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66

20120304GRAATB10

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Good morning and welcome to this Sunday talk on Tibetan Buddhism with Gelek Rimpoche. What I recollect from what we did last week, we talked about the beginning of our retreat and I said that we will let you know whether the retreat was good or bad. I don’t think there is something bad that I have to report. It has been quite smooth. Maybe it was inconvenient at some time or another in terms of schedule or something and I do owe an apology to everybody but on the whole it has been very, very good. And I hope it has been equally good for people who have been participating from all over the places. We do have people coming from very far away, like South-East Asia, Europe, Central America and so forth. I hope that all their efforts have been worthwhile and I do hope that it has established a very strong ground.

Briefly I would like to tell you what we talked about. Last Sunday I told you about the basis of the development of the individual according to Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism as you know is based on vajrayana Buddhism. In other words they call it tantric Buddhism. But it is not the juicy part of tantra that some people look for, the sexual activities. I don’t think it is. Actually, I should say here: it is not. This is vajrayana or tantra.

If I just talk about tantra it won’t make sense, so let me go back a little bit. What we do as Tibetan Buddhists we often refer to the teachings of the Buddha and the activities we engage in in accordance with the Buddha’s instructions as ‘Dharma’. Many of you know, but many may not. Dharma is a Sanskrit word and can mean phenomena and change and all of that. But here dharma means correction – correcting the addicted emotional or other negative activities that we engage in almost automatically. Changing that into positive, non-hatred and compassion, non-obsession and pure love, non-jealousy and appreciation is dharma.

Our goal as spiritual practitioners is the limitless beginning. I use this word because I am from the background of a tradition that accepts reincarnation. I should say that I believe in reincarnation. I really do. If I don’t then as a ‘rimpoche’, a title given to reincarnated lamas, I will lose my job. And it is more than losing my job. I lose my name. So I do believe it. That’s a joke, but the truth is that reincarnation is something that is true. I cannot accept that death is the end. I will not accept this. It is simply that consciousness, the mind itself, separates from the identity, our physical body. That doesn’t mean it ends our existence. It doesn’t mean that at all. We continue, because our habits go on. We just talked about the addictions of hatred and obsession and jealousy. All these we didn’t learn in school, nor did we learn them from our parents. We do have them the moment we are born.

How many times can you hear the story that a baby has another brother or sister and is very happy to have him or her, yet you notice that the elder is always pinching the little one and you see all kinds of marks on the body. So many people witness and tell you that. Nobody taught them how to pinch. It is the habit brought along. Even if you have twins, one of them can be kind and caring for little creatures like insects and the other one always wants to beat or torture them. They are twins, from the same parents, exposed to the same environment, but they turn out differently. We call that influenced from previous lives. They are the addictions we have. Forget about people remembering their previous lives, telling stories, showing pictures and recognizing human beings. There are many of them. I am not even talking about Tibetan incarnate lamas. I am simply talking about normal, everyday human beings and families.

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It happens many times. There are some people who collect these kinds of incidents and stories and if you look around there are so many of them. Another reason is when we look at ourselves. Certain subjects are very easy for us to understand and remember, even though it is extremely complicated, difficult and sophisticated. Some subjects may be very simple but very difficult for us to pick up. People are surprised, saying, “How stupid that person is.” It totally depends on previous exposure.

That’s why I do believe in previous lives. When you have previous lives there is no valid reason to say that there is no future life. You do. Because you have previous lives you are bound to have future ones too. As simple, everyday human beings we can think and we can almost see this. At least, if you are true to yourself you cannot deny this. There is no valid reason to deny this – except saying, “I haven’t seen it, nobody has talked about it.” Saying “I haven’t seen it” is not a valid reason. There are so many things we don’t see but they are there. Today the world has become smaller and we can see many things we didn’t see before. I am quite sure that there will be a time where we will also see properly, scientifically that there are past and future lives. I am convinced that science is capable of picking that up, if anyone pays attention. Many scientist pay no attention because nobody will pay for it. They won’t get any grants for that.

The purpose of spiritual practice in general and Tibetan Buddhism in particular is not only to have a better life, but also to have better lives. Better lives are more important than just having one good life. Many of my own lives in my own future, that I will personally experience is more important than one single life. Therefore Tibetan Buddhism emphasizes the importance of future lives. That doesn’t mean ignoring this life. Some people say that Buddhism is a death religion. Somebody told me that on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. I was saying my commitment prayers and a guy next to me asked me, ‘‘What are you?” I said, “I am Tibetan”. “What are you reading?” “It is a Tibetan Buddhist practice”. The he said, “Oh yeah, I know, that’s the religion of death, right?” But in fact, Tibetan Buddhism death and future lives are equally important to our current life. They are very much interlinked. If this life is not good then the future life can’t be that good either. Good brings good, bad brings bad. More or less, if this life is good the future life is bound to be good. That’s because of cause and effect.

Cause and effect it true. We may not call it that but we all accept it. Otherwise, why send our kids to school? We do it because we know that when they are well trained their life will be better. They will have better income and can be more helpful for themselves and others. That’s why we send kids to schools. We create a cause so that we can get a better result. That cause and result relationship doesn’t only apply to planning and executing projects, but also to planning and executing our life and lives. That is an important point. With everything we do today we are working towards creating a future. Today we see the scientists running around in their white, little jackets in their laboratories and they are creating our future 25 years down the road, right? So we do exactly the same thing. We are running round, doing good or bad today and thereby creating our future lives, each individually. We are creating that today! That’s why Buddha pointed out that the more important thing is the future lives. They are long and there are many and it is you yourself only who is going to go through and you only are responsible, nobody else. It is true. There may be collective responsibilities but other than that it is your own life and your own responsibility. That’s what Tibetan Buddhism deals with.

How do you make your future better? There are many ways. One of them is dealing with the causal level. What causes things to happen?

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How do we do that? By doing two things: one is to collect and build up positive deeds. Positive deeds will bring positive results. The other is trying to clear and purify the negative deeds we have already collected. As a matter of fact we have a huge collection of them. From the negativity point of view we are extremely rich, perhaps richer than Bill Gates or Warren Buffet. Honestly, that’s what we are. So what do we do with this? You can understand what it means to collect positive deeds. That makes sense. But if you can collect positive deeds you can equally collect negative deeds. And we are collecting them. Earlier I told you about the addictions of the negative emotions and actions. That’s how we collect negative deeds – or if you want to say it a little more romantically: we collect negative karma. But they are the same deeds, bound to give the same result. That’s what we have been doing. So we have to do something about it. We have collected even more negative deeds than positive ones, perhaps much more – because of the addictions. What to do?

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Buddha told us: you can purify and I believe it. Why? Buddha is the one who told us that negative brings negative results and positive brings positive results. If that is true it is also true when he says that negative deeds have to be purified and positive ones have to be saved, otherwise they can be damaged, destroyed or wasted. If one is true, the other has to be true. Honestly. That positive deeds bring positive results seems to be true in our everyday life. Even kind thoughts bring kind actions. Bad thoughts, mean thoughts, bring mean actions. We know that within ourselves. The good, kind thoughts come and they will be followed by some nice action. And when you get angry, upset, hateful and become very mean, such thoughts will bring negative actions that will hurt and harm. If you can’t harm or hurt, it is a good target to hurt yourself. We do that all the time. That is how negativities bring negativity.

If negativities bring negative results, then positive deeds bring positive results. There is not one law for negativities and another law for positivities. It is the same thing within the one individual. That’s why we have to deal with this. Buddha tells us to purify.

Some people may think, “How can you purify? When someone is killed you cannot bring them back to life.” In a way they are right, but on the other hand they are wrong. You cannot bring the dead back to life, true, unless you are highly spiritually developed or something. We do hear stories in every tradition how blind get to see and I don’t know if the dead can arise again – maybe if they do they will be zombies! Spiritually it is possible to help blind people to see again, however, it is not likely for you and me at this moment. But the negative deeds we have engaged in, we can do something about that. We can try to have a little compensation done and develop a little more kindness, love and faith. That way we can dilute the very strong negative build-up. Develop regret for the negative deeds and some faith – not in the negativity, but in the objects of refuge. That’s technical language, but whomever you worship, whether it is the Almighty or Buddha or whoever, have a little faith.

Faith is important, but we don’t want stupid faith or blind faith. We do want intelligent faith. Faith itself cuts the power of negativity tremendously. Compassion equally cuts it. It is almost like you have some black ink that fell into a glass of water. If you leave it the water will become totally dark and horrible. But if you start diluting it with something white, the black may change into gray and the gray may become a little whiter and there may be a time and a chance that the whole dark ink-colored water may become pure and clean – maybe not completely pure, but it can change. You know that, we all know that. That’s how we purify within ourselves. The darkness can be more and more diluted. The more you purify the more it will get diluted. When the result comes it will not be that huge big slab that hits you on the head, but something that is much lighter or sometimes even become something good.

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So one purpose is to build up positivity and the other to reduce negativity. That is done through a variety of ways, different meditations, different mantras, different ways of focusing and concentrating. We did just that for the last seven days. I told you last week that I will let you know how it went, so that’s how it went.

The bottom line, what I like you to take home is the real essence of Tibetan Buddhism. I talked about what dharma means and what you can correct and that negativities are purifiable. Some people may say, “They are not purifiable, it is a done deal.” But every done deal changes. There is nothing permanent. A lot changes all the time. Even the permanent monuments change. I saw the head dress of the Statue of Liberty brought down to a big, open courtyard to be painted and re-polished. Why? Because it was changing up there. So in the positive way, things change. A negative example: Where is the world trade center gone? That’s it. It was the tallest building in New York City. It’s gone. That’s change. So even permanent, solid things like that change.

A great example is we ourselves. Day by day, week by week, month by month we change. We notice the month-by month change. Day by day we don’t notice or maybe a little bit. It is lucky that we notice the gradual change. If all of a sudden a 25 year old youth looks like a 75 year old it would be unbearable. Luckily it changes slowly. So we get used to it. We make the best of it and try whatever we can do, by painting, by covering up or whatever you do. That’s a good thing, but it is also a clear sign that everything changes. There is nothing that doesn’t change. So our positive and negative deeds can also change. They grow faster than other things. It is true. Externally, you can see how much and how fast things can grow. A little seed of a tree will become a huge tree. You can collect hundreds of fruits from it, but in the beginning it was just a little seed. If external things grow that fast then internal things grow even faster. They don’t depend on the ground. They have the perfect ground to grow anyway – positive and negative, both.

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So everything is changeable. Therefore you can try to change it the best way. I gave you the example of diluting ink. That happens. You know yourself very well. That’s exactly what happens within ourselves. So in the retreat we practiced the Seven Branches. They are the Buddha’s resolution for us to carry on our contemplative work. To recognize negative emotions and actions is one thing. To change them is another. Tibetan Buddhism tells us that we can change that. That’s why we have these Seven Limbs or Branches. I can count them for you, but that won’t make much difference. But the two most important deal with building positivities and purifying negativities. I am forgetting one thing. When we see other people do something good, lot of people will appreciate that. But some people will get jealous. You hear, “My neighbor is doing something great, why she or her and not me? I can do the same thing. I am interested.”

When we are jealous we say, “Very good, but….” Whenever the “but” comes in it is a clear indication that there is something you don’t like. You have a better way of doing it. It may not be a better way. It is just, “It should have been me. Why not me?” And that is jealousy. When that comes we lose, we lose our positive deeds. Jealousy is by nature negativity. Its work is to cut through our positivity. Instead of being jealous it would be better to appreciate and rejoice. Think, “How wonderful they have done this.” If you rejoice you get a completely different effect. Instead of losing our positive deeds we gain, sometimes even double. That’s important. When you observe people, when you think about it, the respectable, knowledgeable, good people will understand, “Well, this needs to be done. It doesn’t matter who does it. I has to be done.” Those of us who are influenced by jealousy will think, “It has to be done and should be done by me and nobody else.” If somebody else does it we are not happy. It becomes a territorial issue. We feel, “You entering in my territory. It is my job, my responsibility.” That is negative. If you are responsible, yes, it is your job to do it. But if anybody else does it, then great. It is helpful. So appreciate it, rather than engaging in territorial issues.

Tibetan Buddhism has a funny example about people fighting for territorial issues. They tell you about the poisonous snake that normally likes to hide in damp, dark areas and to protect themselves they put poison around. So whoever comes near they will be affected. And if somebody still comes near, they bite them.

One of the important keys to build positive deeds is to avoid jealousy.

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Avoid jealousy, anger, hatred, obsession. Pick up intelligent faith, compassion, love and balance your life with those activities. Recognize that sooner or later attitudes like jealousy have to be eradicated and faith, love and compassion have to be adopted. Dharma means change, changing yourself from these negative addictions to these positive addictions. When you make the attempt hundreds, thousand, millions, billions and zillions of times it will have an effect to you. When you have that effect your life is totally improving. It is better and good for yourself and others, so that you become almost wish-fulfilling for everybody else. That’s what Tibetan Buddhism would like to bring to each and every individual.

0:46 Thank you

Audience: In the diamond sutra it is said that the bodhisattva puts his foot down and says, “I will not be reborn again. You are saying Buddha talked about future lives. But it seems to me we shouldn’t have any more future lives but go to nirvana.

Rimpoche: You are right. But do you disappear? When they say: “have no rebirth” they are talking about a rebirth controlled by negative karma and negative deeds. They are not talking about no more rebirth. You have to read between the lines here.

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