Prolifically Raw: The Man is Brilliant!

Saturday, September 09, 2006

The Man is Brilliant!

The people who are here, in Vancouver B.C., are some of the greatest thinkers of Western culture. Before them are the questions�what is the source of happiness and what is the result of compassion?

They are doctors, philosophers and researchers, and they present their research, their controlled studies and their evidence. They have slides, they have graphs and they have statistics. They talk about the effect of kindness, love and compassion on children, on the immune system, on the frontal lobe and then they ask this great man, �what do you think?� and he says, �very interesting, more research, keep analyzing.�

They lap it up like kitty�s lap up cream and off they go to do more research but hold on�look at what he is doing. He is turning these great minds on themselves, he is sending them into analytical meditation, he is doing just what the Buddha did, which was to pose questions about the nature of being and then say, �now you look and tell me what you think.�

This is the training of the mind!

How are we not like the first students of the Buddha?

We think, that was 2500 years ago, that is history but history is now and we are here and we are students of this Buddha of Compassion.

Some amazing quotes from my three sessions here:

Q: �What is the definition of happiness?�
His Holiness: �If you want a precise answer, I don�t know.�

His Holiness: �Less precise answer is like this. Body functions are normal, mind is clear, the brain works properly and then, there is tranquility and peace.�

�The very purpose of our life is to seek happiness.�

�Investigate the causes of unhappiness and then find ways to work on that!�

�Looking for happiness outside yourself is like looking for the sun inside a cave while staring at a northern wall.�

�Difficulties and pain have one of two results. One, depression, loss of hope, loss of determination. Two, more determination, more hope and more strength of character.�

�There are two kinds of compassion, biased and unbiased. Biased compassion is narrow minded and impossible to extend to our enemy. Unbiased compassion is something you can give even to an enemy.�

Deepak Chopra: �Holy means to be healed and healed means to be holy.�

Deepak Chopra: �If the world unilaterally recognized motherhood as the most sacred profession there is, would this finally bring world peace?�

His Holiness: �Yes, I think so.�

His Holiness: �Sometimes people make deliberate distinctions/divisions between themselves based on religion, attitudes, skin color, gender, but we all human beings, all the same, mentally, physically, emotionally. Everybody wants happiness. Everyone has a right to happiness. No one wants disturbances.�

�The last century was the century of bloodshed. This century is the century of dialogue.�

�Talk is no good anymore, prayer will not bring us peace, we must take action!�