Archive Result

78

20130825GRGRETB25

00:00

Good morning to you. As I said earlier, this is prerecorded in Ann Arbor, before I left [for Malaysia]. Today, as we normally do, the first thing is motivation. So the motivation you heard all the time. It is not just an ordinary motivation. That’s not good enough, so it is recommended to be bodhimind. That is the mind that seeks total enlightenment, which is the ultimate spiritual achievement of the individual. It is total knowledge – like Buddha, knowing everything. There is no such thing that you don’t know. There is nothing beyond that, nothing more than that, which any individual can achieve. Look in the past, all the enlightened ones or omniscient ones, those with total knowledge, the buddhas – all of them have achieved that level. No one ever achieved anything better than that.

This spiritual path is such – whether we can make it or not – that we are aiming at that highest achievement. That is our goal, our purpose. Some people may say, “That is useless, because you are not going to get it anyway. We are not capable. There are so many difficulties, it is not going to happen.” But I don’t think anyone can say that it is not ever going to happen. No scientist has ever proved that this is not going to happen. No scientist or anybody ever contradicted omniscience, all-knowingness and all of that. No one has ever proved that it is non-existent. They may not accept it, but have not proved that it doesn’t exist. So you can never say never. One should not be quick to judge and say it’s not there. So we are aiming for that. In our life we will go towards that as much as we can reach, however far we will reach and hopefully, we will continue thereafter without interruption in our future lives. That’s why this is the goal and the motivation.

Also, the bodhimind is simply wishing to become fully enlightened for the service of all living beings, not only just all human beings, but all living beings. It is what Mahayana Buddhism calls the highest possible achievement of self and others’ purposes. The self-purpose is that an individual can get nothing better than that. The purpose of others is that this is the only level where you are able to help and serve the living beings without effort. With much less effort you will be able to achieve much more.

0:05

That’s why this is ultimately wonderful for oneself and for others. It is the accomplishment of one’s and others’ purposes. No one can do anything better than that. That’s why we emphasize this motivation. And that should also not just be wishing. We begin with the wish, no doubt about it. But simply wishing alone might not reach anywhere, as we all know.

When I was a kid, I do remember that I saw an Indian movie in Tibet. I remember it was called Anagari. That’s in Hindi. There was a movie hall in Lhasa. This was in the late 1940s – early 1950s. This movie hall was named di ki wö nang, which means “Luminous Joy”. People joked and called it “luminous wallet”. People would say, “We are going to see a movie.” – “Where?” – “At Luminous Joy” – “Oh, you mean ‘luminous wallet!” That made a lot of money for the owners, that’s why. There I saw this movie Anagari many times, probably I might have seen it 15, 20 times. This movie owner was a relation of mine and we got this box free. I could take 2,3 people with me. So I saw this many times.

In that movie, a couple was lying down in a beautiful place, where ripe grapes were hanging over them. In typical Indian movie style, there was singing and music and they were opening their mouth, hoping that the grapes would fall in their mouths. I didn’t know Hindi at that time, so I didn’t know exactly what the story in this movie was. We could only interpret the actions we saw on screen. That’s why even today I don’t need to see movies from beginning to end. I don’t even know the titles of many movies I watched or anything, but I get in and whatever is going on there I can interpret that myself – unless it is very complicated, like 3,4 or 5 events are simultaneously taking place and they can’t show it simultaneously, so they rotate them. Other than that, when I come into the middle of the movie I can still enjoy and function, because I was used to watching these Indian movies.

0:10

So in the movie Anagari the couple lay down and kept on singing and the grapes were right above them, but they didn’t put in the efforts of getting them. Neither they lifted their heads nor their hands to pull them down. My interpretation was this: when you hope to gain something, no matter whatever you do, you may pray, you may sing, you may scream or whatever you do, as long as you don’t put in the right effort, the grapes are not going to fall into your mouth. It is not going to happen. That’s the message I took from that as a kid.

Very similar to this, wishing for enlightenment is simply a wish. You can keep on wishing. It is a wonderful thought, a nice virtue and it does give you good karma, but that’s about it. You are going to achieve nothing. So you do need action. You do need to eat those grapes to find out how good they are, how sweet they are, how wonderful they are – or how sour they are and all of that. You will only know through the taste, not by looking at them alone. You can guess the smell and taste, but you cannot have confirmation. That will only come when you taste that grape.

Likewise, wishing alone does nothing. You have to act, you have to do something. That’s why I talked to you almost every Sunday about the wishing bodhimind and the action bodhimind. It always begins with wishing, but action is ultimately a must. Otherwise you just keep on wishing. It is almost the same as praying. We pray that this may happen and that may happen. But that’s not necessarily anything confirmed. You can pray to grow a tremendous amount of beautiful, wonderful trees out of rock. You can keep on praying, but most probably this is not going to happen. We know that. I am not criticizing prayers. I am criticizing wishing alone. That will not be able to give you results. Particularly when you yourself is capable you have got to do something to make it. What do you do? Every Sunday I repeat this:

Avoid all negativities, build all positives and tame your mind – this is Buddhism.

We talked in great detail about negativities. Basically we talked about the 10 negativities or non-virtues. These are the three by physical body, three by mind and four by speech. Particularly we continuously talked about the three poisons, obsession, hatred and ignorance. We not only talked that at the level of negativities, but also completely during the virtues [non-attachment, non-hatred, non-ignorance]. We have built this quite reasonably.

0:15

Now we also have to build positivity or virtue. We have been talking about the eleven virtues, beginning with faith and finally, today is non-violence. That’s the eleventh virtue.

For the last two or three Sundays, I raised what qualifies non-violence. Non-violence is something so many people talk about and are interested in. So many people are committed to maintain non-violence within themselves, in the environment, with other people and with everything. We really have very, very strong dealings and interest and find non-violence important. The other choice, violence, is so horrible. We don’t have to repeat. We see it. For the last decade or even more, what has violence done? Earlier, during the periods of kings there were lots of wars too. People got killed and they made people’s lives miserable, no doubt. But there were no weapons of mass destruction, because our knowledge was not that high then. The knowledge is such a thing, you can use it for better purposes or worse purposes. I am not sure if I am right, but I have heard when Einstein figured out atomic energy, and people decided to make atom bombs, he wrote an open letter, saying,

I created the use of great energy and power for the betterment of people’s lives, and here we are, using them for total destruction.

We know what happened when atomic bombs were used in World War II. That war has ended and maybe it was for a greater purpose to use these bombs, however, it caused great misery, not only during that people, but for generations thereafter, even today we have the effect in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since this mass destruction the world is under threat. The existence of the entire world has become so much more unsure. Anyone can threaten anybody. We went through the Cold War, with the USSR on the one hand and the US on the other side. The atomic war heads were pointing at each other and Khrushchev went crazy at the United Nations and after him Brezhnev kept on saying “nyet, nyet, nyet”. The fear is deep, pumping in our heart, all because of the possibility of mass destruction. It is a very high level of violence.

0:20

So when there is violence it is very hard to meet that with another violence. It gets more destructive, more harmful, more difficult. We all know that. Many people say and believe that the bad guns have to be met by good guns. But whether you meet bad guns with good guns or not, the result is killing. The result is somebody losing their lives, either you or me. That is really what it is, even if it is just a single gun. And with weapons of mass destruction, how horrible they are! People are now using drones. Somebody who is living in a very comfortable house or basement and killing people thousands of miles away, by pushing a button. This is the ultimate, huge level of violence. Guns meeting guns is violence. Individuals meeting each other with harsh words is violence. Then come harsh actions. And they increase. I show you an attitude of dislike and because of that you show me an even stronger disliking attitude. Next I will give you the finger and you use the f-word. That’s how it goes between two individuals, without the use of weapons.

The next level is when you touch weapons and that becomes bigger and bigger and finally we all know that our wonderful world, our wonderful environment, the wonderful thing we call our life is at the point of destruction by ourselves, through our own weapons. That’s what violence does. Look back in history. Every challenge, every disturbance we met with violence. In the 18th century everything was war, and much of that based on religion. The 19th century was a little better, but not much. Then the 20th century was not much better either. Now we have the 21st century and everything is much stronger. Technology is much more, every equipment is much more powerful and human beings’ thinking and policies are much more sophisticated, not so straight forward.

0:25

All this creates great doom in the world. Yet, there are some lights within that. There are expressions of non-violence. Non-violence was propagated by Buddha in India, and he was followed by many other great early masters, east and west in many places. Finally, even Gandhi took non-violence as so important. He was leading the Indian struggle for independence against the British empire. Those of you who are my age or older knew that “the sun never sets on the Crown of England”. The British empire controlled almost the whole world. When the sun set in the east it would rise in the west, and wherever that was, the crown of England was hit with sunshine. This powerful nation was challenged by Gandhi, a very simple Indian guy, wearing a dhoti, walking with a goat, stick in hand. Finally, he was able to bring independence to India.

Gandhi was educated and the British, no matter how snobbish, were educated and they understood and they didn’t just crush all the people. At some time they did, but mostly not and that’s why Gandhi became successful. In 1947 India became an independent nation, though whatever Gandhi wished for did not come out. Independence was achieved but unity between religions, between Hindus and Muslims, was not achieved. India was divided into Pakistan and Hindustan.

Non-violence is the hardest way to get results. It is very difficult, but harmless for people. That’s why the wise, the truly intelligent choose non-violence over violence. If you use violence, there will be nothing but killing and death. The result of violence is loss of life. That’s about it.

Buddha calls non-violence out as one of the 11 virtues. What is non-violence? Buddha replies:

Non-violence is part of non-hatred.

0:30

That means it has no hatred. It is against hatred. One of the major components of non-violence is non-hatred. Plus it is the mind of compassionate ones. Plus it doesn’t challenge people because you don’t like them. You can challenge intelligently, intellectually, because you are looking for truth, but you just cannot challenge because you dislike the person or the way the person functions. That is Buddha’s reply: non-violence is part of non-hatred and compassion. You can challenge but you have to understand that it is not violent challenge. You don’t physically challenge. Anyway, it is the mind that has no hatred. It sees suffering people and wishes them to be free from suffering, which means it is part of patience too. You are not harming anybody by threatening their life. It is definitely very powerful patience.

Patience is perfect and pure, but again, very difficult. In some teachings Buddha’s followers say:

There is no such difficult virtue as patience.

Taking hardship with patience is very difficult, however, it is very important. That will give you the ultimate result and it is the best effort in order to achieve total enlightenment. That’s what Buddha said. Buddha also said continuously:

Those who are following me, if they harm or hurt others, I do not consider them my followers.

I may to say the words in Tibetan to make sure

Sö pa ka dup sö pa dam da ni

Nyang gen de pa cho kyi da wei sung

Rab tu jung wa she la nö pa dang

Zhen la tso was getruk ma yin no

So when they are hurting people, they are definitely not good followers of mine. Buddha said that very clearly. Even if you look at those monk disciples of Buddha, you see that in the early days they would collect water from naturally flowing rivers or whatever and they always would carry a little strainer. It was not for hygienic reasons but to avoid harming any living beings within the water you were taking and drinking. Any living creature in there will not get hurt. That’s what the strainer was for, for protecting the lives of those creatures. So Buddha’s idea of virtue is such that you really go away from harming others, from doing anything that hurts anybody. That’s what it is. Because of that reason, the advice given by Buddha and followed by his disciples is this:

Even when you get angry, don’t use that to challenge anger.

Even if you get insulted, don’t return the insult to others.

Even if they hit you with something, don’t hit them back.

Even if they abuse you, don’t abuse them.

These four are the four virtues. It is slightly different from what we know in the west where we have [the Christian saying]: if they hit you on the right cheek, turn your left cheek. That’s slightly different. Here they say: if they hit you, don’t hit back. But they don’t say to turn your cheek right and left. The reason why I say that is this: if you turn your cheek right and left, you may be sitting there and they may be hitting you all the time. Slapping right and left may not be so bad alone, but that may cause damage to you. So you have to use your intelligence and without challenging them, do whatever you have to do. You may have to run away. You may have to draw their attention differently or do something else. So you have to be intelligent enough to meet their challenges without challenging them with the same thing. If you do that, then there is nothing interesting there, because you are both doing the same thing. We will justify that, “I bore it and bore it and then I couldn’t bear it any longer, so I killed him.”

That’s what some of us will say, but that’s not fair. Don’t do it. But intelligently, don’t harm yourself, but somehow escape. That is necessary.

0:40

There are so many things regarding the non-virtues. I could really say so many things, but it is very common knowledge, no mystery, what violence is and what non-violence is. We talked about the physical violence so far, but there is more than that. There is much more than physical violence, such as verbal and emotional violence and abuse. All kinds of things are there which are equally hurtful and painful. Sometimes it is even part of the culture that people do that. The young, intelligent people, such as yourselves, may not do it. But if you look at the older society, sometimes they look down on women or kids or different races. Racism, etc, are actually violence. How sophisticated and detailed it is, you all know. You always have to be aware of it and move through it. Particularly, when you are moving through with violence, sometimes some culture will do something funny. Some abuses may not be recognized as abuse by a certain culture. We see it all the time everywhere. But you, an intelligent, great human being, have to be aware of it. If we don’t have the awareness it is our fault.

Even if you have awareness and you cannot manage and you are overtaken by addiction, then it is the addiction’s fault, which is our fault. We let ourselves be controlled by our addictions. So it doesn’t matter whose fault it is. It should never occur. We have to convince ourselves and make sure we don’t leave the dirty activities of violence for future generations to clean up. But that’s what we are doing today and it’s not right. It is our mess and we have to clean it up. We have to make it right. I have to make it right, it is my mess. Whatever it takes, I have to do it. Likewise, it is our mess, we have to take responsibility. Making it right is one of the important points of non-violence. Within non-violence, sometimes there is violence too. If you go into detail, there is.

Even though the Gandhi movement totally tried to be non-violent, there were self-sacrifices many times. Watch the movie “Gandhi” you will see how many self-sacrifices they made. That is also violence. Similarly, harming yourself and harming others, is all violence. During the Vietnam war, Vietnamese monks burnt themselves for the sake of the poor people, for the sake for their religion, for the sake of themselves. And it is not that this is not happening today. It is happening. Whatever the purpose may be, the means should not justify the end. This is very dangerous. Many of us would like to justify the means because of the expected end result. That is sometimes very abusive and becomes sometimes very violent.

0:46

It is done in the name of non-violence, in the name of a good purpose, good reason. We all have to be very alert to that. In other words, one should not sacrifice other people for your own personal comfort as well as making people suffer for saving one’s own embarrassment. All of those are violence to me. If you look that way, it is very difficult for us to be free of violence. Violence comes here and there and it is like the iron dust picked up by a magnet. All of them will go to the magnet. As long as we have ego functioning within us we pick up all of those, like a magnet picks up metal dust. Like that. This has been harmful, is harmful and will be harmful. So one should be very aware of it, as much as possible. It can never be perfect straight away. But do as much as you can, try to improve day by day, because this is the essence of spiritual practice. This is the essence of virtue. This is the foundation of all development, joy, happiness.

We always make mistakes here, because of our addictions. This is how addictions are harmful. They are really cutting the life tree of spirituality within the individual. The root of your spirituality, the life of spirituality is severed by violence. Although it looks like you are hitting somebody, you are the winner, but in reality we are losing. Whoever is engaging in violence in any form is losing and severing the life of spiritual development.

0:50

So it is really important. If I can, I will come back and talk to you about non-violence again, but I will see that down the road. But please remember, violence is not simply using weapons. It is not simply physical. There is mental, spiritual, emotional, physical, verbal violence. In every part of our life there is violence and abuse. Luckily today everybody at least knows that rape is considered not good. There are cultures in which people do rape so much and they think they are doing great. It is a matter of laughing about it to them. But all of them are violence. Violence comes in a variety of different ways. We entertain them with a variety of excuses and finally, it is severing the head of your spiritual tree. If it is like a banana tree and you lose your head once it won’t grow again. So it is really important. You need awareness, alertness, conscientiousness and we should bring them all together and keep our violence down. 0:52:28

Thank you