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20150419GRAAST11

0:00:03.6 Good morning everybody and welcome to today’s Sunday talk, April 19th. By May 19th I should be coming back here. So I guess this is my last Sunday here in Ann Arbor this time. Next Sunday I hope to be able to talk to you through webinar as well as through the usual Jo’s channel from the Netherlands. That will be at 5 pm Netherlands time, rather than 11 in the morning. But I will be wishing you good morning too. And it will be with love from Holland.

0:01:29.9 The subject we have been talking about here is the four great conclusions and I think we are almost done with all four and I almost repeated every other Sunday all four of them, so that you will remember well. The last I did was the third one: all phenomena are empty and selfless. We also gave you the reasons why all phenomena are empty and gave you the point why the self is not there. I gave you the positive reasons and the negative reasons. The negative reasons are that our ego and ego grasping as well as self-cherishing are negative consequences of self. The positive consequences are self-esteem as well as self-respect as well as respect for all and very importantly, understanding reality and the conditions in which we live together interdependently.

0:03:45.4 Not only all the human beings, but also all living beings together. At least what we see is on one planet. Very importantly, the consequences of narrow selfish interests and self-cherishing today are very destructive, very destructive – of everything we have. The real basis of our breathing and surviving, the earth itself, is so much threatened by the ego, almost by the egomaniacal people. All those are ego-cherishing, ego-grasping, so much. Sometimes it is not necessarily that bad, but too much nationalism and racial feelings are actually the consequences of ego-grasping and self-cherishing. In one way, national feelings are not necessarily that bad. Sometimes we appreciate. There are some good things too. But when it goes too extreme, there are many problems. The problem between the Sunnis and the Shiites are actually ego-grasping. “We are the Sunnis and we were ruling Iraq. But then they bullied us and kicked us out and killed our leader and exiled us and now we have to fight back.” That is what ISIS is doing.

0:06:43.5 We have been saying that. If you leave it, you leave it. They will kill each other. They have been killing each other for centuries. Us getting involved in there internationalized and legitimized their claim. That’s why now we have this trouble. It is nationalism and religionism between Sunnis and Shiites. And the same with blacks and whites and all these troubles are based on ego and self-cherishing. So if you don’t defeat that ego, if you don’t recognize this, you get all these negative consequences. Whatever we are experiencing today, the trouble in the world, the conflict between Hutus and Tutsis in Africa, Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq, Syria and all over the Middle East, Hindus and Muslims in Pakistan and India, Buddhists and Muslims in Burma and everywhere else – all these –isms are based on “my” and “yours” and this has been going on for centuries, in the Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, as well as the Hindu-Buddhist traditions – everywhere, both in east and west. It is not only a special problem in the west or a special problem in the east.

0:09:26.4 All of those are because of the delusion of holding the self as too important. That pushes “me” and “my” and that makes you and me point fingers at each other. We cannot get along well. Remember, Rodney King, who was beaten up, said, “Can’t we get along well?” No, you can’t. Why? Because the self-cherishing is so strong. The ego-grasping is so strong. Everybody wants to “me, me, me” and it is all about “my territory” and so on.

We all have it. I have it. I have my ego-grasping and holding my territory. I have my piece of property in Ypsilanti, next door to Tony. Tony wanted to make a walk across last year, but I said, “No way. I don’t want to make a path there.” That is ego talking. That is self-cherishing, because I wanted to keep “my” property, my pure land, intact. So I didn’t want Tony walking by, because then somebody else walks by and somebody else walks by and soon you realize it has become a public passage.

0:11:26.2 This is half-joking, half-teasing and half-ego, but then it goes deeper, in many places, for everybody. The bigger ones have bigger egos, among nations and races, groups and then on a smaller level, individuals like you and my have our own egos and that’s the beautiful division between you and me and within among spouses you have your territory and you have your territory. All of that we notice and that is how ego is managing with the nice person, the lovable and laughable together. When you intensify that more and more it becomes a huge, huge, huge matter. Then if you really trace it, “who am I protecting? Who is that self?”, then you are never going to find it; not in the body, not in the mind, not in between, not outside of them. There is no such thing called “I” or “me” or somebody. We will identify ourselves by name and the identity of our physical face and voice, etc. We will acknowledge that and that is the functional self.

0:13:53.7 The functioning of self is able to function because terms and conditions – maybe I sound like a lawyer – but the thing is that the causes and conditions and events all happen to come together, simultaneously, at the right time, so you are functioning. The Buddha says that just functioning itself is enough. One should be satisfied there, just functioning. That is me and I am functioning. You cannot go beyond that, saying, “Who is me?” Who, what, why, when, where do not apply beyond that. Do you understand what I am talking about?

0:15:12.0 Our biggest questions in the western mind are: who, what, where, when and why. So these are not applicable beyond that simple satisfaction of me functioning and you functioning and that’s it. There is nothing beyond that. The moment you try to trace it, you are not going to find it. There is no end of the Russian doll. There is no Chelsea Clinton in there, there is no Monica Lewinsky. I am talking about the doll I got from Bulgaria, when Kathleen went to visit and came back. Oh yeah, at the end there was a saxophone! But none of them are there anyway, when you really go and search.

0:16:31.6 That’s what selfless means. But that doesn’t mean that a self is not there. It is functionable. Just that serves the purpose of existing. By the way I saw last night, before I went to bed and I tried to read, some e mails and there was one from Joshua and Diana Cutler, commenting on my last Sunday talk on everything being empty and selfless. They said, “It was a beautiful conclusion you did and congratulations. We like to thank you.” Well, I tried to do my best and get it to the level where we can understand, yet true to the Buddha’s idea of everything being empty and selfless.

0:17:58.1 The purpose of existence is to be able to function and functioning right. That is the whole purpose. That is why the mere meeting of terms and conditions simply makes us existent and alive. If one of conditions or parts or parcels or the time, is missing, we cease to be there. Honestly. Basically, we are saying that my name, by body and my mind and maybe my consciousness, maybe “me”. I may confuse you a little bit, because I am quite sure that many of you are comfortable with “me” being my mind. That is actually not right. You know why? I have a couple of minds. I have a couple of consciousnesses. I have five senses. One of them is missing anyway. Each of the sense is backed up by it’s consciousness. So there will be five, plus the sixth, the principal consciousness.

0:20:15.4 The other day I told you that some Buddhist schools put two additional consciousnesses there: the negative sense and the basis of all. The Chittamatra or Mind Only School identifies the self as the basis of all. Glenn Mullin asked me the other day, on Monday morning during the initiation, that it seemed like some of the earlier Kadampa lamas made a lot of statements saying: leave everything on the basis of all. I did explain that the basis of all is there because the six senses we have are too temporary, too impermanent, too transitory. So they thought it was not reliable. They thought there has to be one more that carries the negative and then a basis of all. So they added up these two and instead of six senses they made eight senses and the eighth one is recognized as self, the basis of self. These are the tenets, the theoretical points.

0:22:10.6 The tenets are not necessarily true. They are the ideas developed, brilliant ideas and then Buddha had said, “it is selfless – there is no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no this, no that”. So they have to say something, because they see the nose as big as an elephant tusk and the ears as big as vulture’s wings. That’s my ears, anyway. So you can’t say: no ears, no nose. You have got a big nose, as big as an elephant’s tusk and you have got big ears, as big as vulture’s wings. So what are you talking about? So that’s why different schools have different definitions of self and then recognize it’s not there. Truly, why? Because I labeled it, I made it up. There is nothing. That’s what it is. Nobody says that, but it is.

0:23:41.3 Then they argue and debate to see who has better reasoning and a better truth. That’s how the Buddhist philosophies are developed. These philosophies are not developed just to have fun between the different schools. They are developed so that the persons who are following, the followers of the Buddha, have something solid to hold when they say: self and selfless and empty. So on the subject of wisdom, these philosophies are not developed to challenge each other, not to have fun, not to develop your own little center. That’s what we do. Some develop their own center here, some their own center there, making all sorts of funny little satellite empires or something. Very funny things.

0:25:14.2 If you are not careful, that’s what happens. That’s how the sectarian problems come. I am talking about Tibetan Buddhism, not others. Tibetan Buddhism has a lot of different schools of thoughts and actually they are sects: the Kagyu sect, the Sakya sect, the Nyingma sect and Gelug sect. All of them are there. Originally, each and every great teacher had their own understanding and thought and experience – everything developed and then another one revolutionized and improved and made it better and that tallies with the ultimate experience. You know why?

0:26:16.8 Total enlightenment is unlimited. Honestly. Unlimited. There are various levels of development that will come. So, they are presenting them with their understanding. The followers pick them up and make them into a school or sect or whatever. That’s what happened. Actually, they are meant for the disciples, the practitioners, the followers. It is meant for the seekers of enlightenment to have better everything. That’s why all these ideas are like that. One should be able to really take the cream of every point and bring it in, rather than saying, “They are the Nyingmapas, out. They are the Sakyapas – out. We are the Gelugpas.” Or vice versa, “We are the Kagyupas, the Gelugpas are out.” That is becoming the work of ego, ego functioning.

0:27:58.7 That happens in the east and in the west. We are Christians. You are Catholics. You are Jewish. All these huge divisions are because of that. Not knowing that the self is not there, that it is selfless. What you are fighting for, what you are seeking, is not there. It is not there. It is simply circumstances, simply terms and conditions, causes and effects, parts and parcels, just happening to come together and functioning.

0:28:52.4 It is such a wonderful life, fragile, brilliant, very transitory, yet we always plan to live for 100 years, even though you may not have more life to live than one day. But we plan to live for 100 years, because of this permanent, solid feeling.

0:29:37.9 I better not talk too much, because otherwise I will still be talking the same subject next year. But I do want you to have a solid understanding, each and every one of you. You can, because you are great, intelligent people, having great interest and you are paying attention and that will make a huge dent in your negative emotions. When you want to be very angry with somebody, really wanting to punch the shiny head of the Brooklyn guy or something, even then you will think, “Ha, this is transitory, this is simple functioning. So what?” So you won’t punch him, even if you are very close. You will say no.

0:30:56.6 That makes a dent to your anger. And then you realize, “That’s not me. It is his delusion, so it’s not his fault, what am I talking about, it’s my fault to go and punch him, without knowing what is happening here.” So you improve your thoughts, your character, your way of life and that then improves your personality. A person who is only thinking of me, me, me and my is not considered a good person, but a bad person. That’s the definition of a bad person. A person who is thinking of everybody is a good person, like “ If I do this, this will create inconvenience, trouble, sadness or will hurt this or that person, so I better not do that.” So dharma practitioners want to transform themselves from bad person to good person. The biggest key to cut our delusional, emotional problems is this nothingness. Neither me nor any phenomenon exists. This is the sharpest weapon. As I mentioned a couple of times, this will remove the red carpet from underneath the feet of your ego. So this is a good method for you to improve. Ego grasping is delusion, for sure. Why? Because there is no ego, yet we are perceiving and projecting and accepting that.

0:33:56.5 Then when you negate the self, you are negating not the individual, but the false self, the wrong self. The true wisdom can never negate something that exists. Something existing is not negatable at all, because it is existing. So what you are negating here is the false ideas. That’s why there are so many reasons to show that when we say “self” what self are we talking about? Truth, whatever it is, will prevail. The false will go down. That is how wisdom or analyzing meditation will work. It works because it is right. A few years ago someone asked me why something particular will happen? I said because it is true. If it is the truth it will prevail. If it is false it will go away. It may take generations or any amount of time. That depends on the individual. But ultimately that is going to be the fact on your table, in your view and then it is the reality. Reality is truth. Truth is existence.

0:37:14.5 I do remember, I talked about negating a lot and I don’t remember saying this: don’t think of something truly existing that you have to negate. You can’t negate true existence, because it is truly there. But you can only negate your delusion, that false existence. That functions too – unfortunately. That functions and uses us as slave throughout our life after life, not just throughout our life, but life after life. So this the time for us to make our efforts. Even if you don’t have teeth, even then you have to bite. This is the time to do whatever you can. That is because of the conditions we have.

0:38:28.9 For one, it is our mind. Secondly, our body and understanding. Thirdly, we have all facilities available, the information, meditation, facilities. No one outside, in downtown, whether Ann Arbor or New York or wherever, will ever hear about “I am not here, I am selfless.” Who is going to hear that, except a handful of crazy people, who are either sitting here or listening on the webinar? In one way you are a crazy group of people, on the other hand you are extremely fortunate. Be happy about it, because with this life, this power, this capability, these facilities, you really have the opportunity to totally defeat the false ruling of your life and lives, for centuries, for countless number of years. This is the time and as I said, even if you don’t have teeth, bite with your gums or your lips. You have to make a dent this time and these are your tools.

0:40:17.9 And that should conclude the third conclusion.

NIRVANA IS PEACE

Now the fourth one: nirvana is peace. When you look at this it seems like here we are in samsara. That tree, that house, these people and the things around here are not working well, we are struggling here and there and this is samsara. And where is nirvana? Up there somewhere. We are so used to this in our culture that works with hell, heaven and earth. So we are in hell and earth and heaven up there is nirvana. That’s what we think.

0:41:16.0 I am forgetting something. I actually wanted to talk to you about the four reliabilities. When I talk about analyzing and thinking, there are ways and means of thinking with the four reliabilities, four different reasonings. So I wanted to present that. I will come back with that later and give it to you. Right now I want to finish the four conclusions. The fourth one is nirvana is peace. So we think that nirvana is up there, in hills and mountains and forests and samsara is in the cities down here all that sort of thing is a false idea. Both nirvana and samsara are within one individual. You don’t transfer yourself from one place to another, like pure land or heaven or something. Heaven and pure land are part and parcel, they are the positive consequences of nirvana. Really, the bottom line is that the negativities, the negative emotions, control us like mountains. Diana Cutler clarified in the e mail that the word I tried to remember from Ram Dass’ talk is probably schmutz, not ‘smoosh’. She says it is a little dust on your beautiful cashmere sweater, a tiny, little bit. That is actually dealing with the huge monster. When you see it again after a little while, after not seeing it for a while, you really see it as a little speck of dust down there. You can just kick it and it goes.

0:44:45.3 just a tiny, little one. It is almost like some residue is left, nothing else. That will happen if you think this empty. Then by thinking this empty, what you are practicing is, you are cleaning, you are purifying your negativities, your negative emotions. These truly do not exist, so they are exhaustible, they are perishable. They are impermanent. They will go away, they will clean up. There are certain types of cloth that you can wash with water. Certain types of clothes you cannot wash with water. You have to burn them. Without burning the cloth itself, you can burn the dirt and dust out of the cloth.

0:46:23.7 Traditionally, the Buddhists tell you that. Today, there are certain clothes you can wash in the laundry, and certain clothes you have to dry clean. That’s what it is. Whether you dry clean or laundry, it will clean them. Just make sure you do the right thing for the right material, otherwise your clothes will be spoilt, as we all know. The whole purpose is cleaning. It is the exhaustion of dirt and unwanted spots, whether you dry clean or launder it or whether you wash in the sand. There are lots of people who wash in the sand. Whatever you do, there will be a time when that cloth becomes pure, as good as new. That is called nirvana. That is nirvana: the exhaustion of our delusions and negatitivies, the pure what we have then is called nirvana. You don’t have to get “up there” to get it. Maybe it is easier to get it up there, I don’t know.

0:48:14.5 But that is within you. A lot of sensible people will tell you that everything is here: hell, heaven and earth are here. And that’s what it is. That is your nirvana. It is cleansing. You can do Vajrasattva recitation and prostrations or circumambulations or whatever you do. That’s fine. You can do mandala offerings and say mantra and all of those are fine. But you have to make a dent and you have to really clean your piece of cloth. No matter whatever you do, dry clean it, wash it, wash it in the sand, that’s what you have got to do and that is nirvana, the pure part.

0:49:50.2 I guess that’s all I have to say today.

I am also very happy with the Ann Arbor Sangha Council meeting the other day. It was wonderful and everybody is really working and doing their best. Tank you to all of you.

0:50:27.3 And one thing I did not mention very specifically, and that is our dharma teachers and they are doing a wonderful job, running the courses everywhere. I am talking about everywhere, here in the United States, the Netherlands and Malaysia. All these dharma teachers, volunteer teachers, dharma instructors, are doing their best and they have no time, yet they are taking time and efforts and everything. So I am very, very happy, and I want to thank all the dharma coordinators and dharma teachers. Some teachers are not coordinators and many of them are and they do very well.

0:51:44.8 Also there are other people who do all other things, like John Madison has been doing the hospice for years and he gets volunteers and does things here and there. And then of course, the chaplaincy problem and they are working hard. Jewel Heart has so many activities. Every good, talented person is not supposed to be in every field. Really, we have to reserve some good people to do other things, for example, teaching dharma is much more important than the chaplaincy or anything else. They are very good and every center is trying their best. Some centers run very smoothly, some don’t run that smoothly. That’s because we are human beings. That’s what happens. But everybody is trying their best. Thank you for all of them, what they have been doing and I urge you to continue. If I didn’t mention it, look at Bobbie’s beautiful flowers. I don’t see very well, but it is beautiful, honestly.

0:53:33.7 For years she has been doing that and also everybody else. Karla has been umdze for years, Hartmut being a good lob pön, Tony, no matter how busy he is, still he is doing this work. Supa and everybody else. If I don’t mention your name it is not because I look down on you, please. Everybody is in my mind. Thank you.

And I guess that’s it. Thank you, Karla.

0:54:15.6 May all beings……….0:55:43.9 end