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20160605GRAAST50

0:00:00.0 Good morning, everybody and welcome to our usual Sunday talk. Last Sunday happened to be joined with the retreat and then we continued to talk. So it was sort of the first time after the long, physical complications I had. Actually since November I was continuously not well, but somehow managed and in the last two months it was quite difficult, but due to the blessings of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, gurus and friends like you people, with all your good wishes together, [I have come through] quite difficult illnesses which could have had me in the past tense a couple of times. But somehow I am still able to be here and talk to you. So I am very happy, as well as I have to give a little apology that you had to listen to repeated tapes for a little while.

0:02:13.5 But those tapes are not bad. The beginning efforts are much better and later you get used to it. So the beginning tapes of those Sunday talks are not bad, plus during the digitalization and editing and transcribing they made improvements, so it’s better than me talking in life. So I am happy with that.

I also like to say that during the last one week, we had a nice retreat, mainly run by our sangha community, which really came together and did a great job. I am very happy about it and thank you to all of you.

0:03:51.1 As I said during the retreat, Allen Ginsberg used to sing: Sangha Death, we will figure out. So I think you are going to figure out what to do. So I am very happy and very proud of our sangha. Not because of our sangha, but because the knowledge and quality of our members; the knowledge, quality and understanding of Dharma, the understanding of reality, of compassion, of wisdom and all of them really make me proud, one of the best Buddhist sanghas we have. Honestly. There are much larger centers than ours. There are much longer-term Dharma centers, a lot of them. We are actually 25 – 30 years old, so we are quite babies, yet we have the sangha qualities. We are a sangha that people can admire, that can stand by itself and that is united. Sometimes a few people will have one or two things to say and complain and do this and that, but that doesn’t cause disunity in the sangha. So it is very united, very good and very devoted to the goal of the sangha. And that is 1) keeping your own practice and 2) helping everybody else.

0:06:20.3 and 3) taking the responsibility of the continuation of Buddha’s message. In all of our sangha, each and every one of you does that. So I am very grateful and it is wonderful and I am proud of you. Even the new ones have good examples, because the senior sangha shows the junior ones the way and how to function. If brand new people join today they have examples to look at role models. So you seniors provide great role models and you new ones have a good opportunity to 1) help yourselves and 2) help others. This is the sangha’s responsibilities and you are doing extremely well. Also maintaining and continuing. Tibetan Buddhism is continuing in life. It is not a dead relation.

0:07:53.3 Buddha showed the path and the great masters of both, India and Tibet, are past. However, the tradition is alive, because you keep them in life, by practicing. Everybody cannot be a great scholar. Everybody cannot be an expert in every subject, both sutra and tantra, and particularly the shastras. But all of you have a perfect, complete practice.

I cannot say all of you, but most of you to have a perfect, complete practice; the essence of the Theravada teaching and the Mahayana and thus you have a complete, perfect sutrayana complete in your practice. Your lam rim practice really fills up the Theravada practice with the “common with the lower” level. Your lam rim practice “common with the medium” level fills up the goal of the Theravada teachings to achieve nirvana, the arhat level; to be free from samsara. These goals are all filled up completely and comprehensively, although it doesn’t say this way or that way. But the lam rim we study is not preliminary. It is not just a prerequisite. It is something very comprehensive in Buddhist teaching, particularly sutra teaching.

0:10:32.0 It is the Theravada and Mahayana teaching. “Common with the medium” does that with the Theravada teaching and at the Mahayana level you have the comprehensive Mahayana teaching, perhaps better than anywhere. It has the essence of all the Buddha’s teachings.

0:11:16.4 Talking about essence. I used the know the word ‘essence’, because I used to get chicken essence or ginseng essence in bottles. Whether this is comprehensive or not, I don’t know, but I used to get it. This week two Malaysian friends started giving me chicken essence. So I appreciate that on the one hand, very kind and now I know what essence means. They put a whole chicken in a pot, without water and then the water is outside the pot. And that is how it is double-cooking. Then the juices come out inside, where there is no water. It is a cup or a bowl, not more than that. It is the whole chicken. So on the one hand I appreciate it, but on the other hand I thought how heavy negativities I have, eating a chicken every day. So I had these two thinkings. On the one hand, appreciating the devotion and care and this is helping me to recover quickly and on the other hand, although it is bought in the supermarket as a dead chicken, however, it is a chicken a day. So I am a lama who is eating a chicken a day.

0:13:32.8 So I thought about it, but on the other hand, you can practice and benefit even that chicken, who is already slaughtered. But his or her body has been utilized. So with good thinking there is something you can do, though I don’t have the position of Milarepa, who said, “While I am eating, I meditate. I have that particular way of doing it. If everybody had that, how happy I would be.” Milarepa has all these great particular qualities, which we don’t have.

0:14:36.1 However, we try to copy Milarepa, trying to utilize the food or drink as the first offering to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Then generate the Lama Yidam in your body and offer to them as a feast or tsoh offering or mandana offering. If you do it in that manner, as Buddhists, whatever we drink or eat, we first make offerings to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Many new age people do it with all kinds of gestures. I noticed that with our good friend, Baba Ram Das, when I first saw him in Omega. He did food offerings with hand gestures like this (shows). I don’t know what that gesture may be, but with that gesture he made offerings. We used to do that too. However, when you mix with society, if we pick that up as a habit, it becomes show biz and may not be that great.

0:16:41.2 Particularly for people who may not be that interested in that type of activity. You may create more negativity than positivity. So we do it with our heart, with our mind. We bless the food with OM AH HUM. Actually OM AH HUM is such a word. It means I may be the nature of all the body of Buddha. I may be the nature of all the body of Dharma. I may be the nature of all the body of Sangha. I may be the nature of all speech of Buddha. I may be the nature of all mind of Buddha, etc. So on the one hand, OM AH HUM looks like something easy to say, nothing important, but in reality it is extremely important. When I first met Ram Das he said OM AH HUM and Allen Ginsberg also said OM AH HUM. When you saw a couple of them saying it, I was not sure whether it was a cheap usage or not. Also, for Tibetans OM AH HUM may not mean that much, because we are so used to it. Sometimes, that also happens with saying

SANG GYE CHÖ DANG TSOG KYI CHOG NAM LA

JANG CHUB BAR DU DAG NI KYAB SU CHI

DAG GI JIN SOG GYI PE SO NAM KYI

DRO LA PÄN CHIR SANG GYE DRUB PAR SHOG

I take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha

Until I obtain Enlightenment.

By practicing generosity and the other perfections

May I be able to obtain Enlightenment, for the benefit of all sentient beings.(3x)

How important, meaningful and great it is, but when you say it every day, sometimes it is like a daily chore, not so different from brushing your teeth or sitting on the throne.

0:19:16.5 Sometimes DRO LA PÄN CHIR SANG GYE DRUB PAR SHOG – for the benefit of all beings - becomes an example of just doing nothing, just driving it away. It becomes meaningless, usual routine and some people read it that way. So OM AH HUM and also OM MANI PADME HUM all become like that sometimes. But if you really think OM AH HUM, then you think, “I may be the vajra nature of all Buddha’s body. I may be the speech nature of the Buddha’s speech. I may be the mind nature of all Buddha’s mind.” So how important and how meaningful it is. How profound it is. So when you look from the profound point of view, each and every one of them is extremely profound.

0:20:40.4 When you look at it from the usual routine point of view, sometimes we begin our practice with some words and suddenly notice the words which end the practice. So we don’t even know where it went and what we said. Sometimes it happens. It is not great, but at least you didn’t break your commitment, provided you didn’t jump in between. Luckily sometimes we get caught on certain words and the prayer doesn’t go down further. Some enthusiastic people then keep on repeating it at that point.

0:21:47.1 When I was young in the monastery, there was a monk in a fraternity called Go. It was common for the studying monks to sit up the whole night and say whatever you memorize in the courtyard of your fraternity, so that everybody can hear. You start in the evening, when darkness begins, whether it is like these days, after 9 pm or in winter, after 5 pm, whatever and keep saying it until dawn has completely arrived the next morning. So there was a guy who memorized the root text of Abhisamayalankara, the transcendental wisdom. We call it ngön to gyen in Tibetan. At the beginning of the text, at the refuge level, the words say

sang gye la sog kön chog sum – Buddha, etc, the Three Jewels

So he remembered that phrase sang gye la sog kön chog sum, but couldn’t remember the next one. He was stumped there. So half the night he kept on repeating sang gye la sog kön chog sum, Buddha, etc, the Three Jewels. The other half of the night he got that also upside down and kept on repeating “Three Jewels, etc, the Buddha”. In Tibetan he said kön chog la sog sang gye sum.

0:23:55.7 So he spent the other half of the night saying that. This was great enthusiastic, diligent work. He didn’t fall asleep, he didn’t stop. He kept on repeating. He didn’t remember the next line, but that’s fine. Later certain teachers used that as an example of enthusiasm. So even sometimes we get stumped and don’t go through nicely and repeat. That’s okay. That perhaps helps to bring back our consciousness to what we are doing. This guy probably did it consciously, because he didn’t remember the next, but for us, we go through just by mouth, and from our heart we are not concentrating. We may be thinking something and doing something else. That happens many times. It is not okay all the time, but if it happens on one or two occasions it is fine. But the most important thing is the interest and the dedication and also the motivation of benefiting every being. Tibetan Buddhism in particular is so kind. It teaches us in words, just on our lips, “for the benefit of all beings I like to practice this and that”. It is sort of on our lips. Even if our heart doesn’t remember, our lips move.

0:26:44.5 So that should remind the heart to work along with it. Then it becomes a proper, perfect motivation. Sometimes people may think, “What is the use of me having that motivation? I can do nothing.” But that is not true. As I said the other day: you are a member of society. So you contribute to society. After all, society is nothing but the collection of members such as yourself. Actually, you are the society, because you make society work. You are the society. Your contribution, your motivation, your idea, will make a huge difference in society, because you are one of them. You contribute, you influence your friends, your associates, your colleagues. Even if you can’t influence anyone, it doesn’t matter. You influence yourself and you are helping. You are doing the best you can. So it is really contributing, not only to society. You are contributing to the world community, to the world peace. If you keep on war mongering and become hawkish, then you contribute to war.

0:29:03.7 If you keep on thinking compassionate and peaceful thoughts, you are contributing to the peace. Today’s world is in such a horrible situation. We can fall anywhere. People like you, who occasionally hear or read are open-minded and love peace and compassion. You care. You are the lucky ones, the honorable ones. There are so many hawkish people among ourselves.

0:29:52.1 Within our family, within our community, within our fellow county people, within our district, within our city, our country and human society, there are so many hawkish people.

0:30:24.2 Many of these hawks get into power unless you pay attention. If you don’t pay attention, particularly this year is election year. I am not saying you should vote Republican or Democrat. I am not supposed to say it, I am not allowed to say it and I don’t have the right to say and I am not saying it, but I am saying it is important to vote. If you pay no attention, if you don’t show up on November 8, the first Tuesday in November, wherever you are, in the evening, if you don’t show up, you are going to regret it by midnight. I don’t think this is going to be dimples and chads for months together. So if you don’t show up that day, then you will be regretting it.

0:32:25.1 No matter how important you think your business is or whatever you have to do that way, but remember, you love peace. You care about people. You care about the world. You care about the United States. You care about Americans. The best way to serve Americans is not by making Mexico pay for it. Mexicans may not pay. They may refuse too and they may charge you too. You never know.

By practicing your spiritual path, putting yourself on the side of the people who care about everybody else, other than yourself, people who care about people, compassionate people, kind people. As a matter of your right as a citizen, it also becomes your Dharma duty to go to the polling booth on the first Tuesday this November, November 8. Don’t get the date confused. If you are confused now, that’s fine. But don’t get confused that day. If you are late that day, whether it is raining or sunny, if you don’t go and vote, you will be failing your own spiritual path, because it is uncertainty, if there is going to be war. Who knows what happens when hawkish people come into power. As it is, every state, the house and senate of almost every state, the governors, all are slightly hawkish, including our state of Michigan. And if the center also becomes hawkish, that’s it. We are a world power. We can destroy anybody anywhere, anytime. We have this power. We do. And then we are not the only ones. There are others who also have nuclear weapons. This has huge consequences in the world.

0:36:12.9 The person who sits in the White House at least has to be a stable person, honestly, not crazy. It’s not who I support. That is different. Rochelle made it very clear, but that’s not the point. The point is that it has to be a stable person. It can’t be an extremist of any kind. Extremists are extremists. So that is my 5 cents contribution.

0:37:25.3 Actually, every part of your movement has its responsibility. Even when you are walking, it is important. You have to know that you don’t walk on insects. They have life. If you can avoid it you should. But when you are driving you cannot avoid it. Many insects, especially on dirt roads, you cannot avoid. If you try, you may sacrifice your own life in an accident. You never know. That’s why every moment there is the possibility of negativities being committed, as well as there are positive activities. So those of you who are coming to listen on Sundays, I really wanted to say that every day we create tremendous amounts of negativities. We can’t help it. But that doesn’t mean you have to stop functioning. You have to function the way you want and the way the society wants you to and expects you to function. You have to. You can’t go off the society. There are a few who can: the crazy and the genius. However, most of us go with society.

0:39:12.6 Whatever the expectations are and whatever you need for yourself, you have to do it. If you don’t do it, who else is going to do it? Whatever you need to do it, you have to do it. It may hurt someone here and there, but you can’t help it. But you don’t think: I can’t help it. You think, “I am sorry to do it that way, but I have to do it my way.” But you have ways to purify it and make it right. That is important for you to know. Every negativity we commit, including killing a human being, including stealing people’s property, including black lies, everything is impermanent. It is changeable. You can change from negative to neutral. When it is neutral, from the karmic point of view it becomes difficult to give a result. You have neutralized it. Human beings have so many ways of handling things. This is the human quality. Our intelligent mind, our great information that is available to us is our power and makes us different.

0:41:24.2 So if you get yourself in the habit or chore of purification, it is very good; at least regret and think “I am not going to repeat it.” Regret is really needed and commit yourself not to repeat. There are the four r’s. Regret, non-repeating. The antidote is already there. It is your practice. People will say Vajrasattva recitations and all that, and that’s great, but everything is great. Every practice you have is great. OM MANI PADME HUM is great. OM AH HUM is great. Everything will do. Bodhimind is great.

Dig pa thob che shin tu mi se pa

De ne dzog pai jang chub sem mem pa

Ge zhen gang gi se gye nam par gyur (spelling???)

Shantideva said that if you have such powerful negativities as the five limitless non-virtues, they cannot be destroyed by any other virtuous activities except bodhimind.

Bodhimind is the ultimate, unlimited, unconditioned love and compassion. It is the total dedication for the benefit of all, yet you yourself is the one seeking enlightenment, to benefit and serve all – a-l-l – living beings.

0:44:08.5 That reminds me of a story. There was some kind of conference arranged by the Catholic arch diocese in Washington. Ram Das was there and Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield too. Ram Das asked me a question about the airs and the central channel. I said, “All airs are connected in the central channel.” I used to have a heavy accent. I still have it, but I had much more in those days. Ram Das had a moving chair and moved towards the stenographer who was typing. He laughed and repeated what the stenographer had written: all hairs are connected in the central channel. It was in that big church up on the hill in Washington. So Ram Das corrected that and for a while then I kept on saying airs – a – i – r. So that’s the motivation and that is purification. If you study a little bit, you will know. The books and transcripts are available to you, in hard copy or on line. You don’t try to read them from first page to last page. That would be great, but you can’t. You won’t be able to. There are too many details and then you will do nothing. So don’t do it, but take it in sections.

0:47:18.9 Wherever you need to look, go there, as though you are experts who remind themselves of certain portions. If you read it like that you will get the idea. When you get the idea, follow it, right or wrong. Try to be right. If you get in the habit of doing the wrong thing all the time, it is not good. But just to do it is good. Don’t try to be so much right. The same thing applies in our life. You can’t be so righteous. If you are too righteous you will become hawkish. All these hawkish people in power didn’t become hawkish because they love war, but because they become so righteous. So sometimes too much righteousness is not right.

0:48:26.7 You have to be on the middle path. This is a very Tibetan talk. You have to be at the center of all. The extreme of anything is not good. Extremes in food are not good. Having too little is not good. Nothing is terrible. Too much is not good. That goes for everything, right? Medical treatment as well as physical treatment is the same. Too much is not right. Too little is not good. Right and appropriate is good. You need good nutrition and then everything is okay. That is good in our life, as well as in our spiritual practice.

0:49:45.6 Tibetans have this saying:

lha de mi sum chö pa chig – gods, ghosts and humans have the same character.

Gods in the sense of the spiritual level, ghosts in the sense of the negativity level and human beings in the sense of a sensible mid-level. So that is very suitable for your health, for your physical body and also very suitable for your mental body.

0:50:41.0 If you are an extreme practitioner who spends 24 hours day and night saying prayers you are not going to be healthy. You are going to go soon. It is not good for you, from this life’s point of view. If you do nothing, not even half an hour or 40 minutes or so, that is also not good for you in your future. The future is the result of the present. The present virtues bring future happiness and joy. The present negativities and non-virtues bring a negative future of suffering. It is in your own hands, whether you want to bring yourself good, pleasant happiness or bring negativity and misery. Right now it is entirely in your own hands, not in anybody’s hands. Not in a third person’s hands, not in the hands of God, or the devil or of other people. It is in your hands. That’s why you have to help yourself. This is the way how you can help yourself. What you need is a little awareness and enthusiasm.

0:52:38.4 With this I would like to thank you and those of you who came to the retreat and are still staying here, thank you and those of you who are traveling long distance, I would like to say: bon voyage. Those of you who are around and on the webinar, I will hopefully see you next Sunday. I may be talking to you from my home next Sunday. I have a new studio. People kindly built it and I have to use it. I am sure there will be time to use it later, but maybe we will experiment next Sunday. So, if there is a little inconvenience on the webinar, it is because we are experimenting, not with the teaching, but with the media. With this, I would like to say thank you very much for everyone and all the best.

0:54:18.3 May all beings….. 0:55:58.5 end of file