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20150726GRAAST24

0:00:00.0 Good morning and welcome everybody to today’s Sunday talk. Today is the anniversary of disabled American’s privilege. In a way, of course it is a great privilege as well as advantage for disabled persons like me. I should say we are grateful, thank you for President Bush who signed this. This was George H Bush, not Bush 43 but Bush 41. It is also a great advantage, particularly for me. I am talking about myself. Everywhere you are waiting, when boarding the airlines, the first privilege is that we get boarding first, even before the First Class boarding. We get first priority. Also, when I travel on a scooter, the scooter will take me to the airplane and then it either fits in the plane or is taken downstairs and by the time I reach there, of course I have to wait until the scooter comes up. That makes me probably the last person to get out of the airplane.

0:02:13.2 However, it has tremendous amounts of privilege in parking, everywhere. However, I understand it also has disadvantages of employment and of course, socially, no discrimination is the US law, however, even if you yourself are the employer, you would rather hire somebody who can work everything for you, rather than a handicapped person, which is understandable. Plus, handicapped people need extra care and facilities and if you don’t have them, it becomes liable to law suits. So, there are advantages and disadvantages. Every advantage has it’s own disadvantage and every disadvantage has its own advantage and that’s the beauty of samsara, which we enjoy as well as suffer.

0:03:37.9 Also I am grateful to those who struggled and fought for the privilege of the handicapped. They really fought, struggled and earned this, rather than were given it. I saw a film some time ago, where all these handicapped people crawled on the steps of Capitol Hill and crawled into the chamber and every else, as far as they were allowed to go. They gained those rights and advantages by struggling, by fighting and a person like me, and many thousands, if not millions of others, enjoy the privileges and I am grateful to those previous Americans who struggled for the privileges that disabled Americans enjoy today.

0:05:11.3 It is very good, as you see. The parking advantages are great. Disabled people have the closest parking every possible and sometimes a parking lot is full, but the handicapped parking is still empty. So it is really a great advantage for those who need it. So thank you for that. That is the Disabled Americans Act. And today we are remembering that.

0:05:59.2 To continue our talk here: my subject is wisdom now. Giving privileges to the handicapped is also a part of wisdom, because if there is no such wisdom, people have to struggle, they are going to get hurt for sure and also they block the people in the lines. For example, once we were coming back from Europe to the United States and at the airport there were so many handicapped people lined up and luckily Colleen and I have the “ Global Entry”, so we could go in the global line. But then we were accompanied by Supa and Kimba and they didn’t have the Global Entry then. Now they have it, right? Still not? O my God. So they had to wait for 1.5 or 2 hours and we were waiting at the other side of that, because all the handicapped people were not getting through. Some of them don’t speak English, some had their papers not right, so it really took maybe an hour and a half, that long. So it is advantage and disadvantage anyway. So that is the wisdom. That is also wisdom. If you have those handicapped people lined up among the usual people, then people get hurt and there will be delays and all kinds of things. So it is wise and maybe it is part of wisdom to have handicapped privileges in this country.

0:08:33.2 This is great here. Western Europe is also quite good, but if you go to the east, handicapped people have very little advantages. I remember very well. You can drive your scooter or wheelchair very easily within the cities of the United States, including Ann Arbor, though it may not be the best. Ann Arbor should be the best, but maybe it is not the best. But still you can manage. But in cities like Beijing, I remember I was rolling in the wheelchair, and every step you have to get off, pick up the wheel chair and bring it down, because there is no handicapped access. And even if there is handicapped access, it is not looked after and is not usable – even in cities like Beijing. So it shows the people’s care and concern in the west is much more and that is wisdom.

0:10:03.4 Here we are not talking about that type of wisdom, but the Buddhist wisdom. One thing I like to say: Buddhism, particularly Tibetan Buddhism, is very much looking inwards, the inner personality. No matter whatever, not just the wisdom, but every other activity we talk about. You notice that. It is always looking in, not out. In other words, the theme is not trying to see what other people are doing, but I have to try to see what I am doing, what you are doing. So it is looking in.

0:11:51.9 My eyesight is not so good today. Is that Chris Frasz over there? No? Oh, it is a new person, all right. Okay. I am glad to have a new person. Welcome, new person. You know why? My purpose is, I always try to get out and be open and have new persons come in all the time. I don’t want to say it, but our administration sometimes thinks we only have to worry about internal, not external, because it is Buddhism. So you can’t go out – or you can’t sell it out. I said to them, “ Look the other Buddhists are doing that, like Sogyal Rinpoche and Trungpa Rinpoche to a certain extent, and Lama Zopa” and then they always have an answer for me like “They have outstanding books and they have this and that and you don’t.” That’s what I normally come across. “ They are popular and you are not” and “ They are nice and you are bad” – they don’t say that, okay, I made up that story – anyway. So I mean this is not an exclusive club and besides that, there are three types of Buddhism. There is Buddhism that really contributes to people’s lives. That is scientifically acceptable, important things within Buddhism. It doesn’t have to be a Buddhist person’s practice. It has to be service to all beings, all human beings and there are tremendous amounts of cause and effect and wisdom.

0:14:34.3 There is meditation and so many of them. Really there is so much for the usage of the general public. It doesn’t have to be Buddhist. Luckily the mindfulness meditation is becoming acceptable in the general community, at various hospitals, learning institutions and now furthermore, the European Union has hired Jon Kabbat Zinn to teach meditation to the EU staff. So that is very great news for me, because rather than Buddhism not being acceptable it is acceptable in the EU as a normal activity, because it helps. So reaching out externally is extremely important, because we can serve people. Otherwise, people who are here have heard it so many times and people who are out there, don’t get it. We don’t get the opportunity to serve them. So that is really what it is. It makes it easier for people if they can just do the routine work and not so much external activities, but it really should be going out. Oh yeah, the answer to my point that the FPMT is doing well, even though Lama Zopa is not that….they told me, “They are 50 years old.” So I started looking and we are not that far behind. This is how the administration will block you. Our own administration will block you. They have easy answers.

0:17:31.8 There may be truth in it, really, but trying is important. It is not in consideration at all. Everything to be announced will only be announced in our usual circles and then it becomes very difficult. For example, we are having a retreat upcoming in Garrison. There are wonderful speakers, like Robert Thurman, Nena Thurman, as well as Joe Loizzo, as well as Joshua Cutler and Philip Glass. But very few people have registered, as far as I know. If it is less than a certain number, we have to cancel it, for sure. But that’s because it is only circulated and announced in certain quarters and then what happens is that we have summer retreat, winter retreat and then we have the Garrison retreat, which makes it very difficult for people to come. But if you are looking outside, there will be great opportunity, on the one hand. Since I am talking about Garrison I might as well say it.

0:19:28.4 Many of our people say that Garrison is so expensive. The money is not going to Jewel Heart but to Garrison, so Garrison is so expensive. True, for us $1000 for a week is expensive, no doubt about it. But if you compare it with Menla Institute, next door to Garrison and the Open Center and Omega Institute – I personally looked with Kimba and each one of them is $2000 a week, each one of them. Menla is $2000 a week plus more. Omega the same thing, Open Center the same thing. Garrison is really half the price of it’s level.

0:20:27.9 In one way, $1000 for a week is expensive. On the other hand, it is half the price of all other equivalent places, like Open Center, Menla – Thurman’s place. So everywhere it is like that. Then if you look at the Insight Meditation Center in Massachusetts, it is also more. We don’t know the exact figure anymore. We looked. It is almost $2000 as well. So the normal rate for that type of activity is $2000 and this is only $1000 and we don’t appreciate or recognize that. On the other hand, our retreats are only $500. So when people see something that is double the amount, they get a shock. No doubt about it. But that’s really what it is. So we have maintained our retreats for as little as possible, because we want to make sure that everybody can come. Plus we do have certain scholarships here and there. People sponsor scholarships and do all that. We try to accommodate and we have a policy that we will never shut people out, unless they themselves create trouble. Otherwise we will never shut anybody out. We never close the door in the face of people who are seeking dharma. That’s what we normally do.

0:22:41.5 I don’t mean that people in Jewel Heart should come more and go there. This is open. In the beginning there is an example initiation of Manjushri and at the end there is White Tara Longevity initiation, which is not restricted to anybody and you don’t even necessarily have to be Buddhist. It is just open for that manner and a great example for looking at Vajrayana as well as the healing part of it and the talks are on wisdom, mostly wisdom. We have mentioned Five Paths, but it is not going to be very philosophical, but very open, because Thurman chose the subject out of the Manjushri Nama Sangit. I think the chose the words “ There is no fear in absolute”. We used to have that on a Jewel Heart T-shirt at the beginning: Truth Transcends Fear (dam pai dön la jig pa me) and he was choosing that particular verse. Then many people are worried that I am not talking, but I am talking to you every morning.

0:24:39.8 Then we do have women speakers too. Some people thought there are no women speakers. This is just crazy anyway. We do that, you know. Some crazy chick said there are not women speakers. Then I told that crazy chick: why didn’t you tell me? She said, “I told you program people and they don’t bother, so it’s not my problem.” That’s also true. So we have now plenty of women and I am glad she did it. Honestly. When I was thinking about who would be a good speaker I could have chosen Thubten Chödrön. I could have invited Sharon Salzberg and I could invited Laurie Anderson and all of those, which I didn’t think about. That’s my fault, honestly. I didn’t think about it. I thought of Thurman and Joshua. And I did think about Joshua’s wife, Diana Cutler, because she is one of the senior most Buddhist women, being a student of Geshe Wangyal, way early and she used to have those Buddhist retreats almost 30 years ago. So I did invite her, but somehow she didn’t want to.

0:26:35.4 That is a woman in Tibetan Buddhism, really, for a long, long time. And Nena Thurman refused to accept. I am pushing her, forcing her to speak anyway. If not, I will sit with her and have a conversation. That’s what I am planning to do. If you are watching, Nena, that’s what I am planning to do. Then we have Rocky Winter as well as Anne Warren. She has not confirmed yet, but still speaking. So there are a lot of wonderful women in Buddhism. I am so glad they raised that question, honestly. Somehow, I was blinded, not thinking about it. You know I am also very much against what the Tibetans do. You know what they do these days? They want to make sure there is one Kagyüpa, one Sakypa, one Gelugpa and I think that’s a terrible thing to do. Honestly, because as a result of that, good, knowledgeable, wonderful speakers are left out and some that are so-so are selected, because they happen to be in that tradition. In general, instead of contributing, it creates more disadvantages for people. And also doing this looks like a token of something, which is not necessarily good. I don’t want a token for women, or African Americans, although we have token African Americans here in Jewel Heart. It’s John Madison as well as that gentleman over here as well as Sean Ike. It is almost like token. But purposely we don’t do that and I am against that.

0:29:01.3 That’s how it works anyway. Since I am mentioning this I might as well mention the whole thing. Otherwise it is half-hidden. Anyway, that’s how it is and even if you are not coming, you may talk to some friends. You may think that a) who is interested and b) who can afford to and c) who you may think it is helpful for. Talk to those people and see. It is not just me, but a variety of different speakers, men, women, everything is there. So it will be good. Also we have Geshe Yeshe Thapkhe and Demo Rinpoche who will also be speaking there.

0:30:07.9 Geshe Yeshe Thapkhe has to be translated, but Joshua will do it, I hope. So there is quality and there is quantity, both (laughs). Both quality and quantity is rich. So those of you who you think may come, particularly in the New York area or nearby, whoever you think may benefit you should tell them and make other people go. Normally I don’t say that, but I think Jewel Heart needs each and every one of you to support it. That is the expansion of Jewel Heart.

0:31:08.8 And it is true. My administration tells me, “You did not want to have expansion.” It is true. It was true. I can’t travel [much now]. I have been travelling more than enough and even with the kidney dialysis I am going everywhere and there is a limit, however, it is an opportunity for people to pick up and an opportunity for all of us to serve them. Just keep that in mind. So it is not an exclusive club and we should really be looking forward to expansion. Yes, we will have a lot of difficulties, which we do – unnecessarily stumbling blocks. It happens, because they are all totally dedicated to Jewel Heart and they don’t want anything go wrong with it and that’s why they try to be very, very careful and sometimes that becomes a stumbling block. And so, that is definitely, I assure, if there is a stumbling block, it is done with good intention and dedication rather than being territorial. With this I hope things will improve with us.

0:33:08.3 Like these Sunday talks are very nice. They started with only a few people in the beginning and now it is way more, close to 200 and that’s whatever number of people are here and groups sharing together in various centers and everywhere else, plus we do have close to 100 on the webinar or sometimes over 100, always, which means it is helping some people. The efforts we put in become worthwhile. So I am very happy with that and we all should appreciate that, because we – not I am reaching – but we are all reaching and we are all contributing to people’s lives and try to make it easy.

WISDOM IS THIS LIFE’S KEY TO FREEDOM FROM SUFFERING

0:34:07.3 Talking about life: wisdom is supposed to be the contribution and the only key to handle the mystery of our life and that is what we suffer. No matter how much we enjoy life on the one hand, we equally suffer tremendously on the other hand. Basically, as Buddha said, it is samsara and samsaric life. So we do have this suffering attached. Basically, there are four kinds of suffering: getting old, death, sickness and birth, rebirth. Basically this is attached to our life. Many people even say: if you are born, you are born to suffer. That’s not true. You are born to make yourself free from suffering, because this is the only life that has a chance to be able to free us from suffering. No other lives can do that. You don’t have to look far. Look with your understanding.

0:36:24.9 The lives we see around – can animal life make it to free them from suffering once and for all? They can’t, no matter how big, how strong, how powerful they maybe. Tigers will not make themselves free from suffering. Elephants may be nice and sweet and wonderful and big, but still they cannot make themselves free from suffering. Snakes, birds, sweet little rabbits and deer can’t either. I get them in my backyard. I don’t see them making themselves free from suffering. They are struggling to eat grass, get some water and that’s it. They try to protect themselves from other animals or from hunters. That’s what they know to do. When a deer family crosses a road, the mother or father is standing there and watching, till the little ones have crossed. If the car driver stops they watch and the kids will go and they themselves will go. But if the car moves, the mother of father will jump on your car with all four legs and smash your window and they themselves get hurt. That’s how they know how to protect – nothing beyond.

0:38:47.5 And we have this extraordinary mind, this extraordinary physical body. Of course it is full of problems and full of suffering, but it has extraordinary qualities. The combination of this mind and this body and the time we are in gives us the opportunity, honestly. That is the truth.

0:39:26.1 Let’s say we were 100 years earlier in the United States. The opportunities such as this we would see as something crazy. Remember when Baba Ram Das went to India and came back with these little Indian kurta pajamas, that’s pajamas with a little khaki dress and everybody dressed the same way and climbed on the hill of his father’s residence. Remember? Except the hundreds of people climbing, up there everybody outside thought that was absolutely crazy. And then came the Hara Ram – Hare Krishna group, with their orange dresses and these little ching ching ching [cymbals] or whatever that is and the whole general society thought that is another crazy bunch. So gradually, over the years, the intellectuals have accepted that. Actually, it is accepted by the intellectual group of people. The great thinkers all begin to think about it. Then, of course, Hollywood picked it up too. So now, it is not that strange, though still it is strange. Our administration people think you can’t publicize this, because it is Buddhism, sometimes. That really tells you how mind is affected.

0:41:59.0 I also notice that middle class people who are struggling are also trying to hide this and not say that they are practicing this philosophy or thoughts, because of the fear of repercussion or fear or rejection, definitely. People do that, but still it is way better. Particularly, for lower middle class people it is open, because they don’t have that fear. They don’t have that hesitation. But when you to into the upper middle class, you do still have those a little bit. But when you go very high into the rich society, you don’t have that at all, because they are completely open and free. It is the upper middle class people who struggle with this. But I am sure it will get through. We have such a great opportunity, which they don’t. Some people don’t. Absolute yuppies may think this is absolutely strange and has no value for whatsoever. That is one reason why they don’t have opportunity. Another group of people who don’t have opportunity is because they just don’t buy it.

0:44:20.5 But for us, those of you who are open-minded and intelligent, we are trying to understand life.

We try to see what is really wrong. That includes scientists, hard core scientists, honestly. The other day when HH Dalai Lama was in New York there was a private lunch for people who have been supporting the Dalai Lama for years. They invited me and in the middle of the night I got a telephone call asking me to do the dedication speech for that. I didn’t decide until I went there. When I went there, they asked, “Would you?” and I said, “Yeah, I will.” So I did. In that dedication prayer I used two different verses. One is:

གངས་རི་ར་བས་བསྐོར་བའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་འདིར།།

ཕན་དང་བདེ་བ་མ་ལས་འབྱུང་བའི་གནས།།

སྤྱྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་བསྟན་འཛིན་རགྱ་མཚོ་ཡི།།

ཞབས་པད་སྲིད་མཐའི་བར་དུ་བརྟན་གྱུར་�

ིག།།

In the sacred land embraced

by a chain of snow mountains,

the source of all joy and benefit

Tenzin Gyatso, compassion incarnate,

may your lotus feet securely remain until aeons end.

One who gives all joy and happiness, Tenzin Gyatso, the compassionate Buddha, may you remain forever. We say that sometimes in Tibetan, gang ri ra wai...And then for people we say:

།ཇི་སྲིད་ནམ་མཁའ་གནས་པ་དང༌།།

།འགྲོ་བ་ཇི་སྲིད་གནས་གྱུར་པ།།

།དེ་སྲིད་བདག་ནི་གནས་གྱུར་ནས།།

།འགྲོ་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་སེལ་བར་ཤོག།

For as long as space endures

And for as long as living beings remain,

Until then may I, too, abide

To dispel the misery of the world.

As long as space remains, may we all remain there to spare the miseries of people. And in that first verse of Long Life for the Dalai Lama I said, “You are the source of joy and happiness, because when your government was lost in Tibet, Buddhism in Tibet died. Yet, you started in India.” Almost like Judaism died in Europe during World War II and started breathing again in the United States. I didn’t say that, but that was my thought. Just like that, HH DL started Tibetan Buddhism in India, not only the buildings and a number of people, but the quality of the people, the education aspect, so much so that it helps today throughout the world, wherever Tibetan Buddhism is know and mindfulness and all of this, wherever it is going, it becomes the source of that. That’s why you are the source of help and the source of joy. That’s how I put it. Not only you built the quality, even the hard core scientists are affected.

0:47:54.6 The person sitting next to me at that lunch was Professor Richard Davidson. So even hardcore scientists like him will have to accept this and study it. He is not wasting his time and studies it deeply. If psychologists study it, that’s nothing to be surprised. But when the physicists and biochemists study it that means there is something there, honestly. Whether they prove anything or not, but there is really something. And what are they looking at? At wisdom and that’s what we are talking about. Why are they looking at it? Because that may ease human suffering. That may have some answers for the mystery part of human life. So I have been able to mention that even hardcore scientists like Richard Davidson are looking into it. And they just don’t ignore is, saying “it’s just a belief system”. We have gone far away from there, 190 degrees. That’s what they did with the religious traditions, remember? They call it faith – oriented and truth-oriented. Do they say truth-oriented? Maybe finding facts.

Audience: empirical evidence.

Rimpoche: Okay. So they don’t say that anymore, but they are looking at it, although the ideas are coming out of Buddhist wisdom, which is faith-oriented, not doubt, but still, it is not to be discarded. That’s what Tibetan Buddhism does.

0:50:18.9 I was privileged to talk there, and none of my friends told me I said something wrong, so I think they all liked it – I hope. I was extremely nervous because I had no preparation. That’s what I usually do and that’s exactly what I did here. Usually, I don’t prepare anything. If I try to prepare it doesn’t work well, because then I try to correct the language. One time His Holiness came here and I prepared a speech and even made it into cards and then I tried to read, but I couldn’t read. I didn’t’ see it well and I was nervous and I didn’t say it properly. It was miserable. Since then I left that and don’t prepare anything. So, I was nervous because I was not prepared and also it was an immediate decision, rather than having some time to think about what I was going to say or anything of that sort. But it turned out to be okay. It is part of Buddhist wisdom anyway, that your understanding and your ideas will somehow be able to pop up and be presented, though not nicely, but somehow I was able to present and it is also part of wisdom.

0:52:02.7 But the wisdom we are talking about is going deeper and that is going to the root of the source of misery and suffering. Is that external or internal? Normally, we see it as being external rather than internal, because we blame other people. “If he didn’t do that, I wouldn’t have done that.” We always blame others. That is our trend and this is how our situation moves, blaming others. And if you can’t blame others, blame yourself. That’s what we do. We are all – whether you recognize it or not – deeply interested. The interest is there, within our mind. Where does this misery, this suffering, this mystery, come from? We have the interest. Somehow we are afraid to say it – just like the fear of the society’s rejection, as I said earlier. Or it may be the fear of being crazy. People will treat you as crazy.

0:53:49.1 Or it can be the fear of being abnormal. These fears will block us from expressing our interest and our wishes. Truly, there will not be a single person who is not interested. Even the crazy ones will be interested, otherwise we won’t have crazy ones here. Just kidding. But really, that’s what it is. Then what is that? That is the search. That is where we are talking about wisdom. Normally, all of you know that Buddhist wisdom is emptiness, that there is nothing there. But if you simply say “There is nothing to be afraid of” it’s not going to help anybody. It doesn’t make any sense at all. You have to go a little deeper. What is it? Buddha says it is ignorance. All right? So you can’t tell yourself “You are ignorant. You are stupid. And don’t be afraid.” That won’t work. We all know that. So what is ignorance all about? What is the real source of our problems and suffering? Where is it? External or internal? If it is internal, is it mental, physical or both? These are the points we will be observing the next couple of Sundays.

0:56:45.2 Basically, the wisdom we have to introduce is nothingness, emptiness. But if I just simply say it is empty, it is nothing, it doesn’t work. How does it work? That’s what we will talk about for the next couple of Sundays, though we will not be able to go into detail at all. It gets very, very detailed, but we want to come up with some understandable conclusion that each and every one of us may be able to do. That’s what we are going to do in the next couple of Sundays. Until Garrison I am around here, except maybe one Sunday, when I may be in Cleveland. The Sunday webinar will be on Sunday, August 9. On the 8th, I will speak in Cleveland. So on the 9th, I may or may not be here. But other than, I am going to be here all Sundays. But even if it is a webinar coming from Cleveland or whatever, we will be talking the same. The subject is not going to change.

0:58:18.7 That’s all I would like to say and thank you so much for being here today. Thank you.

0:58:28.1 May all beings……. 1:00:01.9 end