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20130616GRAETB15

00:01

Good morning everybody and welcome to this Sunday talk. As you know, these Sunday talks are very much focused on how to live our life and how to maintain our daily life. We begin with the motivation and by now we are a little familiar at least with the recommended motivation of bodhimind. We also call it the precious bodhimind, because it considers that others’ needs are more important than our own. It is very easy for me to say, but anyone of us will find it very difficult to practice and carry out, because “me” and my needs are so important. I am a very important person, I cannot be ignored. And then, people also carry that “I have been ignored”, “I am have been misplaced”, “I have been looked down on”. That becomes painful and people will carry that pain for years. That’s why thinking “my needs” being lesser important than others’ needs is difficult. Those who can do it are called precious, because it becomes precious.

We did that for quite a long time, quite in detail. So we are quite familiar with that. Then the actual bodhimind we also talked about. To have such a mind we need to recognize what it is. We did talk about it, briefly saying it is the mind which is seeking total knowledge for the service of all beings. You yourself is not excluded, but not necessarily emphasized, but it is for all – A-L-L beings. In one way it is totally dedicated, on the other hand you yourself is seeking total knowledge. When you are dedicated you are volunteering to do the job. When you want to do the job you need the tools to be able to make the attempt to complete it. For that you need total knowledge.

0:05

So seeking total knowledge for oneself to serve all beings – that is bodhimind. It is like a little twist and turn, however, that becomes ultimate, unlimited, unconditioned love and compassion. It is definitely ultimate and definitely unconditional and definitely has no limits. So it is something extremely important. It makes a hell of a difference in our daily lives, especially if you have some understanding of karma and if you think that our lives are managed by karma, then it makes a tremendous difference, particularly the action bodhimind. The other day I talked about the difference between the wishing bodhimind and action bodhimind. When we want to become fully enlightened you are wishing full enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, dedicated for the benefit of all beings, wishing for yourself to become fully enlightened. That is simply wishing bodhimind. The earlier masters gave the metaphor: if somebody wants to take a journey, they are wishing to go. That comes first. Then comes actually going, meaning taking action of moving. The wishing bodhimind is really bodhimind, sure, but also the action is much more important and effective and serves the purpose better than anything else. You do need action.

As for action, to make it very brief it is: avoid negativities, build positivities and their consequences. Tame your mind. That is Buddhism. I said that this is Buddha’s own statement paraphrased and it is bus stop Buddhism. I am not even going to call it Buddhist. That makes it into something different. Also, I personally don’t like people choosing, “I am Buddhist, I am hindu, I am this, I am that.” Unless you are really soaked and know exactly what you are doing and where you are going and what it is I don’t think it is something that is good right now. America is such a young country from the spiritual point of view – although the Judeo-Christian tradition has been here for thousands of years. But all the Asian traditions that have come in are very young here. Buddhism is also extremely young here, very, very new. Right at this moment, people who are interested in something of the spiritual path, who are dedicated, who don’t denounce or reject anything else – this is the majority of American – shall we say – liberal spiritualists. I don’t think the conservatives will do that. It is really important to focus on what makes a difference to me, what makes a difference to my friends, to my life, to my lives. That’s really a matter that is standing right in front of us, drawing our attention and looking for help.

0:12

So I like to bring that also in that manner, rather than through a very deep, philosophical way or even a very deep religious way. There we have different things. So this is what I would like to really bring it in. So I don’t even like to call this “Buddhist”. Some people told me, “You should call this American Buddhism”, because it is American Buddhism, but American Buddhism without tradition, without background, without proper lineage may also not work, because that is gambling, honestly. But trusting karma, that good will bring good result, that bad will bring bad consequences, keeping that as the principle of many religions, not just Buddhist, keeping that seems to really be true. That is applicable to us. We see it in our lives. When we can do something good it makes us happy. Happiness brings betterment in our life. If we can’t do it we are sad, we do it bad. We regret. That brings unfortunate incidents. So really, good brings good, bad brings bad. That’s a true fact that no one can argue with. I mean, people can argue if they want to. As long as you have a mouth you can argue, but that doesn’t mean it is valid.

0:15

Everybody can make noise. You can beat two aluminum plates together and make a big noise, but it doesn’t mean anything. Honestly, arguing doesn’t mean anything. Valid arguing, arguing with reasons, that is something. Another point is that for the benefit of an argument, if someone is really confused and you want to clarify that point of confusion and therefore you argue, that is okay. That is a good argument, it has a purpose, it clears your doubts, it makes things much clearer. This is a good, valuable argument and it helps.

Now there is another kind of argument. You know it is right, but still you want to argue for the sake of argument. That doesn’t make any sense at all. It is like beating two silver plates against each other.

There used to be this little toy monkey beating two cymbals against each other. I used to get this toy in Tibet when I was a kid. I had a very good friend, a Rinpoche, who has now passed away, Domo Geshe Rinpoche. He had connections with India and would get all these little toys and when we had a prayer meeting Rinpoche would bring in a bag full of those automatic [wind up] toys and he would let them go one after another from under his robes and they would be jumping around everywhere and everybody else would be jumping around too. But Geshe Rinpoche would sit tight. Then when you get home, your attendant would beat you, saying, “How did you behave in that meeting today?Look at Domo Geshe Rinpoche, he didn’t even move.” They didn’t know that all these toys were coming from him.

Anyway, that sort of argument in people’s lives is invalid. You have to see that yourself and if you know it you change it, correct yourself. If someone else argues let them argue. You just sit and watch, that’s it.

Such a bodhimind, if you keep it throughout your life, day and night, everything else you don’t do becomes virtue too, not only what you do right. While you are sitting there, not killing anybody, that becomes a virtue of not killing. That is because of the bodhimind. If you don’t have the bodhimind or other vows, then if you are not killing, you are just not engaging in the negativity of killing, but you don’t have the positivity of not killing.

0:20

So bodhimind, although you are sitting there, doing nothing, gives you the virtue of not killing a human being, the virtue of not lying or cheating, the virtue of not stealing, the virtue of not having sexual misconduct. Now we are at the actions you are taking. Earlier I said: avoid negativities. The four most important negativities one can engage in physically are: killing, lying, stealing and sexual misconduct. While you are not doing anything, then because of the bodhimind, you get the virtue of not doing these. Because of that the great early Indian mahapandit and siddha Shantideva said,

19 DENG NAS BZUNG STE GNYID LOG GAM,

BAG MED GYUR KYANG BSOD NAMS SHUGS,

RGYUN MI 'CHAD PAR DU MA ZHIG

NAM MKHA' MNYAM PAR RAB TU 'BYUNG,

From that time hence,

Even while asleep or unconcerned,

A force of merit equal to the sky

Will perpetually ensue.

So from that time onwards, whether you are asleep or not paying any attention, you keep on building virtue after virtue. It is really a treasure of virtue. And that is our mind, which makes this happen to us. It can happen, it does happen, it did happen, we should do that. When you ask what actions to take, the first step is to avoid negativities. Basically I wanted to touch on the four physical things. Don’t ask me to go into detail, because then it becomes complicated. Simply, killing a human being is killing a human being. Anything violent that is happening in our country today when people lose their lives through violence that is killing. If they don’t lose their life it is not killing. I said I won’t go into detail, but that is what it is. It is interesting. In order to get a proper – meaning bad – karma of killing the person must kill the other person and they must die before you die. If you die before that person dies you don’t get the karma of killing the other person. So if you lost the fight or – oh, forget. Anyway, that is killing. Then stealing you know, I don’t have to go into detail.

Now lying. The used car dealer’s lie is not considered a lie here. A lie here is a black lie, a terrible lie, like lying under oath or cheating people. It is particularly more about cheating, rather than simple lying.

0:25

Actually, in Buddhism it is permitted to say some things that are not true. If someone is hunting a little animal and asks you where it went and you say that you haven’t seen it or that it went to the right or left – not telling the truth – then because you are doing it to save a life it is permitted. When Buddhism talks about lying as one of the big negativities they are talking about a black, huge lie, a devious lie, a planned lie, lying under oath, lying for the purpose of cheating. The lemon car seller’s lie is the usual thing. It is a lie, but not necessarily such a bad lie.

Sexual misconduct is another one. Don’t refer to the books too much on that. The traditional texts are written according to what Buddha said 2600 years ago. The society was very different then. We have to be exactly according to our time. For example, rape is very definitely sexual misconduct. No question. Some people still raise a question, saying, “it is not in the text book.” 2600 years ago nobody raped no one. There was no incident at that time. It was a good, old society. We picked up all sorts of funny thing. That is different. Rape is definitely sexual misconduct, no question. Any sexual activities forced on someone who is not willing and does not consent are sexual misconduct. That is the bottom line, rather than worrying about which date, which phase of the moon and which place are appropriate. For us it is most important to know what is sexually hurting anybody with any activity. That is sexual misconduct.

Basically I am running through what not to do and I don’t want to have them all run together. Then it becomes not great. I just wanted to do these four things of what not to do, when Buddha says: avoid negativity. That’s not including for yourself not to do it, but also you making others do it. That’s the same thing. Even though you don’t go to war, pick up a gun and kill people, but if you sit somewhere and issue the orders and cause these human beings to go out of the human registration, you get equal the heavy negativity.

0:30

That’s why politicians are very much suffering. Honestly. They have such a difficult life. At certain levels they have to make certain decisions and it is not easy. Even if you are called to jury duty you have to make a judgment and it is very difficult. I used to see on TV some people coming on and saying they have to punish people on behalf of God in the name of justice. Who are your or who am I to punish somebody on behalf of God or on my own behalf? That’s very difficult to me to see. This is small compared with the political leaders and military leaders who simply have to sign a piece of paper. With the stroke of a signature hundreds and thousands of people get killed. That is not great at all, I am sorry. Not only it is not great for those leaders, it is also for us who are commonly involved. That’s where the common karma comes. We disagree, however, we have to pay our taxes. If we don’t, we get into trouble. I am not recommending not to pay taxes. Pay your taxes. But the tax money goes for that too. So we contribute. Therefore purification is something very important. Knowingly or unknowingly, we are involved in certain things.

Now we hear every morning that so many people get killed in Iraq and Syria. It is better in Iraq than some years ago. A while ago, every morning when you woke up, NPR would tell you that 20 or 30 people got killed. That was like a daily routine chore. Now we don’t hear that every day, but still we hear it a lot. People get killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and now Syria. Our money goes there. The boots are not on the ground, fine. But the money is on the ground and that’s not fine, honestly. Hopefully we don’t get into another huge problem, hopefully, hopefully. These problems are not getting solved. The problem in Libya is not solved. The problem in Iraq is not solved. The problem in Afghanistan is not solved. The problem in Pakistan is not solved. We are not going to solve it. They have been quarreling for centuries and eons between all these different tribes and castes and religious sects. Why should we get involved in it? Honestly, there is no need for whatsoever.

Somebody is going to gain, somebody is going to lose, for sure. We say, “We have to go to Egypt, otherwise the dictator there is going to have the upper hand. Yes, we got involved in Egypt, they overthrew their dictator and then they got the Muslim Brotherhood take over. So what is ending there? Nothing is different, they got a change for the worse. Those things are very complicated. We are very much involved, though we don’t make the decisions. But we pay our taxes. Our money goes there. We are very much involved. We have to pay tax and we should. But we should not agree with war, because it is a killing machine. The killing machine gets us killing karma. Killing karma makes our life shorter and makes our next life not perfect. We will get a lot of handicaps, challenges, mentally, physically and emotionally. Even if you get a better human life there will be all those challenges. That’s the result of killing karma. You need to know this and you have to think accordingly. You have to protect yourself, by not agreeing, although you have to pay taxes. Pay your tax, because that’s what you owe. We owe that to the people, we are paying to the people. It is also great generosity, believe me. Think that your tax is great generosity that you are giving to all people, to all Americans. This is great generosity, honestly. You have to give it anyway. If you don’t they will lock you up. So you have to give, so give the best way you can, give it to all American people, for the purpose of their well-being as your own personal contribution. Give with you. That will be an act of great generosity. Cheating will be something else. But we have to pay tax and we can disagree that our money is going to war purposes. Paying tax is a requirement and it is law. You give and you make that virtuous. Disagree with the war. If you agree with the war then you are involved with every single casualty. From the bottom of your heart, disagree. That is the fine line you can draw, when dealing with killing karma, with generosity, with commitment, with responsibility. That way of living will become spiritual, whether you drink grass juice of not; whether you wear a funny dress or not. That’s how you think and how you live.

0:40

I am happy to be here today in Ann Arbor and as you see I am talking from Ann Arbor. We are also very happy to have a new carpet here. I am not sure whether you can see it or not. This carpet came here in quite a funny way. It is an old Tibetan carpet. My guess is that it was made somewhere in the 1800s. It is all wool. That’s why we get a little smell too. I think it is the Fisher Body gentlemen from Detroit took a car to Tibet in the early 1900s and presented it to the 13th Dalai Lama who incidentally happens to be my great uncle. In return he gave many things, among others this carpet. The Fishers kept this carpet for a while. That’s my understanding and then they gave it away to the Hare Krishna people in Detroit. They used it for a while and then they threw it out and a family nearby who knew the history picked it up, cleaned it, repaired it at Hagopian Carpets and kept it for years. The other day they called us, “If you want that carpet, pick it up.” So Ujjen-la and John Moran went into John Moran’s van and they couldn’t fit it in. They came back and rented a u haul truck and brought it in. We are very happy it is here and it has something to do with Tibet and the 13th Dalai Lama. We are happy to have this carpet hom. Thank you for whoever is giving it to us and thank you to those who brought it from Tibet all the way. Can you imagine who they could have brought it in those days, over the Himalayas. I can imagine a lot of kulis or sherpas carrying it on their shoulders across the mountains and then it came all the way to Detroit and finally landed here. We are happy to have it. Thank you and thank you to everybody.

0:45 Four Immeasurables - 0.45 end