宗萨仁波切北大开示(英文版)

The First Day

It is my great honor to make a speech today in this world famous university, which I have heard about for many times when I am abroad.

Learning of ultimate truth is a passion of human beings. Buddhism is just another angle/tool of leaning/finding truth. Buddhism is not a religion, but a means/tool to find/actualize the truth.

We will discuss on Buddhist Views (见地). View is what drives us. Before discussing the Views, l will talk about why Buddhism; like we discuss anything else, we must ask why this thing is needed at first. The reason is simple, because everyone wants fun, to be happy; moreover, we want fun that will last long and also is cheap. We also want a fun, which is portable. In fact, science and technology are also always looking for fun. What is fun? It differs, among different human beings, different cultures and generations. Therefore, the methods/tools to acquire fun have varieties. Prince Siddhartha （悉达多太子）has found that we are not as fun as we want because of one reason: we look at something which is fake, unreliable and uncertain; then we think it is absolute truth. This is ignorance（无明）. This finding is not religious-it is science. It is like everyone wants genuine Italian leather shoes（意大利真皮皮鞋）, but you bought fake leather shoes, and you just don’t have the courage to face it; but Prince Siddhartha has the courage to face it. We may say that Prince Siddhartha made the biggest request for truth-to solve the problem of sickness and death. And he found the truth-you must accept the truth; if you accept, you won’t suffer.

There are many methods of different categories to get to the truth. Unfortunately, Buddhism has now become a religion, and people are attracted to the methods （修行的方法）rather than the truth. Why should there be tools/methods? For example, for a glass filled with absolutely pure water full to the brim, if you are looking for the water, you can’t see water because it is pure. The water is like the truth. Then to make you see the water, someone dilutes it, just like this yellowish color (指桌上的茶水), which helps you see the water. Dilution （着色）is the method. Methods are fake, not the real truth. Do they help? Very much. Without them, you don’t see the truth/water. However, we get attracted to the color. Why did Prince Siddhartha teach so many schools （教派）? It is just like if you are forced to say that sky is red or green under gun threat, you have to agree sky is red or green, although inside you know it is not. The same way, it is because Buddha has no choice but to teach so many schools-although without gun threat, he still has no choice; because he has great compassion （慈悲）. For example, you are dreaming; you are having a nightmare. You dream about a tiger, you are frantic; you want to get out of it. There are several things can be done. The first one is to chase away the tiger. The second, you get a bucket of cold water. These things help, but they are wrong. The cold water can’t chase away the tiger. Why is there tiger? It is because you are dreaming.

Now let’s go back to the Views. Views are ideas. They are what drive us, just like in everything, we have a driving force. For example, we have the idea that BMW（宝马车）, or a slim body （苗条的身材）is a good thing. This is a view. Then we have motivation, but the motivation is conditional. Without the magazines saying that they are good things, nobody wants to be slim, or want a BMW. Under this condition, we have the motivation, for example, of being slim. Then we read about how to being slim-this is like mediation（冥想，静修）. We do things, like cutting rice（节食）, or running-these are like action（修行）. Therefore, views are very important, because they are what drive us.

I am going to introduce the Four Fundamental Views（四法印）.

The first one is: everything is compounded (因缘和合) and impermanent （无常）. For example, every time you look at your hand, there are 3 fundamental mistakes. First, you think of your hand as a whole not parts. There are bones, vessels, etc of your hand. In reality, there is no whole-the hand, there are only particles. Second, you think today’s hand is yesterday’s hand. This is not the truth. Your hand is deteriorating （坏）everyday. Today’s hand is not the same hand as yesterday’s. Third, it’s independent. I will get back to the third point later if I have time.

Views drive us to suffer. Why? It is because they make us to think that a thing lasts forever, and therefore we get attached to it. We won’t think that one day we will go to the coffin. Therefore we go around the world trying to protect it-the thing lasting forever. For example, to live long, which is very important to Chinese, is like the fake shoes, because it diverts you from the truth. Therefore no matter what you do, you will suffer because you are wrong in the view. This is the reason that we don’t have fun, because we are caring for the impermanent. The view that everything is impermanent is not bad. Impermanence is good news. Today’s hand is not yesterday’s hand, if we get our hands dry, we use moisturizer. Without impermanence, moisturizer companies will have no business. Another example, if you are poor now, because of impermanence, you can get rich in the future. It is not a religious threat. In Thailand, monks have their head shaved. The shaving is to remind you of impermanence. It is ritual. Rituals are to take you to the truth, but we are caught by the rituals and forget impermanence. Like what I just said, why is there Buddhism? It is because we want to have fun. But to have fun, we need the understanding that all compounded are impermanent（一切因缘和合皆是无常）. Without this understanding, even if you can live for ten thousand years, you won’t have fun. Prince Siddhartha knows how to really seek for truth-he was very practical. During his mediation, he could know many things by observing, for example, what a deer eats; but it doesn’t help. He wants to get to the bottom of all problems（从根本上解决所有的问题）. Problem one is impermanence.

Problem two is the second View: where does pain come from? Pain is not only headache or something like that. Human pain comes from not getting what we want, and having to live with the uncertainties （不确定性）all the time. We have our beloved ones, but can we see our beloved ones next time? What causes this? There is no evil force. There is no external being creating pains. It is all caused by our clinging to the self（我执）. We have emotions: love, hatred, jealousy, etc; all the emotions come from clinging to the self. This is a big discovery. Why? This is because we tend to blame some one else for our pains, but now we have no one to blame-we should only blame clinging to the self. This is a big subject. For example, we have the teaching of selflessness. However, Buddha didn’t find that the self is wrong, or clinging to the self is evil. This is not religious; this is only because the tools to contemplate selflessness have become religious.

He didn’t discover an evil self, and cling to it is wrong. He found there is no self; therefore clinging to self is wrong. Egoistic is wrong, because everything is conditional. The ignorance（无明） of clinging to the self comes from that we are looking at something only temporarily compounded. For example, we look at this table-it has legs, plank, etc; but the table is only those parts put together. Things put together, then it becomes something. For example, if I write 13 between 12 and 14 on a paper, you will say it is 13; if I write it between A and C, you will say it is B (展示纸). Everything is some things put together. If put another component, then it will become another thing. For example, if we put pillows, sheets on this table, it becomes a bed; if we cut it into pieces, it becomes firewood. Therefore the self is like 13 and B. We are seeking components put together. The Heart Sutra says “in emptiness there is no form, feeling, etc”（心经：空中无色、受...) . A thing is only several components put together. The self doesn’t exist; therefore clinging to it is ridiculous.

It is difficult to combat with the self, because clinging to the self is an old habit. Even quitting smoking is difficult, but it is still a new habit-you didn’t smoke when you were born. However, clinging to the self is a very old habit. The self is always looking for a hiding place, something comfortable, insured, powerful, etc, such as money, power, influence and friendship, etc. If there is no self, there will be no economy. If people practice selflessness, market will crash. If there is no insecurity, there will be no business. I think this is the quintessence of business. We are seeking for what don’t have, but we think we should have. In order to make the non-existing self more comfortable, we are, on a large scale, destroying our world, such as the environment. On a small scale, for our friends and families, we say we love them, but only because we love ourselves. We put them on the self: every time you need them, you can use them.

In The Diamond Sutra, it says “Buddha’s mark (相) is not truth.”（金刚经：不可以身相得见如来）. We like to have a savior（救世主）, or some one to blame or pray to when all the options are run out（无计可施的时候）. There are Buddhas painted gold（金身佛）. We talk about gold Buddha, because we like gold. The marks are skillful means (善巧方便). Truth is Buddha. There is no other Buddha than the truth. Truth has no color, no shape; it is not blond, nor male or female. （真理无色，无形，不是金发碧眼的，不是男性，也不是女性）.We need to get people attracted to the truth, so we paint Buddha gold. For example, if we love somebody, we would try to make him happy; so we would do everything to lead him to happiness-this is like compassion. Because of compassion, we have to try every means to make them understand the truth. However truth has no color, no shape. Furthermore, truth is bitter. For example, I was invited to a wedding several months ago when I was in India. To the couple, you can’t say “you will die finally” or “you will fight with each other some day in the future because you are human beings”. In order to deliver the truth, you must make it attractive. That is why we paint Buddha gold. We even have other elaborate colors, such as blue or red, etc, for different purposes. This is the authentic method to bring you to the truth. For Buddhas of golden color or having long ears touching the shoulders（金身或长耳垂肩的佛像）, will they become your boyfriends and will you date with them? No, you won’t date with them although they have good marks. Therefore Buddhist symbols are authentic methods to make you attracted, then lead you to the truth; because people are bound by shape, color-they are bound by compounded phenomenon （因为人被色、形，和因缘和合的表象所限制）.

Q & A

1. Q: I am a physical major. I read some books on Buddhism and I got deeply attracted. I feel that I would even give up everything to search for truth, but what should I do practically?

A: This is a big question. You are asking me to plan your whole life (众笑). You need to begin with a critical mind. To study, to read, and to contemplate. Don’t try to become a Buddhist-try to be analytical(众笑).

2. Q：I read your books and I admire you so much. After reading your book, I feel life is a big illusion. What is the real goal of life?

A: I am sorry that my book confounded you-I didn’t mean it to be(众笑). The goal of life is we should have fun. Illusion is not a bad thing. We need to know how to play with the illusion. Just as the tiger I just talked about, if you don’t know it is a dream, it is a problem. If you know it is just a dream, then play with it: you can caress it, pluck it-it’s up to you. To sleep with the tiger. (众笑, 鼓掌)

The Second Day

Today we are going to talk about the two remaining truths.

These two are very difficult. Actually, out of the four truths, the first two we discussed yesterday that all compounded things are impermanent and all emotions coming from ego are pain. These two are actually relative truths. Those two remained are what we call the ultimate truths. And the ultimate truth as what Prof. Sharf said yesterday, the moment I speak, I fail. Even in the Buddhism Sutra, we have a saying like, to explain the ultimate truth, even the mouth of Buddha is not enough.

As you see, the thing it is, even today the ultimate truth can not be expressed is already an expression. Remembering yesterday we talked about, in order to take people to these teachings, we have to make the truth attractive.

These two truths, very difficult to make them attractive. Especially the third one. Everything is emptiness. Not attractive at all. The last one, the nirvana. For centuries, we Buddhists have tried to make it very attractive, and actually it had sort of worked. Western Land, the lotus is blooming, you come out from lotus bud and all that. Nirvana, a very happy place forever; your computer doesn't need to be updated. All that kind of things.

But the third one, the emptiness, it is very difficult to discuss. Yes, it is the most important. I would say, out of these four, the third is the most important. For centuries, masters and saints all had tried to explain it. They sang songs about it. If you go to Tibetan monasteries, they even painted emptiness. I don't know if you have ever seen a blue, naked Buddha. No ornament. It represents the emptiness.The blue color represents the sky. The sky represents the emptiness.

Remember what we said yesterday? All these tools are just tools. They are not actually the truth. And I want to really emphasize this because many times we end up with falling in love with these tools. This is why I thought it is very interesting and important what Prof. Sharf said yesterday afternoon. Because as Buddhism travels to different places, the tools have to be changed. How I was shocking to realize one of the greatest traditions in Japanese Buddhism all has a little bit of Christian influence. I was shocked.

These are important for especially academic students to know, not necessarily by practitioners. Because with these information they could be guarded from the misunderstanding.

My translator told me that in china what Buddhist didn't do at the beginning. They called that the Begging bowl, the Chinese couldn't really accept the whole Vinaya kind of phenomena that prevailed in India. Because maybe Chinese are very practical people, they considered the begging is not the right thing to do. You shouldn't do that. Now in terms of India, even today, a life that led with a begging and wander. They consider it a very good life. It's a very formidable life. It's a very, what they call the right livelihood.

As the Buddhism is traveling, it becomes different. In Tibet, if a monk wears blue, the Tibetans will then condemn that. This is funny. Because actually the Buddha allows monks to wear blue. But because the king actually thought monks can only wear either red or yellow. That's why it became like that.

And for many times, actually it becomes a little bit bad also, you know. The things like these culture influences. Like the Tibetan Mahayana. The Tibetan Buddhist is Mahayana Buddhist, they should not really eat meat. But okay, in Tibet, maybe nothing grows. So they can eat meat. When they come to Beijing, there are so many vegetables. They should really eat vegetables. They would say, you know, we still have this old habit. They use Tantra as an excuse also. Oh…we are Tantra practitioners, so we can eat meat. So it is very important for academic students to know these things.

Okay, also the culture habit. Let me tease you a little bit. The Chinese value common sense. They are the people having a lot of common sense. Because their culture has taught them to value common sense. India? No common sense. Because they value wisdom, transcending the common sense. Just like reincarnation (Next life), it's nothing to do with the common sense. Common sense is very much about this life. Just trying to tease you so that you become a little bit agitated with me. You know, why I'm telling you this is because of that the Buddhism also has to adapt.

Anyway, let's go back to the third view. Now to speak with very layperson's language. What you see is not what it is, that's emptiness. I think that's probably the best thing I can do right now. If you see your boyfriend or girlfriend is very handsome or beautiful, you have to realize that most of other people would think they are ugly. The beauty or the ugliness is not there, empty of beauty and ugliness. So everything that appears is not what it is. So they must ask what is really there. We human being always like to ask these questions: what is really there? Okay, how it appears is not what it is. So in that case, what is there? This habit of needing something there is very difficult to break.

So much so, even the Buddha indicated many times in many other Sutras, such as Lankavatara Sutra, the Buddha nature, which is very much related to China. I think Xuanzang really liked this. Also, all my Chinese friends love Buddha nature. You see, again, the common sense is moving in here. If you do something, there is a beginning point, so the Buddha nature is good.

So Nagarjuna people like the Indians, they said nothing exists. Then you may ask, okay, what Buddha said about Buddha nature, what is that? There is a convenient way to say the Buddha nature is a name given to what they called the result of elimination. (The elimination of dualism—Rinpoche said this in the 2nd lecture.) And actually even Nagarjuna said, that is wonderful. Because of that, you could put it like this. You could put everything like this.

Go back to the beauty and ugliness. If your boyfriend is really ugly, really ugly, other people would never think he is handsome. Because the ugliness is the truth. And the space is occupied by ugliness. I'm not talking about other people, even you yourself. In the evening, you find with the candle light your boyfriend is good looking. But in the morning when you waked up, who is this? You see, there's a change. This change can't take place if the ugliness really does exist outside.

These are probably the best thing I could do to really talk emptiness with very layperson's language. But even though it is something not expressible, it is something that can be experienced through examples. There are three basic ways to experience. They have a height ranking. The lowest, examples, like a dream, like magic, at the end of Diamond Sutra. That's the lowest way. Then the higher way: reasoning, which is like what we've talked about the beauty and ugliness. And that's probably what Mahayana people mostly do. But some Mahayana, especially the Vajrayana, then they say, if you have a master who can point out directly the experience of this emptiness, that is the best way! And this can come in the form of many things. I think the Zen people have some talk form. Anyway, conclusion: what you see or how it appears is not what it is. That is the emptiness for now.

Next is nirvana. Nirvana is the fourth truth.

Nirvana in our head is something like you will get it after a long long time. Something like a heaven. That's not a good understanding of nirvana. Because Buddha said, Nirvana is beyond extreme. When all extremes are exhausted, that's the experience of nirvana.

Let me give you an example, this is from a Buddha Sutra. There is a woman dreaming and really longing for a child. She dreamed that she actually got pregnant and gave birth. She was very happy. In the same dream, the child died. She was unhappy. When she waked up, both that happiness and unhappiness have no reference. They don't exist. She is free from these two extremes. But it's very difficult as I said before, because we already have painted a lot of these pictures, like the flowers, the Western Land and all that. Those are very important. We need them. The Amitabha Sutra has many descriptions about the lotus land.

I always give you this example. I'll give you this now. If you are asking me that will you really want enlightment? I don't think so. Not because of my compassion that really drives me to samsara and help people. Nothing to do with that. Because I want to watch the World Cup and enjoy it. Because I want to read Agatha's books and see thriller movies. Do you know what happened when you get enlightment? There is no time. The extreme of time is gone. There is no past, no present, and no future, which also actually means omniscience. So the whole next World Cup, everything, the outcome of play I know instantly. That's not fun. If you watch mysterious movie, you know what will happen right at the beginning, you don't even have to watch the movie. It's not fun again. What I want to say is, usually, we are looking for an enlightment that is partially omniscient, that is enough to read your lover's diary, something like that.

I'm telling you this is because I want to paint you a picture of enlightment, beyond time and beyond space. I do know you would think, wow…this is beyond me. How I can do that? You should not be discouraged like this. This is doable. If you can really pursuit a path, let's say, a few minutes of meditation everyday, training your mind everyday. Now, I'd like to really mention this. People always recognized these sensations like, my forehead is itchy, or my third eye is about to open, or I had a good dream. Please don't speak about that. Because this is disgraceful. Not good.

The result of practice is when you began to have a little bit of shift. Let's say you are someone who gets so plucked up when somebody is praising you, or easily gets depressed if someone criticizes you a little bit. Let's say, after years of mediation, you don't have much that kind of hang-ups. That is amazing! That is equal to the Ushnisha that keeps above Buddha's head. I mean even you have the smallest attachment, let's say you are someone who need to iron your underwear every night, or you are so obsessed with cleanness and neatness. But after years of meditation, you think that doesn't matter, maybe your underwear haven't washed for two years. I would say this is a small enlightment. That's what we are going to pursue.

Before I close, I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce you a little bit about Vajrayana. Because what we've been talking about is basically the common ground for both Vajrayana and Mahayana. By the way, Vajrayana is Mahayana. I'd like to really tell you, without Hinayana, there is no Mahayana. Without these two, there is no Vajrayana. I know the Vajrayana is very ***y in some places. Many people forgot it is dangerous also. A classical example. If you have jaundice, and you are looking at a conch, you see it's yellow. I want to present you how Mahayana and Vajrayana deal with this. Mahayana and Hinayana, they say, look, you should eat this medicine. Your idea of yellow conch is wrong. You should eat medicine and get rid of that yellow conch. Now in the Vajrayana, they say it's a quick path. The reason why it's a quick path, they say it's because you bypass this thinking of yellow conch is wrong, I should eat medicine, so I can get rid of the yellow conch. They don't emphasize the yellow conch. Immediately, you begin to think it's white. Because it is white. You are seeing at a conch. You are seeing at a yellow because you have jaundice. Then think, think and think it's white. The reason why I want to tell you this is because Vajrayana has rituals. All rituals are about deity. All the deities from your self-reflection are like six-armed or something like that. The reason why we say is exactly why we talked about the yellow conch. Instead thinking I will become him, I am him or her! But this has been misused a lot.

In fact, many Hinayana and Mahayana, they don't think Vajrayana is Buddhism. They think it is Hinduism. Especially the Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism is criticized by many scholars and rightfully so. Well, I forget the name of this master. This Tibetan master was going to India. On the way in Nepal, a Hindu master was going inside to Tibet. They met on the road. You know, a Hindu master was going in. A Tibetan master was going out. The Tibetan master asked this Hindu master, where are you going? The Hindu master said, oh, I'm going to Tibet to teach Buddhism. "But you are Hindu.""I'm very much Hinduism. But I know Buddhism. At the moment the Tibetans are so enthusiastic about Buddhism. They'll give me a lot of gold." There is a story like that.

There's another more interesting story. The Atisha Sagara, when he heard XXX died in India. He cried. His disciple asked him, you've heard so many bad news, but why you cry on this? He said, because in this world, there are only two people who can actually differentiate between Hinduism Tantra and Buddhism Tantra. I am here in Tibet. The other one died in India. So there is no other people who can differentiate that. We are talking about the thing happened more than a thousand years ago. I'd like to give you this. You need to think about it, and discuss it with people like him (Prof. Sharf).

Q & A

Question : About retreat.

Answer : Retreat has a lot of definitions. Basically you are supposed to build a boundary. There is an outer boundary such as I'm not going out of my room, out of my cave, or out of my monastery. Then you lock yourself in there for maybe one day, one year, one lifetime. Right? That's the only outer boundary. This kind of retreat is a sort of ordinary retreat. But the highest boundary you can make is between the past mind and the future mind. Being in the present! Even when you are bushing your teeth. That kind of retreat is the best.