Archive Result

20160904GRAAST60

0:00:00.0 Hi John, Thank you, thank you so much [for playing viola].

Good morning and welcome everybody to this Labor Day weekend Sunday talk. I can’t see the numbers, but I am told that around 80 people have tuned in so far and I don’t know how many people are in JH Ann Arbor and Chicago and other groups where people are listening together. Good morning to all of you.

0:01:14.8 To update you, last week I had a little procedure or operation or whatever you may call it and I was under full anesthesia for about 4 hours. They put this fistula in. Last time when I talked to you, many of you didn’t get it, writing to me about what that is. When I got put on hemo-dialysis I got an emergency hole in the chest where they put the hemo-dialysis through. That is somehow connected directly near the heart. So now they are doing it through a vein in my arms. They are connecting two of them with a machine through needles. That is probably called “fistula”. That is where they take your blood out of your body into a machine that cleans it and puts it back. That’s it.

0:03:31.1 That was seven days ago and there is a little bit of pain, but not so bad. It’s okay. They say it will take 2 – 6 weeks to mature. Whether it is going to be successful or not [will be known then]. I had one done earlier, a very minor one, where I didn’t have to go through full anesthesia, but a simple, local anesthesia. That wasn’t successful. That was an about 40 minutes-long procedure, but it was not so successful. But hopefully, this will work and that’s all I have to share about my own personal health situation. I did not have much difficulty this time as I had the last times. So I am happy and thank you.

0:05:08.3 In addition to the local hospital St. Mary’s set of doctors our good friend Dr. Dorje, the Tibetan anesthesiologist, who used to work at the University of Michigan and now works at the Veteran’s hospital, came and many of those anesthesiologists in St. Mary’s are his students. Then Dr. Dorise Young, our good old friends, also came. So I was well taken care of and in addition Colleen always takes care of me everywhere, all the time, 24 hours a day, honestly. Thank you. So that’s all I wanted to share about my health situation.

0:06:32.0 Unfortunately, our Carla Barrett passed away yesterday afternoon. I did pray and I hope everyone will pray that Lama Vajrayogini, Lama Heruka Yab Yum will guide Carla throughout the bardo and next life into Pure Vajrayogini Land. If possible, would you please say additional one or a couple of times the Praise of Seeing the Dakini’s Lovely Face. You find that in the long sadhana of Vajrayogini. It begins with tal ye gel wai de tong do gar ni….and ends with the verse tsa gyu la ma chog gi thuk kyi dang and the verse jetsun dorje naljorma dang dang semchen thamche dag par kachöd dang drip par tsel do söl……

Say whatever number of verses are in that prayer, in English or any language, doesn’t matter. Tibetan is the original one. Dedicate all your virtues to be at hear disposal. You are not going to lose your virtues at all, but it helps her. That’s what I wanted to emphasize today.

0:09:17.8 Now, here we are talking about Songtsen Gampo, the 33rd of the earlier Tibetan rulers. He gave advice to the Tibetan people to practice good human conduct. So his advice is known as lha chö ge wa chü – the 10 godly dharmas, which I already completely explained briefly, and the Buddhist way to talk about them is in the opposite way: the 10 non-virtues, which are the three by body, four by speech and three by mind. I explained them as much as I could. I gave you the suggestion to avoid those and not to engage in them.

0:10:47.0 Similarly, there are the 16 good human conducts. Songtsen Gampo was looking for the development of Buddha Dharma in Tibet. So first comes searching for Buddhism and the practice, etc. and there are four or five that are about respect for parents, respects for elders and respect for educated, qualified people. These are very important, though Songtsen Gampo lived more than 1000 years ago, but still it is very much the worldly conduct today. Today we don’t say respect to elders, but we do give very good respect and care to the senior and poor people.

0:12:25.6 We do that. We also don’t talk about respect to the learned and qualified. We don’t say it in that manner. But not only do we respect them, but we pay them a lot, those experts and specialists. We pay them tremendously, from the money point of view, which is really our society’s way of respect. You pay them much more than anybody else. Then of course, now it is rather a controversial thing and that is the influence of Indian culture that says to respect the higher castes. I have to count that here because Songtsen Gampo counted it. So I cannot re-edit that. But I have to explain it.

0:14:15.2 Respect to higher castes is very much within the Indian caste system. That is not necessarily true to the old Tibetan system. Yes, sometimes it is and they talk about it. But they other day I mentioned to you that some people think that almost like old times. It is not necessarily higher castes in Tibet, but the aristocratic families. And some people think that they are better because of the caste system, which is not true. We shouldn’t go there today at all, but there are certain people I was told who still can’t give up the old, self-boosting, meaningless praise of themselves. Some people do. That is not very good for you, and not good for those in the younger generation who hear from you and who watch you and especially it is bad if they learn from you about it. That is really not good, but we cannot deny that this was in the Tibetan culture. It was. But today, whether Tibetans in exile or in the homeland, 60 or 70% will not agree with that. There may still be a couple – some people. So although it is an ancient culture, even Songtsen Gampo counted it within the 16 human qualities, but the caste and race system is very definitely not good.

0:17:43.8 Particularly, today’s politics is also not good, very, very not good. When you are looking at today’s politics, it is sometimes some politicians and sometimes some people would like to go back to the old fashion, as you noticed. A number of places have seen that, where people are looking down on a certain race, or a certain caste, instead of uniting, they are dividing people. Uniting people will definitely have strength and efficiency and capability. Dividing people will bring a lot of inconvenience, difficulties and all kinds of things. Therefore, uniting is a very important art today.

0:19:34.3 In old India the Brahmin caste was considered superior. The Harijan caste was considered inferior. Even those who were following the caste system in India, I noticed that the people who clean your toilet and washing your utensils, etc, are normally from inferior castes. With washing utensils it is questionable, but cleaning toilets for sure. For convenient, economic reasons, some people will let them wash the utensils, but they don’t give them soap. They give them a handful of mud to wash the utensils, outside the house. So they let them enter through the toilet and clean it up. If the lower caste person touched your personal property, like your clothes, dress, blankets, bedsheets, pillow, etc, you consider that becoming dirty. I haven’t seen it when I was in India, but I was told that it is true that these people pack themselves up and go into a kusha grass field and sleep there for seven days in the open air to purify themselves.

0:21:55.5 That is very unfortunate, one of those rare, difficult things that we notice in our background culture in Asia. But even in the west we do have a lot of racism – in the United States and Europe. And the continuation of the residue of that racism is still there. That makes some angry people able to make them much more vocal in politics this political season. Racism and the caste system should never play pure politics. Pure politics is really the non-violence of Gandhi’s political system. That is really a wonderful political system.

0:23:50.3 The wishes of the public, of the majority, is considered most important and it is the goal. Many of you might have seen the movie “Gandhi”. You would have noticed how Gandhi played politics. He was not a 100% happy even to work with the Indian Congress, although that is the party through which he functioned, until the old and new Congress separated and most of the old Congress went into the Janata party.

0:25:02.5 Even in India, even during Gandhi’s influence, there was the Jansing Gee ???? 0:25:28.0 and the RSS. They played very strong pure Hindu-Muslim race politics. They were banning all Muslims from India, etc. Because of that a huge number of lives were lost, because that influences all the Muslims to move from India to Pakistan. All the Pakistani Hindus moved from there into India. Trains crossed at the border, stopped at one station and people jumped out of one train and massacred everybody on the other train, either going into Pakistan or into India.

0:26:42.8 Gandhi himself went on a hunger strike at the border. Then of course Nehru and other Congress leaders had to follow. So all that racism and caste system and all that is very inhuman. Good human beings with good human conduct should never do that. So, that’s sometimes the old culture that will take place within certain important human conduct. In this case we had that in here. I think I explained quite well about that.

0:28:05.4 The next one is: Be helpful to fellow countrymen and neighbors. Look how contradictory these two things are. They directly contradict. Be helpful to countrymen, all of them, Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Blacks, Whites, higher castes, lower castes and even within the lower castes there are those that work with leather, those that work with iron. In India they are considered lower castes.

0:29:21.9 Very specially they are very productive. The iron people produce steel and all very basic needs of the nation. It is built on steel and iron for many decades – and they are considered lower caste. Leather workers are also considered lower castes and so are butchers and slaughterers. But lower or not, they are not necessarily good livelihoods. Being a butcher is still a little better, but being a slaughterer, killing the animals, their professional job is taking lives. I don’t say it is a lower caste, but it is not necessarily good and pure and the best. I don’t think so. So if your livelihood is such a thing, if possible, try to change it. Some people have families involved in it too. So generations of families are involved and it is not so easy to change. It may be almost impossible to change. Under such circumstances, you should really earmark certain real profits. I don’t mean not to pay your taxes. Pay your tax, but out of your profit take out certain parts and earmark them to a good cause, like humanitarian service. As a Buddhist, I say Dharma service.

0:32:41.0 Particularly, if your profession is to be a slaughterer, do something to save lives, like antiwar movements and really good peace foundations. Things like that you should earmark certain portions of profit for, just to compensate the slaughtering a little bit. Also never rejoice in the slaughtering. It is your job and you do your job, because you have to do your job. You are responsible to your family and to yourself, so you do your job. That’s about it. If possible, do not enjoy it. Don’t appreciate it. That’s what you should do.

0:34:22.8 Also make sure that those earmarked profits go to whatever you want them to go for, whether you are alive or afterwards. It makes a difference to you by the time you need it, when you are in a different life, a different situation, in difficult conditions, hardship. If you use this money today you don’t know what you are going to eat tomorrow. You don’t know how you are going to fill your gas tank tomorrow. At that time you need certain money popping up and that’s how you get it, when you earmark certain parts of your profits.

0:35:36.2 Give it to person that you trust, your spiritual master, your sangha and these are close and supposed to be more helpful. I am not making propaganda. I don’t want you to think that way. But it is your sangha, your spiritual master and these are supposed to be more helpful to you.

0:36:54.9 I might as well mention it: it is the culture in the old Buddhist tradition, particularly Tibetan culture, when people ask for prayers or for divinations or dedications, it is customary to give something. To me, I am talking about myself, honestly, straightforwardly, it makes no difference, whether the person has given me money or not. I pray for everybody and from my mouth I always say,

May all beings have joy, happiness, may they all be free from suffering and the cause of suffering. May all beings never be separated from the joy that has never known suffering. May all beings remain in great equanimity.

I say it like a parrot. Sometimes I think, sometimes I don’t, but I say it all the time and I think about it. However, within that, when you see the gift on your table and remember the thing that came for you, you have to think again, in addition to “may all beings”, you have to specifically think about this person and that person, because you feel slightly embarrassed about that thing that has come to you, whatever it is. So honestly, that’s how it works.

0:39:43.1 From my point of view, I am looking for anything. I am not asking you to send me things. I am not asking. And when you send things to organizations such as Jewel Heart, I appreciate it. Jewel Heart people mostly inform me when people donate value. Whenever I hear that I make very special prayers. If they don’t inform me, that’s their choice – those people who are in the office. But I don’t keep accounts. We do have a very good accountant and hard-working book keeper, auditors and directors. They do very well. Program people will do that. The communication people like the webinar people do very well, thank you. And I can see the huge list of names now right and left, up top and bottom everywhere. These are the people tuned in on this webinar. So thank you.

0:41:51.7 That’s what I thought I should mention to you today. Particularly, be very helpful in the service of people and living beings in general, as Mahayana Buddhists, and human beings very specifically and the fellow citizens of the state you belong you. There are distance-general qualities and specific slightly near qualities and very close qualities of fellow citizens, fellow countrymen, fellow county people, city people, family members. There are distant and near people to us. That is human nature. That doesn’t make you not have equanimity. It is human nature. If you don’t have that, you don’t have human feelings. You have the feeling for family members and those of your household, town, county and city, state and then humanity. That you feel differently.

0:44:40.6 When you look into compassion you can see it. If you hear about a plane crash somewhere in Bangla Desh or Indonesia, very far away, you think, “Oh, oh, people died.” You feel that much. How many have died, are there any survivors, how bad is it? That much we will worry and say we are sorry. But if you hear that someone knows someone who died there, that becomes a little closer. Then if one your family members was among them, that becomes even closer. If not only it was an incident with a family member, but also some friends and it just happened 20 miles away, then you feel extremely anxious. These are human feelings, it is not necessarily near and distant. Sometimes people will think that way. But this is a good basis of compassion, because the love and care that we have becomes the basis of compassion.

0:46:33.0 So honestly, our job is to try to expand that close feeling to the whole of humanity as much as possible and then extend that to all other living beings with mind, animals and beings in other realms, wherever and whatever. Expand that. But the first basis is oneself, one’s family and the people nearby. Expand from there. That is extremely important. If you don’t have that, you don’t have a strong base. Your compassion, your love, may become soft, gentle and so, so. But we don’t want that. You really want strong love, strong compassion, strong caring, so that you have a very strong bodhimind. A very strong bodhimind is based on very strong compassion. Very strong compassion is based on strong love. That is not against “may all beings be happy”. It is not.

0:48:20.6 That is human nature. We have to utilize our nature to strengthen our love, care and compassion. That’s all I like to talk to you about today.

Questions and Answers

0:50:40.8 Audience: If you are not a racist and don’t have ill-feeling towards people but they cannot accept that and do everything they can to get you angry and mad and do it for a long time, how do you handle that situation? They switch energies. They see who you are and put it on them and you can see that they are dealing with the people in their area a lot better than they were before. But who they are is on me. So I start acting like them. But it’s not that I am – it takes their nasty feelings away from them, so I am in my house and I am getting mad, but they are feeling happy. It is like an energy exchange. So how do you deal with that?

0:51:58.4 Rimpoche: People have difficulties, especially certain people have personalities that makes it difficult for them. So it is always important to look back and front. With back I mean to yourself and the front, the other person. I know you and you have been struggling with this for years. Maybe it is not necessarily the fault of other people. You came to me from Glenn Mullin, so that is about 15 years ago. I have known you since then. You have a lot of difficulty with a lot of people and when you have one difficulty with one person, that’s one thing. But when you have a lot of difficulties with a lot of people, to me it means another thing. So it is important to look back and front. Protect yourself by whatever means you think best for you. That’s also important.

0:56:11.6 Audience: How do you deal with conflict within your sangha, with people you really study closely with?

0:56:27.4 Rimpoche: You know, when many human beings get together, there is always some difficulties. Even within two people there is like husband and wife. Getting along well is not an easy job. A husband has to think very carefully about the wife’s feelings, the wife has to think very carefully about each and every of her husband’s feelings and so it is with children and with in-laws.

0:57:31.6 The sangha in one way is a good, wonderful group of people. The sangha community is very good. Incidentally I saw a film on Sunday called “Holy Hell” on CNN. It is about some Indian guru and their group in America. They moved twice and finally landed in California somewhere. But the guru probably is considered fake and claims that he can lead them to total enlightenment. The way of leading is this sort of Hindu Shakti type of thing. Then at the end quite a number of people became dissatisfied and saw a lot of faults in general and particularly sexual faults. So, a lot of people left and they wanted to make sure that he doesn’t spoil other people’s lives. But still, he is continuing. So that was shown on CNN prime time, last Sunday.

0:59:45.8 That is very important for me, making sure again and again that I don’t proclaim anything that I cannot do. Actually what I can do is zero and what you can do is everything. It is you who can do it. What I wanted to say about that holy hell group is that what they missed the most was the sangha, rather than the guru or the teachings or meditations. It was the sangha. It was such a good community, however, it is very difficult to deal with it and live with it too. Everybody has their own personality. Sangha councils have their own culture and centers have their own backgrounds and all that makes it difficult. But there are many ways of dealing with it.

1:01:24.7 No 1: appreciate their feelings. Respect them, whether it is meant for you or not, the decision was made by you and you only. The sangha, the sangha council or sangha leaders or the leaders of the centers do not make that decision for you. It is only you. But do not lose respect for the human aspects of the other sangha members and their feelings. Respect them, appreciate them. Whether you accept or not, that is up to you. And that is one way of conducting your life.

1:02:39.8 Another way is very different. Think that as a bodhisattva you would like to take all of their difficulties on you, thinking, “It is me who is doing it all for them.” That is another way.

When you talk about how to deal with that, a number of things come up in my head. That’s not because I am great, but because I am old. I had the opportunity of learning Tibetan Buddhism a little bit. The background is so rich. There are many ways of handling. I just mentioned two, so whichever is convenient for you use that. Don’t regret, be happy about it.

1:05:02.5 Audience: Last week you mentioned the three non-virtues of mind, but non-covetousness was not mentioned in the context of the 3 mental non-godly dharmas. You talked about meanness and hatred and wrong view. Maybe that is a different set?

1:07:07.0 Rimpoche: there are the ten, three by body, four by speech and three by mind. So we talked about the three by mind. There are a lot of mental things, like jealousy, fear and all kinds of things. But I was only touching on the three they counted, otherwise it would become 11, 12, 15 or even 20. There are 20 secondary delusions and they are all mental activities.

Thank you so much to everybody. A wonderful number of people spoke and showed their face. Hopefully we can do that more next week onwards.

Good to see the sanghas in Ann Arbor, Chicago on screen and other individuals too. Thank you

One thing I forgot to mention: Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe is coming to Jewel Heart in Ann Arbor, Chicago and New York. In Ann Arbor he will be there September 9, 10, 11, continuing to teach on the 400 verses of Aryadeva. I just wanted to remind everybody he is one of the best available geshes today. There is no geshe like him. Even His Holiness told Joshua and Diana that he is Geshe Rinpoche. There is no other Geshe Rinpoche today, so I wanted to remind everyone to take the opportunity and continue to learn the 400 verses. In Chicago he is teaching too and also New York. Look on the website for dates and times. Thank you

1:10:43.6 May all beings…………. 1:10:43.6