Archive Result

20131027GRAAETB33

00:00

Good morning to you. As you know this is “Essence of Tibetan Buddhism” and I am Gelek Rimpoche, hosting you. Last week we very basically said that the essence of Tibetan Buddhism actually is to make a difference to the individual in the sense that we want to improve our own mind and mental level, and thereby our way of thinking, functioning and thereby our character and our destination. We are changing from the addiction to negative emotions to positive ones. More or less probably or definitely this is going to happen. If the motivation goes in a positive way the result will definitely be positive.

0:01:58.1

If the motivation goes in a negative way the result will be negative. Negative karma, negative activity, brings suffering and positive emotion, positive influence, positive active, positive karma, brings a good and great life – and lives, as well as benefitting others, in the sense of an influence on either the causal or resultant level of their life. That’s how we can make a difference.

0:02:57.0

All of these really depend on how our mental attitude is. That’s why we tame the mind. We did talk for a long time on that. We talked about the mind quite in detail. Again, I like to emphasize: mind is such that there is no physical shape, no color, it is not tangible or touchable or paintable, even. Great artists may be able to present mind in pointing form in some different ways. But that is not like painting a mountain or an ocean or a valley, human being, animal or anything like that. This is different. Maybe water or ocean or sky may be able to contribute something. But in reality it is intangible, yet it is lucid nature, lucid in the sense that anything the mind accepts is adopted as part of the mind. That’s why the idea of saying comes from: it will become your character, your destiny.

0:04:55.1

When you repeatedly touch and project and repeatedly accept that, somehow mind adopts that and then it becomes your destiny. The mind functions that way. That’s why it is a great asset for us. We can switch it into virtue or into non-virtue. Our addictions try to switch it into non-virtue, our contemplative efforts will try to put them into the right direction, compassion – and wisdom oriented, rather than ignorance, hatred or obsession – oriented. That’s what I am talking about when I say right or wrong, or black or white or good or bad. That’s what I am referring to here particularly here on the mental level. Changing the mind in the nature of that. That’s exactly what I am referring to.

0:06:39.2

That is mind. What does mind do? It buys and becomes a basic thing. I don’t want to say “basic structure”, but it is the basic nature that the mind will take and it adopts it into the part of its nature. That is the mind.

0:07:24.1

Now there are mental faculties. What are they? There are some parts and pieces of mind with specific purposes and specific responsibilities. They come out of the mind. That’s why the mental faculties are called sem jung in Tibetan. Sem is mind. Jung means arising. So it means they come out from sem. So they come from the mind. They are parts of the mind. Particularly, there are 52 of them. I don’t intend to touch on all 52 together in these hour-long talks on a couple of Sundays. But there are certain important ones. There are the 5 omnipresent mental faculties. They always remain, they are always there. The mind will not function without.

0:09:31.8

So those omnipresent mental faculties are always present. Why are they present? Wherever the principal mind is those five have to be there. If even one of them is missing or is not functioning correctly then we have mental problems. Mind doesn’t function the way it should, the way it normally always functions. Something is going wrong. It is like many things that are supposed to function normally in our bodies. Certain things are supposed to go to the lower part of the body and out and when these don’t go out and start filling up, then they start coming out from a wrong way you will begin to start throwing up, because there is no more room inside. So it either comes out down or up. Sorry to use this dirty example here.

0:11:27.8

When things go upwards, when they are supposed to go downwards we say something is wrong with our physical health. Just like that, if one of the omnipresent mental faculties, these parts of the mind, coming from the mind, they are parts and parcels of mind itself. There are some that are always with the mind and some that are occasional. These omnipresent ones are always with the mind, because if one of them is not functioning properly or missing then you can very well see some gap in the individual’s mind.

0:12:48.6

For example, the first omnipresent mental faculty is feeling. Suppose you have no feeling, then what do you do? When you get frost bite in your hands and legs and you can’t revive them, you have to chop them off, right? Otherwise it becomes poison and a threat to your life. Just like that, if feeling is not there, the mind won’t know what’s happening. Mind has no way of getting feeling at all, so it doesn’t feel anything. The purpose of the mind is to understand. Your capacity of understanding by way of feeling is either reduced or moved or lost or frozen or something. It is not functioning. So therefore a person without any feeling at all would have a little problem in their mind. That’s what the first one does.

0:14:36.1

The feeling we are talking about is tsor wa in Tibetan. Maybe that will help a few Tibetan-speaking people who are listening. But for those who don’t know head and tail of the Tibetan language, adding up some Tibetan words, becomes rather a source of confusion. I am very aware of that. But I add the Tibetan names it will help a few, though it may create a feeling of discomfort for a number of people. My English is so weak that clarity is very important. Not only you people are listening on the website – I am sure there are a couple of hundred – but there are other people who listen afterwards and this information will be utilized by others in the future. So for them, from the clarity – point of view, I am going to use a couple of Tibetan words and a couple of sources from where I am picking this up.

0:16:53.4

Then you know that I did not make this up. I am trying to present it as simply as I can. However, I did not cook the information. I did not make it up. That’s why I was hoping to tell you a little bit here and there from where I am picking up this information.

0:17:28.8

The real, true definition of the 52 mental faculties is from the mind [sem jung]. We have here one principal mind and the mental faculties are from that principal mind. All these mental faculties, particularly these five are always there. There is no difference between the principal mind and that mental faculty, although it is from the mind. But when it is functioning it is at the same time. The terminology used here is: ngo wo chig la thog pa ta de. One nature, different aspiration [aspect???]. So it becomes one part and parcel of that mind. Therefore, it is the same material, in the sense of what it is made of, where it comes from, as well as whatever you are focusing on, your focal point. All are same, sameness, oneness, yet they are different aspects. Mind understands in brief form what it is all about. The mental faculties make it clear, discriminate.

0:20:53.6

What does feeling do? Actually I have to count the five equalnesses as base where your mind is based. Even what you are sustaining and the time and what you are made of is really “base” or tän in Tibetan. The focal point is mig pa in Tibetan. The aspiration or appearance is nang pa in Tibetan. Time is dü in Tibetan. Dzä is the material, what it is made out of. These five have to be similar.

0:22:00.3

What does “base” mean? It is whatever the base on which your mind is developing, sitting or performing. The mental faculties are performing from the same base, from the same point. Whatever the mind is focusing on, the particular mental faculty is also focusing on the same thing. In other words, whatever you are looking at, your mind is looking at it and your mental faculties are looking at the same point.

Then aspiration or appearance. If the mind sees blue color then that very mental faculty also sees blue. If your mind sees blue and your mental faculty sees yellow, then there is something wrong. Maybe you are sick with jaundice. In that case, if you look at something white, your mind will know it is white, but what you see and perceive and what appears is something yellowish. That’s why then the sameness is not functioning. When one of the samenesses is not functioning, there is a problem. The mind is very hard to damage. But one of these mental faculties is having a little trouble of functioning. That’s perhaps because of physical influences, like jaundice. If you get jaundice it affects all your sense consciousnesses, such as eye- consciousness. The eye’s retina has been affected so you will see yellow. The reality and what your mind knows and what your mental faculty informs you of does not tally and that’s a problem. Normally they should be the same.

0:25:03.5

Both, that particular mind and that particular mental faculty grow at the same time. They are born at the same time. They also stop at the same time. That’s what I mean: their past, present and future is the same, oneness. They have one past, present and future. So their timing is the same.

Now the substance. Since mind itself has no form or tangibility, there is really no substance, but it is made out of something – whatever it is. And whatever the mental faculty coming out from that is the same.

So, if all five of these are oneness, and work together, then it is functioning well.

0:26:32.5

Similarly, though it is not mentioned here, if the principal mind becomes virtue, that mental faculty will also become virtue. If the principal mind becomes non-virtuous, then also the mental faculty will become non-virtue – and vice versa, because they are oneness. That’s why by nature mind is not virtue and mental faculties that are coming from the mind, are neither virtue, nor non-virtue. So that becomes changeable. Besides that, both virtue and non-virtue are dependent origination. They are not pre-fixed, by dependently originated. They are changeable. Many things come together and they are becoming of it. Therefore mind as well as virtue, is not something solid or inherently existing either. If it were, we have great difficulty to change. Luckily they are not solidly, inherently existing and therefore they are subject of change.

0:28:42.9

Therefore they are also impermanent. That means changeable. That’s why it is great luck and great fortune, because that nature of mind, from virtue to non-virtue is changeable. So who can make a change? You, no one else. No one else can tell you what to do. It is you and your choice and you are the only one who can change. Therefore, change here means that you are the only one who can make a difference to you. That’s why I mean: you are the only one who can make you happy or you are the only one who can make you miserable. If anybody tries to sell you their misery, you have all the right as well as opportunity to reject and not to buy and not to follow. No one can force you. This is another thing. Sometimes, physically people can torture and force you. Mentally, they cannot torture and force you, because they don’t see your mind, they don’t hear your mind, they don’t smell or touch your mind. They can’t torture you.

0:30:57.5

However, if you let yourself be a doormat, then you become a door mat and everybody will walk on your hat. That’s because the true freedom, the true choice, is in your mind. That is the extraordinary quality and wealth, the extraordinary precious thing that you own. You own it, it is your only and you can use it. That is the mind and mental faculties.

0:31:58.0

When I am talking in a little more detail about the first mental faculty “feeling”, how does feeling work? Sometimes people say, “I have no feeling, I am numb.” The weakness on the feeling is there. Sometimes you lose the feelings in your finger tips or toes, when you have frost bite. When you lose feeling, though you don’t lose your mind, that portion of your body becomes useless. Similarly, a feeling-less mind will be useless. That’s why a right mind, a correct good mind will always have the five omnipresent mental faculties.

If your mind is in hell, then that “from the mind” will also be in hell. If your mind is in heaven the “from the mind” will also be in heaven, and if your mind is on the earth that will also be on the earth. I am using this hell, heaven and earth, which is commonly used and commonly know in western culture, otherwise in Tibetan it will be normally called desire realm, form realm, formless realm and so on. So calling it “hell, heaven and earth” is not a translation, either word by word or meaning by meaning, but an interpretation by understanding. That’s why I am trying to make it that way.

0:34:38.2

The mental faculty “feeling” is known as tsor wa in Tibetan. The nature of tsor wa is something you are experiencing. If it is joy you are experiencing joy and if it is suffering you are experiencing suffering. This feeling – mental faculty is sometimes labelled as ‘experiencer’. The reality is that it is experiencing. Sometimes the early Buddhist teachings refer to them as ‘experiencer’. This is the one who experiences the result of karma that one has created before, positive or negative and their consequences are either joy or pain. The person is enjoying or feeling pain. That’s why it is sometimes called “experiencer.”

You are experiencing the negative karmic consequences. You are experiencing the positive karmic consequences. That gives you another message along with this. Whatever we experience in our life or lives, like joy, suffering or the way you are born – those of us with the background or reincarnation believe that wherever we are reborn is all totally a karmic result, nothing other than that.

0:37:52.9

Buddhas would like to send that message: all is karmic result. To get that message across they label this as “experiencer”. Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa, the great Tibetan master and founder of the Yellow Hat Sect, clearly mentioned that feeling is something that soaks within you. Like if you have a very good dinner you will be fully satisfied and you digest and dissolve the great food you ate and you have satisfaction. That type of vocabulary is what Tsonghapa uses for experiencing the result.

0:39:18.7

What I am explaining may be suitable for good food or drink or something, but may not be suitable for the experience of suffering that we experience. But that is a language difference. That’s what it is. Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa further says that even if you get a little cool breeze when you are feeling so hot, and any good feeling or bad feeling, is all because of our previous karma and previous work, good or bad. There is no other place where that comes from.

0:40:32.7

So then to further support that, Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa quotes from the early great Indian Mahapandit Nagarjuna who said,

Mi ge wa le dug ngal gön

De chen nyen dro tham che dang

Ge le den dro tham che dang

Kye wa kun tu de wa nyi

All sufferings are coming from non-virtues,

Likewise lower realms, all same.

From good virtuous karma all higher realm rebirth

As well as all joys of all lives come.

0:41:59.8

This may not only be mind level but may have a little Buddhist influence or whatever, but it tells us that our mind, our karma, really function almost together, although karma is not mind, mind is not karma. Karma is not mental faculties, karma is not mind. However, they function together. That’s the reason why this is so important. Whatever we experience now, we now understand where our suffering is coming from, where our joy is coming from. They are definitely coming from their causal level, the causal work. It is something we did. It is coming from this causal work. It is not causeless. It is not just popping up like toast out of a toaster. It is really caused and comes from that karma.

0:44:02.8

One of the earlier Indian spiritual schools says that it is Shiva who has created everything. The Buddhist idea is that it is not created by Shiva, but by the separate individual. Shiva is Shiva. We are we, separate persons. My deeds cannot be experienced by you. Your deeds cannot be experienced by you. My deeds are my responsibility, your deeds are yours. We are all independent, self-existing individuals in this sense – not in the sense of emptiness.

0:45:12.3

My responsibility is mine, my life is mine. Whatever I good I did, I did with my choice. Whatever good result I get I have a right to. I have worked, I have earned it. So it is mine. I have earned it. Honestly, that’s what responsibility means. Similarly, on the other side I created harm and hardship for others. So it is my responsibility and I suffer now.

0:46:06.9

That’s the clarity of this where good, bad, suffering, intelligence, dullness, misfortune and good fortune all come from. It is quite clear from this first mental faculty of feeling. It gives you that while Buddha was sharing this with us.

0:46:44.3

I hope that you will take that [home??]. 0:46:46.8