Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche’s lecture at Tendrel Dynamics, in Berlin, Germany

(The following is the lecture on Day One, of a two-day series of lecture by Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche.)

Host (Prof. Juergen): (Professor welcomes everyone in German, and continues in English): We are very honoured and very happy, that Professor Samdhong Rinpoche is visiting us in Germany, now in Berlin, making a Germany tour, giving lectures and seminars. He will also be in Hamburg at the University of Hamburg; he will be in Mainz at the University of Mainz and he will also give a workshop at the Tibet House in Frankfurt. Professor Samdhong Rinpoche is a very imminent scholar and teacher. He combines spirituality, academic and political life and this, of course, gives him a deep insight into the inner and outer means of human beings. (At this point Prof. Juergen gives a biographical introduction to Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche, and continues:)

Now I`m changing to the topic: The topic is the dynamics of the mind and reality. How can the Buddhist techniques help to meet the challenges of our time? So we have two aspects of this: one aspect is interaction between mind and reality. They are always interdependent of each other. Nothing can exist by itself. This is important to notice. I can say this in a nutshell: Mind forms the individual reality and vice versa. Now, for almost 2500 years Buddhist and other scientists worked on and followed this trait of mind and reality, or the interrelationship between everything that exists. So they have quite a lot of experience. This is the basis for a holistic view of the world, in contrast to the view from the West, which is fragmented. And it is also the start of the basis for personal development, for spirituality, for relating and for therapy.

Now, the other aspect too can be just said in a short sentence. Our world has a problem, our world is troubled. And I think everybody will agree, we just open the newspaper and all the problems we have jump in our eyes. These problems are, as you know, climate change, pollution of water and the oceans, overfishing, and many other things. As a metaphor: we are dancing on the Titanic, which is going to [collide] with the iceberg. So, it is important to know: what is the reason? Of course there is not a single reason for this. But I recite Denis Snowden: this is not the NSA Snowden, who is in Moscow at the moment, but it is Denis Snowden as the director of the World Institute of Economics in Kiev. He gave a talk and he was telling, there is a very short ecological, economical reason, why we are running in this trouble. And he is saying that we plunder our planet, to produce material goods, of which we expect that they give us happiness, but that, will not materialise. So, we are looking for outer means to give us happiness, but neglecting and putting away our inner capacities. And I think, that this is the interface where Buddhism or the inner science of mind and reality and modern, natural science will meet, to create a much better understanding of the interrelated nature of reality. And of course to perhaps develop means to solve the problems, or at least some of the problems. So, Professor Samdhong Rinpoche will show us the means and ways Buddhism can help us to solve some of these problems. Thank you very much.

(Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche recites a verse of homage, and continues:)

Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche: Friends, my sincere and humble greetings to you all. As mentioned by Professor Juergen, we are going to talk about the dynamics of mind and reality, the relation between the mind and reality and how this insight can help in solving the present problems of humanity or the sentient beings. This subject is very vast and difficult. Nevertheless, I have agreed to give a talk on this subject long time back. Undertaking such an adventure to talk about such a difficult subject with unknown people is very risky. You might have a lot of expectations of the speaker and at the end you might be disappointed in case the speaker does not meet your expectations. Because our ways of looking at things are quite different, particularly a person like me who live in a seventh century civilization, not being trusting of modern or post-modern civilization; in that matter I am totally uncivilized. Also, not having a modern education, thereby I have no knowledge or experience [of this civilization], unlike people of modernity. So, this civilizational gap between us is one of the barriers to communicate properly. So, therefore, there are lots of risks for miscommunication and misunderstanding. Nevertheless, people have to take risks. If you don’t take any risks in life, it might not be progressive. Many times you need adventure and taking-risks.

I remember a conversation between a lady and a priest, it was recorded somewhere in a book. It was a long conversation and at the end the lady asked the priest: Your Eminence, will you give me an answer. The priest said: Yes, yes, lady you can ask anything. Then she said: Your Eminence, are you sure that you are serving the God? Then the priest said: That is the risk a priest or an artist shall have to take. (Laughter) So, I’m taking a risk whether I can communicate to you or not but that is the risk a teacher or an academic shall have to take. Whether we can communicate or not, we have to try.

(A summary translation into German.)

Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche: Since we only have limited time, also because of the translations [into German], I shall have to be brief and to the point. If in the process of making things very brief, things are incomprehensible or not understandable, please interrupt me in-between. Otherwise I will try to be brief so that we can cover the topic.

The topic is the mind, and reality is the other. First, we have to understand what is meant by the words ‘mind’ and ‘reality’. In accordance with Buddhist understanding, the mind is something which has the capacity to know, capacity to see and to understand. That is different from all the physical organs, and which is transitory, impermanent. Still, it has an unending continuity. This is the mind. It is entirely different from the physical organs or physical body. In modernity, many people think that mind and brain are synonyms. The brain is only the organ for the mind and the mind is entirely different and it goes from one body to the other and it has no beginning and no end.

Mind, which is the consciousness, has a quite different numbers of levels: gross level of consciousness which is a kind of sensory mind, then some subtle level of consciousness, that is mental mind, not sensory mind but inner mind; and then very subtle mind that is not awake in an ordinary state, but it only awakes at the time of death and rebirth; or awaking of spirituality. When you are spiritually awake, then all the gross minds immerse into the most subtle mind, and that mind is very energetic and is able to perceive the ultimate truth. Also, the mind is of different levels: one is the conceptual level and the other is the direct or perceived level. Perceived mind and conceptual mind are of different nature. So, thereby you have to understand that the mind is a kind of energy or a thing which is in continuity, having the potential of seeing and knowing.

Then the reality, which is defined with different meanings or connotations, but here the term reality means object of mind. The mind is perceiving, seeing or conceiving. All the objects of the mind are called reality because the reality is a phenomenon or the reality is the object of seeing by the mind. That is called reality. All the existing things which are other than mind are called reality in this context.

The mind and the reality both exist interdependently. Nothing exists independently without relating to or without depending on other. The mind exists in relation with the reality and the reality exists in relation to the mind. This is a basic principle of Buddha`s teaching; perhaps for the first time in India it was the philosophy or the principle of interdependent-origination. The interdependent-origination is termed as pratītya-sam-utpāda in Sanskrit. It has a very deep connotation, so it is difficult to explain this word. In English it is mostly translated as ‘interdependent origination’, ‘interdependent arising’ or interdependent existence. The real meaning is that nothing exists without depending on any other thing. All the existing things, which exist interdependently, are interdependent in terms of cause and effect, or interdependent in terms of relativity relation, or are interdependent in terms of seeing, looking and knowing. So there are many ways of interdependency and not only one way. Not a single thing, which can be pointed out, exists completely without depending on any other thing. There cannot be any existence without interdependence.

Interdependency means interrelatedness. Since things depend on each other they are always related. Nothing can be unrelated or nothing can be absolutely separate, without having a relation to something. Relation is a matter of nature, a matter of all phenomena. There are so many kinds of different relationships. This relationship is the key for positivity or negativity, for growth or decay, for development or destruction. All these are due to the nature of the relationship with each other.

Relationships have many different natures and they are related to each other in many different ways. Nothing is unrelated, which I have mentioned before. We can explain rationally how things are interrelated. The relations can be categorised into two groups: the first is the positive or co-operative relation; the second is the negative or the conflictive relation. Co-operation is also a relationship and it means helping and contributing to each other. The negative relationship entails contradicting each other or having a conflict. These are the two different ways how things can be related to each other. The positive relation is always for growth, development and for betterment and advancement. The negative or conflict relation always destroys, decays or so on.

So, we briefly discussed the mind, the reality and the relationship. Now the third point is whether this knowledge can be useful for the daily life or for the challenges of our time and whether this can be met with the insights of the interrelated nature of Buddhist philosophy. These are the two questions which will be discussed now.

As I mentioned, there are two different kinds of relationships. It may be the relationship between family members, between nations, or between mind and reality. Be it the co-operative relationship or the conflict relationship, these two decide the effect or the result of the relationship. Therefore, we can understand from where the challenges arise which we are facing, the problems with which we are confronted with in daily life, in individual life, in the life of society, in the life of the nation, or in life of humanity or the global community as a whole. All these problems clearly originate from problems in our relationships. If we are not able to make the relationship in a positive or in a natural way, we always push our relationships in an unnatural or artificial way by which we are facing so many problems in the life. In a family—husband and wife or parents and children—there arise different opinions, as they are different individuals, they are not reconciling. ….We look for the solution from outside rather than from within. Solution from within means, to find out the cause of difference in opinion, perception, or conceptual themes. If we look at the root cause of these differences, there is always some kind of ignorance. Both sides might be ignorant, not knowing the reality, or one side not knowing the reality. Thereby, the different opinions are not able to resolve the problem in a capable way. As a result, there are more and more conflicts and these conflicts cause damage to the relationship, which is a problem. Similarly, at the national, society or at the global level, the conflicts have become more and more dangerous, bigger and more destructive. Therefore, due to the deterioration of the understanding of the interrelatedness, we face new challenges today.

Now the next point is challenges of our time. Challenges of our time are very numerous. However, I group them in the following categories: the first present challenge is the increase in violence: violence in the form of wars, terrorism, structural violence, exploitation and many other forms. Entire economic, political and social systems are becoming violent. No-one is safe anywhere. Everybody is afraid of something. This is the first challenge.

The second challenge is the economic disparity; the haves and the haves-not; the gap between the haves and the haves-not is immensely increasing every day. The poor people might….but their psychological…. So this is the second challenge. (Notes: the parts in ellipses, also below, indicate indistinct recording.)

The third challenge is due to our [consumptive behaviour]. We have entirely destroyed the environmental balance and the ecosystem. The environmental degradation is a real challenge. ….The poor planet Earth has no insurance that it will survive for long. The global warming and the climate change are not just speculations. You might have watched the news today and heard of a cyclone that killed thousands of people in the Philippines. Day in day out we are facing these kind of natural calamities.

Finally, it is considered that the source of salvation, happiness and the freedom from all kind of bondage is religion. However, religion also has become a cause of conflict and division. It is called “religious intolerance”, a “conflict of civilizations”. Of course this is a self-contradictory expression, since everyone who is religious has a tolerant mind. Anyone who is intolerant is not in possession of a religious mind.

These are not challenges that are faced by Asia, Europe or America alone, but the entire globe is challenged by this violence. ….Therefore we cannot hope to end the violence. Similarly, the economic disparity and the exploitation; there is no end to it. By that the environment is completely destroyed and no one is safe anywhere. Now we are trying to find some safe place on Mars or on the Moon. That shows that we know that this planet earth is not safe for our future life.

These are very big challenges, so any sensitive person has to think about how we can encounter these challenges. Is there any way to cope with it or to overcome it? It is very important that we think about this. It is rather late. In spite of it, we should still think of it!

All these challenges, which I mentioned briefly, are caused by the degradation of our natural relationship with other sentient beings or with the nature. Our relationships with other sentient beings are being destroyed. Our relationship with the nature is also degraded and destroyed. Due to this damage to our relationship, all these challenges occur.

Why did we destroy this relationship? This is just due to human greed! Human greed has been exploited by few investor groups. Thereby, the human relationship with the nature and the human relationship with other living beings became very competitive; competitive means not co-operative, the negative relationship.

In ancient times, of course there was violence and many negative things but it never reached the magnitude of todays’ challenges. They were all in limitations and even the wars fought were simply either for winning or not to lose, or for the enlargement of territories. But today, the wars are being fought just to create a market for the weaponry productions. So therefore, there is no end to violence. Unless the weaponry or the destructive weapon production comes to an end or given some stoppage, we cannot hope to end terrorism, destruction or violence.

Why did the exploitation of human greed become such a necessity? It is because after Industrialisation, the so-called Industrial Revolution, the humanity has acquired a capacity to produce much more things. Human beings became consumers rather than users. In ancient times we were users; we used the commodities in accordance to our needs. Using is not sufficient for the modern market; it needs consumers. Consuming means consuming things much more than the natural need of humanity or of any living being. So, the users are converted into consumers. Therefore, the consumer cannot have a natural relationship with the resources or the nature, since we are consuming the nature rather than using the nature. Therefore, our relationship became a conflictive one and not a co-operative one. Due to producing things more than the people need, and creating a market, the human greed can be exploited more easily. For the exploitation of human greed, they have devised comparison and competition. Right from childhood on, we are indoctrinated to compare and compete and there is a word, a phrase, “free and fair competition”. Like I mentioned earlier with “religious intolerance”, this is a self-contradictory expression. If there is a completion, it cannot be “free” and it cannot be “fair”, because competition means winning for oneself whilst defeating the other. Otherwise no-one is competing, for winning is always motivated by selfishness. Thereby, the relationship between human beings, it may be brothers and sisters, is being destroyed by the sense of competition. This is the reality of how humanity became consumers instead of users. All relationships now are on the basis of comparison and competition. So, all the challenges which I mentioned earlier are being created knowingly by the human community. Even now although people know about the dangerous state of violence and environment, they are not ready to remedy or stop it. This is our most dangerous challenge.

Time passes so fast, so I have to conclude, so that we have more time for discussions. Therefore, I would say, to face the present-day challenges, first we have to understand the real relationship and interdependency of mind and reality. Secondly, we shall have to try to rebuild the degraded relationship with other sentient beings and the nature from a negative to a positive one. For that purpose we have to give more importance to the mind over the body. And we shall have to try to look inwardly, instead of looking outwardly all the time. We shall have to understand rationally what one’s needs are and what is out of greed. So we shall have to practise to lead our life on the basis of our needs, not under the influence of our greed. For that purpose we shall have to give up the habit of comparison and competition. We shall have to understand oneself and try to restore the self-autonomy; self-autonomy means to decide things by oneself and not by the outer influence. For that, we have to consolidate our mind, to have mindfulness all the time. For that, a kind of meditation is perhaps the key to consolidate the mind and lead the mind in the right direction. Therefore, everybody should look into it early and try to find the basic nature of mind and to keep up the basic nature of mind without the influence of indoctrination from the outside. If we are able to do that, then the compassionate mind will awake. When the compassionate mind is awake, that is the inner wisdom which perceives the ultimate things and thereby the artificiality of mind will disappear. Then you will realize what is your duty, and what is your responsibility. Particularly, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama always talks about “the universal responsibility”. Each individual has a universal responsibility. But in the modern times we always talk about the rights and we never talk about our duties. Without carrying our duties, no right can be protected. ….Even after the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights by the UN, many human-rights violations have taken place in the world, because we have forgotten to think about our responsibilities and duties; we only think about our rights. We can never protect the rights by only thinking about our rights. By performing the universal responsibility with a compassionate mind, you can protect your own right and that of others. So we have to move in this direction, by awakening our inner wisdom or to awake our mind and to relate our mind with the rest of the phenomenon in a positive way. That is the only way to face the challenges.

Thank you for your attention. ….There is little time left; any of your questions or comments is welcome.

Co-ordinator: Thank you very much for your deep analysis of what is the problem in our time and how we can solve these problems. (Invites questions from the audience.)

Question: Dear Rinpoche. I really enjoyed your speech and I was very touched by it. I heard many speeches like this. What would be very interesting to hear from you is: What are the business leaders of the big corporations saying if they are hearing you speak about this topic?

Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche: (laughter) They would be very angry. (laughter) As I mentioned before, what we will do, we should do on the basis of nature, and for the case of business or our resources, it must be on the basis of our needs. The business people, multinational corporations, recently I was told that the entire world is been governed by….and that they have different ways of controlling the entire world economic system. But the fact is: accumulation of such profit and of much more than these business people need, what they will do? When they die will they take the money with them, or will they leave it behind? …; for what purpose? Instead of accumulating the entire world’s wealth in few hands, let the wealth be distributed to all the needy people. There are many people who are starving, many children do not have health care, and thousands of people do not have an education. But it is not due to want of money or resources, but the resources are accumulated, not distributed. So, the big business people must think, what is the real purpose of the accumulation of their wealth and how much they can use, how much they can consume. They know that they cannot consume the entirety of their capital or wealth. So then what is it for? This is a very simple question but nobody dares to ask it or nobody is willing to listen. There is no rationality for such an accumulation of wealth. How much can people use or consume? After all, they have to die and after death, they cannot carry anything with them. All will be left behind, not only the wealth but so many litigations and conflicts and it even creates more conflicts amongst the relatives, the shareholders and amongst the related people. So, this is an irrational thinking, this is only greed. Greed has no understanding of rationality. This is the problem. So, we shall have to tell them about the demerits of accumulation of wealth in few people’s hands, whether they are listening or not.

Question from Prof. Juergen: We should think that managers, of course, are part of the society and they are behaving like the society at large. I think this is very important to know. But you stressed the deeper understanding of mind and reality. So this is the basis of really changing our thinking and acting. Now, a disturbed understanding of that creates all the problems. Now, how do we get this into society? Should we start, for example, training the children to learn how to think differently? Can we do a kind of training at school, including meditation or awareness training with the children? Do you think that is reasonable? Can children accept this already or are they ready to do this? Do you have experience with this for example from the Tibetan society?

Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche: I do agree with the question that we must begin with the children. And we have to take the effort to change the entire educational system. The education system, which indoctrinates with comparison and the competition, has to be replaced by a system, which emphasises health, understanding and co-operation. This is a very difficult job. Children go to kindergarten at the age of three or four and then to school at the age of five or six. By that time, the families or the society has already given lots of impressions on the children’s minds. We cannot leave the elders behind; we also have to try with the elders. Without changing the attitude of parents, we cannot think to teach the children in school alone. When children come to school, they do come with a certain background, with certain ideas in their minds. Therefore, the entire society shall have to take an effort. And of course, education is the most important. The Mind and Life Institute in the USA experimented with about 30,000 children on awareness of mindfulness and a compassionate mind, of warm heart, and the result was very encouraging. His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama is talking about beyond religion and secular ethics. All religious traditions do teach ethics, but there are many non-believers; and even for the believers they should have a close religious tradition, a common universality of ethics. So we have to think about the education system and the parent’s education concerning their children. If we give attention to these things, I think there can be a positive change. And education is the most important, I do agree.

Question: Rinpoche, Thank you. Do you have particular duties in mind for us simple householders? (laughter)

Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche: A very good question. I think everyone should try to have an insight into what is one’s universal responsibility, what is ones responsibility towards entire sentient beings. If you understand this, you will definitely have a compassionate mind and you will have the sensitivity of how to relate yourself to the rest of all sentient beings and also to nature. Thereby, you will be able to lead a life on the basis of needs and not on the basis of greed. If you are able to see the greed and its demerits and you lead a very decent life on the basis of need, then I think an ordinary person or householder is really performing his or her universal responsibility. I think that is the highest ethics one person can practise.

Question: I have a simple question. How can we protect ourselves from deceiving ourselves? How do we find out what is already greed or a basic necessity? Sometimes this is not easy to decide.

Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche: I think the need and the greed is difficult to differentiate in today’s post-modern civilization. But if a person has the basic sensitivity to other living beings, then the need and the greed can be differentiated well. I think unfortunately we don’t have the time to discuss this elaborately, but I would refer to books or literature. The literature of Mahatma Gandhi, the great Indian leader, who wrote a small booklet called: “Hind Swaraj” and the English translation is “Indian Home Rule”. The word in the original language is not exactly “Home”, it is “Self-Rule” but the translation says “Home Rule”.

In that book Gandhi discussed a numerous things on how to differentiate between greed and need. A standard of life is to be decided or to be …. by ones sensitivity and rationality. That might be not easy in the modern society, particularly modern developed society. But still, if you haven’t lost the human basic sensitivity, then one is able to differentiate within what boundary you are within the needs and what is beyond the boundary, when you become greedy. So, it has two dimensions. The first dimension is to understand the self, who I am. Understanding self needs an inwardly mind. The self can never be understood by comparison with others. And each self has different levels of needs and once you understood the self, you are able to live with that understanding. That is self-rule in Gandhi’s way. Self-rule does not mean the self is ruling others. Self-rule means the self is ruling oneself, the self is in charge of oneself. Oneself is not going under the direction of the advertisements, indoctrinations; when one establishes one’s own autonomy, then one will be able to understand the boundary of which is need and which is greed. This is not common to everyone; each individual does have different needs and different categories and values of needs. Therefore, self-understanding and reconstruction of human sensitiveness are the only way to understand the difference between need and greed.

Co-ordinator: There is time for one last question.

Question: (Question in German) Translation: The question is about how to nurse (develop) that inner wisdom. Have I understood correctly that this depends on understanding yourself and also to develop that sensitivity and then to sort of develop that by meditation?

Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche: Meditation, observation and keeping mindfulness all the time, these are the few things which help to understand yourself. Meditation is common to most of the religious traditions but there are different techniques. A very easy technique, which can be employed or adopted by any religious believer or non-believer, that is to observe or to watch one’s own thought and one’s own mental activity. And just to watch with very intense awareness; intense awareness, not as an experiencer, but just as a watcher. A portion of your mind just put there as watcher, and observing and seeing your entire thought process, that will give insight. Of course it is not very easy but if one practises to watch one’s mind continuously for a certain period of time, then it will pave a way for oneself.

Co-ordinator: So we are coming to an end. Thank you very, very much.