Moscow's Teachings 2015

http://original.livestream.com/hungkardorje2012teachings/video?clipId=pla_66b003f9-efc1-414f-a854-b009d3591300
Moscow's Teachings 2015 - (Song Ngữ Anh Việt)

15':15 - So, we have this chance to discuss about Dharma, to discuss about the method to bring peace in life. I came here last time. And this is my second time to come here to meet many of you, and it is very nice to meet you again today in ? It was very lovely reception ceremony. It is very respectful and very nice. So, I am very much appreciated.
(nghe âm thanh tốt từ phút 17:20 trở đi )

17':34 - Buddhism is a very great tradition and the subject when we’re talking about Buddhism, we can talk for many days or many months. But, in fact, withinmany many years to study Dharma. So, we can’t be very great well-learned. Butwhen it comes to Dharma, then Dharma is about how to take care of one’s ownlife or one’s own mind. But Dharma is more than that, it’s not only something thatis good for one’s own mind - How to tame the mind? How to make peace in themind? That is all about Dharma.

20':32 - The difficult practice is, of course, to tame ourwild mind when we say about our own mind very wild, very untamable. Therefore,we need Dharma to make it peaceful. So, it is not easy. Of course, there are somuch negative tendencies in our mind. And we’ve kept that kind of tendency inour mind for constant times. Therefore, we have very strong habitually tendencies. So, it is very difficult to make changes in the mind. But, since we have the best method to make change in the mind – the Dharma. The Dharma is thebest method or remedy to reduce negative emotions and negative thoughts in themind. So, we need to apply, to practice it diligently, and we also need to hearabout the ways how to make peace in the mind, which is the meaning of Dharma,which is the meaning of practicing Dharma.

25':33 - There are many traditions ofBuddhism in the world. Of course, we are somehow different because of theculture differences. People have different ways of understanding things. Andpeople have different ways of doing things. But also the similarity is we all havethe faith in Buddha and Dharma. So, the similarity between the two traditions is to pay respect to Buddha, to show respect to Guru, and to Dharma; and to be veryfaithful, and to be an honest person, and to be careful in our own actions. That isthe similar part in between different types of people in the world because of thesame essence of Dharma that we’ve shared.

28':46 - I think it can be very nasty or badwithout understanding some reality or some method like Dharma. Withoutknowing Dharma, many people whose life is dark. They do not know where to go,they’re stuck in somewhere, or they are lost somehow. Because people are saidthat when they do not know how to take a correct path, then, they’re confused,they’ve gone the wrong path, and they are hurt and they are sad. It’s not a lie butit is a reality for many people. Even ? still makes difference. If you understandabout Dharma, if you have some understanding about karma, especially Causesand Effects, especially Interdependent Origination. These are very useful and verypractical knowledge in one’s life.

33':06 -What makes me to think that Vietnamese peopleare nice is your faith in Dharma. It is always very nice to think or to see yourunderstanding in Dharma, and respect in Dharma. There are many people who aregood people, but somehow they are lacking in understanding of Dharma. So, theymake a lot of mistakes, and they make their life so dark or even darker due totheir ignorance. As long as there is understanding of Dharma, there is someknowledge or wisdom. So, Dharma is about wisdom, and Dharma is something tobring wisdom into your life and into your mind. As long as there is a little Dharma,there is some wisdom, there is a hope. Therefore, to have that kind of faith inDharma is a very special quality of the person.

37:25 - The history of Buddhism, somehowit  is  interesting.  When  Buddha  became  enlightened  person  and  tried  to  give teachings,  it  was not very easy for  him, even though a Buddha,  to spread histeachings in India. But Buddha was very different, very qualified, very wise, andvery compassionate. Therefore, his power, his intelligence was unmeasurable. So,somehow he was able to establish Buddhism in India. And Buddhism has beendeveloped. But, then of course we also can look back to the time, the early timesof history of Buddhism in India, for example, Buddhism was very powerful butthen it was downwards and destroyed. I  remember or I’ve heard many storiesabout how Buddhism was in Tibet in 1940 – 1970, Buddhism was very weak, andalso the faith in the religion was so bad at that time. And people always criticizedthe people who are the religious people.  They said superstitious people.  Theyhave many ways to criticize that kind of people. But then now, there are a lot ofpeople,  powerful people,  intelligent people,  rich people that  Buddhism is veryvaluable. So, the history of Buddhism is changing and changing all the time. Butthis time of times is different from that of many years ago. And now especially alot of people in the world, not only Tibetans or Vietnamese, but a lot of otherpeople are starting to learn and practice Dharma at this time because of their obstacles,  problems,  and sadness in the mind.  There is  no other way to solvethese kinds of problems but to practice Dharma. Therefore, what I want to say is, you  are  here  today  to  practice  Dharma,  and  try  to  understand  Dharma  issomething  good and something correct.


45:50-Therefore, believing in religion generallyand especially like past life or next life, Causes and Effects, negative karma bringsnegative result - unhappiness; and good action brings happiness and good result.This is not only a religion thing, but this is a reality, this is the nature of things. So,to  understand  the  reality,  to  understand  the  nature  of  things  is  not  only  thebelieving  but  is  wisdom.  Therefore,  we  need  to  develop  our  understandingcorrectly and better. Without enough understanding of the reality of things, weare sometimes confused when facing problems or obstacles, then we are hurt, wedon’t know what to do, and we’re just sad. But with enough knowledge here -wisdom, then there is always a way go thru difficulties, obstacles, and problems.To  study  about  Dharma,  and  to  study  more  about  Dharma  is  actually  tounderstand more of  one’s  own life  and how to solve problems in the life.  So,basically  speaking,  learning  Buddhism  is  learning  more  about  wisdom,  andlearning oneself how to be smarter and more intelligent.

51:56 - When not understandingDharma or qualities of Dharma, methods taught in Dharma, the only thing we can do is we have to face difficulties or obstacles; but the way we do it, the way weface it, or meet obstacles, we’re sometimes upset or very angry, very unhappy; sothere’s no balance in the mind. The mind is always distracted by these thoughts.But by knowing good practice in Dharma, there is always a way to take care ofthese things nicely and peacefully, not only that but we can make ourselves betterperson and also better in our mind and better people around oneself. So, that kindof Dharma or practice has such benefits. We always need this kind of methodbecause our mind is always distracted. We don’t have enough strong remedy inthe  mind.  Then  the  mind  is  always  running  after  something,  chasing  aftersomething very emotionally and very unhappily; up and down all the time, not ina certain level, and not in peace at all. But, when someone is doing good Dharmapractice, when someone is keeping the balance in the mind, tries to be peacefulall the time, concentrated, mindful all the time. This is very important. Having thiskind of quality is very important in our life in order for us to keep happiness in themind, to keep peace in the mind.

58:00 -Generally speaking, when we have problems inour mind, sometimes we want to express, or to show our feelings, our emotions,and that also bring unhappiness in the environment because when you show your emotions, you probably show your sadness, anger, jealousy, whatever...sometimeswe want to hold our situation in the mind, to hold and hold until we cannot hold itand we disrupt it. All of these ways of doing things in our life, the way we controlour emotions are not the best way. But Buddhism teach us how to control ouremotions in a peaceful way, for example, when you want to express your anger tosomeone, then instead of expressing your anger, you should show your kindnessand control your anger by not only holding it, but by practicing patience also; byunderstanding  the  negative  part  of  anger  and  the  result  of  anger,  and  try  tonaturally understanding the negative part, so that we naturally want to reducethat kind of emotions, and also understanding the qualities of patience, and theresult  how much good result  that  patience can bring.  Then,  of  course we canalways establish an interest in patience, enthusiasm in patience so that we alwayswant  to  be  patient.  And  practicing  in  patience  naturally  reduces  anger,  andnegative  thoughts.  So,  your  life  or  your  mind  will  be  peaceful  naturally  bypracticing patience. So, patience is such good quality, such good power in all ofthese good remedies, good methods taught in the teachings of Dharma.

01:05:55 Kindnessis  something  very  powerful.  The  most  kindest  person  is  the  Buddha  and
Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. And Buddha said that nothing is a problem for himbecause of his kindness. Nobody, no sentient would make any unhappy to theBuddha because of his kindness. Avalokiteshvara also said the same thing, there’sno problem for him to stay in samsara until the samsara is empty.  There’s noproblem for him to stay that long to deal in with different problems, to deal inwith different beings. But because of his kind compassion, he is very happy, he iswilling  to  do anything,  everything for  all  sentient  beings  without  sadness  andwithout any conditions. It’s not only that  but  he is very peaceful in this way, hismind is never distracted, because of his very powerful compassion; even thosebad people, bad beings try to destroy him, try to attack him, but he thinks that’s afun, something nice to see because his mind is always very calm, very peaceful.Nothing can distract the mind of Avalokiteshvara mind because of his compassionas he said. Therefore, we want to be like the Buddha and like our Avalokiteshvarawho is very steadable and very calm, very peaceful at any time, in any circustancesor problems. What makes that kind of quality is patience, also compassion andkindness.

01:12:15- It took many years or a lot of time for our Avalokiteshvara to develop his compassion like that. At the beginning, Avalokiteshvara had difficulties to develophis compassion, his kindness to all sentient beings, because sentient beings werevery aggressive to him, even though he was trying to be very kind to them, but inreality they were very negative. Therefore, many times that our Avalokiteshvarawanted to give up on his compassion development, and in fact one time he said:“I would give up on my compassion development”. And then, Amitabha appearedin  front  of  him,  and   convinced  him to  develop  his  kindness,  his  compassioncontinually,  so  that  he  would  be  able  to  develop  his  compassion.  So,Avalokiteshvara was depend on Amitabha to develop his compassion. Such greatBodhisattva as Avalokiteshvara needs a good accompany like Amitabha. So, for us,as ordinary people, of course, we need a good source, good companion like ThreeJewels: Buddha, Boddhisattva, Dharma to rely on. And it is very important to dothis way and to see this way. When we take refuge on the Three Jewels, we say: “Itake refuge in the Buddha as my teacher. I take refuge in the Dharma as my path.And I take refuge in the Sangha as my special friends. To do this way is a great wayto protect oneself  able to be greater person because we always need, I  hope,supporter.  Without  these  conditions  we  are  not  able  to  be  independent  byourselves to go on the path, to serve benefits to other sentient. So, having faith in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha is a very good step to do.

01:21:12- We need to learn that topractice Dharma is not very simple and is not easy. Therefore, we need to prepareto practice Dharma diligently. Without enough diligence, then there are a lot ofdifficulties to develop our practice in Dharma, like our Avalokiteshvara, he alsohad many difficulties. So, we need to go to the same way it is not like that todevelop compassion for 1 or 2 days, but we need to understand that something todo  forever  until  we  really  reach  that  kind  of  level:  “I  will  not  give  up.  I  willcontinually  to  practice Dharma and practice compassion and kindness like ourAvalokiteshvara. How he did it.  I’ll  do it.  We need to have this understanding.Some  people  sometimes  think:”  Buddha  is  very  very  powerful  and  very  verycompassionate, so He can give me everything I need”. This is not like that, becauseBuddha says:”I teach you to go to liberation, but liberation depends on yourself,it’s basically depends on you, not on Buddha, but on yourself. It is very importantto understand that and also to apply that way so that we will continually practiceit. Otherwise, a lot of desires in our mind even we practice Dharma. We want to achieve  in  a  very  short  time,  and  then,  at  the  same  time  we  have  a  lot  ofignorance in our mind and a lot of distraction in our mind. When we do not reachthat point at a certain time that we wish in the mind, we get upset. This is not abest way of doing practice of Dharma. Doing practice of Dharma is based on suchall of these qualities as understanding, patience, and diligence. If we don’t have allof these qualities, it’ll be very difficult. Therefore, Buddhism, of course, is aboutunderstanding the interdependent origination. When there are not enough causesand conditions, there are no results. This is idea of cause and effect, and this isessential  point  of  Buddhism.  So  to  be  a  Buddhist  practitioner  is  basically  tounderstand the cause and effect and interdependent origination. Without of thisunderstanding, it is difficult to really practice Dharma well. Therefore, we need tolearn more and more,  and focus more on the causes,  not  on the results.

 01:32:09- Thehuman life was born under desire and attachment. As long as there’s human life,human mind, there’s always desire and attachment. As long as there’s desire andattachment, there’s problem. The desire and attachment are problem maker, themain cause to bring obstacle. So, to practice Dharma to reduce or to ?the mind toempty. This mind is full  of negative thoughts and desire. When there is low ofdesire and attachment, there’s more relaxation and more peace in the mind that we can see basically. The problem is we do not try to reduce, try to work, or try tochange this kind of desire of mind. Instead of emptying the mind, we are fillingmore our mind with many negative thoughts. But Buddhism indicates: Do that, dothis,  how to make your mind more peaceful,  how to make your mind fresh orempty.  Because  you’re  following  your  negative  thoughts  now  you’re  unhappy,because your mind is full  of negative thoughts. If you want to be happy, morepeaceful,  you  should  make  change  in  your  mind,  you  reduce  your  negativeemotions in your mind so that you’re warmer in your mind and also you are ableto relax somehow. This is how we understand Dharma, and this is how Dharmagives us direction and teaches us how to be peaceful.