Archive Result

20060624GRSR07

6.27. 06 pm

Question: Rimpoche, you said that everything we do is for the purpose of avoiding pain. If this is so, what about love? Love for children, love for partners, love for friends, love for teachers, is this also for the purpose of avoiding pain?

Rimpoche: A brilliant question. You know, if this were a debate, a monastery debate, then I would have to withdraw that statement saying that everything [we do we do for the purpose of avoiding pain]. That was a very strong thought and idea.

Love for children, love for companions, spouses, whatever, is not necessarily to avoid pain, but [it is] definitely to bring happiness. For sure it is to bring happiness. So when we say ‘everything,’ the word ‘everything’, we do have the same thing [in Tibetan]. ‘Everything’ means everything but not necessarily [that] nothing [is] left without…[it doesn’t mean that] not a single one is not left [out]. [‘Everything’ includes] Most of them anyway.

[Quotes Tibetan] (1:46) Meaning:

When you say ‘all’ that means a lot, a lot, a lot, but [it does] not necessarily mean each and every one of them.

[Laughs]

From audience: It depends on what the meaning of is is?

Well, you can interpret it that way, but whoever asked that question, it definitely shows the mind, how the it works. You can definitely pinpoint it there.

I have nothing else to say. Except that ‘all’ means a lot of them, it doesn’t mean everything. Okay? I won’t go that far into the meaning of what ‘is’ is all about, but anyway it is quite similar. (2:50)

Question: You said this morning that ‘good actions bring good results and bad actions bring bad results.’ You said that was definite law. If that’s so, how do we understand what happened to Tibet?

Rimpoche: Do you think all of the Tibetans have been good all the time? Probably not. Tibetans have an equally horrible history as everybody else does. When you look at the history in one way, it’s great. But on the other hand, it’s like everywhere else. Human history is always a tragedy and this and that and everything. everybody bullies everybody else and all kinds of things.

Tibetan history [shows that] Tibetans were quite a brutal people- earlier. Honestly. Many Tibetans today, if I say that, they don’t like it. Not only do Tibetans today not like it, even the Tibetan support group people don’t like it. Honestly, true. But the reality is, if you look at it, they were very brutal people.

That’s one of the reasons why Tibetan Buddhism doesn’t have martial arts. The earlier Tibetan masters tried their best to remove all martial arts, [and make them] not accessible to the Tibetan Buddhists. Because it could be [/could have been a part of Tibetan Buddhism OR could have lead to brutality?] (4:48)

So, that’s one thing. Then it may not be that Tibetans were particularly bad in history. Everybody else, everywhere else, wherever you look, their histories carry wars and killings and conquering and overpowering and destruction. [But] the Tibetan history is not necessarily that much better.

Again, I don’t mean that everything that happened in Tibetan history is bad. No. Everything, everywhere else [/in many places], there were a lot of good things and wonderful things, too. True, the Tibetans have a tremendous karma of losing their country, losing freedom and all of those. (5:52) I really very strongly think it is [a result of] karmic consequences. No doubt about it. No matter who says what, it is karmic consequences.

It could also be not only the karmic consequences of the Tibetans alone, it could be the karmic consequences of a general karma. The karma [in which] everyone is involved- just like the tsunami and all of these natural disasters, [there have been] many of them. [These things happen] particularly [as a result of] the karma of those who lost their life or their loved ones. (6:42)

But it is general karma, and Tibet is also really a source and a treasure of Buddhist [dharma/knowledge/tradition]. Particularly, [it is] a Buddhist home [/home of Buddhism]. Uprooting that, and losing that, could be a mixture of karma. [It could be the mixture of] The bad karmic consequences of Tibetans, as well as the good karmic consequences of some of us. (7:25)

If what had happened in Tibet in the 50s had not happened, I don’t think the spiritual path that we share today in the world would have come out. I don’t think the Dalai Lama would be traveling like he does today. For that matter, every Tibetan spiritual teacher’s masters would be outside. I mean, even for this speaker, you never know. If [I had been in] Tibet, I might have died a while ago. Could have. Or, even if not, I’d probably be some old man who’d be wearing big, heavy, thick robes sitting somewhere. Maybe. Maybe not. Definitely for some ex-abbot or someone, maybe reaching toward the line of the Ganden ??? (9:11). Something like that. The situation would have been completely different.

So it is the mixture karma of a lot of good and bad karmas everywhere.

Apparently, from the spiritual point of view, the losses for the Tibetans have been gains for the West and the world- not only the West, but India and everywhere else.

It is the mixture, the mixed karma of the tremendous negative karma of Tibetans and the positive karma of the West. Probably all of those combined together that might have developed the situation.

Sometimes situations like that are not necessarily bad alone [/all bad]. The change in Tibet, in my opinion- I’m sure a lot of Tibetans and Tibetan friends might not like this- but in my opinion, change was way overdue. Way overdue. Unfortunately, it had to come in a very destructive way. That’s very unfortunate. Other than that, the change in structure was way overdue. Honestly. (11:00)

I’d also like to take this opportunity, but not necessarily immediately now, to talk a little bit about the Gendun Choephel (?11:17) business. What happened is after Professor Lopez visited Jewel Heart, I heard [that there were] a lot of questions [that] people were having. They probably need… certainly a clarification has to be given. If we have extra time, we’ll do that. (11:46)

Talking about the history and what happened in Tibet and Gendun Choephel’s case is called “Madman’s Middle Way.” “Madman’s Middle Way” [caused] a lot of people to raise a lot of questions. I think I have to say something because it’s our own community- our own people [who] are raising the questions. I can’t just keep my mouth shut. So maybe I’ll say it afterwards, or whatever, today.

Question: Rimpoche, many of us find meaning and value in poetry and art. Can you clarify the line between art for the sake of entertainment and art that supports spiritual development? You had said this morning, quoting Allen, that art was for the purpose of relieving suffering and for entertainment. Is there art that also supports spiritual development?

Oh yeah, there is a tremendous amount of spiritual arts available in any tradition. In every tradition, so why not? What is wrong?

You don’t want that answer! You’re looking for more of an answer than that. we can come back and discuss it.

Art does serve the purpose of relieving pain and suffering. Art also does [/acts as] the medium of expression of individuals. Art also serves the purpose of… you know there’s a lot of spiritual arts, religion or non-religion [/religious and non-religious], a lot of spiritual arts that people have provided with sincere motivation. For all that, there’s a lot: stupas and images and thangkas and offering things and offering goods and decoration pieces, all of them. There’s a tremendous amount of artwork which supports spiritual work. (14:31) Expression of individual thoughts and ideas, spiritually, [is often done] through art. There’s also the art of prophesies- [prophesies] given through art. There’s a tremendous [amount] of them.

Very recently, somebody was talking to me. I don’t remember who the person was. But somebody was telling me that my father, my late father, had a huge mural wall painting [that] depicted (almost) what was going to happen in the late 50s in Tibet. In the early 50s, he did huge, different mural paintings. Some of them [showed] completely, exactly what happened to me: where I landed, what happened. Virtually. Clearly. One of our big rooms was filled with those paintings. He didn’t draw [them] himself, but he had a painter, and he told him, “draw this way, draw that way.” He would do little sort of pencil-scratchings. Then, he would remove them again, and a few years later, he would put another face completely over all of those.

Sometimes people use [art] that way. Art is such a medium that really does all kinds of things. What I mentioned this morning is a definition of what art does. Removing suffering- this is what it is. (17:36)

Question: Rimpoche, you said this morning that the reason people continue to hurt themselves is because they are addicted to pain or addicted to negativity. What causes this addiction? Is it related to self-hatred? And what can we do about it?

That’s a very important question.

People who are addicted and causing [themselves] pain… You know there are two categories, really. [Let] me be very clear. Absolutely clear. What I was thinking of this morning- using different examples- was looking for joy and happiness and creating pain, and sometimes even perceiving that pain as joy. Remember I was talking this morning about making holes and pulling and all that [/about how little we can endure even the prick of a needle when trying to remove a thorn], right?

So what I was thinking was different. But there are people who really want to hurt themselves. We’ve seen them ourselves. [They are people] who want to hurt themselves and that’s probably [due to] anger. It is anger that creates it, anger that wants to teach a lesson. It’s anger that wants to make sure… probably the person, whoever’s angry, wants to make sure they feel the pain that that person is going through. (19:34) When they don’t feel it, [they have a] mind of punishing. [They have] All kinds of things. [They have a] Mind of punishing. So that’s why they cut themselves, do all those kinds of things. Or maybe they hope to get some kind of unworthy type of thing out of their system.

You know, the human mind is such that it could be anything. It could be anything. There are a variety of different people who do [things] for a variety of different reasons.

When I said this morning, ‘addicted to pain’… when you don’t experience any joy, true joy, or any joy, you need a change. The change comes in the form of pain.

Even then, it may be different. Maybe there is some relief, some little relief of something. Can you imagine the human mind and how it works? It is very difficult to say what it really is. But the only experience of the individual and the person who knows the person very well [/But only the individual person (and perhaps those who know that person well) can really fully know what that individual person is experiencing.] The experience [itself] only can bring you closer to the truth. (21:48) Otherwise it is extremely difficult to say what it is.

Self-hatred is a terrible thing we have. First we try to blame the other person, different people. (I think we talked about that the other day, too.) “If she did not do this, we would have a wonderful life,” blah, blah, blah. Vice-versa. “If he did not do that, we would have a wonderful life,” blah, blah, blah.

We blame [those] outside [of us]. He. She. They. When you run out of people to point to, then you start pointing the finger to yourself.

I believe self-hatred is brought by anger, mostly, and fear and anger and regret. Much of it is brought by anger.

I hope I am right. I do not pretend to be a psychologist. Please- I know nothing. Nothing. But looking at it, thinking about it carefully, it is the fear, it is the anger. It is that [which] brings self-hatred. It is quite clear that you can’t hurt others, get into trouble [by imposing self-hatred]. You don’t want to hurt others, so it is a convenient target, the self. Because you think, “Oh, it is mine, I can do whatever I want to it. It’s my life, my body, my mind.” You know. All this. (24:25)

So the second part of the question is what?

Question: What to do about it?

What to do about it? Now, that is the biggest question. If we knew what to do about it, I could make a million dollars here! [Laughs]

Self-hatred, sometimes, at the beginning level, it doesn’t even show. It is within the individual. Hiding. You know yourself. There is no[thing about] our own mind that we don’t know [about] ourself- if we pay attention. (25:12) We definitely know ourself, quite clearly.

But for others, it is absolutely hidden. You have no idea [that the self-hatred is there]. When it’s quite bad, it starts busting out, and we begin to know. When it’s even worse, not only do you physically harm yourself [/does one physically harm oneself]- even it damages the self in physical life- as well as your [/one’s] mind. (25:53)

You know in the Western culture, in the Western educational system, health system, there are a tremendous amount of ways of treating people. That’s what I was saying this morning, or yesterday, that you just cannot ignore the taking of medication and all this that is there.

Besides that, what little I know is this. It [/self-hatred] is anger, hatred, both, but also it has a tremendous [amount of] sadness in it. Sadness is balanced by happiness. And we cannot provide true happiness, or even [the happiness that] normal people consider happiness, to the people who are having difficulties. Cannot. (27:26) Even if we do provide, whatever we provide, it is not going to be happiness to the person. It is going to be another… challenge or something other than happiness. [This will happen with] whatever you do that’s normally happiness [for you] in that way.

What else, what else can you do? There’s a very skillful way of handling the situation. You try to bring some kind of happy joy that they can feel. Perhaps letting the people do whatever they want to do, or things like that type of thing. That category. Not restricting them. At this level, ‘no’ is never the answer. Do something which is acceptable to them, which probably will give them a little joy. Hopefully that joy will balance the sadness they carry. The sadness and joy can be balanced, a little bit balanced. [Even if] Only a little bit of happiness comes up, the sadness will go down. That is how it’s going to be balanced within the individual. (29:21)

Tibetans have a lot of old funny ways. A lot of people have a lot of different funny ways. Many of them indulge in praying and this and that, and making the individual prayers all the time. I’ve seen a number of them. Except for the exceptional cases, mostly they don’t affect much.

On the contrary, you are pushing the person to do something that the person doesn’t want to do. “Say prayers. Do this. Do that,” and all that. And it has a different effect than what you hope to get. Some Tibetans will say, “Well, it’s just his karma, what can you do?” or something throw-away [like that]. And that’s also not right. That’s also not right. Karma is conditioned. (30:36)

Perhaps by the force of bringing some kind of happiness, try to balance the sadness. Try to reduce the strong sadness that has taken over completely. You know there may be a chemical imbalance, a physical, chemical imbalance. Definitely, taking pills and things like that to try to balance it helps tremendously.

If it’s not a chemical imbalance, if it’s purely a mental imbalance, then that is sadness. Sadness and anger that is brought in. Try to balance the sadness and anger, both. Sadness is balanced by something happy. Anger has to be balanced by patience and compassion.

At the worst… not the worst, but when it’s getting worse, there’s no room for patience, there’s no room for compassion. So perhaps—it is extremely difficult. Perhaps, give them some kind of… respect. (32:27) [Show that you] love [them] and care for [them] and want [happiness for them]. [Don’t] overly say ‘yes’ to everything. Show [that you] have love, desert(???) wanting and [behave in] that way. (32:53)

You know it’s an interesting thing. Love, whether it is pure love or usual, normal love between two people, all of that helps here because it brings some kind of relief and comfort even in a short period.

But then, on the other hand, if there is some rejection or something, the matter is going to be worse. Some kind of happiness has to be brought. What I was experienced is I never had that sort of experience.

I used to have a number of teachers or even attendants, attendants, who were very strict, very strict. So whatever I wanted to do, I was never allowed. Never allowed. If I wanted to talk to somebody about something, [I was told,] “That’s not allowed!” the answer was, ”No, no, no.” If I wanted to go somewhere, I was never allowed. The answer was, “No, no, no. Because you’re not supposed to.” There were all kinds of [reasons]. “Because it’s below your dignity,” “it is not suited to you,” “You are a Ganden(?) Lama, you’re not supposed to mix with these people,” blah, blah, blah. All kinds of [excuses]. The answer was ‘no, no, no’ all the time. (34:56) Every teacher [was like this].

But there were one or two teachers who knew me very well and took me for a picnic. They packed me a picnic and took me, and everything was, “Study, study, study, study! You are supposed to know three times more than others! Study, study, study! You have to memorize this and you have to do this and you have to read this and you have to learn this and you have to go here and attain this teaching and go over there and study, study, study, study, study, study.”

Then after a little while, I did have a good capability of memorizing. Honestly, somehow, it was very strange. I used to- not now! Now, if I look at one here, I have to keep on looking. Otherwise, I forget all the time. I used to have a good memory. So much so that the time came that some of my teachers would come in the morning and they’d pick up a needle and put it through a book and would pick it up and give it to me. So whatever pages came out onto the needle, I was supposed to memorize them within two or three hours. It happens.

I also learned a technique of looking very carefully. I would read it once. I’d read it twice. By the third time, I’d start reading it from my memory, (36:48) and wherever I got stuck, I’d look at it a little bit. By the fourth time, fifth time, I’d have memorized it. No doubt about it. No matter how many pages were there. Tibetan pages are double. So back and front is counted as one page. I memorized five thousand pages. Five thousand pages. Actually, it was the record in Loseling. Five thousand pages.

Then, in the evening, you have to say it, no question. You have to say it in the evening. And tomorrow morning you say it, tomorrow evening you say it, then two days later, then four days later, then five, six, seven days later, it remains with you. If you don’t say it at all, you forget it. Easily.

Other than that, now I try to read one page, and I can’t even memorize it. Can’t even think. I’m not talking about English, I’m talking about Tibetan. I have to keep on looking at it. (38:03)

When I came to Dharamsala, this was about 1964 or 1965, His Holiness said, “you might have memorized everything, everything there is to memorize.” I said, “No, I can’t even memorize a line.” He said, “What’s the matter, what happened to you?” I don’t know what happened. I can’t. Honestly.

[When I was] Memorizing, I’d have to say it in the evening. So therefore in the evening I had to recite. Then I would fall asleep. And I would say it in my sleep until it stopped, until the book had stopped.

My attendants realized this. They made me stand up. I stood up for a few days, and then fell asleep. Then I found a way to stand up, sleep, and say it. [Laughter]

Then they put me at the window, the third floor window. Standing at the window, if you fell, you would fall three stories down. Below it was just rock. I mean not rock, but not smooth ground. There were big rocks on the ground there. So they made me stand on the window and say it. And for that I found a way. I would lean at the back like this, at the corner, and then go to sleep and say it, whatever it was. [Laughter] I never fell. (39:42)

[When they said,] “Study, study, study, study,” [this is what they meant.] It was really sometimes [lonely]… there was no one to talk to, because I wasn’t allowed to talk to [anyone]. [There was] No fooling around, no bullshitting around. And whenever you did something not right, they’d beat you. You’d get it, whatever it was- five, six, seven, ten, fifteen, twenty-five lashes. The worst of the worst was really bad. You know a couple of times- that was really bad. Otherwise, ten, fifteen, twenty [lashes] was the usual, not that bad. That was not really that bad. (40:53)

At that moment, those teachers who took me out, they would get an excuse from the teacher who was in charge. Then they’d take me off to the mountaintop, the top of the mountain, and we’d sit in the nice little sunshine/shade, [with the] air blowing, looking down below at the big plateau. Or sometimes they’d take me to the riverside and… all that type of thing.

This was extremely helpful. Extremely helpful. And that somehow saved me. [It helped me] not to have hatred, anger. Anger is the… it really doesn’t matter [at] whom you are angry, you don’t have to be angry at any particular person. But [anger is] anything that happens [that becomes] irritating to that point [where you become angry]. (42:02)

Balancing that- not so much, “study, study, study, study, study”, balancing, helps tremendously. But there’s a time: you have to study. And there’s a time: you have to break. For me, what was helpful was those breaks. Then my errands would take me home a number of times. So every time I would look for an invitation. I would wait for the horses to come up in the monastery to take me down. I would sit near a window and I would hear the horses… you know, we didn’t get many horses [coming to] the monastery. One or two. Most of the time I’d be looking through the window, waiting for the horses to come. When you were taken home, that was break time. And that was helpful.

That brought some kind of happiness. Happiness balanced the pressure and sadness. Plus you’d have those beatings coming all the time. Combine them together and… somehow it did not damage anything in me. At the same time, there were tremendous advantages, which I totally appreciate. What little I know, what little knowledge I have today is all due to that. (44:16) I do appreciate that.

At the same time, there is a little damage you make in [/cause] the individual. Even though there is no problem, [there is] a little damage. That damage is, honestly speaking, you don’t hear much whoever says what, because nobody’s going to beat you. (44:44) [You become so conditioned to listening out of fear of being beaten, that when that threat is no longer there, it becomes difficult to listen to what people have to say]. You know what I mean? And that is damage. That is actually damage.

And it took a long time [for me] to overcome that. It took a long time to overcome that. So for me, that is one thing. And the plus [is]: as a Tibetan, as a culture/religion whatever, [there are] certain prayers, certain meditations, certain techniques, [which are great when we] combine them together. It is the earlier is the best time. When it has gone too far, then it’s very difficult to correct. Earlier [is the best], before there are any problems. Earlier, the balancing is very, very nice. When it has gone too far and you want to correct it, it’s difficult. (46:00)

So again, there’s even a saying in Tibetan [quotes Tibetan] (46:20):

Fresh love is also a very important answer for that.

[Laughs] Or not fresh love, but new love. New love is considered important and helpful.

I don’t know- I’ve said so many words that I don’t know what I’ve said. I’m getting good feed back, so it’s okay.

Question: Is it necessary to have a formal practice?

Rimpoche: Good question. Formal practice, organized practice is extremely helpful. The most important thing is to have a good heart, a kind heart. A warm heart- His Holiness calls it a warm heart. Good heart. Kindness.

I am a strange, maybe a really strange person. But I do really think and strongly feel that to be a good person, [one] does not necessarily have to be Buddhist at all. They don’t have to be [part of] any organized religion at all. There are a number of good, kind people, a lot of them. I used to say, many of them are non-Buddhist true Buddhists. They are not Buddhists, but are true Buddhists- from the Buddhist point of view. There are wonderful, kind, good persons- a lot of them. A lot of them.

They may or may not have a formal practice, but if they have a formal practice, it would be better and useful and helpful. (49:06)

I’ll tell you why. That is probably a point that I am going to touch [upon] tomorrow morning.

Why? I am going to postpone answering that ‘why business’ until tomorrow.

Question: There was a case in Illinois, currently in the news, the McCarron Case, in which a prominent doctor killed her three year old autistic daughter to save her from suffering in this life. Does the negative or positive quality of an act depend on the motivation, even if the motivation is deluded as in this case? Can’t we be mistaken in our motivation and end up with negative karma and not realize it? (50:13)

Rimpoche: I’m sorry. I’m not going to agree with the question. Even if it is good motivation, killing is killing.

I was talking with some people together at lunchtime today. [We talked about…] I forgot who the person was- it wasn’t a very long time ago. He was [a man who was] either Dutch or Danish or something like that, who went to [write about] some tribe in Africa. A journalist. [He was researching] Some unheard of tribe somewhere. He was writing about those tribes. [He had] a lot of constant [contact] and he was praising those people, and all kinds of things were happening. (51:27)

All of a sudden, there was no more communication. It all stopped. All of a sudden, it all stopped. The family [of the journalist] went there to find him after six months or a year or whatever it was. They found the place and found the tribes. They talked [/asked] about this person [the journalist], and they said, “Yes, yes, we love him so much! He’s a wonderful person.” “Where is he?” “We loved him so much, we ate him up.” That’s it. “We ate him up because we love him so much.” So, love… ate up. Is there any justification?

Same thing [as the McCarron case]. We want to prevent our child from suffering, so I killed [him/her](!). It doesn’t make any sense to me.

Killing is killing. When you ate up the person, you ate a person, probably alive. Whether it’s good motivation or bad motivation, is it right? No. Motivation makes a difference. Tonight is the time [when I have to be saying this a lot]: most of them, but not everything again. [Here again: ‘all’ doesn’t mean ‘every single situation without exception’] (53:00). Tonight is the time [when], one after another, I have to repeat that. Yeah, that’s it.

Killing is killing, whether it is mercy killing, love killing, hate killing. For me, killing is killing. It is a negativity. It is a negative action. For sure. For sure, whether it is [done out of ] love or whatever it is. To me… maybe a doctor, or maybe whatever it is, but particularly killing as (53:48) It is bad. It is not good. It is really bad. Bad karma for sure.

Even with good motivation, it’s bad karma for sure. Again, motivation is also questionable. Unless you are sure… This is the problem here, particularly for me, because where I come from, with the background of reincarnation, in my understanding, death doesn’t end anything, except the separation of the mind and the physical body. That is the separation. It doesn’t end the mind. It doesn’t end the person. Unless you can guarantee, [that] the next one [/life] will be without suffering, without any pain, or will be free of that particular suffering or worse [suffering]. Without that, other than that [guarantee], any killing is… killing. Totally good or bad motivation, whatever it is, it is [still] killing. It is a negativity. There is nothing positive about it.

That applies to not only individual killings, but that applies to killing by capital punishment. It is the same thing. Capital punishment is also a negativity. It is definitely a negativity. (55:53) For sure. [It is a negativity] for everyone who makes the decision, [for the person] who gives the judgement, and also for the people who have to execute the order. For each and every one of them, it is negative karma.

From what I understand, like killing in the war, [that karma works this way:]

[There are] the soldiers on the ground who are shooting the guns. [A soldier] may have one individual gun-shooter shot and one individual killing of a person. [He will therefore create] the karma of killing a person. But the general who issues the order to shoot and kill has the negativity of killing all the people. [He gets the negative karma for all of those who were shot] under his order.

And going beyond that, the President, who’s the Commander-in-Chief, carries all the negativities of all these people who are killed. Not only the Americans am I talking about, but the Iraqis, too. All of them. Whoever issues the order carries the negativity of that, (57:16) according to the karmic rules. There is no doubt about it.

This is the [interesting thing about] negativity, something very, very strange- it doesn’t end with one individual with one action. It involves everything. Even the question rises whether people who are contributing from any angle, do they have negativity or not. That question also rises. (58:00) Nobody can really tell you [in a] straightforward [way]. But, in general, it does. A lot of people do carry that negativity. That is how karma works. Completely different, even if it is good motivation.

No president in the world would issue an order for war with bad motivation. They always have good motivation- the motivation of protecting their country, citizens, and all this. With that motivation, they issue that order. I’m quite sure that even George Bush did the same thing. I don’t think George Bush had bad motivation and issued the order of war. He did it for the protection of America and Americans. Even then, the killing karma has to come. (59:03)

So, even though you’re a doctor, I’m sorry to say, whatever the motivation might be, when that individual person dies- the moment the mind and body separate, at that moment- the action of killing is complete. Whether you are satisfied or not satisfied. If you express satisfaction, the action becomes much stronger. If you do not express satisfaction (not physically, but mentally), the karma is weaker karma. But even then, it is complete. (59:54) It is negative karma- the karma of killing.

That’s true. It might sound very conservative – right-wing conservative! [Laughs]

Question: Is the cause of suffering not keeping our commitments, whatever they may be? For those who might be thinking of becoming Vajrayana practitioners, are Vajrayana commitments outdated in the modern world?

Rimpoche: Commitments. When I look at morality, at moral issues, and people not keeping their commitments, I’m not talking about people’s saying-prayers commitment. I’m talking about any commitment. Honoring anything.

‘Could not keep’ is different.

Purposely not keeping a commitment is, to me, not good morality. I don’t know whether I can say it is ‘immoral’ or not. Normally in this country, when they talk about moral and immoral, they are looking at only the sex part of it. But to me it is more [in reference to] commitments, vows and commitments. (1:02:06)

When you break that- break your vows- it is a problem with your morality. When that becomes a problem, then it becomes negativity.

What was the question? [Question is repeated]

Since it becomes negativity, therefore it becomes a cause of suffering. No doubt- from that angle. Simply not doing something does not necessarily mean creating negativity or cause of suffering. But when you have a commitment of doing [something] and then [you end up] not doing it, then because of [having] breaking [/broken] [your] commitment, [it] becomes a moral issue. In that way, it is a cause of suffering.

The second question in this? [The second question is repeated]

What does that mean by that? Irrelevant?

I don’t know that. I don’t know that at all. I don’t think so. Vajrayana commitments are even more relevant in modern day, not out of relevant. They are much more relevant because they work much better in times like this. (1:04:00)

You do remember the Heruka mandala is established above Mount Meru, facing towards humanitarian lands. The mandala remains without dissolving. Because the more the degenerated age becomes [degenerated], it becomes much more effective and more powerful and important and effective and quick.

So from that angle alone, it is clear to us that Vajrayana commitments are more relevant in modern times than outdated. This is one example. There are bazillions of them. It is much more so.

Not only that, forget about Vajrayana commitments, even meditation on compassion made a difference to the individual in [the] good age during Buddha’s time and all this. And today, today it is much more effective and helpful. Buddha and his disciples, one after another, in statement after statement, told us this is much more effective and helpful during the degenerated age.

So I don’t think it is out of date. (1:05:36) To me, it is much more relevant, more effective, and more helpful. And as a matter of fact, it is a great opportunity for us, too.

Question: How do we best help others deal with pain, grief, and loss?

Rimpoche: What I understand is: there are two things.

One, you try to share with their suffering and their pain. Even be there. Whatever is needed- be there. Physically or otherwise, just be there. Be available. That is helpful. Try to share whatever you can.

The second thing, for us especially, is to dedicate our virtues. Pray and dedicate our virtues. And that is something that we have a special way of doing. It is something unique for spiritual practitioners. It is not simply just sending good thoughts. Sending good thoughts is just wishing. Having action for that purpose is something great we can do. Any positive actions, dedicating your virtue, do something good, something right, something helpful for the benefit of the departed. (1:07:58)

There are a zillion things you can do. For example, you know we do in Jewel Heart, if any member of Jewel Heart, or anyone we know, in the case that they have passed away, we automatically do pujas, prayers, [and ask that the monks also say prayers] for [the departed person within] the monasteries in India. It is sort of automatic. People have donated money, and we have earmarked a certain [amount of] money for that. Some people put more money in, and do more things. That’s different, that’s their choice. But whether there’s money or no money, we automatically do a certain set of prayers and pujas [and also have them done] by the monastery just by the virtue of the person’s association with Jewel Heart. If we know [about this association]- if we don’t know, then we don’t know. So, that’s what we do.

Things like that I have found very useful. That’s not only useful, but it’s useful for the departed person. After that [/death], whatever you have is no longer yours. No longer yours. Even your life insurance is not yours. Everything is somebody else’s. So what you’ve left [so what you’re left with?] to the individual [/] is the negative and positive karma (1:09:45). So why we do the prayers, prayers especially done by a large number of monks- supposed to be great ones anyway (I don’t know if they’re great or not). But … [quotes Tibetan]

… because you know many members of the Sanghas, and many people put it there [/say the prayers] and put their energy together, and are praying… and not only simply praying, but reading the words that Buddha has specifically mentioned for these purposes… and you are repeating it, repeating it not by just one or two people, but by many monks together- which [/this all] has tremendous power. That power is dedicated to the departed soul for his or her use.

There’s no scientific proof that we send this power there. It’s not like a Western Union [telegram]. If we send it there, then they’d have to get the signature! We don’t have that, but that’s what we do. (1:10:56)

That’s what you can do. Even if you don’t want to do it that way, just do something positive, and dedicate that for it [/the departed person]. [You can, for example,] Save a life- any life. Any life. That animal who is ready to be slaughtered- in the next hour or half an hour or day or minute or whatever it is. Buy the animal and save a life. A lot of people save a fish- but don’t put it back in the same lake or it will get caught the next day or the next hour! [Laughs] Take it somewhere else. Or things like that.

Do something positive. Give five cents to a poor person who badly needs it. Or [do] something [having to do with] generosity, something [that has to do with a ] moral commitment. That’s like a gift. That you can use. I can’t think of anything else, but there are a lot more. I can’t say it all here.

Question: You mentioned ‘the joy that knows no suffering,’ would you explain what that joy is.

Rimpoche: Well, if I experience it, I’ll be happy to share it with you!

I don’t have time to talk to you about it- it’s already five past nine.

But it’s good.

Again, I’d like to conclude today. Today we drew attention to… what did we do… Lama Chopa somewhere, right?

No one wants even the slightest suffering, or is even content with…

We didn’t even touch [upon] that. Happiness,

In this we are all alike.

So what did we do? We defined the mission of our life. The purpose of our life. The purpose of our life is freedom, freedom from suffering. Freeing ourself from suffering. (1:14:01)

An interesting question comes in. Love. Does love free the individual from suffering? Our evening discussion came up with: Love does defeat suffering. So, although you do not love your spouse or children [in order] to avoid your suffering, but [/nonetheless it] indirectly or directly helps relieve suffering.

I don’t like to withdraw the statements of all, however, this also shows that even love to [/for one’s] family and children and so forth IS relieving suffering. If it’s not relieving it completely, it is at least reducing it for sure.

And thus, our real mission is to make ourselves happy and remove ourselves from suffering. That is our mission.

We did not get to the point of ‘how.’ But we still have a few more days. We did not get to the ‘how.’ But we have a few more days.

Today I would like you to meditate on the point of the mission of your life.

We are supposed to have established that our life is important, precious, and priceless. (1:16:11) It is true: it is price-less. That’s why killing is so bad. You have destroyed [something that is] price-less. We are supposed to have established that.

So I do want you to meditate.

As we said the other day, [visualize] the object of refuge, whatever it may be, in front of you. Express your appreciation, make offerings, and make a request for blessings and help [so] that ‘I may be able to establish the mission of my life.’ That purpose [/mission] is: to remove pain, to bring happiness, and joy and comfort within the life. (1:17:12) “May I be blessed to be able to do that.’

With that, you meditate.

All these questions that came up, in an argumentative form, or question form, whatever it is- these are the subjects you can meditate on. What about this? What about that? Then, you draw a conclusion, even as we did, out of discussion. We drew a conclusion. Just like that, you can draw a conclusion. And you make an impact on your life. Your purpose is to help yourself, to remove your suffering, and to bring happiness within you.

With this, I would like to conclude for tonight. Thank you.

I meant to talk to you about my Tara DVD and CD (it has a DVD on one side and a CD on the other). I’ll do that tomorrow. We put everything, ‘tomorrow, tomorrow.’ I hope there’s tomorrow! [Laughs]