Archive Result

20120424GRAATB17

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Good morning and welcome to this talk on Tibetan Buddhism with Gelek Rimpoche. We have been talking for the last couple of weeks about what Buddhist practice means. What does practice mean to us? We draw the conclusion in three steps: learning, thinking/analyzing and meditation. We emphasized that learning doesn’t mean you have to be a scholar. If you are, great; if you can, you are welcome. But it is not required. However, at least you have to know what you are doing. There is a tremendous amount of “paths”. That is Buddhist terminology for what to do. We draw the conclusion that as Buddha taught, we should follow the Four Noble Truths. We are at the First Noble Truth. I wanted to make this brief, because otherwise I will be repeating the same thing again and again. The First Noble Truth is exactly what the Buddha himself discovered. When you talk about the Truth of Suffering many of you have heard it so many times. Everything is suffering, there is this thing and that thing, there are three types of suffering, eight types of suffering, sixteen types of suffering, twenty – something types of suffering. When you count, you count so many of them. That’s what you have mostly heard. The most commonly known are the three types of suffering. The first of these is suffering of suffering, which includes every mental, physical and emotional pain. Then changing suffering is what we normally consider joy, pleasure and a wonderful thing. When you have too much of it you suffer. Also vice versa, it goes the other way around too. The pervasive suffering is a little more difficult to get, however, it is the nature of suffering and it creates suffering and it is the result of suffering. That’s why it is pervasive. It is everywhere and everything is moved by that.

That’s probably what many of you have heard read and understood. Now there is something different I would like to talk to you about today. Within that suffering itself there are a variety of reasons. This is perfectly fit for beginning people and perfectly fit for those who have been long enough in Buddhist practice and it is perfect practice for those who are advanced and maybe even close to the path of being a special person and even the special persons themselves.

When I use the term “special” that is again Buddhist terminology. It is used in Tibetan Buddhism and almost everywhere in Buddhism. Those who have seen the nature of reality are considered special. Those who have not seen the nature of reality directly are known as lay persons or ordinary persons. So even for the advanced people the Four Noble Truths is the major perfect practice. This is very interesting. On the Mahayana Buddhist path there is a Sanskrit term: bhumi. This is funny for me. There is nothing wrong with the language but we have many friends in Malaysia and Indonesia. In their language bhumi [putra = lit: son of the soil] means owner of the land. So people who are native Malays are considered bhumi. People whose ancestors have migrated to Malaysia even 10 generations ago, they are all non-bhumi.

This is very traditional Indian religion. So a lot of traditional Indian language, culture and customs have been adopted by Buddhists. I am not sure whether Buddha himself adopted some, but Buddhists definitely did. I hope the American Buddhists will leave the cultural baggage out. Buddhism itself doesn’t have any cultural baggage. It came out as pure as it can be and went to every country. That’s why it is adaptable to anywhere. It adapted to Tibet, India, Mongolia, China, Japan and all the little South-East Asian countries and their cultures.

Buddhism does not really carry ceremonial show-biz.

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You see that a lot in Tibetan Buddhism, Chinese Buddhism and in Japan, Korea and it has its own little thing in Indian, Sri Lankan and Burmese, etc Buddhism. So it has become very adaptable. American Buddhism, which is now developing so much should have its own way and leave the cultural things out. That is a huge baggage. So leave the culture things out. At the same time you bring terms like “landlord”, so we call them special and lay and so on and these are old Indian cultural terms we are carrying. This terminology has been stuck in my head and it is very difficult to change. We are trying to change a lot, but it is difficult. It is like an old, crooked tree and that is hard to straighten. If you have the young shoots coming you can guide the tree anywhere you want. The pure part of the tree is what you needed in order to get the fruit. But it is not needed to have crooked and twisted branches.

So until you become Buddha, the major practice is based on the Four Noble Truths. That’s why these are extremely important and deep. A lot of people say, “I know about the Four Noble Truths. I have studied them, I took the course and not only once. I took the course 3 times already and I know exactly what it is.” But for me, if you really look deeply, you don’t know what it is. Honestly. At every layer that comes up there will be another one. And if you go into that one there will be another one and another one. Even the major practice of bodhisattvas aiming at Buddhahood is also totally engaged with the Four Noble Truths.

I didn’t get to say what I really wanted to say for the last two Sundays, because things like that come up in my head. Now this is what I really want to say: when you look at the Four Noble Truths, what do you see in there? Buddha emphasized at this level of the Four Noble Truths these four things: empty, impure, suffering and impermanent. The whole idea is looking at ourselves. Who is suffering/ Who is it? What is it? When we are talking about me or self, who are we talking about? What is behind all this?

A philosopher came up with the idea that there has to be somebody who will honor or answer to the person inside, someone who is absolutely pure and clean, permanent, self – some kind of person who answers to that description when you dig down and investigate who you are. But Buddha says that there is nothing permanent. It is all impermanent. There is nothing joyful or happy; there is no self -existence. When you deeply look in the truth of suffering there is no one or nothing who claims ownership of self. That’s what Buddha called “empty”. We all think there is something or somebody who is responsible, something or somebody called “me” in there.

Sometimes we even project beyond a being or person but think there is something else, some phenomenon that is deeply in there, something like the end of the Russian doll.

I used to admire the ideas of Stephen Hawkins tremendously, until he gave that Christmas in the White House during the Clinton administration. I saw it on TV. AT the end he said, “Madame Clinton, Mr. President, we will be able to present the end of the Russian doll.” When you open up a Russian doll you get something else and in there something and in there something else. Soon after that some friend of mine went to Bulgaria and came back with a gift: a Russian doll in the form of President Clinton with a saxophone.

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When you go in and open it up and open it up, you first get Hillary, then Monica Lewinsky and then Chelsea Clinton and finally the saxophone. I am not sure whether the saxophone comes first or Chelsea, I forgot. But that’s the idea of the end of the Russian doll and that there is someone or something deep in there. Buddha gives us two types of emptiness: something to do with the person and other than the person. So there are phenomena and beings. That’s why I say it’s somebody or something. Buddha is saying that that’s not there. That’s why one of the criteria in the truth of suffering is that it is empty.

One of the other characteristics of this self is that it is supposed to be absolutely pure. But Buddha says it is not pure. I am sometimes wondering that if it is empty, where the question of it being pure comes in anyway? But if you really look carefully, inside of the individual, including ourselves, there are people who say that we are absolutely clean inside. The surgeons and doctors will tell you that. They say that when it is not clean you get sick. They say that you have operations to remove any impure thing that bothers you and that otherwise it is clean. I don’t think that is correct. I don’t think our body is clean. If it is clean where does cancer come from and every other suffering? Every suffering we have is internally created. Forget about mental aspects – even physically it’s true. The suffering comes because it is impure or contaminated. That tells you that no matter how much we try to show, but it is suffering.

In the morning we take a lot of time to clean ourselves, but we can only do some external cleaning. We can’t do internal cleaning. At the most you can brush your teeth and gargle with water. That much we can clean inside – or whatever naturally comes out. Besides that you can’t do much. But whatever we can do we try to do. We use not only water, but also soap and some people even use a brush or a little stone for the feet. That is the signal that it is unclean and we dislike it. People will hesitate to tell us, “You are not clean” because we are bothered. Why? Because that is one of our problems or faults. So it looks like I am trying to tell you here that we are all dirty! (laughs). I don’t mean it that way. I don’t mean it in the literal, hygienic sense, but there are a lot of impurities within us, in the mind, in the physical body and everywhere. Honestly. Buddha tells us we are impure.

Then we may think that we are joyful and happy. We tell ourselves that we are, we identify ourselves that way and we like to be that way. We are very happy if someone tells us, “You look happy” or “You look beautiful”. That’s because we have that fear of not being beautiful, of not being happy. You are hitting on that spot and that’s why we dislike it. Otherwise, when somebody tells you that “you look happy”, that doesn’t make you happier and if someone tells you, “You don’t look so happy” you don’t become worse. If someone tells you, “You look horrible” you don’t become horrible. It’s just empty, dry words, but they affect us, mentally, physically and emotionally. The fear inside is getting hit. It is the fear of not being clean, not being happy that is getting hit. That’s why.

Truly, we are not necessarily that happy and not necessarily that miserable. Buddha says it is suffering. True. It is not necessarily the miserable suffering of suffering. But it is suffering.

Then another characteristic is that we think we are permanent. We think there is somebody called “me”, “I”.

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Tibetan Buddhism will advise you that even if you don’ have a life that will be able to support you for one year, that you should plan to live for a hundred years. That’s the normal advice they give you. But here we are talking about impermanence and that’s different. We do live like we have this very permanent thing called “me” inside.

Death is something the American culture doesn’t want to look at. They don’t want to talk about death. Somehow people try to avoid talking about it. Yet, everybody has some kind of deeper interest in it. Everybody, high, low, rich, poor, politician, famous person, not so famous, does have deep concerns about it. We think, “Sooner or later I will go through this, but what is it?” We do have a lot of concern about that. It is almost like we close our eyes, but out of the side of one eye we start looking. That’s what I observe. And everybody has this sense that they will survive this and continue thereafter. We hope for that. We are in the habit of wanting to look afterwards. We make a big deal about our legacy. Some people make big institutions, like memorials. Some people leave children. Some leave students and practitioners and friends. Some leave behind wealth in the form of foundations. Deeply in there is the idea of wanting to continue. We accept death, but we still think we go through with it.

Presently, I am supposed to be doing retreat. In retreat you are not supposed to talk and meet other people. You restrict yourself and try to be very conscientious. Yesterday afternoon, while taking a break I turned on my television. Kimba was there and told me, “In your Bodhicaryavatara transcript on the chapter of enthusiasm you give the biggest example of what not to do: when in retreat, looking at the TV.” Very good. That’s what happens. That’s what it is. Anyway, there was a war movie on one channel and I flipped channels and there was a show on the predictions of Nostradamus and the Mayan calendar – which apparently ends December 2012. When you look at yourself and others, everyone is planning for 2013, 2014 and 2015, everybody, old, young, rich, poor. The Mayan calendar says everything is going to be ended on December 23 and Nostradamus says it is ending in 2020 beginning with 2012. They are all saying this. But in our mind we are going beyond that. That will be fine. But not only that.

Our traditions, our spiritual traditions, Buddha or whoever, keep on telling us that when you die – not if you die – this and that is going to happen. Also we see people die all the time, right and left and upstairs and downstairs from us. The person who lived upstairs is gone, the person who lived downstairs is gone, this person is gone and that person is gone. Then we look at people we know and haven’t seen for a while and they look a little older and you begin to say, “We used to this together and that together, we used to work with the flowers and put wall paper up together”. That’s what we can see directly. Even then we plan to go through somewhere beyond that. That is the fear of annihilation and the mind rejecting it.

0:41

That’s the reality within us. This is the truth of suffering of ageing, death, etc. They are included in the suffering of suffering. That is the reality. It is all impermanent. It is one of the criteria.

Again, I have not been able to finish the empty and selfless categories. This is the reality we have. When we say we need to practice or meditate, it is not the meditation where you just sit and think nothing. You have to focus, no doubt, but it is not just one single activity, like worshipping or something. It means looking at who we are and our own situation. In one way I thought it doesn’t matter who you are. It really doesn’t matter. Who you are you cannot really tell. You can only do it be referencing other things.

A decade ago Tricycle Magazine invited me to give a talk in New York, in Central Park, for the Change of Mind Day. There were so many speakers. When I arrived in New York some friends asked, “Rimpoche, what are you going to talk about?” I said, “I don’t know. I am going to listen.”

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When I got in there, there were so many people that I couldn’t listen. The only opportunity I had to listen was from some woman who was sitting in the sun, getting burnt completely, and she was saying, “We are spending our time here thinking all the time “Who are we?” The thought came to my mind, “What do I care who we are? Shall we say this?” Then another thought came to me that probably the Americans may not like it. Suddenly at that time Joseph Goldstein walked by. We had already talked earlier. So I thought, “I can ask Joseph, whether they like it or not.” So this was a decade ago but I already had difficulty getting up. So by the time I got he was already ahead of me and he has very long legs and walked quite fast. So I, with my short legs, was running but couldn’t catch him. By the time I was half way down the lawn and still couldn’t catch him I heard the loud speaker say, “Our next speaker is running down there. Come back!”

So I really thought that we don’t care who we are. I don’t remember whether I said it or not. I just remember following Joseph Goldstein and couldn’t catch him.

But it really doesn’t matter. If you are saying “I am So and So” you need a lot of references. I use the example: I was Dr. Joe Blow in the 16th century in Sussex, England. You are referring to “Dr” and then the name that was given. Then you refer to Sussex and England and to the 16th century. To make sense there have to be so many references. Why? We only exist dependently. We do not exist independently. That’s why one of Buddha’s points is emptiness.

0:48 Anyway, we will continuously talk next Sunday. There are no questions through the internet today, but there is one here in the room.

Audience: Rimpoche, you said we should hold this idea of emptiness. How does that make our lives better and how does that make us better people?

Rimpoche: This is a very interesting question. It really absolutely makes you a better person and absolutely makes our life better, because whatever we are struggling for is not there. That’s the simple answer – honestly. There is no queen bee or queen ant. So that’s it. That makes it better.

When there is nothing to be preserved and protected and to be angry and jealous about and hateful and obsessed about, when the root of all the negative emotions is cut, when you see that there is nothing that gets hurt and has to be protected, you become a kind person to all. Some people tell me: you are very kind. If it is an honest statement, I am not kind, but there is nothing to be unkind about. I am not saying I have seen emptiness, okay, don’t misinterpret, but even if you know through knowledge, like you heard about it that there is nothing to protect the whole idea of being unkind doesn’t exist. It is meaningless. People hurt themselves a lot. They say, “What they said to me was an insult, he or she was throwing salt on the wound”, when there is no wound, where do you throw the salt? Who would take the pain? That really makes a huge difference. Interesting that you put the question that way, so I answered that way. Hopefully it will create some basis for people to think. I guess that’s it. Thank you

Audience: You were speaking earlier about Americans having no taste to discuss death and trying to avoid it. In the context of emptiness or lack of permanent self, the American concept of being a self-made man – but I am a feminist and would include women in there, of course - we have been raised with and the American Dream – how does that fit in with the concept of no self?

Rimpoche: Very good question. Thank you. I like to say three things: First the feminine issue: I am one who supports the feminine movement very strongly and particularly the feminine principle in the Buddhist context. Last November I went to one of the largest international Buddhist conferences in Dehli, with 800 – 1000 people attending. There was one panel dedicated to feminine issues. I was the only man on that panel. I was the token person. I really strongly support the feminine principle in Buddhism, particularly from the female Buddha point of view. I introduce Tara as a female Buddha. But one thing I tell you honestly: for all the talk about the feminine principle in society today, the American educated, elite society women will not support a woman. It clearly showed during the last Democrat candidate selection. If you have a problem within it is a big problem. I just wanted to mention that.

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Now the American Dream. The American Dream is real and it is important. You are right. All the immigrants, mostly all – I don’t remember myself doing that - are looking for green dollars. I don’t. But I do remember looking for joy, happiness, particularly I was thinking that America was great, even when I was 12, 13 years old in Tibet. There was no communication, no radio, no broadcast, nothing of that type. We only knew two things: there were a lot of wheels in America and there was a White House. The Americans at that time also knew only two things about Tibet: lots of mountain peaks and lots of lamas. That’s all they knew. However, I used to have a great deal of interest and apparently, World War II was going through and I had no idea what’s going on. There were little jokes here and there, meaningless, but funny, from the language point of view. Most of the people do look to enter in the United States, no matter how much we say that we have economic problems and so on. Everybody is still looking for the American Dream. That should not be abandoned. It should be worked out.

Now the question comes: when it is all emptiness, what will I do with the American Dream? That’s a very important question. What does the American Dream give you? Wealth. Money, comfort. But for what? For this life. Within this life, up to death, that’s what it gives you. We say it gives a good situation for the younger generation. We give our children something. That’s very true. But my children are not me. The individual ends there. However, there is continuation. This is to me the beauty of the relative truth and absolute truth. Putting these two together, try to get the best of both, that’s the challenge in general for all human beings and particularly for those of us who are interested in the spiritual path. This is our challenge. I didn’t answer your question fully, because the time is running. We can talk more later. This is what I see as the challenge for spiritual practitioners, particularly us. In the 60s, during the hippie times, there were different challenges. Now, this is our challenge. All the old hippie culture people and their children should take this challenge and look for it. Thank you

1:03 final dedication Four Immeasurables