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20130526GRGRETB12

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Good morning and welcome to this morning’s webcast talk. I am talking to you from Garrison Institute where we are having a weekend retreat. We are talking about Tibetan Buddhism. It is a similar subject to what I have been talking to you about earlier, almost the same thing. We also talked about the motivation and the recommended motivation is the ultimate, unlimited, unconditional love and compassion, which is known as bodhimind, the mind that seeks total enlightenment. Of course, that mind is very often referred to in the various teachings and texts as precious mind. It is precious, because it has tremendous value. It is also very interesting to note that we took a lot of efforts to improve ourselves, contemplating the spiritual path, to make ourselves better. However, it turns out that benefitting and helping others is the most important way to work for your benefit.

One of the reasons why this particular mind is called precious is that it is much more superior and important than seeking benefit for oneself. Those who are engaged in bodhimind also seek personal benefit, however, it is coded, saying “I and all mother sentient beings would like to have this and that”. That brings all the sentient beings together. So the object and subject of involvement is much bigger and it becomes more powerful and effective. That is one of the reasons why it is precious. Also the effect of either, accumulation of merit or positive karma or purification of negative karma – whatever it may be – is much more powerful. Since you are involved with a tremendous amount of people, countless beings actually, the value of the power of its achievement is much more than simply trying to make it better for one individual.

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That is one of the reasons why the motivation of this very mind is recommended. Besides that, one of the benefits is mentioned by the early Indian mahasiddha and mahapundit Shantideva,

Once you developed bodhimind within you, that itself will provide the accumulation of merit and also purification will be done by itself.

It is very powerful and effective and perhaps there is no better tool than this to make yourself move forward on the journey to ultimate gain. That’s why this mind is recommended.

As I said earlier, the root of this mind is compassion. This particular mind is what I refer to as ultimate, unlimited, unconditional love and compassion. When love and compassion goes to its maximum capacity it becomes bodhimind. That’s it. It is unlimited because it is based on greater compassion, which is focused on all living beings. It is also unconditional, because whoever gains this will never ask, “What’s in there for me?” So it is pure love and pure compassion, there is no condition, no self-interest. That’s why it is this precious mind.

Developing this precious mind is not easy. While traveling on the path, if we had to wait until we had developed bodhimind it would take a tremendous amount of time in which we could waste a lot of opportunity and human value as well as spiritual values and thirdly the value of Buddha’s message. So until we develop that we function with a “created” bodhimind. So until we develop that we work with the created bodhimind, maybe not naturally developed or gained, but simply corrected our thoughts, so we are not thinking or having the reason why we want to do that. Still, we suggest it to our own mind, “I will do this for the benefit of all beings. For the benefit of all beings I would like to develop total knowledge, therefore I like to do this and that.” That is the created bodhimind, not natural bodhimind. I don’t want to say it is artificial, but it is a substitute for pure, true bodhimind. That is the alternative available for us. Every day, every time, whether engaged in any activity, particularly virtuous activity, try to have that motivation. Also, it is very good Tibetan tradition that we always create that thought. That thought will try to cover the rest of your life, particularly the rest of the year, particularly the rest of the month, week and very specially, today. Whatever I do I will do this way and that way. The influence of that thought, that compassion, that love, try to let it have an effect on anything you do, good or bad, whatever you do, try to gain some influence of that. That will be very helpful.

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Why? If it is a good thing you are doing it becomes powerful and solid. If it is a bad one you are engaging in the perfection of that bad deed, because of your motivation. Yes, it is a bad deed, no doubt, but still it will become a weak bad deed, rather than a strong, powerful bad deed. As a result, from the karmic point of view, when you get the result, that result will be weakened, because the bad motivation has been interfered with. Therefore the act itself will not become a perfect bad deed. This is very practical and interesting. Many times people will tell you about transformation, changing, etc. There may be spiritually a better way of transforming and changing, but this is a simple, straight forward way of changing and transforming. You are not really transforming the negative into positive, however, you have weakened the negative. If it is a positive deed you are making it stronger and better. That is transformation. That is change. These are good changes and very effective.

That’s why the great, early Indian pandit Shantideva said that very little effort can yield tremendous benefit. This is one of those. The first chapter of Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara is totally about the benefits of this very mind, totally.

It is like a golden solution. Just by its touch the metal becomes precious metal. Also, if any individual develops this mind at any level, man, woman or child or even dog or cat (I don’t know if at the dog’s or cat’s level one can develop this mind or not), then at this very moment that individual will be labeled “child of the buddhas”. You have to remember this is a text that is 2600 years ago. Then there was a monarchy, rather than a democracy. The kings, queens and princes and princesses were very much the issue. That’s why the original words actually said, “Sons of the enlightened ones”. Later the translators made it more gentle and called it “Children of Buddha”.

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That was the simple way of making it softer and gentler. Other than that the true message really is that you become the Prince of Wales who will become the king later. The moment you develop this, at whatever level you may be, however weak or stupid you may be, however uneducated you may be, but by virtue of being children of the ruler you have a prestigious position and you will be even more powerful than a seasoned minister. They give you the example of a diamond. No matter how small and weak the diamond may be, it will still cut through all other glasses. The diamond is much stronger and more powerful. Just like that, when you develop this mind, you develop the power of this stage within you, in your own spiritual field. That’s why it is precious, that’s why it is so beneficial. Having said that, the question comes: what do you do with this tool?

The challenge for us is that first those of us who have not developed this mind have to try to develop it. Then those of us who have developed something a little bit, have to try to maintain it. Maintaining it is very important. If we put in so much effort, develop something and then forget about it and not utilize it that will be a tremendous waste. That’s why maintaining it is very important. Then, once we maintain it we also have to develop it further. We do that through two things: by building more positive karma and deeds and by purifying and clearing the negative deeds we have. Don’t forget and don’t even doubt that we have a tremendous amount of both, positive and negative karma within us. Actually it is huge. Each and every one of us carries that.

As far as the negative is concerned we may think, “I don’t remember everything negative that I have done. I didn’t kill anyone, I didn’t lie to or cheat anybody. I didn’t steal anything from anybody.” We can quite clearly say that, but when it comes to sexual misconduct, we don’t exactly. There is always something or another for many people. Sorry to mention that, but the thing is this: I didn’t really have such a negativity. I didn’t kill anyone or steal anything. But there is a tremendous amount of negativity that we carry.

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What we don’t know from our previous lives is so much. There is no doubt that we have killing karma. There is no doubt we have stealing karma. We also have a great deal of positive karma. So this is our assets, both positive and negative. There is so much at our disposal - whether we can get our hands on it or not. Unfortunately negative karma brings negative things into our hands and tries to cash them out. We try to cash the positive karma only, but we have difficulty with that, because the negativities will disrupt them. That’s where we are. So then we try to put the force behind the spiritual practice, behind our positive deeds and try to cash the positive deeds. That’s what we call ‘accumulation of merit’. On the other side we try to push away, by-pass or get rid of the negative karmic huge investments. That’s what we call ‘purification’.

That becomes the major work for people who are working on the spiritual path. These two, purification and rebuilding. We trying to empty one and fill up the other. With all our major efforts the real goal is that. The bottom line is these two. While you are engaging in this, as we said earlier, the motivation will make the difference.

When I think back, I have been talking with you about the motivation for so long, almost for decades. By now, people have some idea and it is stuck with them and is functioning. I am happy about that. Also for me, I can move a little beyond the motivation, because there is more than motivation. There are so many other things.

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I did talk here yesterday, not on line, about whether negativities are purifiable or not. They are. I am not going to have a debate about it, but they are. I better be careful what I am going to say here. There is a point that says

Sem chen nam she ö ser wa / tri ma nam ne lu bur wa

Actually, nature is pure and all obstacles are temporary.

Positive things are also temporary. Don’t think that positive deeds have advantages over negative deeds. They don’t. They have equal rights and equal position. Everything is equal with both, positive and negative. They affect the individual equally. That’s what it is. But when I say that the nature is pure I have to be a little more cautious, because sometimes people misunderstand that and say, “We are originally or primordially pure.” People may think that. Maybe you are going to hear that, but I am not sure if there is such a thing called “primordially me”. That’s very questionable. We are all dependent origination. So the “pre” becomes very questionable. However, pure nature is there yes. That doesn’t mean we were pure in the beginning and then downfalls have come and clouded that. Some people will tell you that it is like the sky and it is pure all the time. However, clouds gather and we don’t see the sun shine.”

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But I don’t mean that at all. When I talk about pure nature I mean the nature of mind is pure. I want to leave it there. I am very tempted to say that it is pure empty, which we call emptiness. Anyway, our nature is pure. So the negativities and negative effects are all transitory. Everything is transitory. Purification makes it a) not last and b) not materialize and c) never exist. One may be able to do that by purification. That’s why all negativities are purifiable. Some people may argue that since it is negative karma and karma is definite, therefore negative karma should also be definite. Yes, Buddha does say that negative karma is definite. But it means that when one particular karma begins to materialize and begins to give it’s result, then until it is over it is permanent and can’t be changed. It won’t change until it is completed. This particular period between the karmic result functioning and ending, in between you can’t change it. For us, doing purification means trying to stop the negative karma from taking effect. That’s before the karmic result has started functioning. There are some detailed points.

The idea of dialogue, the traditional debates, started developing during the time of Sharpa Chögye Senggye in Tibet in the Sangpu period. It is extremely helpful. It will see all the things clearly. Otherwise, if we don’t make a distinction between karma being definite and karma being purifiable, there will be a contradiction. But there is no contradiction, because karma being definite means this and karma being changeable means that. We raised the question whether karma was purifiable. So the answer is definitely yes. It is changeable. The bottom line is that it is impermanent, therefore it has changing nature. If you want to go beyond that you can ask why it has a changing nature. That is because it is dependent origination. It depends on parts, parcels, cause and result and all of those factors. If any particle of it changes, the result will change, because it is dependent. It is very strong in that way. Impermanence proves that it is changeable and dependent origination will prove that even more strongly.

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But the bottom line is that it is changeable. How? That’s the next question. First we need the willingness to change. Traditionally that is called recognition. That will only come if we know we made a mistake. If we keep on denying and are stubborn, “I was right”, nothing will change. We are not acknowledging, we don’t have the willingness. Once you have willingness, that automatically comes with a) the acknowledgment of the mistake and b) a dislike for it. Otherwise, why should you change? C) you have to put in some kind of effort to recompensate. Most negativities are deeds that hurt a person, maybe even yourself. These are negative for me. Positive actions are the opposite of that: helping others or oneself. We hurt ourselves all the time. Don’t think we don’t create negativities against ourselves. We always do, particularly in today’s modern society, the first one to beat up is yourself. Traditionally we blame the others. So the teachings have to say: don’t blame others, it is all your fault. Today the problem is that we beat up ourselves all the time. So now the teaching should go the other way round. Anyway, we have to find out where the fault really is.

We do create a lot of negativities on ourselves, all the time. So hurting yourself is equally negative as hurting others. Having said this, I have to emphasize that killing yourself is equally bad as killing somebody else. Negative and positive is something very funny. Traditionally that is called virtue and non-virtue. I am trying to use “positive-negative” to make it a little more acceptable to you. Some people have a little difficulty using “virtue-non-virtue”.

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But some people have difficulty using “positive-negative” too. Some people even have difficulty using good and bad! Our society today is such that sometimes we don’t know what to do. Maybe that’s what it is. So first comes recognizing and then comes regretting and then having some compensation through some good deeds and finally comes committing not to repeat that action. So basically these are the four points. Strong regret will make sure you don’t repeat. When you dislike it you will not do it again. Committing not to repeat will be automatic if we have good recognition and regret. Therefore, no matter how strong and powerful and how horrific the negativity it might be, all of them are purifiable. That’s why the goodness of human beings, the purity of human nature makes it possible to have that. That’s why it is very important to remember that we are naturally pure. That gives us a very strong basis of functioning. It is also so that we can take all the good opportunities. Perhaps this is the quality of our life and our time.

That’s it. Thank you so much. Next week I will be talking to you from Cleveland.

Thank you 0: 43 Four Immeasurable 0:45