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88

20130120GRAATB53

00:00

Good morning and welcome to today’s gathering. When you are looking at the Buddha’s teaching, one thing that we have to remember. We may see the Collected Works and of course some of us from the east Asian tradition will say that it is the Collected Works of the Buddha. But most scientific people in the world at large will call it the Buddhist Canon.

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So this is what the teachings of Buddha are all about. When you look very carefully, most of these teachings came because of incidents that took place. So Buddha responds or gives guidance. It is not that Buddha sat down, thought about it, analyzed and researched, drew conclusions and then put out his ideas as a theory. It is all based on what he knew and experienced. Mostly it is his experience of dealing against the negative emotions. Almost all of what we have as Buddha’s teachings today are like that. Traditionally, it is said that there are 84,000 heaps of Buddha’s teachings. The measurement of a heap is often said to be what one elephant can take. That would be huge – 84,000 elephant loads. But whatever we have today is the Buddhist Canon or Buddha’s Collected Works. In Tibetan that is just over 100 volumes. The Chinese version has more than that. It has 110 volumes. In South-East Asia they will accept mostly the three pitakas, not all of the sutras. The three pitakas contain the Buddha’s teachings on discipline, on meditation and on wisdom. That’s all they will accept in South East Asia in places like Sri Lanka, Thailand, etc. When Buddhism died in India during the Mogul period, it went to Sri Lanka, the then Ceylon and then it came back from there to India and the rest of them. Then there are other small areas such as Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and so on. Chinese Buddhism is Mahayana Buddhism and in Japan Zen is also Mahayana Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhism accepts all sutras and I think Tibetan Buddhism is the only one that accepts the Vajrayana. They say that there was Vajrayana in Thailand, but it was reserved for the royals and not anyone could have it.

0:06

One or two very senior and well-known ministers or generals might have been permitted to take some blessings in the whole history of Thailand. It was that secret. It was somehow made into a privilege of the royal family. In China it was a little more open, but still. Basically these are the Buddha’s teachings. There are so many. Many of them are like little koans, one little statement here, one there. So it is not that easy to organize for an individual to practice according to the tradition. All these traditions, Mahayana or Theravada or whatever, began to organize the teachings, making it convenient for an individual to listen, read and understand.

I am not going to go much into other traditions that I don’t know. Tibetan Buddhism is coming from the Indian Buddhist tradition, no question, very definitely, in particular the Northern India tradition. In the 900s and up to the 1100s there were two most important institutions in Northern Indian Buddhism. One was Nalanda, the most important institution of that time. Equally important was Vikramalashila. Nalanda was in what is now Bihar and Vikramalashila was in the Bengal area, next to Bangladesh. In those days there was a little kingdom called Sahor.

Tibetan Buddhism came from India to Tibet from 700 AD onwards. First when it came we didn’t understand. The people simply worshipped some text that was presented to the king. It was made into an object of workshop, like an image. People were simply worshipping the text and there was a wooden statue of Avalokiteshvara. They didn’t understand the text. It was supposed to be dreamt by the king that within generations people would be able to read the book and understand. Till then it was an object of worship. It was under seal, like some of holy objects in Rome. Then after 5 generations they began to understand and more and more texts started coming from India and were translated into Tibetan. Today, what is happening in the west is very similar.

0:12

I do remember when I first came to visit the west in the 80s. I went to the Netherlands and then the United States. People were saying there was nothing like that for hundred miles in any direction. There was no one who had the practice and understanding of that. That is difference between then an today. In those days there was only one book available: the Tibetan Book of the Dead. And maybe those Lobsang Rampa novels about a cat flying from the Potala and so on. The nature of Tibetan Buddhist practice has changed tremendously since then. When I first came to the US it was actually in 1964. That had nothing to do with Buddhism. I was just a student, a “special” student at Cornell, Ithaca. I didn’t speak a word of English. “Special” means that I couldn’t attend regular classes. Some graduate students would come and give the 8 of us some lectures. That’s what “special” was all about. Cornell did open their facilities, including the library. There was an anthropology professor, Dr. Obla, and he opened the door of the university and they all accepted his proposal. I have no idea how it was funded. Later I gained a little understanding by seeing some of the little books that came out here and there. I think it was probably out of some strong anti-Communist activities that my visit was funded.

So I had the opportunity to be there for one academic year, which was almost 8 months. I didn’t really get anything, but I did see everything between Ithaca and Miami. We drove everywhere. So it was half study, half visit.

In those days there was a group of people in Ithaca, who wanted me to say something about Buddhism. I didn’t know English, but there was a minister who gave most of the lecture and in between asked me, “Isn’t that right?” and so I said, “yes, that’s right.” He showed lots of photographs. One night, in Cornell, there was a lecture on Tibetan Buddhism and we were told we had to go. So we went. All different pictures of different yidams were shown on the screen. The speaker must have been a well-known professor, otherwise the university wouldn’t have got him. The auditorium was totally packed with thousands of people. He was showing the pictures and commenting and I had no idea what he said. The pictures were a mix of Tibetan and Indian political campaigns, propaganda things and traditional Tibetan Buddhist practice objects and all these pictures were flying through the air.

0:18

I had no idea. But everybody said how wonderful it was and I also agreed that it was wonderful, but in my heart of heart I really didn’t know what this was. Even today I wonder. I wish I had known the language a little better, so I would have known what this professor said and who he was. A Yamantaka image was coming from one side and a Vajrayogini image was flying from there. It was all electronic effects. Meanwhile the emblem of the Indian political Jansam party was flying from another direction. So that was Buddhism then.

The well-known lamas and teachers who came during those times didn’t really teach. They performed ceremonies and said OM MANI PADME HUNG and did ceremonies with hats, giving a big look with round eyes and call that a “transmission”. That was then. Now we know what Buddhism is really all about. It is not just symbols. Buddhist symbols are Buddhism. Buddhist art is Buddhism. Buddhist music is Buddhism. Buddhist science is Buddhism. But Buddhism is not just that either. Buddhist philosophy is Buddhism. And the major part of Buddhism is individualized. It is not a collective group thing. It is not the temple, not the monastery, but it remains with the individual.

0:20

That doesn’t mean that Buddhism is like some solid object that comes and enters you through your head – although in initiation water is poured and you are purified and all that. But really it is something that you grow within you. Your Buddhism grows within your mind stream, not physically. That follows understanding. The understanding comes from practicing. Practicing means to do exactly what you learn.

I have to clarify. Sometimes when we talk about practice people immediately think we have to sit down and meditate or say mantras, prayers or chant. That only represents the true practice, which means to take Buddha’s advice and refrain from doing what he said not to do and do the things he said to do. That is true practice.

Some guy earlier was reading Buddha’s teaching. He was sitting on an animal skin cushion. While he was reading the text said that if you are a follower of Buddha you should not use animal skins to sit on. So he lifted his body up and pulled the cushion out and put it aside and continued reading. Several pages it said that if you are sick you can have an exception. So since he was sick he got his cushion back. This is practice. Buddha said not to use animal skins. So if you are using one then take it out. But when he says that if you are sick with jaundice you may use a bear skin, then you can use it. In this case it happened to be a bear skin and that guy happened to have jaundice. So he put it back.

So Buddha really tells us that for example jealousy is not good. It creates not only difficulties but unhappiness. Your mind may be absolutely clean clear but when jealousy arises it becomes mushy-muddy. When you read that, watch your mind. Then you see there is jealousy in your mind. You can be jealous of anything. It doesn’t have to be sexually oriented only. When you understand that your mind is looking at jealousy and you tell yourself, “This is not right. It creates suffering and makes me unhappy and will cause fights between me and my friends.” So you see the faults of jealousy. I just picked jealousy out of all the negative emotions. Then you have got to remember and whenever jealousy is coming act against it. In the beginning we have no control. Jealousy just takes over and we have committed many, many troubles already.

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But it is better late than never. Realize and say: “Oh, oh, I was not aware and I was controlled by jealousy. But now I recognize. So I am going to put a stop to it.” Then stop it. Try not to repeat. You may repeat it 300 times more per day, but even then – nothing wrong. At least maintain awareness and alertness and you want to stop it. Keep on doing that. You are such an intelligent person and after a while you will begin to realize, “Jealousy is about to rise.” Then you are alert and waiting for jealousy to show up. Now, when you have awareness of it coming before it arises, it is like jealousy is ringing your door bell. You go and open the door and say, “Oh, it’s you. I thought you were such a huge monster, but now you are so small. What happened to you? Want to come in and have a cup of tea? We can talk about it.” Or else, you just shut the door – whatever you want. That’s what practice is all about. Learning about Buddha’s teaching is all about that.

I very often say that we have to learn, but not in order to become scholars. So that’s what I mean. And not only learning, but learning and practice together. Whatever you learn, practice that. Whatever you practice should be something that you have learnt or are learning. Do it together. In Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s tradition you have to have all three together: tö sam sung dri. Learning, thinking and practicing. Certain traditions have learning separate and practice separate. They build places for learning called she dra and places for practice called gom dra or drub ta. But in Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s tradition learning and practicing are done together. The purpose of learning is to practice and you should only practice what you learn.

0:30

In the west we say: practice what you preach. It is very similar to that. Many of you may think that learning involves a lot of reading and is like going to school. No, it’s not. It has to be learning and practicing together. You don’t have to necessarily sit down. That may sometimes not even be practice. You may be sitting here, but thinking about a tremendous amount of business. There was a Tibetan government official and we make a lot of jokes about that during the teachings. This guy was doing a retreat of a very high yoga tantra. He was doing several sessions a day and he told his attendant, “Don’t forget to put paper and pencil on my mediation table when I sit in the session.” So the attendant has to put that on his table along with his mala and retreat book. Then after the sessions he came out with 4,5 hand written pages, saying, “I have to pay this much to this person and collect that much from that person” and had long lists like that put together in the sessions. That’s not practice. You are sitting there, but you are really not practicing.

Some people will sit there and day dream. Maybe mantras are coming to your lips but you are day dreaming about all kinds of things. That’s also not practice. Some people will sit there and think just nothing. Total blank. They call that practice but I don’t think it is. My teachers used to call that “lizard meditation”. The lizard fights with the scorpion and swallows it. It is natural. In nice weather, when the sun shines, the lizard will run on the rocks and sit there on the hot rock and keep his chest to the hot rock and his head pops up above the rock and he opens his mouth, trying to digest the scorpion. If it is cold weather the scorpion will poke out of the lizard’s stomach. That’s how they fight. First they chase each other and run and then stand up and fight and then the lizard will swallow the scorpion anyway. Of course it depends on the size. But that is what normally happens. Then, when it is hot, the lizard will digest the scorpion and when it is cold, the scorpion will come out and the lizard dies.

So that’s called lizard meditation and that’s not right. You may raise the question: is watching your mind meditation? Yes, it is, but what are you watching? That is important. If your mind is engaging in negative thoughts then realize that and remove them. If your mind is engaged in positive thoughts, then be happy about it, enjoy. That’s what watching your mind is. Also watch how long you can focus on one subject or object, without flicking emotions coming and thoughts moving. That’s watching your mind. If your mind is engaged in negative thoughts make sure you separate your thoughts from the negative feelings. If you engage in positive thoughts make sure you follow and enjoy them.

0:35

That’s the reason why Tibetan Buddhism has a lot of visualizations put in words so that you say it. When you say it at least your thoughts are engaging the words you are saying. So you have full visualizations in the sadhanas and prayers and chants. If you don’t say anything, even you engage in positive thoughts, they will be disorganized, incomplete, and all kinds of problems can come. That’s why it is so great that earlier Tibetan Buddhist teachers put together those words. But if you are just saying the words without thinking, then it is only blab la bla.

Since today is Vajrayogini day we will say that practice this afternoon. If you are thinking the sadhana it will be perfect practice. If you don’t think and if it is all in Tibetan you have no idea and it will just be blab la for 5 hours. That’s how Tibetan Buddhist practice works. You have the motivation and the actual action, which is cutting down negativity and engaging in positive actions and thoughts and try to manage life with that positivity.

Having said that, misfortunes do happen in life. Sure, so what to do? Look at it. Misfortune is bound to happen to all of us. The biggest misfortune is that we are all going to die. Death is definite. No question. If not today, then tomorrow, if not tomorrow, the day after and if not the day after, then next week or next month, next year or if not, next decade. But it’s definitely doing to happen. Maybe it will happen a couple of decades later or maybe even a century later – if you are lucky and crazy. But still, it’s going to happen.

0:40

So when you have a mishappening, you have to observe that. First thing is: is there something to be corrected? If there is, then do whatever you have to do. You have to engage yourself in correcting that. However, whatever it may be, correct it. If there is nothing to be corrected then there is no point in being unhappy or upset about it. If there is something to be corrected, there is also no reason why you should be unhappy, upset, angry or depressed, because something can be done. So you should totally engage in that. If there is nothing to be done, being upset and angry is only additional torture for yourself and particularly people who are living with you. If you have a mile-long face, don’t expect your companions to cheer you up. Forget it! One day is okay, two days is okay, but day after day, week after week, that’s not possible. That will lead to another problem. You know. So remember Nagarjuna’s [Shantideva’s] advice: If there is something to be done, do it – totally. If there is nothing to be done, do not create additional problems for you and your family and companions.

When something is happening that’s what we should do. If you are a good practitioner, welcome that problem. Say: I am experiencing this difficulty. May this substitute for the suffering of all other people who like me are experiencing this suffering. I like to substitute my suffering for theirs. I will volunteer for that. I will engage and welcome this pain. If you are not capable of that, don’t make the attempt. In that case you simply say: all the negative karmas I might have created, may be finished by this suffering and may it pass very quickly and good things may happen.

That is the attitude one has to take. If you do that, then even those mishaps become part of your practice. It helps to purify negativities and also builds positive karma and deeds.

0:45

Spiritual practitioners are supposed to do that. Otherwise, it is like Gunthang Rinpoche said,

Tong tra nyi me trö tse chö pei tsog/ kyen ngen tok do bar du tha me pa….

When your stomach is filled with food, you are warm with nice sun shine you behave like a dharma practitioner.

When there is some mishap you worse than the most horrible people.

To behave like that is the wrong way of handling. Not only that, this will create difficulties for yourself and also create misperception in people who will say, “These spiritual people must be either crazy or have no idea of what they are doing.” So instead of creating a good example you create a bad one. I want to just mention that, so it remains in the side of your mind somewhere. So when you are yelling and screaming that thought may pop up and you sit down for a minute and take a breath. That may be helpful.

I think you have got a lot of things to take home today. Thank you. Through January we will continue with these Sunday talks. Then in February during the retreat, there are two Sundays when we will not be webcasting. After that short gap we will start a new series. That’s all I have to say today.

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Four Immeasurables 0:49 end