Archive Result

1515

20121102GRNBFof P1

A: PUBLIC TALK ONE

00:00

Interviewer (Kent Wolgamott): You were born and grew up in Tibet and left in the late 50s. You are still in contact with the country, etc,. Can you talk a little bit about why you left and how Tibet changed and how the sort of the cultural change over the last 40, 50 years took place?

Rimpoche: Thank you for being here everybody and giving me the opportunity to be back in Lincoln. Talking about my life. It is amazing, this melodrama of my life. When you look back it is a little funny. Yes, I was born in old Tibet, which was very different than anywhere in the west and very different from Tibet today. If you look back somewhere in the 1700s [in Europe] or something of that sort, as far as modern development is concerned. But for the spiritual path it was one of the richest and most important of any civilizations after India. India is the source of a lot of eastern religions.

Interviewer: Why did Tibet emerge as that country? What made that happen?

Rimpoche: Originally, Tibetans were quite barbarian, very ferocious and very mean. They needed to change and they were desperately looking for change, to become more gentle persons. They looked at all kinds of traditions and spiritual paths. Tibet had its own tradition, called Bön. They looked at India, with all its religions, like Hindu, Muslim, Jain and all kinds. They found that Buddhism was the most suitable, the best to improve the personality of individuals, as well as improve the atmosphere of the country and make the people calmer, gentler, more caring and more concerned with people. The earlier Tibetan rulers decided to take refuge in Buddhism.

Interviewer: How long ago was that?

Rimpoche: That was in the 700s and later improved in the 1100s. If you go back in history, there are so many incidents, where kings sacrificed their lives to avoid engaging in war and infighting and in order to get good Indian teachers to come and teach them. They selected the best teacher they could get. They sent the best Tibetans to study in the early Indian universities, such as Nalanda and Vikramalashila. That’s why Buddhism is so rich and so engraved in the personality of people. That’s the reason why Tibet became such a great, spiritual and contemplative resource.

Interviewer: You grew up in Drepung monastery. How many monks were in Drepung?

Rimpoche: This is interesting: 10,000. It was like a little town up there. But the big monasteries in Tibet are not like the monasteries in the west. In the west monasteries are retreat areas with very few people, well-disciplined with many monks keeping silence. Tibetan monasteries, when I grew up, were more like learning centers, like colleges or universities. But then not everybody was studying either. It was monks’ town.

Interviewer: So somebody had to cook and people did different jobs?

Rimpoche: Right. People had different jobs. The monastery had their own administration, businesses, farming. They did not go and farm themselves, but somehow they did business with the farmers and the nomads. They did a lot of yak business. But they didn’t kill them. That’s a different thing. They are not supposed to kill them, but I am sure a lot of yaks died.

Interviewer: How long were you in the monastery?

Rimpoche: Between the ages of four and nineteen, so almost 15 years. When I look back in my past years, the best ever time I had – both in terms of spiritual practice and even in terms of comfort – was those years. That’s although we didn’t have air condition or heating, but still it was the best, most comfortable time.

Interviewer: Were you there when the Chinese came in?

Rimpoche: I lived with the Communist Chinese for 9 years. They came to Tibet in 1951. And I was there till 1959.

Interviewer: Then why did you leave? Did you come to a point where you knew you had to go?

Rimpoche: I was young, a teenager. I was one of those kids who were quite excited about Chinese communism, all that, socialism and communism. We didn’t know head or tail of it, but it seemed to bring change. So I was looking forward to some change. In the beginning it looked great. Words like equality, equal opportunity and so on sound great. It is like here in America, the basis of founding the United States. It sounded very similar to that. So it was very exciting for me. I just remember that I used to have an old friend who was quite successful in Tibet, who retired and totally did nothing but spiritual practice. Half of his day was meditation. He would come out of meditation round about 1 pm, have his lunch and then when I was around he would come and visit me and chit-chat. He would always give me something little every day, whenever he came. It could be yogurt, milk, rock candy or something. I was quite excited and telling him that people were going to get equality. People who didn’t have anything were going to be better off. He laughed at me a little bit and said, “That would be very nice, if those people who don’t have anything could become equal to those who have.” Tibet was not as rich as what we are here. So he said if they could bring people to that level that would be very nice. And then he said, “But the equality is not going to happen that way. The poor are not going to be brought to the level of those who have, but those who have are going to be reduced to the level of those who don’t have. That is the equality that is going to come.”

I was very disappointed and he kept on saying that for quite some time, repeating it. And it turned out to be true. In those days that communism was not really building it up but reducing it down. Anybody who had enough to eat or enough to manage didn’t do very good. Then the Culture Revolution was terrible. Before that there was the war against education, whether it was old-fashioned or new-fashioned. When these things started happening the excitement of equality and opportunity did not come to be, but actually just the opposite of it.

0.17 That is the major reason, I think, for the whole of Tibet having lots of problems and a great deal of difficulty. Otherwise we have been together for about ten years with Communist soldiers and monks. Earlier some unruly monks used to push and elbow and even slap the Communist soldiers and they took it with a smile. But later they turned round with guns. That’s the simple reason why I left.

Interviewer: A lot of people are familiar with the story of how the Dalai Lama left Tibet. What’s yours? How did you get out?

Rimpoche: His Holiness left Tibet in the beginning of March, 1959. There are all kinds of stories about that. The last activity of the Dalai Lama, his spiritual exam, was taking place in January of that year. At that time the relations were already quite bad. It was no longer that friendly. They were all armed. Although it was still functioning, but I do remember the full moon day activity of the Dalai Lama. I was there. I had never seen so many soldiers standing there, carrying automatic machine guns, standing in the middle of the monks, facing towards buildings that were Chinese offices or quarters. That was one of the saddest days of my life. It was on the one hand a compassion-oriented Buddhist festival – with guns. That just doesn’t make sense. I was young, 19 years old, but I knew something was not right. It was a little horrifying. Within a couple of days thereafter we heard rumors that His Holiness left. He was dressed like an ordinary soldier and walked away from his summer palace and went across the river in a kayak. By that time Central Tibet was quite divided. The Southern part was occupied by what the Chinese called “rebels”. Everything north of the river was occupied by the Chinese. The city of Lhasa is north of the river, south of the river it is a little remote. So I think he crossed form the northern side to the south and then continued on horseback until he reached India. You can read that in “My Land-My People”, by His Holiness himself. He wrote that in the 1960s.

0:23

In those days the books gave a more correct picture than books today – by any other, because of the political twists and turns. They were more straight forward then. And this book was about a very recent time then.

Interviewer: And how did you get out?

Rimpoche: Following in the footsteps…..I was in the monastery when the fighting broke out between the Tibetan militias and the Chinese soldiers. It was early in the morning, maybe 3 am when we started hearing the shooting of guns quite intensely for about 4, 5 hours. Then after sunrise it was a little bit turned down and then shots came only seldom. But canons were shooting. That’s about it for that day. From the monastery I could see with my eyes groups of Tibetans getting together in front of the summer palace of the Dalai Lama and people were fighting. Then the canons started firing and then you could see a bunch of people on horse-back coming out of the dust, running towards the South. It looks like an old fairy tale story or cow boy story or something. But I literally saw it. By the evening, at about 4,5 o’clock, even there was no shelling or gun fire in the monastery, somehow we couldn’t stay. We had to go. But where? There was no other place to go except into the mountains. The monastery was at the foothills. So we climbed into the mountains. The idea was to hide in some kind of cave for a few days until the unrest went down. By about 5 pm almost everybody was walking back out of the monastery. I had an apartment in the monastery. I was in there, which is a little bit at the back of the monastery, towards the mountains. Everybody was moving that way. So I also ran that way. I put on my shoes and walked away. That’s what I did, thinking that there was some place in the mountains to hide for a few days.

Then we were going up and up, but there was no place to hide. It’s not that there were no caves. But there were these fireworks. Something was shooting in the air and then came down with a tremendous amount of light. That’s fireworks, right? We thought we would be seen in that light. We thought they had some kind of electronic eye. There weren’t any drones then, but we thought they had something like that. I remember we walked up to the mountain ridge and we were counting how long it would take for the fireworks to go and how long the light would last. We were hiding in the canyons and before the next fireworks went up we ran across as much as we could. We did that 8, 9 times. Later, when we realized what really went on it was absolutely silly of us. There was no way they could see us on the mountainside that way.

By the time we reached the top of the hills there was also no place to stay. So we crossed into the next valley and went to a village there. There was an oracle in that village. That morning the oracle came into trance. Everybody went to see the oracle. I said, “Looks like yesterday were were losing. So what should I do? Should I go far away to the South, towards India or should I go back to the monastery or should I go towards the valley in the west?” The oracle said to go across to India. That’s how I went.

Interviewer: Did you walk?

Rimpoche: I didn’t. In that village there was a family that was connected with us. That man told me, “Take my horses. I have 20 boxes of Chinese silver coins. I have ten mules plus 3 horses. Take them and go. If everything goes okay I can get it back from you. It is like leaving my money in the bank.” We didn’t have banks, but that was his idea of keeping his money safe. And he said, “If things don’t go right here, this money will get me killed. So you better take it and use it.” I said, “No way.” And I took only one horse. That’s it.

0:32

Then we walked for a day’s journey until we reached one of my family estates. I had about 25 people with me at that time in my group. I was the only one with a horse. By the time we reached our estate everybody there was hiding. The village looked like a ghost town. When we approached the village, a group of huge, ferocious dogs were coming at us, barking like crazy. They can really tear you apart, those mastiffs. So many of them were coming. I was a little bit ahead, because I got a horse. All others were on foot and the dogs can really get you then. I went a little bit ahead and those dogs were jumping up at me and almost catching me even on the horse. There were 10 – 15 of them and they were quite ferocious. I looked around and recognized one old dog that used to be in Lhasa. His name was Pa do. I called his name, “Pado, Pado” and he looked up and stopped barking and then started whining and wagging his tail. Then all the other dogs stopped barking too. Suddenly, from the top of a bigger building somebody opened the top window and looked while the dogs had stopped barking. So then we got in. After that I walked. I had a tough time. I was sitting in the main house of the estate and the people there would not let me go. They were saying, “You are young. You don’t know what you are doing. Your parents are in Lhasa. How can you leave? You have to stay here.” I said, “I am afraid of the Chinese.” They said, “Oh, the Chinese are for the people. We are the people and we will protect you.” They stopped me there for about 7 days and didn’t let me go. So one day was able to just go.

Then it took almost a month to get to the Indian border.

Interviewer: And how did you get to the United States?

Rimpoche: United States for me is home away from home. This is a country where people accept you no matter what your race, culture, religion, skin color or whatever is. Also America has this understanding that it is the ultimate place where people can enjoy liberty and individual rights. At that time our understanding was that it was also the ultimate place that was anti-communist. It was the ultimate refuge for those who suffered from Communist aggression. All of those together. I always had the mind of going to the United States. But the border with Tibet was India, not the United States. From India to get to the United States is not easy at all.

I came and visited in 1964 for one academic year to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Then I couldn’t come back till the 1980s.

Interviewer: And you came here to teach Buddhism?

Rimpoche: I started teaching Buddhism to westerners from 1975 on. People came to learn when I was living in India. Then I had a couple of tours in South-East Asia and two in Europe. I also worked with a professor at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio on political history. Through all that combined together I had the opportunity to be here in the US in the late 80s. I just wrote yesterday on my facebook that I am grateful to Reagan because I entered the United States as a green card holder in his time. I am grateful to President Clinton, because I got citizenship during his tenure. I feel privileged to be able to select the President of the United States, the Senate and the House of Representatives and local judges, if I want to.

Interviewer: You live in Michigan, a battleground state. So we need you to vote. There are some people here who are very familiar with Buddhism and some that probably are not. Can you give a very quick basic outline of what it is?

Rimpoche: What I do in Jewel Heart is I do a one hour talk every Sunday called “Tibetan Buddhism” and that’s available on-line every Sunday morning, from 10 – 11 Eastern Standard time. So here you have central time. So it will be 9- 10 am. I really do talk about very important points that Tibetan Buddhism can contribute to the lives of the people who are in different parts of the United States, including the heartbeat of America. What can they do? What can they take from this? I do emphasize that. I am not a Buddhist missionary. I am not here to convert anybody to Buddhism, not at all. But this is such a rich tradition, which benefits millions of people. So can we contribute something to ease the pains that each and every one of us goes through in our life? Is there anything? Can we take anything? That’s my purpose and my mission and Buddhism has tremendous – I will not say teaching – but Buddha’s and many of his followers’ experience of easing their mental pains, such as hatred, obsession, jealousy, etc. These are common problems people face, whether it is in the east or in the west, whether you are old or young, man or woman.

0:45

We all suffer tremendously under those emotions, like hatred, jealousy, obsession. But our life really is run by them. Actually it’s one event after another that is hatred-oriented or obsession-oriented. We have been through that very clearly since 9-11. There was so much anger and hatred. We have been at more now for 10 years! Only in the first Bush year did we not have a war. And actually we have two wars, economic downturn, plus unemployment, losing homes, losing loved ones, either in the war or somewhere else. All of those are common pains. People experience that, whether in the east or west. They experienced that in Buddha’s time, in Jesus’ time and still in our time. These are the common problems.

There is also a common solution. Particularly as individuals we have so much illnesses, death, fear of loneliness, separation and we experience that every day. What can we do? Do we have any way of handling that? Can we avoid them? Perhaps not. Particularly, separation by death and illnesses cannot be avoided. But how can you make it easier? These are the questions that Buddha himself experienced and the reason why he went into contemplative practice was simply that. It is not that some sages told Buddha he had to go this way. It was not some gods who appeared in the air and told him to go this way. No. The events forced him to see what he could see. He felt responsible because he was the prince who was supposed to be the savior of the people and he felt very responsible. He found out how to handle it. It cannot be avoided, but how can we handle it? How do we make these events less stressful and less torture, less painful, easy to pass through?

These are done through mental activities such as meditation and not only meditation on not thinking anything, but meditation to understand the real situation, how best to handle, how to treat your own companions, how to treat your own kids, your own in-laws, your own enemies even? This is what Tibetan Buddhism talks about.

Interviewer: We have to close here and you can come back and hear more from Rimpoche at 7 pm tonight. Thank you all for coming and hopefully see you all back here tonight.

0.51

B: PUBLIC TALK 2

I would like to talk about Tibetan Buddhism and about Buddhism in general. As you know Buddha was not God. He was an ordinary, usual human being, just like you and me. Fortunately or unfortunately he happened to be one of the most important princes in India. He had many more privileges and advantages than you and I, because he was not only just a prince but one of the most important ones. However, he did not function as a prince, despite all the hopes of the king and the royal family and everybody. He chose to leave the kingdom, get away from the principality and chose to be a simple meditator. It is interesting to note that even HH Dalai Lama today refers to himself as a “simple Buddhist monk”. We know he is the Dalai Lama and not just a simple Buddhist monk, but he likes to call himself that. The reason is that Buddha chose his life to be simple and rather humble. When he ran away in the middle of the night from the palace, he was unable to convince his parents that he was no longer interested in that life style. He cut his hair and packed his royal dress and sent them back to his parents along with the horse. So the parents would notice that not only he sent his dress back but even his cut off hair.

In many other ways he really chose a simple life. The reason was that he was very aware that material riches don’t really solve the human problems with all face. Yes, wealth does relieve certain pains and difficulties, such as being able to pay your bills and making ends meet. But that doesn’t really solve the major problems. If it did we should not be seeing any wealthy kids committing suicide. Buddha was very much aware of that, and that’s why he chose to live a simple life, so much so that he lived in the forest and remained there for six years.

The descriptions say that at some point his body got so thin that he looked like a tree branch. Looking at him you couldn’t figure out whether this was a living human being or a piece of wood. That may be a little extreme. We are looking at at 2600 years old tale, which was also not recorded right at that time, but was written down later by somebody. It is a little hard to believe exactly what is said there, but it is obvious that he didn’t live in the palace and lived instead a very simple life.

1:00

He thought that sacrifice would be an antidote to suffering. Sometimes that is true, but many times it is not. Sacrifice and particularly hurting yourself, to me, is violence. The Buddhist principle is non-violence. Honestly, if you look at Buddhism very carefully and Tibetan Buddhism at that, the most important philosophy of Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism is really based on dependent origination or the interdependent nature of existence. It is not an independent functioning. That is one of the most important bases of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy. I call it “philosophy” because that communicates with you. The traditional language calls it “view”. That’s what they see and how they function. In any case it is interdependence. Anything happening within ourselves and in our life is interdependent. It is dependent on so many thing.

It is absolutely true. Anything we suffer or enjoy in our life today, if you really look carefully today, that suffering or joy did not pop up from nowhere, like toast out of a toaster. It comes out from something we did ourselves or made others do. Even the fact that we enjoy our life today is dependent on that. Each and every one of us is enjoying our life today in the United States. I am not saying we don’t have poverty here. But there still is a huge difference between the poverty here and the poverty in Third World nations.

Just two or three nights ago I happened to be clicking through the television at night and I saw a documentary on Robert Kennedy’s life. Robert Kennedy went to see those very poor African-American families, the kids who didn’t get dinner, with swollen stomachs. And when he arrived home, his children did get dinner, at a table with table cloth and with cooks and butlers serving dinner. He kept on saying, “You people are so lucky”. He kept on saying that to his kids. So I am not saying there is no poverty in the United States, but still it is very different. We are really lucky in a way. But again, we still have so much suffering and poverty. I don’t have to say it. We all know. There are no jobs, people are losing their house, their health insurance, then family members get sick and you yourself get sick. All these experiences are dependently developed.

We ourselves created the causes. Some of you may think that I am bashing the victims. It may sound like it, but it is not. All sufferings, even accidents, are experienced because we have created the causes and conditions. Yes, it is the wrong place at the wrong time. But that is only possible because we created the cause to be there at that time. All the sufferings and joys are our own deeds.

When I wrote the book “Good Life Good Death” it came out around 9-11. The publisher sent me to lots of places to promote the sale of the book. Everywhere I went and spoke, everybody asked me the same question: “Why did God choose to look the other way?” and “How come God let that happen?” For me the answer is: it has nothing to do with God. It’s our own deeds. When I said that, my publisher and my editor accused me of victim-bashing and that I can’t say that. So then I had to say things like “they were at the wrong place at the right time”, which is an excuse to pass my time. But the true reality is that we all contributed to that event. Today’s joy and happiness are the result of our good deeds earlier, like kindness, compassion and caring and the love we shared with people. Our suffering today is also the result of our deeds, like anger, hatred, jealousy, obsession and the consequences of that, collectively or individually, is what’s really happening to us. That is the reality.

The basic important philosophy of Tibetan Buddhism in particular is this dependent origination or interdependence. That gives us a tremendous responsibility. It shows us that we are responsible for our lives. You are your own boss. That’s really what it is. If we hurt somebody we are going to get hurt. We hurt even ourselves, to me, personally, that is violence. That is what I say. Not every Buddhist teacher will necessarily go along with me on that. Now, in Tibet there are people burning themselves and to me that is violence. So it is not only hurting others, but also hurting yourself. Every violence whatever, has no room for the principal behavior recommended by Tibetan Buddhism. So first, the basic philosophy is interdependence. Then second, the basic functioning of morality is non-violence.

1.13

Then the third point is meditation. Utilizing meditation as a tool to improve the individual. What does that mean? Meditation can be anything. It is a tool you can use. You can use it to develop calm abiding, to have peace, harmony, mental relaxation. There is nothing wrong with that. But Tibetan Buddhism will say that meditation, in order to be a good one, must be an antidote to negative emotions, such as hatred, obsession, jealousy, etc. These are three major points: seeing the dependent origination, non-violence and meditation that is anti-negative emotions. This is the tools we use to improve ourselves. Calm abiding definitely helps. I am very happy to say that today it is unlike when I first came to the United States in the late 80s. Today meditation is something that is accepted in the main stream, like yoga, which is done by individuals and through institutions, to improve physical health. Meditation is more or less accepted to improve mental health.

When you talk about spirituality and Tibetan Buddhism, the idea is not only to get better and more relaxed through calm abiding, but to use meditation as antidote to hatred, anger, jealousy, obsession and for what we traditionally call ignorance, which really is ego, based on confusion and fear. This has to be challenged by your meditation. These the three most important points. The dependent origination or interdependent nature of everything has become reality today. I am sure you are aware of it, there is a tremendous scientific community interested in research, trying to explore that. They spent millions and millions of dollars. They are not psychologists, but physicists and bio-chemists. They are not interested in Buddhism or Tibetan Buddhism. They don’t want to become Tibetan Buddhists. They want to use the tools found in Tibetan Buddhism and apply them to relieve people’s suffering. We see huge amounts of scientists meeting almost everywhere now.

Recently I attended one of their conferences in New York at the Rockefeller University, with HH Dalai Lama. Whenever His Holiness comes to the United States, you see scientists follow him from Seattle to New York and vice versa, wherever he goes. They don’t want to become goofy Buddhists. They want to have a real way to help people to relieve their pain and make their life easier. That is possible because of the dependent origination. Many of them have personally told me, “Your compassion and love are great. I appreciate and admire it. But I am not interested. As a scientist I really want to know how the dependent origination – (or interdependence, as they call it) – works.” They acknowledge it as fact, but say they can’t put their finger on it. These scientists are not religious persons. Some of them are the biggest atheists.

1.21

Some of them are meditating now, honestly. There is a professor in Wisconsin, a physicist. He is getting $50 Million per year to explore this and he started meditating. Of course his critics started saying, “We can’t really rely on what he says, because he himself is meditating”. He told me, “I don’t meditate because I wanted to be a Buddhist. I wanted to feel and know what it is. That’s what I am doing. My research is getting better through my meditation.” All of them are available from these teachings. So you can utilize them and taking advantage from them. That is for the people to pick up. People don’t have to become Buddhist. They don’t have to be goofy hippies or yuppies. They can just simply be themselves, whoever they are and pick up if there is anything useful to ease the pain. If you understand how the interdependent nature really works it makes a tremendous difference in how you think and function and behave and deal with people.

Whatever you are thinking will be form some kind of structure, something within you. Whatever you have been thinking and saying will become your character and that character forms the personality of the individual. If you are thinking and understanding love, compassion and caring, that will be make your character loving, kind and helpful and gentle. If you are thinking and talking about violence that will form your character and personality too. So it is really important to know how to handle yourself. That way we can also understand how it affects children. When children are very much engaged looking at violent TV shows, and we pay no attention, that gradually forms their character. When it is happening to us as grown up people, the same thing is bound to happen with children. So we are responsible for our children. We should be helpful to the children and don’t let them engage so much in violence as entertainment. It will be helpful to them in the long term, just like it is helpful to us.

Because of the responsibility of the individual our goodness and our suffering are really are our deeds and their consequences. How is that dependent? If we are engaging in violence we create the cause in ourselves for suffering through violence. Then we build conditions like getting angry, fighting. When the time is right the cause of engaging in violence before and the conditions of getting upset, that makes you really upset and that leads to more violence. That violence is born of these causes and conditions. It works the same way also with love and compassion. That’s what I meant by dependent origination as the principal philosophy.

In other words, without engaging in violence and so on people don’t have that result. Many people ask me, “What about the innocent small kids caught up in violence?” That is our problem. We only think about the life between birth and death, or between conception and death. We don’t think beyond that. I come from the background in reincarnation. There are two reasons. One is that if I don’t accept reincarnation, I will lose my job (laughter). People call me “Rimpoche”, which is a name for reincarnated lamas. I have no idea about my past life or future life. But people keep on telling me that. So for 70 years I pretended to be a Rimpoche. So now I don’t want to lose my job. So I don’t deny reincarnation. (laughter)

1:30

Secondly, I do have a realization that life just does not end when you die and just does not begin at birth or conception. It goes way beyond that. That’s why dependent origination is so true. This is a little beyond the subject I wanted to talk to you. I don’t really want to talk about previous lives and future lives, because I don’t know whether you really want to hear that here at the “Heart beat of the United States, in Nebraska”. I didn’t intend to talk about that, but somehow I went through with this.

When you understand that then non-violence becomes a really important principle. Violence brings suffering. We know this absolutely clearly. Violence brings violence. If you use harsh words against somebody after a while they will hit you back with words or deeds or whatever and then it goes back and forth and our suffering continues on the small individual scale. The same thing happens with groups of people and the same thing happens between nations. All this last decade we have gone through with this violence and now we see the consequences. We see how many people suffer, how many have lost their lives, how many people got sick, how many people’s lives went tipsy turvy. We see it every day. We didn’t see anything great come out of it.

We saw the Arab spring and then we also saw what happened after that immediately. Violence really gives us tremendous suffering, always. Nothing but suffering. Non-violence, on the other hand, whatever little comfort and peace we have, individual, between two family members, or between big nations, the result of non-violence is peace and harmony. We see this. So violence brings non-violence and non-violence brings non-violence. That’s not a mystery to us. We don’t need rocket scientists to figure out how this works. We see it ourselves every day. That’s why the Buddha says that non-violence should be the principal behavior of the individual. Violence is the last resort. People like to hear that. We can see today that both presidential candidates talking about violence being the last resort. Why? Because people like it. I don’t know if that is genuine or not, but they are saying it because that’s how people are going to react.

That tells us that the reality really is. The behavior or functioning of the individual should be according to the non-violence principle. Hurting is really hurting. Some people may giggle, but when you are on the receiving side there is nothing to giggle about. It is not easy. If it happens against you or if it happens against another, it is the same thing. Knowing that brings us some better behavior. When we talk about good and bad persons, what are we talking about? It is not that if you are Democrat you are a good person and if you are a Republican you are a bad person or the other way round. That’s not true. Good people are those who don’t hurt anybody. People who are kind, compassionate and caring are good people. This is our good behavior. It is how mothers behave to their children. That’s the way. Our enemies don’t behave that way to our children. That tells us what is good and bad. Otherwise, good and bad are also dependent arising. That’s not that great, honestly.

Our sufferings, mental, physical, emotional, all the sufferings we experience, don’t really come from nowhere. It’s because of some causes and conditions that we created. Buddha called that the First Noble Truth. The purpose of talking about the truth of suffering is not to threaten people or develop fear. The purpose of learning and understanding that is to get rid of it, to avoid it and not entertain it. Many people think that way. Once I was travelling between Amsterdam and Detroit in a plane. I was sitting next to a gentleman who asked me, “What are you? What sort of religion?” I said, “I am Tibetan Buddhist.” He said, “Oh, you are the suffering group, who emphasizes the suffering.” I don’t know what I replied to him, but the point is not that suffering is emphasized, but that we have to understand that we suffer. We do suffer, but sometimes we don’t acknowledge that. We deny.

1:41

This is not a mystery. We are experiencing mental, physical and emotional sufferings. Buddha doesn’t need to remind us, because we are experiencing that every day. But the purpose is to know where it is coming from. You cannot treat the symptoms much. You can handle it and get rid of it or get better by looking at the cause. If you continue the cause, then no matter what else you do you are not going to get better. Even if at one point you get better, you will soon suffer the same thing. For example, I am a brutal diabetic. If I keep on eating sugar continuously, then no matter how much insulin I inject, my sugar is going to go up because I continue to eat it. Right? Knowing about that helps, because although I like sugar very much I realize that I can’t have it. If I can restrain myself from eating sugar there is a chance that I may be able to balance my sugar levels.

As a matter of fact my diabetes is dependent origination. I used to eat sugar like crazy, when I was in Tibet as a kid. I used to eat rock sugar and go to sleep at night and the next morning I would wake up with the blankets stuck against my face. Even after coming to the United States in the late ‘80s, I used to eat 24 dunkin’ donuts a day, 12 immediately and 12 to talk home. So if I did not become diabetic there would be no cause and effect. So I surely did become diabetic. So it is the interdependence of becoming diabetic. Then, being aware of being a diabetic and knowing about the effects of sugar gives me the opportunity to balance my sugar levels. Once I am able to do that my organs don’t get damaged as much as in an uncontrolled sugar situation. So it really works with the dependent origination and it really works with the behavior. The reason why Buddha talks about suffering first is because it is our reality.

We also have to understand that suffering comes from something, not from nothing. That is our own personal deeds, dealing with our life, dealing with other people, and even our thinking. Sometimes we think, “I am in my own four walls and whatever I think it is just me. Nobody is around and it will affect nothing. My mind is mine and I can day-dream or whatever.” But thinking that way we can create negativity. That negativity will bring consequences. Awareness, alertness, both are so important to alter, change and improve our life and get rid of suffering.

The number one goal is to become completely free. The number two goal is to make things easier, with not so much ferocious torture. The number three goal is to postpone the suffering as much as we can. This is how to handle the suffering. Suffering is there. It is our reality. Some people say that we are born to suffer. I don’t think we are born to suffer. But when we are born we have suffering. The physical body alone is contaminated, no matter whatever you do or so. It decays. It has problems. That’s not your fault or anybody’s fault. That is how it functions. That’s why Buddha calls that suffering. That doesn’t mean that there is only suffering and no joy. We do have tremendous joy too. We do enjoy a lot of “picnic spots” within the melodrama of our life. They are the results of good deeds. The sufferings are the result of bad deeds.

1:50

Now the question comes: is there a way out? Can we end that? Many of us think that we are born to suffer. But we are born again and again. So you shouldn’t be suffering again and again. There should be improvement and it should get better and then you should be getting completely free. We can do that. That’s what I am telling you as a Buddhist and Buddha himself is the example. As a Christian Jesus is the example. Those people have become free from suffering. Buddha said, “You and I were equal and if you continue to be lazy you will continue to be what you are. If you are a little bit enthusiastic and work hard, you can be like me.”

So that is what we call the cessation of suffering, the Third Noble Truth. We can be free from mental, physical and emotional suffering. As a Buddhist I am not going to say that Buddha is suffering. Buddha doesn’t suffer. Some years ago, before the Afghanistan war, the Taliban were bombarding some old Buddha statues. A lot of my friends were saying, “I am sorry” and they were upset. I said, “These are images of Buddha. No matter how much they shoot it doesn’t make a difference to Buddha. Buddha is free from suffering and pain.” That is what the cessation of suffering is all about. Images are symbolic.

How do you get to the cessation? By following your negative deeds and avoiding them and by building positive deeds. What is negative and what is positive? To me, when you hurt people, including yourself, that is negative. When you are kind, helpful and actually help yourself and others, that’s positive, because it is bringing positive results. Hurting bring negative results. Following that as a principle in your life, avoid to hurt and try to help as much as you can.

But remember that you can’t help people if they don’t want to. You can’t force them. When I first came to the United States in the late ‘80s I didn’t have much to do and at that time the Jehova’s Witnesses came visiting me. They are really good people, believe me. They are kind and caring and they tried to save me from going to hell or something. But even if you don’t want, they will come and insist that they must save you. So I don’t think you can force people if they don’t want to. But whatever you can do to help you should. By not propagating Buddhism, act according to the principle that good brings good results and bad brings bad results. Following that in your own life and introducing that to the younger generations and helping your friends that will be the perfect Buddhist principle without even becoming Buddhist. That should be the way how people can function.

Otherwise, there is endless ways of helping an individual. There are many traditions, ideas, many groups and they are all fine. But whatever little I know that’s what I like to share with you and that’s about it.

1.57

Audience: We can consciously choose what we regard as positive and negative. We don’t have to be in pain. We don’t have to suffer.

Rimpoche: you definitely can. You don’t have to suffer and you can definitely choose consciously. But people do suffer. They do experience pain, even if they don’t want to. We don’t choose to have pain. For example, I don’t choose to suffer, but I have diabetes. And I don’t walk well, but now I have a little scooter to sit on. But it’s not that great. So the suffering comes. People’s sufferings are such that nobody really chooses them, but they come, mental sufferings and physical sufferings. They come by themselves, even if we don’t want them to. Mental agony comes. Something goes wrong, you are worried, you can’t sleep and you don’t have peace and harmony. That’s the reality. But you don’t have to. Actually thinking about positive-ness is great. It will slow down the mental and physical pain. But that does not really get rid of it. I don’t know for sure. I am also learning, just like you. We all are.

2.00

Audience: We had a question in our study group where we study the Four Noble Truths. What is the difference between generating merit and accumulating positive karma?

Rimpoche: I would like to say this: there is language and technicalities here. Looking at merit and positive karma within the individual, if you dig down and point it out, I don’t think there are two separate things called “merit” and “positive karma”. All merits are positive karma. All positive karmas are merit. We call it ‘merit’ because it gives you a better uplifting on the path. We call it positive karma because it gives you a good result. I think it is a technicality and a linguistic issue. If you are helping yourself and do the right things I don’t think there is that much difference. The philosophers and theologists will say that there is a difference. But that’s their problems. For everyday people it is almost the same. That’s my understanding. I could be very wrong.

Audience: Can you speak to addictions to substances, like alcohol, cocaine, food and what causes it and how one can work to overcome that?

Rimpoche: the 12 step treatment for addictions I think is great. Honestly. It is great. I like to share a story here. This is years ago. The late Allen Ginsberg called me one day saying, “My friend William Burroughs from Kansas has some worry and he wants to talk to you.” So he called me and a gentleman with a very low voice said, “I am very addicted to drugs. Will that block me or drag me down when I die?” I said, “No. These are physical addictions. They physically affect you and when you leave the body the addictions are also left behind with the body. But hatred, anger, jealousy, etc, are mental addictions. If you have that, that will really hold you back.” Later Ginsberg told me, “You really hid the hammer on his head” – or whatever the expression is. So that was my understanding then and it is still the same thing. I don’t know whether legally you are supposed to say that or not, I have no idea. But that’s how I feel. We are get addicted in both ways, physical and mental. All of them are addiction. Even love and compassion are also addictions to me. People get addicted to that and always engage in them. The people who are addicted to hatred and anger always engage in that. It automatically pops up. I can’t say there is no cause, but when just a few conditions are right there is already a cause within us that will be sparked and we hit the ceiling. That is because of the addiction.

Some people even get addicted to pain. Not only pleasure, but even pain. We all know that very well. Addiction is one of our biggest problems. Also, it is the biggest advantage. If you can addicted to the right things you will always be better off. If you get addicted to the wrong things you always have problems, difficulties and sufferings. To me, the physical addictions are interconnected with the mental ones. It is not that physical addictions have nothing to do with mental ones. They are very much interconnected. The mind – body connection is tremendously strong and subtle.

2:10

They are very strongly linked. So the mental addictions and physical addictions are linked very much. However, mental addictions are still mental and physical addictions are still physical. That’s the reality.

Audience: You talked about Robert Kennedy. You talked about how we are lucky to have food on our plates. I wonder is that what Buddhism really teaches, that we are lucky or can we take pride in the fact that because we have food on our plate that must be an indication that we have acquired merit, that somehow those who eat at night have acquired more merit than those who go home and don’t have anything to eat? How do you recognize the notion of karma with the notion of social obligation and compassion for those who don’t have enough? Are they really to blame that they don’t have enough?

Rimpoche: Okay, for me, Buddhism really talks and emphasizes that we are lucky and not just because we have food on the table. It’s because we have this capable mind, which can do almost everything. We can say that the sky is the limit for that the human mind can do. That mind combined with the physical condition, is capable to understand, to communicate, to change things. That’s why we think we are extremely lucky in Buddhism. Buddha taught us that. When you really think about it, it is true. The capacity of our mind is limitless. The other life forms don’t have that opportunity. We don’t say many other life forms, but we see the dogs, cats, birds and so on. Whoever we encounter, doesn’t have that capacity of mind. They don’t have the capacity of understanding, communicating and changing. It is only us, honestly. We are extremely rich with the capacity of mind and rich with opportunity. That’s why we are extremely lucky. Food is important, but secondary. Even the dogs get food. Some don’t. So comparing them against each other, some are lucky and some are not so lucky. But human beings like us are so lucky because of our mind and our opportunity. The United States is the land of opportunity. True, but human beings in general have the greatest opportunity, just because of our mind and our physical condition and the combination of that.

We know it. There are all these great scientific and medical achievements. They are achievements of the human mind. If there were no treatments for diabetics I would have gone ten years ago. I wouldn’t be here. That’s just one example. Yes, it is a scientific-medical achievement, but that’s a human achievement. We can see it in the relation to the material world and we can see in the spiritual world. Why did Buddha become a Buddha? All of those are because of the mind and the combination of body and mind. If the mind is combined with a different body we would be barking or miaouing or chirping or something like that. We would have reduced capacity. As human beings we can express ourselves, think, analyze, change, plan and so on. As we do make changes in our material world we can make changes in our spiritual world. If we do this the consequences will be tremendously great and the achievements beyond. That’s why we think we are lucky. So I go beyond the food and drink.

It looks like there are no more questions and we may be a little early in closing, but I would like to say “Thank you very much” to everybody being here and thank you for the Jewel Heart friends to organize this and make it possible to be here for me and above all thanks for coming and I hope you have something to take home and it wasn’t a waste of your time.

What you take home is:

You are responsible for yourself. It is you who makes a difference to your life and lives. I would like to quote a very famous, early Indian Buddhist sage and scholar, Nagarjuna

Da nyi da gi gö yi ni - Zhen de su kyi gön de gyur

You are your own leader. No one else can lead you.

That’s it. Take that home. I wish you all the best, thank you.

2.21 Final announcements Kent Porter 2.22