Archive Result

19890511GRMLHappinessSuffering (actually in Singapore)

0:00:06.3 All of you have heard unfortunately of the passing away of the great teacher and spiritual masters, guide, the great Kalu Rinpoche. It is very unfortunate news. However, Rinpoche’s contribution was tremendous and he completed his work and changed his body, from ordinary human body to extraordinary uncontaminated body. And it is both an occasion for mourning as well as praying, paying respect altogether and I suggest that after the translation we will observe 2 minutes of silence. Praying that whatever desire Rinpoche had may be fulfilled. When I use “desire” do not misunderstand. But the wishes he had may be fulfilled and he quickly return to benefit all sentient beings.

0:02:04.0 All sentient beings across the galaxies, meaning our universe, please return to this. So we should pray.

0:02:37.5 blank space – 2 minutes silence then Chinese Translation (inaudible)

0:05:04.0 What I normally do in talks like this, first (audio interference, strong noises)

0:05:38.7 In talks like this, what I do normally is that first we need purification. We have to purify ourselves as well as purify the environment. When I say purify ourselves, I may not have much problem talking about it in this part of the world. You will understand, but I may have problems in the West, but not here. So I will not explain much. Purify ourselves, as well as the environment. What we do is by using meditation, mantra and material. When you have mantra, mudra and materials combined together that’s what we refer to in Tibetan as tingdzin ngag dang chakya.

0:06:49.7 When all those work together it works. So here we are using the mantra OM. There are many reasons. AH is the life of all sounds. All mantras come out of AH. If there is no AH, there is no speech, no sound at all. It’s the base of that. Then OM made of three letters, OAM, there are a lot of explanations, combining body, mind and speech of the pure buddhas and body, mind and speech of impure beings, ourselves, and there are a lot of long explanations, but OM is the most important mantra, called jewel mantra. It is also the beginning of all mantras. So we can say that nine times to purify ourselves. If you want to let things go but you can’t let it go you are hanging and holding into something, you have unwanted energy that you want to get rid of it. This is an opportunity to do so.

0:08:38.8 So we start with 9 Oms to purify, after the translation.

0:08:54.0 Chinese translation (inaudible), then 9 x OM group chant.

0:11:51.6 According to the piece of paper given to you we have a few mantras to say. The next is the mantra of Buddha Shakyamuni. We don’t need much explanation, you know Shakyamuni Buddha is. If he did not come we could not be Buddhists at all. He is the founder, the whole Buddhism comes from Buddha. That is also based on his own experience that he shared. So that’s why we say his mantra: OM MUNI MUNI MAHA MUNIYE SOHA. We already talked about OM. MUNI can be translated as victor or conqueror. The first is victory over the delusion, the second is victory over the imprints of delusions. Maha muni is great victory, where Buddha cleared all obstacles and their imprints. There are a lot of explanations on that mantra. You might have heard a number of them and you will hear more. The only common thing you find is that of victor or conqueror. Sometimes it is victory over narrow, selfish interests, the second over delusions, the third over imprints of the delusions. Some people will explain that and there are a lot of ways. But anyway, he gained victory over the delusions and imprints, in short negative forces. When you talk about negative forces these are forces within us that make our life difficult: the delusions and their imprints, which means it is possible that they return and the seeds and the results. All that is part of the category of the imprints.

0:14:52.3 So in other words, Buddha has gained victory over all the negative forces. OM, the body, mind and speech of somebody who has gained all the victory over the negative forces, and then SOHA - lay the foundation of his body and mind to my body and mind. It is the foundation of your pure body, mind and speech laid in my body, mind and speech, in short. Is that clear? I hope so. I can’t spend all the time talking about that. With that, can we say this 7 times with folded hands, strongly praying to Buddha?

0:16:14.2 group chanting of the mantra

0:17:14.8 The next one is OM MANI PADME HUNG, this is so famous, everybody knows. I don’t think I need to explain it. However, I am giving you a piece of paper to carry home and look at, if you want to practice. If I don’t say something about it, that may be a failure in my duty. So I will say a little bit and I am not going to repeat tomorrow or the day after, but just tonight. It starts again with OM: body, mind and speech of the person who says the mantra and body, mind and speech of the enlightened beings to whom you are saying the mantras, both are represented in the OM. Actually, OM has a hundred different explanations. Here we are telling you about body, mind and speech.

0:18:21.7 Somebody else may tell you it is not body, mind and speech, it is something else. We don’t deny that. There are a hundred different explanations. But this is something we all accept. So here OM is the body, speech and mind of Avalokitesvara. MANI is – everybody knows money, right? I do remember, a couple of years ago I was here with a very old friend in Tengyeling who asked me, “Rimpoche, I need a mantra to make money.” Some of you remember still. So I jokingly said, “OM MONEY COME MONEY COME MANY MONEY COME SOHA. So that’s the money, right?

0:19:29.8 Just the spelling is a little wrong. Here MANI means jewel. You may get the idea of diamonds or rubies or sapphires, turquoise or pearls. But we are not talking about that kind of jewel at all. Rather, think a little more than that. If you look back, it comes from the Buddhist or Hindu myth of the wish-fulfilling jewel. In the Tibetan tradition, when they depict it, it looks like candy to me, delicious candy, but it represents the wish-fulfilling jewel. You can pray in front of it and it has the power to fulfill that wish. But it is limited. That jewel cannot give you enlightenment, it can only give you freedom from illness, a little prosperity, a little business. All that is possible, that is what this original jewel is. For modern, educated people it looks like a Hindu myth or whatever.

0:21:20.4 It is not referring to diamonds or any other jewelry that the ladies are wearing. This jewel is wish-fulfilling. In modern terminology we can say it is one of the initials of Avalokitesvara, his hand implement, his sign. This is a Chinese area, it is a chop. He carries two, one is the jewel, the other is the lotus. This is pema in Tibetan and padma in Sanskrit. On the one hand you have the jewel, on the other hand you have the lotus. Jewel here refers to method, which includes purification, accumulation of merit. All these are method, because this is the way how you become a buddha easily. Jewel represents that.

0:23:07.3 Padma or lotus stands for purity. It grows in the swamp, but when it opens there is no fault of swamp. It is faultless beauty, right? Though grown out of delusions and illusions and ego and all sorts of faults, but when it becomes pure that comes through wisdom, understanding of the pure nature. So wisdom and related parts of the practice are represented by that lotus. So you have got method on the one hand and wisdom on the other hand and HUM is the combination of them. Combined method and wisdom and combined body, mind and speech of the practitioner, whose impurity will become the pure body, mind and speech of Avalokitesvara.

0:24:24.9 HUM is the combination of union of these, the union of the pure person. The impure person will become union with the pure person. How? By purifying. Through method and wisdom the body, mind and speech of the practitioner who is impure, will become the pure body, mind and speech of Avalokitesvara. So when you say that now it has some meaning. Otherwise you just say the words OM MANI PADME HUM or NAMO TATE KUAN SE YIN PO SA or whatever you say. But if you don’t know the meaning it is an empty shell. It has some purpose, but if you say it with understanding it is much better.

0:25:38.8 Chinese translation chanting of Om mani padme hum

0:29:39.4 Thank you. The next is OM TARE TUTARE TURE SOHA. This is Tara, the feminine principle of the Buddha aspect. If I keep on explaining the mantras, probably the time is going to go just on explaining the mantra. So will save this for tomorrow and the day after. We started with the mantras and did not get on the subject I did not realize it is almost becoming a quarter to nine, so I have to be a little time-conscious. Can we see the Tara mantra?

0:30:50.5 group chanting of Tara mantra

0:34:00.6 side conversation….after the OM I skipped the refuge. Refuge is important. It is the sign of whether you are a Buddhist or not. How do we know? When we call ourselves Buddhist, what does that mean? Are you born as Buddhist or are you converting to Buddhism like people convert to Christianity? What makes you become Buddhist? Have you ever thought about that? That is a very important question for every Buddhist. Those who call themselves Buddhist, why are you Buddhist? Ask yourself and you will get a lot of answers. “Yes, I was born in a Buddhist family, so I am Buddhist”. Or others will say, “My mother told me to be Buddhist so I am Buddhist.” Or, “I like Buddhism” or whatever reason. So you call yourself Buddhism. By calling yourself Buddhist, do you become Buddhist? By taking birth in a Buddhist family, do you become Buddhist? The answer is no, definitely no. According to the Buddha it is no, according to anything, it is no.

0:36:12.0 So what makes one become Buddhist? Where do you draw the line? This is very important. The line is drawn on whether you take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha or not. What does that mean, taking refuge? Any idea? I am sure many of you have, I should not underestimate. I am in Singapore, sorry. Okay, to me refuge means relying on. I rely on Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. But does that mean Buddha, Dharma and Sangha manage everything, do the job and I can enjoy? No. You are lucky to have a nice…..inaudible 0:37:50.5.

Okay, what does relying on mean then? Who are you going to believe? Are you going to believe Buddha, Dharma and Sangha or somebody else? That would be blind faith. Would you like to do that? Anybody seems to be fine, I don’t get any answer at all. People are smiling a little bit. How many of you like to have blind faith? Let’s presume a lot of you are Buddhist? How many would like to have blind faith in Buddha and how many like to have intelligent faith in Buddha?

0:38:57.7 Only one wants to have intelligent faith? And also happens to be a European? (laughs). Anyway, I don’t think Buddha, Dharma and Sangha demand blind faith at all. I don’t have much time tonight, really. I can talk tomorrow a little bit before the refuge. Relying on means Nr.1 you have trust in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. And the trust, faith, etc, are all very similar, very tricky, but slightly different also. Above all, I am going to tell you one very important thing.

0:40:01.3 That may be shocking for you people. To me relying on Buddha, Dharma and Sangha means that I rely on my Buddha, my Dharma and my Sangha. What does that mean to you now? My Buddha is my future Buddha. My Dharma is my spiritual development. My sangha is my future sangha. Everyone of us is working for spiritual development, enlightenment, Buddhahood – or some people for nirvana. We are always working towards that development. That development means there will be time for me to become a buddha. There will be a time when each one of us will become a buddha. And that is our future buddha. We have to rely on that. When that becomes you, you become a buddha. That is the buddha you want. We rely on that buddha. When you become that buddha all your delusions are gone, all your ego is gone, all your unwanted energies are gone. All your negative forces are totally destroyed. You have positive forces developed. That is your future buddha. You rely on yourself to become that.

0:41:51.0 Everybody is seeking Buddhahood. So you rely on that. Then the question rises? Am I taking refuge to myself? No, you don’t. We take refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. But it is my future Buddha, my future Dharma and my future Sangha, which has not developed yet. So what do I do? I take refuge to the representation of the Buddha who has already developed and represents all the enlightened beings to me. I take refuge to him and follow his path so that I become like him, to which road he went and where he reached. So we go the same road. So that’s what it really means, okay? Take refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and rely on them.

0:43:11.2 So now you have to know what Buddha is, what Dharma is and what Sangha is. These are so important questions for Buddhists. So important. Shakyamuni Buddha had been in India 2,500 years ago. When we say NAMO BUDDHAYA, etc, what are we thinking? What is our object? Who is saying what to whom? These are so important. If you don’t recognize buddha it becomes very difficult. There is the historical Buddha, there is the future Buddha and there is a buddha here too. This is so important to see and to know. What is Buddha, what is Dharma and what is Sangha? We mentioned Buddha, both historical and future.

0:44:31.2 Now what is Dharma? That is very common language, but what is it? You don’t get it in the Sukhavati shop. So where is it? in the Dharma centers or in the monasteries? What is it? What does Dharma mean to you? You have ask the question to yourself. Some people will say it is a book, some will say it is a speech, some people will think it is a temple. Where am I going to point? Ask yourself and try to get an answer. If there is time, in a workshop, I ask each individual the question and wait for the answer and if you don’t have one, you can think about it tonight and tomorrow you can answer it. But here there is no time. So you ask the question to yourself and find out and then tell me tomorrow.

0:45:55.1 Or you can come buy it tonight, the Sukhavati shop will be open. Okay, I can’t give you more explanations on that, we continue tomorrow, the time is really running. So let’s say the refuge now. What I am trying to do is explain a little bit, work a little bit and whatever we are working on we can concentrate on that for a little while. Now we can take refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. How? You visualize you are not alone, but surrounded by all sentient beings and with that you take refuge.

0:46:58.3 chanting of refuge NAMO GURUBE NAMO BUDDHAYA, NAMO DHARMAYA, NAMO SANGHAYA

0:50:29.8 Thank you for saying all these prayers. Now I will begin to talk, right? I should say thank you everybody for coming here tonight. The subject is suffering and happiness. I think we all know that. Do we have to talk about suffering? We all know we suffer and we are all happy too. Anyway, that is the subject tonight. I don’t believe there is anybody who doesn’t know suffering. Everybody knows suffering and everybody knows happiness. Everybody wants happiness and everybody does not want suffering. That’s what everybody works for. When I look at it everybody is busy, but busy for what? To be happy and to avoid suffering. Whether you look in east or west, whether you look at insects or animals or birds or fish, wherever you look, where there is life and where is some feeling, they are always looking for happiness and suffering is what they don’t want.

0:53:12.0 So everybody is seeking happiness and doesn’t want suffering. When we talk about suffering we talk about the pains we experience, by body or by mind. When you look at people who project as somebody happy, there is also a lot of pain and sorry underneath. In short, there is no one who does not have pain unless you have obtained nirvana. Buddha is very famous talking about suffering, because it is in our nature, our body, our mind. We have pain all the time, all the time. People are suffering so much, you have no idea. Of you do know, you experience it, so that’s my wrong statement. You do have the idea, but at the same time I can say you have no idea how much.

0:55:05.9 Buddha divided suffering into three different categories: suffering of suffering which we acknowledge as pain, which we experience all the time. There is no problem understanding that. But there is a problem with acknowledging that. A lot of people refuse to acknowledge the pain. How? By blaming other persons, by blaming the conditions, the situations. In reality you refuse to acknowledge that. The suffering we experience in the body is very difficult, no doubt, but the suffering we experience in mind is even worse than that. How much mental pain people carry? Only you know, nobody else knows. There is fear; fear of losing, fear of not getting, fear of not satisfying, dissatisfaction is one of the worst pains. Even the Dharma practitioners have that.

0:57:04.2 Towards the Dharma even. And brings horrible counter-reactions and all sorts of things. There is not a single person who wants pain. Everybody wants happiness. But most people are working for pain, thinking that they are working for happiness. That’s what Buddha discovered. That’s what he shared with us. He goes beyond that, beyond this ordinary physical pain and mental pain. He goes more and talks about changing suffering. It is difficult for us know what changing suffering is, to recognize that. Most of the pleasures that we as human beings experience will be what Buddha calls changing suffering.

0:58:42.2 The sufferings we experience as pleasure turn out to give you a miserable result. Even more difficult to understand than that is the pervasive suffering. There are two things: the English translation “pervasive” is not adequate. Pervasive means everywhere. That’s not adequate. Here there are two things: ke pa and du je in Tibetan. Ke pa is like the word ‘pervasive’, everywhere. The second, du je means collecting again. So the result of body and mind is also the result of suffering and it creates more suffering. That is why it is pervasive, collective, or whatever. Something like that. So basically these are the three suffering that Buddha divided and we do acknowledge the first one and have difficult to understand the other two.

1:00:36.9 This is the general explanation of suffering with the three divisions. Now, individually, when you talk about suffering, you have to think very carefully. There are a lot of people who think, “I have no suffering.” I have come across a lot of people who say that. The reason why they don’t have suffering is because they think, “I have enough money, I have enough this thing, a house to live in, a car to drive, a plane to fly, a simming pool to swim in and children to take care of me.” But then, when you have that, you think you have no pains.

1:01:43.0 But each one of them brings disappointment. When that happens you are disappointment and experience pain. And everybody goes through with that, and not only once but a number of times. The changing is another one. Change, something people like it. We have to change. Sometimes the change brings a lot of pain, really. When I was young, healthy and when I got old and sick, look at the difference. It brings pain. Ageing brings pain. Some people refuse to acknowledge ageing as pain. But it does bring a lot of pain. How do we know? We try to avoid it. We try to cover it, we paint our face. Why? We try to hide the unwanted look. That is suffering.

1:04:14.3 That is dissatisfaction. Young people look at the older ones and laugh at it. But they will also go through the same thing too. There is nothing to laugh. Changing really hurts and then there is loneliness. That is tremendous suffering. We are not talking about hell realms, hungry ghost realms and animal realms here. Yes they are here, we cannot deny that. I don’t know how people in Singapore feel, but in the West a lot of people think that Buddhism doesn’t have a hell, because the Christians have a permanent hell. If you go to the wrong side of God you have a permanent hell. So they think Buddhism doesn’t have hell. That is not true, Buddhism also has hells. But they are not permanent. And hungry ghosts, each one, if you talk about pain, they are tremendous.

1:05:49.5 In short, I have to make it short, because of the time, each one of us, from the minute you are born we are running towards death. That is pain. Separation is pain. In short, every activity that we are involved in, by nature it is pain. The end of life is death, the end of accumulation is exhaustion, the ending of meeting is separation and the ending of going up is coming down. At the end we always find something we don’t want. Whatever we touch we will leave. Some people will think that the material is the answer, but now we know it is not the answer. But a few people still think, especially younger ones, that money is the answer. But it it not. The more money you have the more worries you have.

1:07:39.5 The more worry you have the more pain you carry. Money is something very funny. If you have it, you have the problem of having. You don’t know what to you and you worry who is going to cheat you and how you can lose your investment, what the stock market will be tomorrow, will the money grow or are you going to lose it? You think all the time and lose a lot of sleep, night after night. But if you don’t have money you have the problem of not having it. Where are you going to get your next meal? Where are you going to buy your next shirt? Who is going to pay your bills? All these bills will come up and what do you do?

1:08:37.4 Besides that, look at the people. The more material development happened, did that bring more happiness? Do Singaporeans experience more happiness with industrial development than before? I am afraid not. I was reading or hearing that the number of suicides has increased, jumping from buildings and so on, including throwing children through the window. Is that the happiness brought by industrial development? Committing suicide? It’s not. Why? We have all the material comfort, we have air-condition, we can make it even too cool – that is changing suffering.

1:10:00.4 So you have to go out into that heat outside to warm up. So all that does not bring happiness. Why can’t we develop enough happiness? Because we don’t have inner happiness. As long as we don’t have inner happiness, then no matter whatever the conditions outside are there is not going to be happiness. When you get inner happiness, can you get that through tranquilizers or other drugs?

1:11:15.2 [Audience inaudible, Rimpoche laughs]

1:11:22.2 Don’t think that material things, whatever they may be, are an answer to the search for happiness. They are not. That’s for sure, they are not, okay? If that were so, all multi-millionaires would be happy, but I don’t believe they are. Many of them commit suicide too. That is a clear sign they are not happy. Nobody is going to kill themselves if they are happy. No, so it is a clear sign. Don’t ever think the answer for happiness lies in the materials.

1:12:18.7 So then, what is the alternative? Drugs and tranquilizers don’t do it, money doesn’t do it. So what else is there? So maybe you begin to think: maybe the spiritual is the solution, but maybe not. Who knows? Spiritual work brings it’s own pain too. It’s not always easy. That’s why I am saying: maybe not. But the answer lies within that. It is shown to us by Buddha, and proved by all the great spiritual masters that have come. If you look at the people, even if you don’t want to think back 2500 years at what Buddha did – maybe you don’t want to look at what some guy did back then, but you can look at somebody who is now your role model, somebody who is doing a little better than you, and look at the reasons and then look for the answer you get.

1:13:59.3 Spirituality can definitely bring inner happiness. For me there is no doubt. For you, I don’t know. You have to find out. Really. Inner happiness really makes all the difference. That means your house is not going to change. The city is not going to change, the heat is not going to change, the cold is not going to change, but the way the individual perceives all that changes, the way you experience it that changes.

1:14:51.0 That is what really pleasure is. When you read for example in Vimalakirti, about the pure lands and about what suffering is, Buddha puts his toe on the ground and it all becomes a pure land. What did he really put down? For a pure person, whose inner development perceives and experiences this, at the same time next door, the next person even sitting next to him shoulder to shoulder or knee to knee, is experiencing suffering. Why is that? The inside makes the difference. This is how inner peace comes about, this is how you can experience inner happiness.

1:16:11.4 So if we want true happiness, we can’t look for happiness somewhere else. We are not going to find it. Happiness does not reside in the jungles or in the cities. Happiness does not remain in caves or in temples, nor in churches or mosques. Sorry about it, but that is true. Happiness is not in the cities nor in rural areas. Happiness within the individual. It is only that the individual has to find it. Your happiness is with you, but you have to find it. If you can’t find it, bad luck! So you have to find it. When you find it, then you also find the truth. You will see there is uncontaminated happiness and contaminated happiness. First you are going to find contaminated happiness, happiness with faults.

1:18:11.2 Audience: un-contaminated happiness

1:18:18.4 Rimpoche: sorry, my English is bad, maybe I have been tranquilized!

1:18:42.9 So recognizing suffering and happiness and bringing about the happiness within, that is the most important goal one should have. But where to begin? We talked about refuge. The reason you have to take refuge, or rather the cause of taking refuge is very important. Without cause there cannot be result. So what is the cause of taking refuge? Recognition of suffering, seeking protection. It is a very important subject. I am sorry I don’t have much time to talk.

1:19:39.6 But we will continue this for the next two, three days. So we can sort of link all things together. The cause of taking refuge is the recognition of suffering. Otherwise, what kind of refuge? If you just keep repeating NAMO BUDDHA, NAMO DHARMA, NAMO SANGHA (Sanskrit) or BUDDHAM SARANAM GACCHAMI, DHARMAM SARANAM GACCHAMI, SANGHAM SARANAM GACCHAMI (Pali) or LAMA LA KYAB SU CHIO, SANGYE LA KYAB SU CHIO, CHÖ LA KYAB SU CHIO, GENDUN LA KYAB SU CHIO (Tibetan), that does not make you become a Buddhist, that is not actual refuge at all. Even a parrot can do that if you give it some good nuts. A parrot can definitely say that. As a human being we are better than parrots. We have to understand the cause of taking refuge, the suffering. Why take refuge and to whom and how? These are the questions we will deal with continuously in the next days. The subjects will be connected. Some of you may wonder: why doesn’t he sit on a throne today?

1:21:25.8 I probably owe an explanation to you. I am glad I didn’t sit higher up on a throne, because there is not such good air up there! [Audience laughs]. Is he not fit to sit on a throne or is he tired of it? All these answers are wrong. I have a lot of experience sitting on thrones, ever since age 4, when I was recognized as incarnate lama and that was confirmed by the then regent of Tibet, Talungdra, and I do have a certificate [audience laughs]. In the West you do need a piece of paper to prove it. So that is not the reason why I am not sitting on a throne. I am going to tell you the reason tomorrow.

1:22:49.9 So have a good night sleep and don’t forget to buy Dharma books from the store.

Spiritual development, again, doesn’t come through reading books, but through practicing mantra, mudra and thinking. And that’s how we want to dedicate tonight. The mantra we will use is the migtsema, the mudra is the folded hands and the thinking is through the mind. So now, we will do the dedication.

1:23:50.9 Chinese translation and final migtsema mantra chant dedication

1:28:45.6 end of file