Archive Result

20160911GRAAST61

0:00:49.2 Welcome everybody here for the Sunday, September 11. And it is wonderful to have Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe continuously teach the 400 verses of Aryadeva, which is going on for years and he is around here, so we are very happy to have him. He is also going to go to Chicago Jewel Heart and then New York Jewel Heart. So we are looking forward to that very much. And also, yesterday I heard Kathy’s announcement after Geshe Yeshe Thabke Rinpoche’s talk that the White Tara initiation in New York on Saturday, November 5 is going to take place in the afternoon at the Cooper Union in New York. Everyone is welcome. It is very important.

0:02:53.3 Especially White Tara worked very well with me particularly and Jewel Heart in general – extremely well. Many people have had excellent results. So this is not just a White Tara longevity initiation. A White Tara longevity initiation with me is not just me, but my lineage, Kyabje Lhatsun Dorje Chang’s lineage. This is very important. Even His Holiness the Dalai Lama mentioned this year in New York that he received this initiation from Kyabje Lhatsun Dorje Chang and Kyabje Lhatsun Dorje Chang foretold that this Dalai Lama will have longevity. His Holiness said, “Now I am 81 already.” That is really great. Many Dalai Lamas died a little younger age, especially the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th died at a very young age. The 13th Dalai Lama died before he was 60 years old. Now the 14th, the present, is beyond 81 already. So he is going to live longer, way beyond.

0:04:41.8 So that’s why this lineage through Kyabje Lhatsun Dorje Chang is something very unique and important. So it is a little different than receiving it from anybody, while I am still alive. That’s why I would like to welcome everybody. Jewel Heart did make the right decision to make it available for free. Originally, the idea was to make it a fundraiser, but then they decided to make it free for everybody. First they requested the White Tara longevity initiation and I thought they probably presumed I would not accept the request. But I did accept the request and then they decided to make it free and that is wonderful. That is Jewel Heart’s job. Jewel Heart should be able to do that as an organization. It is meant for that.

0:06:04.2 But that doesn’t mean that anybody will not donate anything. You should donate generously as well. Even in Tibet, teachings were not charged for, but people donated very heavily to the teacher, to the organizers, to the monasteries. They do. This system is not known in the west, but it really should be like that. I am glad to be able to do that. That is one thing I wanted to say since I heard that Kathy was announcing it yesterday.

0:07:02.8 One more additional thing. Kathy also announced the winter retreat after Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe’s teaching. So it is going to be the Secret Ganden Lhagyema, a secret guru yoga teaching. That is a very confidential guru yoga teaching. As Hillary Clinton says there are number of top secret, confidential things and this is one of the top secret things. I also planned this year not to do an initiation. So without initiation you cannot attend this. Therefore, this invitation is only extended to those of you who have had a highest yoga tantra initiation, like Guhyasamaja, Yamantaka, either the 13 Deities or the Solitary Hero or the 49 deities, or the Heruka, either the bell system (Drilbupa) or the Luipa system or the Kalapa (Nagpopa) system. All of them are fine. So this teaching is only those who have received such an initiation. Also I am not very sure. You will get the information, but you might not get the teaching lineage through webinar. I don’t know where you get the teaching lineage through webinar. I doubt it very much. One time our Ujjen-la was sitting down in front of a television when His Holiness was giving an Avalokitesvara initiation from Dharamsala, televised. Ujjen-la was thinking he was receiving the initiation but Samdhong Rinpoche told him later, “You know that you don’t get the initiation that way”.

0:10:40.0 Similarly, these confidential, top secret teachings you might not be getting through webinar. So for your own good, save the dates and try to be in Ann Arbor for the winter retreat, February 5 – 15. [actually so far scheduled from Feb 5 – 15]. So save your time and try to be here in Ann Arbor. I think it is important.

0:11:40.1 Also I might as well say it: I am still not completely better at all. I can’t even walk. This November I might not be able to go to Europe and teach. But the Europeans are welcome to this winter retreat here in Ann Arbor from February 5 – 15. I don’t think I will be able to do the Secret Ganden Lhagyema guru yoga teaching again and again. So this is important. There are certain important teachings I like to do and this is one of them. So we are happy and looking forward to that, although I am not coming in the morning and in the evening, as you have come to expect. I probably have one little longer session [per day]. The details will be worked later. But I will be there at least once a day and be able to teach.

0:13:25.0 I also like to thank you. So many of you have sent so many flowers and cards and gifts and wine, olive oil and cookies and fly [????? Flans, dates??] and nuts 0:13:45.7. Thank you so much. Many of you have sent checks for me. Thank you so much. It will be very nice to see all of you face to face. Right now you can see me and I can see you occasionally, if you turn up, but am not able to see you all the time. So I am looking forward to seeing you face to face.

0:14:36.4 Now I want to continue with the subject I am talking about. I don’t want to delay that. Normally, when Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe is here, I invite him to do this presentation or we have conversations or Geshe-la is presenting. But today I thought that in the beginning of the year, from February to June I was very sick and couldn’t do my Sunday talks. Most of the talks in that time were prerecorded talks. So I don’t want to have a missing Sunday and that’s why I chose to speak continuously on the subject we are talking about and that is about Songtsen Gampo’s, the famous Tibetan king who had given some kind of regulations among Tibetans about how to conduct their lives on the basis of Dharma. He gave the 10 godly virtuous conducts, which is a normal Buddhist teaching. The 10 negativities are considered terrible things in Buddhist teachings in general. So we have mentioned them already. They are the 3 by body, 4 by speech and 3 by mind.

0:16:47.5 That’s why sometimes certain purifications will say

dag sog lü kyi lä ne nam par sum

nag gi nam pa zhi dang

ka yang nyi gi nam sum

me gi cho gu so sor shah (spelling???)

My and others’ three wrong doings by body.

Four wrong doings by speech,

Three wrong doings by mind,

The 10 non-virtues I will purify clearly.

0:17:28.8 Tibetans have one good advantage. Our focus and concentration is not that great. I don’t mean that the Tibetans specifically don’t have good focus or concentration. But all of us don’t have good focus and concentration. It takes time, effort and has to be a trained mind. You really have to train your mind to be able to do that. That is important. But we don’t. Our mind is – as earlier Tibetan teachers have been saying – like a monkey in the temple. If you let a monkey loose in a temple, it will jump from one image’s shoulder to another image’s shoulder. It will eat up all the offerings in front, drink the water offerings, knock them down, knock the butter lamps down, so they catch fire in the temple. All of that a crazy, untrained monkey will do that. Most monkeys, trained or untrained, will do that.

0:19:08.8 So the monkey in the temple is the example of how unfocused and unconcentrated we are. We are always making mistakes and are wrong in the sequence or order of our practice and what we think, what we purify, what we accumulate, all of them we are making mistakes in. Either your mind doesn’t think anything or it thinks wrongly or in the wrong order, but to support doing it right the words are put in your mouth. So the words are organized, simple and short and easy to say and that is why dharma practice is somehow kept in life in that manner. So it is difficult to do in English because the system is not there. However, verses like that work in English too. You can make this one into a rhyme and say it, so that it remains with you.

0:21:13.3 Now to the 16 pure human ways of conduct. We have talked about a number of them and last week we went over respect to the elders and respect those who have good qualities. That may or may not be accepted in the western culture. Many don’t. But if you really look in the western culture, you do accept that. It is the good behavior of the human being. I experienced that myself, because I became older and handicapped and noticed that everybody will give you respect. Everybody will give you a way to go. They all move aside and let you go through. Almost everybody does, even in the street. That is good old American behavior, which means that not only the Tibetans and Asians, but even westerners, if you want to be a respectable person you do that. It really shows that this is also in the western culture, as I understand, even though some young people may not want to do that, but that’s because young ones do all kinds of interesting things and that’s very good. They have their own right to do whatever they want to do.

0:23:34.8 These are suggestions and advice, rather than compulsory. Some people will say, “If I don’t do that I am not a good Buddhist.” That’s not true. That’s just a good way to conduct your life. Then last week I also talked about respect to quality people. People get qualities because they get an education. If you don’t have the education you won’t have qualities. People with education, with a degree, get very good pay. They become expert in whatever field they work: medical, scientific, technical – anything. They are architects, carpenters, builders, anthropologists. Any experts get much better salaries. The higher the degree, the better the pay. The bigger an expert you are, the better pay you get. That is our society’s way of showing respect. Actually, it is a good way of showing it. It is solid. The Tibetans call that ka yö la yö. You have respect from the mouth and also in your hand.

0:25:49.2 It is really true respect, not only by gestures, by words, but also in your hands by getting paid more. So it shows in the western culture that it is there too. The old Tibetans didn’t have the culture of paying so much. By the time your teaching or your work is finished, the sponsor or owner will give you an envelope and a scarf. The scarf is showbiz, the envelope is the real business. In the envelope they put money or gold or silver or something. That is how they used to pay. They don’t pay a salary and all that. That was the culture. In the west they pay you because you deserve it. You yourself have put out a lot of money to gain your education. You borrowed money, you took out a loan, you did everything and your parents helped so that you could manage to get your education. The education became quality in you and then you earn money. That is how it works here and that is how the old-fashioned Tibetan system worked. They didn’t have a paying system. They didn’t negotiate with an organization how much you should get paid for your lecture or talk. They didn’t. Here Jewel Heart gives me a salary, so I give teachings.

0:28:39.6 And I put efforts in to work for Jewel Heart. So Jewel Heart pays me. That is not only old Tibetan Buddhist culture but also it is the Chinese and South-East Asian culture. Everywhere where Buddhism went, that’s how it went. When I came first to South-East Asia everybody gave me a little red envelope. At first I was wondering what that was. Then I realized they had some money in it. The amount is not compulsory. People give you 1 or 2 or 20 or 100 or 1000 and some people will put 10,000 in it. That’s what people do everywhere. So that is maybe the old culture, the old system. That’s how it worked. Anyway, that is honoring those who have qualities.

0:30:41.7 Particularly if you have spiritual qualities, Dharma qualities, it affects you and helps people. I get a lot of letters from you people saying “you have affected my life and it changed for the better, forever.” Many of you so kindly write to me and I deeply appreciate that. But I am also happy and thankful to my lineage masters and teachers and my background of monasteries and I am grateful to the background of Tibetan Buddhism. If that affects at least one or two persons here I am really happy these notes. Somebody two days ago told me, “Do you save these letters?” I don’t. I never thought that I should have saved appreciation letters. According to certain systems they publish those, but I don’t want to do that. I am just grateful that it helps some of you and I am really happy to receive your acknowledgment.

0:32:26.5 Also each and every one of you in Jewel Heart is appreciated for doing things, for volunteering in the organization, which is the basis on which we do the teaching. We, under the umbrella of Jewel Heart, do the teachings and if that is helpful to you, that’s why people are doing a lot of things for Jewel Heart. I am very grateful to those who have donated, particularly to the year end campaign. These days a number of people are sending year end checks and a number of them started sending them to my house. Then I pass them on to Debbie in Jewel Heart. I am so grateful. So do kindly donate to Jewel Heart by year end gifts as well the White Tara gifts. Jewel Heart would like to arrange everything for free, like with the White Tara even in New York. I was very happy when I heard that from our directors. Thank you. I told the directors jokingly, “You will make more money doing it that way than by charging $100 or $200 for tickets.”

0:34:17.7 So that’s definitely possible and hopefully will happen too.

0:34:34.1 Now the next one of Songtsen Gampo’s 16 human dharmas is:

Be helpful to your fellow countrymen and neighbors

This is also very much in the western culture. You have to be loyal to your nation. In our case, as Americans, we have to be loyal to the United States. You have to be loyal to your country and the president of your country is the president of your people. So be respectful and help them. You can admire President Putin of Russia, but you cannot put down the President of the United States. Maybe this election is a different story. I don’t know. My ignorance, if that is so, but it is a little uneasy for me. Even myself, I was not necessarily supporting President Obama in the beginning, when he became President, but once he became the President of the United States, you have to give him all respect and have loyalty to your nation, to your fellow citizens, fellow human beings. That is so important.

0:36:53.1 One little thing I noticed. Sometimes it becomes a little faulty. My great masters, like Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang, Kyabje Ling Dorje Chang and for that matter, Kyabje Lhatsun Rinpoche and Kyabje Lochö Dorje Chang and Gomo Rinpoche and all of them. You know what they do? They have the loyalty, some kind of feeling for friends and associates who are good relations with their organizations and labrangs and they consider them close friends. Even when they make some mistakes they will stand by them. Sometimes that brings a little controversial thoughts among people and they say funny things. Even then they knowingly stand by them.

0:38:19.3 So they loyalty is probably the thing they are honoring. They don’t necessarily stand by some funny individuals, but they show loyalty. For example, in the 1970s there was a very learned, very nice ex abbot from Kalimpong, in the northern Indian West Bengal area. This abbot lost his vows and got married to a woman and had a family. Both, Kyabje Ling Rinpoche and Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche tried to help him and his family as much as they could. Not only that, Kyabje Rinpoche wrote a personal letter to one of those officers in charge of the Tibetans in the West Bengal area, asking him to help and be a little soft, gentle and kind on him, because he was very learned and a wonderful monk and then he went crazy. Actually, he went mentally crazy.

0:40:24.7 He started to throw cups and silver offering bowls and ritual objects and even a table through the window into the street. So he literally went mad. Even then they did that. He was a very learned guy, so he was involved in so many organizations, like he composed poetry for a newspaper and everywhere he was involved before he went crazy. So he created trouble, but the officer in charge tried to be a little gentle. Later I met that officer in charge and he told me, “I received a letter from both the masters of His Holiness, asking me to be gentle to him.” So I noticed this loyalty. They not only did this one, but did that in a number of areas. They somehow honored loyalty. Maybe this is one of the bases to build Buddhist development.

0:42:19.7 Each and every practitioner is loyal to the practice, to the Buddha Dharma and to particular masters. This becomes the basis of your development. The guru development is the root of the development. So loyalty in one way may not seem so important. But on the other hand, maybe it is an unspoken basis on which we put all our qualities. Look at the guru devotional practice as the root of our development. It is the root of all development.

0:43:36.6 When you look at guru devotion, devotion is one thing, respect is another thing and loyalty is respecting another thing. So I think to me is almost similar to devotion. Think about it yourself. Even now, myself, I notice that I don’t like certain people’s behavior. Maybe I am teaching you a terrible thing too. I don’t know. But I don’t like certain people’s behavior, but I will not say a word, because if I do, my friends get upset or we have even a saying in Tibetan, “If you throw a little pebble at the dog near the door outside the house, that may upset the guru who is staying upstairs.” So avoiding that has almost become Tibetan culture and Buddhist culture. And it helps the individuals build. Sometimes people get annoyed, but loyalty makes you tolerant. That builds patience.

0:45:40.2 Loyalty helps you to hold respect and faith, etc. That builds your faith. Loyalty even reduces your own anger and hatred or even challenges jealousy. So it helps. There is a lot of help in that too.

0:46:38.2 The next one is easy: Speak truthfully and be humble.

Truth of course is truth. Ultimately, truth will prevail, whatever it may be. Truth is so important. We all know. Humbleness is another important thing. If you are humble people will respect you. If you are trumpy, people will trump on you. Anyway, that’s supposed to be a joke, ready for the election. Anyway, I think I like to stop here, but I also like to share one piece of news:

0:47:43.3 Yesterday I watching TV and they announced that Russia and the US agreed to bring a ceasefire to Syria. Hopefully this will work and this is really wonderful news. To stop the torturing, suffering and killing even for a minute is something very good and the time to bring it to those who are continuously suffering in Syria for years now. So a little peace will be so wonderful. We are looking forward that this will materialize. And that’s what I wanted to share and there are some questions I believe.

0:49:07.6 Audience: I have a difficult question I have been trying to figure out for several weeks. It is about education to build equanimity around the world in terms of dharma education versus worldly education. How can we as practitioners help that happen without proselytizing? I hope I got that correct.

0:49:39.6

Rimpoche: I think you did. It is a very important question. Equality and equanimity is very important. We know. As people with freedom we know that equality is important. All Americans and all citizens of democratic countries all know that equality is very important. We respect and admire it and try to share it with everybody. That’s what we do. But within that system, politically or even economically, there is corruption. Either it is corruption or unbalanced, that depends on how individuals manage their own political and economic business.

0:51:15.1 There is a lot of inequality, which is not good. But that doesn’t mean you have to get angry. You don’t have to agree with it, but you also don’t have to get angry. Also some people will take sides, so it becomes your side and my side, the Republican side and the Democratic side, although this time it may not be so much Republicans versus Democrats, but more about craziness versus stability. Whatever it is, people do takes sides. That happens.

What was your concluding question?

0:52:22.0 Audience: Oh, how do you take your practice into the world and help that happen without proselytizing? For instance, on social networks and things like that, talking to people who aren’t practitioners. I recently had a new friend who is a total Trump supporter and former policeman and a lot of my friends in the music business are Trump supporters. So I trying to figure out how to respond, how to step lightly…

0:53:06.3 Rimpoche: Everybody has their right to support Trump or Hillary or none or somebody else. That is their basic human right. So why don’t you accept that? Then you don’t have to change them or convince them. If you want to do that, that is also your choice and your right. So you go accordingly, whatever you can, whatever you do. That is totally your choice. Do not abuse other persons. Do not abuse yourself and unless somebody is paying you to do it as a job, but I doubt it very much that is happening in your case, but who knows anyway. That is how I feel.

0:54:27.1 Yes, we must respect other people’s right and their choices and if they want to vote for Trump, let them trump. You don’t trump. That’s it.

0:54:49.9 Audience: Thank you, I have some personal knowledge of Mr. Putin and that is not something I can get easily out of my mind.

0:54:59.9 Rimpoche: Personal knowledge of Mr. Putin means his background in the KGB, etc, that is not only one or two people’s personal knowledge, but many people know that. Sometimes we don’t think. We accept wherever the wind blows from. People just follow that and that can be a little bit dangerous. But that’s what it is.

0:55:49.4 Audience: In yesterday’s teaching on pride there was a lot of discussion about makes a good king, a good leader. The question I got stuck on for the rest of the day was: if you are a good Buddhist king of a good Buddhist nation – like Bhutan would be a contemporary example – but it could be in history – what happens if your country is invaded? Does a good king physically defend his or her subjects? Physical defense would involve violence obviously. So is it every justified?

0:56:45.8 Rimpoche: I was not there yesterday for Geshe-la’s teaching, but with my background and knowledge, yes, a king’s duty is to protect his subjects. Even in very old times. That’s why we give the authority to the king to even abuse people sometimes and they do, in the form of punishment or whatever. People tolerated that, because he is supposed to be responsible for the well-being of the subjects. The most important well-being is their life and that of their family. It is the last resort. But when there is no pacifying way to protect and be loyal to your citizens, then you have to indulge in violence. In war people will lose their lives, but you don’t have much choice and that is the good Buddhist way as far as I know and remember.

0:58:38.5 Audience: I understand loyalty to teachers and friends, but loyalty to a government, especially a corrupt one is not something I feel comfortable with. Could one be loyal to corrupt government officials?

0:59:22.6 Rimpoche: No, you should not be loyal to any corrupt person, as long as you know they are truly corrupt. Then you should never be. But that doesn’t mean you should not be loyal to your government. A corrupt official is one thing, the government or nation is another thing. You are very intelligent, so you know how to distinguish between one government official or whatever and the nation. That is important. Even in our political system loyalty to the nation is unquestionable, whereas loyalty to the ruling party is questionable.

1:01:09.8 Audience: Last Sunday you talked about wrong view, such as not believing in karma, reincarnation or Buddha’s enlightenment. According to the 5 Mahayana paths, until one reaches the part of summit of the second path, the roots of one’s virtues can still be severed by wrong view. So for someone like us, not even on the first path of accumulation, no doubt our roots of virtue must be severed when we have wrong view. But we do believe in reincarnation, karma and Buddha’s enlightenment. So can you talk about wrong view in terms of the five paths?

1:02:20.0 Rimpoche: That is an interesting question. Yes, you are right, those things do not really develop and get confirmed within you – in other words, realization becomes part of your life and that won’t happen till the second stage [of the path of preparation]. But wrong views can be anywhere, anytime. By knowing that, avoid them. That is important. Do not try to merge them together and say, “Till the second level of the second path it is not going to go away. How can we handle it?” We make an attempt to cut down negativities and wrong views. That doesn’t mean we can completely cut the root by once or twice or a couple of years’ attempts. That’s not possible. But keep it in mind as essence of the practice. Do not indulge in it. That is good enough. Thank you.

Sometimes the questions come to Kimba, sometimes the webinar and sometimes they email me. But I can’t read, I have to listen to Kimba to read to me. So that’s what it is. Thank you so much.

1:04:36.5 It is wonderful to have Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe with us in Ann Arbor and I don’t want to take a long time, because at 2 pm you are starting your teaching. So good luck and enjoy and remember the White Tara initiation November 5th in New York at Cooper Union and the winter retreat February 5 to whatever it is. I think it is a week. Look on the website. Ask Kathy or Hartmut. It is from February 5 – 11. So save the date. Make peace in the family and whatever you have to do so you can be here. Thank you.

1:05:56.9 May all beings……….1:07:31.5