Lama Tubten Shenpen Rinpoche - Teaching in Ljubljana, part of a series of teachings on the Lam Rim.

(This teaching hasn't been verified by Rinpoche; it is published "as it is")

 

Death is obviously a very important topic, because everything born will die. In the West there is traditionally a taboo about death, there is fear and misunderstanding, which can be clarified by eastern philosophy and by Buddhism in term of understanding of what happens during the process of death.

 

One of our problems in the West is seeing one’s life as a unique segment from the birth of this body till the end of this body. Death is seen and interpreted as the end, as something which is closing the door forever, whatever we believe in after it, heaven or hell. In the West there is somehow no second chance concerning another life. But if we look at this topic from understanding of Buddhism, then the perception of it changes completely.

 

According to Buddhism, passing away could be compared to changing clothes. When one set of clothes get old and cannot be used any more, we just give it away and take another one. So the same person remains in the process of dying, only the aspect changes. Taking that example, death is not any more something radical or terrible; it is just another state, another door, a passage from a life to another life. Just this difference of perception – of a very short period of dying time or a much longer existence with changing of its aspect – changes a lot. It changes a lot when we arrive at the moment of leaving this life. The understanding of the process of dying and taking another rebirth is also a process, which has been described in detail in the Tibetan Buddhism.

 

This is also something, which decreases the fear of death. When a practitioner knows what will happen, he/she is able to train the mind to the process of dying during one’s life. Of course there might be some interrogation at the moment when death will come, and some questions and there will be fear, but at least much less, knowing much more what one has to meet, what will be the different visions, what will be the different feelings experienced by one’s consciousness during all that process of dying.

 

So, that way death is not something, which is far away, something unknown, a taboo – it is something that is integrated in life. Therefore we can include some understanding of the process of death during our life, our practice, our meditation, without any taboo about it, without any idea that this is something about which we should not talk or think about. By performing meditation, training our mind to think about the moment of death and to what will happen at this moment, we considerately reduce negative feeling, fear or stress that can arise at this moment.

 

What we also learn when we study this topic is a process not so unknown to each of us, because not only we have already gone numberless times through this process in the past, but also within this life: this is the process that we are floating with in many occasions. One of the most common occasion is when we fall asleep. Falling asleep process is very close to the dying process. Not only in the different vision that most of the time we do not perceive, because we are not aware and we do not pay attention, so we just fall asleep; but also during the sleep. In Buddhism we believe that our consciousness enters another state and we take another body, a dream body, and that all the process is very close to the dying process.

 

Death can be studied from two main approaches. The ordinary approach is to learn the process that one will have to go through, not to be afraid too much, not to be scared, but to be able to pass through the different stages without being too much destabilized. The other one is a spiritual process, which is a transformation of death into a spiritual experience. I don’t have time to go deep in the second aspect. It helps us to stop repeating something that we have repeated numberless times before, and to seek thorough this process an end to the cycle of conditioned rebirth in the Samsara. So, the death process can be also studied in one’s life as a spiritual path, as a way to approach a level of consciousness with which we commonly have not much contact.

 

If we take death from that approach, we can see that it is not any more a frightening subject or something that is strange to come close to. It becomes a normal spiritual topic and potentially a practice, which helps us to come closer to Enlightenment.

 

So we’ll try to see now the different stages of death, from the 1st moment of death until the next rebirth. We don’t have time to go in detail in each of those stages, but we will try to enumerate each of them.

 

People ask the question how is it possible to know all those different steps if we do not remember them. We can see different sources for getting such knowledge. The first are those high spiritual beings who do not go through deaths as an uncontrolled process but are able to meditate on each of the stages and they are able to remember them in the next rebirth. They were able to enumerate what they have personally gone through. The second source is all those spiritual beings who have the capacity to follow the consciousness of somebody dying. So, while the consciousness is dying, then that person remains in touch with the mind of the dying person and that way they can know exactly through which experience the consciousness is going. It is not only one being or two beings, but beings since Dharma exists, since many, many centuries; this results in a lot of facts. When we talk about a different visions that a consciousness experiences, the time that it takes and the length between one life and the another, these are not just theoretical numbers – it is really coming from the fact of what do exists and what is experienced.

 

If we take in consideration that our being is composed of different elements, namely earth, water, fire and air, during the process of dying we will see the dissolution of those elements. When we say dissolution of those elements, it means that each of these elements will loose its power and energy. Of course all those different steps do not happen suddenly, immediately one after another. It is a progressive process, when we talk about peaceful death, when one is dying in his bed, out of sickness, or of old age. Later on we will see other forms.

 

The all process of dying, from the first signals of death, the dissolution of the earth element, till the moment our consciousness will live our body, is described as taking the time of a meal. So, it depends on how quick or how slow we eat ;-), but usually we say it’s about 20-25 minutes. This concerns common beings. The practitioners, people who have more advanced knowledge or control over the death process, who can use it as a practice, will meditate much longer on this process. So, when I say 20 minutes, it means that it is common. 

 

The 1st element which will start to loose its power is the earth element. When it starts to loose strength, the body starts to loose its mobility, it starts to become stiff, consequently the vision starts to become blur and the forms become confuse and unclear. What we can see from outside, when we observe somebody who is going through this dissolution, is the immobility of the pupil. What is experienced from inside, is the vision of mirage. Mirage is something like when you look at the road in summertime and it is very hot, then at one point you get a feeling that the air above the road is like water; mirage is a water like vision.

 

The 2nd element, which will dissolve and loose its power, is the water element. From outside we can see that this process is going on by the lack of humidity of the tongue and the eyes of the dying person. And from inside, the vision experienced by the consciousness is like a cloud or fog. The sense which is connected to the dissolution of the water element, is the sense of audition. In the earth element it was the sense of vision, which disappeared; in the second element is the sense of audition. So we progressively do not hear well, we become very far, far, far, till only a low continuous sound remains. In the Tibetan text they mention it as a sound “Hur”. It’s the inner sound. When we put on earplugs, this sounds still remains, and when we focus on it, it fills our head. This is the sound of our blood circulating and all the different vibrations that still exist in our body. So, this is the last sound, which remains when all the other sounds disappear.

 

The next element, which will loose its power, is the fire element. From outside we notice it because of two main signs. The 1st is that the body starts to loose its heat. The second sign is the heart, which progressively starts to beat irregularly, weaker and weaker. From inside, from the point of view of the consciousness, first of all the different smells start to disappear, the sense of odor starts to disappear and the consciousness experiences a vision of sparks. For example, when you make fire out of wood, and you hit the wood, you get a lot of sparkling coming out like this. This is the vision experienced by the consciousness during the fire element dissolution.

 

If we thus follow the elements, the next element, which will loose its power, is the air element. During the dissolution of the air element the breath will start to loose its regularity, the expiration will sound much stronger than the inspiration. When we listen to somebody at this stage it sounds like a short taking of breath in and a long breath out. From inside, the mind starts to get really confused, it does not remember well what it has to do what it should not do. Until now it was physical senses which were disturbed, but the consciousness inside was rather clear. Even though it started to become disconnected to the outside, the mind remained clear. But from that moment on and further, it starts to get very much confused. The vision experienced by the consciousness is like the last moment of a candle, when the flame starts to go down and only a pale light remains.

 

From that moment on, the consciousness will not remember much and will not be able to think any more. All the different thoughts circulate within our body following some energy, but at this moment of the death we don’t have the majority of energy. During all the process of dissolution, all the energy of our body concentrates and withdraws toward the heart. We say that most conceptions disappear. So we are reaching the point, when the consciousness cannot feel, cannot discriminate, cannot judge or remember any duty. So to say, if somebody wanted to practice or to keep in mind some good visualization, the work has to be done till now. It seems that form now on, there is not much will to take place in the rest of the process.

 

In order to understand the following step of the death process, we have to make a little jump to several years before this moment, namely to the moment of conception. At this moment, there is the meeting of the three elements: between what we call the red cell, the white cell and the consciousness; the white cell being the male component, the red one being the mother component and the consciousness. When those three components join, the process of development starts. From the place where consciousness enters, first starts to develop the energy body of a being. Following the development of the energy body, cells develop. The first part of the body which develops is the central channel, the main channel, which divides our body in the middle. At the end of the development of the central channel remain a part of the white cell and a part of the red cell. The white part being at the top of the central channel, and the red part being around the part of the navel. Those two elements will not move during our common life, normally they will always remain there. Only at the moment of death they will start to move.

 

So when we have reached the moment of the dissolution, when everything, which has extended at the moment of conception, now at the moment of death withdraws towards inside, and when the end of the dissolution of the air element is reached, just the central canal remains. Then the two drops start to move, the first one being the white drop. While this white drop starts to come down from the top of our head, till our heart, we will experience what we call the white vision. Thus the white vision is the next experience in our consciousness. It is not a bright vision – it is a white vision. We will see a bit later the difference. Usually we describe this vision as being like the sky when there is a full moon without clouds, the sky is not black because of the light of the moon, but it seems to be whitish. Likewise seems to be this vision of white light, like a milky sky.

 

In the next step the red cell, the red element, will start to go up in the central channel in the direction of the heart, and during all the time this element is going up in the central channel, we will experience the red vision. The description usually given for this vision is the sun which is going down in the autumn and all the sky becomes red.

 

Now we have the two elements, the white element and the red element, which have reached the heart place, the heart chakra being the place where the consciousness is located. Once the two drops enclose the consciousness, then there is the experience which we call the black vision. This is not exactly a vision – it would be closer to loosing consciousness. For some time there is a feeling of falling into a black hole.

 

The next moment which will follow the black vision or black state, is what we call the Clear light. It is like we would have fainted, and at the moment we would open our eyes again, we will face a bright light, we will find ourselves in a very bright situation, environment. So, a light without any spot, without any obstacle would surround us. We would melt in this clear light. This is what we call the experience of the clear light.

 

That clear light is the most subtle state of our consciousness. As I said before – all the gross level of our consciousness disappeared and we have been going through a process of loosing all the normal perceptions, normal conceptions, normal ways to conceptualize. We reach at this moment a very subtle state of mind. It is a mind without ego. When we see the clear light, we are facing the most subtle aspect of ours. It is a state, which can serve a spiritual practitioner. Somebody who has trained enough during his life will reach that point without fear and will be able to meditate on that very subtle state of mind, will be able to deeply enjoy this spotless bright state of mind.

 

Usually we say that a practitioner, somebody who has trained in the process of dissolution of the mind, will remain about three days in meditation in front of the clear light. There are some cases of much longer meditation, one of the longest I heard, was about fifteen days of meditation in front of the clear light. Most of the time it is about three days. That is why we usually advise people not to bury or burn the body of somebody who has died before three days pass, because we do not always know who is an advanced practitioner or not. Sometimes an advanced practitioner can hide his spiritual state and at the moment of death he will remain in meditation in front of the clear light. So we do recommend, when somebody passes away, to remain three days without touching the body, without burying or destroying the physical body.

 

But for a usual being, that moment of facing the clear light is a scary moment, a fearful moment, because one is facing an egoless state of mind, a state of mind we are not used to. There is a very basic fear to disappear, to be annihilated. When we experience that clear light and we have the fear to disappear into it, that specific fear is the signal to live clear light and to enter what we call the intermediary state or the Bardo.

 

At the moment the consciousness is leaving the clear light, the consciousness as well leaves the body and enters into the bardo. Since the consciousness cannot stay without a body, it enters what we call the bardo body, which is in all points similar to a dream body. When you start to dream, it is not just a naked consciousness, you have a body in your dream. So in the same situation, when you enter the bardo, you enter it in a process of looking of the next rebirth with a subtle body.

 

What we can see from outside, after the consciousness has left – this sign is not always present – is a little red liquid leaving the nose or little whitish liquid leaving sexual organ. It is explained by the fact that the two cells, of which one is going down and one is going up, continue their way. The red cell will come up through the nose, and the white cell will leave the body through the sexual organ. So, these are two signs which can assure us, when we see them, that the consciousness has left the body.

 

So, now our consciousness is outside the body, it has entered the intermediary state, during which the next rebirth will be searched. It is not, as many people think, a voluntary process; it is not something that you will look for. It is something according to the Karma that you have created during your past life, which will push you in the direction of your next rebirth. So it is not you who decide at one point “I would like to take rebirth here or there”, it is according to the karma that you have created that you will be pushed in the direction of your next rebirth.

 

The length of life of a bardo body is of seven days. This means that after seven days, if somebody has not found yet the place where to get reborn, there would be a small death process, very quick, because there is no physical body to dissolve, and a quick process of taking another bardo body. During the time we are in the bardo, nothing can really stop the bardo body, the bardo body can pass the walls, it can pass anything, the only thing that the bardo body cannot do, is to enter the womb to which he has no karma to enter. But everything else does not serve as obstacle for subtle body.

 

The maximum of bardo bodies that one can take is also seven. This means that between the death and another rebirth, there will be the maximum of 49 days, which is seven times seven days of bardo. That contradicts a western theory, which says that there is more then 49 days between one life and another.

 

During all the time the consciousness is within the bardo, it is possible to access that consciousness. It means that people, who have certain clairvoyance, are able to enter in contact and to help the consciousness not to get afraid or to develop a positive mind and so on. So we usually perform a certain ritual or certain prayer after death of somebody in order to allow that consciousness to create a positive cause for the next rebirth.

 

After a certain amount of time, it can be some seconds, some minutes, some hours, some days, at maximum 49 days, the consciousness will arrive to the spot where the rebirth will take place. According to the state of rebirth in which we will come, the process of leaving the bardo and entering that realm will be slightly different. For example, if you are to take birth in the god realm, you are not going through a development process like embryo would develop in a womb – it’s a spontaneous birth. The process is slightly different also if you take rebirth as a spirit or a ghost or in a Hell realm – it will also be a spontaneous rebirth. Only in animal realm or in human realm it will be a period of gestation.

 

This is in brief all the process of dying, intermediary state and entering the next life. As I explained a little bit earlier, when the consciousness will enter the matrix of the next life, then the consciousness will start to develop at first the energy body, first the central channel will develop, then the collateral channels, and all the little channels will develop, and at the end, following the development of the energy body, the cells will start to develop and then the organs and then the senses. Till birth. In Buddhism we consider that the consciousness is present from the moment of conception. There are various ideas about this: people think that it is after one month, or six months, some people think that the consciousness enters with the first breath of the baby when it comes out, but in fact the body would not develop if there wouldn’t be already a consciousness, because that consciousness caries all the information about the development of the body.

 

The whole death process takes about 20 minutes. There are some situations in which it takes much shorter, specifically in accidents. The process remains the same, but it will be much faster then in case of a natural death.

 

Something to remember when we have to face the situation of accompanying somebody through the process of dying is also that once the consciousness has left the body, it does not hold the memory of the past life any more. So when it leaves the body, it can remain a certain amount of time around the body or in a room, without necessarily connecting to the dead body. When it comes out, it sees a dead body, it doesn’t connect necessarily, “Oh, this was me”. This is a concept, which was gone in the dissolution process. Nevertheless, when there is a very emotional environment: when there are people crying a lot, very emotionally, close to the body, naming the body, recalling his quality, who he was, what he was doing, how wonderful and so on, or the opposite, if somebody hates him, criticizes him, or does other negative things, then the consciousness which is around, which feels it, can recollect, because the whole memory of all our past life is somewhere in it. After the dissolution there is a kind of restarting the counter of our consciousness. But when there are a lot of emotions, it happens that the consciousness reconnects at this moment. And this is usually not auspicious, because in this case the consciousness will develop a very emotional reaction to what is perceived. Either a very strong attachment, if people are crying and are very sad and very emotionally disturbed, or can develop anger or jealousy according to what is the situation. And this is not good for the consciousness; it does not help it to go peacefully towards the next life.

 

So, one of the most important things to do when somebody is dying, is to maintain a peaceful and quiet atmosphere around the body. During all the process of dying and in the following three days after death when we keep the body at home, or as long as possible after the death we should not disturb the body – not leave the body in a place which is either too cold or too warm, and we shall not manifest strong emotions around the body.

 

I think I told you most of the things that I wanted to say about this topic. Do you have any questions about it?

 

Question: So, it means that we treat the dead people completely wrong: we move them, we clean them, we put them in a cold room…

 

Answer: It’s true that we do many things, which are against the liberation of the consciousness. I think it is due to the fact that we do not recognize death. During all their life people do not want to think about it, to hear about it, to face it any way. By rejecting anything connected to death, many people do not learn what is good or what would be good to do at the moment of death. And also, as I mentioned at the beginning, death is considered as catastrophic, as the end of everything. So we are usually not emotionally prepared to death – either our own, or the one of the people close to us.

 

We also include in such events our own personal ego. Actually, instead of seeing the death as the liberation of somebody, as a passage from one state to another state, it is often perceived very egoistically by the surrounding. Why do we move a lot the body after death? Usually because we want to put on some nice clothes, to clean it… But what is the use of it? Once the person is dead – the person is dead. Why is so important to make it nice? There is a complete denial of death. When we are dead, the skin looses its color, this is normal. But some people paint it to look fresh and nice and alive and of course in front of it people develop attachment and cry. But actually people are crying because of themselves. They are not crying because of the dead – the dead is dead, it’s gone – but they are crying because of the lack they start to experience towards the departure of the late one. I’m not criticizing people when they cry if somebody dies, it’s emotionally normal, but it is not the best way to accompany another being to the other life. The death of somebody else could be a wonderful experience for ourselves – a wonderful experience to work on our own emotions: what do we feel when somebody leaves, what do we experience? Those are the moments in which it is much easier to touch the ego – to touch the sense of I – the sense of need of that person, “I feel pain that that person is gone”, “I feel guilty”, “I feel jealous”, “I feel angry” and so on. The moment of the death is the moment when we could work on, instead of pouring a lot of fears in the situation.

 

Question: Would it be possible that the Western science would prove this process of dying?

 

Answer: Considering the consciousness – it is very difficult for the science to prove it. It is difficult for any scientific method to approach consciousness, because it is something very subtle. There are some experiences, which are done since many, many years like hypnosis used in scientific approach in order to bring somebody else to the past life. Putting some people in the hypnosis and regressing in past life, asking what a persons sees, what a person experiences and so on, and taking notes about it and then later on confirming them. There is for example an old experiment, more then 20 years old, made by person called De Rochas, who used hypnosis in a scientific way, with some people taking notes about everything that a person said: he lived in this century, his name was this, the name of the street was that, and so on – and then they went to check things to see if there was a street named like this, a person named like this, what he was doing and things like that. That was an interesting approach because in many cases they could confirm it.

 

There is also another experiment by American man, called Stevenson, the title of the book is “Where reincarnation and biology intersect”. He was studying children who remembered their past lives and who were claiming some strange things sometimes. He has focused on a birthmark such children can have. They are claiming that they were in India for example in this moment of the history, and it’s possible to find on their body some birth mark, and it was possible to make a correlation between a birth mark and the way the person in the past life has died. So there is number of cases like this through which we can prove it, so to say, but it is always possible to argue about the scientific approach. I do not see any other possibilities to really experience it scientifically.

 

Question: How does Buddhism perceive the Western science in general?

 

Answer: I think there has been some very interesting progress especially in the last years. I must say that before the sciences wanted to be too scientific and this way they were closing some ways of experiments and experiences instead of opening to it. Lately, namely through the study in the quantum studies, I think it goes in a very interesting way, because they discovered scientifically that the sciences are not so exact. If science is not as exact as it was thought before, it means that a lot of things might be interdependent. And if they are interdependent, then the mind has its place somewhere. By understanding that things are not exact, square and always the same, they approach the existence of unconsciousness. That is where somehow the deepening of the quantum science will start to be really interesting.

From a teaching given by  Lama Shenpen Rinpoche in Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2001

 

We will try to go a little bit more deep into the subject of the  Awakening Mind and we will try to see at the same time how it is possible to bring such a concept into the daily life.  Bodhicitta is not something that we can say as point one, point two, point three, but more as something that we experience. First I will give you the explanation about the topics and after that you will ask the different questions that you might have.

 

The core of the Buddhist practise is on what we can do for the benefit of the others. In the mind, in the practice of  Mahayana practitioner there is no single moment which is without thinking how to organise the time, how to organise the practice, in order to benefit at the most.  Bodhichitta is the sanskrit word for the awakening mind and the awakening mind is not what we usually define as a  Compassion in our societies. It has nothing to do with the kind of emotion and most of the time in the West, or in our Western cultures, compassion is defined as something rather close to pity or compassion is often applied for a group of persons and for a limited amount of time. But in this case the awakening mind is the way to enter in contact with ALL sentient beings and when we say all sentient beings, it includes all beings like animals and beings that we cannot see. It does integrate all sentient beings with the concept of  Equanimity which means, that we don't have compassion for some people and consider some others as less valuable. The awakening mind is concerned about the welfare and happiness of all the sentient beings in a very equal type of mind. 

It does not consider some beings as friends and others as enemies and it does not promote any idea of jealousy towards some beings and preferences towards some others.

We talk usually about two main kinds of Bodhicitta: the Conventional Bodhicitta and the Ultimate Bodhicitta. 

The Conventional Bodhicitta is the awakening mind realizing  Emptiness and the Ultimate Bodhicitta is the Bodhicitta having realized emptiness.

 

Emptiness is the non-dualistic wisdom, the type of wisdom, which directly perceives phenomena as they are, and not just as we project them to be. I think it is quite evident and clear for all of us that our perception of our environment is very much subjective. But most of the time we don't realize how much subjective it could be, so the all work done by meditating and working on the concept of emptiness is in order to reach a clearer perception of the reality, to have a much better understanding of all the different phenomena that surround us. And when we talk about phenomena we can precise once more that it includes as well objects, events, and beings. 

The way we perceive those phenomena is the origin of happiness and unhappiness. In front of two similar types of event, someone will take it with a positive mind and then will be rather happy about it and someone else will take it with a negative type of mind and then will experience  Suffering. 

One way to develop a positive type of mind is rather to look at the others than to look at ourselves. As we can see most of the time when we are looking at our little being and all the little things around and how everything is in order and all is how we want it to be, we find a huge amount of worries. And all those worries at one point or another end up in some suffering and some stress. At the opposite, if we start to really be concerned about the welfare of the others, we don't find worries; instead of that we find "motivation". We find the deep wish to learn various topics, to learn how to control our mind in order to be more helpful. And doing so, we will understand one important point, that where we are, we are rather limited in our capacities. Because of this, we have to engage into a path that will develop our capacities, which will develop our wisdom and understanding of how and what to do, to help each  Sentient being.

When we understand how much all sentient beings are themselves into troubles, worries and into suffering, than we have this deep understanding that we have to do something. And we start to do something, we start to help as we can with our possibilities and at the same time we go further on the spiritual path in order to get more and more capacities to be able to help more and more. This is somehow the cycle of happiness, because we find a source of motivation which brings us to learn more, to develop ourselves, so we can help the others; and helping the others as much as we can, brings a kind of satisfaction that will bring us further and so on. 

Opposite to that type of cycle is the cycle of suffering. We look at ourselves, at our own welfare which brings us to engage into negative actions which give bad results, and we feel worse, and then we think only about ourselves. At one point of our understanding we have a kind of choice to make; and as far as I can understand, if you are here today it is already that you have this kind of understanding of the situation and somehow the wish to make a decision or to confirm a decision. At one point we have to pass, to jump from the wish to do, to the fact to do.

 

There is a kind of practice that we can follow and that we can go deeper, called the six paramitas, which are about six particular qualities that one can develop in order to help more the others. 

 

The first main quality is the quality of generosity and it is a strong motivation, a strong will to find all possible ways to help and to share. There are various things that we can share, like material things and also the spirituality, the  Dharma. We can give protection to the ones that are in fear and we can also give all kind of different small help to those who are in need. It is a state of mind that we have to emphasis on. Instead of looking what we can gain from the others it suddenly turns to what we can give to others. It is easy to see how in the daily life many people are concerned only about themselves and that those people are the one who are more in conflict with the others. And on the other hand is possible to see that people who are most generous are the people with whom we have good relationship and who tend to have a good or better attitude in general. 

 

The second of qualities is ethics or morality. Usually when we talk about morality there is a kind of fear about it. There is a sense that suddenly we will not be able to do as much things as before, that somehow we will be limited in our pleasures. In the same way, it is easy to see that most of the problem that we meet, as individual and that the world is meeting, is due to a lack of ethic, lack of moral values. The point is not to judge what the people are doing, not to judge you, not to make moral lessons, as Buddhist teachings are not about to judge the others but just to give a small hint, so that people start to look from the inside. That is why Buddhism is the only religion in the world that never droped any blood for spreading its philosophy. 

When we talk about this  Perfection of morality it has to do with watching our daily life, watching how we usually interact with the others and to ask ourselves if we are acting in the most kind way we could. Are we acting, are we reacting for the benefits of the others? Or are we just acting in order to harm them? In a way moral, values should be at first "human based value". How to behave, how to act and interact with others with the less harm, ...

Do not look at this  Paramita of morality and ethics as something that could close your activities, but at the opposite as something that could open your mind. It opens your mind in two ways: first it opens it toward the others and it opens it because it makes you more aware of what is going on in your own mind. Morality could include also the reflection on how we usually behave toward outside objects and phenomena. As we are very often  Self centered we tend to behave with external objects in a very possessive way. We want to possess food, we want to possess the best car, the best and more beautiful things, and even we would like to possess beings. In that way, if we try to possess things outside, we will generate for ourselves a lot of unhappiness and unsatisfaction; and in the same way we are creating some troubles for the others. When we want to get very much something, that is difficult to get, and also other people are trying to get, then we are ready to fight for it. There are even stories of the people who would like so much to possess one person that if they can not get that person they prefer to kill her than to let it for the others!! So morality is how to bring our mind in more stable and happy way to function.

 

The third paramita, the third quality that is good to develop, is patience. Already the word should immediately remember some very close examples in which we haven't been patient.

It is clear that one of the worse type of mind that exist in term of relationship, and in term of  Karma, is anger. Anger does not only destroy a huge amount of positive karma that we have created, but also endanger our relationship with others. And if we look carefully how this anger arise, we find a type of impatience. We want something and we want it now and exactly the way we like it and if we do not get it than we get very unsatisfied; and from this unsatisfaction, anger will come. We can find, almost from morning to night, various small examples. Even if they don't lead to a violent type of anger, they lead to strong unsatisfaction.

Patience is the type of happy and flexible mind. Flexible because if we can not get something done in one way it does not matter, maybe we can get it in another way, or we can get something else. But we don't get stuck just with something that we want in one way.

I like to take usually the example of the car driving, because then, all the people in this room who have a car or who has ever drive a car might understand what impatience is. And even if you didn't drive by yourself, you might have seen other people driving. There is a kind of saying which says: tell me how you drive and I will tell you who you are. And we can see, now that you have this example of driving, I mean with impatience. And you can see easily how this impatience and unsatisfaction just arise from only some projection. There is nothing true, nothing real. Sometimes we get upset because somebody doesn't go quick enough, five minutes after we get upset because somebody is going too quick.

I like as well to take the example of the parking place, as it implies not just the simple type of frustration but also it shows how we grasp the things. After half of an hour that you've been searching for a place, you arrive in front of a free place, you just put the light and... somebody has come quicker than you and took the place! What is our primary reaction? "He stole my place!" Where is the truth in the possession? Was it our place more than his place? Never the less, because of that we will generate a huge amount of negative thoughts:.to come back and park behind him and block his car, to write "stealer" on his car, or any kind of thoughts. And if you have ever drive, and if somebody stole 'your' place, you might understand what I mean. I have a car!

So we can see clearly that out of the incapacity of the mind to remain quiet and to remain objective it is a source of a lot of unhappiness and negative thoughts. We could as well take the example of when we are waiting for the bus and the bus is two minutes late; what are two minutes?! But within those two minutes we get a lot of unsatisfaction.

Practice of patience is to reflect on all those small examples and to take the decision to be next time quitter in front of them. It's clear that it is not from the first time we decide to be patience that we will be an angel. But it will bring us to a type of awareness, that type of awareness which will warn you the next time that there is anger which poped up in your mind. If you are usually an angry person and you get upset for ten minutes, then the next time, because of the strength of your motivation, the strength of your decision to be quieter, you will realize that you are angry after nine minutes and fifty seconds. It's already ten seconds less, and so on. Every time if you become aware a little bit earlier, you will have less and less anger. 

And by that way we will come down in the time of the anger till finding a mental factor which is before anger and which is called "irritation". Usually anger does not appear just like this, it pass through this first mental factor of irritation, even if this irritation might be very short. If you can become aware of this irritation and if you are able to calm the mind at this moment of irritation, than anger will not arise. Because often people say that once the anger has arise than it is good to express it and that if you don't do so, it's a kind of suppressing of the anger. But in this case if you can analyze the irritation, if you can ask yourself the right questions, and if it is good to let this irritation to grow, the anger will not develop and if anger doesn't develop, we have nothing to suppress. 

And this could be applied to many other mental factors; and this type of work -and specially about anger and irritation- is done by analytical meditation, which is started because of that type of awareness which makes you aware that our mind is on the edge to be disturbed. Through one small event to another small event, we train our mind to be more aware of what is going on.

Some people might also appoint the fact that such awareness is not natural and does not let the mind to express naturally. So we might ask ourselves what means to act naturally. Is it to let the mind go as wild as the mind of the animal or is it to try to make it go in a direction we would like it to go? I have my own answer. Daily, time after time we look at different moments, at different situation and we try to recognize which situation will make our mind to go out of itself.

 

The next of paramitas is the joyous effort. Some text might translate it as just effort, or enthusiasm but I will explain, why I like it to be joyous effort. When we decide to start to practice, when we decide to change our usual type of thoughts, we have to face a strong opposition from our mind, because our mind is used since years and years and life and life to go wild and suddenly we ask it to be more controlled, and to go in direction that we would like it to go.

We face often a kind of laziness, and that type of laziness can take various forms, even the forms we don't recognize as being laziness. One of the themes is to do not believe that we are capable to do something. You hear about the six Paramitas and you tell yourself this is far to advanced, I can not do that and you might not even ask yourself if it is laziness or not, you just believe it is true that you can not do it. But on another side it is clearly said that we all have the capacity to reach  Enlightenment, that we all have within ourselves all the capacities. So you might have those capacities and how to reach the realization of those paramitas. So, it is laziness.

And some of the times there is another type of laziness which appears when you tell yourself: "I will do that latter". You come back home after the work or after the study and instead of starting meditating or starting a little bit of Dharma spiritual study, then you tell yourself "I will do that latter", telling yourself that tonight you are a little bit too tired for that. Usually we are not to tiered to watch the TV or to go for shopping. Of that type of awareness I was talking previously, so we will than catch the moment our mind says: "I am too tired to do that"; and we will ask ourselves what else then I will do? What is more important to do? Is it a spiritual practice that will make my mind to be better and that way I will help others in a better way, or shall I just spend time in useless things?? And if we are honest enough we will of course understand that spiritual practice will be much more helpful, hopefully! But we still have a kind of tiredness. Than it is good to reflect, to meditate on positive results we can get of such a practice.

We will think about all those beings as His Holiness the Dalai Lama and all the other holy Masters, all they can do to help the others and if they can do so it is because they have done some practice and they have tried and work on their mind. We will think about all the different ways we could develop, we could learn, to help the others in a more appropriate way. And following such a reflection, following such an approach, there is a kind of joyous motivation that develops and something like a happy will to do something as those holy Masters in order to be able ourselves to help the others. And this kind of happy motivation, happy feelings will help us to put some effort into the practice. This is why I call it the joyous effort. 

So every time we tend to feel a little bit dull, a little bit floppy and our mind look like much more a marshmallow, then every time you will see that your mind tend to have this kind of weak attitude, you will start to meditate on good qualities you could get out of the practice, all those qualities you will never get if you do not do the practice.

Another point to reflect on, is that everything is impermanent. Everything that born, die and if we always put the practice latter and latter, maybe we can loose opportunity to practice. So now, today, we are alive and we have all the good qualities to practice, but what will be tomorrow? You can easily fall down the stairs and not be able to do the practice - what I hope to nobody - but we have to keep that in mind, because we tend to think: "well, I will live till I will be one hundred years old", but if you understand that it's not the case and that death could catch you at any moment, then you understand that not only it is important to start the practice to get those good qualities, but you have to start it now! That is also a good way to fight against laziness.

 

The next of the paramitas is concentration. If we try to concentrate, to watch our mind for one minute, it will be difficult to know about how many things we have thought about. And this is a big problem not only in the spiritual practice, in Dharma practice, but in our everyday life.

If you are working on a project and you start to concentrate on your project, you try to solve the various problems that you will meet in that project, but than your mind will think about the taxes that you have to pay, about the shopping that you have to do for the next meal... and then you come back to the concentration on your project... and then you will remember that you forgot to buy some petrol for your car, and you have an important meeting to do; so at the end you will be sitting in front of your project for one hour, but you might spent just, really, few minutes for the project. And because you could not have focused long enough on the different problems, then you could not have found the answers for them. 

If you are in the kitchen, trying to make a cake, you have the recipe in your head so you start to do your cake thinking about the first part of recipe, but then you will start to think about the different things that you haven't finished yet to do, you will think about your holidays, about the boss at the job which is not nice with you, etc. and at the end instead of making sweet cake you will mix salt in it. And I could take a lot of examples like this, but the point of the fact is, if we do not concentrate on what we are doing it is difficult to achieve what want to do. 

And if it is difficult to concentrate in the case for a cake, try to imagine what it is about when you want to mediate on emptiness! In order to achieve a specific type of meditation on subtle subjects, we have to get this "one point focused mind". Otherwise the spiritual cake will be completely uneatable. 

The concentration is possible with two helps. The awareness, I was talking about a little earlier and another factor that we call memory. We start to focus on one point and often our mind just slips away. First we have to realize that our mind is gone, and secondly we have to remember what we have been thinking about. Because if you went aside too far then you might wonder: "I was thinking about what?"

So those two factors have to be present when we start to concentrate. They are called somehow co-factors.They are not disturbing the concentration, they are somehow stepping aside, just watching. As soon as the mind will have gone somewhere else then the awareness will tell us: 'you have gone somewhere else'. We will then take back the mind wherever it went and will bring it back on our object of meditation. This is why advanced meditator has a very long arms, to get the mind back. This is a joke, of course. 

This process of getting the mind back from far on what we are trying to meditate has to be done without tension. Many times, when we are at the beginning of meditation, we start to visualize the  Buddha and our mind goes away, very often; and we realize it, and somehow we get upset against ourselves because our mind went away. So we generate this kind of frustration and tension that we haven't succeed in what we wanted to do and we lose even more concentration. So when I say without tension it means, that when we realize our mind went away, without any tension, without any stress, we just remember we were thinking about the Buddha's face for example and we bring our mind back. This is in the case of a gross agitation. The gross agitation is when our mind completely goes away from its object.

The subtle agitation occurs when you keep your object of meditation, but it becomes blur. It becomes unclear, because there is like a parasite thought that come. Like you are concentrating, you are outside, outdoor and you are concentrating on a flower and there is a butterfly passing by. You don't focus anymore on the flower, but for a few seconds you focus on the butterfly. Gross agitation would be that you stand up and follow the butterfly. But in this case, because you are a little bit more concentrated, you don't go away, but you don't see very clearly the flower and still you are not focused enough. So to go against the subtle agitation you have to remain as focused as possible on your object and even if in the corner of your mind you see a thought passing by like a butterfly, then you just let it pass and go away, because more you will give strength to that thought and more you will be distracted. 

We could talk about two kinds of concentration: the mundane concentration and the supramundane concentration. The mundane concentration is when you focus on something which is not the Dharma. When you concentrate very well on your recipe or on a project or on any work you are doing.The supramundane concentration is when you take as object of concentration a Dharma subject, like Emptiness.

 

The last of six paramitas is wisdom. We can divide it as well in two types of wisdom, the conventional wisdom and ultimate wisdom. 

The conventional wisdom is the type of wisdom one is able to develop for conventional topics. We could take medicine as a conventional possible topic, art, music and so on. Those are different topics in which we can generate a specific ability to perceive clearly the subject. Unfortunately this wisdom is not taught in the medical university, which doesn't allow all the doctors to develop that specific wisdom!

And there is the ultimate wisdom, which is a specific wisdom applied to emptiness, which means that we take as main subject of our concentration: emptiness. When we concentrate long enough on the subject of emptiness then we might realize the' wisdom of emptiness'. 

 

So those are six qualities, six important factors that we have to go through, that we have to develop, in order to be able to help more and more sentient beings. Those qualities are indispensable, if we want to have the best approach to a spiritual life. 

So, if we are motivated for what we can do for the others, if we are motivated on how to help the others in the best way, than one must start by learning the six paramitas and should look how to apply them in the daily life. And we have seen various examples that we can improve in our daily life. 

Of course is not the process which can take place immediately, I like the comparison again with the driver, but in this case with new drivers. When we first get the driving license, then our driving is very chaotic and it is only by the practice of driving and driving and driving again, that we can reach much fluid way to drive, till to finish with the elbow by the window and keeping the driving wheel with two fingers. But the danger in that somehow is to believe, that once we have a driving license we know how to drive and the second danger is because we do not drive well at this time to think, that we will never drive well. So we have to avoid this two extremes. At the point you engage in the practice, it would be dangerous to believe that you are already a perfect practitioner. So you have to remain aware that you have to learn, that you have to practice and you have to remain open minded for possible advices for the practice. 

And the opposite is to believe that there are so many things to do or it seems there are so many things to do, that we are unable to do them. To apply the spiritual way, we have to keep in mind, that our motivation is the ground. 

The point is not to know by heart fifty pages of Tibetan practice and to know how to move the  Bell and the different objects, but to know exactly why we want to engage into the practice. Of course you can learn the fifty pages of Tibetan text and learn how to move the bell and everything, but you have to keep in mind your motivation.

You have to keep in mind that, for the time being you might not be able to achieve as much as you want, you can not engage in as much practice as you would like and you can not help as to as much beings as you would like, but you have to keep in mind the wish to do it, so you have to keep in mind that even now I can not help much beings, because I don't know much, because my life is so, that I can not help as much as I would like, but if I continue the path I will be able to do it. If it is not now it will be a little more latter. 

All process that arises in your mind when you decide that you would like to help the others, is extremely important and even if no action can take place for the direct benefit of the others, if you just wish to help, it creates already a huge amount of merits. If you see somebody who needs the help and you can not help immediately you can generate the wish that you would like to do it, that if you would know how to do it, if you had the material things that person might need, than you would love to do it. And you should as well rejoice to see somebody else doing it. You can not do it, but if you see somebody else coming and helping that person, you should be extremely happy that somebody else has done it. 

It all lies on how much one is ready to engage for the benefit of the others. How far one is willing to put aside his own personal desire, his own personal projection for the sake of the others. Some people want to engage into the welfare of the others at 10% or 50% or 100%. It is basically up to us to decide how much we are able to engage into the practice.

We often give ourselves wonderful excuses to do not engage as much as we would like, and I hope I will not shock anyone saying that I really don't believe in those excuses. Of course I understand that it is not always possible immediately to do what we would like and it might take some time to rearrange this, to rearrange that, specially if we have children, young for example, so we can not do all what we would like to do, but at least we have to have this impulse to do it.

 

Thank you for your patience.

A lecture by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to professors and students at the Law Faculty of Ljubljana, Slovenia / July 5, 2002

 

Indeed, I feel a great honour to have this opportunity to interact with students, because I believe the future of the world much depends on the present. Therefore students are supposed to make preparations for the future. In this period, perhaps more contact with different people, different cultures, might be of some help. Therefore I feel very happy to have this opportunity.

 

In spite of my long name, which is a traditional belief, practically I'm just another human being, just like you. We are same, mentally or emotionally or even physically basically we are same. Whatever kinds of emotions are there in your mind, I also have the same. Some of my emotions really create troubles in my mind, so as you, same. And also sometimes those emotions, which create troubles in my mind, equally have counter forces within my own mind. So I think the realization that comes naturally is, since I don't want troubles, therefore I will make more effort to strengthen those counter forces to the troublemaker emotions.

 

Here perhaps, I can tell you some of my experiences.

 

At the beginning I would like to tell you about my basic belief. All human beings are same. We all have the same desire for good, desire for happiness, desire for overcoming problems and Suffering. Important: we all have the same right to overcome problems, suffering.

 

I believe the main demarcation between human beings and other mammals is human intelligence. Other mammals also have the same desire for happy days and happy life and desire for overcoming problems. But we have the intelligence, the human brain, and that makes the difference between human beings and other mammals.

 

Of course the entire humanity now recognizes that the human brain is so important. Right from the beginning, everywhere they are putting a lot of effort and paying a lot of attention to education. So in this body is the learning center.

 

I think some kind of universal recognition is that the human brain is something really marvellous and very important to develop. Now some critics to modern education system is that they pay sufficient attention to brain development, but sometimes they don't adequately pay attention to the development of warm heart.

 

Obviously in the West, in Europe, almost a thousand years ago a separate education institution started. At that time and also through many centuries, what the brain development is concerned, it has been taken care of by this separate education institution. But as far as morality or warm-heartedness is concerned, the church, and also the family were taking care of it.

 

In modern times the influence of religion declined and also the family values declined; to some extent also the environmental situation makes differences. It seems in modern times there 's much negligence about the moral ethics side or the warm-heartedness side.

 

Also for example, the recent events on this planet, like events in your neighbourhood, you see - one day you are close friends, and the next day you become so called enemies and kill each other.

 

Then look at September 11. Look at that event - using a civilian plane full of fuel, because it was a long-distance flight, and full of passengers, using it as explosive. That's really unimaginable, unthinkable. Actually on that very day, in the early morning, when I heard about that event, I couldn't believe it. Only after I listened to the BBC and later saw it on television, then I thought: "Oh, such horrible things happened!" I think a very clear indication, in order to carry out that kind of destructive work, is that they prepared it if not for one year, but at least for a few months. I think they really investigated various points. A dull person can't plan that kind of thing, only a very very brilliant mind can make that kind of plan. Then without the modern technology, again that can't happen.

 

So with the combination of modern technology and sophisticated human mind, guided by human negative emotions, such unthinkable disasters can happen. That shows us that it's not sufficient just to take interest about modern technology and to have the information or knowledge in our mind. That alone is not sufficient. And also the development of human intelligence itself is not a guaranty for a better life, for a constructive life.

 

So the education, or the development of the brain must be balanced with the sense of responsibility, usually I call it the sense of global responsibility, which is here very much related to the sense of Compassion. If you have the sense of compassion, sense of caring for others, sense of respecting others, then such destructive work won't happen. Modern technology and human intelligence then could be constructive. Therefore I think, we really need to look more at our inner human values and to put more emphasis on the development or promotion of these human values.

 

On many occasions, mainly in Western Europe and also in America, I'm often telling people, especially to education institutions, I always emphasize that we need the education plus the sense of moral ethics. -These two must go together.

 

When we talk about moral ethics, some people ask whether moral ethics must be based on religious faith or not. I found that there are two opinions - some friends of mine say that moral ethics must be based on religious faith, but some say it's not necessary. I belong to the other category.

 

Moral ethics or what I call with another word basic human good qualities: the sense of sharing with one another, sense of caring for one another, affection to one another - these are the basic human values, human good qualities. These help to bring harmony. These emotions or senses bring harmony, friendship, and a happy life, therefore we can call them human values.

 

After all, we human beings are social animals. Our very existence entirely depends on other fellow human beings, on the environment, and also on other sentient beings. So at least the other fellow human beings are the foundation of one's own good future. Under that circumstances close relations, friendly relations with other fellow human beings are essential. If you have close relations with other fellow human beings, wherever you go, you always find friends, smiles, and affection.

 

Affection cannot be showed by machines, we need human affection. You could be a billionaire, have a lot of money there, but money, gold, diamond rings never show human affection, these have no ability to show human affection. Some animals can show us genuine affection when we show them our warm heart, they respond very nicely. But one priceless diamond ring, if we show a smile, there will be no response, nothing.

 

Therefore in order to have happy days and happy weeks and months, on the family level or on community level, affection, the sense of caring for one another, is the key factor. We call them human values, because they help us, they are something useful for us.

 

Although anger, hatred, and jealousy are also part of the human mind, part of our emotions, we do not consider them as human values, because these are the destroyers of our friendships, destroyers of our smiles. I think with a hatred motivation an artificial smile is sometimes possible, but a genuine smile never comes out of hatred. So our friendship can't be on the basis of hatred, on the basis of jealousy, on the basis of too much arrogance. Therefore these are not human values. Although they are part of our nature, they are not human good qualities.

 

Now we can see that these emotions, including negative and positive, are part of our life, part of our mind. From childhood on these are obviously with us, but religious faith only comes later. I think in my own case, even before people recognized me as a Dalai Lama, when I was just a helpless small baby, my mother showed me kindness and affection. Maybe from my father's side less. Also my elder sister is often telling me that when I was born I had one eye closed and one eye open. So my elder sister actually opened my other eye, the one that was closed, and she's often telling me: "I opened your eye!"

 

So certainly, right from the beginning, human affection surrounded me, and because of this the development of my brain and other things happened more or less properly. I'm quite sure, when I was growing up, when I was a small child, if at that time the atmosphere was cold, lacking human affection, then today my very nature could be a little different. Therefore, these human values, human affections, from my childhood on are very much relevant, very much there. Also if other people, including my mother, showed affection, then my response towards them was also more smiles, some kind of feeling of intimacy.

 

So the human affection was very much there at that time, but religious faith, in my case Buddhist faith, even if I had these Buddhist monk's robes, in my mind Buddhist faith was not much there. I think I reached Lhasa when I was seven years old, and I got ordained as a novice monk, but inside there was nothing. Then I started serious Buddhist studies and receiving teachings, but still I considered it just like something that I'm compelled to do, without much enthusiasm, without much interest. At that time, at thirteen, fourteen years, my only interest was to play. So in that age I was not serious about religious faith, but when I was fifteen, sixteen years of age, then eventually came a more genuine interest about Buddhist faith and more enthusiasm to study and like that.

 

This clearly shows the relevance of human values right from the beginning, they are very important, but religious faith comes later, so it's entirely different. Although various religious traditions talk about or consider the importance of these human values, it seems to me that various religious traditions are actually strengthening human values. So that's why I think there's almost a universal recognition that these human values are important and useful.

 

Therefore at different times within the last 3000 or 4000 years of human history, different religious traditions, different faiths eventually came to shape with philosophy, and they all recognized that these human values are positive and important. Therefore you can see that each tradition is talking about these human values, such as the message of love, compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, Self-discipline, contentment, and humility. All religious traditions talk about these things, so there's some kind of universal recognition.

 

The real essential message of all traditions is the same, in spite of different philosophies, different traditions, and different ceremonies. Therefore I feel that religion is simply strengthening or supporting the human values, but basically the human values and religious faith are separate.

 

So it becomes clear, human values and religious faith are different.

 

Obviously we noticed that there are people, who dedicate their life for others, there are many records there. In former socialist, communist countries, there are people, whether it is due to indoctrination or not, in any case, some are really willing to sacrifice their own life for the benefit of the communities. Among the Chinese I found some, they are really determined to serve the interest of the larger community. This is just one example, without any religious faith these human values are very much alive. This is a very clear indication.

 

So the point is that we need human values, but we do not necessarily need religious faith, even without religious faith we can be good human beings.

 

There is another problem, if we touch the religious faith. "What religion?" is the next question that comes. As I mentioned earlier, within the last 3 to 4000 years so many different traditions or religions developed. The message of all of them is same, but in the way of approach, in the philosophical aspect, there are big differences, somehow fundamental differences.

 

One example is, there are theistic traditions, such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, many Hindus... Then there are non-theistic traditions such as Jainism, Buddhism, and also some ancient Indian thoughts; they have no concept of creator. So there are fundamental differences.

 

I think from the viewpoint of a theistic philosophy or tradition, these non-theistic traditions are not religions. So some people call Buddhism atheism; Buddhism is a kind of atheism. Therefore usually, in order to make a distinction between Buddhism and other atheists, I call them radical atheists, like communists. As far as Buddhism is concerned, generally speaking is also atheism, but not radical, we accept deeper values, meditations, and we also accept limitless lives. Therefore Buddhism is a kind of spirituality, but we don't believe in a central absolute power, a creator. So from that viewpoint we are atheists, we are same like communists. Communists and Buddhists are same. So if you feel that communists are dangerous, then Buddhists are also dangerous.

 

So it's difficult if you make a close relation between moral ethics and religious faith, if you think they should go together, then the work for the promotion of human values must be linked with a religious faith. Then you might ask: "Which religious faith?" And complication is there. We cannot have one world-religion. I feel each religion has its own beauty, its own uniqueness.

 

Within theistic religions the concept of god is, I think, a very powerful concept. This central power, absolute god, a creator, who creates everything, so there's more genuine faith to that concept. For example in everyday life, if a believer faces some problem, including illness or finally death, if you have a very strong faith, "my illness", "my death" appear difficult, unwanted, but they are god's creations, so therefore there must be some meaning. That way of thinking reduces your own pains, difficulties. Then, I'm often telling people: "If you have strong faith to god, creator, then what's god's wish?" It is happiness for all creatures. So if you really love god, you must demonstrate the genuineness of your faith and show love towards fellow human beings. That's the genuine message of Christianity, that's my feeling, it might be wrong, but this is my view. So the real faith is love to fellow human beings, that's love to god, that's the message. That's its beauty.

 

Buddhism also has certain uniqueness. Each major religious tradition has its own uniqueness, its own message and good things. After all, within the last few thousand years, why did these different traditions happen? Because among the humanity there are different mental dispositions and different environments, therefore different traditions happened accordingly. I do not think that one religion could satisfy everybody, but a variety of religions can satisfy a variety of people. There are already different traditions there, and that is very positive, very important and we must keep different traditions.

 

So making one world-religion is nonsense, it is better to keep these different traditions. Therefore the forefathers of Indian independence, like Mahatma Gandhi, because in reality there are so many different traditions, they decided India's constitution according to secularism. Secularism does not mean denying religion, not like your previous boss - to ban religion or to put restrictions on religion, not that way. But it means freedom for everybody, whether one has a religion or not. If one has a religion, what religion is entirely up to the individual. There's no connection with the state, the state respects all religions, that's secularism. I think because of that reality the idea of secularism happened.

 

So now, I describe human values as secular ethics. If you have a religion - good, if not - good, no problem, but these basic human values must be recognized as one of the important factors for a happy life and a happy society. So my main effort is to promote secular ethics. Between various education bodies we need, I hope and I wish, some discussions, some seminars about the importance of human values in modern society.

 

I heard in this young nation, newly independent small nation of around 2 million people, particularly this morning when I met the mayor, the Rector was also there, I asked what's the crime rate, and they said that the crime rate comparatively to others is very low, and that’s really good news. More prosperity, good education, a very beautiful country, less crime within the human society, very friendly, more peaceful - that's wonderful. So that's what we need, after all we are same human beings, we all live on the same planet.

 

Now particularly in modern times, with the so called globalization, everything is interconnected, so it is very essential to have the sense of oneness of humanity. That I think is very essential.

 

So we need human values, and in order to have sufficient strength of human values, we need effort. It's not sufficient to say "These human values are part of our life, so they are already there!" That's a mistake. We must make effort on the basis of awareness on two sides, one is with awareness deliberately trying to increase these positive human minds, or emotions, such as sense of compassion, tolerance, community, sense of responsibility and also the sense of self-discipline. Self-discipline not like in the previous communist states, where everything was under control, one must obey what the state says, what the party says. Not that way, that's discipline imposed from outside, and that’s totally wrong. But with discipline here I mean discipline out of awareness.

 

If I have some trouble in the stomach, then when I choose food, although my tongue prefers this one, but then I think: "Oh, although this is good for my tongue, it is bad for my stomach!" Therefore in spite of the desire of my tongue, I consider a peaceful stomach more important than just a few minutes of taste, so I don't touch that. That's self-discipline, out of awareness, for my own interest. So now, what's the use of anger, fighting, alcohol, too much smoking? Eventually it ruins my own body, it ruins my own health. So out of awareness of that reality, in spite of some desire - discipline. That's discipline out of awareness. So we need a sense of discipline. These are human values and we must deliberately strengthen them out of awareness and investigation.

 

A helpful reason, also according to modern physicians: now they begin to realize that the peace of mind is a very crucial factor for good health, isn't it? How to develop the peace of mind? Not through prayers, not through just meditation: sometimes so-called meditation is just to close your eyes and think about nothing, just like that. Like that I think the pigeons also meditate very well, they remain like that; and some rabbits also - "Oh, very good meditation!"

 

So the real meditation is to analyze - long-term interest, short-term interest, interest of myself, interest of others. That's meditation, to analyze. Scientists are actually doing meditation, analytical meditation, and that's the way to change our mind. Scientists do analytical meditation mainly on external matters, spiritual meditation is to analyze within our own mind, and particularly the emotions. Analyze, what emotion is destructive, what emotion is good, constructive. So the peace of mind comes not through prayer, or through simple meditation, but through analytical meditation.

 

The real destroyers of our peace of mind are anger, hatred, jealousy, fear, on the other side the foundation of peace of mind is inner strength, self-confidence, and that is brought by with altruism, affection, compassion. Compassion opens us, opens our mind, then you see that the others are also part of myself, and that reduces the sense of fear, sense of distress. So, get more inner strength, and as a result, more peace of mind. Therefore out of awareness deliberately strengthen these good qualities of mind, and on the opposite side deliberately try to minimize anger, hatred… That's the proper way of transforming our emotions.

 

One example is knowledge. When we are born, we have very limited knowledge. But nobody says: "That’s part of our nature, so leave it!" Nobody says that, isn't it? Through years and years of effort, then eventually you become like Rector, like these great professors. Through effort, through learning you get more knowledge, isn't it? I think when our hair is becoming lesser and lesser, our wisdom is becoming greater and greater.

 

So it is similar with emotions, from the negative emotions' side, and from the positive emotions' side, through effort they can change, they will change. That's the way of promotion of secular human ethics.

 

That's about my talk. Thank you! Now some questions!

 

 

Q: As I understand Buddhism, the basic idea is that people are unhappy, because they want things they cannot get. So the answer of Buddhism is to control your ambitions. Without ambitions there is no progress, so how do we get both, progress and contentment?

 

A: All religions talk about the importance of contentment. From the Buddhist viewpoint, in the field of those things, which we can develop infinitely, we should not have any contentment, we should progress further and further, and develop them further and further. In those things, which themselves have limitations, it is better to have contentment.

 

Further elaboration - material, for example money, or even fame, they have limitations, so in such fields it is better to have contentment: "Yes, I have enough money, OK!" If you go further, expand, get more money, more money, eventually there's limitation. After all, our life also has a limitation, generally speaking maximum 100 years. So money is only for this life, for this physical body, it has nothing to do with our emotions, nothing to do with our mind. So in those fields, where there is limitation, it is better to have contentment. If there's more discontentment, there's more desire, more effort, then a slight hindrance comes - disappointment.

 

Then from the Buddhist point of view, mental qualities such as compassion can be developed infinitely, not only in this life, but life after life. So there you should not have contentment, because in reality you can develop them infinitely. And wisdom also. So those things, which are related to our mind, mental qualities, they have scope like space, limitless.

 

Ambitions of mental qualities should not have contentment; physical things have limitations, so in the matter, in the physical field ambitions, it is better to have contentment. Clear!

 

 

Q: You mentioned two negative phenomena in your speech. One was crime, one was the example of 11th September. Now I wonder, how should we view those negative things in our lives, how should we react to them?

 

A: Your question is not very clear. What should be our reaction to September 11? (and to crime in general…)

 

We must oppose! To the sense of responsibility, sense of community, the crime brings more discomfort, more fear, so we have to eliminate it, or at least we have to work to minimize it. That's why we are talking about the importance and promotion of human values. Why? If everything was good, than this kind of effort would not be needed.

 

There are so many problems on the family level, on the individual level. For example, on the individual level there are frustrations - one wanted to get something more but didn't get it, then he got too much mental unrest and frustration, then he is relying on alcohol, also relying on drugs, and in the worst case, commits suicide.

 

Killing is mainly done out of hatred, stealing or gangster crime is mainly, generally speaking, done out of desire and no respect of others' rights. So everything, you see, depends on motivation.

 

The demarcation of violence and non-violence - we can't judge on superficial appearances. One example, out of desire to cheat someone, to exploit the other, to fool the other, one uses a nice word, an artificial smile, some gift (like gift for happy birthday or Christmas), but his real motivation is to try to exploit, try to cheat. Then that act of a nice word, both physical and verbal action is violence. On the other hand, some teachers, professors, out of a sense of concern, sense of caring, use little harsh words, some disciplinary words. They look a little aggressive, but because this action is done out of concern, out of helping them, protecting their long-term interest, so essentially it is non-violence.

 

Therefore all these terrorist acts, these criminal acts on the international level, or national level, or community level, or family level, these are unwanted, and these must be eliminated, must be minimized. Clear!

 

 

Q: Do you see some hope for your country, for Tibet with all the troubles under the Chinese system?

 

A: Oh, yes! If you look at the Tibetan situation locally, then it looks almost hopeless. A lot of damage is done to the environment and there are a lot of cultural changes. Usually I describe that intentionally or unintentionally some kind of cultural genocide is taking place. Actually the policy in Tibet is the rule of terror, and you have also experienced these things.

 

If you look locally, then things are very difficult, almost hopeless, but the Tibet issue is very much related to the development of China proper. Now, look at the People's Republic of China, as a whole it is in the process of changing. Today's China compared to twenty, thirty years ago, is much changed, so it will change. It is China's own interest, they have to go along the global trend, that is to respect the human rights, to respect religious freedom, and to have the rule of law, freedom of speech, and freedom of media.

 

There are two Chinese reporters here, most welcome! What we need is freedom of your media, that’s important. Everything is censored, controlled by the government, just one-sided information is given to the Chinese public, that’s very sad, very very sad.

 

One example is my own case, I'm never demanding independence, I think I repeated a thousand times that I'm not seeking independence, I'm seeking genuine autonomy. Sometimes I'm jokingly telling the audience that I have one Mantra, which is: "I'm not seeking independence, I'm not seeking independence, I'm not seeking independence …", and the Chinese government's mantra is: "Tibet is part of China, Tibet is part of China…" The reputation of this mantra is that up to now it does not seem much effective, from both sides.

 

Therefore the global trend is open society. Look at the Soviet Union, the whole Eastern Europe including yourself was under its influence, under its control. You see, when the Berlin wall was there, some communist leaders expressed that this wall will remain for 700, if not 1000 years. But things changed, not with nuclear weapons, but by people themselves. We are human beings, and we have the desire for individual freedom by birth, so no state can stop that. That’s the reality, that’s why the Soviet Union changed.

 

In the Chinese case also, now in the communist party time is changing, they really work hard to change suitably according to existing circumstances. Therefore, China is in the process of changing. It is the Chinese own interest, sooner or later they have to go according to the global trend. Therefore, judging from that level, for the own interest of the People's Republic of China, they have to solve this problem, the Tibetan issue, realistically.

 

So, judging from that, it's hopeful, very very hopeful.

 

 

Q: Should we see animals and plants as equal to humans?

 

A: Plants, that’s something different. Like vegetables, when we bite them, there's no sign of pain on the vegetable or fruit, isn't it? Although, I think we must respect all forms of life. That means, too much exploitation of natural resources without limit, I think that’s a kind of violence. To use the natural resources for our minimal requirements, that of course is something different. If we believe in God, then God created these things, if not, they were created through evolution and they are the supporters of our life.

 

But then the beings are not only alive, but they experience cognitive power, and with that they feel pain and pleasure. So according to Buddhism and also Jainism, they belong to the same category - sentient beings. They all have the same desire, as I mentioned earlier, the same rights. Therefore we must respect animal rights.

 

Q: Slovenia is a Catholic country. Which values do you see as worthy to be kept in the society and also on the University?

 

A: As I mentioned earlier, all religions emphasize the importance of love, compassion, and forgiveness. I think the Gospel clearly mentioned: If someone hits you here, show the other side. This is the practice of tolerance, it's very clear. Then also contentment, if you visit some Catholic monasteries or nunneries, the life there is very simple, with great devotion to their own practice, their own faith. These are indications, that Catholicism considers the importance of human values.

 

I think whether an individual accepts religion or not, that’s up to the individual. But once you accept any religion as your own religion, then you should look at your own religious tradition more seriously and practice as much as you can in daily life. The mistake usually is that when you attend the Sunday church, then, as I mentioned earlier, you remain with eyes closed for a few moments, then you get some peace of mind at that moment, but when you carry on with your daily work outside the church, then that faith is no longer relevant. That’s a mistake.

 

Religion is something like medicine, when you're ill medicine is required. So similarly, in church there's no problem, there are no troublemakers, therefore your mind is quite peaceful. In any case, when your real life is involved, say, some unfriendly person approaches you and you have the tendency to have some negative feelings, at that moment you should remember: "Oh, Jesus told us to have tolerance, to respect others and to show love and compassion towards all fellow human beings!" Remember that, and then act accordingly. Then, if you have some desire to tell a lie, then remember: "Oh, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, a follower of Christianity, I should not tell a lie!" So that’s the way. When the illness comes, you should take the medicine, similarly, when the trouble due to emotions is about to happen, then remember your faith and try to minimize that negative emotion. That’s the practice.

 

Usually I have the view it is much easier and logical to follow one's own tradition. So for example people from this country are traditionally Catholics, therefore it is safer and better to keep one's own tradition. There are also some people, who seem to be taking interest about Buddhism. Generally speaking, changing religion is a very serious matter, therefore you should be very very careful. Of course, once you really feel or find that your own tradition is no longer effective for yourself, and at the same time you don't want to be a radical atheist, but you want to be a more modern atheist, then it's OK. If you think very carefully, and then find that the Buddhist approach is more suitable, more effective, more acceptable according to your own mental dispositions, then it's OK.