Archive Result

15

20090802GRAASelf - The Illusion of Self

0:00 chanting, meditation and intro to Rimpoche

0:05 Good morning everybody. Welcome to Jewel Heart. We had a wonderful retreat here, almost ten days long, morning till evening. Our focus was compassion. I think the participants were very much enriched in the subject of compassion, compassion itself and great compassion and developing compassion and obstacles to compassion and how to overcome them, what we hope to gain out of that, what results we are looking for. On all of that we spent almost 10 days with a wonderful conclusion of a Healing Empowerment of White Tara, who is like Mother Mary in the Buddhist order. White Tara is very important and particularly at the healing level. This comes with historical and personal experience of great help and benefit that has occurred. We have been able to share that yesterday morning. We concluded our retreat very successfully. I think those of you who have participated and even those who have not, but are in the surrounding area here should be very proud that such a wonderful thing has happened in Michigan in the Detroit Metro Area. So there is not necessarily always bad news. There are good things happening too.

Not only is Tara the manifestation of the compassion of all enlightened beings, but also the manifestation of the wisdom of all enlightened beings. That leads to today's subject, the Illusion of Self. Recognizing the illusion of seeing ourselves as solid, separate, permanent opens the opportunity for a more meaningful life. Buddha called that 'wisdom'. Generally speaking, in the usual terminology they call that emptiness. I just wanted to throw that out to you, because you are going to hear that a lot from Buddhist text and Buddhist people. They talk about emptiness. You may get the idea of nothingness, that nothing exists. That is a big nihilistic impression you may get. But Buddha's wisdom is to understand that there is a tremendous illusion with regard to ourselves. Sometimes we call that 'mystery of life'. We don't even know what's going on, what has happened and why it is happening. Many times, whenever you plan to do something, it doesn't work that way. Whatever you don't want happening it pops up and happens by itself.

0:10 The essence really boils down to this: Buddha calls this 'dependent origination.' Everything that happens within us, including ourselves, is dependently originated. It depends on causes and conditions, including time and all of them. When the conditions are right, when the time is right, things happen. When the cause is not there, even if the conditions are there and the time is right, things cannot happen. It is like if you forget to put a seed of corn in the ground and then you apply a lot of fertilizer and put moisture. That corn is never going to come up. It is missing the seed. When seed, moisture, heat and fertilizer are there, the corn will pop up. We have a lot of corn around here. But that doesn't pop up in winter, because the conditions are not right. So when causes and conditions are not right, things don't function. When causes and conditions are right, things do function. Even if you wish that the corn will not grow, as long as causes and conditions are right, it will pop up.

How much hard time we take to pull weeds out of the garden, but not matter how many times we do it, they still grow again and again. But our understanding is that somehow everything that goes on is solid and we can fix it. Yes, you can fix it, actually. It can be fixed, because it is dependent origination. That gives us an opportunity to make a difference in our life and lives. If there is no dependent origination, if things did not depend on causes and conditions, then somebody decides or it is some automatic thing is happening no matter what. Then we should be running around like robots, like machines. There would be nothing we can do. That's not true. We can do everything for ourselves. We can make a difference by ourselves by contributing at the causal and conditional level. We have this opportunity because we are not solid and fixed.

The Statue of Liberty is solid and fixed but you have to repair it. Something goes wrong and they have to take it down. I once saw the huge head of Lady Liberty lying in the middle of some houses. Some guy must have been painting it.

We do have a choice; we have the freedom. We can make a difference in our life by ourselves. We make a difference mostly. Others cannot do so much. They can only help. We have been thinking, analyzing and meditating here for the last ten days and found that compassion brings happiness to us. The source of our happiness is to develop compassion. In order to do that you need other people. You can develop compassion for yourself, but that alone will not do. You have to develop compassion for all people, in fact every living being. So others provide an opportunity, however, we ourselves have to make the difference. I make a difference in my life, because I am responsible for myself. If I did something right I can earn the good deeds. If I did something wrong I am also responsible for the consequences. That really works, because it is not solid, fixed. The idea of being solid is a very important point. If you think that you are something solid and fixed, you can't change anything. If I am suffering and have sadness, I have to carry it with me throughout my life. If I am happy, thank God, I am happy. That's the attitude we take. But in reality, nothing is fixed.

Take anger for example. Many people think, "I am a very angry person and I can't do anything about that." But a number of people who have been with me, over the years, have undergone some changes. Right from the beginning, from when I was a kid in Tibet onwards, throughout my travels in India, South East Asia, Europe and in the United States people repeatedly tell me, "Since I am around you and connected with you, my anger is no longer so solid." I know some people who used to get so upset and angry, that they were literally, physically shaking and couldn't even sit down. They also changed. Many of you have a personal experience. The anger is no longer solid, it is changeable. Likewise, every other negative emotion is changeable. You can change sadness. That doesn't mean you are never going to be sad. Conditions arise that make you sad. We have periods after a loss where we give time to experience the sadness. You do need that. But then you get over it. It doesn't have to linger for the rest of your life, so that you have to label yourself, "I am a sad person. So I have to be sad. Otherwise it goes against my identity." (laughs). That is not right. You can change your identity. Even the Secretary of State can change. Likewise, everything, whatever is within us, is changeable. Not only the bad things can be changed, the good things too. Sometimes a good person changes into a bad person. It happens. It is reality. That is because it is not solid, it is dependent origination. Conditions change. Friends change. Friends provide conditions. We call it influence.

Lets say there is a wonderful, nice young. He or she has a couple of "interesting" friends. Accordingly the personality of the kid will change. That is due to changing conditions. That is a clear sign that our personality is not as solid and fixed as we think it is. Our life is not already fixed by somebody somewhere. That idea is wrong. It changes. How it changes depends on us. We can make changes for the better or for the worse. Change is definitely going to take place.

Buddha is considered to be enlightened, which includes having total knowledge. From that perspective Buddha told us that we change 365 times in the matter of time it takes to snip your fingers. Things that Buddha said have come out to be true. He was some guy in India 2600 ago who probably ran around like every other human being then. He was not declared to be God, but just a normal human being who happened to be wise. The things he said 2600 ago, the scientists of today are proving right. It has happened with a number of them. His statements regarding our mind, our emotions, our internal matters, human functioning are being proved right. Whenever His Holiness the Dalai Lama comes to Europe or the United States there is a bunch of scientists who are following him around everywhere. Even when he came to Michigan in April 2008 a bunch of scientists showed up. Every time he goes anywhere there is a meeting with scientists on the schedule, scientists from everywhere who are following him all the way from Seattle to New York. That's what is happening every time, wherever he goes. They think they are going to get something. Scientists are not hippies. They are not love and light, like us, the former hippies or yuppies or whatever. They are seriously investigating and are proving this right.

One of Buddha's major points of wisdom really is the dependent origination. Everything is dependent. Things change because of causes and conditions. That means our life tomorrow can change because of the way we function today. With that knowledge we can almost design our life. We really have it in our hands. The scientists try to design how we are going to live down the road 25 years from now or even 50 years from now. They are making the decisions for that in their laboratories and class rooms in their white dresses. What they do today really affects how we live and function 25 years from now. Not only the scientists but also the technology people are doing the same thing. They are making the decisions and these make a difference.

Buddha told us 2600 years ago that that this is possible. Things change so much, 365 times in less than a second. Everything depends on causes and conditions. Without cause nothing can happen. Without conditions nothing will happen. The causes and conditions are provided by ourselves, not somebody else. That gives us the freedom that we can make a difference in our life. Our life is in our own hand, nobody else's. We control our future. I control my future, you control your future. So whether you go to heaven, hell or remain on earth is in our own hands. That is because of dependent origination, which shows that a fixed, solid self is an illusion.

What you can take home from today is this:

0:30 It might not be as we thought. It is not the case that somebody has designed and fixed my life. It is not true that I can do nothing. I can think about that and shape my life. You may not be able to shape your life today so that tomorrow changes. But down the road it will change and you will definitely improve. Realize that, take that home. Challenge the idea that "my life is already fixed, I am not capable, I can do nothing." If that idea comes up, challenge it. On the other hand, if the idea comes up that "everything will fall into place even if I don't do anything", challenge that idea too. Take responsibility for your life. That's what really Buddha's message of wisdom is. It is not the whole wisdom, but it is wisdom when you realize that you are responsible for your life, that you can make a difference. That is important to remember.

I wanted to say thank you for coming here. Thank you for your support in Jewel Heart and particular the community here, right from the beginning has been so kind and open-minded and has embraced us, supported us and participated.

Are there any questions? I will be happy to take one or two.

Audience: While you are exploring yourself spiritually, how do you reconcile what is happening to you in the material world?

Rimpoche: That is an important question. While you are exploring your spiritual path you cannot and should not ignore your present life. At the time of the great Indian sages and saddhus, a thousand to two hundred years ago the society was slightly different. Today it is different. Even the saddhus will have to work, because there is somebody called 'bill collector'. They come and chase you. So even the saddhus have to pay their bills. Of course if you can live in the forest, with your external life minimalized, and do spiritual things alone, that's great. We admire that. But that is not possible for us. So we have to have both, the spiritual and the material functioning together, in balance. We don't want to get the negative, non-virtuous livelihood in the material world. We do want positive deeds and a mind that is influenced by compassion, not by hatred.

Audience: Then how do you manage the noise around you?

Rimpoche: The noise is there, but don't pay attention. You can learn that. A friend has provided me with an apartment in New York. That has been there for a decade or so. The first apartment I had was a single room. Outside my window there was a little terrace. I thought, "It is wonderful that they have given me that apartment, how very kind." I even prayed and thought it was wonderful. A friend of mine from here asked if they can stay in that apartment for a few nights. So I said sure and they went there. Afterwards I said, "Did you enjoy? Isn't it a nice apartment?" But they said, "No, it is horrible." I said, "Why?" They said, "Didn't you see these air-condition units outside your window. There are four, five, six of them and they are running day and night, making all this noise. I couldn't wait to get out of there." So the next time I went there I noticed that it was true. There were all these air condition units just outside my window. They were going hrrrrrrrrrrrr!!! all the time. Now it affected me. I almost couldn't breathe. Then I was thinking, "Oh God, I have been influenced by what that person told me." So I decided to think, "This is not an air condition exhaust fan or unit, it is a beautiful flower", and while I was thinking that I went to sleep.

0:40 In one way external material things have their own power. But within us we have mental power. That mental power is controlled by us. We manage that mind. Sometimes you may be kidding yourself like I was when I thought, "The air condition units are flowers." That wasn't true, but temporarily this can relieve your anxiety. This can happen, because it is mind. If you keep on thinking, "This is a wonderful environment, nice sun shine, green, wonderful air", you will enjoy yourself. But if you think, "I am in the middle of nowhere, without proper transportation, not even a bus comes here", if you focus on all the negative aspects, then more negatives will pop up. That's why mind is so important. That's how you manage your material and spiritual life together and move forward. Make sure you don't become a slave of the material world.

Once, many years ago, I gave a talk in Hong Kong. I was talking about non-attachment. Some guy asked, "What do I do with my Rolls Royce?" I said, "As long as you drive your Rolls Royce, it is fine. But if the Rolls Royce starts driving you, you are in trouble." Thank you.

I may have to conclude here. 0:42 - announcements - final dedication: by this merit.....