Archive Result

Soundfile 20090421GRJHNLA(1)

Speaker Gelek Rinpoche

Location

Topic

Transcriber Suzanne Darragh

Date 2009

0:00:00.0

(Introduction and welcome)

‘Rinpoche welcome. We are very glad you are here, and we are really looking forward to your talk this evening on the topic. Maybe they told you already, but we are in the gun powder house where in the middle-ages, they kept the gun powder, so I hope your talk will give us…’

Gelek Rinpoche, ‘Gunpowder’.

Thank you so much and um I heard the brief introduction, thank you and I heard long introduction […] [..] look forward to talking about jewel heart […] […]and I’m glad Jewel Heart is here and I’m very happy that I’m here tonight. And I do remember this is not my first time in […]. At least a couple of times, three or four times I’ve been here and I’m very happy to be here. You know the situation tonight really demands that I should stand up and talk to you and I don’t really see you. I’m sort of behind you and you don’t see me, but I don’t think I can stand up for two hours.

0:05:08.3

So, whenever I can, get up for two minutes and then sit down if it’s ok with you people. Ten or twenty years ago I would have stand, even two to three years ago. Ok. So, now, I’m here, the Jewel Heart is here and what Jewel Heart do here, is that Jewel Heart presents the Tibetan Buddhist Teachings. That’s not all we do, but that is our major work. The reason why we present Tibetan Buddhism, there are two or three reasons.

1.Tibetan Buddhism is endangered world heritage. It is a very rich and wonderful tradition which is in danger of losing completely throughout the world. That’s what I mean by endangered heritage. To preserve, promote.

2. Tibetan Buddhism provides tremendous answers that we, the world is looking for today. The world is looking for peace, world is looking for harmony world is looking for love, world is looking for compassion, the world is looking for caring and the world is looking for wisdom. When I said Tibetan Buddhism, I don’t think it’s a type of religion, honestly, I don’t. But the people in the world at the moment you use word they think it’s a type of religion. I can’t change that because the earlier bud ologists and the Tibetologists have decided to name either Buddha. You know Buddha is not named right Buddha, not by any eastern, but it is the British. Snobbish British people have named that.

0:10:08.2

So, you may think it’s a type of religion. Truly in the sense, of religion, in English language I don’t think Buddhism is a religion. If I said Buddhism is not a religion, you may think I’m crazy, but really, it’s not. It is the way of bringing joy, happiness, harmony, peace among individuals, among living beings, not only human beings but among all living beings. Harmony, joy, loving within all creatures if they exist. Along with that, their habitats, environment, everything together.

Neither the traditional Sanskrit nor the Tibetan dialect developed from […] [..] religion. The word is chur […] It means collected area of the individual. It is not standing there worshipping. It’s not even in the name, Tibetan Buddhism but a lot of people have been told about it because they want to spend time arguing with Tibetan Buddhism in that it is not a religion. So sometimes you have to mention it because otherwise you will simply […].

[…] call it dharma. Some people don’t call it religion, precisely because from the Buddha, they call it dharma. Dharma means [….] [….] […] It doesn’t mean a worship […].

That’s reason why [..]. [..] […]. You’re in the center, you can […] […].

Ok, now, why Buddha, essence of Buddhism is giving joy, harmony, love, compassion. That is simply important reason. Buddha love of people say it’s a way of life Buddha himself said.

0:14:59.9

All the Buddhist practitioners said. Even today, a lot of conservatives, I don’t mean conservatives in the sense of liberals and conservative, but in a sort of a small group of conservatives […] who say Buddhism is a way of life, rather than religion. It’s a way of life that is making the individual happy.

You know why? Because we want happiness, we want joy, but we don’t have it. Honestly, we don’t.

A little happiness we have, we going to hold it, it will change and on top of that we have inner suffering, whatever you call it adversity, enough suffering. Let’s not hide under the beautiful name called adversity. Let’s be clear. Enough suffering. Each one of us carry a tremendous pain suffering, mental, physical, emotional. I look at you people here, half of them I see, half of them I don’t even see but whilst I look at, I see nice, a beautiful, smiley, kind, young faces. And within your nice smiley faces, among your faces, you will also give a message. The message is I have to stake out in my life. Stake out. That’s exactly our faces show. The way we look, the way we sit, the wrinkles we have, how we sort of carry our bodies, each one of them says, I suffered, I staggered. And you look at me, of course you will see everything. Seventy years of suffering, and that is, you know, a big fat old man, that’s all you’ll see, you know honestly.

0:20:00.3

Twenty years at a high altitude, cold miserable place, and then twenty years in a refuge, driven away from your own home, and next twenty years searching for second home, last twenty years is finding at least a struggle and the suffering and that shows over my face. So that is human nature, we all suffer, and the young ones will also stagger too. They may not, you are still staggering, and you will stagger. That is what we have, that is our suffering and that, no matter whatever we do it is us. And the truth about suffering is we can’t do much, we can make ourselves comfortable, as comfortable as possible, we can make it. That costs money but still, we can make it. But most of what is tormenting us is the mental suffering. Emotional suffering. For that really, we don’t know what to do, really e don’t know what to do with it. Some people will even tell you; you’re born so you have to suffer, and you have to

die. That’s what they say. And Buddha is the one who says hey no, that’s not true. That’s not true because you can end suffering. Buddha did not say you can commit suicide, that doesn’t end suffering that creates more suffering. That creates suffering for people who are dying or dead, that create suffering for your family, that creates more suffering for your loved ones, that creates suffering for everybody else. That is not ending of suffering at all if some people think that’s the way it is. That is very clear, you know it, I know it, we all see it every day how much people suffer. You know, somebody jumped from the train. Last year when I’m coming from Germany here, the train stopped, then moved, along the pavement somebody jumped, [..] anyway so that thing creates more suffering for the dying person. […] It did not end, and then the whole family the loved ones, everybody has to suffer much more.

0:25:11.9

I had a friend in New York whose brother committed suicide two years ago. And two or three other sisters, old eighteen years friends and twenty-year nephews and nieces are all in tears, even after two years. Every day they talk about it. Anniversaries come; the old parents landed in hospital [..]. That much suffering you give to your own loved ones. That’s not ending suffering at all. So, when Buddha said you can end suffering, he’s not talking about […] he’s talking about systematically ending suffering. How? Suffering and joy or anything that we experience, whatever we go through is the result of some actions that we have taken. Apparently, what Buddha, when he became a Buddha, what he discovered as a Buddha was what we call karma, is nothing but causative. According to the Buddha, no one experiences anything unless that person has created cause to experience good or bad. Buddha made one declaration, and that is no matter how high or small, such as when you are so hot, cool breeze comes in, so you feel comfortable.

0:30:00.1

About that etcetera, everything is the result of individual deeds. So, people who suffer wherever, whatever, people who enjoy, wherever, whatever. This is your own deeds, and you are enjoying it, or you are suffering, nobody else, even although we would love to blame somebody. We have tendency to blame someone all the time, if so and so didn’t do it, I would be different, if so and so didn’t do that, I would have been different today. We blame somebody, that is our character, however that’s not true. The truth, according to Buddha, the truth is because we did or we experienced that, that tells us we are responsible for ourselves, no one else.

Not only that, Buddha said so, even when we look in our lives, very carefully, if we think whether we are enjoying our lives or we have a problem in our lives, it is very much something to do with ourselves. You get a good education, you get a good job you enjoy and if you get […] educated, you get a third job […]. Always do nothing and you get nothing. It’s sort of very straight forward. If you [..] here and there, be aware of how you born where you born, [..] simple expression of here and there, other than that, it is quite clear. If it’s not clear why should people go to school? You’re not going to send because of culture, you’re going to send because of education so they have a good life, don’t we? So, cause and result is quite clear in our minds, isn’t it? You know most of you are here, I’m quite sure, are anti-war. Why? Because you don’t want to hurt people. Why? Because if you hurt people, you may get hurt yourself. When Obama came here, and you Europeans are very much happy with him, many people very happy with him. But you think he’s going to change, change the world, change the war, that’s why. That’s my perception. Am I wrong?

0:35:22.5

Because the war, the war hurts. It hurts people, hurts me, hurts everybody. And that’s why you seek a quiet […]. If you knew that Bush is continuing, the war would continue. So, you know cause and the result is not just a mystery like the name karma is mystery. Like […]. This is not a mystery; it is quite clear. I mean how many of you try to eat right, don’t eat meat, you vegetarian, do exercise, good to ride bike, not only doing that, but it’s a good exercise. All these having […] good reason why you should be exercising. I can’t do it, it’s very hard for me, but you people love to do it because of the result is good. You look thin, you look young, you look health, you will get healthy, that’s why you do so you do this in cause and result. Whether you are living karma or not, you are seeing. You’re not thinking, you are doing it every day. You also believe that hatred is not good. You see for yourself; you don’t want to hate anyone. You also see compassion is good, you see it, you know it yourself, with or without the realization, with or without the reason, you see it, you do it. You don’t like hatred, that’s why you don’t like war, that’s why you don’t like Bush, and you like Obama because you don’t like war, because you don’t like hatred, because you love compassion, and caring and listening even. And the Buddha said the same thing. Buddha said if there’s a religion or not, he said hatred is no good. Why? Because it makes you hate people. When you hate people, you want to hurt people, when you want to hurt people, you get hurt. I’m sorry, I skipped one step.

0:40:22.6

When you want to hurt people, you will hurt people, when you hurt people, you […]. That’s what the Buddha calls […] and effort that’s what the Buddha meant as karma. Buddha also says anger is not good, because anger creates discomfort. Anger […] are peace of mind unchecked anger becoming hatred. That brings suffering and suffering brings suffering again, so the suffering continues. Similarly, obsession too. People who are obsessed. That person may or may not be knowing what he or she is doing, but whomsoever, let’s say it is a person, if you observe to a person, that person suffers tremendously, the receiving person. Look at those fellows that took the movie actors and all of those and think how much they had to avoid people who are [..] chasing them around. […] …supposed to be killed by the paparazzi, right? So that’s an obsession. However, you are not allowed to say, Princess Dianne was killed by the paparazzi, but you know, the accident was caused by, maybe the drivers drunk, maybe the driver was the reason, maybe the people that were chasing them. Even the drunken people can drive straight but when there are so many people chasing them then you get out of control right? So, the Buddha says, all our suffering that we experience every day, mental, physical, emotional, all of them are coming from those negative emotions. We create by the

purpose of negative emotions by our actions. We created those problems, don’t blame anybody else, certainly not God.

0:45:00.4

So, we are responsible for ourselves, for our problems. We can also end our problems by our own way. And that is what Buddhism is all about. Buddhism doesn’t tell you go to church, go to temple, and worship and put candle and all of that […]. But that’s not the main thing at all. The main thing is how you deal with your own life and how you handle your negative emotion. Negative emotion fear, hatred, obsession, jealousy and especially ignorance and fear. Free of that is of course, liberation or they call it nirvana. And […] free of that is called nirvana liberation and then Buddha nirvana or liberation. That’s possible for enlightenment or just freedom from suffering.

Let’s have a coffee break.

0:48:25.1