Archive Result

20120101GRAASun1

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Good Morning everybody. Happy New Year.

Welcome to this talk :Tibetan Buddhism. This is the first day – well the first day of the year anyway, so we are starting this talk. I thought it is important to talk about Tibetan Buddhism, not just an introduction to Tibetan Buddhism, but generally about Tibetan Buddhism. Why is Tibetan Buddhism important? What are its unique qualities? Why now? What difference does it make to the individual? These are the points I thought about.

I would really like to talk about Tibetan Buddhism. Truly speaking, although we call it Tibetan Buddhism and it looks like something very different, Buddhism as such, as you know, has different types, Burmese Buddhism, Thai Buddhism, Sri Lankan Buddhism and so on.

That’s all there, because Buddhism itself is something very – I should say – unique. It is almost like our own mind. When we are talking about the mind of the individual, very often I give the example of a clean, clear crystal lamp shade. Then when I am talking about the emotions, the different colored light bulbs. Let’s say hatred and anger are probably red color. Attachment, etc, may have a cool green-bluish color. All emotions will have different effects. So the clean, clear crystal lamp shade, when you look at it from the outside, because of the influence of the emotions, it looks like a red lamp shade or green or blue lamp shade. In reality it is clean, clear. It is just because of the effect of the emotions. That’s what we normally talk about and understand.

Here we talk about Tibetan Buddhism. It is very unique. It merged very well with the Tibetan culture. The combination of the unique Tibetan culture and the extraordinary quality Buddhism brought in became the Tibetan Buddhism that we see today. Then why is it important? I don’t mean that the other traditions are not important and only Tibetan Buddhism is. Every religion will normally say that. But I am not talking about that. I am talking about the principle in which the earlier Tibetan leaders, our ancestors, over 1000 years ago, made their selections and choices. Buddhism is such a huge, vast material. Some aspects very much emphasize discipline, mental, physical and emotional. Some points very much emphasize mental activity – mind over matter. That can overcome even difficulties in the material realm. Some are very strong on philosophy. I don’t mean that only in the way as it is traditionally understood in terms of finding truth, but also as what some of us understand today. Philosophy is almost like a bridge that doesn’t go anywhere. That’s the political language in which it is used today. I am talking about both: very profound philosophy as well as the bridge that doesn’t go anywhere.

0:07 The Tibetans earlier, particularly the Tibetan leaders, have made really good choices. They sacrificed so much. One of the rulers, the king himself, sacrificed his own life in order to bring perfect Buddhism to Tibet. Tibetans didn’t just pick it up because it was Buddhism. They went into great detail, looking at the outstanding institutions such as Nalanda in India, as well as Vikramalashila in India. They looked very carefully and not only selected practices that were needed. They even selected teachers they thought would be useful and helpful to Tibet, not the most popularly known, not a person who sits under a tree meditating all the time, but in the 1100s they really chose an outstanding master, in the sense that it was someone that would be uniquely helpful to the Tibetans, rather than someone popularly known in India at that time. They chose that particular teacher to bring him to Tibet. The reason is that the Tibetans first sent a bunch of their brightest young people to India to learn Buddhism, but many did not return back to Tibet, because of catching diseases and illnesses in India and because of the difficulty of travelling. All of those were a problem, particularly the heat. You know how hot India was and is. All of those are the reasons why only very few people could go and only very limited teachings could come to Tibet. So they made a choice to bring a perfect teacher to Tibet. It turned out that this perfect teacher turned out to be someone who was going to be the future of one the greatest institutions. So that institution was against him going to Tibet. So what could they do? They would have liked to just say: we can’t send him. But they couldn’t openly say that because it would have sounded selfish: we need him and we can’t let him go. Maybe it would have been straight forward American talk but at that time in the culture in that area it wouldn’t have been right.

0:11 Especially with the Buddhist culture, where does the altruism go? So it wasn’t right. So they thought about it and asked themselves, “How can we prevent him from going?” The abbots came up with an idea. They said, “Let us ask the Tibetans for gold.” The word Tibet is actually derived from Pri. The Tibetans pronounce that T(r)i. So that stands for Preta, hungry ghosts. So it was a very, very poor land. So they thought that the Tibetans would have no way to bring that much wealth. So they said, “We will let him go, provided that you will bring gold to the monastery. So if you give us the gold we will give you the teacher.” So the Tibetans started looking for gold and what was not easy to find at that time. So the king, while searching for gold, was caught by another kingdom, which was a little non-virtuous kingdom. His nephew, who happened to be next in line, thought, “I will collect soldiers and make war against that kingdom and bring the uncle who is the ruler, out.” While thinking that, a thought came to him, ”We are here to bring pure Buddhism, love and compassion. When we are going that, how can we engage in so many killing activities? This is the wrong way to do.” So he decided not to wage war, but to go and find more gold. Then he went to that king and said, “I have collected gold equal to the weight of his body. So would you let him go?” That king said, “Yes, you have gold equal to his body, but his head is heavier. So I need more gold equal to the weight of his head. When I have all of it together I will let him go.” So the nephew said, “I will quickly arrange and raise more gold and come back and get him. But can I have a word with him?”

The king said, “Okay, you won’t be able to see him. We will let you talk to him through the crack of the wooden door.” Mind you, they were not like the wooden doors we have today, which if you give one kick the door will fall into pieces. That was solid wood put together. So the nephew talked to the imprisoned king, “Look, you be a little patient. I already raised that much gold and will give it to him. I decided not to wage war, because it involves killing of so many people, which goes against our principle.” The old king said, “I thought that if I died you would not be able to properly run the country. But the way you are thinking I have no regret for whatsoever, if I lose my life. I am happy. Do not waste the gold here, take it to the Indian abbots at the monastery and tell them that I have sacrificed my own life and please have compassion and be kind to the Tibetan followers.”

So those leaders who chose the teacher and the subject they wanted to learn, have done a hell of a good job. That’s why it is something very unique and fantastic. Honestly. It has something for everybody. It has something for great scholars that is very hard to work for. It has something that the scientists today also have to work with and cannot ignore. It has something that intelligent practitioners can use and learn, very stimulating and challenging. If you are not so intelligent, if you are an old person like me, or if you have very short time, there is something else to do in order to achieve the result. That’s why Tibetan Buddhism is extremely unique and important.

0:18 It is particularly important today for a variety of reasons. No 1: we don’t have time. Everybody has the first thing on their lips: no time, no time. That’s our mantra. For that it is a quick path, a very smooth and quick path. That is the quality of the vajrayana. It makes it extremely fast. You may think that it is not that fast. There are people who have doing this for 30, 40 years and they still don’t look like Buddha. They are becoming fatter and fatter by sitting there, doing nothing and meditating. But the other choice, without vajrayana, you are looking at eons to become a Buddha. So within one normal, human life time, something great happens. That is quick, so much so that the vajrayana texts say that within a matter of minutes one can achieve Buddhahood. That means it can happen in one life time and it does happen.

Some may say, “This only happened back in history somewhere in India or in the mountains of Tibet or the forests of India.” That’s not true. It happens with Caucasians in the west. It happens with all races. It is happening today. That’s why it is something unique for our time.

It is also a tradition that has tremendous respect for women and feminine ideas. We have female buddhas. As you can see we have both White and Green Tara tangkhas on the wall here.

Some people think when you talk about Buddha it has to be only a male Buddha, particularly as it is coming from the Indian culture. But if you look more closely, there are females buddhas, female practices and the feminine principle so much. By saying that, I am not denying that Buddhism has the male-chauvinist influence too. I am not denying that. Like any other Eastern religion, at that period, the culture in that area is also very influential. Buddhism has one uniqueness. It goes with the culture of the day. I don’t mean today’s culture. But when society is changing, Buddhism adapts extremely well and goes with that. When the male-chauvinist culture was running, Buddhism adapted to that. When the feminine principle is accepted, Buddhism does accept it. Buddhism itself doesn’t have its own system and culture. It is pure practice. It is not culture. So it adapts to the culture of the countries wherever it goes. It adapts to the Japanese culture, when in Japan. Buddhism adapted to the Chinese culture very much in China. And it adapts to Thai culture. Whether you call it adapt or adjust to, Buddhism has that uniqueness to be able to adjust. When the time changes, when the people change, the system changes. Buddha himself said that the rules and systems follow the wishes of the people and the times. That is the unique quality.

0:25 At the same time Buddhism has solid tradition. It has solid practices that liberates one individual quickly. It can accept any culture and tradition. That’s why it is unique. So far I have been talking about Tibetan Buddhism and its quality. But I didn’t give you the real flesh of what it is. In Tibetan Buddhism, basically the purpose is to liberate all living beings who are not liberated. Let that be me, one individual. So the purpose of Tibetan Buddhism is to liberate me from my sufferings. My sufferings are with me and they are not just popping up like toast out of a toaster. They are not just coming from nowhere. Nor are they awarded by a third or fourth person. So my sufferings are caused by my deeds. By the way and how I function, think and manage my life, I create positive and negative deeds. My negative deeds have created my suffering. My positive deeds have created my joy and happiness and peace. This is the basic principle, or rather Karma 101. This is a university town, so let’s call it Karma 101. That is really what karma is all about. When I do something good I can expect to get my positive rewards. When I do something wrong I have to expect – or suspect – I am going to get negative consequences. Whether I expect or suspect that it will happen. It is the karmic system. There isn’t anything that happens because of nothing. It happens because of something and that something is our own deeds.

Some people may think, “I have done a lot of bad things here, so let me do something good and try to change it.” The same question was asked to Buddha. His reply was, “When you grow a beautiful sweet fruit tree, like a persimmon tree and you hope the fruit may not be too sweet and try to make it a little more hot and sour by growing some jalapeno peppers or habanero peppers around, if you want it even hotter. If you hope that will affect the persimmon fruit it is never going to happen. Sweet fruit will be sweet, provided it is ripening properly. If a persimmon does not ripen properly it may look great outside, but inside it is not ripe. Then it will sting in your mouth. But if it ripens properly it will always be sweet and will never become a sour or hot fruit, unless you chop them down and put them altogether in your cup. That’s a different story. Some people may think that.

0:31 That is the karmic principle. Vice versa, if you try to make the habanero pepper sweet by planting persimmons around, that won’t change. Just like that, good deeds have good results and bad deeds have bad consequences. That’s what Buddha meant. We are responsible for our own deeds, whatever we do. That is the fundamental basis. On top of that we go further: what can I do with my negative deeds? How can I increase my positive deeds? How can I double my positive deeds? How can I reduce my negative deeds? Tibetan Buddhism is rich with methods. There are tremendous amounts of reductions of negativities and building so much positivity. From the mind point of view, from the deeds point of view, from the practice point of view, from the meditation point of view, from the accumulation of merit point of view, from the wisdom point of view, from the compassion point of view. And it is not so difficult to practice. That’s why it is very suitable in times like today.

Not only Tibetan Buddhism gives you purifying negativities but also has the transformation of negativities into positive deeds. Transforming ordinary aggregates into extraordinary beings, transforming negative emotions into positive wisdoms. These are the unique, real flesh and bones in Tibetan Buddhism. I feel I am very privileged to be born in that – a born again Buddhist, to be able to share these important points with my friends such as yourselves. I feel privileged and looking forward to be able to present a few bits and pieces here on the following Sundays. I guess that much the time will permit me to say today and maybe there is no time to ask questions now, but I am looking forward to next Sunday. There may be a little more time.

Thank you

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