Archive Result

Sound file: 20080605GRJHNLEWC (13)

Speaker: Gelek Rimpoche

Location: Netherlands

Topic: Engaging Wisdom and Compassion

Section:

Transcriber: Jayapushpa

Date: 22nd August2021

(His Holiness continues..)76. (Thupten Jinpa: We will now read from stanza 76 of Nagarjuna’s text. This is on page 39) (His Holiness continues) The fruits which are desirable or undesirable / In the form of fortunate or unfortunate births in the world / They come about ….I think Thupten Jinpa read the whole thing. His Holiness read half, but so it is the same thing. They come about from helping sentient beings / Or harming them. His Holiness says like in Bodhicaryavatra says, ‘Those who seek joy anywhere, they all come out of seeking happiness to others. Those who getting sufferings are the result of seeking joy for yourself ‘, as Shantideva had concluded. That’s what His Holiness said. (Thupten Jinpa:…consequences of seeking one’s own welfare) (His Holiness continues…)His Holiness said that explained in detail by verse 77, By relying upon sentient beings the unexcelled state of Buddhahood is brought about it. So what is so astonishing about the fact. Whatever the prosperity there are in the gods and humans / such as these enjoyed by the Brahma, Indras and Rudras and worldly guardian s of the world, There is nothing in this triple world system there is nothing brought forth by helping others. There is not brought forth by helping others. 0:04:28.7

His Holiness is saying ordinary benefits of life including receiving good future and ultimate benefits of liberating oneself either from samsara , totally as nirvana, or obtaining total enlightenment, they are all the result of cherishing other beings, which is referring to bodhimind.(His Holiness continues….) Underneath here everyone ,every suffering including suffering of nirvana, all are result of harming or desire to hurt other people. Looks like 78 79 both covered. (Thupten Jinpa: he says cherishing of one’s own self interest..) (His Holiness continues…) 82, 83 , I am not reading the English. 82, 83 all the benefits that …desire to benefitting others, protect you and help you. (His Holiness continues…) Then he goes on the 82, 83 …half of 82 and 83 and 84, saying do not give up the love affection for other beings , in essence. Those of the hinayana arahats because no affection, attraction didn’t obtain lower enlightenment. By not giving up love to all living beings, one obtained total enlightenment. Help not help, good result bad result all of them is the result of Love and never ever give up even a minute. 0:10:54.5

(His Holiness.....altruistic attitude, if we think deeply..) Now he speaks in English (His Holiness: …or think more comprehensively, then the altruistic mind is real source of all goodness, of one’s own temporary well being. Now that means physical well being, mental well being on a daily basis and then longevity, a long and healthy life. After all we are social animals. We have to live among human brothers and sisters. Under these circumstances logically it is much better to live friendly with affection that brings genuine friendship and genuine affection , which then brings trust. That trust brings friendship again. Friendship provides for us. I have many , many brothers and sisters who can share my problems, who can provide for my happiness and my well being. So I feel much happier. Without these things ultimately deep inside you remain lonely. It is simply a contradiction: we are social animals but remain lonely. How pitiful ! Money, power, physical strength will not bring genuine friendship. Only genuine friendship brings warm heartedness. So irrespective whether believer or non believer, whether we are practitioners or followers of Christianity or Buddhism, it doesn’t matter. We are all the same. Therefore all human religions carry the message to strengthen human values. In the philosophical field yes, there are big differences. 0:15:30.4

There some say this is white, some say this is red, some say this is blue. That doesn’t matter. The important thing is that our day to day lives should be happy. Whatever philosophy we use, ultimately we need some kind of inner peace and inner happiness and inner satisfaction. That is our goal. That is our aim. That is also the real purpose of our life. Generally speaking, we live for a maximum of hundred years. If we spend these hundred years creating some trouble for others and ourselves, what’s the meaning? So whether there is God or not we are here. This is reality; this is fact. And the desire for happiness is also a fact. So happiness must come from within. The basis of happiness must come from within. We cannot buy it from a shop. We cannot produce it by injection. I think it is very difficult to produce inner peace through even a sophisticated computer. So therefore the altruistic attitude is the key factor for a happy life, for a happy family, for a happy society.) (Rimpoche request to stop for Dutch translation*) (His Holiness:…So that is the essence of these verses. Now 85…) Really intelligent people, the maximum intelligent people and wise persons, may have of course some selfishness. Everyone has this right to have a happy life. So the desire for happiness for oneself is really a right. It is valid. But then in order to gain maximum benefit for oneself the best method, if you think properly, is to show genuine affection for others and practice altruism. That is what I usually call “wise selfish” . It is much better to be wise-selfish than foolish-selfish, no question. (Audience laughs) I don’t think that there is anyone who has some argument about that. I don’t think so (Audience laughs). So therefore in stanza 85…) 0:21:28.3

So His Holiness you heard the English, so because of that reason, so have Compassion as the root and develop bodhimind and seeking benefit for others, always meditate. Whatever you do whether you are eating, sleeping, walking, happy, sad whatever maybe, this is the key, Compassion, bodhimind, altruistic mind. That’s it. (Thupten Jinpa: …one needs to constantly remember these values of altruism and embrace them). (His Holiness: There may be little quarrels or a little fighting – as we heard in one of the questions – you may have some sort of problem with your friend. And in some cases it may even be necessary to fight, including in some cases a little physical action, but deep inside you should keep compassionate altruistic mind. As far as the actions of others are concerned, sometimes it is necessary to take appropriate counter measures but as far as these beings themselves are concerned, we should not lose or forget compassion. So then even fighting still can be a humanized quarrel. That is much better and has no side effects. If quarrel is mechanized without human feeling, then even small fighting may create unthinkable side effects. So we reading the following stanza of Nagarjuna’s text (stanza 86)).(His Holiness continues in tibetan…) Goes through 87 and 86. And he says it is great (Thupten Jinpa: This is indeed amazing, praiseworthy it is; This is the excellent way of the sublime;) (His Holiness continues…) Again 87, 88 saying as we talked yesterday or today, about interdependentness of the causal and result, cause and result; or the interdependentness of base and function, all those. And check carefully, analyse and then getting wisdom is the most wonderful thing. Like it says, ‘that is more amazing than amazing! That is more wondrous than wondrous! 10:29:34.(Thupten Jinpa: …kind of a commitment to the law of karma and working for the benefit of other sentient beings).

(His Holiness continues…) 101..(Thupten Jinpa: So we read in stanza 101, it is in page 47. Those who fulfil other’s welfare in this way / Constantly through their body, speech and mind, / who advocate the dialectic of emptiness, / There is no dispute at all of being nihilistic. Here Nagarjuna is pointing out that there is no way that the proponents of the emptiness teaching are nihilistic, because these are tremendous courage to embark upon this practitioners who on the basis of their understanding have developed this altruistic path where bringing about others’ welfare becomes their central focus. So there is no basis for these practitioners falling into nihilism at all.)

(His Holiness continues…) (Thupten Jinpa: Nagarjuna wrote in stnza 102, Neither in cyclic existence nor in nirvana / That great beings reside; Therefore the Buddhas taught here / The non –abiding nirvana. 0:33:18.0 Again Nagarjuna is pointing out that it is because of their commitment to the altruistic activity and altruistic attitude and intention that these bodhisattvas do not fall into neither the extreme of existence nor the extreme of nirvana). (His Holiness…)There comes 105. Actually essence is both, relative bodhimind and absolute bodhimind. So therefore should generate. (His Holiness: Now I think I will stop here. We have now completed this. So read often and think about it. Then in the weeks, months and years to come, some change, some improvements is bound to take place. The real significant spiritual development sometimes even may take aeons to develop. So don’t count the minutes, hours or weeks. Think in aeons, in millions and billions of years. Se, that brings more inner strength, enthusiasm and determination. And with that things become easier. That is the way of practice of bodhisattvas. Of course my own experience very, very limited, but I would like to compete to become a bodhisattva. We all have the same potential. We have this marvellous human brain and marvellous human warm-heartedness by birth. I think our parents provided all this potential. So now it is up to us whether we implement or take care of this potential. Now the next text: )

I think that much now he has given the teachings of the Nagarjuna’s commentary on that. 0:39:54.4