Archive Result

20130113GRAATB52

00:00

Good morning to you and welcome to our Sunday gathering today. Looking back at what has happened in our life, and particularly last year, I attended the teachings by HH Dalai Lama in India and to reflect that back, there were way over 20,000 monks. The gathering in itself was fantastic, let alone the teachings. The subject of the teaching was also extremely important, absolutely necessary for an individual to travel through the spiritual path. Actually, I always like to say, instead of the usual term lam rim or ‘stages of the path’, it is really a roadmap to total enlightenment – if the vajrayana path is included. If the vajrayana path is not included it is the roadmap to liberation. So it is extremely important, and one cannot do without it. As I observe Tibetan Buddhism in the west, almost all the western countries, including Australia and Europe, I think we are reaching a different stage. Earlier, it was a stage where there are blessings and that is not counted as blessing, but in the form of sitting, looking and meditating together, just focusing. Now it is a little better stage, trying to understand a little more. We all know it is something that the individual develops, but we were thinking the development comes through some kind of transmission that comes just by looking at it, by attending ceremonies, or things like that. Now people begin to know that it is not just ceremonies, not just the transmission. The transmission makes it easier. It provides a base, but the individual efforts have to come in.

0:05

The efforts we put in are also questionable. Earlier, we thought that the efforts to put in were simply about sitting down and meditating. There was not so much question about what to meditate. People just said: meditate. Different people will have different understanding of this. Some will say: keep your thoughts together. Some will say: Focus. Some will say: Cut the wandering mind. I remember, when I was younger, there was a guy in Texas who asked me, “Do you know how to meditate?” I said, “No I don’t.” I was not lying. The language didn’t convey what he meant. If he had asked me, “Do you know about GOM?” I would have said yes. But meditation? I said no. So he said, “I will show you.” And he got a little stick of incense burning and told me: “Look at the incense and think of nothing except the burning incense. Keep watching it burn down.” But when you decide that your purpose is to become free of suffering, your mediation probably will have to be a little better than that. The “meditation” that guy showed me is still good, because it gives you mental relaxation. It makes a difference for a very short time. It is helpful, but not really the essence at all.

The essence of Buddhism and particularly Tibetan Buddhism really is to not only make a difference in our own life, but totally get rid of suffering completely – once and for all, for life after life and have joy guaranteed and be helpful and for life after life have guaranteed total knowledge. These are the real goals, not simply have relaxation, not simply to reduce blood pressure.

Actually it does that too! I told you a number of times that when I was on a doctor’s visit, my blood pressure was up and I told them, “Can you try again?” So in between you think a little bit and the blood pressure drops again and that happens all the time. But that’s really not the purpose of what we do. Of course it is helpful, if you have blood pressure problems. In my case, I am taking blood pressure pills all the time. The doctors give them to me, so I take them. If I don’t take them, I have no idea what would happen. But even when I take them the blood pressure goes up sometimes and then, if I sit and think for a few minutes and then take the blood pressure again in the same visit, it drops down.

0:10

But that is not the purpose of meditation. And in the west that was the purpose for a while. But now it is different. I think the knowledge and understanding is really getting much better. When you look at the earlier Buddhist masters, both in the vajrayana path of the mahasiddhas or the sutra path of the early learned pundits and scholars, you will see that they used the Buddha’s teachings to get rid of the terrible addictions we have. It is one’s own anger, hatred, jealousy and so on, all these negative emotions. These negative emotions really drive us crazy. If you look in your own mind you will begin to see it quite clearly. For example, if you are talking to somebody and it may be about the wonderful Buddhist or spiritual path. If you are watching your mind, what is your mind thinking? Your mind is watching so many things. Is it a wonderful thing? Is it nothing? It is an insult? So even during a positive period, if we watch our mind, all these will occur. That is a clear sign that we have very strong addictions still – to everything. It is not necessarily anger, like in this particular example, but there is also strong obsession and self-centredness, protecting the self, selfishness. All of them are there. That is true to all of us, every time for example you are talking to your boy-friend, husband, wife and if you start watching your mind a little bit, there are these other thoughts. Sometimes we say things like “What’s that for?” So the earlier teachers used the path to cut that down.

0:15

Why? If you cut that down, everything you do will become virtue. If that is increased, everything you do will become non-virtue, even a subject like dharma or religious activities. Done in the name of religion, in a religious place, dressed up like religion, the act itself can still become negative, from a karmic point of view, just because those negative emotions. That’s what it is. If you want to liberate yourself and your friends, cut that source and the root of all of them, which is ego-grasping. That’s why in Buddhism, the path that Buddha shared is wisdom and compassion. You cannot do without these. You need both. If there is no wisdom, it is extremely difficult to get rid of all negativities from the root.

The great Indian teacher Dharmakirti has said, “Compassion is not the direct antidote to ego-grasping. Therefore compassion alone cannot cut ego.” Why is he saying this? What is the direct opposite? Wisdom focuses on ego grasping, it’s opposite. That ego grasping clings to a solid entity, almost unchangeable, not dependent on anything, a solid, self-standing entity. What does wisdom see? It focuses on the same self and sees that it is not solid, not independent, but dependently originated, not permanent, but impermanent and changing. That is what is meant by two minds focusing on one subject, seeing two different things. That is the meaning of direct opposite.

Take compassion. That is focused on people, including oneself. It always wants to help. Then it’s opposite, self-cherishing, is also focused on people, including yourself but always wants to take advantage of them. So it is opposite view on one subject, on one point.

0:20

This is your struggle. This is your challenge. What do we do? We are addicted to protect me, not you. We are addicted to holding the self as solid, not seeing that it is not solid. This addiction helps to keep the negative things functioning in our system. Then time goes and we get older. We become weaker, our intelligence goes away. We get sick and die. Then the opportunity to challenge this very particular point has been again wasted this time. We don’t get such an opportunity like we have today all the time. No, that’s absolutely true. We may think, “All right, I begin today and if I don’t get it this time, then next life I will be better off. At least I hope so.” But it is only “hope so”. You never know. There is no such guarantee. Many people will say that you get better and better all the time. What guarantee do we have? None. We have so much karma, good and bad. It is like snowstorm. It is just a matter of which one you click with. Honestly. There is no guarantee that our future life will be better than this one.

But that’s where we can think today, ask questions, make a difference. That’s where we really have to do it. Otherwise, even if you think the opportunity will come up again, it won’t.

It is almost like me. I always want to do something very nice, and I do know how to do something very nice. But I like it to be good and whatever it is, it is not good enough and I like it to be better – all the time. But that never comes. The time will go. That’s really what it is. It is the same thing for us. We can always do better, but it is better to do something now, even though it is not fully satisfied, the best that you can do. The time clicks – unfortunately.

When I first came to the United States I had nothing to do and kept watching “Days of Our Lives”. I watched the sand go down in the hour glass go all the time. That’s what is really happening. We are the sand that is going through. So, before it all falls down, we better do something, whatever we can.

0:25

Motivation alone can save you a lot. That sounds like a savior is saving you! A familiar word, right? Saves you from going to hell! But the truth is this. The motivation alone can do a lot for you. Even if you engage in something negative, that will not be strong enough [to harm you], if there is a flat tire created by the motivation. It can’t be strong enough. Just the motivation will take the air out of the negative wheel. So even if you are engaged in negativity, it won’t be strong enough. It won’t have a strong negative motivation, action and conclusion. You already made a hole in that by the positive motivation. Then secondly, you develop hesitation. You think, “I can’t hurt these people.” You have hesitation to hurt others. That will also contribute. If you don’t have feelings for other people, then you don’t care who gets hurt, as long as you make your million and you think, “That’s fine, whoever goes to hell, it doesn’t matter to me.” So we don’t do that, because we know better. That’s because of who we are. We have some goodness within us. We are not such a rough person.

That’s the easy way to improve ourselves: knowing what is wrong and avoiding that. All of you, I noticed, are good persons. Honestly. If something is not right you just don’t’ want to engage in it. You know it is not right. It hurts people. That’s great. But our addictions will force us again and push and then we have to resist and struggle. That’s what our life is all about, unfortunately, until we get rid of those addictions.

Getting rid of addictions one by one is good, no doubt, but that will never end. That is Buddha’s wisdom. You have to get them from the root. All the addictions, anger, obsession, jealousy, etc, are to protect “me”, the self. I, the most precious is in there, and all my actions are to protect “me”. Unfortunately, even our great education is also geared to protecting “me”. That’s why we are always very competitive, pushing ourselves. It is all to protect “me”. Now Buddha says, “Who is me? What is it and where is it? I can’t find it. I understand it is not there.” That is what wisdom is all about. Whatever we have been clinging to and protecting, its base is not there.

0:31

So the question is this: is it worth all the trouble we take, all the suffering we have gone through and will continue to experience, because we are still protecting that ego? That’s what wisdom is all about. We are talking about the Four Noble Truths. We did talk very detailedly for quite a long time. I was supposed to end these Four Noble Truths talks before the end of the year. But still, I don’t want to end, because I want to do a better job. See, I told you! I tell you there is something that I haven’t done yet on that subject. It is the divisions of the Four Noble Truths. We did talk about what the Four Noble Truths are all about, their definitions and everything. For example, with regard to the First Noble Truth I did talk about impermanence, about suffering, about non-existence and about selflessness [the four attributes of the First Noble Truth]. But I didn’t’ talk about the other views, the view that the self is permanent, pure, existing and having a nature of self. There are different views like this on each point and I haven’t talked about that yet, because it involves a bit of early Indian philosophy. I have a little hesitation to bring that into the one hour Sunday morning talks. You people come here and sit and listen or listen on line and put an hour in and at the end you will probably say, “What did he say?”

0:35

So at the end you may get nothing. So that’s my hesitation. Each one of those Four Noble Truths has these views. But even if I don’t do that, we have done very well on that. If I do this it will include so many philosophy aspects. I am not talking about philosophy itself. Whatever the philosophers think, let them find out their own truth. I am talking about the point that really affects us. That’s important. Impermanence versus permanence is necessary to know. Suffering versus joy is important in our life. The question is whether we have joy or suffering. The truth is that we have both. There is a lot of joy in our life. If we don’t have those joys we are not going to entertain our life at all. We are not going to look forward at all. A huge inspiration comes if we have a lot of joy in life. It is not necessarily joy. People who are addicted to a substance will look for that all the time and that is a tremendous inspiration and they find that enjoyable, but we know it is not. People who are addicted to alcohol find it nice when all the kicks are going on, but you know it’s not nice.

Like that, we have a tremendous amount of samsaric picnic spots in our life. I am not telling you not to look for them or not to work for them. If you have one, enjoy it. It is not a crime to enjoy life. Really, for God’s sake – or for Buddha’s sake. Sorry. A lot of people think it is, but it’s not. Property is not a non-virtue. Luxury is not a sin. You can enjoy, but don’t let them control you, but you have to control them.

I do remember, decades ago, I was invited by the FPMT during Lama Yeshe’s time to give a talk in Hongkong in the Peninsula Hotel on the Kowloon side. There was some guy who raised his hand and asked, “What do I do with my Rolls Royce?” My answer was, “As long as you drive the Rolls Royce you are fine. But if the Rolls Royce drives you, you are in trouble.” So enjoy every part of a luxurious life if you can afford to. Don’t feel guilty about it. But don’t get caught in it either. Don’t make yourself a servant to a luxurious life. If you have it, enjoy, if you don’t, don’t feel bad. You will live and have a reasonably good life.

0:40

Addiction is the problem. Luxury itself is not a problem. It is not a sin. But if you do wrong and waste your time to support and provide for a luxurious life, that is wrong. Your time is precious, you should have both. Particularly today, - and this is not really a traditional teaching – you have to balance. Balancing is the perfect solution. You cannot have anything extreme. Now the question will rise in your head? How can I balance negative and positive? If you are intelligent you can figure it out. That’s why you have the motivation. I give you that hint. That’s why you have dedications and bodhimind. So balancing is the most important. It is just like with our food. Balancing is great. I am not promoting junk food, but….balancing is perfect. Eating junk food all the time is not right. Eating healthy is great, but sometimes………if you balance, then it is fine. Honestly. In my case, I am brutal diabetic, but sometimes I do need sugar, something sweet, not necessarily white sugar. If I don’t, I can get lower sugar, hypoglycemia or whatever. So the point is really balancing. Just like food balance is perfect for your health, balance your thoughts and actions. We cannot be completely righteous all the time. If you try to be righteous, you come out crooked! You won’t even be straight.

There are people who want to be righteous all the time and do the right thing. Yes, but……Buddha recommends the middle path, neither the extreme of existence, nor the extreme is nihilism. And that has a lot of understanding and value when you keep on thinking.

0:44

I don’t want to delay you in what you want to do today, but I didn’t give you something to take home yet, although we covered at lot. If you feel that your negativity takes over, don’t freak out. It does happen. We do have the terminology amongst ourselves: we are Buddhists, not Buddha yet. Negatives to sometimes take over. Don’t freak out. It happens. But don’t let it happen all the time. Recognize wrong deeds. That’s every important. Every time you recognize a wrong deed, just say: I won’t do it again – even though you are bound to do it. That’s not lying, but you should have the sincere thought: I won’t repeat. But if that happens every day, then that becomes another problem. But have the sincere thought and try your best not to repeat. So I guess what you got today is we talked about wisdom, compassion and about how wisdom contradicts ego-grasping, how compassion contradicts selfishness. I thought you have nothing to take home, but we did all that. Those are the things you can take home and chew on.

The whole idea in Buddha’s teaching is to practice the antidote. Focus on one subject from the opposite view. The antidote of hatred is compassion. The antidote of anger is patience. The antidote to stinginess is generosity. The antidote to immorality is morality. It all goes on one base, from two different points. When I say balance, I mean it on that level. We have to begin with that. We are not going to be perfect for a long time. So balance and go through with it.

I am sorry I didn’t have time to answer questions, but next week we will leave time for that. Thank you.

0:48 Four Immeasurables 0.50