Archive Result

20041114GRCLALS2

Sunday Talk II at Unity: Nov 14, 2004

Attaining Lasting Satisfaction

Please join me in this meditation:

The blessings of the Great One in the form of light are received by us, bright, wonderful sun shight light. Light that clears the ignorance, light that clears the darkness of hatred, light that clears the darkness of jealousy, light that clears the darkness of obsession. Light that gives wonderful joy, beautiful comfort. Light that gives us wonderful health and wealth, and especially spiritual wealth. We are filled up with this wonderful light. We become great and wonderful. We shine the light out into this room. It becomes full of joy and wonderful. Light goes even out of the room, reaches to all people in the city, county, state, the whole United States. It reaches to all of South and North America, and beyond that, to all of Europe, beyond that to the middle eastern countries, particularly where there are a lot of sufferings. Just by the touch of the light all pains and sufferings are dissolved and disappear completely. It clears the sufferings of losing life, the suffering of war, sickness, poverty. Just by the touch of the divine light shining, all beings become joyful, wonderful, healthy. The light goes beyond that, reaches to all Asian countries, to the African continent and everywhere. The whole existing world, the whole universe, is filled up with the great, shining light. Just the touch of the light itself purifies all problems of the environment and all living beings become perfect. The joyful, peaceful, wonderful, happy world we wish for has now become real by the power of the divine light. This world radiates more divine light and reaches more universes, wherever they exist. All become wonderful. All universes become pure. All environments become pure. The inhabitants become wonderful beings, kind, compassionate, caring and loving. The divine light has served and now we begin to withdraw the light. The happiness and joy remains. The light gradually withdraws gradually to this continent, this country, this state, this county, this city and this church. It remains the source of joy and happiness throughout the world.

Thank you.

Good morning, everybody. This is a wonderful morning, beautiful sun shine, great. I would like to thank everybody to give me the opportunity to be speaking here today, for doing the Tara blessing this afternoon, thank you for the wonderful introduction, the beautiful music and wonderful song and above all, the wonderful feeling and energy you all have given. Thank you all for this.

I am here to talk to you about the spiritual path from the Buddhist point of view, about lasting joy and happiness. I only know about Buddhism and therefore that's all I can speak about. If I speak something else it wouldn't be right. So it has to be from the Buddhist background. But in my opinion, understanding and experience over 65 years in this world, whether it is Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism or whatever tradition it might be, there is not so much difference between them. There is only one purpose, to help, to serve, to benefit. Wherever you look, in east or west, it is like that.

The place where I come from is Tibet. I hope it is not forgotten, hidden behind the snow mountains of the Himalayas, over-run by the Communist Chinese. We have lost our country and many of us have been kicked out, including our spiritual and temporal leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. It has been so long now, a lot of people have probably forgotten. But kind persons such as yourselves will not forget completely.

So I have the background of growing up in the snow mountains. When I was still in Tibet in the 1940s and 1950s, I knew very little about the United States. But even then - it was very funny - I was very pro-American, I don't know why, so much so that I was nicknamed 'American Rimpoche' in Tibet. I had no idea at that time that one day I would be a citizen of the United States and live here. I guess it is karma. One of the reasons I suppose I was so much pro-America is tat America was known as the savior of freedom, choice, individual rights. We Tibetans have been overrun by the communists, so we always thought that there is something better, beyond the sky and that was the United States. That is how I used to think as a kid. Freedom, choice, individual rights and the multi-storied buildings, that is what I knew.

What did the Americans know about Tibet? There are mountain peaks and lamas - with one l, not two. So that is where I come from. It was wonderful land. When I came to live here in the US I was shocked to hear that many of the great spiritual leaders of the west refer to Tibet as the home of spiritual life. Okay, and that's where I was from. It was a little surprising to me to hear that - a pleasant surprise. However, now it is no longer there. The good, old Tibet, that was totally devoted to the spiritual path, is no longer there. It has almost gone, along with the Shangri-la that you know from some movies about Tibet. This is unfortunate, but that is what it is. The left-over from that period, that's what I know and that's what I can share with you. And that is only the spiritual path, nothing else. Tibet has no oil. If it did I am sure George Bush will be there, ready to pick it up. But there is no oil!! So all we get from him is some kind, weak-worded sympathy. Condoleeza Rice does not permit George to go over there, nor Rumsfeld either. Colin Powell may think twice, who knows. And I am glad Ashcroft is no longer in a position to think about it. We will be better off, because we don't to lose more individual rights and freedoms.

America is great and I have admired it since childhood. I was looking forward to becoming a citizen and when I did I felt proud to be American - not because of the green dollars, no, but because of the individual rights and freedoms. These are the foundations on which America has been built. This is what the people in the world admire the United States for, not because of the green dollars. From the financial point of view, the Euro is much more valuable than the US dollar nowadays. Really true. We have just lost an election. We don't really know yet if it was lost. We will know by January. But you know, the people who love freedom and self-determination, who care for the poor people, they are great. Losing an election can be sad, but that should not allow us to walk away from the cause. Our cause is a cause not just for you and me today, but for the future of your children and grand children and of the whole world that admires the United States. It is for that purpose that we cannot walk away. If we walk away now, we are irresponsible. We should continue to believe in our principles. We cannot flip-flop on our principles. Electoral situations can flip flop, nothing wrong with that. Seven states changed and we can go along with that. Situations change, so your ideas change along with that, so what - unless you like to be stupid, stubborn, extremist and then you can't flip flop. That is a joke, anyway. [laughs]. But you cannot lose your principles, the principles of helping, serving. First you actually have to help yourself. If you don't help yourself, no one can. We are responsible for ourselves.

Buddha found out one thing that is important for spiritual development, which he calls karma. You might have heard this word, but in case you haven't, it really means: you are responsible for your own deeds. I am responsible for whatever I do, you are responsible for whatever you do. That is karma. If you want to make it something mysterious or mystical, you can do that. It sounds interesting and you can make it into anything, but the bare bones reality is that you are responsible for yourself. Each person is responsible for their own deeds. This is the spiritual foundation on which we work. Buddha said that whoever wants to do anything spiritual must look at three important points. The first is the base on which you can develop. That is karma, the sense of responsibility. The second point is: what do you actually do? And that is to help others if you can and if you cannot, at least do not harm anybody. That includes ourselves. Some people say, "Well, I can do whatever I want to myself. It is my own body. I can cut it into pieces and throw it away." But you can't do that. You are responsible and you can't hurt any living beings. We ourselves are also living beings, we are human beings and we have to respect ourselves as human beings. The third point to keep in mind is: What do we hope to get out of this? The answer is: Freedom and joy. Freedom from negativity, from negative emotions, such as hatred.

Hatred is a very terrible thing - you know it. Hatred brings more hatred, more violence. Violence brings violence. It hurts. We had the experience on September 11th. We went to Afghanistan to challenge Osama bin Laden for what he did to us on September 11. That was the right thing to do. Yes, we need compassion, but compassion with intelligence. We don't need idiotic compassion. We need compassion with wisdom. Going after Osama bin Laden was justified. The whole world agrees with that. You can't be a door mat. But then we went into Iraq and that was not justified, as far as I am concerned, not at all. How many people got killed, how many got hurt, how many of our kids lost their lives? Is that something good?

Yes, we heard now that democracy in the middle east will end every problem. Maybe, maybe not. We have to wait and see. But can you justify all means for the end. I don't think the end justifies all means. Go back into history. Every terrible thing could be justified with that reasoning. Hitler's actions could have been justified with that. I don't believe in that. Every means has its own responsibility. Our actions have consequences and the responsibility lies with us, not anybody else. These are our actions.

We cannot separate our deeds from the spiritual path. You cannot say, "For spiritual things I pray and that's the end of it. Politics has nothing to do with it." You cannot do that. We are in this society today, the citizens of the greatest nation on earth. Each and everyone of us has responsibilities within our society. The sense of responsibility, combined with compassion, kindness and caring is in fact our spiritual path.

You could say, "You are suffering. Okay, I have nothing to do with that - good-bye." That does not sound very spiritual to me. Well, if you can go into the forest and live like a monk or nun, that's fine. Then I will congratulate you. But here we are in the 2000s, not in the 1600s. We have to live together. The beauty of the spiritual life is that you can combine the temporal and the spiritual. It is the beauty of our society, actually, which can combine these two together. A society, which doesn't have this path at all and is purely politically and militarily organized is like communism and so forth. They don't have that fortune. We do. So we must enjoy that. Our own mind does matter to us, our motivation does. And that motivation must be caring and love. It is one thing to think about love and compassion, close your eyes, see all the people and send them their love and compassion. But on the other hand, be very practical. The good old American saying really applies: Charity begins at home. Love and compassion begin at home. Ladies and Gentlemen, compassion begins at home, with your own companion, spouse, family, children, relations, fellow countrymen and then go into the world. You cannot forget your own and then try to be compassionate throughout the world. That doesn't work. Charity begins at home and so does compassion. Love needs to be developed at home, with the family, the fellow citizens and then expanded. If we act, based on that compassion, then every action we do will become spiritual. Each and every one of our actions counts and makes a difference. It makes a difference to society because society is nothing but the collection of people. There cannot be a people without individuals. The individuals make a different to their society, which makes a difference to the country, the world and everywhere. Ladies and gentlemen, the key is in your own hands. You have to do it and you can do it. You are capable.

Thank you