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19970701GRAABWL21

Side A of tape forty-six of 07/01/97

We are actually now on Chapter Three. I would never have thought we would finish the second chapter .So this third chapter is about accepting, holding and recognizing the bodhimind. The translation calls it ‘Full acceptance of the Awakening Mind’.

What does the word ‘Bodhisattva’ mean to us? How does a person become a Bodhisattva? I would like to hear your statements on that.

Aud1: A Bodhisattva is somebody who through love and compassion is dedicated to helping all sentient beings. It is a person who has the bodhimind.

R: Let me ask you a question. Is bodhimind a mind of desire?

Aud1: Yes, I think aspiring bodhimind is a mind of desire, I believe. There are two categories of Bodhisattva, the ones who are aspiring to be Bodhisattvas and ...

R: ...and the ones who do not aspire to but just become Bodhisattvas, right?

Aud1: I think there is a desire to help and benefit, if that is technically called desire.

R: If there is desire it means that they want something. What do they want?

Aud2: They want to become Buddhas.

R: The mind of Bodhisattvas is not necessarily free of desire. They may not have attachment - oriented desire. They may have attachment too. They may be very attached to becoming Buddhas. On the one hand they are totally dedicated to altruistic service, at the same time they have the very strong desire to becoming fully enlightened. Both of these minds combined together become one piece of mind. That is bodhimind. Is such a mind possible? Do these two aspects of the same mind not contradict each other? Apparently they don’t. They don’t contradict each other because the reason why the Bodhisattvas want to attain enlightenment is not just so that they can become Buddhas, but because they need the best tools available in order to help those who need help. The best help for them is the ability to communicate. That is the best way. Magic may work some times. At other times it does not. That is why it is magic. It is not scientific. But with the bodhimind you are really committing yourself. You don’t just say ,’I may do it.’ You are taking the total responsibility of liberating all beings. It is way beyond our imagination. In normal American language you would say it has gone crazy. It is almost impossible.

When the Bodhisattvas have committed themselves to do that, they will be looking for tools. What is the best way to do that? What are the best tools, what is the best technology? Where is the best spiritual path, the best spiritual technology? No other tool is better than the enlightened level. The Bodhisattvas think, ‘Oh, that is what I need. I need it to do this and this.’

You can find a lot of people who have all sorts of computer equipment in their home. They have the justification, ‘I have all these computers not for myself, but because my work requires me to have them.’ In the same way the Bodhisattvas do desire enlightenment, because their work requires them to become enlightened, so that they can communicate better with people. Enlightenment means knowing everything, knowing everybody’s mind, knowing whatever they need, being able to talk to them. We non-enlightened persons, we have to talk to you the best way we can. We have to worry, ‘You are not going to like this - may by you will hate this - it is probably not making sense to you - this may go against American culture.’ Sometimes you may have to consider that ‘This may go against Buddhism.’ But enlightened beings can do everything freely without having to worry. They understand the needs of the people as well as how much the capability of their minds can accept or reject. If they will reject it, how much can they reject, how helpful will that be - all this they know. That is why it is called enlightenment. It is very difficult to communicate with people not knowing what they are thinking and doing. It is hard enough in Michigan to get into the head of Governor Engler about Social Security or about the homeless people. This is one person. Here you have zillions of people that you want to communicate with. So the Bodhisattvas become handicapped. We cannot read people’s minds, we do not understand what they want. We may have two or three possibilities that we can suggest but we are not sure which is going to be the best. These are the defects the Bodhisattvas have. They want to go beyond these defects and make sure that it is perfect and helps the people, find the best way to apply it. That is the reason why they seek the enlightened state.

So the Bodhimind or Awakening Mind is born out of compassion. It is totally coming out from love and compassion. Care brings love, love brings compassion and that brings dedication. Dedication brings the bodhimind. Technically it is called ‘special mind’ but it is dedication. The dedication brings the bodhimind. The bodhimind seeks enlightenment because that is the best way you can do it. There is no other way. On the one hand it is totally dedicated. It is nothing but ultimate love and compassion. This is half the mind. The other half is totally dedicated to do whatever needs to be done to become fully enlightened. Combined together this is one mind of focus, dedication, and desire. It becomes one consciousness and that is bodhimind.

This may serve as a very brief introduction to what bodhimind is. Simply dedication alone will not do. Simply love and compassion will not do. The process of caring, love and compassion, dedication and seeking the best tools available - following all the steps combined together - that is the bodhimind. Some translators call it bodhimind, some say awakening mind, some say altruistic mind. People put different labels on. We have to know what they are talking about.

Earlier I asked the question whether it is possible to combine love and compassion with seeking enlightenment, especially in an unselfish way. There should not be any self interest. Being unselfish and having the desire to become a Buddha - how does that work together? So on the one hand you care about yourself and on the other hand you have this huge desire. You are not satisfied being a Bodhisattva. You really want to become a Buddha. It is a great demand - especially when claiming no self - interest. The simple justification is that the reason why the Bodhisattvas desire Buddhahood is that it is the best tool they can get and their commitment is too big, too high and too long term otherwise. People cannot wait. Every minute more that they have to wait means another suffering that they have to go through. Therefore there is this sense of urgency. It is really very urgent. Because of that the two aspects of the bodhimind don’t contradict each other.

Having said that, some Bodhisattvas have the attitude of a shepherd. They think, ‘I want all the sheep to go first and after that, I will go.’ In other words, ‘I want to make sure all sentient beings are enlightened, and only then will I become enlightened myself.’ That actually never works. Such a shepherd-like Bodhisattva who generated that attitude during the Buddha’s life time would today still have to remain as Bodhisattva, waiting for everybody else to go through. It would mean waiting forever. In a way it is a great mind, a great commitment, for sure. However, what help could you give? It would be very limited without having the tools. They could not do much. Especially in this country now, if you don’t have the right tools, you are completely out, right? So enlightenment is the tool for the Bodhisattvas to do their job. It is their job requirement. They have to become Buddhas.

That is why Tibetan Buddhism tells you, ‘Your ultimate goal is to become fully enlightened.’ People accept that without questioning. I don’t know why, but they do. It is a little surprising to me. All the Western people who are interested in that part of spiritual practice are very well-educated people. They have the background of Greek and Latin knowledge, so it amazes me why you people don’t raise questions like ‘Is enlightenment necessary?’ or ‘Is it true that there is a future life and if so, how?’ Things like that you people should think about. Why don’t you come out with such questions? Just saying ‘Buddhism accepts future lives. I am a Buddhist, so I accept future lives’, that is a stupid statement. Buddhist or non-Buddhist, I must have reasons why I accept certain points.

I don’t need reasons to accept that this piece of paper in front of me is white. I can see that. But I do need reasons to accept enlightenment and future lives. Without reasons it is hard to accept - even for me. And I am the one with the Tibetan background!. I have been mentioning to a friend recently that thinking back how I was brought up and educated in Tibet was definitely like in the 16th or 17th century. It was like the Cowboy - Indian’ period in this country. In that style I was brought up. Then suddenly I was picked up from the middle of the 17th century, carried over [the Himalayas] and dropped into the 21st century. That is a big change. Your time is suddenly shifting by two hundred years.

So I was talking with this friend of mine and I said, ‘I am a mid west American. But I am different. I am unique, because I have seen two different centuries together.’ So even with that background of having grown up 16th century - style, I have raised a lot of questions. I had questions coming up in my head all the time. I think a lot, whatever I do. That is important. So I am amazed that you people don’t question. You just go along, ‘Buddhists believe in reincarnation. I am a Buddhist, so I also believe in reincarnation.’ That is just such a stupid statement. Really! It is worse than a Hillbilly mentality. You are the ones who have to understand, or to reject, you have to make a difference to yourself and without having those thoughts it will be very hard for you to do anything. You definitely have to raise a lot of questions. Don’t ever think that if you raise such questions, it will go against the tradition. On the contrary, it helps the tradition to become more clear. You know it. When you have to learn something, if you don’t think and analyze, it is extremely difficult.

Without learning you cannot meditate. People think that they can just sit down and meditate. If you do that you can simply sit there. The ground you are meditating on will be a very shaky one, because you have not established it for you. So when somebody else comes along, especially if they have a big name or title, and tells you something different, you will think that perhaps you were wrong or that the ideas you had subscribed to were wrong. This is because you don’t have the firm grounding of your own points. You can only get such a firm grounding if you think and analyze. If you want to, we can call it ‘analytical meditation’. That sounds a little more romantic. But what you have to do is think and find the truth by yourself, within your mind. You can ask questions, read, ask people, make your statements, re-examine these and see what your mind is really getting into. Then all the important points will be established.

For example, lets take refuge. Many of us simply accept that straight away. But the question should arise, ‘What are we seeking protection from? Why are we seeking it?’ We don’t ask Buddha, Dharma and Sangha for protection that we may not be mugged. So what are we seeking refuge from? And why from Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and not from the devil? You have to process these thoughts within you until you are convinced that this is the best thing to do. Then your decision will be strong and solid.

At the same time you will be building up your spiritual development. This does not come with some kind of big bang. It is not that some huge rainbow comes down, saying, ‘I am your spiritual development’. It does not work that way at all. It has never worked that way in 2500 years of Buddhist tradition. Spiritual development is nothing but overcoming negativities within you.

The moment you overcome negativity your positive status is building up and up, getting better and better. Sometimes you will be able to see what other people are thinking about. Sometimes you know what is going to happen. It may accidentally slip out from your mouth and actually happen that way. All these are symptoms of spiritual development. You don’t spend any time to gain that. If you do, it is not spiritual practice. It is simply self-interest - oriented power-mongering. At the time of death, when you have to do the total calculation of how many positive and negative things you have done, you will have to find out that what you think was positive has been simply power-mongering. Therefore it is not true, perfect spiritual work. You don’t seek these things. Let them come up as symptoms. And they do. It is automatic. When you cut the negativities down, these symptoms will pick up. The negativities are called blocks. When you remove the blocks you can see. For example, if you have a wall in front of you, you cannot see what is on the other side. As soon as you remove that wall you see what is happening on the other side. Just like that, the negativities are blocks. Some people are gifted by nature. They have much less of certain negativities. There are some cases where a ghost - type of person might have given some help here and there. But these are only very few people. That however is also not spiritual development, but a gift received from somebody.

The real true fact of spiritual development is the removal of negativity. That is how you can measure it. How good you are, how bad you are is measured on those grounds.

The bodhimind is a very precious mind. We have read about the benefits of this mind in Chapter One. There it said that it is like an elixir that makes everything into gold. It has fantastic benefits. Can such a mind develop within me, who lives in downtown Ann Arbor or Detroit? The answer given by the enlightened beings is, ‘Sure, you can. Every sentient being has the capacity. Particularly, every human being has the possibility. Those who think about it and put efforts in, have a probability.’

There will not be a single human being who does not have positive karmic seeds. I just remember something. His Holiness the Dalai Lama was talking about a similar point in Jerusalem. Somebody there asked, ‘Did Hitler have such a positive mind?’ The Dalai Lama said, ‘Sure, why not? He was also a human being.’ He said that in Jerusalem. Luckily nobody reacted badly. That was nice. If you think from that angle, even Hitler had the possibility of developing the bodhimind. However, he turned that around and - forget about bodhimind - became some kind of monster. So it depends on the individual. The possibilities and probabilities are there, but it is up to you whether you bring that up or whether you don’t want to worry about it, and not care, or whether you even want to go against that for the sake of conquering the world.

Conquering the world was Hitler’s and also Mao’s agenda. With that agenda, whatever they touched became negative and brought horrifying results. It is so important, whatever you do not to have a personal agenda. There is no room in the bodhimind for a personal agenda. Not at all. It is much better to be happy - go lucky than to be an efficient person who is mean and has a personal agenda. You are better off being some happy-go-lucky guy than a mean, cruel CEO. If you are a happy-go-lucky person, you may not be that serious and that may be a problem. But it is better than having a personal agenda and stirring up society or other groups. If you have the bodhimind, the totally altruistic mind, it is of course not only bread, but bread with butter - and jam.

If I have the possibility, what makes this mind grow with me? This mind is called ‘precious mind’. The Bodhisattvas are called ‘Sons of Buddha’, because they are the ‘Heirs to the Throne’. Unless you are a very lucky person you cannot become such a prince of fully enlightened beings. Not everybody can become Prince Charles, right? Even if you are, you have to hand over Hong Kong to the Chinese! (laughs). So I don’t know how lucky he is. Anyway, there has to be a tremendous amount of luck, of merit, a strong karmic backbone. Without this, no matter how much you try, you will not get it. You will get a lot of problems, you will get frustrated, etc, because you are not lucky enough.

What brings luck? The positive deeds bring luck, the negative deeds bring unlucky circumstances. What is the best way to gain positive karma? We work hard, but how much are we able to put in? People are saying that they are saving for their retirement. They work their whole lives and how much can they save? Then there are some interesting people like Donald Trump who do some funny little things here and there a little bit and make zillions from that. Right? So on the one hand here we are, working so hard, doing three or four things at the same time just to make it through the day. At the end of the day you will probably not have any savings anyway. On the other hand, some people, even if they don’t do anything, something comes up. Even when it looks like their fortunes are about to go down, to collapse, something pops up. What makes that difference? In one way, the normal American explanation is that you did not work hard enough, you have been stupid.

end of side A of tape forty-six

Side B of tape forty-six of 07/01/97

But there are also people like inventors, entrepreneurs, like Einstein for example. I don’t think he had a PhD, maybe he even did not have a high school certificate. When you look at the people who made a huge difference, it did not necessarily depend on their level of education. The capacity which produced the result was the inquiring human mind. Without utilizing your inquiring mind it is extremely difficult to understand your life. If you don’t inquire, you simply accept the words of whoever it maybe.

Anyway, the lucky ones are those who have a great positive force within them. One of the best ways for us to [link up with] that positive force, that good karma, is rejoicing. The trick is to rejoice in whatever others have done rather than getting jealous of it.

You know what Buddha said? He said that if you are spiritually higher developed than somebody else who has done some good work, and if you rejoice in that, you will get double the benefit. If you are equally as developed as such a person, you get an equal benefit. If that person is higher developed spiritually than you, you get half. So even fifty per cent is not bad, is it? So rejoicing is a powerful method of building merit within you. I believe we in Jewel Heart have to keep on rejoicing in everybody else’s money! That is a joke. We are not rejoicing in their money but in their positive karma.

Verse one

Gladly I do rejoice

In the virtue that relieves the misery

Of all those in unfortunate states

And that places those with suffering in happiness.

So that is why the first verse is about rejoicing. It says that we should rejoice in the virtue which can free all sentient beings from suffering and particularly from the lower realms. They need to be freed from their physical, mental and emotional suffering which they have had for a very, very, very long time. They are looking for somebody who could give them a break from that. We are rejoicing in anybody who could do that. My way of explaining does not correspond very well with this English translation here. But that is what is meant. Towards those who are able to bring people who are in the nature of suffering into the nature of joy, I don’t have any jealousy nor even competitive feelings at all, but I will totally, happily and joyfully rejoice.

What sort of joy do you have? You should be extremely happy to see anybody be relieved of their sufferings, you should be so happy that you cry, so happy that your body shakes, that all the hairs on your body stand up. You should have such a strong, powerful emotional and physical joy rising within you. That is the way how you really rejoice.

Verse two

I rejoice in that gathering of virtue

That is the cause for (the Arhat’s) Awakening,

I rejoice in the definite freedom of embodied creatures

From the miseries of cyclic existence.

(I have to correct my pronunciation of these terms. One of the problems is when people hear me mispronounce these words, they think that it is quite cute. So they don’t correct me. It is true. )

The awakening mind mentioned in this verse is not the Buddha mind. So the use of the term ‘Awakening Mind’ is becoming a problem. It is not the bodhimind that is being talked about, although the Tibetan term used is jang chub. Jang means when the practice has become perfect. Chub means that it is observed within you. So the one term jang chub is being used for Buddhas and also for Arhats. The reason is that both are the results of perfect practice. So here I rejoice in the positive karma and positive work which brings people to the level of arhats. This is the level of ordinary liberation, not the extraordinary level of the Buddhas. The arhats are sort of second class citizens in the enlightened society. What makes them second class citizens? Their self interest. They have not given up selfish thoughts and motivations. They do care about others, but their own liberation is more important to them. Their motivation is like this, ‘I want to be free from all sufferings and then I will see what happens.’ It is like when you ask people for help and they say, ‘Well, I will see what I can do.’ That means they may or may not do it. There is no dedication, no enthusiasm. That is why they are second class citizens in the enlightened society. They are not totally dedicated to liberating all beings. It is not that they don’t have compassion and kindness. They do, yet they are not so committed, not so dedicated. Shantideva here rejoices even in the achievements of those second class citizens. Are there any questions?

Aud1: Is that not the arhat’s karma that he does not have compassion for all beings?

R: The spiritual path is mind training. It is not simply mind control but mind training. In order to become an arhat you don’t need the bodhimind, you don’t have to become a Buddha. You don’t even want to become Buddha. Your only aim is to be liberated yourself. It is not the Arhats’ path to strive for Buddhahood. But can an arhat remain on his level forever? Two different answers are given, one according to the Mahayana and one according to the Theravada.

The Theravada will say that the achievement of the arhat is their ultimate level of achievement. It is the end of the path. It might not be the Big One, but you have done okay.

The Mahayana on the other hand will say to the arhats, ‘This is not the end. Every sentient being has the potential to become a fully enlightened Buddha, so why are you sitting there being lazy?

Aud2: What is the capacity - difference between arhats and Buddhas?

R: Interesting question. The nirvana of the arhats is just free of suffering and the causes of suffering. That is all. It is a very cozy and perfect comfort zone for them. When they have to act for the benefit of others, they are very limited. Enlightened beings are said to be able to do everything that needs to be done without any effort. The arhats cannot do that. Enlightened persons only have to think of something and things begin to function. Arhats cannot do that. Enlightened knowledge has no limitations. That is why it is called ‘Awakened Mind’. It is total knowledge. Arhats don’t have that. The difference is like between the sky and the ground.

We heard in Chapter One that even the immature Bodhisattvas, the weak and tiny ones, are more important than this type of fully liberated arhat. The example given is that no matter how small the diamond may be it is still a diamond. It is more important than any other jewel.

There are five paths of the Hinayana level and five paths of the Mahayana level. If the arhats join the Mahayana path they can only join at the third level, the path of seeing. Anybody who does not go according to the principles of the Theravada path, but directly joins the Mahayana, is developing faster.

There was one interesting example that happened during Buddha’s lifetime. There was a monk called Ram jong. There were sixty people who were seeking liberation. Ram jong was supposed to be teaching them and it was sure that they would become arhats in their lifespan before death. However, before Ram jong could complete teaching them, Manjushri got in and taught them the Mahayana. His teachings made them very sceptical and so when they died they were going to fall into the lower realms. Ram jong got the biggest shock in his life and went to Buddha to complain. He said, ‘Look, I was working hard with these sixty people and they were going to be liberated for sure. Being the Buddha you would know that. Am I right or wrong?’. Buddha said, ‘Yes, you are right.’ Then Ram jong said, ‘Before I could complete my teachings, Manjushri sneaked in and taught them Mahayana and now the consequence is that they are going to go to the hell realms! Isn’t that terrible? How are you going to punish Manjushri for that?’ Buddha sat there smiling for a while and then said, ‘How sad!’ Ram jong said, ‘Of course this is sad.’ But Buddha said, ‘No, I am feeling sad for you! You have such limited knowledge. You can only see them attaining liberation. If you had had your way, it would take these people millions of years to become fully enlightened. But Manjushri taught them and they may go to the hell realms for a week or ten days or whatever short period, but then they will become totally liberated and fully enlightened. If on the other hand they had become arhats with your teachings, they would not be able to join the Mahayana path. You are complaining because you only have very limited knowledge. Manjushri is right. I praise the work of Manjushri.’ That is what Buddha said.

Aud3: You have said that any time you are reducing or eliminating negativities that is actual spiritual practice. On the other hand, in the lam rim it is said that whatever you do for the benefit of this life time is not real Dharma practice.

R: Technically, that is what the lam rim says. But I think the lam rim is not literally talking about anything benefiting this life spiritually. With ‘benefiting this life’ they mean things done for monetary gains and so on.

Aud3: Like the eight worldly dharmas.

R: Like the eight worldly dharmas, like when the monks in the monasteries do a lot of pujas so that their business will be successful. It really works, but that is what is meant by benefiting this life. So you have to adapt that quotation.

Aud3: Also, the lower level motivation will say that the need for refuge arises from the fear of falling into the lower realms...

R: I would not say ‘fear’, but rather it is a sense of urgency and the confidence that Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are capable of delivering.

Aud: So this urgency is based on the existence of future lives.

R: Every time we wish something, what do we wish for? Mostly we wish for material things and wine, dance and song. That is because we don’t have a perfect role model. There are probably many people who, when it comes to this life, wish for health or wealth or other small little things. So there is a possibility that you may miss the opportunity. That is why it is so strongly objected to do something that benefits this life. That is the simple reason. That problem is not so big in America, but more so in Asia. There is a strong tendency to do things for money, because these countries are poor. The biggest aim for many people there is to do materially well. Therefore the strong objection. I don’t think that it is such a strong tendency here - not that many people strive for nothing but money here!

As for the sense of urgency to practice Dharma for the benefit of future lives - if you don’t believe in future lives, you don’t need to seek protection for future lives at all. There is no need. These people could only seek refuge for purposes in this life.

Aud3: But they could still seek refuge from the negative states of mind.

R: Yes, why not? And compassion is another thing. We have to talk about the Theravada level of motivation, but we have to lead people on to the Mahayana path. So there is more than one reason.

end of side B of tape forty-six