“Renounce actually means giving up the methods
that brings unhappiness to ourselves &
the people around us.
“SNAKES, ROOSTERS & PIGS (Part 3)” – #TsemTulku Rinpoche
“It’s not the actions that make it negative. It’s the intent. It’s not the intent that makes it negative, it’s the habituation from which the intent arises.”
“You don’t have the habituation to keep your intent real & alive. That’s why habituation is very powerful. Habituation arises from holding your vows. The ability to hold your vows is a collection of merits that you have. The collection of merits helps you to keep the vows to get you to higher attainments. The purification of your negative karma stops you from breaking your vows. How strong your purification is, helps you to keep your ethics, morality and vows. And how strong you keep your vows, creates the actual re-habituation of what you have been doing for many times.
So if you always happily say I broke my vows, then happily be unhappy. Keep being happy with unhappy. So if you’re unhappy with yourself, keep breaking promises, keep breaking your vows, keep breaking your commitments, keep disturbing and destroying your samaya, keep doing it. Why? You’re happy being unhappy. Don’t you see people always depressed? Always unsuccessful? Things are going wrong? They’re always getting angry, can’t move, can’t transform, they’re stuck in their own little selfish world. Year after year after year and they never ever change. And they go on and on in their narrow little self grasping worlds.
Why? They don’t keep their vows. They don’t do purification practices to allow them to keep their vows. It’s all connected. So when you hold your vows, they’re not a prison.
Listen carefully. When you hold your vows, Pratimoksha, self liberation vows such as Refuge, Bodhichitta and Tantric vows, when you do hold your vows, rather than being put into prison and not allowing yourself to do things you like, you are releasing yourself from prison. Because you create the actual causes for yourself to enjoy the object in which you are attached to without accruing negative karma and hence you become Mukpo…
How do you check if your actions are good or not? You look at the people around you, are you affecting their lives? Are you changing their attitudes? Are you giving them a new perspective? Are you giving them hope? Do they leave you with knowledge, happiness and wisdom? If they are leaving you with knowledge happiness and wisdom, then you are giving them more hope, love and care, then whatever you’re doing, your methods are working. Whether you’re jumping up and down at them, or you’re sitting there giving them a massage, it doesn’t matter cause your actions don’t matter anymore. It’s your intent. And that’s what Mukpo is all about. He doesn’t operate from our reality, he operates from a reality of a non grasping mind. It’s very different and hence his actions are different.”
– Tsem Tulku Rinpoche
“SNAKES, ROOSTERS & PIGS (Part 1)” – His Eminence #TsemTulku Rinpoche
“When we want to go for Dharma, a lot of obstacles happen. Do you know why? It’s the best thing we can ever do for ourselves. When we want to do really good things a lot of obstacles arise. When we want to do not so good things, no obstacle will arise. It is very easy. Good things always have obstacles arise because good things get us good things. So it’s very difficult. In this day & age, Dharma Protector practice is very very important. For those who have correct Samaya, who know how to practice it correctly, it’s very very important. Why?
In this day & age we have much more obstacles than people in the past. People in the past have outer obstacles. Outer obstacles like getting food, crops to grow, weather, ghosts, wars, famine, traveling & bandits. Today, outer obstacles are there, inner obstacles are more. What are the inner obstacles?
Relationships, not having one is an obstacle, having one is an obstacle. Having more than one is an obstacle, having one & wanting another is an obstacle. Having one & not being happy with one is an obstacle. Why?
Then we spend all our time like an animal in heat after this relationship. & then anger, it’s a very big obstacle for all of us. Why? Although physically, all is very convenient. Everything in life is very convenient now. Getting what we want is convenient but there is this dissatisfaction of not finding happiness. Not finding happiness although things are more convenient, creates frustrations & anger.
& anger, when anger arises, I’m not talking about anger that helps. I’m talking about real anger. I’m not talking about a Mother who yells & screams at us because she loves us. I’m talking about anger that you didn’t get what you wanted & someone else did & you’re not happy. When that anger arises, we say things that we regret terribly. We hurt people that we regret. & we do things in revenge. & we get people back emotionally that creates tremendous negative karma for us. Anger is a very big obstacle. Very very big.
Jealousy. Not being able to stand other people having better things than us. & not being able to take what they have. & not being to accept what they have. Those are huge obstacles for us. Huge. & our preoccupation with work, money, many of us are preoccupied with money. & for money, we will do many things that will demean us, that will put us down, that will take us away from who we are. & that will actually make us look very bad to ourselves and bring us into bad habits. For money, we will sink ourselves to the lowest. We will literally kiss anybody, you know what, behind. We will say anything we want to get money. We will be nice to people, we will show a sweet face, we will show teeth. A lot of teeth you know. We will do a lot of things to get money. We will forfeit our Dharma practice, we will break our vows. We will break our commitments & Samaya. & we will work long long hours in hopes of getting money.
Whether we get money or not never mind, we can work 10-15 hours a day to get money. We can travel long distances for money. We can justify to our families & friends for money. We can put away our practices for money. We can even give up our life, our time & our energy for money. We can do all that. Wanting money & needing money is different.
Wanting money & chasing after it all the time, & using that as a source of so called happiness is a very big obstacle in modern times. I will tell you why; because modern times you have videos, tvs, cds, movies, dvds, you have the west, you have the east, opulence, indulgences, you have the lifestyle of the rich & famous. You have all these famous people who show you the pretty side of having money, but that’s only 5%, the ugly side you won’t get to see. & they promote that and they let you know. Ignorant people will want to believe that, & want to be like them. But when we see all those things, we want it. & that’s a big obstacle, you know why? Cause nowadays there are much more shows on “Wealth”, it increases more desires in us. Cause all the beautiful things you see in wealth are just pictures. They are not real you know? You don’t see what goes on behind. You don’t.
& wealth is a huge obstacle, Huge. & time. Distraction of time.
Many of us can’t hang out in a room & keep quiet with our-self. We have to be here, go there, do this & that, it’s very hard for us to be with ourselves. Why is it hard for us to be with ourselves? Because, Silence to many of us equates Loneliness. Loneliness is something without activity. & being lonely is something that everybody fears. They fear it very much but they don’t understand, loneliness is a state of mind, not who you’re with. You can be with somebody & you can be totally lonely. You can’t relate with them, you can’t understand them, just because you’re with somebody doesn’t mean you’re not lonely. Some people are with people that makes them feel lonelier. Much much lonelier. Some people are alone but they are not lonely. Lonely is not being with someone or having to be with someone. Loneliness is a state of mind, that we don’t accept who we are inside. & therefore we need to be distracted with other people to make us look away from ourselves. So being lonely is not being with someone or finding someone or having someone. Living under a delusion: ‘ Oh I have somebody, I have a lover, I have a friend, I have whatever & I’m not lonely.’ In fact some of the most loneliest people in the world are people who have somebody. Think about it.
& then we will do everything. We will cook for this person, we will live for this person, we will change our lives for this person, we will do everything for this person. In hopes that we won’t be lonely. But the more we become slaves to these people, the more we become lonely.
We are not a slave to these people, we are a slave to our loneliness. The fear of accepting who we are, who we really are inside. So instead of facing who we are directly, we distract it. With new friends, new scenes, new clubs, new lovers, new sex positions, new clothes.
So loneliness is not being with someone or not being with someone. Loneliness is not accepting yourself. & who you are & what you need to improve. See when we know what is wrong with us, & we keep hiding that, & we avoid certain people, we avoid certain situations, those people & those situations we can avoid, but we can’t avoid ourselves. So when we hate ourselves because of our loneliness, you know what happens?
It’s that wherever we go or whoever we are with, it’s just a distraction. But we have to come home, we have to go to sleep, we have to be alone, we have to drive, even if you’re the busiest person, even if you have to go & take a poop, you have to be alone, I know of friends who need their dog to watch them while taking a poop. I have interesting friends. Anyways,
Loneliness is when you can’t accept who you are. The faults you have inside of you, the good points that you dare not see and it’s hard to be good, because you live in a society that doesn’t teach you to be good. It’s hard to be honest. It’s hard to be straightforward, it’s hard to tell people you’re normal, it’s hard to tell people you don’t have powers, it’s hard to tell people you make mistakes too. It’s hard to tell people that & it’s hard to tell yourself that.
So you become lonely. So how get away from that loneliness?
We find a lot of things to do, places to drive to, people to go with, & every time we eat we need somebody with us, whatever we do, we must have somebody with us. Non stop. Why? Because it distracts us from our loneliness. & that loneliness is not facing who we really are. The good points & the bad points. Another play of ego.
So therefore, in modern life, loneliness is more predominant.
Loneliness is not being somewhere, being something, having something, or being with someone, loneliness is not daring to look at our faults. & pushing towards improvements. & therefore we want to be distracted from what we see in ourselves we don’t like. So we want to have loud music, parties, beautiful people, friends, books, we want to have anything & everything. To not think about what we are inside. & the incredible thing is that, people don’t realize is that, all the effort they put towards looking for relationships, maintaining a relationship, oh my God, just getting a relationship, all the work you have to put into, & once you get it, boy do you get it.
& once you leave it, you’re stuck, you look for another one. And that’s just an ugly cycle that goes on and on and on. & once you’re in this relationship, you’re still very lonely, because if you weren’t lonely, you won’t be looking at everybody passing on the street. You wouldn’t. You wouldn’t at all.
& then we get depressed, we become unhappy, we become more lonelier, we find out the person we are with is not who we thought, is not what we like, they restrict us, they don’t respect us, they cut us down, arguments, disagreements, unhappiness & all that are distractions.
Why are there distractions? Because those things take us away from the real purpose why we are here.
So if you talk to a bunch of Samsara’s people who don’t know anything, of course they agree with you. When you talk to the ‘evil’ Guru from Tibet, he’s going to tell you the opposite right? Because he is ‘nasty’, he is ‘horrible’. He tells us we have to be a better person.”
–Tsem Tulku Rinpoche
Love Without Agenda by Tsem Tulku Rinpoche
A short excerpt from His Eminence teachings in video 1:
“Renounce actually means giving up the methods that brings unhappiness to ourselves & the people around us.
Ego means the mind that cherishes oneself more than others. Every action that we do we feed it. When we feed the ego, when we feed this mind, the lack of awareness for others, through not carrying out responsibilities, through not keeping promises,through not keeping commitments, or not putting efforts.
When we do those actions, what happens? We can explain it in a way to others or friends, but since they are most likely at our level, they can understand it. But the truth of the matter is, we are actually feeding the ego even more. So when we feed the ego even more, the very action the very reason, we cannot give up, becomes the very reason for us to suffer even more.& to create the karmic circumstances for other people around us to suffer even more. So therefore, that concept, is not very hard to understand. It’s something that we are not used to hearing. But when we hear it, whether we accept it at this moment, or engage it at this moment or not, we remain & contemplate n think, cause deep down inside, we feel that it resonates with something. We feel that it is true. That it does make sense. And that’s what keeps us in the Dharma. That’s what keeps us in spiritual practice. That’s what keeps us pushing ourselves towards spiritual practice because these words resonates & also with what we have done with our lives. Not being aware, is a facade of the self cherishing mind.
Example if we prefer reading fashion magazines as compared with Dharma books, very easy to flip through it & we are intensely reading it, we will find that, reading is reading, words is words, meaning is meaning, but one finds one meaning easy & the other difficult. So that’s how we detect our mind. To say we don’t have time to read, or we can’t read, or I’m not really a reader, I’m not able to read, we have to check if our minds are consistent, if it’s consistent or not.
So if our mind is consistent, in all forms of reading, or maybe we are illiterate but most likely that’s not the case, so the important thing is this; If we come across a difficulty, make it simple, it is difficult because we have not pushed ourselves towards that direction. If we don’t push ourselves towards that direction, we may be losing out on something very great, in the sense of spiritual practice. Some people may go through tremendous spiritual hardships or difficulties throughout their lives, one obstacle after another, one suffering, one letdown after another yet they don’t ever stop practicing. But for them, for worldly things, business or cooking, fishing if they are not successful after a few times, they give up. Why? Because their habitations is not towards that. Some people when it’s towards Dharma practice, they give up very easily, but towards fishing, entertainment, singing, laying around or having a good time, they don’t give up easily. Why?
It’s a clear indication of the state of their mind. Again, I want you to get out of the framework that it’s criticism, it’s not. I’m giving you a guideline to check. It may seem like criticism to some people who’s guilty, self guilty of the actions. They will feel uncomfortable but it’s not criticism from me, why? It’s presentation of information. Presentation of incredible information that we can use as guidelines for our lives. For our relationships, for what we want to accomplish, for the people around us. Therefore, if we always find something difficult, & in this case I’m talking about spiritual practice, then that can be very dangerous for us. Why?
The mind can make many types of excuses, justifications, covers & fears to not engage in spiritual practice. Or while we are engaging, it’s not sincere or real. And the mind is distracted & we fill our time up by substituting it with other things that will make the time go away. So the important factor is we must examine our minds. We must face our minds. If we don’t face our minds, the people we feel secure around will one day be gone, that’s for sure. That’s definitely for sure, or we will be gone before them, if we don’t confront our minds, the very opportunity we have in front of us like health will be gone, or a dharma centre can be gone or closed, or great monasteries have been destroyed, great teachers die, great masters get killed, so when we have this great opportunity in front of us, and we don’t engage in it, what we need to do is; what I was told by my teacher was; to in fact meditate and contemplate, truly meditate & contemplate on the impermanence on everything around us. Whoever we are attached to, wherever we want to escape to, whoever we want to hold onto , whatever that is, we have to contemplate on its impermanence. Why?
Because it’s the ultimate universal truth. Impermanence is the truth that cannot be taken away by any philosophy or religion. To feel the urgency not to lose the chance, that one is not debatable.”
Love Without Agenda by Tsem Tulku Rinpoche
A short excerpts from the His Eminence teachings in video 2:
-“So what happens is, if you need to speak up & you don’t speak up, if you are quiet & u let it happen, you expect other people to show you the way, or you expect other people to guide you, give you the directions, & you don’t want to be the leading light, you don’t want to be the direction, you don’t want to make the effort, you expect others to do, & if they don’t, then you will say I didn’t get the direction. Then that’s incorrect. Why is that incorrect? To a certain level you are correct if you’re a child, but if you’re an adult, then no. You must make an effort.
Buddha went to the forest & meditated on his own. He didn’t blame other people if he didn’t get enlightened. He did not.
So therefore, what’s important is not to think that our enlightenment is dependent on how other people act towards me. Or my spiritual development is how important people act towards me. How they act towards me does not contribute to that. Why? Then it’s letting laziness take over again. Then if laziness takes over we become disillusioned, we give up, we don’t want to do or we become like Sunday Practitioners we just recite empty & we don’t actually fight it. This is very dangerous. Why? Cause every other day, you are just yourself, you don’t care, but on Sundays you’re all holy smoley. No. So what’s important is; we need to check our mind, clearly. The direction we are going to & we need to ask ourselves one question. & I use this one cause its fundamental for all of us.
If we love other people the way we say we love, and even if they don’t know what we are doing, we know. Especially after we listen to the Dharma. We know. Do we love the people we love? If we love the people we love, then we will stop making excuses for the lack of transformations, Dharma practice & inabilities, we will stop. If we don’t stop, it’s very clear we don’t love anyone but ourselves. But the ultimate joke is; we actually don’t love ourselves cause in the end we are alone & we suffer even more.
So if we love others, if we love the people we love, repaying their kindness, or even not to burden them, we have to transform ourselves. We have to.”
-“So if we have a Lama who’s kind enough to guide us, shows us the way, with no agenda. We should grab that opportunity. If we have met a Lama or an organization or a place that we feel loved, loved on an Ultimate sense, caring for our future & our rebirths, we should grab that chance.
We should promote it. We should sponsor it. We should help it. We should do all the work we can instead of being afraid of commitments, we shouldn’t be, why? It’s the only strand of hope we have for ourselves & others. & not make excuses. Not let time pass by, lose more hair, we lose more of our energy, and our health, how much time do we actually have left? Even the high Lamas have to pass away, I went to my Guru’s funeral recently, they opened a funeral & I saw his body burning in front of me, it woke me up. Why did it wake me up? I would tell you the truth.
I prayed that I will never have relationships in this life and future lives, never. That would distract me away. May I never have children. Never. I prayed in front of his body. May I never be engaged in work that just focuses on making money. & I prayed that if I’m born in a rich country rich family, poor country, poor family, may I use the circumstances to turn it around to bring Dharma to others. That’s what I prayed for in front of his burning body. You wanna know why?
Because I’m scared. I visualize myself inside there. With my legs and body burning away and melting. Scared. You know even when I see his body burning, I received a holy teaching.”
– Tsem Tulku Rinpoche
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