Archive Result

20140418GRCHMind Pt2

0:00:10.7

Hatred, obsession, look at all of them and again, it is mind. I am obsessed. I hate it. I am afraid. All of those are there. It is absolutely mind. Materials and matter do matter, however, the mind is the most important. When we try to improve, let’s say I am engaged in spiritual study, whether Buddhist or Hindu or Judaism or Christianity or whatever, what am I trying to do? Maybe I try to worship or pray. I am trying to make me a better person and all that boils down to me and my mind.

0:01:38.4

To me, what is improvement of me? I am trying to improve me, the angry person, to be a little pacified. Me, the obsessive person, I am trying to make a little gentler and kinder. This is very funny. All is mind. Not only that, sometimes our love, care and compassion also become obsession and anger, hatred. Though it is coming out as love, but it is sort of sent out by our own mind as a flower that is becoming burning fire to the person. All of them is done by mind.

0:03:26.2

Not only the motivation. A lot of dharma teachings will say: motivation is the most important. If you have a nice motivation, everything is a little better. If you are not careful, the end does not justify the means. We will try to justify the means by saying, “My motivation is good. My end result will be good.” But the end does not justify the means. That is happening in our life every day. This is a little beyond every day, now I am talking about the spiritual point of view. I think all of us are interested, whatever it might be. So we are looking at it, improving me. Improving me means that that angry me becomes a little kinder, a little gentler and sweeter, a little more caring, rather than saying, “I don’t care”. That’s what people say, and that tells you what you are thinking inside. “I don’t care” is there. You say that to cover yourself, you say that to get yourself off the hook.

0:05:45.9

But is also a sign that you are ready to drop everything if the situation demands it. You are nice and kind, whatever you may be projecting, but you are ready to drop it and it doesn’t mean anything to you. That is the external expression of the individual that tells you about the internal person and how it functions. There is something called “reading the others’ mind.” You are not reading the other person like you are reading a b c d. You look at the person and how the person is functioning and then you know how that person is thinking, what sort of character that individual has, whether they are crazy or obnoxious or very conservative or kind or mean or whatever. Your physical expression and one or two words coming out of your mouth will totally tell you, “I am this one” or “I am that one.” The internal exhibition is completely turned out externally. It is the physical gesture, facial words, the way you keep your body, how you move and all of that will give you information. When you know the person very well, then how the person is looking tells you they are not happy or they are happy. You think, “What’s going on with them?” and you don’t have to say it, because you know it. It is mind that does it.

0:08:45.7

And spiritually improving, as I said, getting yourself better means to become kinder, gentler, more caring. Saying “I don’t care” is some very rough behavior of the individual, very misunderstanding of the situation.

INDIVIDUALITY AND INTERDEPENDENCE

The situation truly is that we are all interdependent personalities, really very interdependent. Whatever you do in Chicago makes a difference to what happens in Michigan, New York, California. Whatever we do in the United States makes a difference in Europe, in Asia. Whatever Putin does in Russia will totally make a difference in Germany, Japan, China and everywhere.

0:10:27.4

So we are of interdependent nature of existence. Whatever you do makes a difference to me and whatever I do makes a difference to you. So when you don’t know that or don’t want to know that then you say “I don’t care”. This is a misunderstanding of the individual who also does not know it is not a misunderstanding. So you say it, thinking that you are dismissing. But you can’t dismiss, because we are interdependent. No one can dismiss anybody. That’s why it is important to become more gentle, more caring, more loving. We don’t have enough love at all, not at all, among us. We are lacking a lot of love, and not just lacking, but we are very short of love. All other things we have plenty of.

0:12:06.8

What little love we have it becomes obsession or hatred or anger. It doesn’t remain as love. That’s also because of mind. In some corner somewhere, in olden times, when looking for the result of our spiritual practice, we might think, “Oh, I would like to fly in the air or remain under the water or under the ground” and all this sort of magical, mystical things. In a side of our mind we may have that hope and look for that. But do we really get that? No. The first and foremost very practical thing of value that we are getting is becoming a better person, making yourself a better person. Again, that means to become kinder, gentler, more caring, a little more loving, a little more soft, a little bit better person, not so angry, not so hatred-oriented. That is a spiritual result. If you have it, you are reasonably okay spiritually.

0:14:26.2

If you don’t have it, then you don’t have it. Simply when you have difficulties, do PHat! And do all that, everybody else will know it and that doesn’t become a spiritual person. Sometimes it is the other way around. One of the great earlier Tibetan teachers in the 17th century was Gungthang Jampelyang. He said,

Tong tra nyi me tro tsö chö pei sug

Kyen nge tok du bar du pai tha me pa

When your stomach is filled up with good food and the sun shine is warm then you look like a dharma practitioner. But when difficult things come on you, then you become worse than an atheist.

Even atheists will pray, whether they believe or not. When there is nothing else they can do they will. I am not looking down on praying. It may sound that way but don’t take it that way. But improving the individual means improving your mind. With an improved mind you become less negative emotions- oriented, less angry, less hateful, less jealous.

0:16:41.1

You will have a little more love, a little more compassion, a little more caring, a little more concern for others. When two people are talking, there are some people who are very concerned with the well-being of others. Other persons don’t even bother about what others have to do, they only think about “me” and “me” and “me”. When you have that, this indicates what kind of person you are. When you make improvements you are making improvements on that level. That is solid improvement. You are solidly changing how you think and that will change your goal. Then your goal will be service to the people. Your goal will be service to yourself. Your goal will be service to others.

0:18:09.7

Buddhism, and particularly Mahayana Buddhism and very particularly Vajrayana Buddhism, tells us that the result of goal of spiritual practice is to become totally enlightened, totally Buddha. And there is no selfish buddha. There is no egoistic buddha, there is no narcissistic buddha. All those are pictures of what you should not be. The compassionate buddha, caring buddha, loving buddha, peaceful and pacifying buddha, these are the ones you should become. And who makes that decision? Who makes the difference? Nobody else except we, the individuals.

0:19:47.1

We, the individuals, make a difference to ourselves. When I make a difference to me, the individual, I also make a difference to we, the group of people. When we make a difference to the group of people we make a difference to society. After all, society is nothing but a collection of individuals. When we make a difference to our society, we make a difference to the country and to all mankind, to all humanity. That’s how we improve, that’s how we go and that is what our mind will do. Now you tell me, whether mind is important or not. Even Margret Thatcher said that it is important.

Are there any questions? I have nothing else to say but everybody here has a wonderful mind. Don’t think I have answers. I don’t. We can talk about it though.

0:21:18.1

One thing I must tell myself: when I try to be a dharma practitioner I must be helpful for myself and for others. It is very interestingly interlinked: helping others and helping myself. That’s what I know about mind. I didn’t talk to you any theoretical points. You know what the mind is and if you are looking for some very mystical revelation of mind then I think you are at the wrong place, honestly.

0:22:41.9

On the other hand there is one thing I forgot to tell you: no matter whatever you do, whether you die or live, this mind is somehow continuing. Not as solid as we think, but there is some continuation of that individuality. It is some kind of continuation that will go on all the time. That is known as reincarnation. That is also mind. The physical aspect of our body, our identity, is a perishable commodity. It goes away. It breaks, it decays. The mental aspect beyond that is more subtle than that, a subtle continuation and that is reincarnation. That is something that is continuing. It doesn’t end at the time of death, nor did it begin at the time of birth. It is almost like saying, “All souls are old souls”. You are an old man, an old lady. That’s who we are and who we will be.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

0:25:52.6

Audience: Who is the Buddha?

Rimpoche: That is a big question. Who do you think?

Audience: Some say that everyone is buddha, so the question should be: who is not the Buddha?

Rimpoche: Who is not the Buddha? Me. But if you say, “Buddha-Me”, then that means you are saying, I am the Buddha, right? That’s funny. We consider a buddha in two ways: one as object of refuge. The other buddha is the situation one obtains. So the object of refuge is represented by the historical buddha and the situation of the buddha which we will be obtaining is the true buddha that you and I will become. There will be your buddha and my buddha and that will exist when you become a buddha and when I become a buddha.

So when you say: Who is buddha? I hope that answers your question. There are people who really like to look only at the historical buddha, which is great, no doubt, nothing wrong. I am not criticizing that, but the major purpose of taking refuge in buddha is trying to build our own future buddha. When I become solid spiritually, then I become a buddha, whether I am Buddhist or not.

0:28:55.4

When you reach the ultimate thing you can reach as a human being spiritually, the Buddhist terminology calls that “no more learning”. When you become that you become buddha. There are some people who ask, “Am I buddha yet?” and that is a clear sign they are not. You know why? If you don’t know if you are buddha that clearly shows you are not buddha yet. Buddha is total knowledge, not a person. And an unknown total knowledge, that’s not there, right? So it is funny and interesting. Again, is it possible? Yes, definitely, because it did happen and they say it will happen. Day by day there are improvements with each and every individual.

0:30:25.5

Total enlightenment is something very interesting. Sometimes you may think: ah, that’s called buddha. But that’s not your answer. That’s not right. Think about no more learning. Every day we learn something more. We always pick up something more. We build knowledge. Each knowledge, if it is a good one, is accompanied by quality. So we are not only building knowledge, but quality. As long as we are building knowledge and quality we are learning more. There will be a time when you have learnt all and there is nothing more to learn, nothing more to improve. You become very expert. That is very possible. It is happening with each and every subject and we do have a lot of experts, because they have learnt more. When you learn more, there will be a time when you cannot learn anything more. That somehow works together, if you think about it.

0:32:06.1

Your intellectual capacity will tell you that. It works together. When you learn more and more there will be a time where there is no more learning. That is the sign you have become buddha. Whether you have an extra lump on your head or extra long ears or a longer nose or not that doesn’t matter. That’s what it is. That’s Buddha.

0:32:41.4

Audience: The Four Noble Truths say that there is cessation, yet you are saying there is continuation.

Rimpoche: You are right. There is something called continuation of discontinuity. This term was used by Trungpa Rinpoche. It is impermanent, so it changes. Yet there is continuity. So it is a continuation of discontinuity, many impermanent moments joined together. Some people use the example of ice cubes put together, stuck to each other. Another example is a mala, which has all these beads, one after another, yet there is a string through the middle that continues. But truly, I like the continuation of discontinuity. That is really a good explanation and very important. Yes, it is true. Everything is impermanent. Every created phenomenon is impermanent. Uncreated phenomena are permanent. Du cha tham che mi tag pa. Du ma che pa tag pa re. Everything created is impermanent, which is already telling you that that which is not created is permanent.

0:35:10.9

Existence is considered as two: permanent and impermanent. Everything created is impermanent and not created is permanent. Then everything contaminated becomes suffering, which again gives you also the opposite message: uncontaminated (phenomena) are not suffering. Then all phenomena are by nature empty and behind that it tells you that non-existence is not by nature empty.

0:36:29.9

Audience: is that like saying: Form is emptiness and emptiness is form?

Rimpoche: Yes, form is emptiness and emptiness is form. Emptiness is no other than form. Form is no other than emptiness. When you say: what is emptiness? You have to say: form. Form is emptiness. Why? Because it is dependent origination. It exists dependently. To exist we need all kinds of bits and parts, everything together. Sometimes it is very scientific. Honestly. Today there is no wonder why scientists like Buddhism and especially, they like Tibetan Buddhism like crazy.

0:37:42.1

That’s because it is very scientific, telling us that if the conditions are not right nothing will ever happen anyway. When the conditions are right then everything will happen anyway. That’s very scientific and very Buddhist. That’s the whole idea of form is empty and emptiness is form. If you on those lines that’s what happens.

0:38:24.3

Audience: is that the “Middle Way”?

Rimpoche: Yes, Middle Way or Middle Path. There is a travel agency called “Middle Path” in Delhi. We know those people, so I am telling them, these are the Middle Path people.

0:39:26.6

Audience: If there are no more questions, we have some refreshments.

Rimpoche: I don’t know, we are still fresh. But anyway, I really wanted to thank the Jewel Heart people here, particularly those who are keeping it together, President Megan, and Greg and Rocky, Jim, Brenda and Robin and Carol who set the whole stage. Anyway, everybody does so much, particularly me. I do so much, so that I appear as a talking appearance - year, but they continue, honestly, and it is great. I am thanking them, not because they kept the Jewel Heart name, but because you are helping yourself – Norbert too. I am sorry, if I don’t name everybody, it is all of you. I have to borrow Colleen’s language here: you know who you are. So you know who you are and I am thanking you. Thank you for everything.

0:41:38.1 Fade out music. 0:42:20.8