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20130901GRAAETB26

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Good morning to you and welcome to today’s Sunday talk. As we have been saying in the essence of Tibetan Buddhism we have dealt with the motivation and very strongly recommended love, compassion and not only just love and compassion alone, but ultimate, unconditional, unlimited love and compassion. Because of these two conditions the individual is driven to seek total knowledge. Your responsibility of helping yourself and others is limitless. So one needs to know how to handle it, how to deal with it and that’s why total knowledge is necessary for an ultimate achievement of contemplative efforts. You really want to help, so there are limitless things that you need to do. Without knowhow that will be difficult. Therefore, whether you accept it theoretically or not, if you are aiming for contemplative results you need total enlightenment, otherwise there will be a time that you have to say: what can I do for you? That’s why total knowledge is our final goal – with compassion and love combined. It is not just for your own sake that you need enlightenment. You need it because you have limitless requirements of helping yourself and others. That’s why that motivation was recommended.

Within that recommendation we mentioned that simply wishing to have total knowledge is different from working for it and engaging in actions towards building that total knowledge. Wishing is great, but the wish alone doesn’t really do much. I gave you the example of the Indian movie that I used to watch in Tibet during the early to mid 50s. A prince and princess tried to have a good time, lying on a little platform in a garden where the grapes were hanging low, yet they didn’t put in the efforts of grabbing the grapes, nor did the grapes drop down by themselves. At the end they didn’t get them, because they simply wished and just lay there.

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Likewise here, if you don’t put in any effort, but simply wish, then you can wish till the cows come home. Nothing will happen, as you know. So we recommend something action-oriented to do – that kind of motivation. So what to do? That’s not only action here. Lots of people ask me, ‘I am very interested and I know it is going to help me. Where do I begin? How do I do it?” If one individual asks me while I am walking in the door or while on the road or somewhere, I just don’t know what to say other than: be kind and be gentle. That much you can say. A – there is no time to explain and B – if you don’t explain properly it becomes a disservice rather than a service. So the question still remains: what to do?

So we look at what Buddha said:

Avoid all negativities, build positivities and tame your mind. This is Buddhism.

I even call that bus stop Buddhism. It is simply saying: don’t do things that you are not expected to do. Do the things we hope you will do but tame your mind.

We talked quite in detail about avoiding negativities, what they are, why they are negative and we did that through the ten negativities and within that, specifically, the three poisons. That’s quite good enough. Then the second statement is: build positivity. We laid out on the table eleven different positivities and we tried to identify each of them and see what their benefits are and looked at the disadvantages of the negativities and roughly we finished all that by last Sunday. That’s including non-violence. I just remember I was concentrating on the third statement: tame your mind. But I had a little difficulty to think about it for myself. I will talk that too, but I remember that last Sunday I didn’t really complete talking about non-violence. We did talk about it, but not complete. I need to talk to you a little more.

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If remember correctly, I did identify what non-virtue is and I do like to say some more important points. Originally, I did talk to you about the non-violence as having to be the mind that really becomes part of non-hatred. It is part of non-hatred, because any activity influenced by hatred has a very strong chance of bringing violence. Interruption, disturbance, discomfort – all of that will cause anger. But anger is also very connected with jealousy, with ego-grasping and the superiority-inferiority complex. All of them are very much interconnected. I think, “This person is insulting me”, even though the person is not insulting me, but I read this as an insult for me and personally, and will say, “Who else are they insulting? There is nobody else. They look down on me.” The person may just be making their own personal experience or they may be making a general statement but we are very good at picking it up. Some people will play with that.

There is a funny saying in Tibetan. Let me paraphrase it in English, but first I may have to say it in Tibetan. That will benefit those of you who know Tibetan:

Tam dri ma jen te/ nang le tong la phang

Pho nong jen chi gi / Dok kar la drup

I throw these dirty, smelly words in the air

Somebody who is with guilt will pick it up and own it

So somebody throws a few words into a group, and whoever has a guilty conscience will pick that up and challenge or get angry or show symptoms of dislike. That is how our mind really functions on the basis of either the superiority – or inferiority complex. Plus obsession, plus hatred and that will bring both, hatred as well as obsession. Like and dislike both will be brought in. Then your mind is really going to engage in that.

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So when I say “mind” my problem is mind. When it says “tame your mind” I really need to deal with it. That is my problem. Anyway, not now, but after this I will talk to you about it.

So when there is hatred, what will happen? As I said last Sunday, you may say “boo” and the other person will use the f-word immediately as a reaction. The f-card has been thrown immediately. That’s how hatred begins. When that exchange didn’t settle it, then it is down to hitting. That’s what happened two days ago in the Congress of the Taiwan government. Everybody was throwing chairs and tables at each other. They literally picked up chairs and hit them on other members’ heads. We saw that on TV. So words are not giving enough effect, so you have to take action. You have nothing else to give, so you throw chairs. Khruschev banged his shoed on the table in the United Nations, remember? That’s the anger and hatred, which always brings violence. That violence will not only be verbal. Verbally you will exchange words. You say one thing, I will say another thing, you say two more, I say ten more, so you 20 more and I say 40 more. That’s not going to reach anywhere, so in between that it gets physical and there is also pride. “How can you insult me? I am much stronger than you, so whatever you say, I will show you – here you go!” And there is a big punch. That is the hatred side. That is on the small individual scale. The bigger nations – look what they did. It is also hatred. Bush hated Saddam. Saddham hated Bush. Bush hates Saddam, Saddham hates Bush. So what did they do? They quarreled, they fought. They used their forces, and hundreds of thousands of Iraquis died and a lot of Americans died. And what improved? Nothing. It is the same old stuff today, decades later. That’s what it is. The Shiites are fighting against the Sunnis and vice versa. And they have been fighting for centuries. In the last decades we internationalized their sectarian disagreements. We disturbed the people all over the world. There were times when the first thing you heard on the radio was “Today, 20 people died”, “Today 30 people died” or 40, or 100 people died. These were the normal headlines.

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That’s what violence will do. That violence is coming from nowhere but hatred. That hatred is nothing but coming from anger. Anger is coming from irritation and irritation is the individual feeling insulted, thinking, “You have insulted me.” Remember, the photo of the Senior Bush was painted on the floor in the entrance of the Al Rashid Hotel in Baghdad and everybody going there had to walk over his face. Naturally, the junior Bush didn’t like that. That’s how it is. I am not saying that was the only cause. It was more than that, of course. But these are temporary causes, contributing conditions and all of them will come. That’s how hatred comes. That is what violence does.

Therefore avoid the non-virtuous mind of hatred. When hatred is blocked out, what do you apply? Nothing but compassion. We have to know that. A lot of people say that if there is no anger, there is no fire. When there is no fire, there is no force in your actions. That’s what people say. But they are wrong. The fire of anger and hatred is only strong temporarily. It cannot be sustained. It cannot be sustained. It will be strong, but then it disappears. Compassion on the other hand, if used as force, that will not disappear, but constantly, continuously work. It may not be so forceful as as fire, but it is constant efforts and there will be no burn-out, there will be no tiredness. There will be no dropping out. Compassion will make sure that whatever you start you complete.

That compassion will continuously support and build non-violent actions against violence. What does that do? This will be active in actions influenced by compassion and even if you are insulted in the middle of that you will not challenge that by insulting the other person back. We criticize people who insult anybody. We think it is pathetic and terrible. But if you act the same way as the pathetic people do, these miserable, horrible people, then what is the difference between you and them? See, if someone pushes you and you push back, there is no difference. If someone pushes you, ignore them and don’t challenge them, but walk away.

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There is beauty in that. Lots of people don’t realize that is beauty. They may say, “He is a whimp” or “he has no balls”. Whoever thinks that, let them think and let them say it. But you are not a whimp. You are kind. You just don’t want yourself give in to the control of violence and hatred and anger. That’s what really non-violence is all about. Therefore, non-violence, from the mental point of view, there is not a single place for you to think of revenge, like thinking, “I want to teach you a lesson” and “I want to prove to you that I am not what they think I am”. All those are part of violence and not part of non-violence. In other words, non-violence is very patience-oriented, not compassion-oriented alone. Also it is very aware of the situation. If you don’t know what’s happening, that’s not non-violence. That is just naivety or stupidity. Non-violence is when you know that person is insulting you. You keep yourself superior over the other who is engaging in violence. That is non-violence. Non-violence is not going to harm anybody.

Normally, we say “this person is so gentle, he can’t even harm a fly.” That gentleness is the beauty of non-violence. It is not afraid to challenge, but doesn’t want to, knowingly. This is also in essence Buddha’s teaching. Buddha himself says that

Sö pa ka tub sö pa dam pa ne

Nyang gen de pa cho kyi gyal wei sung

Patience is so difficult,

but total knowledge always acknowledges it as one of the best efforts

rab tu jung wa zhen la nö pa dang

zhen la tse wa ge tsog ma yin no

Those who are admiring me, who are my friends, my followers

Should never harm anybody. If you do, you are not my follower.

Buddha says you are not a spiritual practitioner then, if you harm others. He emphasizes that so much. I did mention last week to you that during the Buddha’s life time, his followers were given a little piece of cotton cloth for collecting water, not because they were afraid of disease. The cotton cloth is not going to protect you from the bacteria in the different kinds of water. But they would give you that because they wanted to make sure you didn’t harm any creatures in there, whether they are flies or water bugs or whatever. Don’t boil them, don’t drink them. That’s one of the signs how much attention is paid to non-violence as essence of Buddha’s teaching.

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Also when they are teaching and explaining, they say that

If somebody is insulting you, do not re-insult them.

If somebody is showing a temper to you, do not reply with a temper tantrum.

If somebody hits you do not meet the challenge by hitting back.

If somebody is mentally poking painfully into your weak spot, don’t do the same thing to them.

That’s called the four dharmic type of activities. You do hear in the Judeo-Christian tradition: if they hit you on the right cheek, turn your left cheek, if they hit you on the left cheek, turn your right cheek. In Buddhism, when they say: don’t hit back, it doesn’t mean to turn the other cheek. If you keep turning the other cheek they could be non-stop hitting you and sometimes their anger is so strong they may damage you and if they are really bad they may shoot you. You may lose your life. You don’t want to do that. So use your intelligence and avoid the situation, or escape, run away. Let them call you a coward, doesn’t matter. You will know who the real coward is, if you refuse to engage in violence activities. This is one of the most important points. I even talked to you last time what difference non-violence makes. Originally, it is not only Buddha, but a lot of great early western teachers and thinkers have introduced it. Buddha introduced it as part of Buddhism. In India they picked it up very well. I told you earlier that Gandhi picked up non-violence. He was a great lawyer, you know that. He was not necessarily anti-apartheid first. He was trying to very strongly copy the British raj. He was a lawyer and wore a three-piece suit and tried to be equal to any Caucasians. He was sitting in a train in South Africa. The train conductor kicked him out, because he was not white and he couldn’t sit in the compartment with whites. He refused to go and there was a physical fight and he got thrown out of the train and got beat up and kicked in the process.

Then Gandhi gradually thought that he couldn’t challenge violence with violence. Non-violence was the only way to challenge the powerful British empire, which controlled almost the whole world in the east, west, south and north. They used to say: the sun never sets on the crown of England. Gandhi and a bunch of little Indians running around in the dust of India, how could they challenge that? So he found the weapon of non-violence, so powerful that it brought down even that powerful empire of Britain. India obtained independence. Also Dr. Martin Luther King used non-violence to bring civil rights. All this great power was challenged by non-violence, not by violence. With violence, it is gun against gun and it is about who has a better gun or more guns and who kills more. That will never end. It will never end a conflict, particularly if the conflict is based on race, religion or something like that – unless the total race or religion is wiped out. And that is not going to happen. So it is only non-violence that works. You can see it in history. Presently it is the same thing. People work with non-violence to achieve whatever they can.

Non-violence is very difficult to dismiss. It is very simple, but not very easy to dismiss, because it is real and it is true. It is difficult. You have to struggle, no doubt. If you don’t, you don’t get it. I even learnt that people treat me much better than they used to, because I have a handicap sticker on my vehicle. I am handicapped. People treat me better. That is not only just kindness of the people alone, but the handicapped people have struggled. They even climbed over the rotunda of the US Congress and they chained each other up and they struggled and as a result the law of the land has acknowledged them and those privileges are actually earned privileges. They are small, but they are the result of non-violence. Anything, everywhere you look, non-violence will achieve something. We will make some improvement, whereas all the violence will go wrong, whether it is individual, one on one or collective. Besides that, remember, the essence of the spiritual practice is non-violence. Violence has no room. Those of us who are interested in contemplative activities, those of us who want to improve the world and the environment and who like to have equal rights, for everything non-violence is the base. Violence has no room, no place. Therefore, if you are not materialistic, if you are one of the people who think that mind is more important than matter, even if you just have an open mind, you should never entertain violence.

Non-violence is the essence a lot of spiritual movements, east or west. The Judeo-Christian tradition accepts it, the Hindu-Buddhist tradition accepts it. Whatever it may be, those spiritual paths are non-violent in principle. They are also the principle of the individuals. If you keep your mind in non-violence, if you keep your life in that everybody will love you – those who come to know you. If you have violence within you everybody will be afraid of you. Which one would you choose? People being afraid of you or people loving you? Would you choose love or hate?

Buddha is one of the most outstanding examples of non-violence. I may have to say this to you about Buddha’s compassion. One of the earlier Indian masters said:

Tsen den ti wu tsung ba la

Chag der che ne jö pa yin

When someone with a chisel, chops pieces of arm and leg

Or someone gives you a sandalwood oil massage,

Buddha’s compassion doesn’t react differently

That’s because there is no violence in Buddha. There is no room for violence in the mind of a Buddha, also in the mind of Jesus and a great many people such as Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, HH Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela. They all do not entertain violence. They love non-violence. They engage in non-violence. They preach to everybody non-violence. That’s because it doesn’t hurt anybody, it doesn’t harm anybody. Whatever they do will only serve and help and that’s why this is so important.

Both these Sundays I have engaged in this topic. Maybe I have repeated some of what I have said last Sunday, my apologies. I wish that you all have great non-violence in your own principle in your life. Take home the non-violence. Give it to your wife, your companion, your children. Live your life within non-violence. You can do no better. This is one of the most important actions in life, though it happens to be the 11th virtue.

So now you know. Thank you

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