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20131110GRAAETB35

0:00:00.0

Good morning to you and welcome today, Sunday, November 10 to this talk. As you know, this is “Essence of Tibetan Buddhism”. My name is Gelek Rimpoche. We have been talking about basic Tibetan Buddhism and its relationship to the individual. The essence we have been talking about is not so much from the religion’s angle, but more from the interpersonal angle, when the individual is engaged in it – and even before you engage. Is there any help, any value? If there is, then is it that which I am looking for? Is that going to contribute to my life?

0:01:37.5

We all know that every part of the spiritual path, here and there, will help someone or another. But the question remains here: from all these talks the whole idea is that you will see whether that’s going to be any useful to you as an individual. In order to do that you have to know a) what is your own problem and b) is there any solution to your problem and c) if I follow these instructions, is that going to help?

0:02:53.2

These are the important points. We talked about that and also about the importance of thoughts and ideas. We very much emphasized motivation and action – whatever you engage in. The recommended motivation, strongly recommended and talked about in detail- is not only just love and compassion, but ultimate, unlimited, unconditional love and compassion, which we call bodhimind. Whether you have true, genuine bodhimind or not, you do have some kind of superficial bodhimind, at least an understanding of ultimate love and compassion gained by reading, listening or thinking. It is a sort of corrected, manufactured bodhimind. Proper bodhimind is not easy for us to develop right now. It will take for any individual, even to get acquainted with it and to be able to accept its principles. Only aft that will it really develop. For us it is simply substituting bodhimind by created thoughts.

0:04:57.6

After that, what do we do? We avoid negative actions, which cause negative karma or negativities, which will bring results of suffering. Also we will engage in positive actions or deeds, which will make positive karma. The result will be enjoyment rather than suffering consequences. That’s the way to go in our life and lives. A person like me, with the background of reincarnation, is even labeled ‘Rimpoche’. That’s a name for reincarnated [lamas]. So I go with the reincarnation, as far as I, the individual person is concerned. This speaker accepts reincarnation. So I will say “life and lives”. But if anyone of you doesn’t understand or accept reincarnation then you won’t think about the future lives. So it is just for your life.

0:06:41.1

If you are thinking of life and lives, then this is becoming much important and relevant, because the karma we created is never going to be completed in one life time. It has to be continued to function in more than one life, maybe in two, but not more than three. So karma completes in that [time frame]. So life and lives makes a huge difference. As it is we don’t know if there is lives after life. But the thing is this: Nobody has ever proved that there is no life after life – neither science, nor logic and nobody has ever proved that there is no reincarnation.

0:07:57.4

However, there is doubt. No one has ever returned from the future life and said, “I am back.” That’s true. However, common sense tells you to think, “In case it is true, I don’t want to be the loser.” My late friend, Allen Ginsberg, used to say, “I don’t know yet whether there is reincarnation or not, but if there is, I don’t want to be the loser.” That’s really true. But Tibetan Buddhism is always thinking of lives rather than one life. Whether life or lives are going to be good or bad really depends on the mind. That’s why basic functioning other than body – body is temporary. We all know that very well. This body doesn’t go into the future life. It becomes dust or whatever. But the body is occupied by something else other than body. We call that the person or “I am” or some people call it mind. Whatever it may be, there is something other than physical, tangible body. There is somebody who is occupying that. It is somebody’s home and that is the person or mind.

0:10:18.3

So we talked in great detail about the mind. We also talked about mental faculties. In Tibetan language, mental faculties are called “from the mind” [sem jung]. They are parts and parcels of the mind. There are 52 different mental faculties and they are not completely separate minds. If so, we would be more than schizophrenic. We would be 52 different personalities and as we know we can’t even handle two personalities within one schizophrenic person. With 52 we would be in big trouble. But we are not. It is one mind with different parts. Really, these mental faculties are the responsibility – and action parts of the mind. They take those responsibilities, and engage in those actions. They are therefore labeled “from the mind”, commonly known as mental faculties.

0:11:59.7

Out of these 52 we have been talking about the 5 omnipresent mental faculties. They always remain with the mind. When I say, “remaining with the mind”, it seems that the mind is one and those fives are something different. Yes, they are 6 different minds for sure, but not 6 separates ones. It is still one mind.

0:12:44.6

Feeling was the first one we talked about. Discrimination is the one we discussed last Sunday. Today I want to talk about sem pa. And the translation I am using translates that as ‘intention’. However, sem pa in Tibetan means almost “person with mind”, because sem means mind and pa is the person who has that. However, it doesn’t quite mean that. It is closest to the mind itself. That’s why it is called sem pa. It is the activity of mind, really the mind’s most principal actions are engaged by this mental faculty. It is almost the same as mind itself, though it is called sem pa. It is from the mind. It is mental activity. It engages in virtue, in non-virtue, in neutral activities. It draws the intention to whatever you are focusing on. Whether your mind itself or other mental faculties – to be able to focus and attend to and give intention to them is the responsibility of this very mental faculty called ‘intention’.

0:15:33

The traditional example is given by traditional Tibetan teachers and even from early Indian times onwards, way before the 10th century. Then from then on up to the 20th century in Tibet the example is the magnetic power of metals. When a magnet touches a piece of metal it is going get stuck to the magnet. It gets pulled in. Likewise, this very mental faculty deals with the object you are focusing on and pulls the attention and intention of the principal mind and other mental faculties. That’s why this is the base on which mind functions.

0:17:25.6

Traditional teachings divide this very mental faculty within one person, for example there is the eye consciousness-retinue of mind and the ear – nose, tongue, body and mind itself. So they divide it into the five senses plus principal mind. Even within from the mind itself has internal subdivisions, because it works with any understanding taken from any senses. That’s why it even goes to the subdivision of 6.

0:18:51.5

Another thing I need to mention is that this very mental faculty is sem pa yi kyi lä – it is the activity of the mind itself. The word ‘activity’ in Tibetan is lä. I am sorry the Tibetan is a little confusing for you, but because of my lack of English I have to use a few Tibetan words here. Normally, if you create lä and the results of lä are what is known in Sanskrit as karma. The words of the great earlier Indian mahapandit Vasubandhu are sem pa yi kyi lä yin no – the mental faculty ‘mind’ is the activity of mind. In other words, you may be able translate that as: the mental faculty of ‘mind’ is the karma of the mind.

0:20:58.3

Activity in English, karma in Sanskrit and lä in Tibetan are synonymous. So that’s why the meaning of sem pa yi kyi lä yin no – the mental faculty ‘mind’ is the activity of mind could also be said the karma of the mind. Basically, when we talk about lä or karma there are different ways of looking at it. That’s one difficulty with Tibetan Buddhism. Sometimes it is so detailed and the way people used to study is to gain understanding by taking it all apart and then label every little part. I think the same thing happens in specialized research today. They are going to look at tiny, little parts of everything. So it becomes huge by itself. Very similar here too. When you talk about lä, there are two categories.

0:23:32.0

In Tibetan they are called sem pai lä and sam pai lä. The great Indian master Vasubandhu said,

Lä ne sem pa tang te je

Sem pa yi kyi lä yin no

De kyi lu dang ngag kyi lä

That means the lä or karma is the mental faculty called ‘mind’. That mental faculty creates physical and verbal actions. It is sort of creating the actions we take physically or verbally and moves the mind. The mind is moved by the mental faculty called ‘mind’, this particular mental faculty. So it is really important.

0:25:16.5

sem pai lä and sam pai lä refers to actions and thoughts. Sam pai lä has physical and verbal too, which I mentioned. That sort of division can go in very detail. So really, it almost looks like searching for very tiny, little things and being able to find divisions with that itself. There are so many like that. However, neither do we have the time nor is it that helpful for lay persons like us.

0:26:09.7

Another way of looking at lä or karma is by three different ways. There are also seven divisions and ten divisions. But basically there are three:

Virtue

Non-virtue

Neutral

It is neutral if by nature the action is neither virtuous nor non-virtuous. It doesn’t guarantee the result of joy and the consequences of suffering. So some are changeable. Many of them are. By nature they are not virtue or non-virtue. So what changes it? Your motivation. One of the outstanding things is to realize that motivation changes it. That’s why motivation is so important. It is the beginning activity, but it continues throughout your life, day and night, every action, everywhere. So your motivation is one of the major key factors to switch all neutral actions into virtue.

0:28:16.9

Also even some non-virtues that may not be that bad can also be switched into virtue or at least into the neutral level. That’s what motivation does. That’s why it is so much emphasized. Basically that is the division into virtue, non-virtue and neutral. That’s one set.

0:29:03.8

There is another set of division into three of karma:

Sonam kyi lä – karma with luck

Sonam ma yin pai lä – karma without luck

Mi yo wai lä- immovable karma

Maybe I am going a little too detailed for a Sunday talk. I shouldn’t really be doing it, however, it is flowing through, it slipped through my tongue. So it is different. Virtue, non-virtue and neutral is different than with luck, without luck and immovable. These are very different. The results are very different. Maybe it is not appropriate for me to present this here with little explanation. Basically, I like to to just inform you that they divide it even in that way.

When you are looking from the second set of division into three, many of the good works we normally consider very good, may not necessarily become karma with luck in the sense of bringing ultimate results of positive deeds for us. It may be able to bring some wonderful next human life.

Without luck is even worse, right? So what happens is that a wonderful human life is great, but still, it is within samsara. That’s why it is not good enough.

Then the immovable karma will give you rebirth in one of the four formless realms, like space-like, consciousness-like, nothingness and peak of samsara. Formless means that there is no physical identity at all. It is totally formless, mental. It is a ((((sladgery??? 0:33:08.2 ))) body or something in that category. There are four ranking levels and all of them are within samsara. That’s why this is called immovable karma.

0:33:25.0

Since I let it slip through my tongue a little bit here I have to tell you these are the results. But the most important and most relevant for us is the category of virtue, non-virtue and neutral. For your own personal purposes, just knowing these three is good enough. Any action you take you can observe by yourself, was it a virtuous action, a non-virtuous action or neutral activity? That’s a good way to review.

0:34:26.8

Reviewing is also very, very important in our life. We keep on going, going, going and not looking back. Give yourself a minute to look back at what you have done, at least for the last day, hour, week or month. That’s very helpful. It’s like if you are very busy saving money in the bank and taking it out too and not reviewing anything. Then probably you have no idea where you are. You are putting some in and taking some out and it is going on until your checks bounce and then you wonder what happened, right? Just like that in our life it is very important to review and very important to preview and then move forward. We are not talking about the material level, but the interpersonal and spiritual level. So give yourself a little time to review and preview.

0:35:52.5

Review will help you to make your preview. Look back, if you find a lot of virtuous work, rejoice and that doubles it. If you find a lot of non-virtue, regret and try to purify. You have every right to purify. You are capable. If it is neutral, try to change it into positive through motivation and dedication. That’s a very good way to manage your mental activities.

0:36:51.5

Then, within karma itself there are certain karmas that you will definitely going to experience the result of. There are certain karmas that you will experience, but not so definite. Certain karmas you are not only going to experience but definitely within this life itself. In Tibetan we call that tong chö nyung gyur ki lä and kyen gnen nyung gyur ki lä – means life after life happening

There are lots of details. By the way karma is easy to say and think and it is cause and result. However, Buddha said that to be able to understand karma properly is much more difficult than being able to gain a proper, wonderful wisdom. Knowing karma is more difficult than gaining wisdom.

Karma is the one that is controlling and managing and giving us the plus and minus in calculation, pushing and pulling. Everything is done by the karma mind. To be able to know that is so hard.

0:38:45.7

Basically, as I said earlier, karma means nothing but the actions you took. That also has mental activities and physical activities. Both are equally important. Both are equally counted. You can also add up verbal ones, but you can almost count them as physical too. Otherwise, it is actions of body, speech and mind.

0:39:31.2

All of those are no mystery. I know exactly what I did – if I think. If I don’t think, my mental faculty called memory will begin to fail and fade away and become distorted and all that. But if you remember, it is all there. Some people have to review because they don’t remember. Some people don’t have to, because they have photographic memory. If you see and and review it, that’s like looking at your balance sheet. How much did you spend? How much are you gaining? How does it look? It’s like looking at your balance sheet.

0:40:36.4

In our daily life, when you spend money and make money you have to look at your balance sheet. Then you know how to function easier. Likewise, if you are spiritually interested, you should look at your karmic balance sheet. This is your karmic balance sheet: what you did, how much positive, how much negative. If you keep on reviewing a short period of time, like a day or a week then it is easy to review a month. If you are able to review a month it is easier you review your quarterly. If you can do that, then you can easily review your annual balance sheet. That way you can tell yourself, “I have been good” or ”I have been bad”, “I am okay” or “I have to be careful”, “I am doing fine” or “Maybe I did well” and you can give yourself a pat on the shoulder and encourage yourself.

0:42:06.4

That is one of the mental faculties’ job. It will really guide your life and it is important. It will keep your mind on track and keep your body and mind together and make you grounded and all that. Otherwise you keep on going, going, going and you may be a great and good person, however, you keep on flying, flying, flying and never get grounded. This is the way to ground yourself, in the material world or spiritual world. Both are together. This very mental faculty has very important activities. It is very, very close to the principal mind itself, so that they almost have the same name.

0:43:16.6

It was a little short today, but I am recording this on the day of my departure, my apologies. Next Sunday, November 17th, I will be in Ann Arbor and I will see you then.

Thank you and have a good weekend

0:43:45.3