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Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life–The Wisdom Chapter Part 4

with Gehlek Rimpoche

Ann Arbor – November 8, 2005

Welcome to this last Tuesday that I am going to talk tonight for this year. There will be other programs, such as the 12 links talks by senior students. I will be back for teachings on Tuesdays by January next year.

I will reschedule the wisdom teachings next year, because doing 1 hour a week is not doing much good. Last week end in New York I did a wisdom teaching over the week end, especially on Saturday from 1 to 5 pm. That works much better and we are going to do the same in Ann Arbor. We have confirmed to be doing this for one Saturday every month, from 1 pm to 5.30 or 6 pm.

Marked dates for wisdom teachings: January 28, March 25, April 8, June 3, July 29, September 30, October 21.

Looking at this, there are not so many dates. We will have to find some additional time to cover the wisdom chapter. We used to be able to do Saturday and Sunday, but now, with the regular Sun morning programs, we can't shift them so easily either.

My regular Tuesday teachings will continue next year and topics will be announced soon.

Since tonight is the last Tuesday talk this year, I will continue to sum up the teachings from this year. Last time I did sum up the wisdom aspects of the teaching. Tonight I will sum up the compassion aspects.

Basically, love, compassion and wisdom are part of the mahayana and hinayana Buddhist traditions. The hinayana prefers to be called theravada. In the technical terminology of the Hindu Buddhist traditions, yana means 'vehicle'. When I want to get from one point to another I need a vehicle. Here we have cars. Without car I would have to use the two vehicles given to me by my mother, which would take a very long time. A good vehicle transports me from my house to the center. In the Buddhist tradition we refer to ourselves as ordinary. We are not extraordinary. We are the normal, usual human beings, people who may or may not be interested in the spiritual path. If you are interested, then through a spiritual practice you can change and become an extraordinary person. How do you know when or if you become extraordinary? You have to look from the angle of your own perception of compassion, your own responsibility to yourself and others. From that angle you will see how much you have changed. There are some changes due to age and maturity. But the spiritual change is quite different from the natural change through age and maturity. Compassion, caring and so on will make a big difference. When you don't have that, then you get comments like "I have been burnt out". This is because there is no strong caring. With strong caring you don't get burnt out. The example is the mother's love. Her love towards the children doesn't know burn-out - as long as the child is cute [chuckles].

Care comes way before compassion. When we ordinary people want to become extraordinary people we need a vehicle. Buddhism provides a number of different vehicles. One is the hinayana, then there is mahayana and vajrayana. All of them are teachings of the Buddha. Within the Buddhist realm this is not just regular teaching. Normally, when you listen to teachings it is about listening to what someone is talking. But within the framework of Buddhism, teaching means to share the experience. All teachings in Buddhism are experiential. We however, are copy cats. We are copying Buddha and the earlier masters. Buddha taught his personal experience at various levels. According to the tradition that I come from, Buddha taught the hinayana path to a group of people who - according to the mahayana - are not intelligent enough or brave and fortunate enough.

What is the principle in the hinayana? All vehicles actually have these principles: what you want to get, what you have to get rid of and what you have to develop. What you have to get rid of is negative karma. Negative karma creates suffering. We don't want suffering. We may not be able to get rid of suffering in terms of the symptoms, but we can get rid of suffering in terms of causes. We can cancel out the cause.

Getting rid of suffering means getting rid of the causes. Without causes you won't have results. Buddha talked about the Four Noble Truths: The truth of suffering, and the cause of suffering. What are the causes of suffering? They are karma and delusion. The karmic cause is not there unless we act. We act because we are forced by negative emotions. The delusions come through the negative emotions. Negative emotions mean hatred, jealousy, etc. You have to get rid of all of those in order to make yourself happy. That is the major focus how to help yourself. And that is why it is called self liberation. The major focus is how to help yourself. The focus is on reducing suffering by reducing the negative emotions and by eliminating negative emotions. When there is obsession you don't act according to the obsession. When there is hatred you don't act according to the hatred. That is how you reduce the causal level. The major emphasis here is on helping oneself. That is traditionally called the smaller vehicle or hinayana.

The second vehicle is called mahayana. This is the SUV, not a tiny, little thing. The Mahayana vehicle is based on the smaller vehicle. It is a misunderstanding to separate the two. It is not right to say, "I am a follower of the smaller vehicle, I have nothing to do with the bigger vehicle", nor is it okay to think, "I am with the big vehicle, I have nothing to do with the small vehicle." The way how you help yourself, carrying that particular path and then trying to help others, that is the mahayana path. Helping others is also not limited to some people, like our loved ones, our family, our near and dear ones, but to all living beings. That means ALL of them.

Among the three principles, the first is to develop compassion for oneself. That is not yet talking about compassion to others. Usually no one talks about developing compassion for oneself. Traditionally, the word 'renunciation' is used, or "determination to be free". The reality however, is that you first need compassion for yourself, caring for yourself. So you don't abuse yourself by overly indulging in negative emotions and entertaining them, including obsession, attachment, hatred, jealousy and so on. If you care for yourself, you don't abuse yourself.

There are many ways to abuse yourself: through alcohol, drugs, food, sugar, chocolate and so on. If you do all that, you don’t care for yourself. You will become obese, sick, alcoholic or whatever. The opposite of eating too much is just as bad: some people eat very little and then they even throw up everything. Even smoking cigarettes is abusive. We now know that. It is written on the cigarette packets: smoking causes cancer. There is a lot of public awareness and advertising about that.

But what we don’t know and about which there is no advertising campaign is how harmful hatred is, how harmful obsession is. Actually, hatred hurts us a lot. Hatred brings violence, violence brings violence. We now have non-stop war, and that comes from hatred and obsession, both. Obsession comes in by thinking, "I want your territory. I must have it, because you have got oil! We need that oil 30-40 years from now, but we must have it now!" In what way obsession and hatred bring suffering.

I do remember very well that 20 years ago, all over the world, America meant something wonderful. It was a land of education, freedom and choice, the land of civil liberties, self-determination, civil rights and equality. People throughout the world admired Americans.

And today, when you travel anywhere in the world, you don’t want to show your passport. You try to hide it as much as you can. America is now perceived as a threat to your rights. This change also has come about through hatred and obsession. But mind you, this is all completely temporary. The wind will blow it away. I am quite sure. It is temporary trouble. It will change, firstly because it is impermanent. Secondly, the people deep down are kind and compassionate. It will take time to show that up. But the moment that comes out and shines all this will change.

If you care for yourself, hatred and obsession don't help. You have to get rid of them and all other negative emotions, so that you become positive. The positive will generate the positive. Happiness brings happiness. Joy brings joy. That's why wealthy people are always wealthy. Money brings more money. Honestly. When you don't have any, you can't get more, because there is nothing to start with. That may be wrong, but that's how it is. The more money you have, the more you can invest. The more you invest the more profit you will have, which then you can invest again to get even more profit. That's how it works, right? In the same way, positive nature brings positivity. Negative nature brings negativity. Suffering brings more suffering. If something goes wrong with somebody everything goes wrong. It won't be just one thing, but two, three, four things will follow.

Helping yourself is the most important. Caring for yourself, not abusing yourself, loving and nurturing yourself, that is the theravada principle. If you don’t help yourself, who else can help you? No one. Not George Bush, nor Rumsfeld. Even your parents and your loved ones can't help you much. Only you yourself can help yourself. That is the major emphasis. The way to help yourself is by cutting down negativity. Through that you are automatically building up positivity. That helps us. Positive karma brings joy and happiness. Negative karma brings suffering and misery. That is the temporary help.

The permanent help is to eradicate completely, once and for all, the negative emotions and their root cause. The root cause is the ego. You have to cut the ego from the root and liberate yourself. The ego is what keeps you in samsara continuously. Samsara is the circle of life, birth, death, birth, date, one after another. There is only one way to cut that circle and that is by cutting ego. There is no other way. The Buddhas have emphasized it so much: there is no other door to liberation. According to both, Hinduism and Buddhism, the only door to help yourself permanently is to cut the ego, the root of samsara.

Once you become ego-free, you attain nirvana. Then the mahayana comes in saying: nirvana is great, no doubt, it is happy and beautiful. But what about your loved ones? The problem is this: when you concentrate too much on self-liberation, sometimes you cut out caring for others. Your loved ones have to cry from outside, "What about me? Are you going to walk away from me just like that?" The loved ones, the family and so on are on one side, asking. From the other side, there are also the enlightened beings. They will intervene, saying, "Are you just going to remain in the frozen picnic state? Do you want to stay half human-half vegetable in a joy-numbed state for much longer? Come on, get up, move and help. People need you." That is how they lead you towards mahayana.

A lot of people will tell you that the difference between hinayana and mahayana is compassion. That is not true - or rather it is half true. Mahayana is completely compassion-oriented, no doubt. On the other hand, there is a lot of compassion in hinayana as well. The compassion for oneself is tremendous. On top of that they do care about people. They do try to help. But it is not their major responsibility. They sympathize and give support. That is what we normally do - even though we call ourselves "mahayana'. We don't really take the responsibility. The compassion of the mahayana is known as Great Compassion. The greatness of that compassion is that it extends equally to all living beings.

Because of death and rebirth we don't recognize each other. We look different from life to life. Sometimes a male becomes female, with different name and face. Sometimes females get reborn as males. Sometimes they may be hermaphrodites. Why don't I recognize you? We normally say, "Because I never met you before." That is not true. We have met many times over many life times. But we don't recognize each other because of the changes that are taking place through death and rebirth. Otherwise all souls are old souls. At one time we see them as enemies, another time we see them as friends. They are not necessarily really enemy and friend. In total, over many lives, everybody has been our enemy, our friend, our most dearest and nearest loved one. Everyone has been the most hated enemy. There is not a single person that you can point to and say: this one has never been my nearest and dearest. There is also not a single being that you can point to who has never been your most terrifying enemy. This is because of the countless lives we have been through. Since we all want the best, it is better to focus on the compassion for all of them. You cannot bring compassion to a person unless they mean something to you. The person has to have done something for me, they have to be important to me. Until then I cannot really care for them that much. When you have some connection, some special link, then you don't mind doing something for them. You care for them. That is how our mind works.

When you are looking at all sentient beings, they have all been at one time or another our nearest and dearest. They have even given us birth a number of times as our mother. They have given us life as fathers. They have helped us as lovers. This means everyone. You cannot leave a single being out. This life is this life. It has its rules and boundaries. You have to keep them. Don’t over-run them. But in the bigger picture there is not a single being who has not been part of this. Therefore we cannot make a big distinction between beings. Even in this very life time enemies quickly become friends and friends quickly become enemies. Actually, unless you have been friends, you will not become enemies. You will disagree on certain things, being frustrated and if you don’t know how to cut it, the best friend will become the worst enemy.

In corporate companies, one partner will cheat the other and that is how they become the biggest enemies. Most law suits are because of that. You know who gets all the profit? The lawyers in between. If I fight with you, both of us will have to hire lawyers and pay them. They will enjoy that and in between make deals among each others. So even in this life, enemies and friends are nothing solid. They change. So what need is there to talk about lives and lives? That definitely changes.

It is impossible to look at any single person and say: I definitely don't owe you anything. Honestly you cannot look into the face of any person and say: I owe you nothing, you mean nothing to me. There is always some connection. If you care, then you see their suffering. The caring mind will make it difficult to bear their suffering. The animal lovers go out of their way to protect and help the animals. Then some of them go a step beyond that and accuse people for wearing animals skin, like leather or mink coats. It is because they care for the animals. Look at the very strong right wing conservatives. They are deadly against abortion because they care about life. Again, some don't know where to draw the line and to the extreme of killing the doctors and nurses. On the other hand, because of being human we have the influence of obsession and hatred. They compliment each other. Every person has a noble cause. Pro choice has a noble cause too: respecting the right of the individual. Pro life has a noble cause: respecting life. Animal protecting societies have a noble cause: protecting and saving the lives of animals. You love and you are dedicated. But because of obsession it can go beyond. Obsession will then bring hatred and that can lead to murdering the doctors who perform abortions or the people that wear the mink coats. That problem at the human level is at the level of the mind.

Our mind is brilliant. There is no limit to what it can achieve. The sky is the limit. When it goes the right way it will reach to ultimate love, ultimate compassion and total enlightenment at the Buddha level. When it goes wrong, it leads to people like Hitler, Chairman Mao, Stalin and so on. Nobody has control over human mind, except you yourself. You may get some control in your mind. Buddhism gives you tools of how to handle your mind.

The first is bringing your mind to rest. Normally, the mind is working non-stop, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, multimillion years an eon. It is constantly active, non-stop, day and night. Even at night you don’t really rest. You dream. So the first thing Buddhism gives you is rest. You try to get a little relief in your mind through meditation. By settling the mind you settle the elements within you. Once you stabilize your mind a little bit, you can begin to switch the mind's uncontrolled energy to caring. Look within yourself. You can wish yourself well, but you can also see what you can do to help yourself. Bring happiness and joy to yourself, cut down your suffering and the causes of suffering. That is how you help yourself materially, spiritually, emotionally. Once you know to do that for yourself a little bit, then you switch to the person you love the most. Then extend that to the near by, dear by, the close family, the extended family, the fellow country men, the fellow citizens of the world, all human beings, and then extend it to all living beings, including your pets and other animals. Keep extending the caring, the compassion. Compassion means to remove suffering. Love means to bring joy and happiness. It is one mind with two different aspects. I don't care who may tell you something else, but that is the definition of compassion and love. Buddha discovered this 2600 ago himself and millions of followers of Buddha developed that since then. Today there may be different interpretations of love and compassion but it is not the love and compassion that Buddha knows.

Bring love and compassion to all living beings. Such a love will bring the best joy. The best joy is a joy we have never known - the joy of total enlightenment. It is the joy that has never known suffering. It is the joy of total enlightenment, of buddhahood. That is the goal of mahayana Buddhism.

Every Buddhist practice needs to have three parts: the base you build on, the path you take and the result you hope you get. Without base, path and result you have no grounding. You are flying. It is the love and light business - flying through the air. You might as well have a nice joint and go somewhere in your mind. There are spiritual paths that encourage you: take a journey, go astral traveling. You go away in your mind, millions of miles away, with no idea where you are going, or what you are doing. You only think you are getting somewhere. The traditional Tibetan teachers have a saying: The person that is carried away by the current still thinks the situation is under control and they are swimming. One shouldn't do that.

There is always a goal, a path and a discipline. I saw on TV a few days ago a show that talked about major religions. They were saying that Christianity is still the largest religion in the world today. It is 32 %. Muslims are 20 something %. Hindus are 13 %. Then Buddhists are 11 %. But then, among the fastest growing religions there are first Muslims and then Buddhists. I don't know why the Muslims are the fastest growing religion, but as for the Buddhists it is the love and compassion and dedication to help oneself and others. It is also something very solid, with base, path and goal. It is not just simply worshipping, praying, not knowing what you are doing. You always have an aim, a purpose, where you are going and why. That helps people much better than anything else.

That's my rap up. Happy holidays to all who are listening and a very good new year that brings you joy, happiness, spiritual development and health. These are my wishes for everybody. I am looking back at a year in which most of us didn't have too great difficulties, at least, mentally, physically and emotionally. Financially, many of us have difficulties. That is natural. We think that financial concerns are the most important and will give us joy and happiness. However, they torture us the most. That is the reality. So we should rejoice and we should spend a lot of time on our practice, study, learning, analyzing, meditating, doing retreats and being good every day. With that you are building a solid investment that you can cash in when you need it most and that is at the time of death. You may be a penniless beggar, but you are very rich in your merit and wisdom merit.

In this year, unlike any other year, we have put a lot of effort in developing our wisdom merit. That is something very solid. We are not just relying on one wing of the bird, but are also building the second wing. We don't really have it yet, but we are building it. We should appreciate that and rejoice and wish that everybody may have that. We should look forward to moving beyond what we have been doing this year. That's what I would like to wish you. I still have this week end in New York teaching on wisdom and then on Monday, there is the Female Buddha exhibition lecture for the Jewel Heart Fundraiser in New York.

I have nothing more to say and wish you all the best for your support that you have given to Jewel Heart

Some more upcoming events:

Glenn Mullin in Ann Arbor

Friday, Nov 11, 7-9 pm: The Tantric Factor: Guidelines for Easy Enlightenment

Saturday workshop, Nov 12: 10 am to 5pm: Tantric Yogas of Tibet for Healing Self and Others

Sunday morning talk, Nov 13: Human Nature

Glenn has written 27 books on Tibetan Buddhism. He is a Himalayan Tibetan expert. I have known him since the 60s, when he came to Dharamsala. He has been studying and translating since then and assembled a translation team of more than 10 people. He also started the "Sacred Dance" tours of Tibetan monks in western countries.

Khen Rimpoche Geshe Losang Tsetan

Saturday, Nov 19: 10 am to 5pm: Three Principles of the Path

Sunday, Nov 20: Sunday Talk: 10 am - 11 am: Overcoming Anger and Cultivating Compassion

Khen Rimpoche is already from Ladakh, studied in Loseling, became a geshe, then lived and taught in New Jersey for a long time at Geshe Wangyal's Tibetan Learning Center. He also used to teach at the New Hampshire College every summer. Last year His Holiness the Dalai Lama appointed him to be the abbot of Tashi Lungpo, the Panchen Lama's seat. As abbot of a big monastery, you get the title of "Khen Rimpoche".

11/10/2005