Archive Result

20141109GRAAETB68

0:00:00.0 Welcome and good morning, everybody and we have changed the time, so that people have a little more time in the morning to get ready. Also, so far we found this webinar is very useful and convenient. I don’t know whether we have made arrangements already or not, but with the webinar we can have questions and we will be able to answer them, even from those who are watching on line. If you let the organizers know they will bring your picture up and you can put your question and we can see if we can think something about it.

0:01:14.6 We are beginning to have a two way conversation here, rather than one way talking alone. I think a little bit of talking will be my job, otherwise you will be nowhere. Also, we do have some beautiful students here, doing comparative religion studies from the Washtenaw Community College. Welcome and therefore I should mention a little bit about Buddhism rather than our ongoing continued talk. Basically, Buddhism is a 2600 years old Indian religious tradition. It has a number of subdivisions. Let me put it a little differently from how it is usually done.

0:02:41.6 Traditionally, in India, after Buddha passed away, after his funeral, everybody tried to take some of his relics to the east, west, south and so on and finally they were divided into eight different segments. Four went to the South of India and four went north. They developed the continuation of Buddha’s teaching and thereafter it became the Southern school and the Northern school. It almost became two separate orders. The Southern school didn’t remain that much in Southern India but went further south, more to Sri Lanka, which then was called Ceylon. Then it went to Burma, Cambodia, Laos and so on throughout Southeast-Asia. Another segment went to Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.

0:04:52.5 The Chinese Mahayana did not come out of South India, but a direct link from Northern India went into China. There are stories of Tangsen Lama. That’s a Tibetan word. The Chinese just call it Tangsen. There are funny stories of a little monkey, creating all great help as well as trouble. There is a little pig and all that type of funny Chinese stories. Even movies were made of that to entertain everybody, really. The very powerful Chinese Buddhism was linking to South-East Asia. There are huge mixings and mergings of Tibetan Buddhism and Chinese Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism came from the Northern Buddhism of India and went to Tibet, Ladakh and all these little Himalayan kingdoms like Sikkim, Nepal, Bhutan and so on. Even today, if you look in Nepal, it is very interesting. You have not only a meeting but a harmonious merging of Hinduism and Buddhism. That’s very much there in Nepal. People sometimes don’t exactly know whether they are Buddhist or Hindus, but it is acceptable to all the mergers there. Nepal is where Buddhism and Hinduism meet and not only meet but function beautifully with great harmony.

0:07:50.3 Now, if you look in Ladakh, huge amounts of Muslim effects are coming in from Persia and that way. Buddhism is coming down from Tibet and it is so strange. If you look, there are two big districts in Ladakh. One is Kargyil, the other Leh. Ladakhis call Leh the capital of Ladakh. So there is a huge, strong influence of Buddhism in Leh and that area and a very strong Muslim influence coming in from Persia, Kashmir up to Srinagar and up to Kargyil. So these are meeting in Ladakh half and half and it is rather hostile. It is not really as smooth as the Hindu-Buddhist merging in Nepal. Even within India, Hinduism and Buddhism merge very well. In Nepal they are almost happening together. But in Ladakh that’s not the case. It’s a little bit of “You Muslims and we, Buddhists and we Muslims and you Buddhists”. That also takes root in the culture and divides people. It also influences political activities and all kinds of things.

0:10:03.2 When those two religions meet, it is a little in a hostile manner, rather than friendly. It is beautifully merging in Nepal in my opinion, because in the families, whether you are Hindu or Buddhist, doesn’t really make much difference. So you go to the holy places, do your worship, be kind and nice and don’t make a big deal out of whether you are Hindu or Buddhist. If there is a Hindu festival they go worship and participate and if you are Buddhist you go to the Buddhist temples and participate. Though there is a difference, they merge beautifully. But in Ladakh, where Buddhism meets with Muslim influence, it doesn’t go so gently.

Unfortunately, the Muslims there are more Shias than Sunnis. That doesn’t mean the Shias are more violent than Sunnis, but in Ladakh they present that way. I do remember, when I was a kid I was very well connected with the late last Kyabje Bakula Rinpoche, the head lama of Ladakh, member of parliament of the Central government in India, as well as cabinet minister. Plus he was a great scholar, from Tibet. In the 1920s and 1930s he was already a great scholar and great teacher, one of the greatest men. Also he was not only involved in Buddhism, but handled Buddhism and politics very well together.

0:12:36.5 He told me that he didn’t want to be involved in politics at all, but the then first Indian prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, urged him, “If you don’t lead the people of Ladakh they are going to be really backwards and left out. It is your choice whether you want to [do something] or not.” That’s how he was dragged into Ladakhi leadership and politics. He was very radical. In Ladakhi culture, the people who are working with leather you are put in the category of butchers, even though you don’t butcher any animals, but just working with leather, like making drums, shoes, horse saddles or anything. It becomes sort of an untouchable class. People don’t talk to them, they look down on them as a lower caste. In India there is the caste system, which many of you have never heard about, I am sure.

0:14:18.8 In the caste system, the Brahmin caste is the superior caste. Harijans are the inferior caste, considered dirty, so much so, that in old Indian culture, Harijans cannot enter through the front door of Brahmins’ houses. If a Harijan comes into a Brahmin’s house and touches any utensils, the Brahmins think that they have become contaminated. Then they have to do rituals to purify. Buddhism doesn’t honor the caste system at all. There is not so much problem of that in Ladakh, but there they have the old culture in which butchers and leather workers and also steel workers are considered lower. I don’t know why; somehow it is the culture that came in. So the lower caste people are not allowed to sit with the public gatherings. They themselves will sit at the fringe, at the back, somewhere.

0:16:10.6 Bakula Rinpoche was radical and he would go to the butcher’s and lower caste people’s homes and have lunch and tea with them. Not only that, he took His Holiness the Dalai Lama to a butcher’s house for lunch! That is something very radical and he tried to show the Ladhaki people that this is not good culture and change it. He did things like this a great deal.

The Buddhism in Ladakh is mostly Mahayana Buddhism. When I told you earlier that Buddhism was divided into the southern and northern schools, the Northern Buddhism is mostly Mahayana Buddhism. Maha in Sanskrit means big and yana means vehicle. So it is the big vehicle, in which you deliver people to Buddhahood. One difference between Buddhism and other religions – though I don’t know much about other religions and shouldn’t say much – but it seems to me that many other religions will say that the ultimate is something very unique and divine and out of reach for anybody. It seems that there is somebody making decisions up there who will give you something or punish you. But in Buddhism they don’t have that. Some people may even call Buddhism “God-less”. I don’t know whether Buddhism is godless or not. There are so many gods, so many of them. There are hundreds of male and female gods and all kinds of things. Maybe the monotheistic god is not presented in Buddhism.

The ultimate Buddha level is something that we can all reach. We all can become that. It is not another untouchable level up there. We are talking about Hindu castes with the untouchables down there. But here, is there is another untouchable up there? There is not. According to Buddhism, Buddhahood is open to all of us, every human being and not only human being, but every living being does have the seed to become Buddha. It is not the Buddha within you, but the Buddha seed. It is like a seed of a tree that you put down and then you get acorns and all that. This Buddha seed is available with every individual.

0:20:22.3 If you take care of it and nurture it, you will also become Buddha, sooner or later. So Buddhahood is the ultimate, almost like God in Buddhism, but it is open and available to everybody. Everybody can become Buddha. There is not a single human being for whom it is not possible to become Buddha. That gives us tremendous hope and tremendous chance. Some people are even afraid of it. But there is nothing to be afraid. You go gradually and by the time you reach you are responsible. You can manage, you can function, you can do tremendous things for all other persons that you love – everyone. That is one difference in Buddhism. So, according to Mahayana Buddhism, everybody is eligible to become Buddha. The Hinayana people don’t like to be called “Hinayana”. They like to call themselves “self-liberating vehicle” or also Theravada.

0:22:34.0 The goal of the self-liberating vehicle is freedom; freedom from suffering. We all have tremendous suffering. We don’t realize that. Especially, when you are young you don’t realize that. Your biggest problem is meeting your deadlines and exams and maybe your parents ground you or something or maybe a teacher will do something a little bit and you are suffering. But suffering is with everybody, tremendous amounts of suffering. You younger ones will realize how much you suffer ten years later. You look back at your life today and you see how you have been suffering. However, the time of youth is the best period for you. You are very intelligent, beautiful and young and youthful. Everybody loves you and everybody tries to give you opportunities and you really don’t have to worry much about paying bills and meeting your commitments, with the exception of a few. So it is a beautiful period you have. You shouldn’t waste this period, but really work for education and this education you are getting is beautiful. It is tremendous. I am coming from the other side, the old traditional system. When I look at today’s education, I see that it is fantastic. It is wonderful. It may be lacking certain things, but any education will lack something, old or new, modern or traditional.

0:26:01.0 Even today’s top education will be lacking something in 20 years time or 10 or even 5 years time. Down the road you will notice there was something lacking. That will be there, for sure, because of the change we are in. You are moving forwards very much. What religions are supposed to do, what Buddhism is supposed to do is not to block you from moving forward with modern education, but to encourage and push that and provide facilities for them. Meanwhile, it can also give you something more than material value. Material values make you comfortable physically, mostly physically. A little bit mentally, not so much. It is simply, when you are physically comfortable, in a nice, clean atmosphere, that will help you to be mentally happier and peaceful. That’s why Buddhism does pay tremendous attention to the environment too.

0:28:03.8 Bakula Rinpoche one time was invited by the Queen of England for dinner. There were only about 25 people in that dinner. Two of our Jewel Heart friends, Diana and Jonathan Rose, happened to be invited to that dinner too. The Queen was totally occupied talking to Bakula Rinpoche through an interpreter. There was also the archbishop of Canterbury and Prince Charles was there. So during the speeches, Bakula Rinpoche said that the environment in Ladakh had been destroyed by the western influence. Later, somebody got up and said, “What type of westerners? Factory development and things like that?” Bakula Rinpoche said, “No, it’s the missionaries.” So the archbishop of Canterbury asked, “Please explain what the missionaries did.” So Bakula Rinpoche said, “We, in the traditional culture of Ladakh, have told the people, “Don’t touch this mountain, there is a spirit living in there”, “Don’t cut that tree, there is a spirit” and “Don’t misuse this river, because there is a water god who will get you and harm you and send you illnesses.” People would believe it and leave the environment alone.

0:30:36.0 But the missionaries came and said, “Look here” and they would cut a tree and then say, “See, there is no harm for me.” They would blast the hills and say, “See, there is no spirit hurting me. So you should also do that.” So that’s how the environment was destroyed by the missionaries who told the people they could destroy it.

0:31:08.3 That was the funny thing happening at that dinner, as I was told. So Buddhism goes very well in harmony with the environment, with the people and it is absolutely non-violent. Non-violence is the principle. Buddha never became Buddha by violence. Buddha became Buddha because of love, compassion and wisdom. So either in Mahayana or Hinayana, the path is two-fold: love/compassion and wisdom. You learn, you practice that separately in the beginning. Then you join them together. It is the union of love/compassion and wisdom, which makes the individual become Buddha. So the lower goal of Buddhism is to liberate the individual from suffering and the higher goal is to become total Buddha. The path you practice is the path of wisdom and compassion. The base on which you work is your own body and mind. So ultimately, our own ordinary body we have today and the ordinary mind we have today will become the extraordinary body and mind of a Buddha.

0:33:35.7 That is the whole Buddhism; it’s goal, purpose and way. So here I talked in this center for a year, introducing the principles of Theravada Buddhism and I am talking now, introducing Mahayana Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhism can be introduced in a variety of ways, but I am introducing it on the basis of Maitreya Buddha, the Buddha of Love. He spoke - and it was written down – the five important texts and out of them one is called “Transcendental Wisdom”. It is transiting the individual from the ordinary level of a normal human being to becoming a little better, a little better and finally get to the extraordinary level. That’s why it is called wisdom that delivers the individual to transcending beyond. It is beyond where you have reached, further than what you reached and ultimately there is no more to go. So that’s called the level of no more learning or all-knowing. You get funny names there, but what it really means is total knowledge.

0:35:52.9 Mahayana Buddhism in principle is a very precious mind, technically called bodhimind – the mind of Buddha. It is not only the mind of desiring to becoming Buddha, but also the mind of being Buddha. That’s why it is called Bodhi-mind. So like Buddha you try to function. It is tremendous kindness, compassion, and love. I call this the unlimited, unconditioned, ultimate love and compassion. That’s called bodhimind. Not only becoming Buddha, but being Buddha, functioning as Buddha. That’s what it is.

0:37:20.4 That Buddha mind is the gateway. If any individual have that, they are in Mahayana, and if not, they don’t become Mahayana. It doesn’t matter, if you wear a pink, yellow or red dress or whether you have long hair or are bald. It is the mind that makes the difference. The basic principle in Mahayana is the mind. If the Dharma you are practicing is Mahayana, that’s not good enough to be a Mahayana practitioner. The person must be Mahayana. Then, even if you just give a piece of food to an animal, a squirrel, cat or dog or something, even then it becomes Mahayana practice – because of you, not because of what you do.

0:38:57.7 I introduced this and then also the nature of the practice, the two truths. I already talked about that, so I am not going to repeat. There are two truths in Buddhism, relative and absolute. What you really practice and think about, the thoughts you base your practice on, that’s the Four Noble Truths. That’s the second step of the Mahayana introduction. The third step is the introduction of the three objects of refuge, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Buddha means the person who has already reached the ultimate level and is the object of admiration and role model for us. Dharma means individual mental development within the buddhas and those moving forward to the Buddha’s line. These are those who have better kindness, better wisdom and all that. A lot of people will tell you that Dharma means teachings and books and the things people say and practice. Maybe. That’s the relative Dharma. I told you earlier about the two truths: absolute and relative. All of them are relative Dharma. The absolute Dharma is the development. In the spiritual field development means not getting more comfortable or more fancy, but to eradicate the negativities like anger, hatred, obsession, jealousy and to increase the positivities like love, faith, kindness, compassion. The individual is thrown in between the positives and negatives. You get angry and you kill somebody. The individual is completely lost in the negative. But you can come to the point from getting angry and killing that person to becoming kind and loving and helping that person. When you choose to be kind and help, then you gain positivity within you. You gain good karma within you. Those positivities are your true dharma, your absolute dharma. Dharma means the good qualities within the individual.

0:43:00.7 They are the good qualities gained by rejecting the negative emotions. That’s how it is. That is Dharma. Then those who have the same interest as you and travel in the same direction, are called Sangha. That’s why we are all here as Sangha. That’s the base on which you work. Although we talk to you about the historical Buddha, the Indian prince who 2600 years ago became Buddha. When you really talk refuge, you talk about your own future Buddha. Right now it may be seed, some kind of imprint. It is up to you to bring it out and make it reality or let it go and say “whatever” – the sun rises, the sun sets. The days go by and then that’s it. Today you may be a teenager. Tomorrow you will be in your 30s and 40s and day after tomorrow you are in your 60s and 70s and then the day after that you go. So if you want your life to go that way, that’s fine. Your choice. You have a right to do that. It’s American freedom. If you want to choose the other way and make this life something useful for you forever, and also for your loved ones who you care about, you have the right to do that as well. You are American.

0:45:32.8 That’s basically Buddhism from Theravada and Mahayana. I have been postponing today’s subject again and again for one or another reason. The subject I have to introduce today is………….I am going to do it very briefly. Oh, last time I did enthusiasm. Enthusiasm makes the individual not to fall back into laziness. Enthusiasm is the antidote to laziness. Laziness pulls you back. That is it’s job. You don’t want to move; you don’t want to function; you don’t want to say it; you don’t want to think; you don’t want to do anything; so you try to occupy yourself with something other than what you are supposed to do. I always say that there is Eastern laziness and Western laziness. Eastern laziness is doing nothing. Just sit there, pass the day and the hours, saying, “Relax, relax” and keep on relaxing. In the corner of your house you sit in the nice sun shine, where it’s warm, maybe with a cup of tea or glass of beer, relaxing. That’s Eastern laziness.

0:47:42.0 Westerners don’t do this that much, maybe a little bit in the early afternoon or evening, but not so much. But they keep themselves unnecessarily busy, so much so that you never complete anything. Everything goes zoooooom, brrrrrrrrrrr, here there and suddenly bbooooom – out. Our mind is such, you are driving somewhere and suddenly you think, “O, I want to do this!” and you pull the car around in the other direction, without thinking. That’s laziness. It is not hard work, but laziness. Hard working means thinking, planning, setting up some policy, keep it going, nag and continue and persist. That’s hard work. But dzim dzim dzim – here, there, here there and boom, boom, boom, here there, here there, is laziness, not hard work. You have to make that distinction. That’s one advice to remain on course through enthusiasm. If you don’t remain on course on that level you will drop down very easily. We know this. We really do. If you look in business, all the business people have set it up that way already. For example, if you go to a car wash somewhere, they give you this little stamp that says if you come seven times, you get a car wash for free. So they try to keep the business guided to them. You go one, two, three, four, five, six times and for the seventh time you get a free car wash. So you think you are rewarded. So the enthusiasm for washing your car at that place is high. You go always to that place because you get something for free.

0:50:35.2 Meanwhile, the car wash company has billed you for washing your car not only once, but six times and made that profit. So the seventh one they can give for free. If you don’t go there again you never get any wash for free. You drop out and go somewhere else, and somewhere else and you never get one free. So even the small businesses will know. The airlines too will give you mileage and status and make you diamond and platinum members and gold, silver and so on. If you keep on flying with them, you go up in status and if you don’t, you go down. So they know how to play with that. That means, we know it, but we don’t apply it. Enthusiasm makes us do that.

0:51:50.8 Enthusiasm, if you are Mahayana practitioner, makes you remain in Mahayana. You don’t drop down into Hinayana or whatever you are. That is enthusiasm. Even if you have school examinations and competitions, all of them are made to build up your enthusiasm. So we utilize that in our material world. So why not in our spiritual world?

Now the next is called: extraordinary path.

They give you two things: out of the two truths, there are the relative truth level instructions and absolute level instructions. Both are together. The relative level instructions are given directly and the absolute level instructions are given indirectly. Relatively they talk about the five different eyes. You may think we have only two and maybe the third eye somewhere in the middle or maybe not. But here they are talking about five eyes. These are:

The physical sublime eye

The celestial sublime eye

The sublime eye of wisdom

The sublime eye of dharma

The sublime eye of Buddha

In Tibetan the first is called sha yi mig, flesh eye. The translation here of the dialectical institute uses physical sublime eye.

0:55:16.9 Why are these five eyes taught? Then you become independently functioning, you can independently travel on the path and you really become independent.

The physical sublime eye

When you reach to that level you will directly see about 100, 000 miles, everything that is happening and there will be no block by walls, mountains or anything. You will be able to see everything, like you see everything on your table. Normally we call that clairvoyance or whatever language people use, but that’s really what it is. Some scientific language is similar. The string theory says that even papers can go through wall. Here there is nothing cutting through walls physically, but the eye consciousness is seeing beyond all these blocks. It is like string theory type of thing, where walls don’t block you. But the limit is about 100,000 miles. It sees whatever is happening.

The celestial sublime eye

We call it lha yi chen in Tibetan, the eye of gods. That will see over a distance of 100,000 miles people dying, taking rebirth, where they are coming from and where they are going. You will be able to see that.

The sublime eye of wisdom

This can conceptualize the absolute truth [ text says non-conceptualize realize absolute truth]. You can see absolute truth.

The sublime eye of dharma

Beyond that, the level of intelligence, capability and suitability of every living being within that range is Dharma eye.

The sublime eye of Buddha

This is unlimited, total knowledge.

So these five different eyes will develop within you. If you develop even very simply the first one, even the very preliminary type of level, even that will make you much more independent and perfect. All your obstacles are far gone. You have built knowledge and the capability to see. One doesn’t have to be Buddhist to get that. A lot of non-Buddhist people have the first and second as well.

1:01:21.3 The third probably not, because the absolute truth is a unique Buddhist thing. Non-Buddhists may or may not even accept it. But other than that, the first two everybody can get. That’s what it is and that’s where you will go and that’s what you will get.

1:01:55.7 Today I was not able to entertain questions, but from next week onwards we are going to have a little question and answer session. I will be here next Sunday. So if you have any questions from today or anything else you can let the organizers know that you have questions and they will put the focus on your camera. Your picture will be put up and we will see you and you can speak and address us. But we will limit you to ask questions. I don’t think we want you to make statements. That’s what we are going to do.

By the way, last week you people have given me a tremendous 75th birthday and it was really great and thank you, thank you, thank you. Also we had a tsoh offering done here and I must tell you one thing. The dakini dances here were absolutely beautiful. Someone who was watching told me, “Look at these monks, they dance so well and are so professional and organized. It is so admirable.” And I said, “These are our Jewel Heart people.” That person said, “You are kidding.” So it was great. That tsoh was very specially made and I brought tsoh that has been divided into pieces and you can take a little for your blessing. The Hindu-Buddhist tradition has something called Prasad. That is blessing. So I brought them here today.

1:04:44.2 So they are here on the stage and it will be easy for you to pick up. So come to pick up blessing and take it home. For those who are watching on the webinar and are unable to pick it up from here, there is one technique called visualization. Thank you so much.

1:05:31.5 May all beings…… 1:07:16.4