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20130127GRAATB54

00:00

Welcome everybody to today’s talk. You are hearing this from Michigan and right now it has been quite cold, maybe one of the coldest times. Do you remember anything colder than this? You do? Oh, lucky. But the beauty is that no matter how cold, snowy, or icy it maybe outside we can keep warm inside the house or car or anywhere we go. This is something we normally don’t appreciate, but it is the reality. Particularly in many parts of the world, where some of you are listening from, there are not all these facilities. You do have air condition when it is hot, but when it is cold you don’t have much heat at all. Some of you do, but most of you don’t. Even in Europe you are supposed to have all this, but maybe it is a different view. Europeans think that Americans are wasting energy, and maybe it is true, but they will keep you very cold. That is their system. So we have to really appreciate our life. The funny thing is I do appreciate the cold. There is beautiful white snow and it is sparkling. How else could a pure land look like?

That’s how I think. Then if I am in a very hot place, where temperatures go up up 110 or even 115 degrees, even then I appreciate it. Somehow I learned that as a kid. Whatever difficulties and circumstances you may have, appreciate them and take it the best you can.

Another thing: When you become immune to suffering, then for you any suffering may not become suffering. It becomes sometimes even joy and pleasure. That’s amazing to think of. It is the really the mind that is very powerful. I am sorry, I have been day-dreaming and just saying this. But in a positive way, suffering doesn’t really affect the individual and sometimes even goes in the pleasure way. That’s true, not only in the positive way, but even in the negative way. When I first came to the United States, and exposed myself to these magazines, I got the biggest shock and was surprised to see that there are people who look for pain as pleasure. I very vividly remember a magazine showing a person having holes made into their nipples and pulling on that and considering that pleasure. Otherwise, why should they do it? They consider that to be pleasure, because it is some change, right?

0:05

That means the mind is the one that is doing it. When you perceive this, you try to make it appear as joy and perceive it as joy, then it becomes pleasure, even though it is the most horrible pain. People do perceive that. When you have an itch, some kind of skin disease, you keep on scratching it and sometimes the skin gets cut and bleeds. Even then you keep on scratching and that moment you think it is joy and pleasure, although it is pain. Therefore, pain and pleasure are actually perception and acceptance. I don’t mean that pain is actually pleasure and pleasure is actually pain. But the mind makes a huge difference. Mind acknowledges that as pleasure, joy and happiness, because the feeling is changed. So the change is considered to be pleasure or suffering. That doesn’t mean that suffering is not real and strong. It doesn’t mean that pleasure is not real and strong. But mind makes a hell of a difference. Do not take what I said earlier literally, thinking that please and pain are only the perception of the mind. But the perception of the mind does make a huge difference. It changes. Suffering changes into pleasure. Pleasure changes into suffering. Also perception changes. When both, perception and reality change, then the individual experiences more – not only unpleasant – but terrible things.

This tells us that pain and pleasure are both impermanent. But they are not the same. Otherwise, you may think it is the same thing. It is not only a matter of the mind. When you are looking from the wisdom point of view, both pain and pleasure are in the nature of emptiness. They are dependent origination. Terms and conditions or causes and conditions make things happen. What is it that changes? Causes and conditions. That’s one thing. Parts and parcels change and that’s another thing. Names and labels and perceptions change. That’s another thing.

When you talk about dependence there are so many. The easiest to understand for us is causes and effects that change reality. That tells you that it is not only the mind. There is something more than mental perception and mental acceptance. That is the causes and conditions. They provide the results.

0:11

When we see that causes and conditions change reality, we know it is not only the mind and mental factors alone. That makes suffering and pleasure real, although when you look in another way it is different. When you look at causes and conditions changing the reality, perhaps everything, whatever we experience, we go through this. Negative deeds, positive deeds are like that. Without depending on causes and conditions there are no negative deeds. There are no positive deeds. Also the reality of negative deeds is causing pain and misery to people. The reality of positivity and virtue is causing joy and happiness to people. Now we know that joy and suffering are not only the perception of mind alone. There are also other factors. Mind and reality play together. That’s why pain is real and pleasure is real. But mind can play a lot. If it is not really a direct physical or mental pain, mind can make a hell of a difference. But mind alone cannot do it. There is reality and that reality is the effect of causes and conditions, of parts and parcels.

0:15

Yet is it impermanent, not permanent. It also changes tremendously, so fast. What makes it change? That is really a question. Who makes the change? The key is not in the hands of the operator. Or maybe it is. But the question is: who is the operator? Some think that somebody “up there” makes the decisions. Some think it is just nature. Some think it is the individual person. Interesting. Truly, do we really know? Perhaps not. Religious ideas tell us different things depending on the religion. Some tell us somebody is ‘up there’ making decisions and we are there to please them. Some religions tell us it is not up there but down here. The Buddhists say it is your karma. Then you try to trace what karma is and who makes karma. When you trace that, my understanding is that it makes you responsible for yourself. Who makes karma? I make my own karma, nobody else. So the key to my happiness and to my suffering lies with me. It is me who makes the difference to me more so than anybody else. How do I make a difference?

If we have an idea – I don’t think we truly know – that our deeds make a difference for us in future, then then we can be careful. Even though I don’t have proof that my deeds will make a difference I know that this is true and not only that, my deeds are the only thing that makes a difference to me. I don’t have proof of that that. But it is a possibility and you can think about it. There is a very strong reasoning. Look at these beautiful flowers here.

0:21

Where do they come from? They don’t pop here out of nothing. Yes, Bobbi put them here, no doubt. That’s fine. But that’s not what we are talking about. Where do these flowers really come from? They are so beautiful. Who made them pink, yellow? Not one person, but causes and conditions. When conditions are right, they are growing. By now they are dying, also because of the conditions. If we throw them outside in Michigan today, they won’t last at all. They will be frozen. The roots may even die, because the conditions are not right. So cause and conditions come together. The result is these beautiful flowers. Likewise, causes and conditions come together and we have this beautiful life. That also day, by day, minute by minute, as life changes, causes and conditions also change. When you see that, then you begin to think about what has been before, what is happening today and what will be in future. That will establish reasons. Your own thoughts create reasons for you to do something better. Otherwise, there is no reason why we have to be good persons. Why can’t we do whatever we want to do?

0:25

Earlier, during the Buddha’s life time, there was a philosophical school in India that accepted only the present, not the past and not the future. The total existence of the self goes from birth to death, nothing more. Some earlier philosophers and spiritual schools had that idea. It is funny. When we talk about philosophers their ideas don’t seem to have to do anything with us. But when we talk about spiritual schools, then their ideas do seem to have something to do with us. There may be something for us to pick up.

So in Buddhism we consider this view of the life being between birth and death, the lowest category of spiritual schools. We shouldn’t be surprised. Today we all think that way. We will not like to accept that, but in our deeper mind we think that life begins at conception. Let’s not even argue about that in terms of pro-life, etc. But wherever it begins, death is considered the end. Most of us just see that in terms of the melodrama of life. Most of us don’t consider anything before or after. That’s it. Because we see only this, that’s what we care about. That’s what we are concerned about. Yes, we do care about the future. But the future is within this. There is nothing beyond. We don’t care so much about the past. The only thing useful from the past is to learn some kind of lessons, like “if you do this, you will get into trouble”. That’s about it. We do care a lot about the future, but it only goes up to the death in this life. If that is the only thing, then you can do whatever you want to do, because there is not necessarily so many consequences. There are some, but not so many.

Also we consider that if there are no consequences you cannot impose anything. We cannot impose rules, because if you break them there won’t be any consequences. We do think that way. So if life it only limited to before death, then the consequences will be limited.

0:30

When the consequences are limited you are likely to act out whatever you want to. So all this killing, stealing, etc, come out. I am sorry, I just talking nonsense. But nations also engage in killing, wars – because they think there are no consequences. It seems that you can get away with it. That’s because we have a view of past, present and future within the limits of this life. Once you go beyond that limit your view of life becomes huge. It is a panoramic view, not limited from here to there. Within that panoramic view the individual may not remain the same personality, but there is something continuing to be able to identify that as the individual. I like to use the term ‘continuation of the individual’. Whether we believe in Buddha or not, he said that every consciousness is an old consciousness. There is no new consciousness. That means that every life is an old life. Whatever we think of being a new life, like a beautiful baby born last night, also has an old soul. One of those commercials has a baby with a huge, thick voice talking how to do the stock market exchange. Maybe that’s what it is!

That person, the new person, is that the same old person? Yeah, but in new conditions and terms. They have a new name, a new identity. There is the witness protection system that gives you a new identity. They try to make it new, but somehow they can’t manage as much as karma can. They can move you to a different location, isolate you from your friends and issue a new identity card, new driver’s license and new name. But it’s the same old person. Maybe the continuation is something like that. When I saw the movie “Little Buddha”, that monk tried to convince the parents in Seattle that their kid was the incarnation of one of their previous lamas. He couldn’t explain it. So he broke a tea pot, which made the tea fall on the table and then wiped the tea up with a towel and then squeezed the tea out of the towel into some other container. So it’s the same old tea, maybe dirty by now. Is it drinkable? Probably not, but it is the same tea. So that’s continuation and in terms of our life, it is the continuation from life after life. It is reincarnation. What is reincarnating? Some kind of continuation, not the old person, but the same consciousness. It is a very subtle continuation. Consciousness itself goes through a shocking process at death. It doesn’t function anymore at the gross level, but becomes very subtle.

That very subtle consciousness continues.

You may raise the question: if that is what continues then it must be permanent. Being permanent means never to change, never to disconnect, but to continue. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche called that the ‘continuation of discontinuity’.

0:40

It is discontinuity, yet it continues. Some people give the example of a mala. You have the continuing string with one mala after another. Some give the example of a couple of ice cubes put together. They join and you cannot tell it is this ice cube or that ice cube. When we use the word ‘continuation’ there is always the question what continues. On the Theravadan path they talk about stream enterers, once returners and no more returners and arhats. The word stream enterer in Tibetan is gyü, which means continuation. The continuation from life to life and that of a stream enterer (that is stream, the continuation of something and entering that at a result level) are called the same, same word, same spelling. What is the continuation of a stream enterer? They say it is uncontaminated. Over here what is continuing? A person, a being. It is the same person, but with a completely different everything. Yet it is you. What do you carry? You forgot everything. You change your causes and conditions. What do you carry with you? According to the Buddha, you only carry your karma. Why is that? You left everything, even the body and even the gross mind. You left everything. But you have to carry your karma. That’s because karma becomes imprints on your consciousness.

0:45

It is not visible or physical, but just an imprint, a hidden seed. Again, it is not a real seed, like the seed of a grain or fruit. It is some kind of non-physical mark that is put on the consciousness. Somehow one doesn’t get rid of it easily, unless you engage in the correct process. That we can understand. When you have a stain in a cloth, some stains will come out easily by washing with water. Some stains require detergents. For some stains, that’s not enough, you need another process. We can understand that. But we cannot understand that this imprint will only go when we pay it off or when we neutralize it. That is harder to understand. Having to pay it off is also not so hard to understand. When people owe something to someone else, if you are honest, even if you have no document you will pay for it.

I talked a lot of nonsense to you today, but this is the basis on which we create positive and negative deeds. Doing positive and negative deeds makes a difference. That’s the fundamental basis to try to be spiritual people, persons who want to do the right thing for the right reasons. It doesn’t have to be religion or philosophy. When we put our efforts in life for doing right and good, it is for these reasons. There are consequences. They go beyond one life time. I know it is not clear. I know there is no proof. But there is also no proof that there is no future life and previous life. If it is true, if I am the person who is going to the next life, do I want to be subject to suffering? Maybe I don’t. So I do have a choice. I can make a difference. These are the reasons why we try to be right.

Thank you. Any question?

0:52

I have trouble understanding the difference between happiness and the joy that has never known suffering.

Rimpoche: That joy is a joy we have never had, so we don’t understand it. I am not saying that to be funny or to shut you up. We never had the joy that has never known suffering. Even if we have a little joy in our life that has suffering within that. We only know the joy that has never known suffering from hear say. If you ask ‘who has it’, it becomes a religious issue. We say that the buddhas and saints have it and maybe God enjoys. But that doesn’t convey the proper message. If you look at intense joy as powerful, intense happiness, there are occasions in life where we do have that. If you observe those moments of a minute or two or a couple of seconds, mind is encountering at that moment total absorption of some fun. It maybe a couple of seconds. The joy that has never known suffering you have to think of being extended, both in quantity and quality. That is the best idea we could get.

0:55

I used that to give some idea of a pure land, of bliss-void combination. We may have a second or less of total absorption of some happiness. At that moment our mind doesn’t encounter any other unwanted thoughts or events. That, extended in quantity and quality, is the joy has never known suffering. We pray for that.

Audience: So what is the difference between that and happiness, in the Four Immeasurables?

Rimpoche: Happiness is just the regular being happy.

Audience: How can a Buddha who is all compassion have the joy that has never known suffering, when others are suffering?

Rimpoche: That is true. I began my talk today talking about perception of the mind. We talked about acceptance. At the Buddha level you are supposed to have pure perception. At our level the perception of the mind can be wrong, dualistic. At the Buddha level it is never supposed to be wrong and is non-dual. What does dual mean? Dual means two. And at our level we see the joy over there and I am here looking for the joy, observing and perceiving. At the Buddha, non-duality means the one who is observing the joy becomes the joy. There is no separation. That’s non-duality. It’s not that they don’t have knowledge of people suffering. But it is the appearance of joy, the perception of joy and non-duality. I think that is making a difference in life. Even we do pretend to have joy, but we never become non-dual. We may later, we will.

I guess that’s the difference. Otherwise, if the Buddha level and our level functioned the same way it would be a little problem. Thank you so much.

1:01 Four Immeasurables – 1:02 end of file