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56

20120902GRAATB35

00:00

Good morning and welcome to this talk on Tibetan Buddhism. My name is Gelek Rimpoche. We have been talking about the principles of the Four Noble Truths and most recently about the Fourth Noble Truth, in other words, what the individual is supposed to do. We very basically talked about self-liberation and the generation of compassion the development of what we call bodhimind. That is total dedication for the service of all living beings, yet the individual who is taking responsibility to liberate all living beings need the best and most efficient tools, and we call that the state of a Buddha. In one way, from the religious point of view, you may think this is something you will worship and pray to and all that. That is very true. But from the Tibetan Buddhist point of view, this is probably the best capability that one individual who is practicing through the spiritual ways, can obtain. That’s why, when you take a huge responsibility of not only liberating oneself, but liberating everyone, you have to see the connection between everyone and ourselves.

In our normal, usual, everyday way, we look and see that we have a connection with a lot of people. But even a lot of people doesn’t mean that much. It is just a couple of percentage points, like 2, 3, 4 or 5 percent and that is a huge connection. The rest of them looks like you are not concerned with and it is not even possible to be. But when you are looking from the background of reincarnation, from life after life and countless human lives and countless other lives, then every single being, not only human being, is very much connected with us.

Because of our deaths and changes of lives, we don’t recognize each other. You changed, I changed, we all change our identities together completely. Our mind, our memory, has limitations, because we have gone through with a number of different shocks, etc. Our memories do not recollect. Also our face and physical body doesn’t identify [who we have been in the previous life]. That’s why we don’t recognize each other.

0:05

Otherwise, there is no one who is not connected with us from the reincarnation point of view. Some people may think, “Well, I don’t accept reincarnation, so therefore it is not my concern.” But whether you accept or don’t accept reincarnation, the truth to me is that reincarnation is reality. Otherwise, the moment we die we have to go into some kind of void, never to exist, ceasing to exist. That is not something you or I would like to accept. We are intelligent human beings and we know there is continuation. Even people who deny such a continuation will also talk about going to the right or wrong side of God. But who is going there? The person who died is dead and is not going anywhere. So who goes to the right side of God? If you think along those lines we are all naturally inclined to think that way and work that way, whether we accept it or not. When you think about reincarnation, there are tremendous amount of lives and in each life we have so many connections with so many people. We have parents, brothers, sisters, children, spouses, mothers in law, fathers in law and all of those are continuing.

The relationships and dealing with them is almost endless. Everybody is everywhere connected. On the other hand, whatever is happening to us is also interconnected. How are we dealing with different people? Some of them we treat well and therefore there is a good experience and good virtue and that has its consequences. When we are dealing with them badly, through anger and hatred and so on, there are negative consequences. Our lives, truly speaking, are so much interlinked with everyone else. In short, I don’t really have to emphasize to you. You all know that our environment is totally interconnected with every other environment, at least throughout this world. The inhabitants therefore are also very much interconnected with each other. Even the animals are. We utilize their products and even their own physical bodies as food. So we consume theme, we feed them, they feed on us and it is so much connected. It is never ending. It is a huge, long thing. When you want to serve and help and commit to liberating them, then the numbers become countless. Then the responsibility equally becomes that huge. When that responsibility is there you really need the best tools ever possible, because ordinary, simple, little tools may not be able to fulfill our commitment, our desire and our hope.

0:11

So we see the Buddha level is the most capable. There are unlimited resources, unlimited information, unlimited capability. That’s the reason why we look for becoming a Buddha, rather than Buddha being something great and we want to be that. That’s fine. Nothing wrong with that, but nothing surprising either. But here why is this becoming so much? Because of the responsibility we are taking. We are committing ourselves to the service of all beings. That means A-L-L beings. No one is left out. Everyone is included. Some people may say that “all” is large, but can’t include everything. Linguists can explain it however they want to, but for our practical point of view no one should be left out. There is no one who is not connected to us. You can say, “Well, I don’t care”, but there is no one we can’t care about. Somehow we care. We may hate, or care or love. Within that category it will come. Therefore, the commitment is so huge. So you need the best tools. This is the actual reason why Mahayana Buddhists choose Buddhahood as their goal. That is the best ever possible. Not only that, we do need it, because we have to help all beings. That’s why when we talk about bodhimind, as we mentioned the focal points is all living beings and the aspect is to liberate them.

What liberation? There are different levels. As you know, we Americans are very proud of being the liberators of Europe during World War II, when Hitler had taken over almost all of Europe. That’s liberation. People appreciate that and we are happy we could do it and are very proud of it. Likewise, here, when we talk about spiritual liberation, there is no Hitler or Saddam or any other dictators or communists who is dictating and torturing us, but we have this suffering, which is our deeds, that are torturing us. When we talk about liberation, we talk about not only liberating ourselves, but everybody else, from suffering and the cause of suffering.

We always say the Four Immeasurables: “May all beings be free from suffering”. And that does not only include suffering, but also the cause of suffering. We are simply praying that everyone may be free from suffering.

0:16

We wish everybody be free from suffering and appreciate how wonderful it is if everyone is free from suffering. Then the fourth line: I will liberate them. Out of the Four Immeasurables I have only talked about the first one, suffering, but all the others work the same way. We wish that everybody is free from suffering and how wonderful it would be if everybody were free from suffering and I would like to make sure that will happen. Like that, it is always there. So bodhimind is such that you commit to doing this job. This is one of the best ways to help ourselves also. As much as you wish to help others, as much as you dedicate yourself to liberating everybody else, and as much as you do, that much vast and deep you can go. That is really truly moving our own selves forward with the wish that everyone moves together. That is really what it is.

We talked last time about generosity as the first of the six perfections or six activities. Today my focus is on morality. This is very important. Sometimes people think that morality is the usual stuff. Others think that morality is meant for a lower level in the sense that it is not so advanced, almost a preliminary stage, thinking that “I am very high and perfect and wonderful, so morality is not a big issue to me.” That is wrong thinking. Morality is extremely important. Number one, let me put it this way: morality is like the base, as the earth is the ground on which you grow everything. You grow your food and it is the base on which to build your home, the base on which to build your city and everything. Likewise, morality is the ground to build virtue.

0:20

Some people, not so many, will say, “I have gone beyond morality, so it is not a concern.” I am afraid that is a total misunderstanding. “Gone beyond” does not mean you have gone outside of morality. Rather it should mean that you have perfected it and you are always doing the wrong thing. It is not like you have got a degree and now you don’t have to study anymore. It is not going beyond in that sense. It is meant in the sense that you have become perfect all the time and that every moment of yours becomes perfect morality. That’s what probably “gone beyond” is all about.

I have been talking from the background of reincarnation. Let’s say I hope to gain in my next reincarnation a perfect state or at least what I am today or what I was in this life. That much human rebirth I hope to gain. For this I need the base to gain that and that is morality. If my morality is crooked and wrong and twisted then my next life and lives will be crooked and turned and twisted. If my morality is okay my future lives will be okay. If my morality is excellent, my future lives will be excellent. This is that important. It is really, really important.

When you talk about morality, sometimes in this country we have the understanding that morality only applies to sexual orientation or something like that. That is probably not true. From whatever little I know it is probably not true. Yes, sexuality is part of morality, not doubt. But there are lots of things that are more important than sexual orientation. Doing the right thing and doing the wrong thing is what it is about. That is one of the great qualities of humanitarianism and our education. Just like generosity is accepted by everybody as a virtue, so similarly morality is accepted as virtue. That is one great thing we have in our society.

0:25

Morality actually is protecting yourself from wrong doing. What is wrong doing? If I hurt someone that is wrong doing. I am creating pain, sorrow, misery for somebody. That act of creating pain is negative and after that negative act we may even feel, “Ha, I did it, I gave it back and now we are even.” We may think that but in reality it is not. The true reality is that when you are hurting somebody and give it back to somebody, actually you are giving yourself back something. When we hurt others we may think that they deserve it, that they have done this to me, so I have to return it and make it equal and that it is my “manly duty”. But in reality we are hurting ourselves. We are creating negative karma that will not forgive me and that will haunt me until we paid for it. So hurting others may feel like temporarily satisfying, but the feeling of that satisfaction is a delusion. Actually we are satisfied to hurting ourselves.

Knowing that, we should avoid anything that hurts anybody, including activities created through hatred, through obsession or anything that is trying to hurt others mentally, physically, emotionally. For example, if you steal somebody’s property or wealth you may think, “That’s what he deserves, that’s what I give”, but in reality you are hurting yourself. You are creating a cause for losing your property and belongings. The next time thieves or robbers or someone will forcefully take your property or wealth and not only once, but many times more than what you have stolen right now. So that idea of giving back is immorality. Why? Because it hurts us, it actually cuts our own perfection. Actually it cuts our own good efforts. That’s why that’s not right. You have to protect yourself from that immoral activity of hurting others or taking others’ property or harming others, like raping someone – all these are really, truly immoral things. Protecting yourself from them is perfect morality.

0:30

This is one example. But everything else is the same, particularly for people with great education and great opportunity to make a difference to so many people’s lives, for example the people who produce scientific innovations. Their decisions today will make a difference in our lives 20 years down the road. They have very important moral responsibilities. Also saving the environment, saving lives, looking after weak people, those who have been tortured by trauma, by difficulties, such as problems with the elements, such as earth quake victims, tsunami victims - helping them, protecting them and giving them whatever they need, all that is actually part of morality.

The true morality is at the mind level: protecting yourself from wrong doing. If you cannot protect yourself then you are weak on the moral issues. Morality is extremely important. There are a number of points such as collecting positive deeds as much as possible. That is another important point of morality. Protecting oneself from wrong doings is a major point. Then there is the virtue of following up on your commitments to help and serve all living beings. That’s another important point. In morality there are many issues, but this is a very brief introduction. So there are these three points and honoring them is morality.

0:34

Morality also has to be generous. You cannot be stingy on the morality. Nor can you say, “You are not my subject of morality, therefore I do not have to make sure that you are all right.” Again, that is breaking not only the morality aspect of generosity, but also breaking morality itself, if you are an individual who is committed to serving all living beings. For a person who is seeking total enlightenment there is no single person to left out to whom you could say, “That is not my concern.” That would be breaking the morality of morality.

Also patience. Sometimes you want to serve and help, but the person never gives you the opportunity. Something always goes wrong and doesn’t work out well. Therefore you do need tremendous patience. Not only that, you have to help and serve and do whatever you want to do with enthusiasm. Laziness tells you to do it tomorrow, but as we say, “tomorrow never comes.” That is true – tomorrow never comes. It is always today. When it becomes tomorrow, it becomes today, rather than tomorrow. So laziness is a very good way of postponing. So if you have morality, you have to act on it now, because tomorrow never comes. It is today. It is now. You don’t have to have the right stars functioning, you can’t wait for the right astrological calendar date or the right day of the week or the right position of the moon. That doesn’t apply to morality. It is always now. So not only do you need patience, but also enthusiasm.

You also have to be focused. If you are not, then your morality is not focused. You have bits here and bits there, a little up there, a little down here and that will probably not be very effective. So it has to be focused and solid. Then you also need very strong wisdom. If you don’t have wisdom, then sometimes you may put efforts into wrong doing. You may think you are doing tremendous enthusiastic work, but in reality you may be doing something very negative.

0:39

Let me tell you a story from the Buddha’s period. There were many. Some people’s morality aspects is to hurt themselves. Some of them jumped onto tridents. Some cut their own physical body and hurt themselves and tried to draw blood from their own body. These are violent acts. Some people think and even preach it is for purification. Some people will encourage that as a practice. If you don’t have wisdom, then whatever you do makes not much difference. You may put in tremendous amounts of efforts into hurting yourself, physically, mentally, emotionally, thinking that you are engaging in virtuous activities, that you are sacrificing yourself, sometimes even sacrificing your life. Some even sacrifice others’ lives. You can make a big mistake thinking that is a perfect path and perfect virtue. That is lack of wisdom. You have no idea what you are doing, but you are doing it very enthusiastically and with a lot of concentration, very patiently, very generously, but in actual reality you may be building negativity, rather than positivity.

So wisdom of morality is definitely important. So all six perfections have to be there. Each one of them has to be a perfection of its own. So this is basically what I wanted to talk to you today about morality. Next week I will be talking to you about patience. Thank you. 0:42