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Name of Transcript: 20050505GRNL3P08

Transcriber’s name: Sally Boyer

Start Date: 08-06-2021

Finish Date: 09-03-2021

We just finished that importantness, right? Not only importantness but also we may find we it is true but I can come back, right? That’s what everybody thinks I can come back tomorrow. Ah you never know and that is a problem. Especially you never know what causes where is that wonderful life and what we have today, where is that come from? I’m sure in your culture you’ll say it is God gives it to me then why doesn’t God give it all the time, why should we worry about it? And also you know it is funny you know during this tsunami period, it was just end of last year this tsunami thing, tremendous amount of destruction right? I mean 911 we talk a lot that’s because it happened to be in American and it happened right in the middle of apple so that’s why we talk but the destruction wise so much, tsunami has done so much and people talking all the time. Even I received a number of telephone calls and interviews by different radios, newspapers and things like that. Their question is straight forward, they said, ” Why did God let it happened?” That is most of the journalists asked that question, “How come?Why did God let this happen? Good Lord.” They said, ”Why did good Lord look the other way around? And why did this happen? Was it God angry?” Blah, blah, blah all that type of thing and my answer I also gave two talks on that, two or three talks on that. My thought straightaway when they said what had happened, why did the good Lord let this happened? Why did he look the other way around? My thought doesn’t think good Lord at all and I said, ”Leave God alone.” What it was to me is the first Noble Truth, Truth of suffering, that is really what it is, first Noble Truth. Truth of suffering not only people who lost their lives and loved ones but all of us who’ve been watching and witnessed and feeling the pain. It is the truth of suffering of the world. And the sufferings coming out of….nothing but the cause of suffering. Cause of suffering is nothing but the negativities that we all indulge in it. So looking from that point and knowing our own mind by ourself, what do we think, what do I think, how do I react and counter react, how do I deal with the circumstances, what is capacity or level of my morality and all of them answers me how difficult to find this type of life. Life that what we have is based on this, the cause of this life is the foundation of it is the morality and basic morality and how strong do I have morality, how strong I am is only known to me and not to anybody else. So likewise, the weakness and strongness of your life, your morality is known to you, nobody else. Nobody is going to know what you think about it honestly, whether you have been straightforward, wonderful, kind person or whether you have been crooked or whether you have been manipulative or whether you have agenda, only known to you nobody else. So you are the best judge for yourself from your morality point of view, nobody else can judge you, no one else can accuse you being immoral, nor no one can say you have perfect morality, very few can do it’s only you know yourself. So in case if you don’t, at least you remember what you did last 24 hours, thoughts and deeds and judge from that try to think a week, past week, based on that it is like you know today is election day in England right? So you during election day snap poll, what you call exit poll, in other words so you can judge almost. Could be wrong, they got it wrong in America, all the exit polls showed John Kerry’s winning and suddenly conservative Christians decided to march to the poll after 3 O’clock in the afternoon and all exit polls are wrong so that’s what happened. But mostly from the exit poll you know more or less you can guess so this is exactly if you don’t remember, if you don’t know and that’s how judge yourself, but only by you, for you only and nobody else, don’t let anybody judge you or you judge anybody else. Just judge yourself. So if you begin to realize you may not be immoral but you don’t have such good morality either which is the case for all of us anyway. And so then you know how easy to find such a life because that was the fundamental payment you put down on this life is that. Then you can take credit along on top of it if you don’t have the down payment then you can do nothing. And you have to have good credit report and you have the down payment and you can take a loan here and there like generosity, patience and enthusiasm you can take a loan here and there and put them together but the down payment is needed. So just if you want to buy a house you just see whether you have down payment or not or you can arrange a down payment. Here is the same thing so you make yourself judgement. I just finish this before you translate. And they asked Buddha, “How is it? How much people can come back nice?” so Buddha said,” Well, let the sand of Ganges, you turn around and if you turn them up all the sand of Ganges will go and I try to save them I can get a handful.” So he said, ”A handful will come back and the rest will go.” That was the example. So you begin to realize how important and the difficulty to find so and that’s where you can say, “Well. I can come back tomorrow.” Whether you can really or not. You are the best judge for yourself, nobody else. And we are in a habit, not so much in the West but in the East, Tibetan will go to different lamas and rinpoches said, “Where am I going to be born? What will be my future?” They don’t do much but still some people do it, so where will I be born? And give me a prophecy where I’m going to be born” blah, blah, blah and they will say something else but or oracle or maybe astrology or maybe some merit readings, maybe some leg readings, all that type of things we do but the traditional teachers will tell us you don’t have to do that at all because Buddha had already given you the prophecy already and told you if you have those causes you will have good future life if you don’t have it you don’t have it so you just make judgement from that. That’s because the karma is absolutely reliable, karma doesn’t cheat and that’s why it is important to recognize. The question is really is not what’s going to happen tomorrow, whether you are going to come back or not but the question is what you are doing today? We have it within ourself that precious life so what are we going to do with this now rather than you know whether we are going to find tomorrow or not going to find tomorrow, struggling with that thing but when you have it already in your hand, what are you going to do? And this you need to meditate, honestly, you may think well this is my decision making but you make the decision on the basis of you do meditation, you do analyzation and you draw your conclusion and you know we do a lot of resolutions and we pass a ot of decisions, we pass a lot of resolutions every new year but we never been able to do it, carry out because you didn’t meditate, you just chose that and said I do that and then that’s it, it’s gone and then you would not look back till next new year. During the Christmas time then you begin to look and yeah well I have to have my New Year’s resolution but last year I didn’t do this and that but your never thought about it you thought the resolution at the time of the New Year and then you pass resolution and you pass out and never think about it so that is the problem. So when you make the decision, when you pass the resolution you meditate, you think about it, you draw your conclusion, you analyze, you debate, you draw you conclusion and remind yourself constantly. I mean it is a matter of keeping your own words for your own benefit by you for you so that is only matter. So that’s why it is not only just knowledge, it is not just education, it is not just only you know just resolution, and as you meditate and as you practice, practice here means follow what you resolved, try to become its true and that is dharma practice, that is meditation, that is helping you, that is how you help yourself. And you know we have some kind of sometime there’s misunderstanding, things like this it is a matter of daily chore, a matter of daily life but my practice are more OM MANI PADME HUM or something you know and if you go this that means you are dividing your life and your practice, I’m not saying you don’t say your OM PADME MANI HUM but you are not combining them together and as long as you divide this and there’s a division between your dharma and yourself, as long as, as soon as you make the division between the dharma and yourself and then you don’t have dharma, dharma is somewhere else, you are somewhere else and that is a mistake. We do very often we as a Tibetan, Chinese and Indian have already made that great deal of mistakes and Western in the West are doing it now, they are picking it up because this is not profound enough for me, more profound will be you know some kind of thing in the sky something happens, it never happens, anyway. Will happen by that time you don’t need it, when it happens it does happen but when it happens you don’t need it but what really happen these are the main points here you do so really it means putting your life, your dharma together and this is the points where they are difficult to find. So when it is difficult to find let’s not worry about it make best use of it what we have it. Our mind is such I’m just thinking you know, just now I said this importantness of life difficult to find and all of them are not profound enough but OM MANI PADME HUM I said, remember? But OM MANI PADME HUM also become so common and that’s not profound enough and that’s happens to us and that’s not profound enough it has to be something more than that so maybe Yamaraja or maybe Karakara or maybe you know OM OM OM or something, something more profound and that’s how our mind works. So therefore you have to realize what you really have important in your hand and when you don’t recognize that we always looking for something profound you know profound or not profound it does not depend on that. Profound or not profound depends on this, meaning inside me. You know earlier lamas used to even say: Guhysamaja is not profound but three words of refuge is more profound. So that was earlier teachers even said and to a particular person is true, so that’s what happens. So we always look for what we have is not good enough, always look for something and that is our addiction for something better than what you have it, dissatisfaction in our lives which bring this to us, we have to make sure we are not going to let ourself controlled by that dissatisfaction in our spiritual path, you know really spiritual path truly. Well I might as well… not related here but might as well say it. Spiritual path really is it begins with our own mind and that also really allow love yourself, love others and respect to the others and reduction of negative emotions such as hatred, anger, etc., and increase love, affection, compassion, respect and all of those. If you don’t bother loving, if you don’t bother with hatred and anger, and say millions and zillions of mantras and pretend to be something other than what you are and there is nothing profound or not dharma at all. Very recently, that’s right, very recently just two days before I left here in America I was asked to go and give a lecture to the Tibetan people who are living in Minnesota and I went there and dedicate, supposed to be one hour lecture but more than three hours I gave talk and you know some young guy got up and asked me this question. He said, ”Rinpoche-la” he doesn’t know how to speak Tibetan. After Rinpoche you don’t say la but he said, “Rinpoche-la” and I said, “Yes” and he said in English, he said, “I don’t know anything about this dharma business I really don’t know what I’m listening to you today and you said something different than anybody else said and I see this my grandparents and all these old people around they have nothing but saying mantra and praying and burning incense and some are sometimes days in there, whole day in there doing but when I look at them they are mean and they always mean and they are always thinking how we can make one profit over people and they are always mean” and so he said, “I don’t believe in this Buddhism at all so but you seems to be talking with sense so tell me what’s really happening”. It is true, sometimes you have that, people would like to be very religious type of thing but mind it is no religion at all, it is crooked, absolutely crooked and when you do this absolutely crooked and then where is profoundness forget about profoundness, not even dharma and remember there is a story, there was a goat and the sheep and the cow right? Do you remember that story? Goat and cow and sheep and were kept by dharma practitioner who say OM MANI PADME HUM all the time with a huge mala in hand and so the goat and sheep always think they are not going to be killed because there is a person who is praying all day, saying mantras they are not going to kill. And one day what they don’t believe is they hire a butcher and coming out with a mala in hand and said, “First I want you to butcher this and then second this and third that” and the butcher was trying to argue with him saying he can’t do it and blah, blah, blah , too busy and too much and you’ve kept them so long and you really want to kill them? But the guy was saying, “It is so important for me I have those meat, OM MANI PADME HUM, it is so important you butcher this sheep, OM MANI PADME HUM, you know oh it’s important for me to kill this goat, OM MANI PADME HUM, you better do it now, OM MANI PADME HUM”. So all these stories I paraphrased and make it slightly shorter but that happens. So if that happens every effort what we put in is totally wasted, totally wasted. Might as well be married and have fun and remain high or whatever you want to do, you are better off. Totally wasted, so make sure that doesn’t happen. It has nothing to do with the subject I’m supposed to talk but you know it brought up together and this young man’s question and it happens very often and the more holy look you make and the more you make unholy. So that is where we came from you know, the dharma gap between the dharma and the person and when that happens everything becomes lip service, everything becomes showbiz and there’s nothing to benefit self or others so that is the most dangerous part we have to think ourself all the time, remind ourself all the time, so remember that and that is something constantly you have to think. So, the profound practice, the practice if the person does it right the buddha’s teachings are all profound, there is no better profound teaching than that of the Four Noble Truths, none whatsoever. But if you don’t realize the profoundness of it and always looking for something more and something more and you know and one day everything is not profound and you are still looking for something else and probably you have to get some kind of electrical shock or something electrocution or something and then it becomes profound you become dead you know so and that is important to remember and also start the way you can and don’t try to go somewhere always something profound. Start where you can, this is the beginning of the dharma, start here and that’s… make it solid and make the message out of this a part of your life in other words your way of thinking, your way of functioning and your life and this message and merge them together and that’s what really practice is all about. Whether you carry mala or not, keep your hair long or short or shaved, whether you behave like a hippie or yuppie doesn’t matter that’s not important the importance is merge this, merge your mind, your thoughts and the message make it one, make it one, that is what it really is all about. If you make this one and even if you don’t say OM MANI PADME HUM or don’t even say OM doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter, it’s really the mind and how your life functions with this. When they say do something means that, they are not saying pick up mala they are not saying OM AH HUM. Do something really means that and when you can do that for yourself and then you want to help other ones begin with your spouse, your children, your family and those who are interested picking up from you and that’s how you go. That’s really true dharma otherwise, showbiz. Show little understanding, show little patience, show little generosity, show little compassion, show little love in your life, show it and don’t show it because you say,”Oh it’s dharma I have to show it because dharma says so.” And that is wrong again, that’s wrong. You have to make somehow your mind pick that up automatically. It becomes your character, it becomes your way and without effort, without thinking. I have to show generosity because dharma says so, I am dharma practitioner. No. Without that thought it should be within you. I don’t mean you should be happy go lucky but it should be within you without reasoning, without arguing, without point. You know like immediately right this moment what do we have if somebody tells you boo and we don’t have to think we will straight away we d say f word right? When somebody tells you boo we don’t think twice we just say fuck you we really say that straight away and that is the sign that our mind is already mixed in that. So now what we want to change is from that level into when somebody boo you and then immediately instead of using f word you use the word compassion we use this, you should be able to use the c automatically without thinking. You know the late Kamapa, the 16th Kamapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, when I first saw him in Delhi and people came and sat there and sat there and the moment when somebody about to go he goes, “Ah” you know as though some piece of his heart is taking it away, he had that expression and that’s not made up you can’t make up. There’s hundreds of people come and sit and go and those are the earlier days, no appointment nothing, just people sit down, go and come and do that early, early sixties I noticed that and that should be and that has to replace the f word with the c and that’s what it should be and not because I have to show compassion because dharma says so, that is again is wrong effort and should be able to bring yourself automatically to that level and then you are doing something. Otherwise no matter whatever you are doing you know and you sing OM MANI PADME HUM and that’s okay, you can dance with it and do whatever you know it doesn’t make sense to me. And if you don’t do that then the life is short the goal one day no matter whatever as long as we living with creation, it’s a creation I personally do not believe it’s God has created us as you know but we are creation, as long as we are created and then it is nature of destruction it will destroy it will go there is no way there is no permanent creation at all, even the permanent jobs the professor who has tenure who called permanent they also retire so there is nothing permanent, will go and that also you know forget about subtle impermanence, there’s gross impermanence, we all die and when we die when the death comes and that day you cannot reverse the death by anything even that day by mantra power, by meditative power, there is nothing that you can if you rich you cannot buy out you cannot do that, if you are a hero you cannot pick up the weapon and fight with that, and if you are a lawyer you cannot negotiate with death and make deals, nothing. So no matter whatever rich, poor, hero, coward, learned, dull, stupid, young, old whoever, whatever and that comes goes and that is our situation, you have to meditate that this is one of the most important meditation here. And I may not have time here to talk to you but still you have to remember three rules, three reasonings, three resolutions and sort of make your mind you know the character what I told you earlier to change from that funny attitude to a positive attitude and that process what you do is this one by meditating, by practicing this that is how one’s changing one’s negative character into positiveness, and these are the steps, these are the ways, these are the points, this is a profound way of making change within you life and you have to do it immediately otherwise you never know when that time comes in. So that tells us that death definitely comes and nothing can turn that around and today we may think well if I have the money then I can put my body in the what you call it freeze or something and when they find the antidote of the medicine then I can wake up. And they will wake up, I mean there are a lot of wealthy people I was told invest money for that ok. There are wealthy people who invested money in that thinking we live forever and that’s not going to happen you know it I know it we all know it. If we wake up one day but who knows who is going to wake up a monster honestly because the human mind is such it is not meat you cannot put in freeze, it is not meat it is a life you cannot put in freeze so there is nothing you can do you will definitely go and that also. So that we established, we definitely go and when it is never known. When, it’s never known. It is like we the cows that have been earmarked to be slaughtered and every step that you take going toward that wherever they slaughter, with every step. Exactly like this, the moment we are born every minute it’s cutting the hour, day, week, month and year and we are getting here, in my case six to five years and when you look back a lot of things happened too but when we really look back it’s just like that. I mean just like that it’s all like yesterday and so each and every one of you when you start looking is just like that it is almost like the time to have a cup of tea sort of thing is gone there and the past is gone that way you know the future is going the same way so there is really no time to waste. And that covers when the death is gong to come there is no certainty, any minute, anytime, anywhere it can happen and when it happens nothing can go with us except our positive and negative karma that is actually three rules so we come back we talk about that.