Must Watch: Don’t Embarrass the Buddha
Tantra is an advanced practice and a quick path to reach enlightenment. What many of us fail to realise is that before we can become a suitable vessel to receive and practice tantra, some level of preparation and transformation is required. If we are still depressed, angry, narrow, difficult, and never change, we are not ready for tantra. If we close people out when they talk to us, we are not ready for tantra.
People who are ready for tantra are those who will not run away when things are difficult, they will not run and keep quiet, they will push themselves to listen, open up, and change the habit of closing people out.
Tantra is quick and easy when we are ready. It is also mysterious to many and has caused a lot of misunderstanding due to clever marketing. People are interested in “secretive” and advanced practices, but they also want something fast without changing their bad habits and behaviour, a very important pre-requisite for tantric practices.
Watch this most unlikely Dharma talk on tantra in town!
Don’t EMBARRASS the Buddha!!!
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/10DontEMBARRASSBuddha.mp4
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TRANSCRIPT
Don’t be saying, “When are we getting Yamantaka, Rinpoche? That centre’s giving Yamantaka. All we ever know is learn Dharma and about the mind. When can we get some secret tantra? Can we ring a bell?”
Oh dear, even I heard some people are excited to go ring a bell. “You mean we get to ring a bell during the Tara puja? I’m going to go. I’m going to ring my bell. I’m going to ring my bell”. Do we want to hear your bell?
Do you think tantra is about a bell? Do you think tantra is about a secret initiation? Do you know what tantra is about? Tantra is about right now, this moment! Do you give up when it gets tough? Do you give up when things get difficult? Do you run away? Are you still feeling sorry about yourself and telling the world I am depressed? If you are still depressed, you are not ready for tantra. You are not ready.
When someone says something to you, you go rah, rah, “Oh, I want to be a lineage holder”. And then when someone says something to you, maybe you don’t talk to them. Alright, in your psychology, in your mind, deep down you say, “I will not talk to them for 3 months. Let them feel how they have hurt me. I will not talk to them. When I see them, I will say “hello”, I will be cold. I will teach them a lesson. How they hurt me. I want to be a lineage holder”. Oh dear…And then, when you ignore people when you are mean to people, and then you sit in front of the Buddha praying, “Oh, may I help all sentient beings, I took refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, oh bless me, bless me, bless me.”
It’s like Buddha inviting them to go inside a toilet. Then it’s like a toilet. Then “come and bless me.” Tsongkhapa be like, “Alright, I will come over and bless you!” Yes, you are like a toilet. Why are you like a toilet? Being angry is smelly. Being narrow is smelly. Having no awareness is smelly. It’s like a dirty toilet. I’d rather eat inside a dirty toilet than hang out with someone that’s difficult. Right? Do you want to be around someone who is so difficult, full of anger, never change, always narrow, listen to the Dharma talk here, and it comes out here… pfft! Right?
Cannot come out here, cause what our mothers tell us, come out here; go in here, come out here. So, what your guru tells you, come out here. Easier what. You have many holes, so we utilise all. Think about it. And then we say, “Oh I want to pray”, and then you do offerings in front of the Buddha, you do nice offerings, “Isn’t my offering nice? Look! I got Ikea tea lights, Om Mani Padme Hung.” And the Buddha sitting there going, “Oh dear!”
What do you think an offering is? Is an offering some cheap water from your faucet in front of the Buddha? You think the Buddha sits there all day thirsty, slurping water? Do you think the Dharma Protector sits there waiting for your cheapskate black tea while you have Latte at Coffee Bean? You are having Latte, slurp and go, “How are you, dear?” “I am fine. Are you rich?” “I am.” Slurp. And then to the Buddha, you offer one black ugly tea in a small little bowl, “drink, drink,” and Dharma Protector be like …. ugh, slurp.
Do you think the Dharma Protector is waiting for your ugly black tea? Do you think Shakyamuni or Tara or Tsongkhapa is sitting on your altar waiting for your cheapskate little water? Some of your water you added flavour to it, with some dead bugs floating on top. Flavour what! Think about it.
Do you think that’s what the Buddhas are waiting for? No. The Buddha is waiting for this; I am not making a joke. And I can prove it to you in the Dharma text what I’ll tell you. Everything that I tell you, I can prove it to you.
When someone tells you something and you don’t like; push yourself to listen, push yourself to open, push yourself to change your habit of closing people out. When you come across a difficult situation, don’t run. If you have run, go back to it, apologise and make up for it. Don’t run and keep quiet. That’s an offering to the Buddha. When someone gets on your nerves, show patience. Don’t shout and hurt them back ever. That’s what the Buddha wants. That’s better than your cheap little black tea that you bought from some discount store, Giants.
What’s the point? So, when you go to Gaden, you go like this to the Sangha, to the monks and say, “Nyah, fly a kite”. Don’t go there… (fold your hands, pretending to be holy). That’s grotesque. Why? They know what you did. They know. The High Lamas know. Then when you go to Setrap chapel, you go there with your cheap pearls, “Om Maha Yakcha Tsa, Om Maha Yakcha Tsa, eh… Om Maha Yakcha Tsa, ah…”
Then here you are angry, you ignore people, you are bitchy, you run away from responsibilities, you are not nice to your Dharma brothers and sisters, you are closed up. And then you go to Gaden, eh… Om Maha Yakcha Tsa… (praying). Why do you think Setrap is like… (fierce)? Why do you think? Look! Look at the way you look. You are such a liar. Why do you think he (Setrap) is so pissed off? Go in that room, he is always pissed off. Always pissed off. You think about it.
It’s to control your mind. It sounds funny but you’d better think deeper. Time is short. Opportunities will be lost. And if you think you are young and going to live forever, the people around you are not going to be young and living forever, the people you care about. So, every time you pray, every time you do your Sadhana, every time you do your offerings, every time you look at the Buddha, shame on you! Why? Because you treat them like statues not like Buddhas.
You think about that. You want to practice Dharma or do you want to practice Samsara? How long are you going to be angry? How long do you want to hold on to your concepts? How long do you want to hold on to the way you think things should be? Should be this way, that way. They are like that, they are like this, that’s why I am like that. Stupid! So, when they drop dead and they take rebirth as a cow, do you want to join them? “They are cows, now I join them.” No!
Rinpoche doesn’t teach Yamantaka, Rinpoche doesn’t teach Vajra Yogini. He doesn’t know much about that anyways. If he knew much, he won’t teach much to you guys because there is not much to teach. Look at you. Look in the mirror. Ask yourself, “Do I deserve Yamantaka?” Like Snow White’s wicked godmother, “Who is the fairest of them all?”, “Not you, sister!”
She gave the apple, right? To Snow White. So, you asked, “Am I the most qualified to receive Yamantaka?” “No, you are not!” Punch the mirror, don’t punch me. If the mirror tells you, “You are qualified”, you are lying, and the mirror is lying. Some of us attended Kalachakra with Dalai Lama. “The Dalai Lama is my Guru. Since the Dalai Lama is the best Lama in the world, I am very good because I am his disciple. See, I am a goody-goody because I am in the Dalai Lama’s group.” The Dalai Lama is great, but you are a shame.
And, and what did you get from the Dalai Lama? “I got the Kalachakra”. Did you do the Sadhana? “No.” Did you do the mantra? “What’s that?” Do you know the vows? “Never heard.” So, what did you do after you receive the Kalachakra? “I eat, sleep and have sex with my wife/husband, and I make kids and I make money and I hate myself.” Oh. So, after you received the Kalachakra you hate yourself? “Yes.” And you are depressed? “Yes.” And you have enemies? “Yes.” Do you show your black face to people who are ugly to you? “Yes.” How do you change your habits? Do you talk less? “No.” So, you received Kalachakra? “Yes.” So, are you holy? “Yes.” You are like, “huh?”
That’s really interesting. Can you imagine all these people running around “I am Dalai Lama’s student, I am Dalai Lama’s… ah, do you believe in the Dalai Lama?” If you say “No”, that’s it, they come and kill you. If you say “Yes” and they go “Ah, good we’re friends”, then when you talk to them, they know nothing about the Dalai Lama. They know nothing about practice. They don’t even do the practice. They are lazy. They sit at home saying “I am not happy” all day long, and they make people around them unhappy. If you tell them they are happy, “No, I am not!” And then they say, “I am depressed, but I am Dalai Lama’s student and I believe in Buddha…”
You just listen to the worst people say they are so stupid. They come up to me and I listen to all this and I look at them and go…. I think just wait till I have a Dharma teaching I’ll never forget. I love it. I have this incredible evil memory for emotional disturbances.
So, if you are Dalai Lama’s student, you have to be of very high quality. If you attend his teachings, you’d better be very high quality. And if you believe in the Dalai Lama, which we all do, you’d better be very high quality. You’d better be very kind. You’d better be very loving. And you’d better stop feeling sorry for yourself. Otherwise, don’t tell people you are Dalai Lama’s student. Shame!
Just look at you guys. You go to another country as a group, and tell, “Oh, we are from Malaysia.” They say, “We are not going there, thank you.” Take a look. Just take a good look at yourself. There’s a Let’s-Make-This-Not-Go-To-Malaysia-Year because I have met like about 60 of them and they’re freaks. Can you imagine, Chia, go to America, where are you from? “Wer-ray-sia.” Where? “Were-ray-sia.” Where is that? “By Ringapore.” Oh. “Where is Ringapore? “Well, next to Rindoriver.” What is Rindoriver? “There, the forest fire.” Oh, Indonesia. “That’s what I said, Rindoriver.” You want to go to Malaysia? “Eh, you want to go to Wer-ray-sia?” Err, no thanks. Do they all talk like you? “Yah.” Oh. Just think about that.
What about JP? Go to America, “Hello. I am from Malaysia. And we all talk and look like this. But don’t get me drunk because then I will lick you.” Oh, you mean everybody in Malaysia licks you when they get drunk? “Yes.” Ok, we are not going to Malaysia. Can you imagine going to Malaysia, 60,000 tongues lick you? Just think about it.
Then it’s the same as telling people you are a Buddhist, or you belong to the Buddha. It’s the same thing. It’s the exact same thing if you tell people that. That you belong to the Buddha. If you belong to the Buddha, if you are spiritual, if you are a Christian, if you belong to Hinduism or Catholicism, you better reflect it. Don’t shame them.
If you belong to Tsem Rinpoche, please don’t embarrass me anymore. No, really, don’t embarrass me anymore. Don’t keep telling me you broke your vows, you can’t push yourself, you can’t do it anymore. Don’t embarrass me anymore. It’s an embarrassment. Six years, two years, three years, one year, five years, seven years of Dharma, and you still tell me you can’t hold one single vow. Please!
Am I wasting my time? Don’t run around telling people, Dalai Lama is my Guru. Don’t! Because why? They look at you and they go uh-oh. People look at people’s kids to see their parents. They look at the disciples to look at the Guru.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and ease of understanding.
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There are several fundamental Buddha teachings that can help us to lead a life that is of value to ourselves and others. In every practice of dharma one can actually gain tremendous benefit without realizing, it helps us to get rid of negative thoughts and transform the mind to be a better person.
In actual picture Buddhist tantra is valuable mainly for its unique attitude toward life. This guide and teaching are extremely powerful, but we need to be realistic about what works and how. The consistency practice can free us from suffering and help us to embrace our true purpose here on earth.
Thank you so much Tsem Rinpoche for your sharing and bringing this dharma video to us. I’m truly happy to listen and to work for it you
It’s time you learned to embrace the gifts of adversity, and remembered that every setback brings us closer to our goals. We all face challenges in life, we have to keep going and not to embarrass our teacher.
All these practice can help us to overcome when the obstacles came. With Dharma practice, we can act with calmly and think wiser instead of act with narrow. Thank you very much for the good sharing.
Being a practice in Dharma with verbally is easily. But come towards by action,its all by our sincerely. For myself, I wasn’t accept of any dharma practice because of mine ignorance. When I started practice dharma, I can understand how dharma can gives me happiness from the inner instead of material nor reality. Practice dharma is very important with action out from cushion. The practice with consistency of benefits other with compassion and let go of our attachment is the check point to myself for practicing. All these practice can help me overcome when the obstacles came to me. With Dharma practice, we can act with calmly and think wiser instead of act with narrow.
I’m deeply grateful and feel gratitude to meet my Guru, Tsem Rinpoche always guide and teaching for us to understand the ultimate truth of Dharma.
With my folded hands and bow down,
Victoria
Before I came in to Kechara, this is the first video I encounter. Rinpoche’s talk have reminded me about how to be sincere and honest to myself.
After several years of joining Kechara, by hearing this talk again, I found that understanding by words is easy but to practice we really need to let go our ignorant, pride, and false mindset that trap us. When certain situations arises, our habits e.g: escape, ignore, anger, and etc will easily catch us up, and then, I kind of conveniently forget that I need to learn dharma and why am I in dharma.
This video is like a checking for myself to check how much I have progress before I join Kechara and after. Even though it is so hard to practice it, but, I willing to put in more effort, after all, all karma arises is because my own doing. And, dharma is an antidote to help me to overcome my difficult mind.
I thanks Rinpoche for his honesty in bringing this dharma to us. Even it is truly hard to listen and do it, I have to do it. Don’t embarrass the Buddha
Positivity, confidence, and persistence are key in life, so we do never give up during difficult situation. Never give up , and be confident in what we do , at least try our very best. Achieving a goal is a wildly exhilarating thing. If we are flirting with the idea of giving up, we could be throwing away opportunities. Time is short, accept our mistakes and keep on learning Dharma. It’s time you learned to embrace the gifts of adversity, and remembered that every setback brings us closer to our goals. We all face challenges in life, we have to keep going and not to embarrass our teacher. Our teacher is our Buddha. There is always no short to success, we have to learn and practice sincerely.
Thank you Rinpoche for this profound teachings.