Archive Result

20170115GRAAST73

0:00:00.0 Happy New Year everybody. We are looking forward to a wonderful 2017. 2106 personally for me was very difficult. So I am glad 2016 is gone. Good bye 2016 and looking forward to a peaceful, happy and wonderful 2017. But hopefully, due to the election results, the new administration will not disturb the peace and harmony much that the Obama administration brought.

0:01:24.0 When you are looking at the legacy, Obama tried his best to keep his promise from when he was running for president when he said that was should not be there. He even tried to close the war in Iraq. He brought the American people back home and made the utmost efforts not to put boots on the ground in the war area. I hope that at least that will continue and I hope we won’t engage in war, honestly. We can bomb the terrorists just like that, if we wanted to. This is the world’s most powerful nation, way superior than anyone else from the technological point of view and military power point of view. We can really bombard everybody like this. But if you do this, there will be a tremendous amount of innocent civilians that get killed for no reason. That’s why this administration tried its best not to bombard – unless there are one or two places where you really have to. Otherwise, to make Syria just flat would take America half an hour. Besides that, if you want to flatten Iraq and half of Turkey, it would take half an hour or an hour, but at the most two hours and every building standing can be flat on the ground.

0:04:09.7 It’s not that we don’t have the capability. We do. But restraining power to save innocent lives, this is what America is all about. Honestly. It’s not a bully. America does not bully. Sometimes they are becoming a bully, but in policy they don’t bully. That’s great. So I hope the new administration also becomes sensible and at least that great American tradition will be kept. We are peacemakers and peacekeepers and the leader of the world, not the destroyer of the world. So we will have that. So we are hoping for that. Anyway, we will see. But remember, if [the new administration] does that, great, if not, remember people have the power. The power is not in Washington. Washington is using the people’s power. But the power is with the people, you and me and every citizen of the United States. We have the power. It is not the administration, honestly, it’s not. If they [the new administration] go the wrong way, people shouldn’t go the wrong way. The people have the power and I hope it will not like a one million or two million people march in Washington. That won’t register much. If we have to, we need 10 million who go and make sure the demonstration is worthwhile.

0:07:13.9 If the administration doesn’t carry on with the good, great American tradition or being a world leader and peacemaker and peacekeeper, we, the people, have to act in the people’s own way. Just keep that in mind. That’s what we are looking towards in the new good year. But really, my hope is that the good old American tradition will not be wasted. Then of course, some of us included, many people will suffer if they take away Obamacare, particularly older white people. Most of them have Obamacare and if they have difficulties those people will suffer first. When they take it away you will suddenly find out next morning that you don’t have insurance. And that’s what you voted for anyway. (laughs). Last night CNN said that the majority of the votes came from Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The majority of the white people there voted for Trump and when the Obamacare goes away, that’s exactly the people who are going to suffer. But they may not be able to take it away, because there is no substitute. But Republicans think there is no need to substitute it. Just take it and the old insurance was good enough. Remember Paul Ryan’s town hall meeting? He kept on saying that. That means they are just going to have 20 million people without insurance. So let’s see. If all 20 million go to Washington, the government will not be able to stand. That’s what it is.

0:10:40.1 All 20 million may not go or be able to go. I am just mentioning that, because of the consequences of the election. On the other hand, to me the Democratic Party doesn’t seem to be together at all, unfortunately. I don’t know what’s happening with them. The biggest loss for them was 68 seats between the two houses. If they get together, they have hope to regain more than that in just two years’ time. If they don’t get together, if the party leadership doesn’t work together with the union workers and so forth and the public, then the anger will continuously eat up the Democratic Party. So 68 are gone and if you lose another couple of tens they will have lost 100. And then one party will be so powerful. People will express their anger and their difficulties. They do. By the way, I checked and rechecked and it is confirmed that by not voting, the credit goes to the opposition in the electoral college. And that’s how a large number of Michigan and Wisconsin votes have gone to Trump.

0:13:23.4 Anyway, that’s over now. Let’s hope for the best. Then, if they really become hawkish war mongers…..I can’t help but make a remark here, because a number of people thought there is no difference between Bernie Sanders and Trump. Now we have got a Secretary State from Exxon Mobile and how many secretaries in the cabinet are now rich industrialists? That’s very funny. They thought they were voting against rich industrialists and somehow Hillary Clinton became the representation of the rich community, the industrial people, so they voted against her and now you got rich industrialists in power. Exxon Mobile is the Secretary of State, there are two or three more secretaries like that and almost all the cabinet is like that. Bernie Sanders said the other day, “The qualification to become secretary is to be a multi-billionaire, plus you have to be running a huge industry.” That’s exactly what happened. I just wanted to mention that.

0:15:49.6 Now to us, whatever it is, earlier during the Kadampa lamas’ period, there was a great Kadampa lama who always worried about the Kadampa teaching. That was in the 1100s and 1200s in Tibet. One of his disciple was also worried about the general Buddhist teaching and what would happen to it in this degenerate age. He was very worried. One day his teacher told him,

chi yi ten pa on ge la mä ji/ wo gön ki ten pa gen lus ma song wa gön (spelling? 0:17:06.4)

General Buddhism is not with us, but our own Buddhism should not go into darkness within us.

So his advice was that whatever is happening in the general society, we ourselves should see to it that we have light. We shouldn’t go into the darkness, voicelessness and difficulties. So that’s exactly what we should do. Whatever the country’s shift in policies may be, we should continue with the Buddha’s idea of love, compassion-oriented things and also improving ourselves, the individual, day by day. Yes, we say that we care about everybody with love and compassion. We also care for ourselves. I always say, “If you do not take care of yourself, who else is going to take care of you?” Remember that. So you have to be concerned about everybody. Simultaneously we have to take care of ourselves too. So that’s how we should keep our life together. Our motivation is that of serving every living and recognizing that every living being has been at one time or another our mother. I am here to repay their kindness. I am here to serve people. It is very true. You can develop that mind and that mind doesn’t bother you, but helps you tremendously, which is very true. I try to do that, honestly. I am not blowing my own horn, but I try to do that. I dedicate my life to the service of people. Whatever I can, that’s what I do.

0:20:42.8 So that doesn’t bother me. It gives me a lot of peace and harmony and a lot of purpose for my life. So that’s what you people should do. Actually, if you can’t think of all living beings, think of your family, your spouse, your children, your parents. And you are living for them. You are there to serve them. It is the beginning. Theoretically, that’s not bodhimind, but it is the beginning, it is on the way. That’s how you should think every day. When you wake up in the morning and you see the first light, daylight or electricity, think, “I am happy to be alive today.” Appreciate the kindness of people. If you are a pure Buddhist, remember the kindness of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha that kept you alive and will keep you alive. And if not, that’s okay. But at least appreciate the life. Be happy about it.

0:22:42.9 Then the second point: Today I will dedicate my day to serve. If you want to do that with your family alone, that’s fine. If you can extend that, that’s fine. If you can think of all living beings, it’s great. But all living beings should be there not only without name or face. They should be there with name and face. The earlier Buddhist practitioners were always thinking of “all sentient beings, all sentient beings”, etc,. Then Stephen Batchelor, who was in Switzerland with Geshe Rabten, and was working on translating the Bodhisattvacharyavatara, and studying the Treasury of Dharma, one day told somebody, “Hey, you are not all sentient beings, so get out of my way.”

0:24:11.3 That happens. It is very practical. If that happens to you, you can do both, ignore them and do whatever you have to do or think. The most important thing is that when you think of all sentient beings, you should have names and faces, so that at least it’s people and not some dots in a dotted line. When Obama was talking you could see so many people on television and they all look like dots. Especially when he was first elected, that night, on television, so many dotted lines. Each of these dotted lines has a name and face is living, including Jesse Jackson crying. Even if you see dotted lines, each one of them is a person, including Jesse Jackson crying. So think about that.

0:25:56.4 Then do whatever you have to do. It doesn’t mean you have to change your work. But do whatever you have to do, Dharma as well as your material world, but the motivation is to help them. That way, whatever good work you do, will become very, very important. We are also setting up a good motivation for this coming good year. Our good motivation for this upcoming good year. I do everything for the benefit of all beings, whatever I do, everything, including my daily chores. Like the cleaning of my room is for the service of sentient beings. The cleaning of my home is the cleaning of my negativities.

0:27:28.3 Remember the story of Arya Lam Chung pa, The Arya Small Road, one of the 16 arhats and his brother Big Road. The family had a curse. All their children didn’t survive. They went for help to a sooth sayer who said he had a way of doing it. He put butter in the mouth of the baby and a little bit in the nose and face and sent it with a maidservant to the roadside with the order, “All great beings, who travel there, ask them to pray for the longevity of this little kid.” One good maid was very active and went to the big road and sat there. Great masters of different Hindu traditions came, one by one and each one prayed, “This guy will live long and join my order and become the most learned person.” Then they went their way. Many, including Buddha, at the end, came. He said, “This guy may live long and join my order and become most learned.” The sooth sayer had said, “When the sun set comes, if the kid is still alive, bring it back home. If it is dead, take it to the funeral home.” So by the time Buddha left, the kid was still alive so they brought it back home and they were very happy that it survived. This kid went to each and every one of the Hindu schools and became a great master. Not satisfied, he joined other schools and finally he joined the Buddha’s order and became an arhat called “Arhat Big Path”.

0:30:38.2 Then his younger brother came into the world and the sooth sayer said the same thing. This time the maid happened to be very lazy. She went to the next small street where not so many people went. She was there the whole day and nobody came, except Buddha, who came at the end of the day and prayed the same thing. They found the kid still alive, brought it back home and then this kid went to each of the same schools that his brother went, but instead of becoming a master, they all beat him up and threw him out. Finally, he went to his own brother and he thought about it and found that if he was wrathful that will help him. Being loving wouldn’t help much. So when he was teaching his younger brother and he wasn’t learning, he kicked him out of his ashram too.

0:31:54.2 While he was sitting outside one of those brick walls crying, Buddha came by and asked, “Why are you crying?” He said, “I am the most stupid and no one is helping me.” Buddha said, “Would you like to follow me?” The guy said, “No, I don’t. I went to every ashram and even my own brother threw me out.” Buddha said, “Your brother is an arhat, I am a Buddha. I have a different way of doing it.” The guy said, “If you promise not to throw me out, then I will come.” Buddha said ok, and he came. First Buddha taught him how to sweep the floors of the temple. He let him sweep and sweep and then one day Buddha told him, “While you are sweeping, can you say dü pam? Dü means dust. He couldn’t remember that. When he remembered “dust” he forgot “clear”. When he remembered “clear”, he forgot “dust”. So thus he kept on struggling for months. Buddha instructed the monks when they saw him sweeping to repeat for him dü pang dü pang all the time. So one day he learnt this.

0:34:11.7 So then Buddha told him to say dri ma pang – clear ignorance. So the same thing happened. He struggled with that for a long time. One day he not only learnt to say “clear the dust” and “clear the dirt”. But he realized that the dust was not ordinary dust, but the dust of attachment. Dirt was not ordinary dirt but the dirt of anger. And dust was not ordinary dust, but the dust of jealousy. Dirt was not ordinary dirt, but the internal dirt of ignorance. So then, just by doing that alone he picked up everything. In those days it was simple. Nowadays, there are so many things to do. In those days it was simple. I think it was just because of Buddha’s thing, honestly. That’s what it is. It was so great. When you are cleaning your house and vacuuming and so on, think that you are not sucking the ordinary dust, but the hatred, jealousy, anger, ignorance of our mind. Then the pure mind will appear. So even cleaning alone can reach quite a lot.

0:36:39.1 So many of you may think, “I may not be able to do so much”, but being able to clean your room that will be good enough alone together with what we talked. Think about it. That will support your house cleaning. That is important. Each and every activity that is shared by Buddha through Tibetan Buddhism is capable of delivering the individual to a certain extent of development. Even if you simply learn to say OM MANI PADME HUM. That alone is good enough. Many old Tibetans in the olden times would simply say that mantra 100,000 or a million times or a number of a million times in their lifetimes. That’s all they knew and that is good enough to make life worthwhile. That is our purpose. I like to say that much and welcome to this wonderful, great year that we are looking forward to. Each one of those works you do should serve your purpose. That’s what you have to choose.

0:38:53.8 I have a couple of other things to announce. The winter retreat is coming from February 5th through 11th. I am trying to teach the Secret Ganden Lhagyema. It is very important for all Buddhists in general and particularly for those of us following Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s tradition. Kam sum chö je gyal po jam gön la ma tsong kha pa chen po. The Dharma king of the three layers, Manjushri in the human form of Lama Losang Drak pa. It is his guru yoga inseparable. It is very easy for a teacher like me to talk, because I don’t have to talk about my qualities. I have nothing, but I will simply say that it is Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa inseparable from your own great root master, whoever it is.

0:40:59.9 There are a number of uncommon practices in there. While saying the mantra, while meditating, particularly developing wisdom seven or eight ways. One of them, if you can learn, it would be good enough. And then of course, the path and particularly on the level of the Vajrayana path, there is much more than in the Lama Chöpa thing or in the Lines of Experience or anything. And that portion – even though we do the major Lam Rim portions in the Lama Chöpa thing, but the Vajrayana part you may have to pick up from there, because there is much importance within that. So we hope to share. But I have very limited time. Originally, I agreed to seven days, but it happens to be the Heruka Yab Yum compulsory tsoh day on Monday. We have to do that and I am going to do the Vajrayogini initiation as well. I am unable to do that now many times, very limited with sitting and all that.

0:43:12.9 There was somehow a group of people who came, organized by Laura Reynolds. So we will do Vajrayogini the whole day, from when I can get in. And I am sure it will be done in no more than 4 hours.

Hartmut: with Vajrayogini self initiation and initiation and tsoh, maybe 3 – 4 hours.

Rimpoche: Good. So that will be the whole day. Then on Saturday there will be White Tara initiation. Cleveland requested it, because we did it in New York and it was great. But we haven’t done it in Ann Arbor. So a couple of people from Cleveland – not Cleveland Jewel Heart – requested this to take place in Michigan. So we are trying to do that at the Michigan Union and we have very limited time. It has to be well organized. We have to get in and out quickly, especially getting out quickly, because at 1 pm someone else will come and occupy the room. The other things I am sure the office will arrange well. Also Virginia Craig is in charge of the publicity and getting people in. She is doing the overall organization. So then she requested that everybody please some copies of my “The Wit and Wisdom of Gelek Rimpoche”. You can find it in the back in a basket. Pick up as much as you can and send them as invitation to your friends. The Michigan Union will fit 600 people. We are here in this room about 100. So each one of you bring six guests. That way we will fill that up. So take 2-3 copies and send it to whoever you want to send them to and invite them to that. It will be Saturday, February 11, at 10 am at the Michigan Union Ball Room.

0:48:08.9 Also, my nephew, who is my father’s reincarnation and hopefully Jewel Heart’s future teacher, many of them are there, it is his birthday today.

(Everyone sings Happy Birthday). 0:48:43.7

I am praying for his longevity and that he will be helpful to Buddha Dharma as well as all sentient beings. Thank you.

How many on the webinar here today? 102 and how many on webinar? 105. That makes 207. So thank you.

0:51:08.6 May all beings…..

Three times:

JE TSÜN LA MEI KU TSE RAP TEN CHING

NAM KAR TRIN LE CHOK CHUR GYE PA DANG

LO ZANG TEN PEI DRÖN ME SA SUM GYI

DRO WEI MÜN SEL TAK TU NE GYUR CHIK

May my venerable lama’s life be firm,

his perfect enlightened actions spread in the ten directions,

and the torch of Lozang’s teachings,

dispellingthe three world’s beings’ darkness, always remain.

End of file 0:53:37.9