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20140623GRAAETB52

(…..3 minutes into the talk) 0:00:05.6 This is how samsara really is, how difficult it is. Why does the difficulty continue? Because of attachment, because of our desire. That is not the right desire, but the wrong desire. I emphasize that, because yesterday somebody asked the question, “If you have the desire to be free, isn’t that desire too?” I am paraphrasing. So there is right desire and wrong desire. The desire to be liberated is right desire. Desire to continue in suffering is contaminated, because it is influenced by attachment. It is the attachment what we call “glue for samsara”. It makes you stick and is the sticky stuff that makes you hold on to it. That is attachment.

0:01:38.1

I think you have to differentiate the meaning of “desire”. Sometimes it means attachment, but here you have to really see what you want. Sometimes that is referred to as desire. If you look from that angle, all desires may not be bad. But if you look at desire as attachment and sticky stuff, contaminated stuff, then it becomes bad. On the basis of all that the Mahayana is built. Buddha’s experience shows that he has developed all of those within him. He has become uncontaminated. The contaminations have all gone away. Although contamination doesn’t mean attachment, it almost looks like and sounds like it is attachment. Attachment makes you get stuck and get contaminated. So Buddha got free from that. Remember, Buddha’s life story. He went all the way to the forest and took tremendous sacrifices for six years, with restrictions on food, not eating anything except a grain a day. That’s what they say. When you see the drawings he looks almost like a skeleton sitting near the branch of a tree.

0:04:01.5

One can almost not figure out whether that’s a tree branch or a human being. The original picture is known in Tibetan as the “Six Sacrificing Years”. The true pictures of the Six Sacrificing Years is somewhere available in a museum in the Middle East, I was told. The true one may not be in India. So he took very extreme sacrifices. Buddha realized that in this way he could go to nirvana, however, he couldn’t become Buddha. Then he began to take milk from as farmer’s daughter. The history tells us that the milk of a thousand cows had been boiled and condensed into a bowl. This is a 2600 year old story. When you literally look, if you have to boil the milk of a thousand cows and condense that into one bowl, I don’t know how that really works. It will be very thick, sticky stuff. But Buddha took the milk and because of that those five disciples who had been with him, who equally were doing the sacrifices along with him, gave up Buddha, thinking that he had gone crazy.

0:06:29.9

He had been in this completely sacrificing situation for six long years and then this farmer’s girl comes and he falls for it! And he drank her milk. So they gave up Buddha and left him and went from Bodhgaya to Varanasi. That’s an overnight train ride now. I don’t know how many miles or kilometers are in between but it’s an overnight train ride or an hour to fly. That will give you an idea how far they went. Buddha chose to remain completely silent and not speak, after obtaining enlightenment. He said,

Sab chi trö te ö ser dü ma chä

Dü tsi tabu chö je ko er nyi

Su la de nyer ho war me ne pai

Mi ma na gye seb tu nye bar cha (??? Spelling)

I have got profound, nectar-like experience

Whoever I talk to, nobody will understand

Therefore I will keep silent in the forest

Then all the great Hindu-Buddhist mythological gods, like Inda and Brahma came to see Buddha. Indra offered him a conch shell and Brahma offered a chakra or wheel. These are the hand implements of these great gods. They asked Buddha to teach, saying,

Your experience is something absolutely unique. Your purpose of generating bodhimind right from the beginning onwards was for benefiting people, to serve the people. So now is the time of the fruit. If you choose to keep quiet, it’s not right, so please teach.

Buddha said, “I can’t teach to the trees.” There was nobody there. They said, “Teach the five people who left you. They are in Varanasi.” So then Buddha walked to Varanasi and saw those five people who left him earlier. They had a little meeting by themselves and said, “Let us not get up and not respect him” and all this. But when Buddha came nearby, they all got up and gave him respect, gave him the highest seat available among them and Buddha said, “Don’t call me Gotama. Call me “Buddha”.

0:10:40.9

Then he gave the first teaching on the Four Noble Truths. That’s the core teaching of the fundamental basis of Buddhism. Then, in order to become fully enlightened you have to emphasize love and compassion. Without that you cannot really get it. So the bottom line in Mahayana is that there are two most important paths: wisdom is absolutely necessary and love/compassion. These are the two major practices of and individual seeking Buddha’s level of development, committed to follow Buddha all the way through to becoming a buddha.

0:12:16.2

Here I am mostly talking about the compassion/love aspect. Bodhimind is the doorway to becoming Mahayana. It is the unlimited, ultimate, unconditional love and compassion. That is developed on the basis I already talked about in the preceding Sunday talks. We gave these talks all last years. On top of that there are the seven stages and the exchange stage development. Again, the seven stages come from the compassion lineage, from Buddha to Maitreya to Asanga, etc. The exchange stage is the wisdom lineage from Buddha to Manjushri to Nagarjuna, etc. Whichever of those two it is, doesn’t matter. It develops bodhimind. That’s the major goal here.

0:13:58.5

Briefly, what are the seven stages? The first is equanimity. This is funny language. When I talk about equality and equanimity, it is interesting and not easy to get the message. But the bottom line is this: what I want is what you want and what you want is what I want. We are just looking for a different way and we are arguing. But what we want is the same thing. It is equal. I don’t want suffering and you don’t want suffering. I want joy and you want joy. We are all equal in what we want and like to do. Looking at people equally is that. It is very important in our American culture. We always have problems if inequality and people deal with that and try to make that problem go away. All the civil rights issues are dealing with equality. They try to make everybody equal, whether you are black, white or yellow. All should be equal.

That is equality, and that is one of the great qualities of America. Honestly, the United States constitution provides for that. And that’s the reason why a lot of people in the world admire and respect the United States, not because of its economic and military power alone. Military power may be frightening people, however, people cannot be controlled by gun point, as we saw already and as we are seeing now. That’s really what it is. The quality of this country and this people is based on equality. It is something very important and it is the fundamental principle of Buddha’s Mahayana, the basic ground.

0:17:05.0

People are suffering. You are suffering. I am suffering. From that point of view we are equal. What we want is we equally want no suffering. We equally want joy. That is the basis of equality and equanimity. Equal rights is another legal issue. Basically you have those rights as long as you are human being. That’s also the principle of Mahayana Buddhism. Equality is not enough. You have to feel very close, almost like you are responsible. What can be closer than your mother when you are a kid? Whether it is shocking suffering, shocking pain or being extremely happy, joyful, whatever it is, the first word we utter is “Mom” and run to the mother. That’s what kids do, right? So Buddha teaches us: look at everybody as like your mother. That’s not saying everybody is your mother, but look at them like the mother. That’s the closeness to the people. They are all coming closer. From my point of view I want to feel closer to the people. On top of equanimity you need to feel close.

0:19:38.0

Not only that, but also dependent, [[call my spiral for a number of years mother]] 0:19:49.2, remembering the kindness, as the mother who has protected the young infant kid, prone to dying from accidents like anything, and can electrocute itself or anything. The mother protects the infant a hundred times per day. She not only gives you birth and nurtures you with her own milk, but on top of that saves your life hundreds of times per day. As a child we don’t know what is edible, what is touchable, what is not touchable. There will be no problem for us putting our finger into the electrical sockets. You are quarrelling and the first thing is you put your finger in it. How many times have the mothers protected us, giving us the right type of food? Otherwise, the wrong type of food will give you diarrhea or you will throw up and it can make you sick.

0:21:22.4

Not only that, they really cherished and treasured you, like a wish-fulfilling jewel. They touch their cheek and mouth to yours and protect you from anything. They worry about you being cold and getting sick or being too hot and all this is such kindness. Maybe this doesn’t happen in the US and Western Europe, because they are fully developed: in some poor nations, when they find something like a little sweet, the mother won’t eat that herself but save it for her little kid. That sort of close, kind, caring love the mother has constantly shared. And now we are human beings, functioning like the Tibetans say: we carry our own stomach on our legs. In other words we are standing on our legs, functioning by ourselves, and this is the time we have to remember that kindness given by our mother.

0:23:25.4

This is remembering the kindness. When you realize you have been showered by such love, such kindness, what will you do? I would try to repay some of it. Because if I don’t, I will be an undesirable person, a disgrace. That’s really how the society looks at you. That’s the reality. So remember and repay the kindness. When I talk to you about the mother, I am not necessarily talking to you about the mother who gives you birth. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, they count a number of mothers, like the mother who gives you birth, the mother who nurtures you and brings you up, the mother who really supports and builds you up. That is very true. It is the reality.

0:25:03.2

The whole idea is extend the qualities of the mother as much as possible, because you are looking for all people to be very close to you. If you remember their kindness and you can’t repay them nicely and satisfactorily, you still develop love for them. Without love all your remembering kindness and committing yourself to repaying their kindness becomes lip service. It is not George Bush’s Sn. “Read my lips”, but it is just simply saying, “Love, love, love.” Even a parrot can say it. We do have Chris Branson’s parrot Simon who can say “Love you”, but I don’t know how much that means. So that’s not worth it. You all know what real love is. Used in a better way it is genuine love, true love. If you use real love the wrong way it becomes obsession, attachment. Really, the division between attachment and genuine love is very subtle, according to Buddha it is subtler than a single hair of a horse’s tail. So we love our family. And actually we love ourselves. People may not like to say it, but it is true.

0:27:50.9

And then, this love is controlled by our ego and it changes into the wrong love. It becomes attachment and obsession and then you go the wrong way rather than the right way. Now, instead of ego, if your true, genuine bodhimind influences this, this will be pure. And this the love-compassion love. Compassion without love will be useless, honestly. I have given you lots of examples and I don’t think I am going to pick up those old examples and repeat them again. But there are lots of them. Again, it becomes just a gesture, just an act, not genuine compassion. You may see an animal suffering on the road and think, “I better act compassionately, otherwise other people may think: ‘this guy has no compassion for whatsoever.” Then it goes the wrong way.

0:29:36.8

The genuine care for that animal suffering there on the road is pure love. But thinking, “If I don’t act, my friends don’t think I have no compassion” changes the whole good love into something contaminated. Life is such that when you are functioning, that’s what happens. So we have to be careful. So make sure the love remains pure and genuine.

0:30:24.8

That will influence compassion. That will become genuine and true compassion, rather than show biz compassion, rather than acting compassion. Then, love-compassion will bring you to a resolution, resolving that “I will do everything to liberate everybody”, not just thousand points of people”, but “no child left behind”. No one will be left behind but you will make sure that everybody is fully liberated, fully enlightened. That is such a powerful mind. It is unimaginable, within the tiny body of ours. When that happens everything becomes like gold.

The bodhisattvacharyavatara says,

GSER 'GYUR RTZI YI RNAM PA MCHOG LTA BU

MI GTZANG LUS 'DI BLANGS NAS RGYAL BA'I SKU

RIN CHEN RING THANG MED PAR BSGYUR BAS NA

BYANG CHUB SEMS ZHES BYA BA RAB BRTAN ZUNG

It is like the supreme gold-making elixir,

For it transforms the unclean body we have taken

Into the priceless jewel of a Buddha-Form.

Therefore firmly seize this Awakening mind.

It is like a solution that changes every metal into gold. Likewise, this bodhimind changes every virtue into pure gold, like 24 karat gold. That becomes like that and that’s why it is so precious. Actually the word “Rimpoche”, the name that I got, means precious. You are supposed to get that name if you have developed this mind and people recognize you. But the whole idea is to become jewel-like precious, more than jewels. Because of this mind, no matter whatever body you may have, it is just vessel in which your mind remains. So if the mind becomes like a jewel, the person becomes extremely precious and important.

0:33:42.5

You join the Mahayana, you become a member of the Mahayana. That’s not like an American Express card carrying member, though they have privileges. It is much more than that. All the buddhas will look at you as their own son, their own personal son, and not only that, but their only son. And when you become a young, junior, growing bodhisattva, that is praised by so many. There is this expression: all will worship the rising moon. That’s the moon between the 3rd and 15th day of the lunar calendar, not the waning moon.

A sutra says that if a young bodhisattva would like to play with a horse card and there is no horse, then the buddha will not hesitate to pull the horse cart for them. Buddha will pull it. That much care, that much love, that much support you get the moment this mind grows with you.

0:35:47.4

Also, they say that you will become like a diamond. Among jewels, the diamond can cut any other precious stone and glass, but glass, etc, cannot cut the diamond. Nor can other jewels, like sapphires, pearls, corals, turquoise, amethysts, and so on. But the diamond will cut them. That’s what Buddha says in his own sutra in praising the bodhisattvas.

0:36:43.4

They also compare the bodhimind with a crown prince versus the seasoned old ministers. In old, traditional kingdoms, there are seasoned ministers and the crown prince. The seasoned ministers are very experienced and know everything very well, however, the crown prince has the upper hand over them. That’s because he is the prince who will become the king. These bodhisttvas will become buddha, and that’s why every sravaka and pratyeka, every daka and dakini and everybody will respect that one. So once this mind develops with you, then purification is also done with this mind and accumulation of merit is also done by this mind and that makes you enter the path of Mahayana. As you know there are five paths: path of accumulation, path of action, path of seeing, path of meditation and path of no more learning, which in Mahayana is Buddhahood.

0:38:18.3

So the path of accumulating merit is the first path. So you become that level. Now the question is: there are some instructions. The word in Tibetan is dam ngag. Some people translate that as instructions, some as transmissions, some as oral instructions. Whatever translators translate, I don’t know exactly, I can’t day this is right and that is wrong, but it is definitely an instruction. The purpose of those instructions is to protect and promote this very mind that you have and develop it. Who gives these instructions? Who receives these instructions? Hopefully us. We will receive them. By this time we are already sort of little teachers of our own, but we hope we will receive these instructions. From whom? From Buddha only, from him – or herself. How? You have developed certain types of stages, because of this bodhimind. This stages that you develop do so many things. One, they will give you an immune system against falling into the lower realms. That’s why even when you look at the result even at the Theravada level, they will talk about stream enterers, one time returners, no more returners and nirvana. They count that way.

0:41:22.4

Similarly, as a stream enterer you are getting into the path. As a once-returner you may come back once and as a non-returner you are not going to come back. Then you are definitely not going to have a suffering life and not only that. When you come back only once, that means you are not going to come back with a suffering life. So you are immune to the suffering life, taking rebirth that you gain by this particularly meditative state. And you will also see everything, every enlightened being, not necessarily only ghosts. You may be able to encounter with enlightened ones, whoever they may be, buddhas like Buddha Shakyamuni, Maitreya, Manjushri, Tara and all of them. We may be able to see them, converse with them, take teachings from them and get the instructions from Buddha himself. That is the level where you get it.

0:42:54.2

What instructions? There are ten of them. Many of them you have already heard about, but today I would like to touch on the two truths. They are like the nature of the instructions themselves. The two truths are relative and absolute truth. Now listen, pay attention: what is the definition of absolute truth? When you encounter the truth, if you encounter that truth without any dualistic [perceptions], single-pointed, in oneness, that is the definition of absolute truth. When you encounter the truth with dualistic [perception] that is relative truth.

0:44:21.7

Dual or non-dual – we have to keep that as a principle in our understanding. That’s where you divide the two truths. Both are true. Relative truth is truth and absolute truth is truth. Dual is relative and non-dual is absolute. Who sees non-dual? You see it when you get the third path, the path of seeing. You will experience the non-dual focusing on wisdom, the nature of reality, the nature of emptiness. That is absolute truth. That’s not enlightenment, but absolute truth realization.

0:45:43.0

So out of the ten instructions, I have just given you these two. [0:45:45.9 end of recording].