Archive Result

20150301GRAAST04

0:00:02.7 Good morning to you and it is March, yeah, which means that two months are already gone out of the year. It really runs. On the one hand we think that we have all our life to study, to learn and do something. Yet, we suddenly realize that two months out of twelve are already gone. That’s how time runs, how impermanence functions and that’s how it is.

0:01:31.5 We have been talking about Chandrakirti’s saying that when you have independence you have got to do something. Otherwise, when you have lost your independence, what can you do? Then, the second time, I talked to you about what to do is only care and compassion.

GANG CHIR TSE NYI GYAL WAI LO TOK PHÜN TSHOK DI

SA BÖN DRANG NI PEL LA CHUN DRA YUN RING DU

LONG CHÖ NE LA MIN PA TA BU DÖ JUR WA

DE CHIR DAG GI THOG MAR NYING JE TÖ PAR GYI

Because for this bountiful harvest of the Conquerors

Compassion itself is like the seed, like water for growth,

And like ripening remaining for long enjoyment,

At the beginning I praise compassion.

We said that compassion is important in the beginning, as a seed, important in the middle, like moisture, heat and fertilizer, etc., and compassion is important at the end, at the fruit level, because otherwise sentient beings will be left without help.

0:02:57.2 Now what we need to talk about is: what is compassion? How is it? What has that got to do with me? That’s important. Normally, when we talk about compassion, it is in terms of looking out: suffering people. Very true. When you talk about the suffering of the people there is no end today. It’s so bad. The situation really is so bad. We all know that. The most important thing is that if we turn on the radio and TV and everything is about killing, beheading and mass executions and burning people alive, and you hear that so many times, sometimes some people, not everybody, develop a numbness. It becomes sort of a usual, everyday matter. It becomes, “Ah whatever, the usual.” So it is important not to let that numbness take over, because the feeling, particularly when it is electronicalized, it is almost like video game bombardments. And you see the bombs land and it is like in a video game. Also remember, there are a number of people getting killed there. We don’t see that. It is really easy to develop numbness. If we develop numbness that’s terrible for us.

0:05:59.2 Make sure that doesn’t happen. Suffering is always there, but don’t make it into something usual, because instead of softening your mind it will harden it. And that’s not good. That’s not good. You have to be aware of that.

0:06:30.0 Also, the most important thing is when we look out we look out and we don’t see ourselves. I always say: all the Tibetan Buddhist texts that I know are all compassion-oriented, no doubt. But they always begin with: “I and all sentient beings will take refuge, develop compassion, etc.” So it is always “I and others” and not “all others, except me”. We don’t do that. So first, compassion for yourself is so important. Without that we get nowhere. If you don’t have compassion for yourself, you are unable to help yourself and if you are unable to help yourself you will be unable to help others too. If you can’t help yourself, how can you expect to help others? That’s not possible. That’s the first foremost point then: compassion for ourselves.

0:09:04.8 When you develop compassion you have to develop compassion for yourself. It is not self-pity, please remember that. There is not reason for self-pity. But you really have to be helping yourself. In order to help yourself, you have to know your own situation. Without knowing that you can’t help yourself. There are a number of people – I used to meet them – who think they are somebody. Of course, yes, you are all somebody. But they think they are some spiritually highly developed person. And when you talk to them, they have no valid reason why they think they are highly developed persons. Just simply, they believe they are highly developed. Many people do that, many do that. I would like to remind all of us, when you have no reason but you think you are somebody great, no, that is the wrong thought. That is cheating yourself. If you think you are a normal human being, perfect. Nothing wrong with that. We all are normal human beings. If you all think, “We are spiritually developed persons”, [then that is unrealistic], with the exception of some of you who might really be.

0:11:24.3 No one can judge anybody. Buddha made it very clear. Don’t judge people.

Nam nga dang dra wei gang sag ki tsö sing gye/ gang sag ki gang sag la chö sim pa mi je te/ nyang wa la gyü tar sung war yin ne di re (spelling????) ….I don’t exactly remember.

A person like me, a Buddha, may be able to understand. But among yourselves, do not judge each other. You can never understand the other person. If you do so, you will be faulty.

So the moment you think, “I am a superior person in the spiritual field and you are less than me” you are judging that person. So please don’t. You may be unnecessarily creating negativity. You really don’t know who the next person really is, as to their spiritual standard. Maybe they are very compassionate, very caring, very learned. Maybe they are really highly developed. Maybe they are even a Buddha. You don’t know. So the best thing is not to judge others, but judge yourself. Why? Because your mind is directly known to you. It is not hidden knowledge, not something you have to understand through reasoning.

0:13:35.1 It is simply direct knowledge. If you don’t know your mind, then screws of your mental faculties are loose. Your mind is direct knowledge to you. So you know exactly what level you are in. And if you don’t know anything of what level you are in that is a clear indication you are not in any level yet. So accept that and be a very normal person, which is always safer and better and an opportunity, rather than trying to be [somebody].

0:14:50.4 A person like me is labeled as “Rimpoche” and “Lama”. In the Tibetan language “lama” is something very important. In the west they call all monks “lama” as well there are llamas that run through Arizona downtowns. But in Tibetan “Lama” really truly means chi me yang dre - a person who leads us in future life. So a person like me, I have nothing to lead anybody, forget others, not even myself into the future life. There is nothing. But you are labeled and you are put up there and you pretend to be somebody and then you have to do your best. Honestly. But all of you are not labeled that way. You don’t have to pretend to be a lama. You don’t have to pretend. You can be a good facilitator of dharma, facilitating people to learn, to practice, to meditate, to contemplate, to accumulate and to make perfect. So really, that is important.

0:16:58.9 In the west, it is no big problem. You call someone “lama” and maybe that’s a name. There are some people called “Lama this” and Lama that”. It becomes part of their name. In the Sikkim/Bhutan area there is a caste called “Bhutiya” and many of their last names are “Lama”. So these are exceptions. They are different. I don’t know what I am talking about, but still, I am thinking of my own situation and I think that’s what it is and it is very important to be what you are and be humble. No matter whatever. The Tibetans give you advice

tok pa nam khar dang nyam ne kon chog mi tang dun

Even if you are spiritual development is equal to the sky,

You have to behave like a human being.

These are very important points. So you have to think about that. Don’t try to be somebody when you are nobody. But how do you make yourself somebody? First and foremost, and I said this a number of times, I would like to talk to you about the four points of beings Buddhist or rather Buddhist philosophy or Buddhist religion.

0:19:14.3 Although these days, as I mentioned the other day, Buddhist philosophy, Buddhist religion, Buddhist science are being separated, but there are two ways in Buddhist philosophy or Buddhist principles that constitute being a Buddhist. One is the definition normally given: those of us who accept Buddha, Dharma and Sangha as perfect objects of refuge.

However, such a definition may be correct, but when you accept Buddha, Dharma and Sangha as true objects of refuge, what are you accepting? Sometimes, in Tibetan they call that chö kyi dom zhi – very important Dharma conclusions or sometimes four logos of Buddhism, sometimes they are called chakgya, which means mudra, which means mark or seal or logo. They are philosophical as well as spiritual points.

0:21:06.4 The first is: All created phenomena are impermanent.

When you say something is impermanent, we always think, “Yes, it is impermanent, it is going to go anyway.” True, it is going to go anyway. Wherever you look, whatever you see or do, we do have that. People are getting old, houses and monuments decay and it’s all impermanent, no doubt. Everybody sees that. But the point of this impermanence here is a little more than that. The moment this very thing is created – whatever it is, human beings, articles, any phenomena – it is created in the nature of decaying. Without depending on other causes and conditions, within the creation itself it has decaying material very strongly packed. So it is going to decay or perish anyway.

0:23:34.6 It is naturally that way. One cause, one result is not necessarily true. Many causes, many results. We think, “I have created one cause, so I will have one result.” That’s too simple. It is not reality. In reality zillions of different causes have zillions of different result. Even one cause and one result will have cause, condition and immediate effective cause, etc. There are at least three or four different causes that produce a result. However, impermanence is such, that the moment something is created, the decaying material is completely impacting on it. That is the reality. That is the first Dharma conclusion of philosophy or Buddha Dharma. So the first out of those four is impermanence. Our understanding of things gradually going away is correct.

0:25:28.0 However, when you say it is impermanent, its original nature or creation - and don’t ask me who created it – impacts it doing down. That’s why when human beings are born, we grow up until age 25 and from then on it goes down, straight away down. Then it goes down every day, every minute, every second, down, down, down. And within not very long time you have a very old man or woman. That’s it. That is the nature. So it is with every article, a dress, a tie, shirt, jacket, glasses, table, house, television. We call it trouble. It means getting old or broken, which shows that it is the nature of reality. Human beings die. Many of us didn’t have gray hair from the beginning. Then it was jet black, if not blue. Then now what? Gray or bald-headed. Shining like a mirror. All of that is the nature of how it is.

FACING IMPERMANENCE

0:28:05.4 Everybody has a beautiful face, smooth, cute, wonderful first and now we get wrinkles and bumps and thorns and black spots and dark color and white lumps. All of those will come in because it is decaying. That’s the nature of our life. The moment life is created it is packed with destruction.

The 7th Dalai Lama said,

Kye ni ke chig sam yang dö wang du me pa

Chi ta zhin kyi tün do pang dze kyi gyü pa

Sum po se yi chi wei lam kyi dön dru pai

Gen den dro kyi nam kyi nang dzo di gyur wa (Spelling???)

All of us, the moment we are born, do not have time to breathe. We are running towards death like a galloping horse.

So this is impermanence. Just don’t think of impermanence as “sure, it’s going to go sooner or later.” That is like putting a little bit of a curtain between impermanence and ourselves.

0:29:58.2 We are not really facing impermanence. Impermanence is in our nature, our reality, our life. Our very existence is impermanence. Not just “it’s going to go some time”, but it is going now. That’s really what it is. Look at your own pictures from five years ago and compare it with today. Look at it. That will show you how impermanence is really happening within us. It is not only that every phenomenon is impermanent and leave it there – understood. That is not dharma. When you want to make it dharma, bring that impermanence within your life. You see how two months are gone, without realizing, when we can’t breathe out in the snow and are shivering and suddenly two months are gone.

0:31:31.8 Realize that and then you begin to realize that impermanence is in our nature. Without realizing it goes. While we are busy, protecting ourselves from the snow or doing our daily chores and responsibilities, two months are gone. And many of you know, with or without realizing you retired. What does that mean? Too old to work, incapable, physically, mentally, emotionally. That is really a message. Yes, you might have retired, yes, two months out of twelve might have gone, yet there are still ten months left. Yet there are still a few years left. So we need to do what we need to do.

0:32:59.8 Yes, creating wealth and all that is great work, no doubt. Helping others is also great work, no doubt. But help yourself. If you don’t help yourself, who is going to help you? Who else? One day, it will be my time to go. Then what? Then you look back and think, “In all those years I had I had the opportunity to hear the Buddha’s message, I had the opportunity to read about Buddha’s ideas and thoughts or philosophy and dharma and what did I do for myself? Nothing.”

0:34:13.3 These days it is very, very easy to spend time. There are so many entertainments, as we call it. On the other hands, they are interruptions and disturbances in our life. Almost everyone of us has that square box in our house. We turn it on and the Kardashians will show up. Right? All of those will entertain you. And in absolute reality, when you look closely, there is nothing in there. They created this drama to draw your attention and then we will keep up with their imagined, created drama and we will keep that up week after week. I do! I watch “Scandal” and “Blacklist”. We keep up with that week after week and suddenly there is no show and you say, “What happened?” However, it is absolutely not true. The president in “Scandal” is not the president. All of them are not what they say they are – none of them are true. In relative reality – forget about absolute truth – none of them are true. Yet, in our mind it is made into this and we will see this guy acting in another movie and say, “Oh, that’s the President”. Our mind will acknowledge: that is the president. But people will say: that’s not the president. And then you have to say, “No, no, he is the President in “Scandal”.

0:36:48.1 Like that, that’s how the illusion of our life really is. It’s just a made up story. You keep on watching that and what do you gain? Nothing. Honestly, nothing. Hours have gone. We have only got 24 hours in our day and out of that we will sleep for half of that and only 12 are left and out of that we watch “Scandal” for 2 hours, right, so those are just gone, wasted. That is how interruptions in our life really come in today. What did we achieve? Nothing. Did we learn something? Nothing. Did we pick up something? Nothing. But I still want to watch. Why? Because I am attached, addicted, though I see the faults. And many of you are doing that, keep on watching this show and that show and also, another thing: that little device in your hand, where you watch where the whole world is going and what is it doing.

0:38:33.7 All the time is goes “Pling”, “bumbumbum”. “Pling – So and so is gone somewhere else” “Pling” someone else is on facebook and so on and so on. So you waste your 24 hours on that? What did you learn? Nothing. Joe Blo has gone to Florida (laughter). That’s what you learnt. Right? Honestly. And the precious time of learning or studying or meditating or purifying is washed away. Or money making – that’s also washed away. That’s why I am saying: there are so many interruptions in our life today. So we never recognize how the time is going, until someone says: It’s time for you to go.

0:39:58.4 That is impermanence in our life. That is Buddha’s conclusion and realize that and watch, watch watch and organize, have discipline. You have to do everything. We have to make money, because we have to pay our bills. We have to build savings. Otherwise, there will be nothing left. So you have to. You also have to work on your spiritual path. If you don’t, you are the loser. By remembering impermanence we don’t waste our time.

That is the first conclusion: everything is impermanent – dü che tham che mi tak pa. Anything that is created or made is impermanent. Even the permanent monuments are impermanent. There is nothing permanent here except space or there are some things like when you have a glass, that’s impermanent, but the glass’s dok pa of not glass is permanent.

0:42:12.9 You may have that. Maybe that’s too sophisticated dialectical or philosophical thought. Bum pa ma yin pa le log pa. The opposite of what it is not is permanent – of course. So when you talk about permanent and impermanent, that’s what it is.

0:43:03.4 Now I will take a few minutes extra. The second of the four points is:

sag kye tham che dugnal wa – all contaminated are suffering.

I talked to you people many times about that. So you know. However, I would like to give you a very short point of understanding. Contaminated or uncontaminated doesn’t matter. What does matter is this: As long as this mind of ours is well maintained from the virtue-non-virtue point of view – I am not talking about not going cuckoo – when you maintain this mind as a good, kind mind, gentle and beautiful mind, then everything is okay. When it is not maintained as a good mind, it is contaminated by negative emotions, such as hatred, obsession, jealousy and so on. When the mind is in that nature, then everything is suffering. Whether it is controlled by that negative mind or influenced by that negative mind or affected by it, it is suffering.

0:45:18.0 Exactly what you want you are not going to get it. Something happens. It is pain. It is suffering. Mostly, it is the opposite effect. You get the opposite of what you want. But if you think you are going to get the opposite and you want the opposite, then again, you are not going to get it. It is so funny, right? That is suffering. Many times, whatever you want, you don’t get it. But you are getting just the opposite. Then you say, “Okay, let it be the opposite” and then that’s not going to happen. That’s the nature of suffering. That’s the meaning of “every contaminated is in the nature of suffering.”

0:46:26.7 It is talking about the mind, not that something over there is contaminated, like a piece of cloth with oil on it. We are not talking about that. We are talking about here, within us. We are also controlled by that mind. Then you lose your freedom; you are controlled by that contaminated mind or the result or cause of it. They are all suffering. When you say “all contaminated phenomena are suffering” think about that. Don’t think about a piece of nice cloth that has an oil spot on it and that being contaminated. These thoughts are not to be put into the Smithsonian, but into your mind.

0:47:35.9 That’s it. Thank you.

0:47:47.6 May all beings…… 0:49:23.8 end