Archive Result

20130317GRAAETB02

00.00

Welcome here this morning. My apologies I am late today. As a matter of fact, quite late. Sometimes people say it is “Tibetan time”, but that’s not it. It is my time and it’s my fault, not the Tibetans’. I would first like to wish everybody happy St. Patrick’s Day, especially those of us who are connected with Irish families.

Last Sunday I emphasized motivation. Motivation is the one that makes a huge difference. It is also an easy way to do things right. Buddha was asked by one of the kings of his time in India, “How can I remain king and yet be a great spiritual person and also very helpful to everybody and also to myself – and not only this life time, but also for future lives?”

Buddha gave a number of answers to that king. And the first is motivation. That makes a huge difference. Although the actual work maybe whatever it is, but it makes a difference if you want to be helpful, to yourself and to others and at least not do harm to anybody and at least not harming yourself. You may think these priorities are a little bit lopsided. And that’s true. You yourself are the most important. Somehow we don’t talk about it. We talk about love and compassion and we almost focus outward with that. It’s as though you are looking out for people. Yes, you are looking out to help people, but that’s not only for those you are looking out for, but it’s also for helping yourself. It is for helping yourself and others. There is a little twist in there. But that twists really helps.

Last November we were attending the huge lam rim teaching in South India where HH Dalai said that bodhisattvas are the most intelligent selfish people. In a way it is true. They are the most intelligent, because they understand that in order to help yourself you help others, and by doing so the result is that you get helped. It looks like it is total dedication to all living beings, but by doing that automatically you are purifying your negativities and are accumulating positive virtues. So, honestly, helping others is the best way to helping yourself.

0:06

But you have to do it with no feeling of selfishness, but totally dedicated to helping others, yet it totally works out to your own advantage – absolutely. That’s the twist I was talking about. The actual work makes a difference with that twist. The motivation will make a difference. So first and foremost, the way to improve ourselves, to make ourselves better is through the motivation. Watch out for that. In the morning, when you wake up, watch your motivation. I am not going to say to watch out for your mind, because then it looks like driven mental activities. No. Thoughts are going to come up anyway when you wake up. Maybe you think, “Where am I?” It depends on how much activity you had last night! If you went to a hot party, in the morning you may begin to wonder whether you are alive or not. But when you realize you are alive, there is an advantage. Appreciate and be happy you are alive. Honestly, you could die. Anybody could die any time.

As a matter of fact, less than a year ago one of our Jewel Heart friends from Malaysia, Peng Khong, just didn’t’ wake up. He went to sleep and didn’t wake up. He lived alone and for two days nobody knew. He didn’t show up, so then they began to look for him. First his wife, who lived in Australia, started calling me and later realized he was gone. It’s very unfortunate, however, when you have to go, you have to go. It’s an easy way to go, honestly, rather than dragging it out with all kinds of pains and misery for yourself and your family and others. So it is easy to go that way – provided you are used to positive thinking.

0:10

When I say positive thinking, your way of looking at positive and my way of looking at positive may be different. Please by aware of it. It is a generalized word. I am thinking about virtuous thoughts, that’s what I mean by positive, not in terms of success, making money and I don’t know, all that type of thing. As long as your mind is in touch with the positive, virtuous thoughts, then that’s one easy way of going. A lot of people wish to go that way, but it is sometimes very hard to get, especially when we struggle and can’t let it go. Also we dedicate all our prayers and virtues for living. Yes, that’s what you do – to a certain extent. But at some point you have to realize it is time to go and that makes it much easier to get ready to go, rather than trying to hang on.

Yes, it is true they say you should fight to the end. You have to be very positive in that way and have a mind of living, however, there really comes a time when you can no longer do that. Virtually it will become impossible. We are dependently originated. We depend on our mind and we depend on our physical body. When you are dependent and the things on which you depend are no longer possible, then you can’t remain. I always refer to our physical body as a rented apartment. When the apartment doesn’t work you don’t want to pay rent any more. When the roof is leaking, the heat is not working, the water is not working, when all isn’t working you don’t want to pay rent – unless you are crazy. Like that, there comes a time when you really have to go. So it is very important to recognize and be intelligent enough to know. At that moment no one will tell you. No one can. You can only hint and beyond that you can’t do it. I had that experience. I wanted to tell somebody that it looks like it is time. But I ended up saying, “Well, we all die, no one ever lived.” But you can’t say, “You are about to die.”

0:15

The person won’t like it and the family won’t like it and then, instead of helping it becomes harmful. It is important to talk about that when we are all well and are still going to live for another 200 years – so now is the time to talk and say that even 200 years will come to an end. When you count, you will get to 200, so one day it is going to happen. So this is important to talk about while we are all perfect and not worrying about going for the next 100 years. So when we talk and think about it the idea is within us, the knowledge is within us and we can use it when we need it. The need is the individual’s need, whenever, whatever, wherever it comes. It is easier to have a mind of living than a mind that is hanging on and struggling at that time. Sooner or later we will go, but struggling will give us a lot of torture, physically, mentally and emotionally. And only you will know, nobody else. You can do it. You can make a difference. And you want to know it now, not at that time. But at that time, you want to already have the knowledge, the information. The situation will come when the doctors will give double talk and the people will talk something in front of you and something slightly outside somewhere. That’s the indication for you: Ha, the time is coming. Then do whatever you have to do.

It is a matter of shifting one’s mind. It is like a traveler. When you are ready to travel, tomorrow, or the next hour, you have got to pack – unless you want to go naked and wear the emperor’s new clothes all the time. The question is whether you are going to put your energy into packing or into trying to still live. The ideal is here the energy for packing. And actually we should put in the energy for packing now. Then, whenever it comes we will be ready. That’s really true. Yes, we pray. Yes, we request this and that. This monk and that lama and this teacher are requested to pray, sure. But it is really our own deeds that make the difference. When we are in life, functioning, when we have everything in our control, that’s the time when we should prepare to live and also prepare to go – both, together. That’s what the spiritual person is supposed to do. Spiritual people are supposed to see a little bit more than from birth to death. If we don’t have a panoramic view of lives, at least we should notice that life doesn’t begin at birth and doesn’t end at death. For me that’ the truth.

0:20

That doesn’t mean I recall my previous life and know where I am going in future. That’s not true. But my understanding and my realization is definitely a little more than that. So is yours. Every one of us has had so many lives in which we have been together and so many lives when we will be together. Whether they are going to be good or bad depends on me and this is an opportunity for me to make my lives better. Using this opportunity to make my lives better for me is my spiritual practice. Begin with the motivation. Whenever I learn about something that is my beginning. My every day begins every morning whenever I wake up.

The life is such a funny thing; within 24 hours we live and function and sleep and dream. Just like that it is in our actual life. We are born, we live, we die, we run in the bardo and we take rebirth again. Life after life is an exact duplicate of the 24 hours of our life. Death is like falling asleep. Bardo is like the dream state. Rebirth is like waking up and functioning again. Suddenly we notice all the noise and the smell of the coffee. All of a sudden all these are coming. So what do we do? We prepare in our life. When we go to sleep we prepare for waking up. We make our bed and put our body in the bed. When we wake up we have everything we need handy, like cleansing materials, coffee, and so on. All this we prepare today for tomorrow. We don’t wake up in the morning, realizing there is no coffee and no milk. We are prepared. Similarly, we prepare our life. That’s what the spiritual people are supposed to do and that begins with the motivation.

0:25

Motivation is not the first thought alone. That motivation of helping or serving should continue throughout. Who are you actually serving? Yourself. Who are you actually helping? Yourself. And not only in this life but also in your future life and this is the best way to help yourself. There is no other, better way to help. If you start harming others in order to make yourself feel a little better, you are creating another difficulty for yourself. You know that. I was just in Philadephia day before yesterday, talking about violence in America and about whether Tibetan Buddhism can help. That was my subject at Lasalle University. As you know I don’t have a prepared speech to read, so I make mistakes. I am not like the new pope. He is nice, I hope. It’s only been a few days, but at least he doesn’t read prepared statements, but speaks from the heart. Everybody says he is humble and very nice. It is great to have a great world religion’s leader.

Violence brings violence. Non-violence is very hard. Can you imagine, how the non-violent movement challenged violence? A bunch of people around Gandhi with raised fists were running against the barrels of guns. It is really difficult. But it achieves results better than the barrels of the guns. I watched the movie about the struggle that Gandhi-ji and his followers led for the non-violence. They went up and the Indian police would beat them with sticks until they fell down and another group of people would come up and do the same thing. It is not an easy movement and no one will pay any attention to you because you are not going to make that much difference. When the people pay attention, when the people’s movement comes in then so far this has been the best way of achieving what you want to achieve. With every violence at the end you see nothing else left.

We did see in our history so much violence. Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, at the end what is left? Nothing. But from the non-violent movements everything is left and proved to be helpful. The movement of the Buddha, the movement of Jesus, of Gandhi – all of those have intact results today. All the violent things are gone. Remember Saddam Hussein didn’t last very long. Now it’s all gone, just a name in the paper, nothing else, and so much damage and so much harm. And then look at Gandhi’s work. India is still independent and economically coming up. Even the direct results of non-violence we see in our own lives. So the non-violence is something fantastic. And that all started with motivation.

0:32

There is the motivation of helping, of helping yourself, of protecting your own rights. That’s where it comes from. And that will make a huge difference, not only in your life, but the lives of those who come in contact with you. This is a good way of contributing. The best gift from one friend to another is the motivation.

I thought I would take one more step today, but it doesn’t seem to be happening. I am still stuck with the motivation. But I wanted to take at least the step of saying that this motivation must remain from morning till evening. That doesn’t mean you have to say, “Wait, I have to meditate for one minute, my motivation is gone.” You don’t have to do that. If you want to, fine, unless it makes you look crazy. If that happens, then instead of helping, it will harm you. So better not. But remember: the motivation must remain throughout.

And one more step: the action you take must match your motivation. The motivation shouldn’t say “yes, yes, yes” and the action “no, no, no”. Some people may do that. Some of us are good at that. But that’s something you have to watch out for. Develop a good motivation and follow through.

0:35

Following through means that not only you remember the motivation but all your actions should match with it. That’s the best way to correct our life. I guess that’s it. Thank you so much and see you next Sunday.

0:35

Four Immeasurables Chant – 0:37