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20141019GRAAETB66

0:00:13.6

Good morning everybody and welcome to today’s Sunday talk. As you know we have been talking about what we call “Introduction to Mahayana Buddhism”. There are many ways to introduce Mahayana Buddhism, but here we follow Maitreya Buddha’s synopsis of Buddha’s Transcendental Wisdom teachings, which are known in Sanskrit as Abhisamayalankara and in Tibetan ngön par thob pai gyen (short: ngön thob gyen). Within the first chapter there are 10 instructions for Mahayana practitioners.

0:01:08.4 The words in that text are:

drub dang den pa nam dang ne/ sang gye la sog kön chog sum…..

The first is drub pa rang gi ngo wo la dom pa the nature of the practice itself.

We have already presented to you how one individual becomes a Mahayana Buddhist. We talked about the development of the bodhimind and very particularly, the two truths. There are not necessarily two types of bodhimind, but the two truths, the absolute truth and the relative truth. In Buddha’s teaching the two truths are very, very important.

0:01:51.2 Jig ten shen pai she la ma sem pa/ den pa de nyi nyi kyi dom par ze/ gang zhi kun tsob de zhin dön dam de/ den pa sum pa na ni ma che so

The teaching says that the total knowledge of Buddha, without listening to the others, taught the two truths as a simple foundation and basic. That is the relative truth and absolute truth. I also gave the definition of relative and absolute. In short, remember this: with dualistic perceptions and feelings, anything you have is relative and the absolute is the feeling and perception of oneness, non-duality. That roughly gives you an idea of absolute truth. Relative and absolute are dualistic and non-dual. That applies to all phenomena.

0:03:02.0 Every mind and everything. That is the nature of practice. Then, we have the points of practice, which is the Four Noble Truths and I talked about that in great detail in many ways in the Theravada system as well as the usual system, plus the 16 points of the Four Noble Truths and the 16 misunderstandings and clarifications.

0:03:52.2 Then the basis of the practice is the Three Jewels. We didn’t really talk in detail about the qualities of the Buddha, but we mentioned the 8 qualities of Buddha, the 8 qualities of Dharma and 8 qualities of Sangha. We spent a number of Sundays on that.

0:04:24.4 Now the actual practice itself and that is enthusiasm. We talked a lot about that and as we presented it is important.

0:04:38.4 [BAD AUDIO TILL HERE START HERE AND DELETE PREVIOUS]: Last Sunday I do remember saying that Vasubhandu said

tsom dang ge la dro wa o

The nature of enthusiasm is enjoying virtuous works.

I also gave a clear definition, in which strongly, very diligently working towards certain goals is not necessarily enthusiasm in the sense that the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas talk about.

0:05:30.4 They talk about it very specifically, only in the sense of virtue. That enthusiasm enjoys virtue and that becomes very important. Maitreya Buddha himself in the root text of the Abhisamayalankara says

ma zhen yong su mi ye tang/ lam ne yong su dzin pa dang

Ma zhen means no attachment. That means non-attachment to wrong activities. It is not necessarily bad, but something that is not called for. We all want to do something and instead of doing that, we are caught up in something else. That’s what we do very often, right? That is called attachment to uncalled-for activities.

0:07:18.1 Attachment to uncalled-for activities is laziness. In order to really do something you need to do – I remember one friend where I have seen it. That person at that time needed to write a PhD thesis. But that person was a little too lazy to write the thesis, so they made themselves extremely busy, doing something other than writing the thesis or even doing research or study for it. They did anything to keep themselves very busy, even to the extent of volunteering for some social service activities. In a way volunteering for social services is good work, but what you needed to do at that moment was writing the PhD thesis. But you are not engaging in that, but making yourself extremely busy, doing something other than what you need to do.

0:09:08.3 That’s what Maitreya Buddha calls Laziness Engaging in Uncalled for Activities. These don’t have to be necessarily negativities. They don’t necessarily have to be attachment, hatred or that type, but they serve to just delay you from doing what you need to do.

0:09:36.5 Similarly we practitioners, would like to overcome our obstacles, such as all these emotions. Instead of that, even though they are virtuous work, we try to engage in something else, something that has nothing to do with developing yourself, but some good work. It may contribute from the other way round, however, it is laziness. You are attracted to activities that are uncalled for.

The second laziness Maitreya Buddha has mentioned very clearly is the one of delaying. I was not telling you the sutra quotations on that. I didn’t tell you those, because it would become too complicated. First there are Buddha’s sutra words, then Maitreya’s synopsis and then the commentaries of a great number of Tibetan masters including Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa and Gyaltsab-je and many translations of Jamgön Lama’s Golden Rosary and many of you see the translations of Gyaltsab-je’s commentary on the Abhisamayalankara on the website of the Dharamsala Dialectical School of Philosophy. I am also reading Panchen Sönam Drakpa’s short commentary on the Abhisamayalankara.

0:12:29.8 So then the second laziness is being tired and delaying, saying, “I can’t do it. I am so tired” and so this and that. So the untiring enthusiasm goes against that.

Then the third laziness says, “I am incapable of doing that. I don’t have enough capacity, strength” and Maitreya Buddha calls this insulting yourself. It is the laziness of looking down on ourselves. We do that very often. We really look down on ourselves, as much as we can. That becomes a new excuse not to engage in our important activities. These instructions . These instructions – the first one is instructing you in all the activities of the body, of speech and of mind. They should not be under the control of the first laziness, the laziness of uncalled for activities.

0:14:58.1 We are all very enthusiastic and we really like to do something and quite a lot of you are very driven, honestly. However, you will really remain a little lazy and have some excuse, saying, “I will do this first and then I will do that.” Many of us know that we do have to engage in spiritual practice, otherwise we will get nowhere. We have been through that for zillions of lives and didn’t really achieve anything very positive and final. And this is the life where we have such an opportunity. As a matter of fact, you should see and understand how great an opportunity we have.

0:16:30.0 It is tremendous opportunity, honestly. I am not just saying that America is the land of opportunity. I am not talking about that. But just like that, this very life we have is a life of opportunity, in all ways and directions. This life is capable of giving us whatever we want to achieve. If you want to be a multi-billionaire you can do it. This life is capable of giving this to you. The multi-billionaires you see around are human beings. They have not come from somewhere to be multi-billionaires. Some of them might have been born into wealth, because of their karma, but they are capable of maintaining and managing that wealth. So it is a human achievement. Even if they are born into wealth it is a human achievement.

Yesterday, here in Gyütö Vajrayana Center in Richmond near San Francisco, I said that this is not gifted by somebody and not incidentally produced, but it came in because of your own deeds in your previous life. In your present life you maintain that and ensure that you will have the same thing in your future life. What will obstruct that? Again, some uncalled for activities. There are so many of these available in the world today, particularly in the American society. Entertainment is such a huge thing in our society. At every nook and cranny there is something, unlike before. In every room and in every room we have these little boxes. In addition to that you have little computers and in addition to that we have i-pads and i-phones and Samsung Galaxy or whatever and not only i-phone but i-phone 4, 5, 6 and all that.

0:20:09.9 What for? Maybe for communication. If you use them for communication, great. If you use it for better information? Great. But mostly people use them for entertainment. You can see particularly our younger people. Some, no matter whatever goes on, they are staring in their hand phones all the time. With a little ear piece in their ear, their eyes are focused on their hand phone. What does that do? The two most important doorway to communicate your mind, hearing and seeing, are both totally engaged in some kind of Kardashian shows or whatever. It is that type of thing. We use them many times to relax ourselves and entertain ourselves. We watch all these beautiful, wonderful shows. In reality, if you look at them, they are entertaining us through the 3 W, wine, women and whatever. We enjoy that and that is called attraction to uncalled for activities. We do that very much.

0:22:33.8 We all say we are very busy. True, we are absolutely busy. But on the other hand, busy for what? Of course we have to work and pay our bills. I have to say that, because sometimes people misunderstand. Not so many, but a few will say, “Look, I am spending all this time on doing something mundane and not really what I should be doing.” If you really know what you should be doing, great, change it. But if you don’t know it and you simply think and then move, then some people may succeed, but many people fall in between the gaps. When you have a bridge, where they put a couple of old-fashioned joists together and there is a hole in between and people fall through that.

0:23:57.9 Neither you will have success in the material world, nor in the spiritual world, so you will fall in between. That is very, very wasteful. It is a waste of this precious, capable life. As I said earlier, if you want to make it to be very successful materially, this life can do that. Not a single successful person we see around are non-human beings. Everybody is and was a human being. Talk about Rockefeller, Bill Gates and all of them. So they are capable and you are equally capable. It is only this laziness which makes you not achieve it. That is called opportunity. Similarly, in the spiritual field, we know about great spiritual beings in past and present, and whoever we talk about, we are talking about another human being. We are not saying that all of a sudden in the sky this thing happened and that thing happened. Some people do and it may or may not be true, who knows.

0:26:02.9 But really, truly, a ground spiritual practice like the one Buddha did and shared and many great early Indian, Tibetan and Chinese masters and even great westerners, some of them may not even claim to be or called Buddhists. However, they are great people. There are so many spiritually great beings in the eastern and also in the western tradition. All of them are human beings. Their mind, their body and our mind and body are absolutely equal in capacity. What has left us behind? A – lack of opportunity but at this moment we can overcome that lack of opportunity by virtue of our birth and time and our great mind. The lack of opportunity is strange sometimes. There are people who are great thinkers, very intelligent and much more educated, however, they may never be interested in the spiritual path. They are totally engaged in materialism. That person has lost this opportunity. Many of us may not be that successful and may not be that famous. Many of us may not be making that much money, however, we are rich in this spiritual field. At least we are taking the opportunity. We are not rejecting the opportunity. That is very clear within us.

0:29:05.7 Your best buddy, your dearest and nearest person who you want to have the best Dharma and the best spiritual practice or at least something, may not be interested. You think it will help them not only live their life in a good way, but also make it easy for them in their transit to the future life. We will try all kinds of ways to convince the person, trying to fight for them and trying to drag them along, however, if they are not interested, they are not interested.

0:29:58.4 That again is part of not having an opportunity and laziness put together. Not only there are uncalled for activities we engage in. Many times we say, “I am too tired to do it.” Tiredness we get. We get tired because we don’t have enthusiasm. Watch it. Physical tiredness can be overcome through a little relaxation. If you have great enthusiasm, you will enjoy doing that and then you don’t get tired. When you think you are very tired of doing the same thing that means you are not interested. You are losing your interest. You are definitely losing your enthusiasm. When that happens then tiredness will come. Unfortunately, losing interest and developing tiredness links up with all kinds of funny problems in life, problems like losing interest in life altogether, which we normally call depression. All of that is lack of interest.

0:32:13.5 What triggers all that? Lack of interest. That will make you feel that you don’t want to do it. There is an expression sometimes used by Tibetan Buddhist teachers: A totally dead-tired donkey with a huge, heavy load is driven uphill. Can you imagine that image? It is so difficult that the donkey collapses. Tiredness will bring you into that situation. Even then that’s not bad. It takes you beyond. You can lose interesting in everything.

0:33:29.9 You are not interested in anything. You would just like to withdraw and do nothing, see no one, close your curtains and sit in the dark room. I had an old friend when I was young. He was from a very famous incarnation linages. Some of his previous incarnations have been regents of Tibet and one of the four corner stones of Lhasa and that Rinpoche somehow had difficulties in mid-age. He got so depressed. The Tibetans do not know this vocabulary. They called it “air imbalance”. Even when you lose your temper a lot that is called “air imbalance”. That is common language. I knew him. He sat in a dark room, although he had one of the most beautiful houses in Lhasa, set in a park within a huge monastery. Everything was beautiful and his house had big glass windows, almost like a glass house in the midst of beautiful gardens. But he closed all the curtains completely and sat in the dark. Finally that Rinpoche left Tibet and went to India, not as a refugee, but in the early 1950s he went to India and passed away in Calcutta.

0:36:20.2 Laziness brings that.

Enthusiasm – You can Manage

That’s what laziness does. It begins with a little tiredness. When you are having that and you think you are tired, maybe there are two things, physical and mental tiredness. In the case of physical tiredness you have to relax and do whatever you have to do. I might as well mention this: sometimes when you have an imbalance of air, as we call it, which could be depression – when it is based on chemical imbalance, then getting the chemical balance right is very helpful, even though it may be a medical intervention. But also you have to be aware of the addiction that this brings with it, as you all know. So you have to be at such a level where you have the benefits of the chemicals, yet you are not submitting to addiction to them. As you know, the physical addiction is extremely difficult.

0:38:32.0 I remember, years ago, Allen Ginsberg told me, “My good old friend William Burroughs is going to call you. Could you give him some advice?” Okay, he called me and his question was, “Will my addiction to drugs block me or disturb me when I am dying?” I thought about it and then said, “Drugs are physical addiction. That will help to destroy your physical body. By the time you go you are not taking your body with you. You are leaving your body and so you leave that addiction too. However, your mental addictions, such as anger, will block you and disturb you and even catch you in your future lives.” That is my understanding and I expressed that to William Burroughs.

0:40:25.5 Later Allen Ginsberg told me, “You hit the hammer on the head” or something, whatever that expression is. I guess it means, “You said the right thing.” And it is the right thing. Mental addictions are much more difficult than physical addictions. Physical addictions are also very difficult. When you have these AA steps going through, that helps and does a lot of good things. But it is difficult. You can manage. The 12 steps may help a little bit with the mental addictions too, but not that much. With the mental addictions, you have to do it, you have to make your own 12 steps to deal with your own mind and mental addictions. That is the part of laziness of feeling tired.

0:41:49.3 Then the third one is looking down on yourself, thinking, “Such a humble person like me, how can I do such a thing?” Like bodhimind is based on great compassion. Great compassion is focused on all living beings. Then you may think, “A person like me doesn’t even know who is “all living beings”, so how can I develop compassion for all living beings? I am not capable. I cannot do it. I don’t even know who and what they are.” So in that way you are looking down on yourself.

0:42:52.3 Many of us have humility within us and that sometimes brings that problem. Humility is a great thing to have; however, if it goes too far, sometimes it becomes looking down on ourselves and we even believe that. Particularly, Asian culture contributes tremendously to that. It is almost common that I receive letters from Asian friends saying, “Your most humble something”. You get all these funny little endings of the letters. In one way it is great humility, but on the other hand it is also very much looking down on your own capacity.

0:44:02.8 Yes, of course you don’t want to have superiority complexes and pride. Nor should you have an inferiority complex and thinking, “I am not capable, I am not good enough, I am not well educated, I can’t think” is an inferiority complex. You can think, you can manage, you can do all that. So don’t look down on yourself.

0:44:42.2 That is the third enthusiasm. Then you go into Dharma and you say, “I have to go and listen to the teachings directly from buddhas. There are the 35 Buddhas or the 1000 Buddhas. How can I go and listen to 1000 different Buddhas? I am not capable. One Buddha is enough for me.” It is true. One Buddha is enough for you. But more Buddhas for you will be much more helpful too. So even if you feel you are not capable, just do it and then you will get through.

When I was urged to teach by one of my great late masters, Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, he told me to go and teach in Tushita, the FPMT center. He told me to teach the Three Principles of the Path followed by a Yamantaka initiation. I kept on saying, “Please I can’t do it. I am not capable. I forgot everything and I have no experience, nothing.” His answer to me was an old Tibetan saying,

Chü che ka gye dang

ka che ka go yung

Walking into the river up to half your body, you will understand half way through

and when you go in all the way, you will understand all the way.

0:46:49.4 So even when you think you are not capable, think of that. You can go half way through and by that time you understand half way and if you go in fully you will understand fully. So that is enthusiasm. Why do they call that enthusiasm the “nature of the practice”? Because whatever practice you do, whether you meditate or circumambulate or accumulating merit or purification or anything you do, engage totally with this enthusiasm and then there will be no such obstacle called tiredness or thoughts like “I am incapable” or “I am not good enough”. All of them will be blocked. What you have to pay attention is to not to have attraction to uncalled for activities.

0:48:07.9 With that we all can move forward and thank you. 0:48:11.1