His Holiness the Dalai Lama

October 12, 1979

Barre, Massachusetts

Insight Meditation Society:

Talk to Students

The interpreter is Jeffrey Hopkins


I want to thank you very much. I'm very happy. Also, I'm very happy because here it seems the facilities are good, and insight, it seems people here devote to certain practice also I think very genuine and very devoted. So you see, from both sides, the external and the internal, from both viewpoint, I think there's something, good combination, as I always believe they must have a material facility at the same time you must have internal development. So I think here you have both. This is very good. I'm really glad to see these things.

Now as here we gather mainly as Buddhist friends. So I myself, one follower of this great teacher, so all our teacher our Guru, all of us are the same follower of him. And also here are friends, common meeting, common gathering together, with this various believers. It seems that this is something that is a positive indication, a very good sign. All spiritual faiths, there are different philosophies, some are just opposites to each other - we do not accept creator (laughing), you, you see, your philosophy, whole philosophy based on that conception on that theory. There is great difference. But I greatly respect your faith. Because multiple reasons, not just polite, but really sincerely I feel in the past so many centuries, your tradition serve, I think, great service for humankind. 

So because in our human mind, in our human different mental disposition, this sort of variety of spiritual, the variety of richness, rich variety in philosophy or religion, it is something very necessary, very useful. At the same time, if we respect to each other, and choose suitability according to your own taste, and making while you are developing or improving your self, try to making a good human being, not a cunning or ruthless this sort of thing, not trying to control these things, and develop gentle kindness, honest, and these things. While you are improving yourself, at the same time more think about humanity our human society and serve our brothers and sisters irrespective of if they are believer or non believer, or Buddhist or Christian or Jewish, Muslim or anyone. And including communist or atheists who are even criticizing religions. All right. Since they are human being, they want happiness they do not want suffering and also they have equal right to be happy, so we must respect, we must love, we must extend our love and compassion to them. so making common effort to hold mankind. That is our duty. That is our responsibility.

So now, various through different teaching, the various purpose of various teachings are not criticizing to each other, not quarrel to each other, but making common effort to make happier humankind. So this sort of meeting together, in the last 20 years I have many occasions to be with different faiths and people, and pray together and eating together at. Not sleeping together (laughter). So far (laughter). So you see that's very positive indication - pray together, meditate together very good. Now here also here opportunity we have some brothers here very nice.

So now this is the basic or the broader sense. Now the particular Buddhist practice. Now this is our business, not your business (laughter). We Buddhist, the Lord Buddha himself, the best example he show by himself. There's not much to learn or to try, but we must copy from his way of life and his way of thinking. That is sufficient. Contentment, tolerance, serving for other, without selfish motive, this is his way of life, his way of thinking. As is Jesus Christ, I think. All these great teachers, if you look, most of these great teachers, almost like a saint, not luxury type. Not something like a king or Emperor, but just as a simple human being. His inner stance is something great, something tremendous, limitless, but outside appearance is very contentment simplicity way of life. That is different. That is something. That is the quality we must follow about his way of life his way of life, way of thinking. Now you see, the main point is our own way of life, Lord Buddha says, one should not fall to an extreme, living in very bad circumstances, almost something like self torture that's an extreme. Then another, the luxury type way of life, that you must abandon that. So something Middle Way, middle path. And contentment. If you have contentment, usually we say, if you have contentment then you are really rich. If you don't have contentment, even if you are a billionaire, you won't have happiness. You always feel hungry or thirsty, and you want more and more and more. So in that viewpoint you are not rich, you are poor. Still you want you, want you, you want. Contentment, if you limit it, something like a middle class family, contentment is very satisfying. No worry. So you see contentment is very important for the inner facility for happiness.

And tolerance. Lord Buddha, when the Mara, when the evil force come, he didn't use nuclear weapons or even a needle, he just said meditate on compassion and kindness and karuna and maitri. So with that practice, that force he destroyed or eliminated that force. So you see tolerance, patience and tolerance, are very useful. So with tolerance we can develop compassion more easily, and also with tolerance in daily life, not extreme tolerance, some reasonable use of tolerance, here in daily life is very useful. If something happens, if some tragedy or unfortunate happens, if you have tolerance, then that tragedy or unfortunate may not create mental unrest. If you are very impatient, then due to small factor or small reasons you immediately burst, and out of control of yourself. Then either, you see, killing other people or bullying or criticizing or shouting on other, at the same time your own peace completely lost. So there's no use. Now tolerance, even if bigger unfortunate happen, you can bear it. At the same time you remain calm. So actually you are better equipped to face that challenge, that unfortunate thing. If you lose your internal peace and mental stability, actually you are, you will be loser. Because you cannot challenge reasonably or rightly that unfortunate thing. But without loosing internal peace and inner stability, mind stability, you can much better to face that problem. This I can say according our own experience. Now, everyone knows what is the situation of Tibetan and the Dali Lama, like that, then you will know without losing internal peace, I feel, you see, we can manage much better then getting very excited and angry and emotional about it. So our tolerance is something very useful in our daily life. 

Now to compassion. One of the most, one of the basic teachings of Buddha is compassion, love. Lot of Buddhism generally people divided so-called Mahayana and Hinayana and (?)yana or (?)yana. In both cases in (?)yana, or Theravada school, in (?)yana teaching, the basic teaching is on sila, or ethics, the basic ethics. The basis of ethics is to cease harming others. Now not only that, we must serve for other, we must help other. So all Buddhism become, I think, if you take essence, then whole Buddhism in two sentence: if you can, you must help other, if not, don't harm other. These two sentences are the whole of Buddhism. So you see, you can look, you can see, the whole Buddhist teaching is based on compassion and love. We don't have much emphasis on God, we have emphasis on humans, on all sentient beings, and love and humanity, and all sentient beings. So these are the Buddha's basic teachings.

It is something very practical and very great requirement. It is something that is needed every day in one's life. So I admire your activities and you organize these things. Very good. Then, a few small points I would like to mention. First, suppose you religious person, then firstly you yourself should change and improve, and your first responsibility is checking your self, examining yourself, not checking on other, or criticizing other, but criticize yourself and checking yourself. This is the first. Then, you must respect all religion. We should not do any sign of disrespect for other religion. Then, another point as a new Buddhist, at the beginning, you must know that inner development will take time. Not within just a week or two weeks or three weeks or a few months. You should not expect that some good result can achieve within short period. That is wrong. You should not think that way. Now for example, myself. I have no difficulty to learn the foreign language and through our own Tibetan language, I can learn Buddhism very well. And I myself, born in a Buddhist family, and our whole country is a Buddhist country, generally speaking, the majority of the people are Buddhist. Though there are Christian and certain many followers of certain religion which is ancient Tibetan religion, not Buddhism, usually called Bonpo, and also there are Muslims. So majority of Tibetan are Buddhist, and I myself from a young age I became a monk, and like that. So, in the viewpoint of practice Buddha Dharma, I have much more facility than you. But even then, my own development, I think around 15, 16 years of my age, I think some real enthusiasm to practice, I think grow. So now I'm 44. So, many years quite a number of years, I practice. You see between 2-3 years then I can notice, oh, now I see some improvement. But within a few weeks, very difficult (laughter). So now in my case, something like that. In your case, I'm saying this not due to disrespect but something truthfully, you have much less facility regarding practice of Buddhism. I have much more facility, and even in that case you see it take time. So, in your case, no question it will take time (laughter).

So you see, the great determination to practice effortlessly, without loosening ones effort. This is something important. Then another point I would like to mention is, as I mentioned earlier, the very purpose of the practice of Buddha Dharma is the serving for other. So, you should not isolate from society. It seems now that this way of practice I think is very good. In general profession is rare. You're engaging in your own professions within the general society, and then you're taking a retreat here. I like very much, it is very good. So we must remain in the society and serve and help others. So if someone, if there are certain people who become Buddhist and are the type to isolate from the rest of society, and their own way of life something strange way of life, it doesn't flow well, it doesn't flow easily. Buddha's attitude wasn't strange. Buddha didn't show anything strange or behave in an unusual way, but in a very nice way. So we must be very nice. So this is my feeling.

Q&A

Your Holiness what is the most essential thing in the practice of Buddha Dharma?

I think it is compassion, love. That is the basic. And another thing is wisdom, the wisdom side. There are different kind of wisdom, but main wisdom is understand, realization of ultimate nature. Usually we call this emptiness, shunyata, the realization of shunyata. That is something that is very important. So these two are the basic teachings.

How can one work with deep fears most effectively?

There are quite a number of methods or reason. The first is to think about actions and their effects. If one believes or accepts that there are effects of actions. Here you see usually we say something happens, something bad happens, we just simply say oh, very unlucky. Something very good happens we say oh, very lucky. Actually just these two words lucky and unlucky are not sufficient. There must be some reason. Because of that reason, and that day or that time, become unlucky or lucky. So usually we do not go to beyond lucky and unlucky. If we think beyond, what is the reason, then the Buddhist explanation is because of our past karmic reaction. So one way is to think that the fear that you're having today comes as the result of some of your own actions in the past. For instance, if you have fear of some pain or suffering, you should examine whether there is anything you can do about that suffering. If you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry about it. If you can't do anything about it, there's also no need to worry about it (laughter). Then you could investigate who is it that is getting afraid. Examine the nature of yourself. Where is I. Who am I. Where is I. What is the nature of I. Besides my physical and my consciousness, where is I. That sort of investigation. That may help. And for somebody who is engaging in the Bodhisattva practices, one seeks to take others suffering onto oneself. So when you have fear then you can think of others have fear similar to this, and may I take to myself all of their fears. And even though you are opening yourself up to greater suffering, you're taking greater suffering to yourself, your fear lessons. This is one method. Or another way is to not let your mind stay with these thoughts of fear, and put it on something else, and let the fear just become lost. That is just a temporary method. And if you have a sense of fear due to insecurity, you can imagine persons if you're lying down, or so, you can imagine that the Buddha is right here and that your head is in his lap. That also psychologically may help. And then, another method, if any of you have this you know how to recite mantra and so forth, you can do that. So this is my answer.

In different Buddhist traditions there are ideas of different vehicles: lesser, greater, and supreme. When the mind is silent and free of attachment aversion and delusion, does it matter which vehicle is carrying it?

Yes there is. The greater and lesser vehicles are positive from the point of view of the extent of one's thought, of the extent of one's behavior, and the extent of the effect. The greatness of the difference of the vehicles is not posited just by one's own conceptions. 

In this country men and women intermingle very freely, and since old values are no longer to here to there is much confusion about what is right conduct. How are male/female relationships to be a part of dharma practice?

One must give up... there are various levels. Monks and nuns vow to be celibate. For those who can't do that, there are lay practitioners, the conduct of householder is to abandon adultery. And then there are divisions within those who are married and not married.

I don't feel worthwhile as a person. How can I work on this as a beginning meditation student?

One shouldn't be discouraged. All human are potentially saint. You're thinking, or you're feeling, I am something invaluable, or no value, that is wrong. Absolutely wrong. You are deceiving yourself. We have the force of thought, we have physical force, so what are you lacking? If you have will power within your own thought, then you can do anything. If you become discouraged thinking, what can such a person as me possibly do, then there is no way that you can succeed at getting any happiness. Therefore in Buddhism it is usually said that you are your own master. You can do anything.

What is the role of teacher in practice? Is it necessary to have a teacher?

Yes. Again, now it depends on the subject. General Buddhist idea without teacher you can learn through books. But certain complicated subject, without experienced person instruction or explanation, sometimes difficult to understand through just reading books. So generally speaking, yes.

Your Holiness has spoken of service. How can we be of service in our American society?

If you help even only one person, that's help. There are great chances in the field of education in schools and colleges like that. Many are in the Christian Brothers & Sisters in carrying that work which I really admire. There are many things which we Buddhist monks must learn. So, in the field of education and health, this is direct service. Then, something like working in a company or a factory, like a factory worker, direct may not, but indirectly you are serving the society, although you are very much part of, even though you're doing it for the sake of your salary, indirectly it does help people. So you see, such work with your motivation, trying to think, this is my work, meant to help people. But then if you're making guns or bullets, that would be difficult. If you are making bullets, and all the time thinking I'm doing this to help others, I'm doing this to help others, this would be hypocritical wouldn't it? (laughter)

On your journey through America so far, are there any surprising or particularly interesting things that stand out? I'm curious about your general impressions of our country.

No particular surprise. Certainly this country is great country. I think quite liberal, in different ideas and different tradition, quite liberal, that is good. And I think people are generally open and straightforward which I like. Very much. Rings bell.

So thank you very much. I really appreciate meeting with you here. I myself feel, or experience, some internal peace or something like that, here in this place. (laughter) I could not speak nicely but in any case here the atmosphere itself, something here, is very good. In the past, I have visited different places, some Zen centers or like that, and these places, the real, the concrete, internal, great experiences, rather difficult, I'm including myself, very difficult to achieve something very big experience. But at least the atmosphere is something gentle, is something peace, something friend, friendly, and something a really beautiful atmosphere. So that is very good. In some shops, in some other offices, people are not that gentle way. Too much, I don't know, something, too tough. That would create some different atmosphere. Here, not that way. This is some really gentle and peaceful, that's very useful and very helpful to internal peace. So I am very happy. Thank you very much. I will pray for every success for your work. Thank you very much.