Archive Result

20160918GRAAST62

0:00:07.1 Thank you John, thanks for playing all the time, every Sunday. Very kind of you. Thank you. That gives me a big relief, because a number of people are waiting. But until I get there, John entertains them with beautiful music. Thank you.

0:00:43.5 Before I speak, I just want to mention what has happened last night in New York, very close to one of our family member’s area. It really feels very anxious. People that we know are not in the immediate area, but very close. So all this really tells you how really anxious and strange the time is and people’s feelings and negative forces push us. It is strange and quite powerful. The more this happens the more we ourselves have to settle down and not waver, not give in to fear and not submit to anxiety. I do remember, one of our good friends, a member of Jewel Heart, after 9-11, went to the New York area and anxiety pushed the individual out and could not stay there anymore, but had to move out. So don’t give in to anxiety. Don’t give in to fear. Be aware and trust Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, trust yourself. Be alert, but don’t submit to ignorance and fear and be yourself, with your educated mind and wonderful intelligence that you have.

Also make sure you are not in the wrong place at the wrong time. So, that’s what I wanted to say.

0:04:11.5 I am also supposed to be talking to our Dutch sangha today, because is the day when their yearly courses begin. Before, a long time ago now, I used to go to Holland – I still go now, but earlier I used to go in April and went around the countries to give talks and then people registered for the yearly courses, which always begin in September. So now, for a long time I couldn’t go around the country as much, but still they do their courses. So today happens to be the beginning of the yearly courses. So I am supposed to personally congratulate them and interact, with all of you together. The Dutch center should come up on the screen, but somehow we have a little technical problem and that’s why we can’t do it and I had to be delayed and John had to play one more song. Similarly, the New York City center is also opening today and supposed to be interacting with what we are doing. That also has technical problems. These two groups may show up later, but not right now.

0:06:33.3 Then I also like to say how wonderful it was to have Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe in our Chicago center. There is a wonderful group of people and also on the webinar were about 40 people in addition to the 60 people in the Chicago center yesterday and the day before. So it was so nice and thank you to Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe Rinpoche for doing this for Jewel Heart. He will also be in the Jewel Heart New York City center, doing teaching and check with our website about the date and time. I just wanted to say thank you for that.

0:07:59.0 Now we will continue to talk about Songtsen Gampo’s code of conduct. He was the 33rd king of Tibet. We consider most of the Tibetan kings, particularly kings like Songtsen Gampo, Tritson Detsen, Namdri Songtsen, and so on as actual Avalokitesvara. And we consider all the Dalai Lamas Avalokitesvara, particularly the First, Second and Third, the Fifth, Seventh and Thirteenth and Fourteenth. They are living Avalokitesvara. The earlier Tibetan rulers are considered Avalokitesvara manifesting in human form, trying to convey the right thing for the people of Tibet. Out of those, Songtsen Gampo taught the ten pure godly dharmas and the sixteen pure human conducts. We are now within these sixteen. A number of them I have done already. There are a number of different ways of counting them. I mentioned to you right at the beginning that there are a number of different system, like the Chö kyong Ke pai Ka den, which I think is written by Panchen Sönam Drakpa. It has a different way of counting. The way I have been talking to you right from the beginning, is based on the information from the internet, based on the Tibetan-Chinese great dictionary. That has a couple of volumes, English, Tibetan and Chiense, known as tsim zö chen mo.

0:12:18.1 Yesterday we have been able to download that and now I have it on the ipad and can make it big and am able to see it. Otherwise I was talking to you from memory. This one has as the first respect to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. I talked about that. Second: search for the Dharma and practice. Naturally, during Songtsen Gampo’s time, he tried to bring Buddha’s teaching in almost as the law of Tibet, but they were not able to discover it yet. In this time, Tibetan writing was introduced. Before that there wasn’t even a system of writing. Messages were sent to each other by drawing lines on wooden sticks, criss-crossing the lines. Somehow rough messages could be conveyed that way. Songtsen Gampo introduced the Tibetan script we still have today.

0:14:15.6 There are a couple of different scripts. The most well-known are the u-chen, which big heads, which is the printed language, and u-me, without head, which is the hand writing language. These were introduced during Songtsen Gampo’s period, based on the Indian scripts of of len sa and ur du.

Len sa ur du nyi la pe cha nyi

Pö yi u chen chö me sö ten dze (spelling???)

He also introduced a lot of good, important behaviors, changing the old, barbarian behavior into human, respectable, virtuous behavior. Songtsen Gampo has done so much. The most important he wanted to do was to introduce Buddha Dharma as way of functioning, but the writing and reading was only at the beginning, and there were powerful groups of people that were against it, like occult cults, particularly the traditional pre-Buddhist religion called Bön. Today we have a lot of Bön groups in the United States and India and everywhere. All of them are now more or less based on Buddhism.

0:16:54.4 Somehow many great Buddhist masters of the 16, 17th and 18th centuries were able to convert Bön into Buddhism, except for calling the Bön Buddha Yundrung Tönpa and the religion Bön instead of Dharma. That was the statement of some earlier scholars. Whatever it maybe, today’s Bön groups that are available among Tibetans, are more or less practicing the Buddhist principles in the form of Bön. So to me it is great. Whether you call it Bön or Buddhist or Bön Buddhist or whatever, that is fine with me and I am happy they are doing the right thing.

0:18:24.8 Similarly, I also like to see different traditions together, not necessarily influenced by each other, but having respect and reverence for each other and also think of them as close relations, like brothers and sisters type of relationship. But not like brothers and sisters fighting each other, but brother and sister loving each other. Even though some brothers and sisters are fighting, they have the same blood. We in old Tibet, where it is a little barbarian, say that blood is thicker than water.

0:19:51.2 I was talking with one of our friends this morning and counting national feeling in that too. But let me continue. So that was the second, searching for Dharma and practice.

The Third: Respect to parents and repaying their kindness. Last time, when talking about that, I might have forgotten to emphasize repaying their kindness. But respect to parents is important. I am going to leave it there. The most important person is you. You have to do whatever is good for you, but do not be disrespectful or hate your parents. Don’t do that. Not only parents, hatred is such that you don’t even want to hate your enemies. You should not have room for hatred in your precious, wonderful, great mind. Your precious, great mind should be pure and not impure with hatred. That should not be there. But that doesn’t mean you have to be ball-less. You should have balls too. Honestly. But you are the most important. Your life is your life.

0:22:06.4 You have to live your life. Your parents don’t have to live your life. First they give you a life, which is a tremendous gift. Second, they nurture, protect and promote you mentally, physically, emotionally, which is great. While they are doing that, sometimes something goes wrong with some people, because for the parents themselves something went wrong somewhere. So they repeat what they think is the best, but which you may not like.

0:23:13.5 In such circumstances, respect your parents, but do not disrespect them. But whatever you have to do, you think what’s best for you and go ahead with it, whatever the consequences you face. That is your choice. So you do it. But remember their kindness of giving a life, feeding you, protecting you, saving you. All of those you have to remember.

The fourth one: Respect to qualified, educated people, which we do. We may or may not say, “You are a person with qualities. This is great.” But we pay for people with education and efficiency. These are the qualities. When you have know how, that is education. Efficiency based on education is quality. Quality is such that you have to have the know how, which you should be able to execute at the right time and quickly, not so slowly. Slowly you can do it better. Sometimes people have that habit and you have to learn how to be quick and on time, because time is very limited.

I noticed that, particularly in the last few months, from February onwards I have been so sick and couldn’t do anything. The time was there, but it went. It is not there. Even though you are doing nothing you become busy. You have to get up, you have to clean yourself, which is not so easy by the way. It is quite difficult for me at the moment. And then you have to take medications and eat and talk to one or two people, if you can. All that time goes nowhere. I couldn’t believe this is September already.

0:26:43.0 That’s how time goes. So not only do you have to be educated, but that education has to become quality and become efficient. If education does not become quality, it is just learning and whenever you are working, it is the learning process that is coming out. The learning process is becoming your character. And that becomes the quality and that quality brings you efficiency to do it better and be able to overpower laziness. Sometimes a lot of laziness brings hatred, anger and you have to be able to overpower them. That makes people better and more efficient. That’s what we do, even today.

Fifth: Respecting the elders and higher castes. We talked that earlier. I don’t want to repeat. Then sixth: have respect to the neighbors and be helpful. That is very important. Do not poke your nose into your neighbor’s affairs. Be respectful.

0:29:03.1 I was in the habit back in Tibet to live in the monastery, in an isolated house and later I became a refugee in India and later I fell from the monkhood, disgraced and got married to a wonderful lady, late Daisy Tsarong. We were in the habit of not connecting much with the neighbors. We minded our own business and kept to ourselves, but we would acknowledge the neighbors and respect them, with physical gestures, with words, etc. But we didn’t visit each other much. Late Daisy-la used to tell me that neighbors are the first ones to accuse you and the first one to show us our faults. She had that character and it suited me, because being a Buddhist practitioner may not be so easy to play with a certain community. So we were ourselves, yet we had respect and whenever they needed help, like their car broke or somebody was hurt, we helped.

0:31:32.4 Even in America, the house from which I am talking to you now, I have been here from 1993 onwards. I am really deeply grateful and thank my family from Malaysia to give me this house. I pay no rent, I pay my tax. I have a next door neighbor. We don’t have much contact. I don’t go there unless I need help and they don’t come here unless they need help. One day the lady of that house was running towards my door. So we all went out. Her husband was on the lawn mower and the lawn mower turned upside down and his leg was under the lawn mower. So we all went there. At that time we had six, seven people, who all went down and lifted up the lawn mower and got him out. He wanted to ride again, so we put him on the lawn mower and went away.

0:33:22.5 Then later, after the winter retreat there was a huge amount of snow piled up. So I couldn’t drive into my driveway. The neighbor’s driveway was cleared. So we asked them if we can leave our car there. The lady’s mother who was sitting there, told me, “Ah you are the neighbor who doesn’t talk to anyone.” So probably they noticed that too. But they said, “Come in, whatever you need, we help.” So they were very kind and that is how you respect each other and help, if needed. Do not volunteer and help, because then you will be like the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

0:34:35.0 Numer Seven – that’s what I need to talk to you about today. That says:

ka tran chin sem chung wa. This is interesting and important. Respect everybody and then ka tran chin – instead of saying speak the truth they say: your order should be true. So respecting you, and instead of saying “your words” they say “your orders”. So the orders you give must be true. That means be a truth teller. That’s what you should be. You should say everything truthfully. Don’t be a liar. Sometimes people don’t to lie but want to be diplomatic. They talk around a little it. A lot of the educated, efficient people do that. They don’t want to use harsh language. Then some people think you are not straight and maybe you are a little untrustworthy. When you look at our presidential candidates today you see that very clearly. Efficiency, better understanding, may have difficulty to use harsh words and try to say things in a polite way. But they are telling you the truth, not lying. But since it is diplomatically circling for your betterment, sometimes people may think they are not trustworthy. That is people’s right to think. They have the right to choose whatever – even though they are wrong. They have the right to do whatever they want to do.

0:38:20.3 That’s why your order should be true. Along with this there are two things. One: be humble. Don’t just say, “I am telling you the truth” in a harsh way, hurting people’s feelings, so that they may correct. That’s what we think. But that way you are not humble. The word in Tibetan is sem chung wa. But it doesn’t mean “small mind” but humble. So if you are humble, you are respecting others. When you are respecting others you won’t use harsh words, even though it is true and good for them. But it is better to have a gentle dosage than a harsh dosage. If you look in today’s medical treatment, every treatment is harsh, particularly chemicals and surgery.

0:39:51.1Surgery is violent and harsh. However, if it is presented by very kind doctors, who are compassionate and caring and humble surgeons, then it is conducted as gently as possible. So people like it and use it and it serves the people. They will take it and it helps. The same thing happens with Dharma practice for us. If people don’t like it they won’t take it. When they don’t take it, it is not useful for them. It will be simply wasting your own energy. It doesn’t help anybody. That’s why humbleness is very important. Humbleness doesn’t make you stupid. It doesn’t make you uneducated. It does not make you a weak person. The more humble you are that much quality you have. Earlier, one of those Tibetan 17th century masters – now the date and time is getting mixed up in my head. No 1, date and time was not so important for me in the beginning. When I began talking to you it became important and I tried to learn, but now I am getting messed up. Not only mixed up, but messed up.

0:42:39.3 So whether it is 17th or 18th century, a great Amdo teacher and scholar, called Guntang Rinpoche said,

nyi ma long wa gong pa tok – in the autumn harvest period, when you look how the wheat is growing, (in Tibet we use barley as example), the stalks that have a lot of barley are bent down and make the gesture of humbleness. They are bending down. The barley stalks without much barley stand up straight and tall. The barley with a lot of quality is bending down in a humble gesture. That’s why many great Tibetan teachers followed that system. How great they may be, they will come with both hands folded and bow down to you, always. A good example is His Holiness. That’s how it is.

0:44:23.4 People like it. We all appreciate it. We are all grateful. But if you don’t have that quality, you will be looking up in the air. We call that sang gye nam si – the Buddha that looks in the air, not to the people. That is not necessarily great, looking in the air. That is not respecting the people. We don’t have that in English, but in Tibetan there are so many levels of language. There is the honorific, there is the straightforward language, there is the disrespectful language. Disrespectful language is available in English too. Honorific is a little less. Everything has to be please, please, please. Other than that, the way you open your mouth, the way you are talking even in Tibetan language, you will know how much quality the person has. Good, medium, mediocre. Even Dharma qualities, how deep the person knows, how much they know, what subject they know, by talking in simple conversation, a few words of exchange like “ how are you, what are you up to these days, how is it, what is it…” - within a couple of exchanges of conversation you can almost judge the other person’s quality and Dharma knowledge, as well as their kindness, humbleness.

0:47:06.7 There is another funny character of a group of people. Everything is smile, nothing but smile. They are even saying harsh words with a smile and a gesture of great respect. From the mind they don’t have the respect. So you are simply cheating the person. Some people do that. It is the character of certain people. Then it is also the character of certain people to be a little harsh. Even those harsh people though can be humble within that harshness. Those who have the funny character of trying to be overly polite, overly humble, but their mind is not humble. That’s what happens. So those who have that funny character – you know what I mean – they know that. They try to be overly polite, overly buttering people, actually, whether there is any gain for them or not.

0:49:31.2 And then you get caught into lying and when you are caught, you simply have to say “he he he” with that big, nice smile. They try to wash things away. Maybe one or two times people forgive you, but if you repeat that all the time, again and again, they will not forgive you. And it is not worth anything. “He he he” does not mean anything in your heart. That politeness you show is not coming from your heart, just from the neck and above. People say you may not be trustworthy or something. But deeply, you may be well-meaning, well-educated and very efficient. People can have that too.

0:51:07.1 That much I would like to talk to you and I will entertain any questions you may have. Now Nijmegen is available on line, so we should welcome them. Hey Nijmegen people.

0:52:16.3 Hello to everybody and welcome to our webinar. And now, everybody watching the Sunday talk is seeing you too. Hello to President Hans and members of the board, Karin, Frances, Jan Renierse, Inge Eijkhout, back from Ladakh.

0:55:09.8 Hallo New York, welcome to you too. This is the first time the New York center came in on the webinar. There is Jamerry, Janet Diamond and Mark Magill.

0:55:52.8 I would like to talk to the Dutch group a little bit, and say welcome today and it is so great you are studying your year-long course from today onwards and I hope it will be helpful to you, particularly for your mind. Physically too, but mostly the mind. Try to reduce your unwanted minds, such as anger, hatred, jealousy, etc, a little bit and try to bring kindness, compassion, caring, love, etc. up. This is your task of your year-long study. The teachers at Jewel Heart Holland, many of them have studied with me for over 30 years and with many other great teachers that we invite. So they have quality. That doesn’t mean that they are totally free of faults. But they have quality. So try to pick up their quality and your study, your learning, your helping yourself, is being supported and backed up by the lineage masters of mine. And your study, your practice, is shared with you by the Dutch teachers, but they are supported by Jewel Heart in general and particularly me. We support you and back you up.

0:58:20.2 And I have been backed by my lineage masters, all the way back to Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa, Atisha and all the way to Buddha. Included are the great early Indian scholars and saints, teachers and adepts, and the Tibetan saints, scholars, masters and adepts. Therefore, you have a very strong backbone. Then try hard and do your best to reduce those negative thoughts and addictions and try to bring in those positive, caring things like love, compassion, including yourself. Do not ignore yourself. If you don’t help yourself no one can help you. That’s very important. We talk about compassion and you think about suffering people other than yourself, but we ourselves are one of the people with the biggest suffering, so don’t forget that. Have compassion for yourself, have love for yourself. Care for yourself, as well as equally for everybody else.

1:00:18.8 That’s how equanimity goes. That’s how compassion comes in. That’s how love comes in. That’s how bodhimind comes in. That’s how you become a better person. With all that, I would like to say thank you. And I am so glad it worked out.

Any questions from anybody in Holland?

Audience: We couldn’t listen to all the teaching today, because of some technical problems, and we have only heard 25 minutes of your teaching, so it maybe difficult to raise questions.

Rimpoche: The question doesn’t have to be about today’s teaching. Anything else, anybody wanted to say is welcome. Is Naomi there?

Audience: She is not there.

Rimpoche: not there, give her my best. Thank you.

Audience: We will pray and drink now to your health, so that you can get better as soon as possible. Cheers.

Rimpoche: What are you drinking?

Audience: Beer.

Rimpoche: Belgian or Dutch? Anyway, thank you. So yes, I have to apologize that I couldn’t make it to your retreat earlier in spring and also not the upcoming November retreat. But my heart is there, every time you meet and I like to apologize. And I am getting better, for sure, slowly, but steadily. Many doctors what I visited recently told me, “I thought you may not make it. I am glad to see you getting stronger.” Almost 8 or 9 doctors told me that. So I am happy. It is not completely over, because when I was very sick I got so much infection, including yeast, and 6, 7 others. The yeast infection is still with me and now they are specifically treating that by giving anti-fungus treatment in my bladder. That means – I don’t know whether I should say it or not – it goes the other way round through a catheter, which is not comfortable. That’s what’s going on today even, this week, three times a day. That’s treating the yeast infection.

1:05:12.1 Also the fistula, which is needed for dialysis, where the blood cleaning goes through. They put that in and they joined veins and nerves together and I had 18 inches of stitches and they took them out last Monday and said it would take 3 more weeks to mature. Then, wherever there are still weaknesses, they have to put in balloons and blow them up and then I may be able to transfer the dialysis from the emergency port on the chest to the regular one in the arm. That will probably happen in October, November. That is how it is and hopefully thereafter, everything will be smooth. That’s how I am now and I hope you people are fine, thank you.

1:07:17.4 So I like to apologize to everybody who is still listening – it looks a little less, no, they are all still there and thank you so much and I have been unable to entertain your questions today, but I will next Sunday and I also like to say hi to Chicago, because the last 2, 3 Sundays Chicago was on the screen and there is also Ann Arbor and New York now. I see the Dutch, New York and Ann Arbor. Thank you so much, everybody

Thank you

1:09:06.2 May all beings….1:10:45.2 announcements….1:12:11.5 end