Ven. Namgyal Rinpoche – “A Working Week-End”
Precepts Commentary – with Wesley and Angela
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 7.30a.m., March 22, 1991
Rinpoche – Have you any questions while we wait? Yes?
Question – I’ve been working on the coordination meditation: the red, the blue and the purple and when I internalise, it goes back and forth, I get to the brain and internalise it, it’s reversed, that’s all right? Rinpoche: That’s all right. Question: So, I leave it alone.
Rinpoche – Yes. In any case, there is a cross over in most people.
Just while we’re waiting, I would like to thank the people in the background who arrange food, and arrange accommodation when I come to Ottawa. It’s not too often said, so I should just like to put that in. I would also like to emphasise that there is a tradition in the Teaching about doing service for the lama. But, I think that the people who do this service are, in fact, equally the lama because they make it possible, and they share in the merit of it, and they are an integral part of the Teaching. I hope that sinks in. It’s very important because you know, so much in the Teaching is focussed on THE being, the big ‘Pooh Bah’ up there, and the people who are in the background that make it possible are somehow, just there or something. But I think that is a wrong view and I think that anyone who makes the teaching possible is in fact a Teacher, even if they don’t open their mouth. And so I’d just like to put that in. Thank you.
I think also that we should all appreciate – if I have been lax to say so in the past it is because, in the Teaching there is a very strange thing. That is, we don’t normally thank people for doing good things. Does that make any sense to you? It’s an Eastern approach. I think, well, when you do a very positive action it’s its own reward and you do it because it actually assists you to unfold on the Path. So you don’t hear in the Order… from the Order’s standpoint, this is a classic view, (it’s not Western behaviour or Western politeness but it’s a very Eastern view), that you would be insulting someone at times by saying thank you. Isn’t that strange? I mean, it’s an unusual idea for you to work with, but if you ponder it a bit you will see it.
Someone’s been to Russia? I can see that. These are done by two villages north of Moscow. These are from one of them. This is a box. It’s very beautiful lacquer, may I show them? A very beautiful miniature, lacquer box. Originally I suppose, from a tradition of icon painting – very fine, very detailed.
Right ho! Shall we begin? It’s almost time. Can we have lots of fresh air? May I explain that to you? I’m sure that you will indulge me in it. It’s a little bit of an emotional blackmail, but can I use it? When I was quite young, and for several years when I was living also in Burma, (it was only discovered when I went to Thailand), I had tuberculosis in one lung and it healed over (from very early days of being the ascetic). Since that time I have been very vulnerable on the question of good fresh air, lots of air, taken into the lung. So, if you will, indulge that for a bit. You can think that if you get cold you’re toughening yourself up with practice –
Namo tassa bhagavato arahatao samma sambuddhassa,
Namo tassa bhagavato arahatao samma sambuddhassa,
Namo tassa bhagavato arahatao samma sambuddhassa.
This evening I would like to correct some what I presume if you have a typical Western being approaching the Teaching, the Eastern teaching, tends to gravitate towards, say, the practice of meditation and it becomes very much the meditational focus. And, of course, the – His Holiness the Dalai Lama was once asked, I think on CBC, what Christianity could offer Buddhism and he replied sort of something like, ‘doctors and hospitals.’ Compassionate works. And then he was asked the question in reverse, you know, what can the teaching of Buddhism offer the West and he said, ‘meditation.’ However, teachers say many things on different occasions. On another occasion His Holiness was asked about practice nowadays and he said, ‘Well’, this is the gist of it, ‘it is very difficult for people to attain nowadays the meditational path, their lifestyle is not quite the same.’ You could imagine. And so he said, ‘in this day and age what should be stressed is ethics, the moral practice’.
You have to imagine India 2,500 years ago when you have mendicant monks, (rather like the Order of St. Francis), that wandered from place to place and they would in effect, tent, with an umbrella tent. Imagine an umbrella against the rain and falling from it a type of mosquito netting. And they would just wander for nine months of the year from Deer Park, Dissipatanarama to a forest area and be available for Teaching. And then three months of the year they would retire and stay in one place. Still, sometimes available for teaching, but more or less, to develop the mediation path full out. So, for nine months of the year, right ho, they would travel and they travelled all the way over, apparently, to the court of Philip of Macedon down to Sri Lanka over to many other countries, wandering, establishing universities – teaching centres- but three months of the year when they were not involved in their studies, which we will call for the moment academic, although they were for the attainment of wisdom. They would stay in one place and they would do a meditational retreat during the rainy season. And during that period of time the, I’m trying to take you back into that long time ago, they would not move because they didn’t want to disturb new life coming. It was in like in the sort of Spring because they did not want to break these new shoots that were coming up and the, you know for most of nature this is the sort of mating time for the birds and the insects and all the rest of it and the offspring are coming in spring so they can get a good summer feed and prepare for the winter.
So, during that period of time, it was called the rainy season, which was also very muddy everywhere, of course another pragmatic, they didn’t move, basically. And, also because that was the case they could focus on a meditational subject in great depth for three months twenty hours a day, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one hours a day. And, so many of their insights and their discoveries about the nature of the universe, the dharmas of the universe, came from this very, shall we call it, professional standpoint, total immersion, and it’s a bit difficult to, you understand, sort of juxtaposition the teachings and the attainments and the realisations that came that way under the present society. Because, I think, most of you with all good will in the world and a little bit of effort might manage an hour a day, something like that? If that? And it’s not the quite the same, bringing the same oomph to it. You accept this?
So, the Dalai Lama, anyway, thought that the Teaching that should be for people is to involve them in mindfulness of right thought, right speech and right action in the midst of life. I don’t want to denigrate in saying the path of the laity or anything, please, because I think it has to teach a lot of the Order, also. And we find that in the second oldest meditation book which is a book known in history as published in writing, that at the beginning of it, it’s a booked called the Visuddhimagga – the Path of Purification which is a very voluminous work a very, very thick work, innumerable pages is dedicated to a type of teaching which first establishes the morality and then on the basis of that the meditational path and then on the basis of the meditational path the path of wisdom.
Now, understand that it’s easier to meditate than to be moral. I hope you, because it’s the most confusing subject. I mean it’s very easy to say, go and focus on the, say earth mandala – mandala of earth or go and watch the breathing and stick with it and oh, that happened – oh, fine. That’s very straightforward, believe me, teaching of meditation is very straightforward. But when you enter the field of morality, you need two things, a) you need, well three things, two other things, anyway. A) first of all, you have to be scrupulously honest in the, what might be called, the examination of conscience and you will see also your moral values change; there are many, many issues involved with it and, of course above all, you have to have a continuum of mindfulness, recollectedness. And, viewing what you are thinking and what you are speaking and what you are doing.
So, this evening I would like to take you through certain considerations. Now, before we go any further, one of the great difficulties is there is a vast difference between country and country of what constitutes good morality and even in certain religions what constitutes morality. And, even in Buddhism there is a great difference in what constitutes the correct base, the correct motivation. So, what I’m going to suggest this evening, possibly on Sunday morning we might view some purported higher teachings which come from the standpoint of compassion. But tonight I’d like to speak about what is basic morality, the basic morality. And the basic morality of, may I put it in Buddhist terms tonight? Only more or less in Buddhist terms. And then you can compare it in your mind with other teachings that you may know of.
PANCA SILA – The Five Precepts
Panãtipätä veramani sikkhäpadam samadiyami,
(I undertake to train myself to abstain from taking the life of any living being).
Adinnadanã veramani sikkhäpadam samadiyami,
(I undertake to train myself to abstain from taking that which is not given).
Kámesu michacarã veramani sikkhäpadam samadiyami,
(I undertake to train myself to abstain from indulging in sensual misconduct).
Musãvdã veramani sikkhäpadam samadiyami,
(I undertake to train myself to abstain from harmful, lying and unskillful speech).
Surã-meraya-majja-pamädathànã veramani sikkhäpadam samadiyami.
(I undertake to train myself to abstain from taking substances that cause intoxication to the point of unawareness).
The first precept for every Buddhist – I’m not trying to make Buddhists here tonight I’m just trying to tell you, there are millions of them in the world. The starting point of it all is: I undertake to train myself to refrain from killing and harming.. Now, I have to, before I go any further, most people receive a type of revelation about what constitutes good morality. For example, in Christian terms, ‘Thou shalt not this, this, this, this and this.’ And in addition to that, I think I’m being fair, by the way, right, and in addition to that, in other words, that’s a proclamation of what you don’t do, from God, from external power. In addition to that you have the Church or churches declare at different times in history what you can do and what you can’t do. It comes from the church, it comes from some authority outside of your being. Is that fair enough? Right? And that’s what most people Now, in some of the societies in which I have lived it is moral to kill. I’m not talking necessarily in Canada and the United States. That is to say, I have – or people that I have visited.
For example, I visited Uringaya and at the time that I visited the year before they had killed a few missionaries. Didn’t like them for some reason or other. And they had, it was very debatable whether we could visit these Asmat people. And the reason why was that they have constant village to village warfare going on. In, if you listen, in that society if you didn’t go to kill, you understand, the other village you were letting down your people. And it was viewed as an immoral act. There was no question about conscientious objection or anything of that nature. It was condemned. I have actually met people in this life who ate their mother and father and I have met people and they considered it a good act. I’m talking about views that exist in the world bizarre as they may be. The idea was, may I give you the rationale for eating your mother? You may be interested in it. But it was, that they had come to a point where they were very decrepit and old and about to die and were a burden on the society and they should go out in style, as among the Naga peoples, and what you did was you tied your dear, sainted mother to a tree and you bent it down and then you let it go and the catapult effect and you dashed whatever brains your mother had left after bringing you up, right, that was it against a cliff and then I guess you also Do you have a sense of humour? I have an Irish black, what’s called the Irish black sense of humour. So, you had your tenderised meat, also. Right? This is really black Irish humour and you ate her because that was to respect. That was respect. It was a sought of a cannibalism aspect was even in Thailand the government had a terrible time. The government’s Buddhist and they didn’t know how to stop certain practices. And one of them was, you could in your will, you had a case where, in a will, someone left their liver and heart to their friends after their death – they had their liver and heart and they ate it. The government couldn’t, and you see it was respect to that being. Teaching, please. You understand? I’m not suggesting this practice, please. I’m just telling you.
In the world I have met innumerable views about what constitutes the correct way of living. Before we rush in to declare them all false and this is false, and we wouldn’t do that we have to understand that basically we have a conditioning. And our conditioning on many, many subjects is very indebted to the Puritans, in particular. And there are areas where we are rather inflexible about it. So, I want to however, put a basic Buddhist view before you, a basic one. And what I want to stress is that you see the wording of it, the precepts. I will talk about the lower and some higher precepts; I will go through them very quickly. I undertake to train myself to refrain from killing and harming. I take that up consciously, and then if you notice it isn’t because it was said by the Buddha or the Order or anything of that nature. I take upon myself voluntarily from an insight, that that is the best and most wholesome way to live. Not dependent on outer authority, but by a personally arising insight. And you notice it isn’t now there are two views I have to be very scrupulously honest with you because some Tibetans treat it absolute. I will never, never, never, never, never kill or harm. I think that, however, the prevailing view which I would support is not to be, to realise in advance that you will all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That is, it is a study and I have to be, and now I’m speaking sort of personally on your behalf if you were saying in your mind, this is what you would have to say. I have to study and apply myself to consider what is killing and how far you take it.
For example, in the Order you carry around with you, I don’t know what you call it, like a tea strainer. So, that if you took water from a stream – this is done today by the way in the Order, you don’t kill any creature. You take it out and say, ‘Here, have a chance.’ You saw this last when we were walking in a nature reserve and there were two black mites, you know what mites are? Fell on my clothing, you may think I’m terribly virtuous but actually it’s very standard and two of these black mites. I think other people would just swat and kill them. Scrunch them. But, you cannot do that in this Teaching. You think, this is a very – you know, I mean, I’m giving you things that go on in my head – this is a very curious creature. Look at it. It’s very incredible and wonderful and you take it off your clothing and you put it back in Nature and walk on. And that’s I’m trying to give it to you in practice. And even if a mosquito comes and instead of swatting, killing all the mosquitoes you cure the humans and then the mosquitoes don’t have the disease to be transmitted. There are two ways to eradicate malaria. And so, preferably, I mean there are Buddhists who do kill mosquitoes, right? Doctors, etc. But, you have to, each individual each has to work out their salvation with diligence. And diligently be involved, they must study.
For example, the fifth precept: I undertake to train myself (but it is a study, a training, a learning process), to refrain from drugs and alcohol, drugs, that cloud the mind. How far do you take that, individual study? But you have guidelines that you, the guideline is your study. You’re not receiving it, you are thinking, ‘That makes a great deal of sense’, particularly in this environment, sorry, in this society which is going to disease as purified drugs and hence producing other diseases in the wake of it. Now, to give you an example of that one of the teachers that, at one of the monasteries that I studied at in Burma, the main teacher of that temple wouldn’t take alcohol under any conditions whatsoever. That is, even in hospital wouldn’t take a medicine or even if a doctor prescribed a tonic that had alcohol in it, he wouldn’t take it. Fair enough? Now, individuality please.
Now this being will occasionally, but not to the point, never to the point where the mind is clouded. You see, for example, if you were a drinker and you went out it might be alright if I got drunk but not really because it would affect someone else. But I might also drive a car and I might ruin somebody – have an accident and ruin someone else’s life. But, it might be possible and this is my view of it, that the alcohol, the glass of wine, is permissible only for a pleasant state of mind. I’m, in other words, a liberal. However, never to the point where the being would be out of control and may damage their life, commit an error which damages their life or the life of someone else. And only if it were to better their life. St. Paul said, ‘Take a little wine for thy stomachs sake.’ So, I would assent. I have an Irish background, but strangely an Irish teetotal background. You understand what I’m trying to do? Not that you accept what I say about it because the whole thrust of if it is, what do you say about it? Where have you got with the issue?
And I’m giving you two and I can give you others. There are other beings in, usually in the tantra teachings who have been known to get sloshed regularly. Judge not lest ye be judged! That’s the point. You have enough on your plate to work out your ongoing morality in awareness without terribly much concern about what others are doing. So I’m being very open about that. We have teachers who, for various reasons, have been known to be either alcoholic or near to being alcoholic, that is in the manifestation. What that’s on about you’d have to work. I’d just have to speculate. Not to judge. An interesting point. I’m just sharing what my view is. But, there is an extreme, there’s an extreme in the Teaching. If you don’t like teachers being drunk then you don’t go to teachers who are drunk. If you don’t like teachers that, for example, if you think that tobacco is a drug you don’t necessarily go to teachers who smoke. But then, of course, you would close the Teaching to all Indian peoples, by the way. Because tobacco is considered a sacred plant and is used for meditation. So, what are you going to do? You see, there are in every point along the way considerations.
Now, most people, for example, when it comes to the precept about false speech say, ‘Well, it’s sufficient if I don’t tell a lie.’ But, by the way, the morality of the West there are two major subjects: sex and drugs, and most of the focus of morality goes on those two things and not on certain other things which are of equal importance, that is, what are you doing with speech? I’m going to give a kind of Quaker cum Buddhist view that your yea be yea and your nay be nay. You know, speak to the point. There is nothing so conducive of wasting a lot of the life energy than idle conversations. You see, I’m, strangely enough on speech I tend to be far more of a Puritan than perhaps some of the other areas. I’m just being very personal here. And then the interesting thing about that is that even the fantasy, fantasy conversations, are a kind of lie to yourself. You’re not in the reality. Not focussing on the reality, you’re denying the reality by many of the interior useless conversations.
Heidegger again said despair or distraction. I think that the number one distracting thing that people do is tell themselves stories and conversations and so on that are very frequently boring or repetitive and go nowhere but occupy the time. The very valuable time of life. So, I really do think that if one is to be a fully moral person you have to see not merely what you’re speaking, out loud to other people but to yourself. You have to view these false speeches that you have and then, of course, that includes things like boasting, gossip, this and that and the other and then of course, you know, the whole host, and then, of course the so there in your study yes, you would start to refrain from telling lies but in your study you would have to go deeper and deeper and deeper what constitutes false speech. Fine.
In the sexual category there are two levels, one of which I will speak about later which is when you go to – well, I will speak about it first. When you go to meditate and or, you make take it as a guideline that when you are in meditational retreat or in a depth serious study, listen to this very carefully, you should be totally celibate, totally celibate. And the issue behind that is basically the conservation of energy, energy. That’s not so much a moral, you may not view that as a moral consideration but as a practical consideration. Because if you’re not in a meditation retreat then as far as the kamisumichachara category is concerned – normally it is translated as: I undertake to train myself to refrain from unwholesome sexual activity. And then we come to this most dreaded of all subjects on the face of the earth and is going to require a great deal of energy to plod your way through it, but there are certain, you see many people want to say, ‘Well, should I do this or that? Can I do this or can I do that?’ And in this Teaching there are only certain things which are utterly forbidden, utterly forbidden. You may or may not agree, but nevertheless I will put it to you.
First of all, rape is never allowed, never promoted. OK? Let’s get that very clear. Child abuse is never allowable. Slavery, sexual slavery is never allowable. Alas in this Teaching prostitution is not on, ever, and so on. So, you begin to, there is only about four or five total prohibitives. You can fill in the rest of it. There is a full range in Buddhist countries of heterosexuality of different patterns, sorry about that. The monogamous path may be the preferred and ideal path and we will call that the white path and then there is a sort of, we’ve already talked about the black and then in between there are some problematicals. For example, there are countries in which several wives is accepted in the culture of that country which happens to be Buddhist. There’s also at least one country or two where it is possible, permissible for a woman to have several husbands. Sauce for the gander, sauce for the goose, right? There are innumerable, we’ll call them, greyer study areas. Homosexuality, question. Lesbianism, question. Not totally prohibited, not necessarily ideal but to be studied. Fair enough? I’ll give you the guideline.
Another precept, listen, it doesn’t say not I under take to train myself to refrain from stealing it says a little more subtly, ‘I undertake to train myself not to take that which is not given.’ Unless something is expressly given to you there are no little borrowings? That sort of thing, little smudging of the life. Obviously, stealing is out, for example, but what about profits in business and all that? You see, the study goes to starts to open some little clam type little numbers that people don’t want to look at and you don’t see as much scandal in say, the Toronto Star and the Globe & Mail, such and such a company took two billion dollars in profits over and above…
You know the medieval age, by the way, you couldn’t even do that. You weren’t allowed to make profit. People in the medieval ages the church forbade the taking of usury, and so on. If you wanted a loan (and unfortunately the Jewish people got stuck with it), if you wanted a loan of any kind you would have to go to the Jewish people and they would be almost the pawnbrokers of the medieval Ages. And, of course, you know what happens about that – hatred, indebtedness, and so on. So, that’s part of that legacy there. I’m not really on the Jewish people, I’m just saying the church wouldn’t allow good Catholics to do it and it was against scripture, the morality of scripture, so it didn’t occur and there are other ways around it. In fact, there was a terrible scandal of popes were elected by bribery and things of that nature. I guess it still would be – but, you understand? I mean, who knows how they get to be heads of our political parties by bribery and corruption and you start to open a whole field of study. But, basically not, never mind in the life of other people, what are you doing with it?
Are you getting your wherewithal honestly? And you feel honest and correct about your income, etc. and that you are engaged in a wholesome livlihood. You’re not necessarily killing animals or anything of that nature. That would be considered to have broken the first precept in general, please. You see, there are things that come out of all this. You steal from other people you may be killing them, you may be harming them so the precepts are interrelating. I’m just trying to give you issues, views that would be almost an automatic response.
For example, no Buddhist by principle is in favour of abortion. Now before you put in your protests, I say, by principle not in favour of abortion. They would love to have it some other any other solution but abortion. Maybe more intelligent sex or whatever it is or not conceiving but it’s the last thing. Now, this does not mean to be against choice, strangely enough. Because that’s the other persons’, that’s their responsibility. A teacher, please understand, a teacher of Buddhism cannot – you can be in favour of the person and sympathetic and compassionately hold and relate to the person who has to have an abortion but you cannot promote abortion. You may lay out the facts in front of the being and they must make the choice. So that strangely enough, you might end up in a position that could be pro-choice and pro-life at the same time. So, please do not accept what I am saying because there are innumerable Buddhists with innumerable studies, personal studies going on. And they have their lives and so on. Fair enough? You hear? So that what we’re trying to say to every being is (I’ve outlined about five precepts there) you become an intelligently involved being and you come to your various conclusions.
For example, life is not easy, and did you know that. For example, what what do you do if, say, the Nazis came to your house and you were hiding Anna Frank, or someone, and they say, ‘Have you any Jews here?’ ‘Oh, yes. Mr. Nazi officer.’ I don’t think that’s going to be on. Because then you’re killing some way or another, or participating. So what do you do? Silence. Or do you sin? ‘Oh, no’, which is something like a Burmese ‘no’. There is a Burmese ‘yes’. In Burma when, if you go to someone if you sit into a Burmese person,’ Would you lend me a million dollars?’ They would say, ‘Yes.’ You may never get it, but they would say, what they are saying in their mind is if I had a million dollars and because you’re such a wonderful friend of mine I would love to give you a million dollars. ‘Would you lend me a million dollars?’ ‘Yes.’ And all the rest of the dialogue is not necessarily said. So you can ask people for certain help and it may or may not be forthcoming. They will try to help you but they will always respond to a friend with a ‘yes’. And I suppose with a Nazi you always say ‘no’. And you’re not necessarily telling you a lie. I haven’t any of those what you think is you understand, what they might have thought of vermin or inferior, ‘No. there’s none of those people here.’ I think I have a precious friend there but you didn’t ask about that. You asked about this picture that you have. So, there are many deep subtleties between the letter of the law in which you can ascribe the entire scene.
You’ve heard about that one, haven’t you, in the Bible you’re all so pure but you’re not really pure because there’s a guideline of what constitutes good morality. And that is, if an action of yours makes you feel not in the state of love, unfriendly – in other words, it breaks your state of friendliness it is an unwholesome act, it is a sin. You have an inner guideline, your body will tell you that. It’s very, very simple and straightforward. If your action breaks compassionate involvement you have broken the essence of the precepts. If your action breaks unitive joy between people, joy, shared joy between people it has broken the spirit, not the letter, of the law. If your action breaks serene union, unitive feel, your union with the universe in which you are then it has broken the essence, it’s an immoral act or an unethical act. So you look at what the action does to you. Hopefully, you develop wisdom gradually that your actions help others to enter into a state of loving kindness, compassion, joy and serenity.
But, first of all, you definitely, all beings have to focus on their own being, and study. And in the course of study you come to insights. And a much better feel and sympathy for what other people are going through. And so, therefore, you fulfil the high precept of compassionate, loving kindness, compassionate, joyful, serene involvement with all beings that you meet. So, there are guidelines. And the guidelines are in the interior, not just an abstract light but what you actually experience. The body doesn’t lie. Your brain can do all sorts of things and your conversations but your body doesn’t. And you know it’s compassionate to you to observe a moral path because you feel better inside. Loving kindness. And you’re not punishing yourself. That’s a wonderful guideline: be compassionate to yourself not to have, right, unwholesome activities; its compassionate for your existence and it leads to more joy in your being to be a moral being and it definitely, also, leads to more serenity in your being. Fair enough?
So, we go back [end side 1 …if you use the precepts to…] fulfil the moral path you will come to awakening. All you have to do is have a constant awareness present whether or not you are in a state that is wholesome. It is called sukha state or moral state. That’s all. There are, however, if you go for special study programs of meditation and I may also give it as a – I know it’s going to sound very strange – but even if you went to, say, university and you were committed to a program where you wanted to take any program in depth, they might have something to say to you. And they’re rather more not so much as you might think of them as morals as to help you to unfold to deeper understanding. I’m going to call it, sort of, the Quaker principles here. One is, I undertake to train myself to not to, if you translate it, not to eat at unfortunate times or out of time, literally out of time. [in pali vikala bhojana veramani sikkhapadam sammadiyami] That is a pragmatic, please. Instead of stuffing yourself with fast foods and erratically so. You go to the ads for senna pills: be regular. That is a great basis. It’s a very important principle. You know, you might be actually a more moral being if you ate wholesomely and regularly. I’m going to let you work on it. But when you are particularly need your energies for depth study you should start taking the higher precepts.
Another one: I’ll give you examples, avoid – this is the real Quaker, Puritan you’re probably not really conversant with this one – is you give up singing and dancing and movies and television and ‘ta da’!. Oh, no. No. No. I didn’t say, see there’s five precepts, the five precepts say nothing about that. Go and sin, in love. Go and sin. You might feel you want to relax with television, fine. But, when you go for meditation, can you intuit this? You are getting lost into other subjects. A) first of all the quality of the television and this, that and the other is not a very high standard in any way, I’ll just say that out of the side of my mouth anyway. But it’s splitting your attention. It’s a pragmatic because it splits your attention so that’s another one.
Another of the precepts, the higher precepts, are a very Quaker, I’m sorry about this, some of you are guilty, right? You give up adorning your body and cosmetics, and men, this is also addressed to men, and by the way, they don’t use Brut. They don’t put the emphasis on that subject. The narcissistic mirror number. That takes your attention away from unfoldment in meditation. So, you dress simply. Don’t use, don’t – not that necessarily that the cosmetic or the perfume – I can assure you that in Buddhist countries people do use cosmetics. They use perfumes – they – if it leads to – if it helps to other people also to be particularly happy they do so. Alright? But it’s called a higher precept because when you want to do higher or deeper things you need an extra oomph to it. So, you just pretend, if you wish, that you’re in a Carmelite convent, you understand what I’m saying? and you drop that level, just drop it, off from your body come all the little needs that you have to sort of keep yourself up a bit by and try to develop keeping yourself up from within. Not dependent on another. Not dependent on your husband or your wife and all this type of thing. And even, of course, when you do depth study work you give up, some people would be very happy to give up, I’m quite sure, definitely meaningless interpersonal relationships, totally. And, it’s highly dubious whether you should have even the focus outside of the interior. But, you can debate it and walk on.
What else have we got? Oh, you’re constantly sitting, I can see it. Now, you have to give up high and luxurious seats. So. Whatever is that about? In those days and still today – did any of you see ‘The Last Emperor’ and you saw him, in other words, high and luxurious seats were ego posturings in the society. So, you enter with a type of feeling, may I give it to you of: you’re all dressed the same, you sleep on the ground, you are one of the – rather Islamic type of approach – you’re one of just the millions of the spawning humanity. You have no position in society. This applies to lamas, too, by the way. They should not have any consideration of that. They should be quite prepared to lie on the floor, you understand, or take a very lowly position as if we’re just from the earth. Give up all these posturings and pretensions in this society to be somebody and all that. So, the precept of giving up is the symbol of giving up society recognition, the search for society recognition.
And the last precept of the higher one is: I undertake to train myself not to handle gold and silver. Because, again in those days – well, nowadays, I know you you’re very technical beings, you see. You’re letter of the law beings. I know you. You’d be that type of being that doesn’t take alcohol under any conditions. So, you will come to me, I know you, because you’re a letter of the law being, you’ll come to me and say, ‘Well, I haven’t handled any gold and silver.’ We probably haven’t had that in Canadian money for years. Right? ‘I’ve just handled green paper. Or orange paper. I’ve just been handling paper.’ But, the meaning of it was when you are going for a depth study thing, meditation or something else, please. Even, you know… If, try to fulfil the precept of putting down business, if you can. Clear the decks. Clear it for the study. Pay your bills and forget it and, you understand? then the – it will be easier for you mind let go into the studies or the meditation. So, I’ve seen a lot of people no sooner than do they begin a meditational retreat say, ‘You don’t mind if – I’ve even had one being [say]- ‘You don’t mind if my broker calls me up?’ I’ll say, ‘Well, you’ve broken the precept.’ You’ve still got your hands over there. You’ve still got your little mental hands, you know, out there just ‘save me’, ‘save me’ in case the meditation goes nowhere. ‘In case I don’t become a Buddha, fully awakened.’
You are Buddhas, by the way, in essence all beings. I want to stress that, by the way, that Buddhas, by the way, are not male. Right? All beings here present are Buddhas. At least you’re Bodhisattvas. You’re Buddhas to be and you have Buddha nature and it will awaken. And then you’ll be an actualised one, a practicing one. Now, but, you know, ‘Well in case that doesn’t occur I want to make sure my business affairs don’t deteriorate.’ In the meantime that I have a home and a house, you know, to come home to and a bank account, etc. But, it is not good because it splits your focus and you need – there’s a fivefold focus – I’m going to conclude with this, there’s a fivefold focus that you need for the path, for spiritual work.
Shall I just outline it for you? Do you hear these higher precepts against that? You must be also, remember? One of them was already enunciated: when you’re going for depth work – for that period there may be other periods but that’s something else what you do – but during that period you must be totally celibate. Got it? In addition to the high and mighty places and the no monies and the no adornments and the regular meals and not give up your frequent Mac attacks, etc. Give all that up. But, you need five things. And I have to – it’s from a sutta that the Buddha gave. It’s in the Majjhima Nikaya, it’s about the sixteenth, somewhere or around there. It’s called Cetokilasutta, The posts of the aspiring mind, of which there are fifteen But, five of them – there is a fivefold principle. You must develop the concentration, condensing. In other words: concentrated work. Not concentration, but the concentration of concentration. Now, before you get complex about that one, the first thing that you have to do – you have to have very strong intent, determination. You must state in your mind what it is and develop the aspiration, the will to, for example, know a certain subject and achieve a certain thing. You need intent.
The second thing that you need is not merely the thought of enlightenment but you need the energy for enlightenment. You better conserve your energies. Concentrate your energies. They’re not scattered all over. And that’s what the five precepts, the five higher precepts, are on about. Look, it’s very, very simple – if you wanted to become, don’t you believe? That if you wanted to become a great musician, a concert pianist or you wanted to become a highly skilled surgeon, or you wanted to achieve mastery/ mistressy, whatever you want to call it, you know, conquest in a certain field, that you make sacrifices for it. Right? You don’t let your energies go all over the place. You really conserve energies.
So, the second thing that you have to concentrate is energy. And then you have to concentrate – the third thing is you have to concentrate concentration. That is, you have to maintain a continuum of focus on the subject that you want. Just to keep with that theme, dropping other themes. The third concentration that you need is the concentration or intensity, intensification of exploration, of investigation of the field that you’re involved in. Not merely read it but really examine it.
I used to work in a laboratory, I don’t know about any of you, it was in a department of parasitology. And one of the works that we did with was, strangely enough, with preying mantis. The creatures it was on the road to see about the affect of cancer cells, strangely enough, the work was with cancer. And – but, investigation. I’m going to call it, sort of the microscope principle. So, you’re concentrated on a subject but you’ve got to bore into it and really get in there and look at all the details, and so on. Not just gloss it, but get the details. The same with the question of morality.
And the fifth thing is a word which is translated normally as effort – it’s viriya – but, in fact, the word should be translated a different way. And with apologies for the women here but I think you will note, you will know what I mean by it: manliness, or the heroic principle. (From the audience, ‘gumption!’), Gumption. Very good! Gumption Guts! But, be prepared to face, you know, the overcoming of the wimp tendency of some new discovery comes up and, you know, it upsets you. You’ve got to be willing to go on. So, the word viriya is either normally translated as manliness or heroic. And you need the heroism of many mothers, by the way. They keep plodding on and working on with the hope that will go through something. So, that’s the extra fifth push that’s needed.
And this gives you an idea. The reason that I put those five in is because the general immorality wastes a lot of energy. Nothing is so conducive to wastage of energy is when you don’t have any subject you feel defeated just wandering around. That’s when the Devil finds work for idle hands. And there is depletion of energy. All right you can get basic morality in place but the extra dimension is the question: How can we get more conservation of the energy? And that was why I put in the other five. Killing and harming takes energy away from you. False speech takes energy away from you. Unintelligent sexuality without what you call a meaningful relationship, generally, also takes energy away from the being. Being motivated to exploit other beings takes energy away from the being. I mean, away from the Path. And, of course, drink and drugs waste energy. But even if you got through those five there is an extra dimension which I’ve already explained to you in terms of the other pragmatics – an extra dimension.
Don’t waste too time with too much involvement with food. Get your act together. Get it happening at correct times so that, you know, so that the digestive process is not taking too much energy away in your being and dulling your mind. And you’re not being motivated to, you know, ‘put the dog on’ kind of number. That takes energy to do that, by the way. To paint yourself up and I mean that dress and paint and be the doll, male or female doll takes a lot of energy in life to maintain that level. To maintain the pretension in front of other people you know, your status. That takes a lot of energy, etc., etc., etc. Well, now you’ve heard it and what I want to re-emphasize along with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, I seem to be in very good company on that point, that this is a meaningful path for any being. You have no excuse. You can get full awakening if you only hold the question, what is moral – and you studied it. What is an ethical practice?
So, may you be well and happy… “Sabbe sutta sukhita hontu”. That means: May all beings be well and happy. So, that’s it. You’ll notice I’ve cut off discussion because I think that gives you something you can go and study it in more depth and that’s what you should be doing. If you need more instruction about it or more exploration about it, there will be a class on Sunday morning. They haven’t told me what time. Tomorrow is a work day and I think you will find it tremendously supportive because it’s direct work. And so we will work directly together, I and other beings will help you in the course of the day. And you will put in what we called it in Toronto – we did it at the Rudolph Steiner school – a normal working day. I consider these studies to be normal for a human being. I do not consider most of the stuff that goes on, particularly in Ottawa, the civil service etc, (that’s my slight Torontonian dig) to be not that meaningful. You know what I mean? A little bit abnormal. What they’ve sold humans into, really. It’s very abnormal.
Many of the things that go on in the whole business, economic world become a great revelation, shock to you. It has very little to do with being a human being. Distorted view? False view? Do you ever get a sense of…? Did it ever really hit you when you pick up a paper and get a sense of unreality? That sense of unreality – that this is abnormal. How do human beings get into this? How can…? You couldn’t even read it in science fiction. No science fiction author could ever do it. It’s bizarre, bizarre. And strangely enough, the more you practice awareness the more bizarre it becomes. I can understand why the first monasteries were never – that was then 2,500 years ago – they wouldn’t allow a decent monastery to be in a city. That was then, and it hasn’t got any better. It really hasn’t got any better.
The people the city today they live in the strangest states. The only thing is that can be said is that it’s a commonly held neurosis. They’re actually insane. Really! By any heavenly standards of outer space – I’m sure if other beings came down from outer space and looked what was going on in humanity they would say, ‘They’re insane.’ (Heidegger again – the dreadful has already happened). They’re split off. They’re living in fantasy world. I mean. I don’t want to belabour the point. I mean, money is fantasy. It’s actually a fantasy. The government, the whole country is bankrupt. It’s the truth! It’s the truth! May I just make one more point, one more comment. The Minister of Finance gets up and he says, ‘Now, we’ve cut the deficit.’ This is utter trash, bilge. All that’s happened is that they’ve cut it, there’s not quite as much debt being added this year as last year. It’s only 30 billion or whatever it is. It’s only 30 billion! And what people say, ‘Oh, oh things are getting better.’ They’re not, they’re getting actually worse. But I think money is a very good thing where you see people live on promises, fantasy promises. Just fantasy promises. And so on. Anyway, I think maybe tomorrow we’ll do a normal working day. To me the most normal thing you can do is become a healthier, happier – very trite, eh? – healthier, happier human being. That actually has the most pragmatic effect on other beings. That’s the cause of peace in the world.
Anyway, again: be well and happy…
Question: Sir, for those who aren’t coming tomorrow what time will we meet on Sunday?
Rinpoche: You have to tell me… Don’t consider me. I mean, I just have to drive about four hours and back to my house over icy, bumpy roads but don’t consider that. Consider…
Question: How about 7.30, is that too early?
Rinpoche: Not for me! These poor creatures, I’ve told you already, these Canadians lack, they are noted in the East as weak, wimps. They’re noted for it. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. In Thailand and Malaysia they say these Canadians that came to practice they just seemed to be unable to put in the number of hours. Not like the Japanese and the Israelis or other people, nationalities all over the world. Right? They cannot just put the time in, you understand? Softies but at least you have a record – and I don’t say this, strangely enough, for ulterior motives, of being the most generous people. Now, isn’t that interesting. I thought you should at least know that. Yeah. So, if you don’t, I’ve got you, if you don’t give you’re not very Canadian. It’s interesting. They’re usually good hearted, and a generous people. But, the… it’s understandable they don’t drive themselves. That’s why I kind of push the concentration, the fivefold concentration.
One thing is they don’t particularly trust. You see, when you really trust and you get excited by an idea you begin to put passion into it. And it’s difficult to – may I just say this –t o arouse passion in anything. You might do it with a European but you will not do it with hewers of wood and drawers of water. The image, you know. It doesn’t suit the image somehow or another to go right out there, right? Is there an easier way? Show me. Do you mean I really have to meditate? I know you’re secretly hoping, ‘Do I really have to meditate nineteen hours, twenty hours a day. ‘Oh, no, no, no – You don’t have to do that.’ All you have to do is twenty four hours a day of morality.
Question: the Voyageurs came to mind…?
Rinpoche: Yes, yes, but they were French, European. They probably weren’t born in this country. They came over to explore the country. The explorers did it, right? Ever since you’ve been living in your little log cabins and hoping that the wolves don’t get you.
Any questions?
Question: Couldn’t drawing wood be a meditation? ***
Rinpoche: Yes. It could be a meditation. Yes. There are other things that count. OK? But playing tiddlywinks could also be a meditation you understand. It depends on you being recollected on what you’re doing. Being focussed, anything can be used for the Path. That’s a great saying in insight – anything can be used for the Path, particularly wholesome things, of course. But, even if you have unwholesome things present at least try to learn. I have seen people who experienced bombing attacks in war and lots of hate was arising in their being but they somehow heard it and were able to transmute it and learn from it. So, even if you get the upwelling of the shadow in your being at least be aware! Maybe you have a possibility. I think the ones that really don’t get liberated are the ones that have no awareness that they are in a state of sin.
May I tell you one very funny story; you have to be European to appreciate it. And we got on a Dutch vessel that was going out to India and we stopped at Cape Town to take on water and then there’s this 10 days after that you get over to Sri Lanka and 10 days at sea. So the group of dharma students we decided, for the New Year to make, please we are Buddhist, we are not Hindu, right? Hindus may consider us to a certain extent. Anyway, you will appreciate this story. So we decided to make an image of Kali. For fun, excuse me. ‘Pour amuse, pour passé le temps’, and we made a huge statue out of many, many balloons, of Kali, and decorated her, because we were going on our way to Calcutta. And in Calcutta there is Durga Puja every year. And they take the statue of Kali, or Durga, which is the destructive element and so on. Decay, corruption, the passing of time – Kali is time. Time destroys everything, that type of motif. And they take this statue rather like you might have in Italy the parading of a Madonna, right? In Sicily they may throw almonds at it and that kind of thing. And anyway, what happens is you take this figure down to the river side and you throw her in and that takes your sins away. So, we made this out of balloons, a quite passable Kali figure and painted it and decorated it with garlands and bracelets – just using imagination. And we took it out to the decks, a small deck; and the captain of the ship who is Dutch and Friesian, Friesian, from Friesia came in and sort of Germanic type of voice, ‘Voss is das?’ What is this? What is this? He was from a very much evangelical Protestant background. And so – we were innocent children, I can assure you, only innocent children. ‘Well, this is Kali.’ We thought we would just sort of give our sins to Kali and then we throw her overboard and she would take our sins away, you see – a very symbolic type of thing. The Tibetans do it to you. Just visualise your sins disappearing into the void of the universe, the Great Sea. Dissolve it, you see.
I mean, we’re not even – we were only semi-serious, you know, allow sins, of course, sins to go away. So we turned to him and, oh, I think it was Cecily who said, ‘Well, why don’t you’, you know, ‘think of your sins being here.’ “I, haff, no, sins!” Alas, alas. None are as damned as who have no sins. Then I guess you’ll pass through a period of time when you think everything you do is a sin and, at least that might slow you up and begin to transmute. Better the sins you know than the sins you don’t know. Right ho, carry on! Kali, Kali.
What time then? There is a proposal then for 7:30 on Sunday. Can you imagine what this will do to you? Your one day off! May I propose 8:00 as a Libran compromise? Would that be alright? Just a trifle later, 8:00. Fine! I hope you will make effort, remember that one, effort and have a little manliness about Sunday morning because it is an extremely important question and I want to deal with the law and the spirit and search for that, really. There we are. I think the people in the West need ethical teaching, I really do think so. Before they approach meditation they should know moralities and ethics.