Archive Result

19981004GRAATBDL1

Good morning and thank you for coming. Thank you so much for the beautiful music Joan and the nice long introduction. OK. So, I hope you are enjoying your nice breakfast and mostly the company you have here. Tomorrow, I am supposed to, to, I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do here so, I’m sort of trying to (pause) put my hands together (inaudible), so can somebody give me an idea of what I’m supposed to do? HM. Can anybody give me some idea of what I’m supposed to do here? Ya, you give me some idea. Woman from audience says, “Tibetan Buddhism (TB), in daily life.” Oh, you’re right actually (laughs). Tibetan Buddhism in daily life, all right. AH. Let me talk about, to begin with let me talk about this TB a little bit. The question really rises what is TB and what is Buddhism and what is the difference between TB and Buddhism in general? It is interesting to raise this question, very often we don’t raise this question, we take it for granted, particularly those who have been with TB, you take it for granted absolutely, that TB is totally, that is the total Buddhism and nothing else and that sort of thing. And um. It is amazing. When I was being brought up in Tibet and actually, I was absolutely encountered, with TB, (immersed in)that is the only thing I’d been exposed to about B in T. And we read about it, a little bit about Chinese B. The Chinese Mahana what we call it Hashang. A little bit, we read about it, nothing much more. Which is of course “Vang?” Tradition. And we read a little bit about it. Not so much. And we do know about Theravaden B. And we really don’t uhm had not encountered and been exposed to the Theravaden practioners. So, in my world up to 1959, the B to me is the only TB and nothing else. And I like to say that to you because what’s happening is in the US is almost the same thing, there are a number of people who are exposed to the TB and think that, many of them think that TB is the only B. And um, then we came through, I came through India in 1959 thanks to the Chinese Communists. They kicked me out of T with a big kick on my butt and throw me off the Hemalayas into the Indias, so when you landed in India so whats happening is you begin to see that the Theravaden B, the monks who are yellow dressed. And all those type of Theravaden B. And the first question on my head, on my head personally I’m speaking, my head, what are this yellow monks for? And what are they doing? And what are they? And what are they supposed to do? And what are this or what about us, the red monks? And I was a monk then, so a red monk. And what are we supposed to do? What is it and what is the difference between this and that? Then, at the same time we have a big pride. I have a big pride within me, saying that I am a Mahana B, M the great vehicle of B. These Yellow monks are the Theravaden monks, now we politely call it Theravaden, at that time we call it Hinayana, which means smaller vehicle, these are the smaller vehicle, narrow minded, self-interested people. I am the Mahana, we are the Mahanaian who are totally dedicated for service of other beings and love and compassion and superior beings. All this. With all this big idea and the pride we came across and uh this is how I first encountered the first, the Theravaden B people. And then I do, I do recall as a great, as a great, it has been great to me but it might not have been great by nature or not. There was a conference, the conference based between Indian scholars of B and Tibetans. And I very clearly remember there was an Indian teacher a B scholar called Ubadeah. And he is a perfect Kashi Pundit, if you know what Kashi P really means in Hindu tradition, it means great, you know, it is a Veranasi Kashi P who doesn’t touch anything without taking complete shower. And who will not like to touch anybody, his clothes or anything especially if you are lower caste. And it’s great, well I don’t know if it’s great or not, a perfect Kashi P. So, in the conference he was very polite. And he began to talk to us and saying that it is so great that you are Mahana people, it is wonderful there, is no equivalent. You are great. You are very high and you are higher than Mount Everest. And it’s great, he said but one thing we have to measure how high the Mount Everest is from the ground zero level. And if you are not or if don’t know anything about the ground zero level, how do we know how high the Himalaya is and especially how can we can measure how high the Mount Everest is? And so therefore it is so important to measure from the ground zero. So, we have to know how great the Mahana is on the basis of the principles of the Theravaden tradition otherwise, how do we know how great you are? It is very good wonderful speech that guy gave, and a couple of us there were thinking and looking at each other. And a probably, how do you put it, we had to put our finger in our mouth and probably say nothing. That is the condition and I thought it was very helpful because it will tell you how important the Theravaden tradition is. And then you begin to look back on your own tradition and try to see what it is, really. And when you begin to look back and it is absolutely, absolutely the Theravaden principle is the fundamental principle within the TB without which you can’t even get a heads up. So, you really find that sometimes you need that sort of exposure of the other than what you do and so when you have that you begin to see your own quality within yourself. So that is a very important point to me and then you begin to make sense for example within the TB. And what is the most important thing about TB. There is the three most important things. The important thing, the number one, the purpose of TB the number one, the purpose is to gain freedom to the individual. Seeking freedom and gaining freedom to the individual is the number one principle. And when you begin to look very carefully, that principle is the principle of the Theravaden tradition. That is why they call it smaller vehicle because it is geared toward self-liberation. It is not geared toward liberating others or helping others, it is more geared toward the self, the me, the individual, how I can free myself. So that is why it is called the narrow vehicle or smaller vehicle because the focal point of that is one self, the individual. That is why it is called narrow and smaller, it is not because the other one is bigger and higher. This isn’t lower or less important at all. That is why the that is why it becomes so important. When you don’t know that, we are superior because we are Maha the bigger or superior to the other one. When you begin to realize, that is within your principle. And without which you get nowhere. It is so important. And also, Mahana principle, TB is MB it also has Vajriana within that. So that’s why is sort of MB, VB. But, principle of the M itself is the purpose and the principle and all this to serve and help in the principle of compassion. But in order to serve and help you have to know what you’re going to do. What you want to do. __(Inaudble)__ is OK. In the west you can write a book called “How can I help you?” (chuckles) I’m only joking, I shouldn’t make joke with that. Ram Das a very good friend of mine is not well but the point is you know really, the question is even become a question. Because we did not know how to help ourself. So, then you can begin to raise the question of how can I help you? But the point really is in order to help you, you should be able to help ourself. That is the most important point. So, if we really know how to help ourself then we will know how to help others. If we don’t know how to help ourself then we will never be able to help others. It is great in the west, people like to help, help, great, then they say, I need help. You say, yea I would be happy to help, how much? and then you go straightaway to your bag and take your checkbook out and say how much. I don’t think that’s how we are talking about it. It’s not that we don’t need money, we do need money. I even said day before yesterday you can spend time and the money maybe both in the Jewelheart store. But we do need, but the point really is, helping here is not money point of helping, that is a great help when you are particularly at the receiving point. I say that very often because I’ve been through that. When I tell you this that I had been kicked out with a big kick on butt. I came out without anything, nothing, nothing. So, I was not bad, not a poor Tibetan, in Tibet. (I was from a) Quite a well to do family. Sort of you know people say here, I am born with a silver spoon in mouth, but I could say I was born with a gold spoon in my mouth. So, not that bad, I did have a couple of cars in Tibet in the 1950s. But there was only handful of motor vehicles available in Tibet. I did own three or four of them anyway. Out of those, maybe the total was not more than twenty, before Chinese came in, in the whole country. So, it was not that bad. But when I left Tibet, I came out without anything, not a single thing. Nothing. I did not even own my own bowls to beg food. If somebody gave you food, there is no bowl to take it. That is the Tibetan start. We did not have hotels motels and restaurants available. They don’t throw you those, china or something or paper cups available so you had to carry your bowls around with you in order to go. That’s what I did. So, when I came out of Tibet, I had really virtually had nothing, nothing there, not even money or an extra shirt to change. It’s basically the same thing what you say. Not a shirt on my back and not a penny to my name. Nor I can go (inaudible) way. Exactly the same way I came out. That’s why I remember this song, Not a shirt on my back and not a penny to my name. Nor can I go back home. This is way (inaudible). This is more than 500 miles. That is exactly how I came. And yet, yet I am not going crazy. I am talking about myself. It’s not only me. You look at the Dalai lama and all this or something, this is a big different story. I’m not going crazy. I don’t think about my cars and truck in Tibet. Thought about once, it is a funny, you know when I was walking through as a refugee in the Tawong area (sp) that is the northeastern side of India. There is a number of people that are walking through. You know there is rain, it is a very difficult period. And certainly, in certain areas, in the Tawong area, you get lift up by a vehicle. So actually, it is the garbage truck. That thing you add onto the little pickup truck. They have a garbage carriers. So I was able to get a lift on the garbage truck. Besides throwing you out, there is no seat belts. Bumping around through the Himalayas.

So, I thought about it getting into your own vehicle is end it out of the question, gone. That’s what I thought once. Otherwise, I don’t think about it, I don’t dream about it. It’s the material world, when you have it, you have it, when it’s gone, it’s gone. My father particularly used to say, I started my life three times. It’s true at the beginning, in 1910. He was born in 1901 and he died in 1973, right?, am I right? So when he was born in 1901, it was a period that my/our family or the monastery or the Labrong. It is some mixture of semi family monastery structure. It is a very funny structure, so it is a very powerful, a very very powerful establishment in Tibet, and we have a civil war with the Tibetan government for ten years. And finally, of course we lost. And so he lost everything whatever he had. And then he restarted once again. And then he started again in the middle of his age, some government decision came in and again took everything away. And again the second time he had to restart. And finally, after the cultural revolution, so he has to restart his life three times. And so did I. And so did I have to restart three times. So that’s exactly it, so the material thing is so much, so important that we can’t manage without it. However I managed it, I managed to survive. So what do I owe that credit? What makes me possible to leave? (What made it possible to leave? It is two things, you may think the Chinese are so powerful so that you have no choice what to do. Maybe it is true. Maybe, on the other hand, even if you have no choice. Your emotional problems that are banging on you, you still have a choice to carry that. It will bang you and it will knock you down. All the time, a number of people will go crazy. You can see that you can see that. This is a western country, a developed nation and you can see how many people are committing suicide. How many people jumping from the skyscrapers? You know all of those. It’s almost like you can’t go anywhere in the high buildings today. Because they will block you because people are jumping all the time. So, all this and that’s because emotional problems that will bang you all the time. If you have money, if you are rich, you have tremendous problem of how to manage. And if you don’t have it if you are lost especially when the stock market is going up and down and making zigzag turns all the time. Today, I don’t know whether we can thank Clinton or Greenspan. When the stock market is going up and down and you can see the different moods of the people all the time. I had much deeper deep down in 1959 at ground zero level you don’t even know where you would get your next meal from. And to that level somehow, I enjoyed life. I did not suffer, I am very happy to have a dried bread. Really true, you may get some kind of dough cooked for dinner and have some leftover. You put them in a little piece of cheesecloth and hang on your window. Then the next early morning when you have cup of tea, you take the hard dough that you left over there and eat it with your tea, it was so delicious. If was far better than the thirty different courses of sumptuous Chinese food that we used to get in Tibet. It’s far better than that. I enjoy that sort of life. I don’t have emotional level big setbacks. When looking back at that what is it that happened to me? It is the credit that it is the Dharma that I had, the Buddha’s teachings the buddha’s experience of dealing with life. Which, it has been bombarded in my ear it has been bombarded to my eye is has been bombarded to my atmosphere everywhere for the last twenty years. That is when I was twenty, nineteen actually. Tibetan age, but when I came out of it. It has been bombarded for the last twenty years around me. And that is the one which had really had the impact on me. So on Friday night we said the Dharma that has been tested, and proved to be right. I’m thinking about that. That means it will prepare you to deal with your life. You cannot go on changing the atmosphere and happenings in life so much, there is a limit. No matter how much you can fight, you can keep on fighting what’s happening in life. You can keep on fighting but it is very difficult to succeed to change the whole world. If you are going to change the whole world it is almost impossible. It is almost impossible. Traditional Buddhist teachings and stories. And if somebody says I would like to walk myself very comfortably on the ground. So the pebbles don’t poke my feet. So the idea came, we have to cover the world, cover it up. But where are we going to get the such a leather (so much leather) to cover the whole world, you cannot. So the idea came that you wear a shoe. You wear a shoe and you can walk very comfortably, you can’t cover the whole of Ann Arbor with the leather. You can walk. Very same way, you cannot change the whole world. If you keep on dreaming, I am going to change the whole world, it is a good idea no doubt. But are you going to manage? Certainly not, you are not going to manage at all. So what do you do? you can still wear comfortable shoes and walk comfortably, manage. That is the idea of Buddhism. Buddhism will tell you, you have to know how to handle you own personal life, the ups and downs. You can’t change the ups and downs too much. Ups and downs are bound to happen. It’s not easy to change. We can blame our company or companions. If he doesn’t do that my life would be ok. If she doesn’t do that, my life would be ok. Forget it. If he/she doesn’t do that your life is worse. If you have company, you blame the company if you don’t have company, you blame loneliness. All these problems are this and that are bound to happen because it is a samsaric world. You cannot change that at all. No Matter. If everything ok, getting along well with your companions, then you don’t get along with your children. And if you’re getting along well with your children, everything fine, you don’t get along well with your parents. And you don’t get along with your mother in law or father in law. And all this. This is reality, this is life. You cannot change. But what you can change is within ourself. How do we perceive? If you try to live in a world where we think, everybody is there to get me. To get my money my wealth etc. If you live in that world, you will have that miserable life. All the time, no matter, you’ll be suspicious of anybody who says something who does something, who looks at you, you have three different questions. But if you live comfortably within yourself and your own understanding, then everybody is not there to get you, anyway. That is how you can perceive. There are genuine people in the world. There are really true friends in the world. There are really true friends in the world. There are. So these are the realities. Depends on how you perceive. What Buddha tells you, the Buddha really tells you how you could perceive things. The change that you have to make is within ourself. Not out there. And that’s why we have said even like last ah first what is it Friday’s little thing. We said Buddhism is not a window through which you look out and find out what is exciting or crazy or important out there. It is the mirror that you can look within and reflect your own life within that. That’s what it’s all about. Buddhism does not tell you to look outside and find out what’s over there. You can do that, there is no question. But the most important thing is, how it’s reflecting ourselves and seeing. And that is how you begin to , If you look in that way, if you live in that way, you have a better and more comfortable life. The life you don’t live and in that thing there they are saying who is there to get you/me. A lot of people think that way. The whole world is there to get my money, the whole world is there to get my, to get me. And nobody is really truly, maybe in the business world, I don’t know because I’m not a businessperson. Maybe somebody else loss is somebody else’s gain. Maybe. So in that way you may have to protect. Am I right? But otherwise, you know, basically, the (those) people are not there. You don’t have to live…. I used to say we live our lives in the porcupine style, ready to shoot, anything, you know that is there. Sort of there on alert do it, do it. So it makes you miserable. And I do remember a couple of years ago in New York, everybody started putting bars on the windows and on the doors. So you almost makes yourself a prisoner inside, to protect, you know. And all this is reflecting of our life. So what am I talking? I am talking like this. What am I talking about? I am supposed to be talking about Tibetan Buddhism. Go back. Tibetan Buddhism, what is it?