take him back to Kopenhagen, but the doctors said, "You are going nowhere with him. The only way to take him back to Denmark is in an ambulance." That would have been too far away. However, he got better. His kidneys started functioning again and his blood sugar level settled and they took a regular plane three days later to Kopenhagen. There he went to hospital and once there, the blood sugar dropped again and that's it. But even during his last minutes, there were a couple of people there and Rimpoche was making jokes and told Lene Hendberg, "I may go away today, but you don't stay here, but continue to do the work shop." He sort of made her go at that moment to do their work in France. He was making jokes and laughed and then he suddenly went. So there is no doubt he was a great person and when people like him go, we simply pray that whatever their wishes are maybe fulfilled.

The wish that could not fulfilled in his life was setting up his teaching of Unity in Duality for Tibetan scholars in India. His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, had shown quite a lot of interest and encouraged him to do that. But he couldn't finish this. That was his last wish. He told Dr. Hendberg, at least to share this knowledge with Tibetan kids. Hopefully, all his wishes may be fulfilled.

I myself am not very well today. I have some funny cough or cold. I was thinking of staying home, and when that happens, we do something else, like have some different people speak. But this year it has been more intense with our involvement of the Bodhisattvacharyavatara. So today, rather than cancelling, I will still teach for some time, but also suggested to get Robert Thibodeau to present astrological predictions for a little while.

His predictions are sometimes very scary. During one of our winter retreats he presented his predictions and said, "If I were you, I wouldn't get into a plane today or in the next two days." I went back to the hotel afterwards and when I turned on the TV, they said that there just had been a plane crash in the Halifax area. Robert also predicted the loss of the presidency for the senior George Bush during the first Iraq war. He was not going to be re-elected. Robert went on a radio interview with J.B McCarthy and when he presented this prediction, J.B McCarthy said, "If Bush loses I will give you a Rolls Royce." So, finally, after the election, Robert received a toy Rolls Royce. J. B. McCarthy sent a Rolls Royce to pick him up for the radio interview and to drop him back and then he gave him a toy Rolls Royce.

At the last election Robert predicted that G.. W. Bush would win. I do remember, when first Al Gore was declared winner in the Florida election, somebody called me up and said, "See, Robert's predictions can sometimes be wrong." I said, "Wait for a minute" and you know how things turned out.

So I thought it would be interesting to hear Robert's prediction for the current situation. Then, after that I will talk for a while.

(Follows 20 min talk by Robert Thibodeau, not transcribed)

Rimpoche: Verse 139 already told us that we should switch around our own position with that of others. We normally have the perception of "our side" and "their side" very strongly. From verse 140 on, quite a number of verses suggest that we should exchange in two ways. One: self cherishing should be changed into cherishing others. This has already been mentioned in the previous verses and we also connected that to two, three verses from the lama chopa. That shows us how to change self-cherishing for cherishing others. That is the perceiving point of view. Then there is another way:

Verse 140

Considering lesser beings and so forth as myself,

And considering myself as the other,

(In the following way) I should meditate upon envy,

competitiveness and self-importance,

With a mind free of distorted concepts.

Shantideva here is suggesting another approach: think that you are actually somebody that you have been thinking about. Visualize that I am you and you are me. Whenever I say "you", insert "me" and whenever I say "me" or "my", let that refer to others. This is changing the acknowledgement. Acknowledge you as me and me as you. Just visualize that "you" is "I" and "I" is "others". In other words, whenever I use "me", it will refer to "you" and vice versa. So now, when you say "me", you actually think about a particular, other person. Then, whenever you say "others", or "all sentient beings", then you think "that is me". You are just switching them on the imaginative level. You are the others and the others are you.

When you think that way, the "you" comes in three different categories. They are either somebody who is higher than you, somebody who is equal to you or somebody who is lower than you.

It is interesting. When you imagine this vividly, you will meditate on jealousy, pride and competitiveness. These verses tell you that with regard to higher, lower and same-level people you should substitute yourself for others and others for yourself. Once you have established that, then your mind, without any doubt, hesitation or creative thoughts, should just watch how you react.

Normally, when we see somebody who is higher or better than us we generate jealousy. When we see equals, we generate competitiveness. Whenever we see lower ones, we get that big, empty-headed ego-pride. That's the reaction we usually have. Watch how your mind reacts. You will immediately react with jealousy towards the more successful, with competitiveness towards the equally successful and looking down on the less successful, saying, "I am better". This is our normal function.

Now switch yourself with those three types of people, the more successful, equally successful and less successful persons. Think, "I happen to be them, they happen to be me." Now watch what your jealous, competitive and proud thoughts are doing. Do you see it? There will be complete confusion. You put yourself on the other side and then notice that you generate jealousy to yourself!

This is hard to communicate, but the normal, usual habitual attitudes of jealousy, competitiveness and pride are getting somehow confused. You are getting second thoughts. It is almost like when you have a trained dog that is used to barking as soon as a stranger walks in. Imagine what the dog would think when the stranger that is walking in happens to be its own owner. The dog will be confused completely. He will think, "What - am I attacking a stranger or my owner here?" He won't know whether to bite or to wag its tail.

Just like that our mind will now be confused with regard to our usual habitual patterns of generating jealousy, competitiveness and down-looking pride. This is Shantideva's suggestion in order to cut down on our negative emotions. So let's do this. This is exactly what verse 140 tells us.

There is one incident I recall from about 14 years ago. I was living in 508 Cherry St in Ann Arbor, sitting on a little dining room table, talking to a friend. This friend told me that their partner had talked about a movie they saw together. In the movie, they were accusing the big, fat, singing lady. Now that other person watching the movie said, "I am that big, fat woman." That person identified so strongly with the big, fat singing lady, that at the insults against her she shed tears. Then in addition to that I said something terrible that made matters even worse. Don't let me repeat what I said. But the idea is this: this person was thinking: "This big, fat lady is me. Therefore, I am now the subject of criticism." And that is exactly what Shantideva is telling us to do. Just switch the label "me" and "others", "I" and "you". Switch you to me and me to you and then let your trained emotion-dog go, as if a stranger was knocking on the door. That would be a jealousy reaction. Now the object of that jealousy happens to be me. So how am I going to react? In this way, meditate jealousy based on yourself.

This is the way the next verses are to be understood. Without any other thoughts, just like usual, let the jealousy come up, create the competitiveness and create the pride of looking down on others.

Verse 141

"He is honoured, but I am not;

I have not found wealth such as he.

He is praised, but I am despised;

He is happy, but I suffer.

This verse is about creating jealousy based on yourself. You are thinking, "People praise this one, they don't praise me. This one is getting a lot of respect and I didn't get it. People praise this one, and they insult me. This one is happy, I am suffering."

Watch what happens to the mind. There are all these jealous thoughts, like "In reality I am better, but people think that this one is better. They think this one is better and they don't like me much. They think I am the bad one." But the question is: who is "this one" and who is "me"? What if "this one" happens to be me?

Verse 142

"I have to do all the work

While he remains comfortably at rest.

He is renowned as great in this world, but I as inferior

With no good qualities at all.

This verse continues the same idea by saying, "I work hard, this one doesn't do anything. What I should have found, this one did. People know this one to be highly qualified and they think I am worthless and without qualities."

This is how you meditate on jealousy. Deep down, if you look, these are the thoughts of jealousy.

Verse 143

"But what do you mean I have no good qualities? -

I have all good qualities:

Compared to many he is inferior,

And compared to many I am high.

This verse tells you, if you don't have good qualities, what to do. Think, "I must get all good qualities."

Verse 144

"The deteriorated state of my morals and views

Is not due to me but due to my disturbing conceptions,

In whatever way he is able he should heal me,

Willingly I shall accept any discomfort involved.

This verse contains very Buddhist talk, saying, "This one has gone out of morality, perfect view and [meditation]. In other words, the jealousy still thinks that "this one" is morally wrong and doesn't have perfect view. These are very important terms in Buddhism: morality, view and functioning, living your life. These are very important things. That includes meditation. These three are considered extremely important. When Locho Rimpoche came to New York he chose this as his subject for his talk in Jewel Heart. First he suggested the Three Principles, but I said that might be too much for a one hour talk. A while later he said, "All right, I have decided to talk on ta gom chö sum, that is perfect view, perfect meditation and perfect functioning or behavior in life. These are considered extremely important.

Perfect behavior is extremely important. When you insult people in Tibet by saying that they are immoral, that is a really big deal. It is worse than calling them a thief. Especially young monks, if somebody calls them immoral, they would straight away understand that they have been accused of breaking their vows and fallen from the monkhood. That is the biggest insult and they would probably take out a knife and fight. They will challenge and that would really be perfect morality then! [laughs]. Anyway, without good morality you are not considered a great spiritual person. All spiritual qualities are based on morality. That's why we take vows before taking initiation. The foundation on which you give initiation or any transmission, is taking vows. So to be told that there is something wrong with your morality is a big insult.

The second is the view. This is not about Republican or Democrat views. In an election year Republican and Democrat views seem quite important. But in absolute reality - and even in relative reality - it is not that big a deal at all. We think it is a big deal because it makes a big difference to a lot of people. Likewise, the view in the spiritual field is considered very important. The perception of absolute reality is equally important in the spiritual field as the political viewpoints are in the political field.

In the United States it seems that the Democrats look more after the middle class people and take care of their needs and the needs of the poor. In their view the rich people are around too, but they can manage. It is more the point to make sure the middle class and the poor are looked after. The Republicans, on the other hand consider the rich people more important. George Bush said it the other day: "If you tax the rich, the rich will break and then who is going to pay?" According to their view, if the rich are looked after, they can make a lot of money and that will trickle down to the middle class. From there it will still drop down and benefit the poor. Those who like the Democrat view think the others are terrible and the Republicans think the Democrat views are terrible. They both have their reasons.

Likewise in the spiritual field, the viewpoint is important. Most people believe that in absolute reality there is something fixed and solid that will continue. If you think like that there is no room for change. Without room for change there is no development, which means that the individual person cannot improve their situation. Everything is fixed and planned. If that is so there is no need to work on the spiritual field. There is no chance for anyone to improve. The reason why Buddha says that in absolute reality there is emptiness is because of that. When there is room and space, anything can be done. If there is no space nothing can be done. A solid structure is difficult to change.

ka la tong pa nyi rung wa

de la tam che rung wa gyur

ka la tong nyi mi rung war

de la tam che rung mi gyur

If you can accept emptiness you can accept anything. You can adapt to any culture. You can adapt into any function. If you cannot accept emptiness there is nothing you can do because it is solidly fixed.

For the spiritual person the view is very important. If you lose that there is no point in doing anything. If everything is pre-planted and fixed, it is all set up and will happen by itself. It is just a matter of time and you have to go through. A number of us do have that idea quite a lot, although we will not admit it. At the same time with modern scientific education we also have the idea that things are not really fixed. We know that many molecules together combine and create a certain thing. You can throw them around and shatter them into pieces and all the molecules will go in all directions. Then you can collect them and make them into something else. With that idea we don't need to have a pre-fixed, pre-judged perception.

Now the second part of verse 144 talks about healing. We talked about morality and view. That leaves meditation and livelihood. In terms of livelihood, whatever has been destroyed should be healed. In terms of meditation also, whatever has been destroyed needs to be healed.

These are the three major points. Here it says, "Whatever I have lost, I have not lost through my power. You have the power, so you should heal me.' That is the argument. Then you have think, "Who is that "you"? The answer is, "It happens to be me. Oops. I am occupying that chair." If you are going to heal that, then any harm that comes in the process you should accept gladly and happily, like sick people sometimes have to go through harsh treatment. Sometimes harsh treatment is welcome because it is healing you. So, on the spiritual path, if any obstacles or difficulties arise, you should accept them.

The next verses will have very similar arguments. But I am not going to read them today. I will talk about them next week.

It is interesting. The trick is to get your emotions completely confused. You are looking at the enemy and a lot of anger and hatred arises. So you make yourself into the other person and the other person into you and watch your reactions. There will be big confusion. We ourselves actually are not confused, because we know we have decided to switch. Who is confused is the emotions, the negative ego-oriented emotions. This is one way of challenging the negative emotions.

I guess that's it and thank you

PS: Rimpoche about the upcoming 1000 arms-1000 eyes Avalokitesvara initiation:

This upcoming initiation on Oct 23-24 will hopefully begin an hour before noon on Sunday, so that people driving or flying in can go home on Sun night. Maybe we ask everybody to pick up a brown bag lunch, so you can have a short break and eat your sandwich. If possible, some nice drinks can be arranged.

I would like to encourage a lot of you to attend. This is kriya tantra, the beginning of tantra. It is the source of love and compassion. I have chosen this for a number of people who are not really ready for a vajrayana commitment, yet would like to know a little bit and get in touch. It is also the source of compassion in the form of Avalokitesvara, and it has no commitments besides taking refuge or something. Otherwise there is no commitment. There is no Six Session Yoga, there is no mantra commitment. If you want to say the mantra you can, but you don't have to. There is no sadhana commitment. This is a good way of getting in. The initiation, though a full initiation, doesn't have four initations, but only two: the water or vase initiation and the crown initiation. It is not the vase, secret, wisdom and word initiation like in highest yoga tantra. The system here is much easier, no commitment, yet it is a full-fledged vajrayana initiation. It is really a good opportunity for everybody.

I am recommending you to come, because I am purposely doing it that way. Before we were always only doing highest yoga tantra initiations and people were very enthusiastic in the beginning, but then the commitments were difficult and so this is a very good way and I strongly recommend it.

If you like to come, please tell somebody in the office or store, because if we have too many people we can still make arrangements to go to another, bigger place. If you show up last minute and don't tell anybody, we may not fit in here. Just drop an e mail to the office at: registration@jewelheart.org.

Thank you

9/30/2004