Archive Result

20090607GRAAEnthusiasm

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Welcome here, for today. Today is a very special day. According to the Tibetan calendar, it is “Vesak Day”. That is supposed to be the day that Buddha was born and it is supposed to be the day that Buddha obtained total enlightenment. And it is the day that Buddha passed away. All three, most important events of the Buddha fall even in the one day. In the southeast Asian lands, Vesak day is about a month earlier. Tibetans, Chinese and Mongolians celebrate today.

So, it is a very special day. 2600 hundred years later even the days are different and different countries have different dates. It has to be on a full mon. Is today full moon? Good, at least that one is right (laughs) and in the Tibetan tradition it is the fourth month of the Tibetan calendar. So, that is the Vesak day. And according to the traditional legend whatever negative or positive thing you do today, you’re supposed to have 100,000 faults or benefit. For the negatives you do, you’re supposed to have 100,000 disadvantages. That is the belief system. That is how it is introduced in the Tibetan tradition.

And if I remember correctly, when I was young, most of the Tibetans, tried to be vegetarian on that day. Eating meat, though people do it, it is not great. So, at least we try to avoid eating meat for, if possible, three times a month. That is, on the 8th day of this lunar calendar month, the 15th and the new moon of the lunar calendar. We are supposed to try to keep vegetarian. If not, at least, today, we maintain vegetarian. I remember, when we were younger we were disciplined, very rigorous but also we are spoiled. So as a kid, we definitely wanted to have more meat today, because we were not allowed to eat it. That as simple as that.

We had the privilege of having a friend of mine, Kushok Bakula Rinpoche visit here. He was the head lama of Ladakh. Rinpoche passed away many years ago. And his incarnation is now enthroned and all that. But when he was there, he was a very learned, very important scholar-teacher and politician. As politician he was responsible for the development of Ladakh as a developed nation. The first Indian Prime Minister Jarwahal Nehru, sort of forced him to get into politics. He became Minister and also member of parliament and all that kind of thing. Finally, he became the Indian ambassador to Mongolia for over 20 years. Normally, every ambassador everywhere in the world, changes every second or third of fourth year, because of the government in the area would change. Not only India, but the government of the country you were sent to – they all change. But he continued to be 20 years in that post because the people of Mongolia were really devoted to him. And they sort of worshipped him as their master, their teacher, their guru and also classic Indian master. For India that was a total advantage. Anything you wanted, you could get it done. So that’s why he continued for 20 years as Indian ambassador. And he was responsible for not having any bloodshed when they were transiting from the Soviet Union bloc into democracy. That’s the only country in that area, no bloodshed. That’s because all the students who were leading the demonstration against the old government were somehow devoted to him. Just a word from him made them come together at the table to negotiate. Then the government quit and the students took over, exactly without any bloodshed. And that’s attributed to him.

So, when he was young he wanted to eat meat on Vesak Day. His teacher told him, “Today, not a single being eats meat”. And he said, “Even those huge monsters in the sea will not close their mouth. For if they close their mouth, insects or other small fishes will be crushed. So they don’t close their mouth. But you want to eat meat, here is your meat, go ahead and eat”. So, that sort of became the talk of the town.

So you know, you always want to do something if you’re told not to do it. You want to rebel against that. So rebelling against the rules is not only a Western or American idea, it also happens in the remote snow-bound mountains in Tibet. But one thing they don’t revolt against is non-violence. I can’t say we don’t. We do sometimes revolt, against that too. But then compassion and caring and love enter. For a thousand years back Tibet was a backward nation. Not like what the Communist Chinese propaganda says, but very backward. But Tibetans chose to sacrifice so called modern civilization in order to protect the precious teachings of the Buddha.

They rather wanted to have the pure teachings of the Buddha. The Tibetans felt the responsibility of keeping them pure. If it became very open they felt they would not be able to handle it. And that’s why they chose to sacrifice the development. Thereby, they sacrificed the national interest and national integrity and everything, in order to maintain the pure teachings of Buddha.

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When they lost it in the late 1950s it was clear that Tibet can no longer protect Buddhism. Then it is very clear, Tibetans decided to export it, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He escaped from Tibet, and was followed by about 100,000 Tibetans. Out of 100,000, about 50,000 were learned scholars and teachers and monks. And 50,000 were local lay people of the border areas. So almost 100,000 came to India.

The essence they protected, the essence they tried to save in India and throughout the world, is the precious Buddha’s teaching. We call it, “precious”. This is old fashioned Tibetan way – precious Buddha’s teaching. It is precious because we think it is the source of happiness and joy of all people, all human beings, all living beings. And the essence of that Buddha’s precious teachings will really boil down to compassion and wisdom.

Today we are talking about enthusiasm. There needs to be a subject about which you get excited and enthusiastic. And for us that subject is compassion, love and wisdom. That is the real essence of Buddha’s teaching, no matter how many moral or philosophical points you have, no matter how many interpretations you have, no matter how many cultures were penetrated and have adapted to Buddhism.

There are monks who wear yellow robes, monks who wear red robes or grey or blue robes. The color doesn’t matter: the essence is really important. This is the variety of culture. If you go to southeast Asia, on the China side, they mostly wear grey robes. And then you go to Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand they’re all in yellow. You go to northern India, they’re all wearing red colors. I may look contradictory and may look like different sects, but the common language they use is: one teacher, that is the Buddha; one teaching, that is love, compassion and wisdom and one result we hope for and that is to liberate every living being from the suffering of samsara. The Sanskrit word “samsara” means the uncontrolled life. That is what it is. The essence of that is the love and compassion.

Love, compassion, both! First, we must focus to ourselves. The moment we use the word “love”, people think it is something out there. You look out there and that poor guy is suffering. Poor thing! So we may consider that compassion. Maybe. But that is not the full compassion the Buddha is so excited about. The Buddha’s compassion is not just looking at the poor fellow, thinking: what can you help, how can you do, what can you do? That is the most important. Because anybody can think “Poor guy!” There were some politicians back in Tibet and with all this good dharma all the politicians claimed to be very devoted and ultimate dharma practitioners. Otherwise, they wouldn’t get a seat in whatever organization they were sitting. So then Tibet has a lot of dust. Do you know what they used to do? They take their robe, and cover their mouth, thinking that the person suffering is somehow dirty, filthy. Yeah, it’s a dust, there’s a lot of dust. So there’s a poor fellow and they cover their mouth and walk away. And that is the example of what not to do about compassion.

That also then turns into “Poor fellow, I know what to do, you know nothing about it”. We always talk the role of advising, telling them what to do. That’s what we did for 80 years in America. After all, during the Second World War and thereafter and even the two wars we are facing now, that’s exactly what we did. We know what to do, you don’t know anything about it, so we will tell you what to do. Obama is changing that, I’m glad he is changing. And I hope that it will bring some kind of effect and everlasting benefit for all living beings, anywhere. So what Buddha said, what not to do, is that.

But you need to help, you need to do something. But if you want to help, you have to know how to help. Isn’t that right? Even in our normal western educational system, the nurses need training, the doctors need their education. Without that, you can’t help. If you have some trained nurse who knows exactly how to handle it they will do so without harming the person. Sometimes, you can’t help it. Something goes wrong. But that’s exactly what it is. Likewise, here, also, if you want to help, you need to know what to do. Otherwise, you can’t help. I mean, you’ll be same as me, just standing there “So what can I do, what can I do, how can I help you?” And that’s not that much help. So the person needs to know how to help. That is what I volunteered for myself: to help others. So now I need to know what to do.

How do I know what to do? I have to look in my own situation and look at my own sufferings. The suffering is not a secret for anyone else. We all experience it. I do suffer, you suffer, we all suffer. There is no one – whether you are a president or king, whether you support the king, or whatever. They all suffer, too.

O:18:53:6

Michael Jackson, look at him. He’s a king, no doubt! No doubt! So, the poor fellow is suffering. Who can say he is not? Otherwise, why should he have to undergo all those operations and all those difficulties, and changing look like, you know, I don’t know, whatever, now he looks like. Sometimes, I wonder whether he’s man or woman or whatever. It has gone to that level, and that is suffering! Honestly, even your king! That’s what they do. And so do the politicians. So does the military power. So do the millionaires. Everyone suffers. But suffering is personal. And how to handle the suffering is personal. And when you know how to help yourself, on that basis you’ll know how to help others.

Truly, we would all like to help everybody else. We are all basically wonderful human beings, kind persons. Beautiful Americans. We are! No doubt about it. There is not a single bad person here who is not. Honestly, it is very difficult to find a really bad person. If you really look at each and every one of them, they are wonderful people. By our nature, by being human being, by being a kind person, by being compassionate, we all are wonderful persons. If we were not wonderful, we would not have that election what we had in November. But because we are wonderful persons, we are kind persons. We care for ourselves and we care for others. Not so much ourselves, but we really care. We don’t want people to suffer unnecessarily. We don’t want people to get killed. And we thought the need to change the administration here in the United Stateswill make a difference. That is our motivation of change, the motivation of voting for change of the administration. Basically, it shows people are kind, people are caring, people are wonderful. So we do have that in our nature.

But we don’t show that sometimes, particularly, individually, person to person. We often show them some kind of a rough shoulder. “You! Oh! Yeah, me! Hmmm”. So we have to do that. And that’s because of our own addictions, like the addiction to self-cherishing, the addiction to ego-grasping. That’s our biggest problem and when that pops up the worst part of the individual has been drawn out. Basically you are a kind, wonderful person and in general, you show mostly goodness and kindness. But the moment you are dealing with another individual you begin to show our worst part. That’s because we haven’t handled, we haven’t recognized. The dharma that the Buddha taught is trying to see our faults. Trying to see our faults and to recognize so that we don’t engage. Whenever it is coming, we want to make sure it will never come up. The ugly habit of our addiction for negative emotions has to be crushed! Smashed! Once and for all! That is what wisdom is all about. The motivation to bring that wisdom is compassion. And that is why compassion and wisdom become the most important message from Buddha to us.

On Vesak Day today the best way to commemorate the Buddha is to very, very enthusiastically remember the message of that old little Indian guy, in the never ending heat and dust, probably wearing simple sandals and a little dhoti or sarong. He was walking in the middle of the dust, and gave us these fantastic ideas 2600 years ago. Today, in the 21st century, the scientists, the intellectual community, we all in the West, pay attention to that.

Actually, the ideas come from little dusty fellow out of India. Today, we call it Buddha. Make a huge, nice image, wrapped in the brocade, and we fold it. Yeah. At that time, it’s not like that. Dirty, little, old fellow running around in the dust, with all kinds of ideas. And these ideas are today are what we call Buddhism. And that has become the source of maybe some help for us. Maybe some relieving our little pain.

The pains that we have are real. And the reality, you know, I know, we all know it. We pretend not to have by putting up makeup. We dress it up, you know. All this we do, but within the crack of our makeup, we see how much we struggle, how much we suffer, how much we are struggling. Yet. we see no solution. Yet, we see no end to it. We struggle tremendously. For money, we struggle tremendously. For health, we struggle tremendously. We struggle tremendously for everything that we can think of. For companion, for whatever. Each and every individual will have different struggles, but what is common is that we all struggle. Because our nature is such. So we’re not dealing with that. We are dealing in our life -- I must excuse me, I’m not accusing you -- but all of us are dealing with our lives superficially. Like putting a bandage. We’re not trying to heal our wounds and cuts, we’re just putting on bandages. That is exactly what we do. We try to cover up with something else with another. And (A) we don’t even know where it is coming from. (B).we don’t know how it is functioning. (C) We don’t know how to overtake that. What is the antidote? How can I do? All of those.

0:28:32:6

And we do meditate. But what do we meditate? We meditate, sitting there. Sitting, keeping our mind blank. That gets us a little relief in our mind because our mind is absolutely busy for 24 hours a day, even when we’re asleep. But when you try to keep a little bit of time for yourself that gives you a little relief in your mind. At least, a little glimpse of Buddha’s teaching, what you can get.

But that is nothing compared with looking in our problems, the sources of the problems and cutting them out. That is completely helping ourselves once and for all. That is a big difference from simply sitting and thinking nothing for a few minutes or few hours or few weeks or few months. So, when you want it to be enthusiasm, we need it to be enthusiasm on that. On that learning of the compassion and love. First, learn it for yourself. That is the key for our own compassion to make it really grow. Then it comes from nature, from your heart, from your own capability, from your own personality. From your own person. Again, let me tell you this: having compassion for ourselves means cutting the obsession and hatred for ourselves.

Traditionally, they call it nyen jung which people translate as ”renunciation”. But they don’t say what is renunciation. Actually, it is cutting out our own obsession and cutting out hatred from ourselves. That’s what you need. That’s so you can do it. You’re capable, you can do it. There are ways and means of doing it. When you do it, it doesn’t change you so much. You’re not going to grow horns on your head. You not growing beards on your cheeks. Honestly, you’ll be the same good old fellow, looking even better: more relaxed. Because you’re relieved. Torturing ourselves is our own obsession and hatred. The need to cut that is the first step that the Buddha told us: learning compassion for ourselves. Using that as a role model, and using on others is the second compassion, for other people.

Anyway, I’d like to conclude here with a little quote from a great Indian teacher, a Buddhist Indian teacher called Shantideva said (quotes in Tibetan). I have to paraphrase that. It is translated but I didn’t look in the English. So it says,

In the world, whatever joys that you may have, all are there because of compassion for other people. In the world, you may have a lot of sufferings. Whatever they may be, all of them are coming from self-cherishing, ego-grasping.

So when you say “me-me-me-me”, you are inviting suffering for yourself. When you are saying “compassion-compassion-compassion”, you are inviting joy-joy-joy”. That is Shantideva’s words.

And I’d like to thank you for all of you coming today. I wish I could give you a little time for question and answer, but there doesn’t seem to be there much. I’d like to say some things, that we, in Jewel Heart, here, that we try to do a little…Our best service that we give to Jewel Heart is the teachings of the Buddha as information. So that people may utilize certain things to relieve their pain. The whole purpose is to get a little relief for ourselves. And that is our goal, that is our purpose. And we do that through lectures, through talks, through teachings, through programs, study and all that. That’s what we do. And one of the important things that we also do, is we do a number of retreats. Not so many. Two, most important, and that is one in Winter, and one in Summer. The Winter is very, sort of, closed retreat. So certain level, certain committed people, some level, and that is what we do. The Summer is open to everyone. And this year, the Summer Retreat is on compassion itself. I’ll be talking exactly like what I talked today to you. Very similar to that, but a longer period. With the practice and thinking and meditation and all that. And days of the Summer Retreat – it’s escaped out of my head, but Amy you will know…I’m sorry…July 24th through August 1st. Is it a week? It’s a week long, here. And in this very room. So we do have morning til evening activities.

Early morning, we have a wonderful healing meditation through Tara. This is Buddhist version of Mother Mary. Honestly, the very same thing. It doesn’t make that much difference to me. The label is label, you know, and then the culture will have different names, right? And the culture influences, dress is different. Honestly, that’s what it is. It is. And if you do, I’m seeing old drawings, the drawings from Indian and old south-east Asian monks, they wear yellow robes, even in drawings. The Tibetans, Chinese wear red and brocade and all that. So it is just culture. Even one single person of historical famous Buddhist monks, they do that. So it is the same thing.

It is a wonderful healing. Healing through meditations and mantra vow and healing through the elements of our physical body, alone, with the outside, the world elements. That is, the earth, fire, the water, air. So don’t tell me that Tibetan Buddhists are not environmentalists. Honestly, here we have to talk about earth, water and air. So sometimes people say, the Tibetan Buddhists don’t talk about environment. But here, we not only talk, but we meditate. Not only meditate, we try to link our physical, within our physical earth elements within us is the bone and flesh and so forth – the earth part of it. And linking it with the Mother Earth, out. And meditating that. And try to rejuvenate our earth element, as well as the water, as well as the air, as well as the fire. So that’s what we do in the morning. An hour or so. And then – I’m not talking about the food part of it, I’m not expert – I don’t think there’s anybody here to talk about it, they’re all busy in the kitchen, cooking. And then we have conversation, like this, in the major part of the morning, till lunch time. And then we have the individual group discussions. What the group knows about it, questions and all that. And then we have another conversation, teaching like this for the afternoon. And depends on the evening, we have some entertainment, here and there. It’s really fun.

0:39:44

We used to have 2 retreats, earlier. We’ve been here for a long time, a long time in Ann Arbor area. Earlier, we used to call the Summer Retreat, Joyful Retreat. And Winter Retreat, we called Miserable Retreat. So this coming is the Joyful Retreat. And especially, people living in Michigan, and interested in the spiritual path, we’d really like you to come and join with us. I’d like to invite you, personally, to attend this, to register jewelheart.org or you can call ….

Rimpoche continues with closing remarks…..

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