Being at Ease teaching by Ven. Geshe Lhakdor (in English) Day 02

so we were talking about how to achieve long lasting happiness so with this regard I'm doing a reading first of all which I'm sure you have read this story there was a rich merchant who had four wives we heard their story there was a rich merchant who had four wives he loved the fourth wife the most and adorned her with rich robes and treated her to delicacies he took great care of her and give her nothing but the best he also loved the third wife very much he's very proud of her and always wanted to show off her to his friends however the merchant is always in great fear that she might run away with some other man he too loved this second wife she is a very considerate person always patient and in fact is the merchants confident he whenever the merchant faced some problems he always turned to his second wife and she would always help him out and tied him through difficult times now the merchants first wife is a very loyal partner and has made great contributions in maintaining his wealth in business as well as taking care of the household right however however the merchant did not love the first wife and although she loved him deeply he hardly took notice of her okay one day one day the merchant fell ill before long he knew that he was going to die soon he thought of his luxurious life and told himself now I have four wives with me but when I die I will be alone how lonely I will be thus he asked the fourth wife I loved you most and Ovid you with the finest clothing and showered great care over you now that I'm dying will you follow me and keep me company and then he answered no way replied the fourth wife and she walked away without another word the answer cut like a sharp knife right into the merchants heart the said merchants then asked the third wife I have loved you so much for all my life now that I'm dying will you follow me and keep me company no replied the third wife life is so good over here I'm going to remarry when you die the merchants hearts sank and turned cold he didn't ask the second wife I always turn to you for help and you've always helped me out now I need your help again when I die will you follow me and keep me company I am sorry I can't help you out this time replied the second wife at the very most I can only send you to your grave the answer came like a bolt of thunder and the merchant was devastated then a voice called out I will leave with you I will follow you no matter where you go the merchant looked up and there was his first wife he was so skinny almost like he suffered from malnutrition greatly grieved the merchant said I should have taken much better care of you while I could have okay this is the story know that what what this symbolizes every men and women not just men every man did woman every man and woman has four wives or husbands what do this wives signify the fourth wife signifies your body the fourth wife is our body if we love our body day or night right we take a lot of care about our body in the morning we wash our face put on clothing and shoes we give food to everbody we take care of our body like the fourth wife in this story but unfortunately at the end of your life the body the first wife cannot follow us to the next world right when we die we leave the body behind as it is stated in a commentary when the last breath leaves our body the healthy color of the face is transformed and we lose the appearance of radiant life our loved ones may gather around and lament but to no avail when such an even occurs the body is sent into an open field and cremated living only the white ashes this is the destination of our body so although we take so much care of our body but it will not go with us okay the third wife represents our positions status and wealth now in the case of position status and wealth also when we die they will go to others you can't take them with you the second wife represents our family and friends no matter how close they had been there for us when we are alive the further they can stay by us the further they can stay by us is up to the grave is the third wife commented in the Tibetan you know literature also there is a story of butcher who used to kill lot of animals one day his teacher told him this is very sinful you know to take so many lives so don't stop killing and because the result the negative consequences only you have to suffer then he said now why should I suffer alone because I'm doing this not just for me but for my wife my kids and others right then the teacher said okay if you don't believe me you ask your mother your your children and so forth whether they can share the negative consequences of your killing so he goes to his wife and kids and ask this question they all said if there is a possibility to share of course we will share but it's simply not possible to share the negative consequences of one's wrongdoings one has to suffer so this is kind of similar story okay the third the first wife the first verb is in fact here it says our soul but in Buddhist we don't believe in a permanent soul so it is basically our mind often neglected in our pursuit of material wealth and sensual pleasure so there there is what the text was explaining yesterday and that there is what I spoke he studied we spent so much time paying attention to the needs of the body okay then name him pleasure sensual pleasure wealth and so so forth and hardly take care of our mind and that's why I tell people that the multifarious problems that we are suffering today in the world is a sign of starvation at the mind I call it starvation of the mind starvation of the mind because we have been feeding our body all kinds of food we are giving to the body and on top of that you go to the gym you know you do do jogging and exercise is stretching and pulling so many things you do but but to be honest with the mind what is it that we have given to them to the mind so the most important thing in our life is our mind and that most important thing in our life that is mind you you need this text signal teaching pay entity which Eclipse wanna taste on to cheat Lisa okay so so the most important thing we are talking about getting happiness and peace and so forth right so in this pursuit to have long lasting happiness and peace the most important thing is taking care of the mind taking care of the mind because because it is the mind which makes our destiny or Mars our destiny because it is the mind which controls our life depending upon what kind of mind it is whether it will guide to the right direction or the wrong direction it is absolutely dependent on the mind this way we are talking so much about practice of mindfulness meditation you know awareness and so forth we are talking about fine-tuning the mind preparing the mind and I have been hearing this too many people saying that out of the majority kind of sufferings that we are encountering majority of the sufferings that we are experiencing is because of how you see things meaning it is not so much what is happening outside it is really how you see things how you perceive things right when your mind is not when your mind doesn't have a proper perspective realistic attitude realistic outlook you tend to highlight the problems difficulties the shortcomings you keep on complaining throughout your life so controlling mind is really controlling almost everything now this is not something that is taught only in Buddhism but many thinkers scientist is in philosophers they are now coming to the conclusion that much of your suffering is your mental creation how you perceive things you see when your mind is suspicious when your mind is suspicious when your mind is depressed when your mind is unhappy nothing can make you happy you will not be able to test food you will not able to sleep peacefully right so the magic and mystery the key of magic and mystery the key in solving all these problems is in your hand it's not in the hand of Buddha not in the hand of God or anybody it's really really in your hand so it is important to highlight the good things you have first of all to be happy don't just keep on complaining I don't have this I don't have that I need this I need this you know even if you become a linear you're hungry becomes a linear you're hungry you know you're not satisfied this earthly love you move to the moon you same problem you know the grass is greener on the other side story is you're very very familiar right so when we talk about like fine training the mind and developing proper mental outlook we are done we are not just saying that all your problems can be solved like that but what we are saying is majority for your problems can be solved I'm not saying yet you develop a wonderful mental attitude and food will come automatically house will come automatically I'm not stupid I'm not saying those things for this you have to work but just by accumulating this material things is not guarantee that you will be relatively happier or more useful and more importantly we are not even you know moving towards happiness peace as I mentioned yesterday for those of you who were here yesterday as I mentioned yesterday that honestly speaking we are not really moving much towards peace and happiness we are moving towards sensual objects the world is not running so much peace and you know happiness although very often we talk about peace in heaviness but we are really not moving towards it we are moving towards enjoying the sensual objects the sensual pleasures something to see something to test something to touch something to hear and all the you know merchandise products that is floating in the market is made to drip our senses because there is no our bigness and if you play with your our weakness they will they'll be able to sell their community that's exactly what is happening okay so therefore when you talk about getting that long lasting peace in happiness you need to be very honest with yourself what what is it that you really want you see so on an occasion like this when we are all sitting together and at least paying some attention and thinking then when you are when we ask this question do you want happiness everybody says yes I want happiness not only that everybody will say I want long-lasting reliable happiness but there's not how we live in our daily life we forget these things we run after sensual pleasures the world is running after sensual pleasures so so by running and running after sensual pleasures are we really happier are we really more peaceful no instead because of this unchecked greed we're destroying not only our life we are destroying the source of all life the whole environment look at the pollution that you see now today in different parts of the world different countries right so therefore we need to be honest with oneself go more within oneself and find us that inner source of peace and happiness when we talk about inner source for peace and happiness the internal mind it is a resource vision which will never deplete in exhaustible resource you can go with it you can develop love you can develop compassion you can develop patience you can develop tolerance I don't know what else is there so many amazing qualities that you can develop and for developing this inner qualities you don't need a license from the government you don't need to spend a lot of money you know even for construction of house you need how do you know money you need the permission so many things very difficult not easy but when it comes to building this internal spiritual qualities like happiness loving kindness compassion so so forth it is yours only thing we need to do is we need to see the relevance in importance of this inner resources and we need to make effort we need to have some commitment not just for oneself or for every other people so gradually we need to come to a conclusion that what will make the world happy what will make the sentient beings live in harmony is this inner resources internal mind the right mental attitude you know in layman's language it is called soft power the power of culture not the hard power not the gun not army nor military the time really has come that people should start I'm talking being you know only to few people here may or may not six make sense but these days you know what I'm saying here is listened by many people it is webcast it so people are people many people listen and they're sending interesting responses also really we need to thing and yesterday as I said the Buddhist teachers say you don't have to kill people they will die I mean look at this in the same man we can say you don't have to create suffering of all of the people they are already suffering what the hell we are doing using immense resources manpower intelligence to build all this destructive weapons to kill this very weak fragile human beings what are we doing even after engaging in such a destructive akley two activities we call ourselves intelligent human beings where is the intelligence right so there there is a lot not to think about and we need to talk that's why his all theses are working so hard to you know teach on this secular ethics university things and His Holiness has repeatedly said wherever you go in different countries the buildings are becoming taller taller taller morality is becoming lower lower law absolutely - so basic spiritual qualities like loving kindness compassion without this you cannot survive you cannot survive because if you look at the nature of our own body it is a very good form it's very receptive for love for compassion and his holiness and many great thinkers this even if you look at the structure of your body and this is longhand with a nice fingers is good for hugging not for heating if it is for heating you don't need the finger it should we should just get get feest then look at that teeth good for smiling not for killing the lions and other carnivorous animals they are equipped with you know very strong teeth and very strong paws and nails which can really kill animals but if we try to do that instead of being able to kill animals all our deeds will fail all our nails nails will be broken things like that so if you look at the body bodily structure its for peace is for love is for compassion then why the hell we are doing all this destructive activities physically you are not prepared to do these destructive things but your emotions ran wild you did not train your mind in the right direction the greatest power that human beings heaviest is human intelligence there's why human beings have this big head with big brain human beings are said to be possessing the biggest brain not in not in the terms of just the brain but in terms of your physical structure you know there are other animals which are physically much much bigger so they would have bigger brain but comparing to the size of the body human beings said to possess the biggest brain and then the mind that we talked about in Buddhism which is dependent upon their brain when it is not trained in the proper way proper way means not just following a particular religion training proper way means depending upon your psychophysical needs do those things which really brings harmony happiness and to your body to your mind so all these violent activities are not good for your physical health as well as mental health this is common sense thing that's why His Holiness is as I said emphasizing on teaching secular ethics so secular ethics means not following rules regulations circulating means following a way of life which has not come from drop-down but a way of life which comes from bottom up what about top down means if you follow a way of life saying that this is this is coming from Buddha Buddha said this therefore we must do god says this therefore we must do I mean that's a good but that that is not applicable for everybody there are many people who don't follow Buddhist teaching there are many people who don't follow God there are at least none believers right and not Universal but if you'd come up with in process of live life ethical way of life which is from bottom up bottom up means based on our common sense common experience evidence best that it's better that I smile at you and you smile at me rather than I threaten you you threaten me it's common sense we don't have to cite any quotation from the Buddhist teaching or from the Bible or things like that you see so that kind of universal ethics is extremely extremely important so therefore instead of falling blind fit it is important to use your common sense right right if you really want that long lasting happiness therefore it has to come from within oneself within one's all might right so therefore as I mentioned yesterday here when we in this text when we read about this process of development of happiness we are not talking about pleasure we are talking about happiness mental happy happiness is satisfaction mental satisfaction right from Aristotle to many thinkers including the Buddha stating they are all saying happiness basically means Janu deep mental satisfaction for example without any concern to get anything back if you you know sincerely and honestly help somebody you don't get anything back in terms of you know monetary you know or financial you know things it's it's but human nature that you you'll get deep satisfaction yes I helped somebody and that person never to my office happy and you're happy that non calculating without expecting anything back you do it in the Buddhist teaching it says just like the four elements the art has been supporting us for I don't know how many years never ask anything back the air we are breathing has been helping us for so long never has anything bad similarly the water the heat and so forth so the Buddhists in the Bodhisattvas they pray may I be able to live like this for elements that I continue to be the source of happiness source of inspiration for everybody who is in need makes complete sense unbiased love unbiased compassion right so therefore all that the commentary for this text is a little bit difficult to read but but I thought I will you know will read this together you know you can figure out the meaning later on you can also use your own way of thinking and and probably find the meaning now so therefore we need ask this question we have already been talking about the need to have happiness need to have peace and so forth so very often it is important that we ask the question what do you want out of your life what is the main thing that you want out of your life right what is it that that you want huh what is your answer happiness yeah you can you can say I want a Mercedes car I want a nice you know you know house with nice bedroom nice kitchen you know nice shower room you know you can you can you can answer this by thing that you want so many hundred thousand things but at the end of the day if you if I keep on asking the question why you want a big house why you want these there and then at the end of the day you will say I think I will be happier right but the truth is it almost hardly happens just by getting those external material facilities you will be happier now scientifically and even otherwise people have like for example the big lottery winners I mean I'm talking about somebody winning millions of euros or dollars for me like hunting a bow what but they then they tested this for the first few days after hearing the news their happiness goes up and very soon it comes down to the same level clearly showing and indicating that that the long lasting happiness and peace will not be possible from external material accumulations I mean you can you can you can see in every country especially in more developed countries in order to get that so-called happiness you keep on changing your material facilities you keep on changing your house you keep on changing your cars you keep on changing your heart furnitures so much so that you even keep on changing your husband changing your wife don't love I'm telling you the truth am I wrong something like that maybe little bit the exaggeration but more or less something like that because people think ok this this husband didn't work the next one will work definitely this wife didn't work next one will be only have happiness next I also say have next husband also same that our wife for 12 you keep on changing this is just an example hoping and thinking that by changing the external situation you will be happy I'm not saying you don't get any benefit there may be some temporary just like the lottery winners you might get some temporary you know happiness and peace but that doesn't last long so long as your attitude is attitude remains unchanged this is what I am driving it once you change your mental attitude meaning not necessarily in the religious way changing attitude means you develop a way of thinking which is realistic which is true to the law of nature like law of nature as I said anything that is condition as is taught in Buddhism anything that is condition is impermanent there's not made by Buddha it's the way things are you need to accept that the apartment in transit nature now especially in terms of your spiritual practice it is not really enough to be able to see external you know things as impermanent but what is even more important you need to see yourself as impermanent and transient not just seeing the table in permanent housing apartment that's okay there's also good but most important things you need to see yourself as transient impermanent anything can happen anytime including death now there is not to unnecessarily scare you and this way there is a way the first teaching that the Buddha gave us on the truth of the suffering and while explaining the meaning of the truth suffering the first thing that he thought was impermanence the first the very first teaching that the Buddha give us on impermanence and one of the very last teaching that he gave us again on impermanence because if you really think it's not as I said it's not to unnecessarily scare you but it is to really understand your fragile nature impermanent nature once you see that if you really really you know very precisely see that truth see that reality and especially through repeated meditation reflection if you are able to develop a conviction you will be totally totally a different person believe me you will be totally different person how one if you are able to see the spirituality see this transient impermanent nature your craving and grasping will be reduced your craving and grasping will be reduced because all this greed craving grasping arrangement desire all this comes because you plan to live long permanently right right number one number two debt understanding a realization of impermanence will tell you the truth that you may not necessarily have a long long time to stay so you better use the time right now this is the golden opportunity use the time don't postpone postponement is in Buddhism a kind of laziness in Buddhism laziness is not just sitting there not doing anything but laziness also means procrastination it also means postponement it also means you know doing inferior activities and sacrificing the more important useful activities there is also laziness and we all know how much of this kind of laziness is that we practice we continue to practice this laziness because we are unable to appreciate the preciousness of human life we are unable to see the short time that we have let me take the example of somebody who's for a long long time looking for a job and now penniless and not getting getting a proper job for such a person s and when he see a job announcement and especially if there is a likelihood that he will get that job with all the second thought he will apply for their job and he will make sure that he/she does not misses that opportunity because it is a very very rare opportunity similarly if you are able to see this empowerment in towns in nature your life will be completely transformed and some something or they say there will be quantum leap quantum leap right we can talk about higher things near one enlightenment so many great things also but that will not change you much they will not make you move if you think about this fragility impermanent transient nature completely change your life and your attitude towards others how because if you see other people also others Indian being so exactly like you fragile transient you see was narrable how can you missed it there he will be very very careful I had given you the example of yesterday give you the example of 95 year old men not only in terms of age old but also in terms of physical fragility let us say it's very seeing and wounds all over the body passes losing out is he anyway when we are able to see such you know difficult situation then when we see such a person the attachment will not be there nobody will say I will marry this old man right so negative emotions hatred will not be there anger will not be there right positive emotions will come this this is a very interesting point that you should make note of when you really see the truth the reality of fragility impermanence death and so forth love will come compassion will come patience will come negative emotions will not come this is law of nature this is law of nature positive emotions come when you are able to develop that holistic viewpoint holistic attitude negative emotions cannot come when there is holistic attitude negative emotions are as I said they don't mind it they just want to one target to shoot it you get angry she's responsible fire eliminate her when you have attachment this is the only person I like are you with me this is what we say so this all clearly shows the negative emotions are very very narrow-minded and this narrow-minded negative emotions will suffocate you suffocate you I'm telling you suffocate you strangle you for example take the example of anger when you get it and anger when you get angry when you get anger do you enjoy it'll start strangling it will start suffocating you this way when you're angry you are unable to breathe properly have you noticed any experienced people you see and there's why there's why in one of the accounts in the Buddhist life it is said that the question was a rest why when two people are fighting even though if let us say we are fighting if you come a little bit closer let us say we are fighting then we are so close almost touching each other but when we are fighting we are so close but still both of us need to shout at the top of our voice why why because anger hatred creeps the distance the real not the physical distance but the real distance of the mind therefore you don't hear contrarily if you have love and compassion even without talking that person sitting somewhere there in the corner you just look and their person understands what do you say what you are thinking you see so there is a difference so this is negative emotions they divide us the great boundaries borders and we look at that the the borders that we are creating today in different parts of the world these are all human creations and how much suffering is created but when the Apollo people when they go high up in the you know space and look down they don't see any border you mean it is one artist one the boundaries created by us so it is in our mind so therefore it is not only important to see what do you want out of life but you need to ask what pain do you want in your life meaning that if you want to be happy if you want to achieve something what kind of struggle are you prepared to undergo no pain no gain we only talk about happy life you know good life because happiness record struggle the positive is the side effect of handling the negative okay for example let us take the example of people who want an amazing physic but you don't end up with one amazing physics unless you legitimately appreciate the pain and then the physical stress that comes with living inside the gym for hour upon hour unless you love calculating and calibrating the food you eat planning your life out in tiny plates sized portions it's you need to you need to undertake those struggle you want don't get it everything without doing anything is he so it is wrong to want the river and not the struggle okay and to earn the result in not the process and not wanting to fight about wanting to victory life doesn't work that way so who you are is defined by the values you are willing to struggle for not just by wanting something there are many people who want so many things year after year they want the same thing but they never get it because they never struggle they never work for it so therefore it is abhorrent and therefore in Buddhism it is said suffering is introduction to happiness look at this suffering is introduction to happiness and if you develop a process of thinking where whenever you encounter ups and downs in life whenever you encounter hardships Starkel pain and so forth if you are able to see this another facet of life you will be able to achieve success you know whatever you are doing for example look at look at the Nature's Way of day and night normally we prepare day right because there's light you can see everything people people may not like night but imagine if there's only day no night they will all get crazy so there's why people in some other places where they have you know many months Dagny I said no no light I heard that there are there you'll find more depression now today because of science the technology we do have very good light but still many people get depression so because you know there is a night all the troubles that you experience the day disappeared with a peaceful sleep next morning you wake up as a new person you see so suffering is introduction to happiness if you don't like to use the word suffering use the word challenge if you don't face challenge you will never grow like look take the example of two two wrestlers when the vessel at each other the other person is really you opponent right so he you know you will see that person as the Sun as somebody who will try to win over you or threw you down but the truth is it's only because of your getting this opportunity to wrestle that with that person your muscles grow right therefore in some of the Buddhist teachings there are teachers who say when they hear the word suffering their love it is what suffering what is it is if they have no idea bore suffering and the message that they are saying is the so called suffering that you are talking about is oppressive here's how you see things so those for those people anything that comes becomes a process of transforming your mind right I mean if I make a joke for example if they say in summer in India it's very hot okay so how should we react one ways or damn this summer is so hot so terrible they're not way of thinking is I'm getting our free sauna you know when you go to a sauna how much money you pay this is the whole country's like a freeze on man something like this is a job or something like that you see really when it rains it has its own benefit so take the best out of it rather than cursing or complaining so therefore what I'm trying to say is your happiness is very much dependent upon your mental perception so let us read verse number 17 those whose mind enjoys concentration enjoys non-production and the for mindfulness the seven branches of enlightenment and verse 18 also the four miraculous feat and and enjoys the Eightfold Path they wear the monk's robes and eat their arms in happiness so this is these two verses are basically talking about the thirty-seven limbs to enlightenment 37 limbs to enlightenment out of the 37 limbs to enlightenment yes I highlighted a few of those branches the one that is mentioned was the four for mindfulness oh yeah so the verse is saying that those who smiled enjoys concentration those whose minds enjoys concentration means he's talking about those great beings who delights in receiving one pointed meditation right in the initial stage you may be reluctant to try to achieve that concentration but else and when you go your mind inside and start this meditation the piece that you will get cannot be explained and that piece that you get that happiness that you get is real happiness real peace nobody nobody will steal that away from you nobody will you know robbed it away from you and you don't have to pay much money for that and that will promote your physical health of course mental health you try morning if you spend at least 10 minutes this is important especially in today's world we are living in a world today where we neither know how to live alone nor know how to live with others right so in order to live with others you should also know how to live by yourself with these inner qualities right so so therefore those whose mind enjoys concentration now concentration means paying attention to one object right have you tried that the interesting thing is I you know this reminds me one meeting with one western nun who asked me you know before gorillas before I meditated I was a nice person after I meditated I become a bad person which is not true but she she made this comment because before you meditate you have no clue who is coming was going in your mind 100,000 things are coming in your mind and you are just saying welcome welcome my buddy you know you have always been coming come come go go as you wish doors are open windows are open you have no idea the tips are coming taking things away the robots are coming and taking things away you have no idea what what are they taking away your various qualities they are disturbing taking away all your positive qualities but you you have no idea but yes and when you concentrate try to consider one object immediately you will see how many other things are coming you you are able to notice that that is beginning that's a good start actually it's not bad it's a good start so else and when you notice this uncalled-for you know mind's coming you need to say my dear no no no I'm not not asking for you at least for the time being I'm concentrating on the image of Buddha or whatever not you not you especially with the negative emotions when they are coming you need to say boldly and firmly gone are the days when you cheated me gone are the days when you disturbed me gone are the days when you created this unity go not the deaths because in those days I had no knowledge no enlightenment no teaching so you cheated me you fooled me now I know who you are who you are getlost personified this negative image and say get lost you destroyed my health you destroyed my peace you destroyed my family I'm true this negative emotions their job is to create this unity to destroy go another this good say goodbye to negative emotions and instead with love with compassion with patience you should say humbly respectfully you should say I am so sorry you're such a precious thing I did not recognize your importance before now I got some sense please come please come in the headquarter of quarter of our mind please come have a nice cup of tea and wire them make friendship with them and he possible make them stay forever in your my date is what we call as the Buddhist practice of transforming the bite right so therefore he is saying those people who delight in concentration enjoys non non production means of course there is a production farmers are producing things mothers and fathers are producing children there is a production in the conventional level but here when he talks about non concentration is talking about the wisdom that sees things as having no independent existed therefore there is no production in terms of having independent existence so here is talking about two things schemata and vibhishana Jamaat is one point in meditation we person is special insight where you analytically see the reality of the phenomena judge the nature of the phenomena right so enjoys non production and the four mindfulness and especially the four mindfulness for mindfulness means mindfulness of your body mindfulness of your speech mindfulness of your mind mindfulness of your mindfulness of the rest of the phenomena especially the positive emotions and negative emotions okay so when you meditate on your body you need to see right from the top of the your head to the sole of your feet and through this kind of reflection you will be able to see how fragile how impermanent you know how suffering nature the body itself and that will help you not to develop craving attachment there is not saying you don't take care of your body instead you to say take more care see this is the beauty of the teaching this is the beauty of the teaching normally when we see my bodies clean my body is wonderful my body is nice you know you what you develop what you end up developing is attachment craving but continously if you say this is ugly this is suffering this is unclean things like that you're not discouraging yourself you're you are accepting the reality I mean you can see right from the head of you you know you top of your head to the sole of your feet you know then you know almost like skinning alive you know see what is there under just under the skin zero the seven layers of skin and then then the deflation that the blur and then the bones and then the meros and so forth there is really not much essence in terms of the body itself I'm not saying it is bad but I'm saying this is the reality so when you see this very very fragile nature of your body it will actually encourage you to take more care because it is so fragile now when especially look at what is there inside your body inside your stroma the internal organs the lungs the livers the intestines how fragile they are and those of us who don't have this understanding based on Buddhist teaching or scientific instructions when we don't have this understanding we think that you can throw anything in your mouth spicy sour bitter everything you do you end up just pleasing the tongue and throw everything in your body and then you get sick suffer from diabetes blood pressure whatever it's a common thing that we all see because you have not understood the fragility of your body so therefore understand the nature of the body as it is that is basically the suffering nature of the body then similarly when you do this I'm just briefly explaining because we don't have time when you do this meditation of mindfulness on your feelings now when you get a positive feeling you develop obsession attachment when you develop a feeling of suffering you develop hated disliking all right so it is because of this feeling that all the you know grasping the contamination that we see in the world is cultivated based on this feeling so therefore it's important to understand that natural feeling and then similarly when you do this mindfulness meditation on your mind it's important because normally we you know when you talk about yourself you primarily primarily end up thinking about your mind I basically means if you can flow so quickly try to investigate you will come to the conclusion it is basically my mind so at the end of the day you think your mind is yourself but again which is not not true because we say my mind is unhappy my body is suffering which means there is a possessor of their body possessor of their mind okay so that will help you remove that grasping towards towards the towards the self then by meditation on the phenomena the fourth level which basically can be all phenomena in general and that way you can think about emptiness of all phenomena but here primarily thinking about two kinds of phenomena the phenomena that must be adopted cultivated the pose qualities and the phenomena that must be removed the negative emotions okay so there's little bit about the four mindfulness practices and the seven branches of enlightenment seven branches of enlightenment because this is seven branches of enlightenment Joshua yeah look so the seven branches to enlightenment are mindfulness and wisdom effort joy playing see one wanted meditation equanimity okay but but I don't think there's need to explain try to explain all of this we have not right okay and then similarly the four miraculous feat for miraculous feat so just like your feet will help you you know go to different rich different places so these four practices will help you reach enlightenment which are aspiration so this for miraculous feed primarily revolves around one pointed meditation and to do that you need to have aspiration then second effort third mental engagement and fourth analysis things like that and then at noble part I'm sure you know that the right view right conception right speech right action what right effort right mindfulness right meditation things like that okay so those people who undertake this practices of the branches leading to enlightenment so in the case of the monk they said they where the monks robes and eat their arms in happiness there means if you are somebody who really sincerely undertakes these practices then you're a good monk then even if you use those offerings by other people it's okay you can use it you are practicing they wear in monk's robes is fine they eat their arms in happiness but if you take arms offerings from other people with our practice in these things you are not entitled you will have to experience negative consequences okay and similarly verse number 19 destroying happiness in the mountain and in forest located in the mountain in the forest they get happiness in peace they transcend in this life the transcend all vindictiveness and fears and go beyond the craving of this world they stroll in happiness you see so it's basically saying that when you have this internal qualities wherever you go you're happy in the mountain you're happy if you're alone you're happy if you're with many people you are happy in this life you're happy in the future lives you're happy everywhere you're happy but so long as you have this negative emotions within yourself with as I said you you are not able to live alone and also don't know how to live with others if you are in India then it's always better I moved to America when you move to America and then it was better they're better when I was I met several people Tibetans Indians who moved to America and then later seeing interesting me I met one Indian when I was coming back from America some years back so at the airport we started talking because I speak Hindi so we started speaking he was very happy then he he said you know he mentioned to me a date of a particular year and month he said Guru ji on that particular day and month I meant the gravest mistake in my life I said what what mistake did you commit he said I moved to America you see so in the beginning the grass is greener on the other side you move there I'm not trying to be cynical but what I'm saying is I'm not saying don't move or anything like that but what I'm saying is you move you do whatever you like okay it is possible that you get a better job overall that's possible I'm not trying to be cynical but what I'm saying is wherever you go with whomever you associate it so long as your mind is not true to the reality so long as there is no calmness and peace in your mind so long as you don't have the right perspective you will never be happy guaranteed I can seal and give my signature and give it to you really it's very clear okay verse number 20 happiness is to hear and see the Dharma and enjoy solitude happiness is pure vows and not hurting worldly creature beings I mean it's very easy it's quite quite quite easy here the source of happiness is to hear and see the Dharma and it said that the sweetest thing the most pleasant thing that you can hear is the teaching of the Dharma because it heals your inner wounds it gives you the right perspective it tells you the reality so from there you get that happiness and then if you are able to remain in solitude and spend the time to reflect about this truth about this realities and go more deeper you will see the magic you will see the mystery you will see the real resource and you will be heavy you see number of people have asked me a healer do you live alone I said I live alone and then they ask me don't you feel lonely don't you feel lonely this is the general perception today not being able to live alone and I responded by saying most of the time I am alone but sometimes my cousins and nephews and nieces you know come to see me right now two of my cousins are staying with me but otherwise I'm alone but I never felt the loneliness I had no time for loneliness and in fact the amount of joy and happiness that you get by going within yourself spending more quality time it's really really good and that way you recharge yourself energize yourself so that you can also get the capacity to help others how can you try to make sure the mind of other people when your mind is not matured right so it is really really important to go within and equip yourself with those positive qualities and also specially when in solitude you live in company with the the bird singing beautiful songs the wild animals moving freely around they will not say a single bad word about you and you buried the pure pure air but when you live with other people unless you are patient and you know mentally prepared you know will always keep on saying something about you recently I give few talks and everybody was saying many things pros and cons and even though you don't have any motivation to do to do anything bad to anybody but there are people you know they will twist agent tailor it to suit their purposes you know right so therefore solitude now you can see solitude people who intentionally go and live in solitude they never suffer from loneliness people who are suffering loneliness are those people who live in a big population of 20 million people imagine you amidst population of 1020 million and there is a guy suffering so that has nothing to do with physical isolation it's your mind when you're mind is compassionate open loving wherever you go you immediately get friends wherever you go immediately get friends right so and enjoy solitude happiness is pure vows now happiness is pure was I need to really really really work on this translation and if there's anybody who's very really good in English and wants to help me not tomorrow but later on I am planning to to rework on the translation of all those 30-something chapters from this Tibetan version of Dharma panda because we published that this this is what we publish you know ten books with the route text and the commentary but that if I translate the community it will take a long time but at least first the route text in a proper readable English so this is I used one translation which is already there and made some changes but I'm not so happy right now happiness is pure vows and not hurting worldly creature being that means pure pure vows or pure restraint that means restraining yourself and not hurting other volte creatures that is the source of happiness and look at this when you have hurt nobody when you have killed nobody there's no reason that you feel upset you're happy and especially if you had prolonged the life of somebody saved the life of somebody and in Buddhism it is said not only you will feel happy but your life will be prolonged you see so one can prolong one's life not just by taking medicine smart medicines smart pills but one can really prolong one's life in this life and future lives by saving the life of other people by helping sick people this is a natural law you see if you kill others your life will be shortened right what's 21 happiness is totally transcending all desires and freedom from attachment to the world and supreme is the happiness of those who attempt the conception to pride in the self okay this is also pretty clear happiness is totally transcending all day's desires now here is talking about transcending all desires of the form realm desire realm and formless Adele okay and freedom from attachment to the world the first happiness is totally transcending all desires refers to removing attachment towards afflictive emotions of the desire and then this line happiness is of those who had tempted the concession of conception or pride in the self this is really talking about completely transforming and taming yourself which is really talking about removing attachment to the first two to higher realms that is form realm and formless realm okay because in those realms there is a lot of conception of the self a lot of kind of arrogance is there and if in this way if you have this removed those desires or attachments to the to the three realms then there will be supreme happiness know thyself you need to make a distinction there is a self there is a conventional conventionally exist in self with regard to death exactly there's no independent existence self but there is no conventional self and that's why you came to the teaching right yeah happiness is possessing verse number 22 happiness is positive it takes until old age happiness is totally abiding in faith happiness is delighting in meaningful words' happiness is for those not doing evil deeds now happiness is possessing ethics until old age means right from young age until you become old if you had practiced morality a proper ethical way of life then there will be happiness okay and then similarly similarly now when when it says right from childhood until you become old if you practice ethics or morality there will be happiness because there will be satisfaction a view of the morality from the Buddhist perspective observing morality means number one refraining from doing negative things there's morality number one number two accumulating positive qualities third benefiting sentient beings if you undertake these three types of morality there will be genuine satisfaction with your mind so there's the meaning happiness is thoroughly happiness is possessing ethics and lolled age happiness is totally abiding in faith faith here means stability okay stability if you develop this pure faith based on reason then there will you will be able to develop that stability towards Dharma practice your practice will not keep on changing from one day to another if you don't have that proper understanding today you might follow something tomorrow you might follow something there's no stability okay so faith is of two types one faith of people who are not so sharp people whose mind is not very sharp they just follow some other people's teaching and then they start believing in it which can be useful but but which can also be something like blind faith which can also be very destructive many of the deviation healing heavens because of blind faith so what is primarily encouraged in the Mahayana Buddhism and especially minor Buddhism is faith rooted in knowledge faith based on personal analysis and observation so if you are able to develop such a faith then you will be able to continuously remain stable in your Dharma practice and achieve success and happiness is delighting in meaningful words because this why we like teaching you know the teachings they have meaningful words meaningful words means the worst it is good in the beginning good in the middle good in the end good in this life good for many lives to come good for yourself good for others it's talking about harmony it's talking about love it's talking about friendship you see so these are meaningful words it's talking about protecting life it is talking about prolonging life right so therefore these are meaningful words these are not like gossiping so therefore you must respect those words because by using such words you will be able to remain happy and also develop the light you know mental delight in the minds of other people therefore in Buddhism say even when you exchange words with others it should be impossible like like a nectar okay if not at least the words that you exchange should be like a flower but it should not be like a field the rest and when you say something it creates division it creates suspicion it creates unhappiness in the mind of other people you see there's the Tibetan saying which says that the words that you use may not be sharp like a blade but if you use a harsh harsh speech it can choke other people's heart into pieces there's equally an English saying which says a tongue which is six seven inches six inches long can fail a person six feet at all if you use her speech right so therefore use meaningful words happiness is for those not doing evil deeds right so this we've already explained more or less so let us read where are we now happiness is regarding the father in this world likewise regarding the mother happiness in this world is regarding the trainers in virtue and likewise happiness is regarding the brahmins so it's basically saying from the worldly parlance from the worldly parlance you know if you listen to your parents father and mother and respect them there will be happiness because the only people say what a good child what a wonderful child is everybody will press you and so you will be happy happiness is regarding the father in this world regarding or respecting the father in this world likewise respecting the mother so that is from that is in terms of kindness that has been shown to you by your parents if you repay their kindness there will be happiness okay right from the time when you were like a helpless child until you get married or whatever the parents look after you irrespective of whether they are rich or not you know little bit illiterate or educated the parents you know how much time they spend they fold it for their children easy so as a kind of repaying their kindness you respect them listen to their words even if it is something that you can't listen but refuse it politely you know and then happiness in this world is regarding the trainers in virtue there are people who undertake good practices developed love develop compassion develop bodhichitta these are the trainers you know so this and then likewise happiness is regarding the Brahmans who would lead a pure conduct so this last two lines talks about people then you should also respect those who have lot of qualities call it is not in terms of you know schooling or you know ordinary academic education but qualities and in terms of inner qualities which is important beneficial for others so therefore respect to them happiness is the coming of the Buddha like was giving Dharma teachings happiness is harmony of those spiritually inclined and happiness is the austerity of this nose in harmony and of course if the Buddha had not come such wonderful teachings have not been given so therefore we get this happiness of coming of the Buddha and he sold in that the element goes to different places everybody becomes very happy not that he is going around in distributing dollars but by being loving and being kind everybody gets happiness you see there's a very infectious influence like was giving Dharma teaching Dharma as I mentioned yesterday Dharma in one sense Dharma is law of nature so it is important to understand the law of nature Dharma in one sense is those those religious practices in whose practice it will not let you fall down for example if you don't kill you will not get imprisoned if you if you if you kill somebody you will you will be revenged you will be killed or you will be imprisoned by the law you see so when you do the Dharma practice it will uphold you from falling into negative state existence so therefore doing Dharma practice is happiness happiness is harmony of the spiritually income and that means there is especially very you know strong happiness if those people who claim to do their own practice they if they live in harmony here in this case we are talking about the Sangha Buddha Dharma and Sangha Sangha Sangha they the word itself means community community so those who were undertaking such a spiritual practice they must live in harmony therefore in Buddhist media said if you try to divide the divide the the congregation is one of the one of the greatest sin okay so happiness is harmony of the spiritual inclined and especially happiness is the austerity of those in harmony so so the Sangha is not enough that they live in harmony and not doing any spiritual practice the real happiness will be there if they undertake some austerity some hardship to do their Dharma practice then this is excellent right then then they will be able to protect Dharma preserve the Dharma disseminate the Dharma and make countless sentient beings happy verse twenty-five happiness is seeing those with ethics and Happiness is seeing those having much hearing happiness is seeing their hearts who are totally repeated from truth so these are also more or less saying the same thing I have explained the meaning of the benefits of ethics and if you really really practice those wonderful good human qualities you will be happy and in Buddhism we say the celestial beings will protect you other people's will will be attracted towards you like a magnet if you have this proper practice of ethics if we thought you're threatening anybody they will bow down to you they will flog around you if you don't have the ethics you you you will the weapons you know all those things they try to control they will somehow try to revenge or run away from you they'll not come to you all right and one very good example is how you do it with the dogs or dogs or you know crows if you with the sincere motivation if you give a piece of you know food they also come very close to you but the moment you have some you know little bit you know manipulative motivation even if they want to take their food they will take it in such a way that they can't go away run away you know the sense that the sense that our vibration is kind of emitted okay yeah so happiness is seeing those with ethics and happiness is seeing those having much hearing that means about people who have really really you know lot of listening to the Dharma they have the knowledge right so they can hear they can hear and that they can make many many people's life you know they can taken they can benefit the life of many people like His Holiness Dalai Lama is they're always the best example you know and his service is very fond of giving teaching not to advertise himself but he is able to see many people have benefit and even in my own case I've seen many people I have nobody zero almost like zero nobody but but with this little understanding of Dharma and a little bit of sincere motivation you know you can help people I know some people who really had a suicidal tendency when I met them then giving through encouragement and you know showing the direction they're still alive and quite happy there's nothing magic nothing mystery about it and I'll tell you one master had many stories a one story one one one black woman with a little child when I was working in his oldest office she came to see somebody in the private office so normally they said me because I was the only monk there working in the office you know who speaks English you think those who the secretaries will say go down Casilla so I went there and she told her story I now don't even remember the story that he told me so she kept on telling the story then after a while when I started talking she said I don't want it any word anything from you you are the first person who listened to me patiently there's enough for me I will look at this it's amazing you know the needs of different people the situations are different people for some people you know even if you show this willingness to listen to see together and show a little bit of your you know your your feeling of solidarity whatever it helps be able to see I have so many examples line it even worked with these old nurses office for over 16 years you get those kind of wonderful exposure so there's what I'm saying that's what he is saying here and happiness is seeing those having much earring happiness is seeing daraa heart of course if you see the heart that means one who has completely destroyed negative emotions there's a total joy even among ordinary people not just one of my class meet a monk in a whisper I don't know at least at least an hour 10 10 years together I've never seen him getting angry always my name you know so they're like amazing fantastic people and likewise there are people like me who you know they do the Geisha and do so many things but still just like a stone remaining in what hurry no still remaining dry I see there's possible so what I'm saying is because this is subtle you know differences in tendencies dispositions take note of that and you can always help other people oh yeah who are totally liberated from births okay happiness is with the river that is easy to access and happiness is the person who is victorious by the Dharma happiness is the attainment of wisdom have and happiness is the cessation of conception of a go so more or less we explained this earlier but he gives an example here but in the case of a river if it is if it is easy to exist then for washing your cloth washing your body whatever you if it is not like uneven you know and not very deep and also clean thing this then then you can enjoy the river so similarly happiness is the person who is victorious by the Dharma okay happiness is the attainment of wisdom because much of the suffering as I said earlier is due to ignorance and when you have the wisdom you will know what to do in different situations okay and happiness is the cessation of the conception of ego which we already spoke the the the root cause of suffering is ignorance endurance here means conception of ego there means seeing oneself as having inherent independent existence okay so once you are able to put an end to there that conception of ignorance and and the ego will be happy okay happiness is seeing the Aria superior beings who has achieved the part of seeing and Happiness is associating with the sublime beings and if infant infantile beings are not seen there will be constant happiness that means if you associate with really enlightened people me it may it be the ayahs may it be the other sublime beings if you associate with compassionate people loving people kind people there is happiness quantitatively if you associate with bad people who are like infantile means they were uncivilized not you know not properly mentally trained you know bad people if you associate with their you know so he says and if infantile beings are not seen it means it's better that we should not see them because because if you go with very hot-tempered people you also get angry you see if you go with the people who have excessive attachment he will also invite those qualities so it's better that you are not with this infantile beings because if you if you're not with them instead if you're with this good people there will be constant happiness ok so we stop here thank you you

Channel: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives

Views: 3,890

Rating: 4.8888888 out of 5

Keywords: Geshe Lhakdor, teaching, buddha, atisha, ltwa, tibetan library, dharamshala

Id: Tx6lb-tDXWg

Length: 87min 11sec (5231 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 27 2018