Archive Result

20141207GRAAETB72

0:00:02.7 Welcome everybody here. I am still in the Netherlands and we have a beautiful group of people here to participate in today’s talk. We would like to send greetings from Holland and more or less, introduction the Mahayana on the basis of Maitreya Buddha’s ten instructions is over. We completed that last Sunday.

0:00:59.4 Today, I will basically talk over the things we do and did. As you clearly noticed, we all have this wonderful human life and I will say it is wonderful, because it is the intellectual capacity of this mind and the capability of this body, which is almost immeasurable. Our mind’s capacity is so much that it can achieve or do, but also damage, anything it wants, beyond our comprehension. We all know this very clearly, this is our mental capability.

0:02:42.8 The mental capability has to be matched with the physical capability, particularly the mind’s capability to translate into a materialistic way, to interpret and to become the principle or character of the individual. Further, it can translate thoughts into action and become events. Again, without such a life, other lives are unable to interpret and translate, unable to relay the message or materialize the thoughts into action. Very clearly, the other lives we see on this earth today besides human beings [cannot do this]. They say there are spirits and form – and formless beings and this and that. We don’t know that yet. So forget about that. But what we see is other species, lots of animals, birds and so on. Many of them have almost similar mental capacities, but they are unable to express and change into action, because of the physical conditions. That’s why even the monkeys, which come close to human beings, cannot function as human beings. That’s why the uniqueness of this body and this mind does not even exist with what we call samsaric gods – according to Buddhism or even those Hindu-Buddhist mythological figures such as Indra, Brahma and so on. They also have difficulties.

0:06:41.6 That is the physical quality of the human life. Traditionally, early Indian pandits, such as Vasubandhu, have clearly emphasized that it is those who are born from the mother’s womb, have six elements; earth, water, fire, air, space and all that combination of a birth given by a human mother, with that capacity of mind together can achieve anything, anything. The traditional Indian tradition is: the sky is the limit for what this combination can do.

0:08:22.8 It is almost proven materially today. All the modern, scientific and medical developments are human achievements. It might have the blessings of the Almighty and all that, but it is a human achievement. Human beings proved to be able to provide that much and much more in the material world. We can see it today. It is almost beyond our comprehension. When it is cold outside we can have a very warm house. And vice versa. When it is too dry you can have a lot of moisture in the house. When it is too wet, you can take the moisture out. And then imagine the other scientific and medical achievements.

0:10:08.5 So that is very clear. You can look at those weapons and everything that is way beyond our comprehension. That is because these human beings have put interest and effort into material development. Unfortunately, the development is based on how I can win over you. That’s why we put a lot of efforts into producing weapons. So today we have the most dreadful weapons every mentioned.

0:11:17.9 Now we have to try out best not to use those weapons. On the other side is the mind. Half of our life is the mind. We didn’t put much effort into that, except the great religious traditions, whether east or west. They put attention on the interpersonal development and persons like Buddha and many great beings have come and gone and gave their messages and we try to follow. There are certain amounts of people, not too many, not 50%, I don’t know how many, who take an interest in interpersonal [development] and that is also quite young in the modern, western world. It has only been a few hundred years. They put so much effort and energy and money to invest in material development, but did not pay attention to the mental development.

There are a few of us and all of you taking interest in it and try to see what we can achieve. We have to do it, because we have dissatisfaction, unhappiness and misery, a restless life. Within this life we can begin to know that the material answers do wonders, but do not answer all our needs.

0:14:01.6 We are quite clear on that. It has shortcomings and limitations and it really doesn’t solve our mental and even physical and very specially, our emotional problems. That’s why we look for internal, inner development. There are all these religious traditions and then there are some that are not religious traditions, but some kind of ideals and people try their best. Many have results and many don’t. Those who don’t give many results, may be popular for a little while and gradually disappear and fade away. Then the great traditions such as the Judeo-Christian, Hindu-Buddhist and so on, are still continuing and people are following and it is benefitting people in a very great way.

0:16:14.8 Certain traditions may be great and benefit people, yet sometimes there is corruption. When that happens it becomes miserable. Particularly, when faith orientation is corrupted, it has gone terribly wrong for the last two, three centuries in this human galaxy. We fought so many wars and everything we fought so much and most of them unfortunately on the basis of religion. It is nothing strange even now. That is why non-violence becomes extremely important, particularly in this world in this life of ours, because the capacity of material development is so huge that if we can’t be non-violent, the violence will take over and the whole world will be destroyed, not doubt. So non-violence principle in the faith orientation is becoming a must for human survival. That goes for both, environment and inhabitants.

0:18:41.3 There are a few non-violence-oriented traditions. For me, fortunately, I happen to be a follower of Buddha, whose principle is non-violence, and not only that, not harming anyone for anything, including yourself. That is one of the important ways to help ourselves and to help others. And those who come in contact with us, just being in contact for a while is worthwhile for their life. This is our purpose. So our mind engages and follows the correct path.

0:19:59.3 I am not saying that Buddhism or Vajrayana Buddhism is superior, though some of our traditions do say it and maybe it is true. But I am not saying it. I am saying simply that it is great, because it is non-violent. We know how violence gives trouble to people and just even today or yesterday, two hostages ended up dying. That is violence. Everything is violence. These are the consequences of violence and it doesn’t end there. It goes more and more and more all the time, even since human beings began to fight with spears and knives and fists up to today, where they have atom bombs at their disposal on each side.

0:21:37.0 So it is never ending and always escalating and I am sure it will go even beyond this – way beyond. We will probably find a way to destroy future generations for hundreds of years – I am sure. This violence is extremely bad and we don’t want it. It can only be pacified by mind, not by materials means. Guns do not challenge guns. There is no good gun that meets a bad gun. It is only mind. Mind is internal and only you and yourself alone can do it, no one else can force you to do it. Nobody else can order you to do it. That is our individual choice and right. No one can also force and interfere with that. If you are captured as a prisoner, what can they do? They can torture you, they can beat you, they can kill you, but these are all physical punishments. Your mind is yours and they can do nothing.

0:24:07.1

I was personally not captured, but in Tibet in 1959, many were and put in prison, particularly, during the Cultural Revolution and they went against tradition, against the Buddha Dharma, against religion and they tried to challenge mind. They tried to brainwash people. Forget about religion, forget about Buddhism, forget about kindness and compassion. Everybody is for yourself and follow Chairman Mao and read nothing except Mao’s advice. Say nothing except Victory for Mao. So many of my friends and colleagues and peers went through that. All of them actually have their own commitments, their own prayers and they kept on saying and doing them. Then a new rule came, saying, “You can’t move your lips”. So they learnt how to do their prayers without moving their lips. That’s what they did, that is the proof for how mind cannot be controlled. The more they beat you up, the more hatred will come, instead of following. For economic reasons some people may have to lick their butt, but except for that, they can do nothing. So the mind is something that is completely in your control. No one can buy it, no one can force it, no one can trick or twist it – maybe for a minute or so – but the moment you know you are being tricked you reverse.

0:27:06.9 This is great freedom. That’s why you will only choose if you know it is good. There is no reason why you have to jump in between. It is good if it makes you happy and if it makes other people happy, if you are not too much of a selfish person. If you make yourself and others happy then you begin to realize it is good.

To make my story short, 2600 years history of Buddha’s teaching, if you look into it today, everywhere, wherever Buddhism took place, everywhere it has only made people happier and brought peace and harmony. It is not that they don’t have violence. That’s also not true. There was violence, because that is human nature, though the religion itself totally emphasizes non-violence. But a few individuals and particularly leaders, took violent steps in order to protect religion and to protect community and to protect monasteries or societies. That was the excuse. But there were not so many cases, very few.

0:29:25.4 Even in Burma or Myanmar, things like that are happening and that is unfortunate. That’s not true Buddhism. So this has proven to give us happiness. So I am happy and proud to be following this tradition. This is something very unique. The principles of non-violence is cherishing people, cherishing living beings. Not only not harming, but cherishing, and not only cherishing but serving and not only just serving, but bringing joy and harmony and happiness and not only bringing joy and harmony and happiness now, but also providing causes for them in future.

0:31:29.9 The principle is not only non-violence, but bringing joy and happiness for all times for all people. That has become the principle of this tradition. When you are looking at it, you have a responsibility of convincing people to be helpful to themselves and not harming themselves. The reason why we all have responsibilities is because the way to bring our happiness is bringing their happiness – people’s happiness. When you are able to being people’s happiness that is automatically bringing our happiness and achievement.

PEACE, JOY AND HARMONY FOR ALL

People’s happiness depends on their karma. When it depends on people’s karma we cannot leave it there, saying “it’s their karma”. We have to work together, trying to build and change within the karma of the people. Some people may think, “How can you change karma?” Some people may think, “What is karma? Karma is nothing, just hocus pocus.”

0:33:29.6 I don’t want to deal with that just now. We all know karma is not hocus bogus. It is there. Every minute it is proven within ourselves. When something goes wrong, it is because something was done wrong. When something goes right, it is because something was done right. So it is being proven every minute. You don’t really have to go into that very deeply.

So we try to persuade people not to engage in negativities, because negativities bring horrible results. So persuading people of that becomes our job and responsibility. And our way of bringing happiness to ourselves is through serving others. That’s why we are saying: avoid negativities. That means actions that hurt people, actions that are brought in by a mental attitude of hatred, ignorance and obsession. Actions that are brought by a mental attitude of love, compassion, care and wisdom will bring joy. And we have to encourage that. In traditional Tibetan terminology this is called dig pong ge drub – avoid negativities, build positivities. That is the essence of Buddha Dharma.

0:36:13.0 Buddha himself said:

Avoid negativities, utilize all virtues as much as you can and most importantly, tame your mind. This is Buddhism.

So this is a little bus stop Buddhism. When we try to engage ourselves in spiritual activity, this happens to be one of the good ones here. Avoiding negativities and building positivities is the major principle of our lives. That we don’t take as going to church. We go to church on Sunday, once a week. That is not enough. Even every day is not enough. This has to be the character of the individual. When that becomes your character, then you don’t have to have to put extra efforts into going somewhere, saying something or meditating or sitting somewhere or saying mantras. If that becomes your character then you become a dharmic person, a person within the spiritual path. The personality of the person is changed. That is very important. When you have that, you have good dharma. When you don’t have that, you are moving forward, but you are not in dharma yet.

0:39:03.1 When you have that as your dharma you have your good karma. If you don’t have that, then you got a problem. One time I remember, in Omega Institute, my wife and I went in a kayak in the middle of the lake and there was another gentleman in a kayak who saw me and was coming towards me. Somehow he lost his oar and the water was pushing him towards me. I pointed out, “Your oar is lost.” Then he grabbed his oar back. He happened to be the Rabbi Zalman Schachter and he said, “I saw you coming, so I came closer to see you, but thank you for pointing this oar out, otherwise I would have karma without dharma.”

0:40:31.9 The oar is the dharma and the kayak is karma. So the oar controls where the kayak goes. It is a beautiful expression he gave on the lake that day. That is how we should use our life. The life itself is like a kayak or boat. The mind using the dharma becomes the controlling factor – not necessarily controlling, but properly managing in the virtuous way and that is the richest way to build a spiritual life. And of course that is the basic, basic principle. When you get into that basic principle, what are you hoping to gain?

0:41:53.8 You are hoping to gain the ultimate goal for yourself and all beings. This is such a huge, precious commitment we have given right from the beginning, as a server, as a helper. We have given a huge commitment and that’s why the huge objective is peace, harmony and joy forever for all living beings. That is our goal and that not only is our goal and wish, but that goal has to be achieved by ourselves to be able to do it as we want to do it. Our goal is huge and every effort we put in we put towards that goal and you can do that if the thought is inner-personalized and becomes part of your character. Then it happens. When it has to be mentally created, then it is very difficult. All the time.

So inner-personalization and becoming your own character is not that difficult, as we all know. Bit by bit, layer by layer, it has to go, no doubt. But it is not that difficult to have all the huge layer – part of it. When that becomes part of your character, the selfish interest is automatically reduced, very, very far away. The more the cherishing of people builds up, the more the selfish thoughts are reduced. Ego is made very small and very embarrassed. Instead of ego overpowering us like a huge monster, you begin to say, “What has happened to you? I haven’t seen you for a while.” All these situations will come, because of cherishing people, because of committing to serve people, because you are beating your self-cherishing and because of that your ego gets beaten up too.

0:45:52.5 So this is not sophisticated. This is not complicated. This is not technical, like Hinayana-Mahayana-Vajrayana. This is pure dharma and very, very easy to engage. If you do that, that alone will achieve tremendous purposes of your life.

0:46:44.8

Next week I will be back in Ann Arbor and I will be talking to you from there. Wonder whether there are any questions. No? So with this I would like to say thank you.

0:47:09.3 May all beings…..thank you. 0:47:09.3