I would like to thank those who have come for this session, and say that I am happy to meet you.
Before the discourse we are going to recite some mantras to receive blessings to purify obstacles and to be able to develop our mind in the path of good heart.
[Recitation of Shakyamuni Buddha prayer and mantra.]
Why is meditation important? First of all we have to know what it is and why we do it. To make the body flexible, for example, so that you can all the things acrobats do in a circus or that people who do Hindu yoga and do, you cannot use the mind alone. You cannot make your body flexible just by thinking about making it flexible. You have to make the body flexible by training the body; the body has to be flexible.
The conclusion is, we want happiness and do not want suffering. Now, happiness is a mental state. Happiness has to do with the mind; it's a state of mind. Physical training alone cannot make the mind subdued and give stable peace and happiness. The whole point is that since we are looking for happiness and peace of mind, we have to use our mind to find it. Happiness is a mental state, so it has to be created by our mind. Just as physical flexibility has to be created by the body, mental peace and happiness has to come from the mind. Therefore, meditation is needed. Meditation is mental training; meditation is the mental workshop, in other words. Just as you have to train the physical body, you have to train the mind.
So, meditation is the way to make your mind stable, clear and calm; it is the way to have peace, to not create any problems and to not experience any problems. But not just that. The most important meditation is to develop the good heart, the thought to benefit other sentient beings. Just to have peace of mind yourself is not sufficient. The most important purpose of practicing meditation, a spiritual path, is to develop the good heart, to develop loving kindness and compassion towards every sentient being without discriminating between those who have given you help or harm. This is the main reason to do meditation.
Why does religion exist in the world? Why is there need of religion? It's for the same purpose. The main purpose of having different religions is for the different minds of beings. First of all, the main purpose is to stop giving harm to others, then after that to benefit others. To do that we have to work with the mind; we have to change our attitude, our way of thinking. We have to stop the thoughts that harm ourself and others and establish the positive thoughts that bring peace to and benefit ourself and other sentient beings. This should be the very essence of religion.
The more positive and peaceful the mind, the more good heart there is, the more meaningful the life. Even though you haven't developed your mind to the point where you completely stop harming others and only benefit them, your main aim should be to give them less harm and more benefit. Developing this more and more should be the essence of religion. You should improve the mind, rather than using the intelligence and potential you have as a human being to create more problems for yourself and for the world.
According to my view, the reason why there are so many problems in the world and why people fight so much over religion is that many people do not really think about the essence of religion, the essence of spirituality. They have left out the meaning of religion. Religion is a method to develop the good heart so that you don't give harm to yourself or to others. In that way you have peace and you give peace to others. On top of that, if possible, you then help others.
When people don't think of the essential purpose of religion, which is to generate compassion, their idea of practicing religion is just caught up in tradition or external performance. You physically go to the temple, church or whatever name you call it and recite things from your mouth and do other things, but somehow you are caught up more in external things and do not think about the real meaning of what you are doing, that your religion is what really brings peace to you and to others. This doesn't change your attitude. Once you have lost the actual meaning of what you are doing, to develop the good heart, and become so involved in external activities, the mind is not becoming better. The mind should become less angry, more patient, less selfish, less egotistical, more concerned for others, more compassionate, more loving. This is what should happen. But when you don't think of the real meaning of religion, which is to bring peace to all, no matter how many of those external, secondary things you do, you mind doesn't become better; you don't change your attitude. So your mind is the same, or getting even worse, with more anger, more pride, more dissatisfaction, more desire. These build up; this is how all the violence happens and millions and millions of people get killed.
It is the same with meditation. If you don't know what meditation is for, again there is the same problem. So it's very important, first of all, to know what meditation is for. It is not sufficient that through meditation you are able to stop your problems and keep your mind calm and peaceful. That is good, but it is not enough. You need to develop the good heart, the compassionate thought to benefit all other sentient beings.
First of all, happiness and peace do not come from outside. Happiness and peace, the absence of problems, are things that have to come from your own mind. Your mind has the potential to stop the problems that come from your own mind. The same mind that brings the problem doesn't stop the problem, but another thought can stop that problem and bring happiness and peace. Just as all the problems came from your own mind so does all the happiness. It has to be obtained from your own mind. You see, all the potential is there in your mind for any temporary happiness up to the peerless happiness of what is called full enlightenment, the mental state that has ceased all the obscurations and perfected all the qualities.
When you have a lot of dissatisfaction because you are obsessed with desire, you can make yourself crazy. Your life is very uncontrolled and you have no peace. Because of the dissatisfied mind of desire, you have great pain in your heart. Your life becomes kind of crazy because you are possessed by strong desire. You become so much of a problem to yourself that you have no peace, day or night, even when sleeping. And you cause so many problems to others. You even drive other people crazy!
When you don't get what you desire, then the thought comes to commit suicide. When there's some obstacle and you are unable to get what you want, even if nobody wants to kill you, you kill yourself.
At that time, if you simply stop following desire and follow Dharma wisdom, right there wherever you are, sitting on that same cushion or chair where you used to think you had mountains of problems, right there you immediately find satisfaction. It's as if there are two parties and you have to take the side of one of them. So, rather than taking the side of desire, you follow the Dharma wisdom, which is the opposite of desire and brings satisfaction. As soon as you stop following desire and follow the side of positive attitudes such as compassion, the mountains of problems that you believed you had, simple don't exist. Rather than thinking this way, you think that way. Like using a radio or TV channel selector, you turn your mind onto compassion or Dharma wisdom rather than onto desire.
Immediately there is no problem. The mountains of problems that were suffocating you before no longer exist. Before you had so much pain in your heart because you could not find a way to fulfill your desire that you wanted to commit suicide. All that danger disappears. To stop following desire becomes the greatest protection. It does not harm, only benefits you. No matter how many weapons and bodyguards you have to protect your life, they can actually endanger your life, depending on what you do with your mind. They are supposed to be there for your protection, but they can become dangerous to you. Many times you see in that world that bodyguards kill the people they are hired to protect.
However, if you simply stop following desire, immediately there is satisfaction, there is peace, there is happiness. The pain and tightness in the heart is released. Immediately you feel great inner relief. But how do you do this? How do you stop following desire? By thinking of the shortcomings of desire, of the infinite problems that come from desire. You have to meditate on the day-to-day problem that desire brings in this life, and in the life after this. According to how much you know about them, to how much you have received teachings, studied, and meditated on these problems, you have that much knowledge about them.
There are so many ways to talk about the shortcomings of desire; they are infinite. There is so much to explain, but I will mention one or two ways to control desire. One way is to think of the shortcomings of desire, of how it makes life difficult and brings all the problems, every failure to find temporary and ultimate happiness. You can think about this in extensive ways to think; however, the main thing is to be aware that no matter how much you follow desire, it never gives satisfaction. It is impossible to get satisfaction. That is its nature.
Lama Tsongkhapa, one great Tibetan lama who practiced the path and became enlightened, spread the Dharma teachings extensively and benefited so many sentient beings, explained that the reason people in the world follow desire is to get satisfaction; their aim is to get satisfaction. In order to get satisfaction, they follow desire. The aim is worthwhile and they are right to wish to obtain that aim, but, you see, their method is wrong.
Lama Tsongkhapa says that in order to get satisfaction, sentient beings follow desire, but the result is only dissatisfaction. It goes on and on and on, you see. Lama Tsongkhapa then says that following desire brings suffering in many different ways. Following desire brings hundreds of other problems. Like a train going to many different stations, it goes on and on like that.
In other words, life is tortured by desire. By following the dissatisfied mind of desire, we are constantly tortured. It does not give us peace, relaxation, or even physical health. For example, it is well known that AIDS, cancer, and many of the diseases that have no cure come from not having controlled the mind, basically desire. The minds of the people have become very degenerated, very gross, through following the dissatisfied mind of desire. Because these disturbing thoughts are so strong, many unrighteous things are done. Because of that, you see, many diseases such as AIDS are happening nowadays.
Analyses are done of diet and other things, but if you analyze the person's attitudes and behavior, how they live their life, then you can find out the reasons why this person has the disease. One will find similarities in their way of thinking and behaving; they are kind of addicted to their unrighteous actions. In this way it becomes clear that these are the real causes of disease. The explanation of the evolution of disease becomes clearer than only explaining the conditions of disease, such as diet and so forth.
When a person gets AIDS, for example, their mind is in a state of very strong sexual desire and with that they have constant fever, weakness, and other things happening. So there is some relationship to the mental state and to the actions during that time. These are some of the shortcomings of desire.
During such times, you can meditate like this. Some people think that they might die this year because they have cancer or some other disease. Or this month. Because the doctor has said that they won't live long, the person thinks, I am going to die this year, this month.
But so many of the people who die each day don't know that they are going to die that day when they get up in the morning. They don't know they are going to die in a car accident, a plane crash, be stabbed by someone, commit suicide, or whatever. Even though they are going to die that day, when they get up in the morning, they have a conception of permanence, thinking "I am going to live for many years."
So, you see, so many people who die on this earth don't think of death until the condition of death comes, until the earthquake or heart attack comes. Until that happens, the person doesn't think, "I am going to die today"—not even this month or this year. There are many people who die suddenly without warning even though they believe they are going to live for many years.
Death can happen at any time. After birth comes death. That's the evolution. But death can happen at any time—it can even happen today, in any hour. Also, the person who is your object of desire is not a permanent phenomenon; they're impermanent, under the control of causes and conditions. This person also has to experience death, and they can die at any time, even today, at any hour. It's like a criminal in prison who is going to be executed; they don't find any reason to cling to any object. However, this is one meditation you can do: think of impermanence and death; think that death can happen at any time.
The conditions of death are not just one or two—they're infinite. Even the houses, food, medicine, and so forth that are there for your protection, many times can become the conditions for your death. When you commit suicide, even your own body becomes the condition for your death. Even your own mind can endanger your life.
Life is like a candle flame in the wind. Life is filled with the conditions for death. Besides the outside conditions for death, there are the internal ones. Instability of mind, with your mind under the control of desire, anger, and other harmful disturbing thoughts, affects the body, making the elements in your body—earth, water, fire, air—unbalanced. An unbalanced mind makes the body unbalanced. The four elements in the body can then also become conditions for death.
Even though life is constantly surrounded by conditions for death like this, somehow, by good luck or by good karma, until now death hasn't happened.
This is one good meditation to control the mind, to bring the mind calm and stability. When you think this way, desire disappears, like clouds in the sky. When you think of impermanence and death, you don't find any reason to cling. Desire disappears. There's quiet, calmness, tranquillity, release. You feel released from being overwhelmed by desire. Just as Tibet was overtaken by the Chinese, you are taken over by desire, invaded by desire. Then you feel release from that.
And immediately there is satisfaction. Immediately the desire is gone, there is satisfaction. Doing this meditation, practicing awareness of this makes you stop following desire, so that is how satisfaction comes immediately.
Also, if the object of desire is someone's body, meditate on the nature of the body. Examine what is inside it: the skeleton, the bones, the pieces of flesh tied with veins. The outside of the body is covered with skin, but look through this to the inside of the body, like you use x-rays to see the things inside when there is a disease. This is practicing mindfulness of the body.
Think of all the dirty things that come out of the body: from the mouth, the nose, the ears. When food is on your plate, it is clean, but once it's gone inside your body, once it has gone inside your mouth and you've chewed it, it becomes dirty. What makes it dirty, so that you are unable to eat it when it comes out? It is made dirty by the body. If the body were clean and pure, this wouldn't happen. With all its thirty-two impure substances, the inside of the body is similar to a septic tank—what fills up a septic tank comes from the body. Like that, there is no difference. If the skin is not stretched over the body, if the skin is separated from the body, you don't find any reason to cling to the human skin itself. Imagine the skin here, the flesh here, the bones there. You won't any reason to cling to the skin. When you don't see the skin clearly it looks kind of plain, but when you see it very clearly with a magnifying glass, it's full of bumps, like small hills. It looks smooth from a distance. When you don't see it clearly, it looks okay, but when you really look closely, it's not smooth. Therefore, even the appearance of the skin is your own creation, your own projection, depending on how clearly you see it.
And there are smells of different flowers, of sandalwood, and other external perfumes, but these are not the smell of the body.
The other thing is that you hallucinate about that person and that person hallucinates about you. With all these ways of behaving and talking, with all these external substances for color and perfume, the other person hallucinates about you and you hallucinate about that person. In other words you try not to be caught in one view, but look at the person in another way, with a different view. You hallucinate about each other. So you try to look a different way, with a different view. Being out of that view of hallucinating about each other and looking at each other in a different way also helps to control the dissatisfied mind of desire. In this way you don't cause problems to other people or harm their relationships. You don't harm others and there's also peace for you.
It is said in the teachings, "One who clings to the small pleasure cannot achieve the great pleasure. Clinging to the small pleasure becomes an obstacle to obtaining the great pleasure, the ultimate happiness."
It is very important to meditate. Why? Because then you have your own experience of peace gained through meditation. When you have some experience of tranquillity of mind, you see how other pleasures are very gross, how that kind of mind is very gross and uncontrolled, obscured by desire. In comparison, that pleasure is too gross. Then you find the rapturous ecstasy derived through higher levels of meditation, such as tranquil abiding, great insight, and even the form realm—remember, there are three realms: desire, form, and formless. Even if you compare our happiness to form realm happiness, the peace of mind they attain through meditation, our human physical pleasures, such as sexual pleasure, seem extremely gross. You have no attraction to them at all. Compared to the pleasures of the form realm, they are very gross and seem only like suffering.
And compared to the bliss that one experiences through actualizing the tantric path, these ordinary pleasures are nothing. It is also helpful to think like this because clinging to these things becomes an obstacle to achieving greater peace of mind or bliss or rapturous ecstasy, up to the peerless happiness of full enlightenment.
For example, when you have a relationship problem, especially one that you can do nothing about, one that has no solution—your friend has left you for another person—rather than thinking to kill yourself or other person, which doesn't help at all, but gives the greatest harm, you have to make the situation worthwhile. Rather than looking at it as negative, you have to look at the situation as positive. It's very good to think like this. For example, Jesus Christ sacrificed himself and suffered for others; he took the sufferings of other beings upon himself. Many Christian saints sacrificed themselves for others, for sick people, for lepers. They gave up themselves for others.
Shakyamuni Buddha, when he was a bodhisattva, made charity of his holy body for three countless great eons. Those who wanted eyes, he gave his eyes; those who wanted limbs, he gave his limbs; and he gave his whole holy body to a family of tigers who were starving. Like this, for three countless great eons he made charity of his holy body to other sentient beings so many times. He also became a king many times and made charity of all his wealth to poor people. And he made charity of his family, his wife and children, to others so many times. For three countless great eons he accumulated so much merit by practicing the six paramitas: charity, patience, morality, perseverance, concentration, wisdom. He then achieved enlightenment for us, the sentient beings, in order to free us from all suffering and lead us to enlightenment. For that many eons, Buddha practiced the six paramitas and accumulated merit, and then achieved enlightenment for me and all other sentient beings.
So, why don't I offer charity? Those many saints, many holy beings, by living their lives only for others, developed their minds; they ceased all their mental stains, their obscurations, completed all qualities, and achieved the highest liberation, the non-abiding liberation of full enlightenment. They did all this for all sentient beings, including me, so why can't I do it too? I can do the same thing. I can make charity of this person to that guy. I can make this offering for their happiness. Even if I do this, I'm making charity of just one person. In many lifetimes when he was a bodhisattva, Shakyamuni Buddha made charity of his whole family and all his wealth. Why can't I do the same? You should encourage yourself. How is it if I can't even practice making charity of this one person. It's not possible. So you give your partner to that person.
After giving to that person, think, "How extremely kind that person is in helping me to practice the six paramitas, to practice charity, patience, and morality. How kind that person is."
Also think, "I enjoyed being with this person, so why can't this other person now have the same enjoyment? Just as I am important, that other person is also important. Just like me, they want happiness and do not want suffering."
I haven't had time to explain how the selfish mind is the source of all problems. However, there is another meditation you can do. Think, "In this life my friend doesn't love me and has left me for someone else." Think, "This has happened because in my past lives, I did not practice morality. I committed sexual misconduct in my past lives; I harmed and disturbed others. This problem now is the result of that karma." The teachings explain that disharmony in relationships is the result of the past karma of sexual misconduct done with a negative attitude. So, remember why this problem is happening, remember the cause of the problem.
Then think, "This negative karma of sexual misconduct is created by self-cherishing thought." Originally, you see, it was done out of self-cherishing thought. Due to this karma, this problem has happened now. So think, "This is a teaching of The Wheel of Sharp Weapons for me." (The Wheel of Sharp Weapons is a teaching that mentions many of the problems of life and then explains the wrong actions that cause them. Like a wheel turning, the problems are then used to destroy the selfish mind; self-cherishing thought created the karma and the selfish mind then experiences the problems, like a wheel turning.) So, these experiences with these people are a meditation instruction or teaching for me, the teaching of The Wheel of Sharp Weapons.
Now, rather than taking upon yourself all these problems that you are experiencing, give them to the self-cherishing thought. Don't think, "This is my problem." When you think like that, when you take the problem upon yourself, you make yourself depressed and angry and all these things. So, the problem is given to you by self-cherishing thought; rather than taking the problem upon yourself and experiencing it, give it to the self-cherishing thought. When somebody hurts your enemy, you feel happy and satisfied. You think, "How good it is!" You should think in exactly the same way about the selfish mind. Give your problems to the selfish mind and then think, "How good it is. Let the selfish mind have it." Like that, you destroy the selfish mind, the egoism.
As soon as you split from the selfish mind, rather than being one with it, and looking at it as your enemy, immediately there's peace, release, tranquillity, in your mind. You use all your problems to destroy the selfish mind. Give them completely to the selfish mind by thinking, "This selfish mind is my real enemy. As long as I have a selfish mind, I have an enemy." As long as you have a selfish mind, anger can arise, and then you find an enemy. If there's no anger in your mind, there's no outside enemy. If there's no anger inside, there's no enemy outside. Whether or not you have as enemy outside depends on your mind.
If you don't have anger, you don't find any enemy outside. Even if everyone hates you, if you don't get angry, you don't see any enemy. Whether or not there's an enemy depends on your concept.
In the same way, if you don't have a selfish mind, you don't find any enemy outside. But, you see, you have to do this practice by knowing that the selfish mind is the one that brings all the problems, all the failures. As extensively as you can, think that the selfish mind has made you suffer in samsara from beginningless rebirths until now. Think, "It has not allowed me to achieve any realizations. And if I continue to follow the self-cherishing thought, I will have to suffer endlessly in samsara and my mind will be empty of any realizations forever."
In this way, by knowing that all the problems, all the undesirable things, come from self-cherishing thought, you will feel encouraged to use your problems to destroy your self-cherishing thought. Otherwise, if you don't look at the selfish mind as your enemy, you won't feel any encouragement to do this practice.
Lastly, if you don't practice good heart but only follow the self-cherishing thought, there is a danger that you will harm the person you live with or your family—whether it's one person or five or ten—and then the millions of people in your country, then all the rest of the sentient beings. There is always the danger that you will harm with your body, speech, and mind giving harm all sentient beings—and from life to life.
Now if you change your attitude from self-cherishing into cherishing others, this stops the harm with your body, speech and mind that you give the one person you live with. This harm doesn't happen. And from there to the people in your country, to all sentient beings, no one receives harm from you, and that is peace. Starting from the one person you live with or the members of your family, all sentient beings receive peace. And this peace of not receiving harm from you depends on your attitude.
Also, if you generate the good heart that cherishes others, you only benefit others with your body, speech, and mind—from the one person you live with to all the rest of the sentient beings. So, you can see now that it's completely in your hands. Starting from your family and extending to all the rest of the sentient beings, whether anyone receives harm or peace from you is completely in your hands. You are completely responsible. Each of us here is completely responsible for the peace and happiness of all sentient beings, starting with our family. It is very important to remember this in everyday life.
Since all the happiness, temporary and ultimate, that you experience is received from others, other sentient beings are extremely kind. All the good things come from others. Therefore, what you should do is pacify all the suffering of other sentient beings and bring them ultimate happiness, especially the peerless happiness of full enlightenment. This is what they are missing and what they need to achieve. To bring them to the state of full enlightenment is the greatest benefit you can offer other sentient beings.
Now to be able to offer others this greatest benefit, first you must achieve the peerless happiness of full enlightenment. And in order to achieve this, you must generate all the steps of the path to enlightenment. To generate the whole path to enlightenment, you must do listening, reflecting, and meditation on the path by relying upon qualified virtuous teachers. And as I mentioned before, the geshes from Nalanda Monastery and Vajrayogini Institute come here to give teachings. They are highly qualified masters who have lived in the practice and studied the path since they were children. We are extremely fortunate to find a reliable person we can follow. This is the most important thing for the development of our mind.
