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20100905GRAACelebrate Life

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Welcome in Jewel Heart. We are having a weekend retreat here. We are talking and meditating - I hope we are meditating! As far as I am concerned, whatever we are talking is giving you meditation materials. For a fundamental spiritual basis we have a number of layers. We came to the point last night to the activities of compassion and love. If I remember correctly, for the last couple of Sundays I talked about compassion and love quite a lot. Probably you don’t want to hear anymore. You are probably fed up with it. I do recall, there was a wonderful woman who worked with the late Allen Ginsberg. She attended a Kalachakra Initiation given by HH Dalai Lama in New York City. In that initiation it always said that “this purified all your negativities and developed bliss and void.” This is repeated probably 200 times during the initiation. So this person told me at some point, “If I hear one more time “bliss-void” I am ready to throw up.”

So I don’t want you to be ready to throw up if you have to hear one more remark about love and compassion. I came to this level of talking about love and compassion, but since you have heard it so many times I am going to skip that and go on to the next point: once you have developed love and compassion, what do you do? That is the most important. The title of today’s talk is: “Celebrate your Life” – even though we are in the midst of suffering. All combined together the idea came from Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a good friend of mine, who was really the one who brought Tibetan Buddhism into the west in a big way. He is sort of a father figure of Tibetan Buddhism in the west. He worked with Suzuki Roshi, Ram Dass, Ginsberg and all those Beat poets and contributed tremendously to the life of American society and also the life of Tibetan Buddhism in the west.

When the late Allen Ginsberg’s father died, Trungpa Rinpoche told him, “Let your father go. Please continue to celebrate your life.”

He said that although there was the pain about the loss of his father, the celebration of life must continue. That’s where the idea of our title today came from. And we are truly in this picture today. There is tremendous suffering going on. There are earth quakes, tsunamis, forest fires and erupting volcanoes everywhere. This spring I couldn’t go straight to Europe. We had to fly around the Iceland volcanoes and it took an hour extra. There are so many things now happening in the world. Nature is telling us that this is a degenerate age. In addition to that we human beings do not help, but instead contribute more to the suffering, by continuing all these wars we are fighting. It is great that the war in Iraq is “supposed” to end, but I truly hope it will and we are not just increasing the role of the contractors when we reduce the troops. I truly hope we will really end that war. It may be true if people say that once we leave people there will start killing each other. But they have been killing each other for centuries and all we did is go there and internationalize that domestic problem. That will disturb everybody else too. So I really hope that war is ending and also look forward to an end of the war in Afghanistan. Nature is signaling us this is a degenerate age through the disturbances of the elements. Water, fire, earth and air are in turmoil. Air will be the biggest problem later. That’s why if we as good human beings could engage in the service of the environment it would be wonderful.

One of the ways to celebrate our life is through generosity. If you really have compassion and love, what do you do? There are six most important points. We tried to engage these during the recent summer retreat. The first of them is generosity.

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We in the west traditionally and also our forefathers have told us that generosity is a great thing. Nobody asks questions about that. Everybody accepts it. But we have difficulty to exactly say what generosity is. The Buddha told us about three types of generosity.

It is not only giving resources, but also protection from fear. That’s one of the most important types of generosity. We all have a problem of fear. We all suffer a lot from fear. We need protection. Saving a life is part of the protection from fear. This is a vivid example. Who is not afraid if their life is threatened? If there is a possibility of losing their life and you can save them, that is the biggest gift you can give. Not only that, but it also brings tremendous joy and happiness to yourself. When you know that you have been the instrument for saving someone’s life, what more joy and happiness and satisfaction can you get? It is all the generosity of giving, but that giving will give yourself joy and happiness.

I will quote now from one of our usual Jewel Heart practices (Lines of Experiences)

Generosity is the wish-granting gem by which you can fulfill

the hopes of sentient beings.

We can fulfill the wishes of sentient beings by saving their lives and giving gifts and sharing. That way you bring them a lot of joy and happiness. A lot of good people will do that. For example, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have dedicated all their wealth for the benefit of people, giving back to the people. They got it from the people and they are giving it back to the people. They have their satisfaction of the life-long efforts of accumulating wealth and which is now not ending up being quarreled over by their kids between each other and lawyers and law firms fighting for generations. It is satisfaction and joy and direct help.

I myself was a refugee from Tibet in 1959. When I came across the Himalayas and reached to the North East frontier of India I first encountered the gifts of generosity from people in the west. It is through such kindness I got a pyjama, though it was probably for a person over 6 foot tall. However, up to then I was wearing the thick, woolen Tibetan monks’ robes, coming down from the Himalayas into the heat of India. In Assam it was very hot – 114 to 116 degrees. So even though the pyjamas didn’t fit me, it was wonderful to get them. The joy to receive them was fantastic. I also got some pink colored vitamin pills – wonderful things. From the receiver’s point of view I felt great appreciation. Since then I continuously pray for those who have kindly given these things, that their wishes may be fulfilled. If they are alive, may they have long and healthy lives. If they are no longer alive, may their wishes be fulfilled. That’s what I pray.

So not only protecting lives, but giving food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless and medicine for the sick are generosity. They not only help people who need it but it also gives us good satisfaction. Mostly we do waste our money, so this is something great. It is a great karmic investment for your future lives. Wherever you go, it will be ready for you to pick up whenever you need it. I used to talk to my friends about the “sky treasure” in Tibetan Buddhism. Whatever you need, when you have difficulties, somehow from nowhere it comes in. That is nothing but the result of your own generosity, which you have done in your past life and lives. I am from the background of reincarnation. So I am taking you along with that.

Not only does generosity save and help people and give ourselves satisfaction. That satisfaction gives a very good boost to your life. Normally we have the mentality of being poor. If you keep maintaining that mentality of beings poor, you will be poor. Believe me. If you keep the mentality of generosity, that will bring you wealth. I don’t mean you should start wasting things and be a spend thrift. You should be kind and generous wherever it is needed and helpful. Sometimes the needed thing is the most important and urgent. Sometimes the thing that is most helpful is very important. I understand that many wealthy Americans would not like to give to those who have nothing. They rather give to those who have everything because they know their money is not wasted. Generosity in America is unimaginable, tremendous. That’s why huge amounts of money are given the Harvard and to the University of Michigan. This is right. Why? Because they can be sure the money is not wasted and it will serve the purpose of educating and so on. So sometimes the need is not as important as being helpful and the money not being wasted.

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The second portion of that quote is:

It is the best weapon for cutting the knot of miserliness.

You don’t want to spend. But if you don’t spend and if you are not miserly, you won’t get anything back. This is cause and effect. If there is cause there will be an effect. If there is no cause there will be no effect. So you have to be generous. Some people may think, “I will like to give, but I have nothing to give. But that’s not true. We have a lot to give. We have kindness, we have love to give. The Buddhist texts tell us that whether it is owned by somebody or whether it is part of nature, you can pick up all the wonderful things of this world by your mind of generosity and offer them to the field of merit – that means to the enlightened beings.

It is the point of mind that makes the difference. Earlier masters of this lineage for example were initially so poor. One of them owned only one wooden bowl. So early in the morning he would wash that wooden bowl, fill it with water and make a water offering. Then he would ask the enlightened beings, “May I borrow your bowl?” He would take it down and drink and eat. Then he would wash it and fill it with water again. Later in his life he became very wealthy.

There was another person, who in the beginning had nothing to offer as incense except a few grassed that he picked up here and there and burnt them as incense offering. Later, he became one the biggest incense producers. So generosity not only makes a difference to you in life after life, but even in this very life it makes a difference.

The obstacle to generosity is miserliness. That will limit you. All the negative emotions limit you. They support your ego. They cut you down and prevent you from doing the right thing. They take away your opportunity of having plenty of things in future. Miserliness is one of the biggest problems. So generosity is the best weapon to cut miserliness.

It is the (altruistic) conduct which

enhances your self-confidence and undaunted courage (to help

everyone towards Enlightenment).

It is the basis for your good

reputation to be proclaimed in the ten directions.

This is really true. It does give you tremendous confidence. Once you have been able to give, once you have been able to make a difference to others’ lives and you see the result you are getting, that is really the best way.

These are the ways how you can celebrate your life. This is one of the methods. You are going to hear all six in the following Sundays I will talk here. The next will be morality. Probably the next two Sundays I talk here will be about morality. The third will be patience. That is the antidote to anger and hatred. The next, enthusiasm, is the antidote to laziness. Like that I am going to go through. We talked a lot about love and compassion and now what do we do with that? That’s what I would like to do. I didn’t even quite finish what I wanted to say here.

Generosity is also the best way to build a good reputation. I wouldn’t know anything about Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. We talk about their deeds, that’s how we know about them. That’s the direct example. Those who are kind will be remembered and most importantly, they will be appreciated. People like you, who are interested in the spiritual path, will dedicate and pray for them. What better return of the gift can you get? So the generosity makes you not only happy, but makes your life worthwhile. It is a contribution towards your moving forward in your spiritual path. If you are with me or following the Dalai Lama, you are moving forward towards enlightenment, to total buddhahood. It is one of the best activities you can do. I don’t want to talk too long. I have to look at the time.

…0:30 as I said yesterday the organization under whose umbrella we are all here today and on other Sundays and other occasions, is Jewel Heart. Jewel Heart is not a rich organization, but it also doesn’t waste money. It is a very tight and miserly organization. We are miserly, not because we are miserly people, but because we don’t have it. We depend on mostly on donations and membership. Particularly membership. The purpose of Jewel Heart is to share the ideas Buddha had given us 2600 ago and which have been continuously carried through India, Tibet and so on and which are sharing with the people here now. For me it is a home away from home. We want to share it with people everywhere, particularly those in Michigan. But when we do teachings we always have to charge, which is not right. We really have to be freely giving this to those who are interested. That’s our goal.

We can’t do it, because we have a huge mortgage to pay and we have other expenses. We depend on the membership. I would like to request all of you – not necessarily come here to listen – that’s not the point. The point is to give us support by becoming members in Jewel Heart. With that you are supporting the activities of Jewel Heart in general and particularly your own friends, yourself and me. So do kindly try to become members of Jewel Heart. It is just $40 a month. Give whatever you can, but it is $40 a month for membership. I did not plan to say this because of the generosity talk, but still, it happened that way. I wanted to clarify that. The title was not very clear to me and Kathy talked to me just after I came here this morning and she said it was “Celebrate your Life”, which is the idea that Trungpa Rinpoche had. I meant to talk about generosity, because that works for people in the retreat as well as for those of you who have been coming just for a short time.

How to become a member? Contact Jewel Heart at www.jewelheart.org on line or you can call Jewel Heart at 734 994 3387 and there are membership brochures available. You can also talk to Ujjen and Debbie.

We have been here for 29 years with Jewel Heart and I am very proud to say that we have never been in the red – except for the last two years.

Thank you so much for coming. 0:35:32