Archive Result

77

20130630GRGRETB17

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Good morning. I am coming to you from the Appalachian hills behind Garrison Institute. It is a beautiful place where I am, with a beautiful view and everything. I hope you all are happy and enjoying. I also thought that I would be back in Ann Arbor today, but it turns out that I still have to do something at Garrison Institute for the Tibetan College Kids’ Gathering. They are having a 3 day conference and I have to give them their conclusion speech on Tuesday. So I am still around here. I will be back in Ann Arbor on Wednesday and on Thursday we are starting our summer retreat. So for next Sunday I will definitely be in Ann Arbor.

Here we are talking about the Essence of Tibetan Buddhism and very specifically about how we deal with our life, day to day, every day. I remind you all the time that we have been talking about the motivation. When I am talking about motivation, I am not only talking about the motivation of our practice, but also our everyday motivation. Why am I here today? Why should I be living today? All that, not only for yourself, though you are included, but also for helping one, two or many or zillions of others. You are not there only for yourself, but for others as well.

The motivation we talk about is the precious bodhimind, which considers the needs of oneself as less important than the needs of others. At least your needs and my needs are equal, which is something Americans can accept. It is equality, equanimity. Equanimity is strange language I was told, but equality is one of the principles our democracy is founded on. We really seem to be upholding that. So that is what we are asking, nothing more and nothing less. At least treat everybody equally.

Then we also went through what to do. The actions to be done are developing this bodhimind in wishing form, followed by action form. We are talking about action now. Last time we talked about negative activities and positive activities. How do we live our lives? We had this very short paraphrased verse by Buddha:

Avoid negative actions, build positive actions, tame your mind. This is Buddha’s Way.

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This is how Buddha taught us. I am paraphrasing, not translating, because I wanted to make sure it is clear to you. People may say that it is not translated that way. But this is how I read it. We talked about avoiding negative actions in terms of the 10 different negativities.

Now the second part: build positive actions. Building here means engaging in them. It is not like building a construction, though in a way it is. The virtues we are building are like building a house. You build this brick by brick, one by one. We are told, according to Buddha, that we have a tremendous amount of negativities. We have so many of them stored. But we don’t have so many positivities. That’s because of our habitual patterns or addictions, which will bring negativity. Anger is easily brought. Obsession is very easily brought. Jealousy is automatic. We don’t have to think. It just comes in and easily takes over. Suspicion and all of those easily take over. This is very, very easy because of our habits and addictions.

However, we are not addicted or habituated to the positive ones. So, these have to be built brick by brick. For everything we have to put a little effort. It is not automatic with us, until we change our character and culture completely. Once we do that, then it becomes that way. As I said earlier, if the bodhimind as motivation is established then it purifies negativities by itself and also builds positivity by itself. So when you change the character then it becomes automatic. Today we automatically build negativities and like that we will build positivity automatically.

As I said earlier, there are 10 negativities. Actually there are so many, but the most important ones are those 10 vivid mental faculties. They are part of mind. Similarly, there are also 11 positives – one extra. There are 10 negativities and 11 positivities.

The first of these is faith. Many people think, “We are not Judeo-Christian followers. Why are we talking about faith?” Some say, “We live in a scientific world, so faith has no room to play.” Some people say, “You have your faith, fine, but I will do it my way.” That’s all very true.

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But years ago I was at a conference with scientists, arranged by ALO. I was invited and went there. I was sitting with Professor Ray Kurzweil and he is an inventor of computer things. Years ago he already told me that “these big computers we have, down the road, very soon, they will be in your glasses. You will be looking through your glasses but the computer is in there and you are reading that.” He is also specializing on artificial intelligence. I talked about the little I know from my background of Buddhism. Then he got up and said,

“What Gelek Rinpoche said here today is exactly what it was years ago, a long time ago. We are together on this line. This is faith-oriented and we are following the facts. We went separately. We followed the facts and you people followed faith and now the facts force us to make a 180 degree- turn and follow you. So now we are getting together.”

That’s what he said about 10 or more years ago. I don’t remember the year exactly. So faith has to be trustworthy faith. It is not about something that is not there or which is exaggerated which we try to believe. That is not really faith. Faith is believing something that is really there. Although we cannot vividly prove it, it is really there. It is about things like qualities, power, etc. These are true qualities, true power, true personalities. Take kindness and compassion. Looking at two different people you can’t easily figure out, whether a person is kind or compassionate or whether they don’t care much. Just looking at them you can’t figure out much. However, when you deal with the person, when the person expresses his or her thoughts, through words, through art, through anything, when the person expresses their internal qualities, then you begin to see whether that person is compassionate or not, whether they care or not.

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When we put faith in somebody who doesn’t have any compassion, then whatever we are doing is wrong. So that’s not faith. It is simply belief and they could mislead and misguide you. But if you put faith in the right person with the right qualities, then that becomes good faith. So one of the criteria of faith is that it has to be true. How do I know? It’s very hard to know. But we have that saying that when you look at people, sometimes you just know. If you live with the person for three days you will begin to know. Through dealing with people, through their expression you begin to know.

When I was a kid I was taught by one of my teachers to look at a hill top and there was smoke. He pointed there and said, “Do you see the smoke over there?” I said, “yes, there is smoke.” He asked, “What does that mean? Where does the smoke come from? Smoke comes from fire. So where there is smoke there is fire. Smoke is the reason for you to know that there is fire up there. Smoke will not come without fire. So from smoke you know there is fire. Also, when you see sea gulls in the air, not moving, that indicates there is water underneath. Likewise when a compassionate person talks and acts you will know there is kindness and compassion and caring.” Vice versa you also know that there is no compassion, that there is anger and that it is not intelligence, but ego. All of them you know by the actions of the people.

That’s why you can know. Simply looking at someone alone may be misleading. So one must put faith into what’s true, not what is false. False inventions mislead people. True things will help people, including yourself. Misguiding people, when you are yourself traveling on the wrong path, you will fall into a ditch and those who are following you are also going to fall into a ditch. Those who are claiming they know better ways, closer to the truth, closer to enlightenment, you will reach to the enlightenment and you will encounter the truth and you will lead others too. That’s why it is important that it is true.

Also it has to be quality, not disadvantage. It has to be the good quality of people. Simple quality – everybody has their own quality, but this has to be good quality. Good quality is such that it is closer to the truth, closer to total knowledge. You can’t be totally correct. That’s very difficult until you attain total enlightenment, but coming closer. Even when you are thinking it has to be 100% correct, that’s very difficult, but it should not be 60% wrong. At least it should be 0 or 50% correct, then 51% and then it builds up. That is good quality.

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Faith is so important and so difficult. It is very to mislead people. We had incidents in our life time, like Jim Jones for example and Heaven’s Gate. These are misled and misguided faith. It is a miserable thing. The good, true spiritual path has been misused and people put their faith into it wrongly. So it is very important to have intelligent faith, at faith that is at least based on solid reasoning. For us we don’t have clairvoyance, we don’t see deep enough. Even if you have some understanding, that pretends to be clairvoyant, it can be misleading. But the truth is that if you think and use logical reasoning, each and every one of us is fortunately born with enough intelligence. Particularly people like you, all of you are very intelligent, educated and kind people. You have your own good mind. Utilize that, don’t make yourself stupid and dull, not knowing what you are doing and dependent to listening to some leaders. A lot of people are happy to do that. Then you don’t have to think, you don’t have to take responsibility. So you make the other person take responsibility.

I have the name of “Rimpoche” that is given to Tibetan incarnate lamas. A lot of people come and ask me, “Should I go to the right or should I go to the left?” “Should I go up or should I go down?” “Should I take this job or that job?” “Should I work or should I not work?” I try to avoid answering all of them. There are some lamas who like to advise on everything. They like to say, “Go east, go west, go north, go south” and all that. That’s their choice. For me, no, I don’t want that. I want you to think – unless there is some emergency situation, like a critical illness or other critical difficulties that is really beyond our limit to think. Then I see if I can think something more. In that case I am willing to render my service, but other than that use your intelligence. You all are great, educated person, intelligent, wonderful and beautiful-looking, great ones. So why don’t you use your intelligence? You have to.

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When you begin to use your intelligence you begin to reason and you will have understanding. You have great judgment. You don’t just feel it, but you have reasons to follow. That is called intelligent faith. For example, in Buddhist tradition we put faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. We give lots of reasons why we put faith in Buddha. Buddha had the total experience of what we are doing and how we are suffering. He went through this, just like us. So he had all the ways to deal with his negative emotional problems and he knew how to deal with his anger. He had experience of how to deal with his hatred. He knew how to deal with his faith. These are the reasons. Then we say, “He has compassion, kindness. He cares for everyone. There is no difference between enemy and friend.” One of the early great Indian mahapandits said,

“Whether somebody is massaging Buddha with sandal wood oil or whether somebody is chipping away at Buddha’s flesh with a chisel, Buddha’s compassion is not any different.”

That’s a little hard for us to take. It is beyond us. But it must be true, right? So these are the reasonings we give. Buddha also tries to prove it by himself. He claimed to have total knowledge. Some critics said, “You don’t know anything.” So they brought burnt wood, like char coal in front of Buddha and asked, “Which is head and which is tail, which is from the stem and which is from branches?” Buddha said, “This is from the branches and this is from the stem.” But no one could tell. Buddha knew but the others didn’t know themselves. So Buddha said, “Let’s not do that. There are 500 people here. Go back to your own homes and bring a little bit of your grains from your home. Put them into a little piece of cloth and make a little bundle. Then bring them to me. But give it a secret mark.” They all did and all 500 of them came and Buddha gave each and every one of them their bundle, saying, “This came from your house and this came from your house” and so on. That way he tried to prove it.

Total knowledge is very difficult to prove, particularly when you have very good, constructive critics. They are very helpful and very good. They are very helpful in many ways. When you are wrong they will point it out. Whether they knowingly or not knowingly point it out, they are helpful.

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They are also very good for giving you discipline. If you have critics, they will keep on critiquing you all the time. So then you have to behave yourself properly. You cannot go crazy or hay-wire, because then the critics will critique you, right? So they are very helpful, though first when you critique you, you won’t like it. But still, they are very good and we should welcome them. Embrace them, try to learn something and improve yourself. Whether the critic is critiquing you with kindness and compassion or whether they want to hurt you it doesn’t matter. If done with compassion, that’s very welcome. But even if it is done to hurt you, even then welcome it. In my case I will say it is helpful. There have been times, many years ago, you don’t know what you are doing, so sometimes critics are very helpful. These are the reasons you can use to figure out what it is. When the logical reasons put your faith strongly then you have it. That faith becomes very stable, unshakable. Secondly, that faith will give you qualities. The early Buddhist teachers say that faith is like a mother, a mother who gives birth to the children, a mother who looks after the children and brings them to maturity. That’s what faith does on the spiritual path. It gives birth, helps to mature and build knowledge. It builds quality, reasoning and everything. So it is like the ground that provides a place for trees, mountains and lakes can remain.

It is like the mother who gives birth to children and matures and helps and guides them and nurtures them, brings them up, matures and educates them. Education is two: the nature of education and the education you learn. Some of them we may call “gifted”. But it is what you brought with yourself naturally. A part of them you brought from your previous life and it is experience. A part of it comes from your parents giving you a good example in their life. In addition you are learning. So this is how our knowledge and education is built. But some knowledge has good quality and some doesn’t.

Quality is personality, the individual. Many of them you have brought from your previous life, but quite a lot come from the examples you see in dealing with your life.

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We have a teaching in Tibet. The influence of friends is so powerful. Honestly. I don’t remember very clearly now. But there were two guys from one village. One of them was a very nice guy and didn’t eat meat and didn’t drink alcohol. The other guy was a little loose, ate meat. That’s very common in Tibet, no doubt about it. Not eating meat is very rare. It is a very good quality. As for alcohol, a lot of people drink and a lot of people don’t. Drinking alcohol is considered not that good in Tibetan culture as well as from the Buddhist background. In Buddhism that is considered very important. It is not the alcohol itself, but the intoxication. That makes your mind unstable. You will lose awareness. That’s the problem, not necessarily the alcohol is the problem.

So one of these guys was very good and didn’t eat meat and didn’t drink. The other ate meat and drank a lot of alcohol. They went away for a month. A big lama was teaching in some big city somewhere. They went together from the village. Then, one guy camped with a nice group of people. So he was the one with the habit of eating meat and drinking alcohol. But in the group he came into nobody drank alcohol and nobody ate meat. He wanted to drink and he wanted to eat meat, but it was a little embarrassing. So he couldn’t. Then day by day he got used to it. For a whole month he didn’t get meat and alcohol. He could then live without meat and alcohol and became quite a good person.

On the other hand the good guy was living with a group of drinking people who cooked meat. So he kept on eating and drinking with them. A month later these two came back to the village and the good, well-behaved guy became the other way round and the other guy didn’t drink alcohol or ate meat anymore. He became very good. So it changed.

People can change. Change is because of the company you keep. The power of companions is so important. If your companions are all good, educated people you will also pick up on that and become nice. If your companions always eat meat and drink and don’t get up in the morning and then sleep till 5 in the afternoon and then get up and have a night life, you will also become like that. It is the power of companions. There are so many factors in our life. That’s why, from the faith – point of view I can’t fly around and talk so much. But faith comes from reasoning. You see the reasoning and you find that truth. Then you put your faith in it. Faith also does something else. When you really have good faith, good devotion, good dedication, that gives you something else. It makes your mind clear.

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Often our mind is a little disturbed and cloudy with all kinds of emotions. Maybe you dreamt last night and maybe you still have yesterday’s hang over and you didn’t get up or maybe it is your anger hang over or obsession left over. If there is something that is not very clear, then you remember the qualities of your object of refuge or whoever you have faith in. That remembering will give you a little peace and harmony and softness and gentleness within you. It gives you a little more clarity.

The early traditional Tibetan teachings say that there is some kind of jewel that you put into impure water and it will separate the impurities from the water and take them out and the water will become clear. That’s almost like today’s filter. You can put water through a filter and you get pure water, free of all the substances you want to filter out. You get very clean, good, clear water. Faith does that within you. So do not deprive yourself of the opportunity to filter your mind through faith. It is easy. If you have strong faith in your guru or Buddha then meditate on that. That will filter your mind through and that filter will take away those impure thoughts.

The first time you do that it may not work so well. The second time it will improve, the third time it will be better and then get better the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh time and so on. People like me try to go that every day two, three times. I think of Buddha as inseparable from my own guru and my own yidam – Lama Buddha Vajradhara. Then, if you do that your mind goes through the thinking of Lama Buddha Vajradhara and that is like filtering your mind, taking away those impure things like anger and so on. This is a great thing for us. So don’t just dismiss it and don’t just say, “I don’t believe in faith.”

I am not telling you to have blind faith. I am telling you to have intelligent faith. Faith is necessary, like the mother, like the ground. It is the source of all good qualities, but it is intelligent faith, not simply a belief system. In certain cases, like for old persons like me, who don’t really have a lot of intelligence to think or who don’t know how to read – there are some people like that – a simple, right belief may be able to substitute intelligent faith, but you have to be really careful. Other than that, people like you, young, beautiful, intelligent, educated, use your intelligent mind, analyze critically and figure it out.

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But you have to know where to stop too. There are some people who only know how to critique and they cannot take any advantage throughout their life. They are always critiquing and so life goes for the critiquing and they cannot take anything valid. That’s also not right. you have to know when to critique. You critique for your own benefit. You don’t do it for the benefit of the others, just because you want to push them down or overcome them. You only critique for your own good, your own benefit. Then, when you are convinced, you have to take it in. Otherwise, your life will go critiquing and then the time is over and the Lord of Yama comes and says, “Hey, you have to go.” In that case it becomes too late and a waste of life. So you should know how to critique and you should know when to conclude and then you should utilize that and take all the advantage. That will make your life richer and better.

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Next week I will definitely see you from Ann Arbor, in the middle of the summer retreat. I am thinking of talking about extraordinary compassion, extraordinary bodhimind – along with wisdom. I am looking forward to seeing you in Ann Arbor next week. Thank you and have a good week.

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