Climate Change

First think about karma, cause and effect. Secondly, think about how Lama Atisha had 157 gurus and two root gurus. One was Lama Serlingpa, from whom he received bodhicitta teachings in Indonesia for twelve years, like pouring nectar from one pot into another—however much nectar one pot has, pouring that completely into another pot. Lama Atisha had to travel for twelve months by boat in dangerous conditions to receive these teachings in Indonesia.

Lama Atisha’s other root guru was Lama Dharmarakshita, who gave the teaching The Wheel of Sharp Weapons. One stanza from that text says that whenever you have unbearable pain or disease, it’s due to giving harm to others—the wheel of sharp weapons, bad karma turned on yourself. So now, you should take all the pain or the disease onto yourself.

[10] Whenever an intolerable ailment arises in our body,
It is the sharp weapons of bad actions turning against us
For having inflicted harm on the bodies of migrating beings.
Now we should willingly take upon ourselves all ailments without exception.

This is what make our pain or disease most worthwhile and it’s causing all the sentient beings to achieve full enlightenment. So this means we experience every sentient being’s suffering and they become free from the entire suffering of samsara and achieve full enlightenment.

Actually it is so precious. It harms our worst enemy, the self-cherishing thought that has caused us to suffer from beginningless rebirths of samsara, including causing samsara without end. If we don’t practice holy Dharma now, particularly bodhicitta, then we will have to continue suffering

That selfish mind has caused us to harm every sentient being. They have suffered in the past and present and also in the future. You can’t imagine! This time and opportunity is so precious, and we can destroy the enemy of bodhicitta—not only our own [selfish mind] but also that of every sentient being. As for others, I don’t know about people, but animals might suffer and die; even in the caves they have no air-conditioning or fans.

Make heartfelt prayers to Chenrezig. In front of the statue, recite some malas of the Chenrezig mantra, and make very strong prayers. You should know that Chenrezig is there—he sees and understands everything. Then request what is the most important need for sentient beings at this time, which is black clouds and so much rain for a long time. Then that may cause landslides or floods to happen. I’m joking. Visualize strong rain in the whole area where there is heat.

The second buddha, Nagarjuna, mentioned in A Letter to a Friend, [v. 86]:

Having put three hundred short spears heavily into the body, there’s no need to question that suffering.
There’s no comparison with even the smallest suffering of the hells, which is unbearable suffering.

For us, even if a tiny thorn the size of a hair goes into the flesh it’s unbearable, and we have to take it out. So imagine being stabbed by three hundred short spears, it’s most unbelievable, unbelievable, extremely unbearable suffering. And then we would have to experience that [suffering of the hell realms] for one hundred eons or ten million eons. Until our negative karma finishes, we are never separated from suffering. This is something to think about, when we think about the lower realm sufferings every day. This is most unbearable, and it’s the very smallest hell suffering.

As I often say, the heaviest suffering of human beings is actually great peace and pleasure compared to the sufferings of the hells. You can understand that from this quotation. Whether you believe that hell exists or not, it is just the limitation of merit, of intelligence. Those who have a lot of merit can remember past and future lives. They have merit, like those bodhisattvas who achieve the bhumis. The bodhisattvas who achieve the first bhumi can remember one hundred past and future lives. And on the second bhumi they can see one thousand past and future lives. Then more and more; it goes on and on. The higher and higher they go, the fewer and fewer obscurations.

It’s like the more we clean something, the more we see its beauty—the color and design come out. The more we clean the dirt, the more it becomes clear, so the quality of the mind comes out. That’s a very good outside example. For example, a cup is dirty and smelly with kaka, but because the cup is not kaka we can clean it with soap and water. It’s the same with cloth that is very black and dirty; we can wash with it soap and different things then it becomes fresh like a new one, especially if we iron it. So that’s a very good outside example. Because the cloth isn’t oneness with the dirt, it’s just temporarily obscured. The mind is also not oneness with the obscurations, not oneness with attachment, anger and ignorance—ignorance holding the I and phenomena as truly existent. While it exists in mere name, not even an atom is existing from its own side.

So that’s an example, and through meditation, if we really meditate, if we have experiences, we can see more and more clearly our past and future lives, karma, and attain higher and higher realizations. As the mind gets less and less obscured and more purified, then we can see things deeper and deeper, what ordinary beings cannot see. It doesn’t mean that just because we can’t see these things now [they don’t exist]. When the mind has fewer obscurations through purification, we can see for ourselves, we can prove to ourselves.

Now here as I mentioned, this quote shows very clearly the example of the hell sufferings. It’s not hell, but it’s giving an example. It’s a human being’s suffering, but it’s like hell. It gives us the idea, but the hell realm becomes unbelievably hot, beyond human suffering. The heat is there; it’s the same as in Bodhgaya, where it’s hot every year. It’s not been like that in America, but only now it is happening. In India, in Bodhgaya it happens every year. It’s just that we don’t know about India. So you see, this didn’t come from the outside, it came from the mind.

Nearby, there’s a part of America—I don’t know the name—it’s in the corner of America, and there is so much water, so much flooding, so much of that has happened. Then in Washington it’s so hot. Some areas are very hot, while close by there is flooding. It looks like it comes from outside, but it comes from the inside, the mind, the result of our past negative karma.

The foundation of Buddhism is that happiness and suffering come from the mind, from our mind. So our mind is the creator. It’s explained in Abidharmakosha, which is an important subject to study. The various worlds came from the mind, are born from the mind. It’s either so hot or there are landslides or earthquakes. These outside conditions are caused by non-human beings, but that’s not the main cause. The main cause is karma. Karma is the mind; it is not the body. It comes with the mind, not with the body. There are the primary mind and the fifty-one mental factors. There are five omnipresent mental factors, in Tibetan, kundro nga, always existing. The translation in English is omnipresent, which is OK but it’s not very exact. Karma is the mental factor of intention, which is one of those five.

Yes, of course it can be purified before experiencing the result. Yes, it depends on how perfectly it’s purified, whether we experience some result or not. If purification is perfectly well done, then we never have to experience the result of negative karma. Suffering is not experienced in this life. Then the next one is that we will experience past heavy karma in this life, but it’s not as heavy as experiencing it in the lower realms for many eons, which is unbelievably heavy. It manifests as some chaos, some cancer or virus, to finish that, and then there’ll be happiness in the future. These are the benefits of purification.

Kadampa Geshe Khamlungpa said,

By experiencing this present small suffering,
The past negative karma is ceased
And there will be happiness in the future.
Therefore, rejoice, be happy in this present suffering.

I think it means to rejoice and feel happy by thinking of the benefits. So not just in one life, but from life to life we’ll have more and more happiness. Also we will go to enlightenment and become free from samsara. It can happen more and more like that.

So it’s very good to rejoice. You’re experiencing the hottest heat now, but in Bodhgaya, where we have a center, the people who live there experience this heat every year. That’s what Roger reminded me of. In America it’s a big surprise because it didn’t happen like that before. You have to know that, and you have to rejoice. Be happy because your past negative is getting purified—purified of the lower realm sufferings, unbelievable sufferings. It finishes like that, so rejoice, be happy.

And not only that, be happy to receive all the numberless sentient beings’ sufferings—the hell beings, the hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras and asuras—to take their suffering on yourself. Experience that suffering and the causes—karma and delusion—so they can become enlightened, the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations.

Experience it for sentient beings rather than thinking “I’m suffering, I’m suffering.” Unless of course, you want to fly to Mount Everest. In the northern hemisphere, in Iceland and in many places, there are huge ice mountains melting down. We hear about this all the time. Why is this happening? It came from the mind, basically. The great enlightened being, Padampa Sangye, who existed during Milarepa’s time said, “It looks like happiness and suffering come from the outside, but they come basically and originally from our own mind.”

So you can ask, if the virus came from China, why does it have to be experienced in America? Why do some people have the virus while some people don’t have it? Also, in the family, the father can die from the virus, but not the children or the mother. Why? You can ask questions like that.

We want to see ourselves as enlightenment beings and others as an ordinary beings, as totally ignorant, because we don’t understand [everything] came from the mind. Using a very simple example, when we recognize that we’re not well, that we’re sick, we go to the doctor. Because we don’t know how the sickness evolved, we don’t know the details, we have no idea what will happen with the sickness , so we go to see the doctor who knows better than us, who has studied more and who knows more than us. But we say “This doctor is totally ignorant because they don’t know more than me; they haven’t stopped suffering and ignorance.” Up to thinking, “I’m an enlightenment being,” and we disregard the doctor’s advice.

Whatever is happening—the extreme weather, whatever it is that totally changes and then there’s the suffering of heat or cold, big problems—we experience it for others. If we have intelligence, if we have a lot of merit, then we experience it for sentient beings. In that way we actualize the path to enlightenment. Then not only do we get enlightened but we enlighten other sentient beings. It’s so good, unbelievable. And if we die with that, as His Holiness always says, the best way to die is with bodhicitta.

Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche, the great bodhisattva from whom I received teachings, said in The Jewel Lamp: Praise to Bodhicitta, that even if we’re sick, be sick with bodhicitta. Even if we die, die with bodhicitta. Whatever happens, it is best.

[296] If one is in possession of bodhicitta
it is fine if one is sick, fine if one is dying,
fine if one is studying, and fine if one is meditating;
one seems to be fine no matter what one is doing.
  — Vast as the Heavens Deep as the Sea: Verses in Praise of Bodhicitta

Kadampa Geshe Chekawa said that he prayed to be born in the hells for sentient beings. At the time of death he had visions of the pure land where he’d be reborn, and he said, “I didn’t achieve my wish, which was to be born in the hells for sentient beings.” He treated all sentient beings just as we treat our mother or the kindest person. Their suffering is most unbearable, and he felt that for all the sentient beings—for every ant, every mosquito, even the tiniest one, everyone. No matter how big or small they were, he felt that for everyone.

This is the best way to die and to experience problems. It’s the best way to transform it all into the path for all sentient beings. What else brings more happiness than this and is more important than being able to benefit numberless sentient beings? What else brings more happiness than this? It’s ridiculous to take drugs or whatever. It’s like a person who is delusional due to spirits—that person is running on the cliffs and in their vision, their view, there’s a big road that goes down to the beach. This vision is explained by not just one person, but quoted by those who didn’t die. They explained what they had seen—they saw a road where there was actually no road.

Thank you very, very much. I brought up some words for this situation where everybody is jumping [with anxiety]. There are many stories about the heat, but one can’t jump that much. So please think about what I’ve said. The best, the most beneficial practice, is tonglen and lojong. Whatever the problem is, even death, sickness or relationship problems, experience it for all sentient beings. That’s the happiest and the hippiest person.

Thank you very much. Goodbye.

Regarding global warming, usually the real cause, karma, isn’t talked about. The reality is: nothing happens without relating to the mind. People think, “This is a natural disaster,” but it doesn’t happen without a cause, and the main cause is karma.

Generally, it comes from everyone’s karma and, of course, there are conditions, such as pollution from cars, etc., that we commonly understand. But we have to understand there is a reason, and that is our past negative thoughts and actions. There is so much negative karma created in the world—so many animals are killed, for example. When a new disease is identified and it comes from a chicken, bird, or cow, then automatically millions of them are killed. If it were humans, we would never think of killing them. Even if one human has a virus, we would never kill him or her.

Of course, we don’t normally talk of karma in a general situation regarding the environment, but it is important to educate people. For example, fifty years ago, almost nobody in this world knew the word karma, but now many people know what karma means. So, it is important to educate people. Another example is a very tragic situation, such as many children being killed in a shooting incident with another child, and everyone is horrified and shocked and can’t understand why. But this is due to karma. There is a reason why this happened, and it’s due to past negative thoughts and actions.

What I think is most important is to have qualified meditation masters taking care of the meditators in our retreat places, and taking care of the students who are sincerely trying to do retreat to actualize the lamrim. Just doing three years’ retreat doesn’t mean much, but meditating on the lamrim is very, very important. What we need to do is to learn all the meanings etc. from the geshes, then we need to apply ourselves to the actual practice.

In order to realize these things, in particular within the Gelug tradition now, there are a lot of teachings, and then more teachings, and then more teachings again. Then the students think, “I know these subjects,” but they never meditate on them. So, your mind and the Dharma has a big gap. Then, one doesn’t get anything done; one doesn’t develop compassion. Even if one has done all the intellectual studies, when problems arise, nothing is done, so there is danger. One spends one’s whole life studying, but nothing is experienced in the heart. There is a risk of being like this. Even if one has devotion, it can be like a cloud in the sky, easy to disappear. So, again, this is another danger.

In the Gelugpa monasteries or centers there is so much learning, but not meditation. Meditation on the basis of learning is extremely important. I think if a Westerner can have realizations, then that person would be a great inspiration to others.

Again, regarding the environment, anything well proven scientifically is worth following through. The main thing is to understand how things come to the mind, how things are dependent arisings, how things are the consequence of past actions. So, the conclusion is that those people undertaking retreat, serious meditation, etc. can help the environment, can bless the earth.

To prevent global warming the most important thing is to read the Sutra of Golden Light. This becomes a blessing for the earth and gives nourishment to the earth, like protein in food. Reading the Sutra of Golden Light not only blesses the earth, but also the whole country, city, house, and also you. It also helps to reduce and stop violence.

Other things you can do to prevent global warming are to organize teachings on emptiness, reciting the Vajra Cutter Sutra, and reciting the Prajnaparamita in 8,000 and 12,000 stanzas. There could be a group of people reading it; this would be very powerful for the earth. Also, one could read the whole Kangyur, this also contains the Prajnaparamita. Reciting the Prajnaparamita is the main practice for purification and in order to have all the realizations. It cuts the root of all the sufferings, ignorance. This may be the reason why it comes out as very beneficial for preventing and helping stop global warming, because this is the result of non-virtue, which comes from the root: ignorance. All the unpleasant things, such as earthquakes, global warming, tsunamis etc., all come from this.

My very dear Sharon,
Thank you for your kind letter. I am very happy that my thought transformation book helped when your mind and spirits were down and low. My job is fulfilled, thank you very much.

You expressed your concerns on global warming and for your children. Here is my answer: Yes, I and other monks and nuns at the house and other students that I invited watched the Al Gore movie (An Inconvenient Truth).

One of the causes of global warming seems to be bombing and testing bombs in the water and on the earth. This is dangerous not only for the future but also it causes unbelievable harm to living beings now. I think this should be stopped.

Also, substances that have a negative effect, that are used in wars, causing great danger to the whole world now and in the future, should not be used. This includes bad substances that have a negative effect on one’s life, such as smoke from cigarettes. This is very bad pollution for the environment, making places dirty, also for people who don’t smoke. For example, I don’t smoke, and when somebody is smoking near me, I feel unhealthy because the smoke goes inside my body, and I feel polluted.

Global warming has also affected Lhasa. In the past, the weather was colder, now it has become warmer. I am sure there are a number of causes for this, but I do think one small cause could be cigarette smoke. After mainland China took over Tibet, so many people smoked cigarettes, not only Chinese, but Tibetans, who were influenced, so I think this added to the pollution of the environment.

Global warming must also be related to there being a lot of factories. I think smoke from certain materials, certain bad and impure substances, affect global warming. I guess we must try and abandon the ones that are proved to affect global warming. From one’s own side, we should try to do this and make less pollution, then that’s our contribution to peace, without adding to the destruction of the world. Then, we need to tell others, suggest to them in a respectful way to engage in the same activities, to abandon those things which are proved to cause global warming and do things that bring great peace to the world.

Basically, global warming and whatever great danger is going to happen in this world, including the great tsunami that happened, all come from the negative impure mind. The very root is ignorance, not knowing what the self is and the “I” is, what the ultimate nature of the “I” and aggregates are, and so forth. While they are empty of existing from their own side, they exist in mere name, merely imputed by the mind, but we think of them as totally opposite to this, thinking they exist completely from their own side. This ignorance is such an unbelievably fixed concept, harder than a rocky mountain. First, there is the self-cherishing thought, that I am the most important one, my happiness is more important then anyone else’s. These negative thoughts are totally wrong concepts, which are not valid at all. One can only prove that they are wrong through logic and reason. There is no single reason to prove they are right and valid.

The other ignorance is not knowing karma (cause and effect) and not knowing Dharma. Then, attachment and anger arise and so many negative emotional thoughts and wrong concepts, which project wrong views, and then one performs actions motivated by these. So, this is the main cause, which is not outside, but is in the mind of us deluded sentient beings.

What Al Gore is talking about is only the external conditions. If you didn’t have this inner cause, you wouldn’t experience tsunamis, global warming, and all the dangers. Therefore, we very badly need Dharma practice and meditation practice, to protect the mind from all the inner, harmful thoughts. Dharma practice and meditation are the inner methods to heal the inner sicknesses of the mind. Practicing Dharma forms the attitude of one’s life: non-ignorance, non-attachment, non-anger, and, especially, having a good heart and cherishing others, which is unstained by the self-cherishing thought.

Without this Dharma there is no protection for sentient beings’ minds and lives from the inner tsunami of ignorance, desire, anger, jealousy, pride, and so forth. The many wrong concepts that take over one’s mind and life are like the tsunami, which covered whole cities with water and destroyed so much. Also, with such meditation and Dharma practice one creates a positive mind, renunciation, bodhicitta, and right view.

In regards to right view, it is the direct perception of emptiness, which directly eliminates the inner enemies and delusion. It is this delusion that harms you, destroys you and the world, and attacks and harms all living beings, from life to life.

With this wisdom supported by bodhicitta, you cease even the subtle defilements, and then you achieve the fully awakened mind, full enlightenment, and peerless happiness. We need education and to practice this meditation, which is universal, is something everyone needs who is suffering. Without Dharma we are always defeated, destroyed, and harmed by this inner enemy and these delusions. There is war in our mind caused by delusions, and we are defeated by this. However, whenever the mind is in the Dharma, such as with this meditation, then you defeat the inner enemy – delusion.

As the great Indian scholar and saint Shantideva mentioned:

Even if the whole earth is covered by leather, still it is not enough. But if the bottoms of your feet are covered with leather, then it covers all the thorn bushes in this world, and wherever you walk is fine.

It is like that. If you are trying to kill all the external enemies, the inner delusions never end. There is always an enemy because killing sentient beings creates the cause to have an enemy and receive harm from others. So, it never ends, there is no end at all forever. Even you are able to kill all hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals on this earth all at one time, your consciousness reincarnates in another universe. Whether as a hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human, or in the realm of the gods, you have to suffer the consequences and experience the result of receiving harm from an enemy. Once the inner enemy of anger is destroyed then all the outer enemies are destroyed all at once. You can’t find an enemy at all in the universe. Similarly, without delusion there is no karma, without karma, no suffering, including global warming, tsunamis, famine, disease, and so forth.

Regarding children, it is good you are concerned about the children. My advice, since you have children already, is that you and their father both have a great responsibility for their wellbeing. This doesn’t mean becoming a millionaire, with a rich lifestyle, having a lot of cars, airplanes, swimming pools, all these things, even the kind of education that is taught in schools, colleges, and universities. You have the responsibility especially for their minds. When I say wellbeing, I basically mean their minds.

Besides global warming, there are so many other dangers in life: sicknesses, cancer, and many conditions for death; cancer is very easy to get these days. Their lives are filled with so many thousands of conditions which can cause death. So, one should attempt to have a long life, but even more important than that is when death comes, to die with a happy, positive mind, a joyful mind, a mind of satisfaction and especially fulfillment. The best thing is to make even death beneficial, a cause of happiness for all sentient beings. Use death to achieve a higher happiness – pure happiness. Use death to achieve ultimate happiness – total liberation, which is free forever from the oceans of samsaric suffering and its causes. Use death to achieve total cessation of samsaric suffering and its causes.

Your first responsibility is to make sure the children don’t become harmful, an enemy to themselves, harming their own lives instead of having more peace and happiness within themselves, making their lives more meaningful, to have more satisfaction and fulfillment. In this world, whatever different things people try, they are all to achieve happiness. Even the ants, flies, and worms are seeking happiness.

Therefore, the main thing, even if you are poor, is if you have happiness, then you have satisfaction, fulfillment, and no regrets. This is the same even if you are rich. The other thing is to make sure that the children’s lives do not become harmful to the world and other living beings. All this depends on how you educate them and practice. The best is if they can grow up and stop giving harm to others, only benefit and cause happiness for others, who are numberless.

This is incredible, unbelievable, and leads to their own success. This life’s happiness will come naturally like rainfall. At least, their lives should not harm them. Of course, if they harm others then there is no way they can achieve happiness for themselves. Therefore, they have to develop compassion and wisdom.

I wanted to inform you we have a project in the FPMT called Universal Compassion and Wisdom Peace (UCWP). You can look at the web page and get a general outline from that. There is a basic practice for the mind to become a good human being called the 16 human dharmas and 10 diverse dharmas. Then, there are four very important things in this life for children to practice so they can enjoy life and bring happiness to the world, like sunshine. In every day life, 1) practice kindness to others, then 2) rejoice – whenever you see good things happening to others, 3) practice patience, and 4) practice forgiveness and apologizing. If you make a mistake and cause harm to others, then apologize immediately and make others happy. When others harm you, then forgive them instead of seeking revenge.

With much love and prayer...

My very dear Honorable Al Gore,
I am the spiritual head of the FPMT, which is a worldwide organization devoted to benefiting society through the practice and philosophy of Tibetan Buddhism, education, public service, health, and culture. The FPMT has 141 centers and activities in 31 countries. I am from Nepal, near Mount Everest.

I heard about the very inspiring movie that you made called An Inconvenient Truth. I and a number of monks and nuns (Sangha) from different countries, as well as other students, went to see your movie. It is quite shocking to see the truth, what is happening in the world, where the world is going, particular the USA; it’s quite amazing—based on money, just to produce more money. People are now becoming aware of the harm, the great danger, and the effects that will come. Even now these have started happening. So many people living in this world are facing dangers through global warming, floods, and melting snow and ice. This will soon endanger many people around the world and in the USA.

Even in Tibet, in Lhasa (the capital of Tibet), it has become warmer. It wasn’t like this before, and there has been a change. My conclusion is it is because of people’s lack of education, the lack of awareness that what people do has an effect; people are not being mindful or understanding this.

I and all the monks, nuns, and students who went to see your movie highly appreciate your efforts and what you are doing to reveal the truth, exposing and introducing the truth to the world.

Please continue taking responsibility to benefit this world, to reduce suffering, and to bring peace and happiness to this world. The ultimate goal is for people to develop a good heart, for everyone to live happily, only benefiting each other, including between different religions, and also including animals (there are so many, compared to humans).

With prayers for your long life, for your wishes to benefit others to succeed, and if you can, especially, for helping His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people to have total political and religious freedom, like before, and to be guided by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This is what the majority of Tibetans anxiously, very earnestly want.

Sincerely yours...