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Amsterdam Talk November 2004 Gehlek Rimpoche

The other in oneonethe self ( Buddha’s Wisdom)

Well thank you so much, it'sit’s a wonderful group of people here today, a number of you I have seen before, and a number of you are new. Thank, thank you so much for coming tonight. Thanks to the board who made this possible an thanks and thanks to Francis for the beautiful introduction and thanks for the translation of Marion which made it possible to communicate at least for some of us I’m very happy to be here. I want to say hello to all of you. Tonight I am supposed to talk to you about the wisdom of the Buddha which he shared with us. It's, it’s a 2600 year old wisdom and since then Buddha's ideas have contributed from which time onwards to a millions of people's liveslivess how the Buddha’s idea’s has contributed to there life and their societiesy, to their and to there well being as a individuals and the society. This will be my subject tonight.

2600 Yearsyears ago when Buddha discovered the joy and happiness, pleasure and the pleasure and the harmony, it was t’s not only the joy, the pleasure and the harmony of the individual alone but ofofit’s the society as well. If thetThe society is as such as the society is not happy and, and the society has itsit’s difficulties, it will definitely have an effect ….on the individuals as well. You cannot livecan not liveave separately without bothering aboutabouthow the society.

is….I have the experience. When I was still, I have been living in Tibet we often . Sometimes we thought; "“Hey, we are Buddhist practitioners, we can live in the mountains, we can live in the caves, no matter whatever happens to the society." But, when the Chinese communists came up and when they started whipping everybody out the caves, it was clear we couldn'tc wouldn’t stand by ourselves.it self,. We all hadhads to leave. There is a tremendous interdependent relationship between the society and the individuals and between the nations and between the people.

We are living in a very small world. In one way we….we are living in a very, very small world. So whatever is happening, anything in the society, affects everything else.I’m not talking specifically about Holland, later I come back to that I want to talk about , the world society. It ….is extremely difficult, , one as you all know. I live in America and I was hoping Bush would loseloseing the elections. What's, we are hoping everything will become blue, whatever my friends are here, they come from the red state. But the individual person is blue. And what happened is a little to short and is unfortunate …not because the democrats or republicans this body or that body but Wwhat’s really happening in the world is .and that is a hell of a problem as we all know. I mean where is peace? This is today's. We used to say where is the war, now is the time almost to say where is the peace. And Tthis is our today’s situation. In the election ininof the USA we thought to make some changese, but unfortunatelyunfortunatelly we werewereare a little late. and a little short. So we have a very, veryan extremely difficult situations.

The Buddha calls it the degenerated age. When there is a degenerated age there are all kinds of difficulties. And we are actually passing through a degenerated age. What can we do And aat this moment what can we do as a individuals, as open- minded people, as people who are spiritually committed, and as compassionated people?, such as yourself. Take the Netherlands as an example. I have been coming here for 15 years or even more. This is thethea example of a country with , a wonderful peace loving, kind persons, open- minded, very social and accepting everybody and a welcoming. It's, it’s a wonderful. Country And you know iIt’s not the same country today., I am sorry to say, but the old Netherlands is no longer there! Number one, the beautiful guilder is no more, it's there, it’s gone into the big solid euro, and the trains are not runninggoing on time. TodayAnd all of them are never in the vocabulary of the Netherlands, as far as I know. But now Ttoday not only all those usualusually problems are there but we also have the threat plus we do have this open fact, there is the threatening, even in to ourourthe political freedom, free speech or even the or the political speech or freedom of worship. This is not the people's fault … it’s not the peoples fault but the situation is becoming more and more serious. AtAtin that way In this moment, as a spiritual person, one each and every one haseveryone hasve there a responsibility.

Each and everyone of us has our responsibility, we have to carry our responsibility. I said in the States, and I believe it, we really lost the election, two weeks ago. We just lost the election in the US, but we didn't losedidn’t loose the cause, and that is the commitment to the cause on which people have committed to saving livesa live, caring for people, developing the compassion that pushes social change. That, it becomes a principle of our lives. We cancan not walk away from that. This is the reality, you can not walk away ! If we do that you do so, it is a disservice for the future generations. We and we do a disservice to ourselves, for yourself, your own children and your own world. If we don't you don’t care about our of the world who else will?l do it. If I say you have to do something

I don'tdon’t mean you have to do what people are doing is happening in the Ukraine today::, going onto the the street and demonstrate. You , you can do that if you want to, that's , that’s your freedom, but that'sthat’s not what I'mI’m talking about. today. What I mean is that if. If you do something in society you have to have to have the principle of love and& compassion and kindness., of a principle love and kindness.

In January 2002, just after I must tell you one thing, the year after the events of September 11, 2001, in New York, in January I went to India. The moment I landed there I was asked to attendattendain a conference, lead by HisHisthe Holiness the Dalai Lama. The telephone ringed and told me that I should come, OK, let just wash my face and come. So I went there and itThe subject of the conference was: Compassion as Antidote to Terrorism. was called Ccompassion aas Aantidote tofor Tterrorism. Can you hear me, compassion as antidote for terrorism! I must admit, I came from America at that time, and so much of the Bush rhetoric was rhetoricthing wasis going on. ,… this thing and that thing.When I first saw the title: "Compassion as Antidote to Terrorism" The moment I look Ccompassion aas Aantidote To Terrorism",for compassion, I thought, "What where are they talking about? Are, are they living a few centuries behind or what is happening?" But then I sat . I must admit I had that feeling. But the moment you sit down and listened, the moment you listen to thesetheseis great Indian leaders who have been working with Mahatma Gandhi. And all these a such a great persons like this, one after the other, got up and talked aboutwhen the getting up, talking about it, and the Dalai Lama'sLlama’s people talkedtalkeding about his ideas ’s are taking about it and by the end I was . I’m totally sold on the fact that the compassion is really the antidote totofor terrorism. And h, I tell you why, here is why.

The other alternative besides compassion , is the Bush alternative. We know how that works. We ., what does it do, we don’t have to tell ourselves, Wwe are not foolish, we know what it means. It comes from And that is hatred and anger, and hatred leads to violence. Hatred brings hatred, that brings violence, and that in turnturnviolence brings suffering. As a spiritual person who likes to do the right thing, as a person who really would do the best that you could we cannotcan not really justify the violence, whatever the aim might be. The aim canaimmeans can not justify the means.aims, can we ? We can not !

InWhat’s happening Iin Iraq, andandwhat’s happening elsewhere, everywhere what’s happening, yes the Bush people proposeproposethey are building a beautiful aim: they want to build democracy, we are building a democracytie in the middle EastEeast as, is a solution for peace. That'sThat’s what they are saying, but at what price, how many lives we have to be wastedwaist, how many people do we have to hurt, how many of our own people have to die?ourselves, including the Dutch people are in Iraq

. So far I don’t know if any live has been lost. So the other alternative is violence. And the violence brings violence and that is suffering. We already have plenty of suffering, for our self we have our own physical problems, mental problems, emotional problems, family problems, society problems, all of them. We don'tdon’t need additional suffering, do we? ? Do weyou want more suffering ? No, you don’t ! Do weyou want to see other people suffering? ? No, we don't! We don'tyou don’t ! WeYou don’t want to see other people losing theirtheirre lives and thosethat of their children! an losing ther children, no you don’t ! We have to know that thate violence is not the answer.

People misuse people;;, they create divisions between the groups, divided and and then raise the violence. ThatAnd Thatthis is a anti-spiritual activity, as far as I'mI’m concerned. WhenSpiritual is, Wwhen we really talk about what spirituality is, we what is it. , wWe are talking about being a good person, being kind, being nice, being helpful. , that’s what we are talking about spiritual. We are not talking about being spiritual by developing , be a me, hatred, killing and all this. That's., we are not talking about that. That’s not spiritual, anybody can do this. I really want to make the division about this and If we are interested, open- minded, kind and spiritually interested, we have to make sure see that hatred goes down and compassion comes up. You know, we cannot changecan not switch people's attitudes from the outside, can we? ? The changechanges has to be carried out within the individuals, each and every one of us has to understand what is they the reality of a dependent system, what is the conditions we live in how we live, what hurts the people, what helps the people and what is the right thing and what is wrong. do I want to do the right thing or do I want to do the wrong thing. I think, I have to make that judgment myself and I judge and Iand make a decision and that will bring change:, to myself, my family, friends, society, country, my village. That whatever it may be, Tthat is how a kind, compassionate open mind can have a positivepositivethe effect on the peace, harmony, joy.., king, compassionated open minded it that way. No one can come from the outside and switch it, hey you to do this and you have to do that, no one can. We have seen it enough in the history, we have seen Hitler what it happened, what did he do and what did happened, what’s happening today. All of those, this is not the right way to do, no that is not the spiritual way. Such a spiritualsSpiritual practice is the only way that bringing caring, the kindness and compassion can develop.

So each individual affects themselveseeffects themselveshimself and the others. ThusAnd Tthus you affecteffect your family, the society, the country, the people in the world and therefore the Dalai Lama is right when he sayssaysid that compassion is isas the antidote to tofor terrorism. SomeSo whenever we have either difficulties in the society, whatever it is The true answer…how to overcome the difficulties is within ourself, yes within our self. You have to find the right answer within yourself, better to answer his problems. One Someof the people might think that becoming enlightenedenlightenedit is something very individual, bbvery individidual as ( metaphor) to become fully enlightened, your right and your wrong. ut that is Your wrong. because Buddha himself was a prince in India with greatgreathis responsibility for the society. They were, it’s called his subjects. When he discovered suffering, he asked questions, "Am. The question he asked was: “Aam I immune to thesethesefor this problems, like death, illness and birth?" He.( it was hitting him ?" ) SoH he learned that he washe was notis not immune. His, his second question was: "“What about my parents?" A number of this royal family are they immune for this sufferings. He learned Again, the answer waswasis no. Then he said, " : “What about my subjects whowhich I am supposed to protect?" Then he understood that all of them were in fact. These are your subject to tos about suffering, suffering of age, death, illness and so onall of those.

So when we have to look we try to find out how to help ourselvesour selvesf, we are looking for a solution, not only for the individual but for the society as a whole too.as wetoo. ll. As I told you, I began this talk with you, when the society was destroyeddestroyedgoes away in good old Tibet, no individual practitioner could an hide in the mountains and live happily ever after.forever. Those days were , that day’s are gone. That society was turned upside down.has been tipsy toped

. One of the most profound teachings of the Buddha is the interdependent system, the interdependent relationship. We all think: "“We can manage by ourselves!" We self, this is in everybody’s mind, in your mind, in my mind in everybody’s mind. Unless it pinced me I will be bothered, because I will be spared anyway, …mater whatever it is. So Wwe have that in our mind, even if we seek liberation. I am We are seeking liberation for (?) of myself, although I Iwe might say it is for the benefit of all beings. and bla bla bla ..but what we do is seeking liberation for our self. But on the other hand:, if there is no collective of beings, hand there can be beis no our self. If there is no our self, if there are no collective beings. ..There is not a single thing that can existexisthas been there without being dependent ononf anything else. If you look from a spiritual, philosophical point of view all existence is it is very much interconnected and, interdependent.. Totally all existence. Even if iIf you don'tdon’t look from the spiritual point of view, but from any other point of view, we are very much interdependent and, interconnected. We, that’s why I say Wwe do live in a very small world.

Today it is a scientific fact that the movement , the moment of a butterfly in China makes a differencedifferencet in …Europe or the USA. It this is a known fact and that much that Iit shows the interdependent connection., the interdependent relation. So every human being is very much concerned with each and every human being. We\ are in this world together. We, we are all human beings. Y You may look white, I might look yellow, but I am a human being, and you'reyou’re a human being. We are all human beings , we are together in this world, and we are very much related to and dependent on each other. So, any part of the world, if you look from any angle, including the environmental point of view, but every part is connected, one with the other. Look at it , think about it ! So From every angle we are connected, so we do have responsibilities. Buddha'sy. , you know Buddha’s teachings of being responsible to all living beings becomes reality, we can see it now.

In the old days we didn't know. Those day’’s we don’t see it, we are living in one earth, we don’t know. These people when they thought Buddhism, The people who lived in India had no idea what happened in the USA. That wasn't, it wasn’t discovered anyway, it was not even there, it didn'tdidn’t exist in their minds. . However, in if we only see it at that time, …in thatthe little continent of India there livedlivedwas a brilliant fellow called Buddha, and he knew the interdependent system of the whole existence, and hadhadthe compassion compassion and caring forof all living beings and caring for every sentient being. He looked at them as being a aof being one great mother. All these ideas,idea’s, are 2600 years of wisdom, are is absolutely relevant for us today. That is for us. Think am I right or am I just blab la bla.. think about it ! Perhaps that’s why we call him Buddha, I don’t think it’s just a accident to call him Buddha, because the guy saw it, he knew it. It is even relevant to our live. That is tThe essence of his teachings. That is , tthe essence of Buddhism. I’m talking about Buddhism, when the Buddha was talking about Buddhism,

Actually,actualityActually, the Buddha didn'tdidn'tdoesn’t talk ed about Buddhism at all. The term 'Buddhism'termname "Buddhism" was coined by an given by Buddha logic, some kind of English professor, a buddhologist, many centuries after the Buddha. started labelling, otherwise we didin’t talked about Buddhism at all. The ism’s came much afterwards. The great idea and the great thing, experience cing wthat the Buddha gained was the experience of compassion and caring, the carrying. Only compassion and carrying for not only for all other beings, but also for yourself as well. OneTwo problems, Oone problem is that , we see well the moment when we use the word 'compassion' we intend it look for the others and not for ourselves. me included. This is becausebBecause we think that thatthought compassion is some kind of thing pity for forto the others. That is the 'Poor You' feeling. We don't, you pity feelings: “Poor you” feelingsomething at that level. WeSo I don’t like to include ourselves myself in the subject of 'Poor Things'. Maybe"P being a poor Tthings". So I like to take it away, Mmaybe it is we think that subconscious, but the . The moment we think of compassion we think of the others and the . The moment we think about the suffering we thinkthinking of the individual.s. That is These are our two sspiritual problem. s. Compassion must apply to our all, ourselves self as well as the others.

It doesn't diminish me ’m nothing less, not to be the subject of Buddha'sBuddha’s compassion. Or use for that matter, for anybody. So the moment we talk about compassion, first particularly we talk about compassion for ourselves self more so than for othersthen the others. It is like I said earlier: IfSimply we don'ttalked about it earlier, Iif we don’t take care of about our things , who else will? take care of it. If I am unable to help myselfe, forget about it me helping others.you. We need help ourselves, Because I need help, am I right or wrong??. Yes or no sir, thank you, I’m glad you responds me. We first need to help ourselves.need help, we need to help our self. If you expect help from George Bush, forget it! IsCompassion and love, Iis there anyone of you who doesn'tdoesn’t like love? Everybody, anybody, I don’t see hands. Maybe you don’t notice where I’m talking about it. So Eeverybody likes love.., don’t you, specially the young ones. Love and compassion is the spiritual way to help yourself and society. Compassion is not a pity feeling. It's it’s not just: 'Poor You'Poor the poor you, it is not! Compassion is caring. When, when you don'tdon’t care, you don'tdon’t understand. You fight, you say "“Hey, hé you don'tdon’t care aboutaboutfor me." “

I am thinking of a lot of young kids. They, they fight with theirtheirre fathers, saying, "You don't Yyou don’t care for me, you don'tdon’t understand me, you don’t get me." Theit." , don’t we say that. We do that, Tthe father probably loves you and, cares for you but he doesn'tdoesn’t know how to show a way you want to be cared for.ted cares how he . So you think he doesn'tdoesn’t care, that there is no love. Don'tDon’t you see it? Love, love is the answer here for our problems. It has to be acknowledged by each and every one who is concerned, whether it is youryour self, your father or your children, whatever it is. You have to acknowledge and feel it and make it function. it. Caring is the basisbasises of compassion. A pity feeling can't be the basis of compassion. , it’s not a pity feeling. There is a The great Tibetan teacher TrungpaTrungpaDrongpa Rinpoche, he calls called that that an idiot compassion. Care and love, compassion and love, is the solution that holds the family together. Am I wrong, I hope not, and I’m sure not, that is the way the family stays together. In the same way the society is getting together. That is the Buddha'sBuddha’s teaching, that is the spiritual path. That is is absolutely relevant to our lives today. CaringThe Ccaring and love, feeling feelingto be concerned, is what the one that holds all humanity together, and brings with joy and happiness and peace to humanity. together. It has to be based on that. Other than that, there will be division, hatred and violence, which bring suffering. Don't we see this now? Didn't we have enough trouble in the last century?

How many wars have we fought, on any grounds, including religion? It is time, ladies and gentlemen, for you to wake up, believe me. The way how we can help ourselves and our society is through love and compassion. This has to be based on non-violence. Everybody knows who Gandhi was. He came to the world as a spiritual and political leader, to bring peace, harmony, and individual human rights. He started the non-violent movement called ahimsa. Commitment to non-violence is the basis for compassion and love. If you hurt someone, that is not compassion. That is not caring. If you don't want to hurt, non-violence is the fundamental principle for love and compassion to work. If you want to wake up spiritually, you have to have the commitment to non-violence. That is spiritual. That is Buddhist and I don't know much about Christianity, but I think that is Christian. That is Hinduism. It is spiritual. It is non-violence. Make non-violence the principle of conducting your life and you will have walked quite a way to the well being, joy and happiness of yourself and the world.

I do not believe that world peace can be brought about by political leaders. We always look to political leaders, the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, and so on, to bring peace. We are waiting for when they are going to bring peace. And suddenly George Bush comes in and instead of peace we get violence. Peace is something that no one can give to you. It is each and every human being's right to have it.

I will tell you why this is spiritual. The Dalai Lama calls it Universal Compassion and Warm Heart. It is person to person, human being to human being. It is personal caring, personal touch, a personal feeling and personal concern for the well being of each other. That is the universal religion. A spiritual leader like the Dalai Lama emphasizes and pushes this. That'sThat’s why it is the essence of Buddhism and almost every other religion, I bet. It is universal. It transcends white and black, yellow and white. It unites human beings. It is human action, human feeling, the right human answer to violence. Without that, I do not see how you can really be spiritual, and throw love and compassion out of the window.

Compassion is a wonderful and kind thing to do. When somebody is lying there, hurt on the roadside, it is definitely compassionate to take care of them. But that is not enough in today's world. You need to be concerned for the society, for each and every individual human being. Above all we have to be concerned for our children and their future. We enjoy this wonderful world. I spoke about the wonderful Dutch world we used to have. We must leave this wonderful Dutch world to our children. If you don't, it is the failure of this generation. This is not only true for the Dutch, but for everybody, the Europeans, Americans, Africans, Asians and middle Eastern. We have a responsibility to our society, to our children. We need to leave them a world as good as the one we enjoy. That is why we need peace and happiness, now and in future.

The world leaders, the political leaders, probably won't be able to bring this about, although that is supposed to be their job. Maybe it is in their own best interest not to do it. One has to be very sceptical. But every one of us has responsibility. I am sure you know the good old American saying, '"Charity Begins at Home'.". Peace, harmony and joy begin in your own home, with your own spouse, your own children, with your own family and society.

Particularly, it begins within the individual. If you don't have peace within you and you try to bring peace to society, it is never going to work. If you have peace, share it with your family and they will be happy. Then it works.

Buddha gives an interesting example. If you are located near a place where medicinal plants grow everything that grows around there has a better chance of becoming medicine. If you are in an area polluted by poison and you start growing things nearby, you have a higher chance of growing poison.

If you have peace within you, then you influence other people, your family, your society, then the nation and then the whole world and things will turn out right. You may think: "I am nobody, I am just a simple person. I mind my own business, I can't make a difference." But there is one thing that you must know: each and every one of us will make a difference to society. This is because the society is nothing but the collection of people. You are the people. You have the power. The power is in your hands, nobody else's. If you deny that you are people, then you can do nothing. If you are the people, you have the power to make a difference to yourself and to society. You have both, spiritual and political power.

Audience: It is hard to be compassionate to people who are not nice to me. What is a good way to handle this, without losing my energy?

Rimpoche: Well, we have all these problems. Especially, when we try to be nice and the other person is not so nice, it pushes lots of our buttons. What to do? In my opinion, do simple, little things. You try to be nice, kind and helpful. If they don't accept, don't push it. Don't hurt them. Say, "'Okay, thank you. You have the right to do whatever you want to. Good-bye." Actually, you can't say good-bye. However, if you can't help at that moment, the best is at least not to hurt. Some people have a habit of pushing - out of kindness.

When I first came to America I didn't have so much work to do. I had a group of people who came and visited me. They were the Jehovah's Witnesses. They are really nice people, very kind and caring. So they talked to me and I listened. Sometimes I would ask some stupid questions, and they would try to answer them. Then I had some more difficult questions and they thought about it and then said, "We will be back tomorrow with an answer." They came back again and talked more. They were nice people. But some of them do not know where to stop. They don't see the boundary where you withdraw. They say, "I have to help you, that's my job, whether you like it or not. I am going to help you." That is not right. You must know where to draw the line. You try to be helpful, make sure they understand and if they still don't want it, then say "Thank you" and don't hurt them. That is unfortunate, but that is how we have to function. That is my answer. You had a very practical question and it is not only you. A lot of people face that.

Audience: Aren't there some situations where you have to walk away? You yourself had to walk away from Tibet.

Rimpoche: If I had not walked away I would have been killed. But I didn't walk away from compassion, care, love and affection to my people. And and not only for them, but even for the Chinese. This may be hard for you to know, but it was for me too. I love Chinese. I love Chinese people and Chinese food. The food can be really great, if you find a good place. It is not the Chinese people who create the problem. It is the ignorance and stupidity of a few political leaders. They happen to have the power to be able to dictate over a huge number of people. The Chinese people themselves are in some cases suffering worse than the Tibetans.

The communism that is practiced in China is not the communism that Karl Marx talked about. What he said is okay and even I accept that happily. But in this case it is a dictatorship pretending to be some kind of socialist system. What they say is the opposite of what they mean and what they don't say is what they mean. It is a completely horrifying situation. What else can you do, except walk away? You can serve better from outside.

Look at the Dalai Lama. He never gave up the Tibetan people. He had no other alternative but to leave Tibet. That is not walking away from your cause. It is just walking away from the conditions. Causes and conditions are two different things. Both are interrelated. You have to change the conditions. We agree, you can't walk away from your cause. So what you try to do is change the conditions. This is a straightstraight forward answer.

Let's call it a day. Thank you very much for being here. I hope that the few words that I said tonight will help to bring compassion and care for you, your family and your society.

Thank you.

Edited

:31 /01/2005