1982年のクリスマスに、イタリア・ポマイラにて、ラマ・イェシェによるクリスマスの法話。ラマ・イェシェ・ウィずダム・アーカイブより。
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Somehow we're still alive and aware enough to remember how long it is since Jesus was born. It was one thousand, nine hundred and eighty two years ago, right? And I myself am fortunate enough to have been born in the Shangri-La of Tibet, to have come into contact with the world of Western dakas and dakinis, and also to somehow have this chance to acknowledge the history of the holy guru, Jesus.
I've found that having a little understanding of Jesus's life helps me develop my own path, but it's not easy to fully understand the profound events in Jesus's life. It's quite difficult. Of course, the superficial events of his life are fairly easy to understand, but there's not enough room in our mind to comprehend his high bodhisattva actions.
Even at the time when Lord Jesus and Lord Buddha were here on earth it was very difficult for ordinary people to understand who they really were. At that time, very few people understood.
Today I was looking at the Bible, at the Gospel of John in particular, and he was talking about the miracles Jesus performed and how few people understood the profundity of his liberated mind that allowed him to perform those miracles.
Anyway, whenever I'm at a meditation course such as this at Christmas time, I like to talk about such things. But you need to understand that when I do, I'm not trying to be diplomatic. I don't need to negotiate my relationship with you in that way! It's just that from the bottom of my heart, I sincerely feel and believe that just to remember Jesus's life is an incredible opportunity.
In a way, of course, it doesn't matter where people come from-East or West-or what color they are, those who eliminate their self-cherishing thought and give their life for others are exceptional human beings. For that reason I'm happy simply to bring Jesus to mind and reflect on what he did.
Also, to some extent I'm responsible for my Western students' psychological wellbeing, so if we're going to bring Buddhism to the West we need to do it in a healthy way rather than introduce it as some exotic new trip. We don't need new trips. We need to do something constructive, something worthwhile. Anything truly worthwhile does not diminish any light; it only enhances it.
And with respect to psychological health, we're part of the environment and the environment is part of us. Therefore, those of us who were born in the West should not reject the Christian environment into which we were born. We should consider ourselves lucky to have been born into a Christian society and to have the wisdom to understand what that means for our mind. Such understanding is very useful if we're to remain healthy.
Especially these days, when there's dangerous revolutionary technology everywhere and the world is overwhelmed with fighting and war, we really need to actively remember the lives of our unselfish historical predecessors.
So John was explaining how God sent Jesus to us as a witness to the truth, but most unfortunately, some ignorant people failed to recognize who he was or understand what he was teaching and killed him.
In my opinion, the Buddhist point of view is that Jesus was a bodhisattva, not only in the sense that he had realized bodhicitta and overcome selfishness, but in the sense that, as a performer of miracles, he was a saint, like Tilopa and Naropa or, to name a living example, His Holiness Zong Rinpoche-somebody completely free of superstition who sometimes instinctively does strange things that the rest of us don't understand.
For example, John says that one day Jesus was near the water when a woman came by to fill her pot. Jesus then said to her, "How can you satisfy your thirst with water? It's water that makes you thirsty in the first place." He told her that since it's water that makes her thirsty, how can water be the solution to her thirst. It's some kind of reverse thinking. Who can understand that? It sounds crazy, doesn't it?
What he meant was that only spiritual water can truly slake your thirst. So you can see, the actual meaning is somehow beyond words. The woman's taking water; he says, "Why are you doing that? It's not going to solve your problem of being thirsty." It's crazy talk. Nowadays we'd probably hit somebody who spoke to us like that. But luckily, back then Jesus didn't get beaten up for talking in that way.
John also said that since Jesus was born from God, his disciples were also derived from God's energy. That's similar to what the Buddhist teachings say when they explain that all shravakas and prateyakabuddhas are born from Shakyamuni Buddha. The sense here is that such followers are born from the teacher's wisdom truth speech. Through internalizing that they discover the truth for themselves and become such realized beings.
Philosophically, of course, we can say that Buddhism doesn't accept that God is the source of all human beings and things. But from another point of view we can say that Buddhism doesn't contradict that statement either.
For example, where does the human realm come from? The Buddha said that the human realm is caused by good karma. That's true. If the upper realms do not come from good karma, then where do they come from? Then, from the Buddhist point of view, all good karma comes from the Buddha...or, you can say, God. Therefore, the human realm comes from God, from Buddha. Because of the Buddha's holy speech, sentient beings create good karma. I want you to be clean clear about this.
Still, philosophically you can argue this point one way or the other. It depends on how you interpret it. You can interpret the statement negatively or positively. Actually, you can do anything with philosophy.
Lama Yeshe gave this teaching at Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Pomaia, Italy, on Christmas Day, 1982. Edited from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive by Nicholas Ribush. The rest of this teaching as a well as video of Lama giving it will be available online next year.
http://
Somehow we're still alive and aware enough to remember how long it is since Jesus was born. It was one thousand, nine hundred and eighty two years ago, right? And I myself am fortunate enough to have been born in the Shangri-La of Tibet, to have come into contact with the world of Western dakas and dakinis, and also to somehow have this chance to acknowledge the history of the holy guru, Jesus.
I've found that having a little understanding of Jesus's life helps me develop my own path, but it's not easy to fully understand the profound events in Jesus's life. It's quite difficult. Of course, the superficial events of his life are fairly easy to understand, but there's not enough room in our mind to comprehend his high bodhisattva actions.
Even at the time when Lord Jesus and Lord Buddha were here on earth it was very difficult for ordinary people to understand who they really were. At that time, very few people understood.
Today I was looking at the Bible, at the Gospel of John in particular, and he was talking about the miracles Jesus performed and how few people understood the profundity of his liberated mind that allowed him to perform those miracles.
Anyway, whenever I'm at a meditation course such as this at Christmas time, I like to talk about such things. But you need to understand that when I do, I'm not trying to be diplomatic. I don't need to negotiate my relationship with you in that way! It's just that from the bottom of my heart, I sincerely feel and believe that just to remember Jesus's life is an incredible opportunity.
In a way, of course, it doesn't matter where people come from-East or West-or what color they are, those who eliminate their self-cherishing thought and give their life for others are exceptional human beings. For that reason I'm happy simply to bring Jesus to mind and reflect on what he did.
Also, to some extent I'm responsible for my Western students' psychological wellbeing, so if we're going to bring Buddhism to the West we need to do it in a healthy way rather than introduce it as some exotic new trip. We don't need new trips. We need to do something constructive, something worthwhile. Anything truly worthwhile does not diminish any light; it only enhances it.
And with respect to psychological health, we're part of the environment and the environment is part of us. Therefore, those of us who were born in the West should not reject the Christian environment into which we were born. We should consider ourselves lucky to have been born into a Christian society and to have the wisdom to understand what that means for our mind. Such understanding is very useful if we're to remain healthy.
Especially these days, when there's dangerous revolutionary technology everywhere and the world is overwhelmed with fighting and war, we really need to actively remember the lives of our unselfish historical predecessors.
So John was explaining how God sent Jesus to us as a witness to the truth, but most unfortunately, some ignorant people failed to recognize who he was or understand what he was teaching and killed him.
In my opinion, the Buddhist point of view is that Jesus was a bodhisattva, not only in the sense that he had realized bodhicitta and overcome selfishness, but in the sense that, as a performer of miracles, he was a saint, like Tilopa and Naropa or, to name a living example, His Holiness Zong Rinpoche-somebody completely free of superstition who sometimes instinctively does strange things that the rest of us don't understand.
For example, John says that one day Jesus was near the water when a woman came by to fill her pot. Jesus then said to her, "How can you satisfy your thirst with water? It's water that makes you thirsty in the first place." He told her that since it's water that makes her thirsty, how can water be the solution to her thirst. It's some kind of reverse thinking. Who can understand that? It sounds crazy, doesn't it?
What he meant was that only spiritual water can truly slake your thirst. So you can see, the actual meaning is somehow beyond words. The woman's taking water; he says, "Why are you doing that? It's not going to solve your problem of being thirsty." It's crazy talk. Nowadays we'd probably hit somebody who spoke to us like that. But luckily, back then Jesus didn't get beaten up for talking in that way.
John also said that since Jesus was born from God, his disciples were also derived from God's energy. That's similar to what the Buddhist teachings say when they explain that all shravakas and prateyakabuddhas are born from Shakyamuni Buddha. The sense here is that such followers are born from the teacher's wisdom truth speech. Through internalizing that they discover the truth for themselves and become such realized beings.
Philosophically, of course, we can say that Buddhism doesn't accept that God is the source of all human beings and things. But from another point of view we can say that Buddhism doesn't contradict that statement either.
For example, where does the human realm come from? The Buddha said that the human realm is caused by good karma. That's true. If the upper realms do not come from good karma, then where do they come from? Then, from the Buddhist point of view, all good karma comes from the Buddha...or, you can say, God. Therefore, the human realm comes from God, from Buddha. Because of the Buddha's holy speech, sentient beings create good karma. I want you to be clean clear about this.
Still, philosophically you can argue this point one way or the other. It depends on how you interpret it. You can interpret the statement negatively or positively. Actually, you can do anything with philosophy.
Lama Yeshe gave this teaching at Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Pomaia, Italy, on Christmas Day, 1982. Edited from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive by Nicholas Ribush. The rest of this teaching as a well as video of Lama giving it will be available online next year.
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