What is God? What is Buddha?
What is God? What is Buddha?
Dear Friends,
It’s important to understand what our religious directions are. What we should expect out of religion and what we should be expected to do if we accept a religion. There is nothing judgemental here or I am making criterias, but simply expressing how I feel we should apply our religious faiths for the benefit of ourselves, people around us and our planet. It is said religion can create heaven or hell within our world by some, but I think it’s not the religion but our expression of it. Our expression of our religion is the potential happiness or havoc maker. Well without further ado, please listen to my thoughts in this 15 mins video extracted from the longer version.
I wish everyone wisdom, open hearts and acceptance,
Tsem Rinpoche
The full talk here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5_b3DiWlqw
blessings and much gratitude Rinpoche.
Thank you Rinpoche for this particular teaching. Last nite, i was just wandering how to extract parts of ur teachings to share wt my sis. She is a Christian and i feel misunderstands so many things about taking responsibilities for one’s action instead of just believing n things will happen. I will defintely be able to share this short teaching wt her and hope she understand better, rather than continue being blind to what religion means. With thanks again, Sofi
从小就看到家人，大事小事有事没事都会去求神拜佛！
有时很灵， 有时不灵！其实我不是很相信！但是没办法！如果不拜拜， 就会被骂！ 道教，佛教都分不清。 但是每次填写表格，都会勾佛教徒！ ：－）
小时候不明白，不敢问！
现在， 明白了，就不会乱乱来！！乱拜乱求！
辛苦您了， 仁波切！谢谢您，让我们有那么好的环境下学习佛法！！
Actually, contrary to the title, I think that this fantastic talk has got nothing to do with God or Buddha. It has got to do with how we, as practitioners has internalize our faith and made a transformation to be a better person. You got to read between the lines of what Rinpoche has said in this teaching and understand that it how we have allowed the teachings of Buddha and Jesus to permeate our lives.
I wish there was a like button for your comment, David! Agree totally
From their side, all the enlightened beings are the same, ultimately bringing the same teachings to all of us at our various levels, dispositions and needs. The differences come only from our side and our warped perceptions. If we all internalised them the way they are meant to be taught and received, there would be no differences between any religious practictioner.
I love this teaching !! ” The purpose of religion is for me to accept and understand the teachings and to apply them to improve my good qualities and transform my bad qualities to good qualities .Then I operate from that space to become successful ! In Buddhism I have to accept that I am the creator of all my problems …. And do something about it ” Not leave it to Buddha to save me , without doing anything .
Thank you Rinpoche for the teaching . The clip of this teaching is short, yet profound . Can watch it everyday to remind myself !
This teaching is very precious, Rinpoche’s explanation is straight to the point. It doesn’t matter if we worship God or follow Buddha, our spiritual practice is more important.
Everyone want happiness, I don’t understand why some people must inflict harms to others to find their own happineess. Living in harmony will give us a more peaceful kind of happiness actually.
The issue of whose religion is better or more powerful won’t do any good to society and people at large. Everyone need to respect others’ faith. Then the world we are living in will be free of wars and conflicts.
This has been our culture since young to go pray to God when we created the problem that cannot solved, ask God to solve the problem for us, and we like to promise this and promise that when in a desperate state. After the problem solved, we conveniently forget our promise and happily commit again into problems for ourselves.
If the God can solve the problems for us, then there will never be any problem in this world. We have to change, change to a different level of thinking, be responsible enough to deal with our own problem by our own effort, not hoping the superior being to come solve it for us.
Mind transformation is the main practice to solve our problems. That is to apply the Dharma teaching into our life.
I don’t think it is anyone’s fault as most of us grew up in an environment whereby we are taught to go to a God to ask for something. If we get our wish, then God is powerful. If our wish is not granted, then that God is bad/not powerful. God sounds like a victim here and under a lot of pressure to perform!
Spirituality for us before was just rituals (praying and asking for something we desire). We were not encouraged to ask why we carried out a certain ritual, and even if we did, no one was able to give us a satisfactory answer. It was based purely on blind faith and we usually prayed because a respected elder had told us to do so.
It must have been our past lives aspirational prayers that now we are able to hear the Truth and from a teacher who can explain to us in a way to suit our mental continuum. How fortunate and how rare to have this opportunity.
There is so much truth in what Rinpoche says that it overwhelmed me…filled me with tears. Wish i knew all of this sooner…but, better late than never. Thank you Rinpoche for all your teachings, what would I have done with my life had I not found Kechara? Too scary to imagine.
Thank you Rinpoche.
Such a strong message for us to take full responsibility for our actions and then to find a way to find resolution through the teachings of our faith. No way can we be anything but victims and out of control until we take that responsibility. This is a great message – and you tell it so well, with so much humour and humanity. I will share it and pass it on. Bless you again for your wisdom. Anne
To me, Its kind of scary if not met dharma in this life. Thank you Rinpoche for this profound teaching.
Before I met dharma , i used to follow blindly what’s my mum asked me to pray and as usual, only pray for selfish reasons. I had the wrong views and wrong perceptions about religion.
Like what Rinpoche had mentioned in the teaching:
“Religion cannot be force by bribery”
We always expected our problems will solve through praying and chanting, this great teaching will be a great reminder for me to practice compassion and patient to others through learning dharma.
You should not express such false views as an ordained Bhikkhu. The Buddha did not deny the existence of a Creator. And you weren’t alive as he was so you don’t know what he said or not.
108 volumes could be split into 25 if you like.. its arbitrary.
That there are 108 volumes, is only because of the structured re-ordering of conditioned unenlightened academics forcing an ‘auspicious number’ on the scriptures. Buddha never wrote or told us to write it down, he wanted it from mouth to ear so that all you had to be able to keep the teachings entire is to understand it not repeat it from a scripture. Buddha images were also not his idea. He taught Vipassana to self enlighten. The rest of the religious mumbo jumbo is irrelevant and not use to anybody. Just practice Vipassana withouot the dogma and attachment to religious conditioning. Truth is not tibetan or buddhist it is cosmic and universal and not tainted by any human styles at all.
The good things you are trying to teach do not come from inner awakened realizations, they come from analytical thought. Try insight meditation instead of intellectual analysis Sir. Dhamma must be taught without allowing the Vedhana Khanda to have influence on the mind. You have not mastered this aspect yet, and appear and show all the signs of the Putujana. Go practice before you preach.
Dear Spencer, you should be the one who should go and learn and practise before you start talking.
When did Buddha ever accept that there is a Creator?? Buddha only did not deny the existence of gods, but he did not accept the idea of a CREATOR god, get your facts right by reading Buddhism 101 before you start talking.
And you weren’t alive back then as well, so how do you know what you think is exactly what Buddha said??
You appear to throw in a lot of jargons as if you know a lot, but jargons mean nothing, you sound like you know the complete aspects of Buddhism, but the fact is, what you said is illogical and does not make any sense. If there shouldn’t be any Buddha images or sutras, there wouldn’t be any attained masters be it in the theravadan, mahayana or vajrayana traditions.
Try throwing away all the Buddha images and sutras, I bet you would have been a Christian today, you wouldnt even have the merits to hear Buddha’s name.
Like I said, go read Buddhism 101 or Idiot’s Guide to Buddhism before you start talking from pure ignorance.
Dear Spencer,
Thank you for your comment. However, I think you are missing the point because I don’t think that Rinpoche is saying that God didn’t exist. What Rinpoche is saying that we don’t just rely on God or any divinity for that matter and expect everything to be alright. He’s saying how can we commit sin, just pray and expect everything to be alright. The change have to come from ourselves and not God or Buddha. Otherwise God or Buddha would have saved us from all our problems and difficulties already. Rinpoche is saying that it is all in our hands.
“The good things you are trying to teach do not come from inner awakened realizations, they come from analytical thought.”
Indeed, everything that the Buddha has taught arises from very clear logic and can be taught as such. The people that the lamas (including Rinpoche) are teaching is teaching all come from various walks of life, from different backgrounds and with different intellectual dispositions / aptitudes. I think the best way to cut across all differences it by teaching with logic and analytical thought. Not everyone in the audience is attained and will not be able to relate on that level. Rinpoche engages with the audience on a very practical, logical level that they can analyse (yes, analyse) on their current “mundane” level and apply directly to situations.
This is the skill of a Lama – not to just sprout long tracts but to tailor his teachings according to the needs and level of the people at that time. A real teacher doesn’t teach just to look good or to show off his attainments or insights; he enacts the very teachings of compassion and empathy by “working” at the level of the students, bringing them what they need at the right time so that they can readily receive, understand and practice the teachings. And by this – contrary to what you’re have claimed – Rinpoche is practicing exactly what he preaches.
For future videos, please lose the music–not only is it annoying and distracting, but it has an unfortunate effect of making TTR sound like a TV evangelist.
David,
Do you realise you are being quite rude?
Firstly, not everyone is from America so what you’re saying about TV evangelism wouldn’t apply to many more people reading this blog; they wouldn’t think of it in that way or feel the way you do. And there are more people who are not Americans than people who are, so please don’t bring your personal cultural dislikes here.
Secondly, if you’re irritated by the music, then go look for one of those programs that can remove the background music. There are many available programs like that, so just go google it.
Instead of always criticising, think that one of Rinpoche’s very sincere students has spent time, effort and hard work to put this music in, perhaps as an offering of beautiful sound. Please show some appreciation to the effort that people have invested into this blog, instead of always picking fault. I appreciate them and thank them.
I think some of these peoples never like what the buddha’s teaching come from Tibetan Buddhism or Monks.Irregardless how these small group of peoples thinks of Buddhism negatively,they never realize Buddhism cannot vanish on earth entirely.Instead,Buddhism continue to flourish which have their purpose on earth to save humanity.Those do not have affinity can chose to ignore.Those that have affinity can choose to follow the true teaching of the Buddhas.We must give Buddha’s Teaching to thrive in this modern and complicated age.Some of these small group peoples can choose to destroy Buddhas written works if they wish.But let me remind you again.By the time you think Buddhism really vanish on earth,Maitreya Buddha will arrived.All of you who try to destroy Buddhas teaching will be put into shamed.Isn’t better for some of you realized before it is too late realizing your mistake?
On refuge day Rinpoche gave a good talk to us about why are we taking refuge. As taking refuge is part of Buddhism, he spoke on the responsibility of one towards one’s religion, and belief. Believing is just the beginning, the real work comes after that which is practicing the teachings to gain peace, and spiritual growth on one’s own mind. A very good teachings on belief no matter what faith you’re in. It will open your mind towards responsibility to ourselves and society which is what any human being should be striving for.
I have seen some friends who just pray to God and rely entire to God to do the job. Sorry to said this. There do not take responsibility for their own life. One even threatened to commit suicide. How deluded and irresponsible. This teaching is clear and precise and not offensive at all. I was there and I know there were Christian in the audience who agree totally with Rinpoche.
This is a remarkable black and white picture of Rinpoche, this picture reminds me of the Jazz greats of the 20th centuries
. Tsem Rinpoche is the dharma Great of our time. I think anyone who have heard this talk can get real benefit from it, believing only gets you halfway or part of the way, we need to act it out and do the right actions to get the full benefit of our faiths.
一我的了解，神是经过了一定的修行或一定福德的累积，才形成的。但是，他们还没有达到怔悟的阶段，所以一旦福德用完了，他们还是得再六道轮回。而佛，他已经修行圆满，已达到了彻底的怔悟的境界，不在受六道轮回之苦，所以是我们寻求解脱的学习对象，他会引导我们走向成佛之道。
From this teaching I learn not to just depend on the divine but I have to take responsibility for my life, for my problems, for my family, for my business and for my future.
Thank you Rinpoche for the very wise and profound teaching .
I believe that whatever situation we are in , we have created that ourselves! Yet we then point the finger and blame everyone else ( including Buddha, God ) and we don’t take responsibilty that we and we alone have put ourselves where we are exactly.
All religion teaches us the same values, it’s up to us to bring the teachings fully into our lives, to set what our intentions and motivations are.We may have the blessings of sitting at the feet of the greatest Lamas, Masters, Teachers, receiving the most profound and most wise of teachings, but if we do not take in any of these teachings , and incorporate the teachings into our lives, then it points back to ourselves !!
Thank you Rinpoche, for being in our lives and guiding us always.
人天生就是想得到别人祝福，並没有邪恶与犯罪的本性，如果有邪恶的内在，那是因为心中尚有恐惧不安的部分。不要去对抗它和批判它，而是用爱和接纳去面对它，你会发现邪恶的心只不过是一个恐惧害怕的小孩，它只不过是在求助 ，渴求被爱。（只要你能完全理解上师教诲，你一定会找回内在的那个小孩）
I have always thought that religion is an aspect of life that is essential to give our soul a sense of belonging and depth. Religion is the “thing” that fill the gap that is often empty when we are alone and without distractions.
If we observe, people with religion have something good and pure to go home to when they grow old and they seem to have the ability to age graciously with some wisdom and kindness. In Buddhism, I would relate this to reducing our attachments, which offers our mind greater freedom.
Thus, we should all find our religion and practice with virtuous motivation and consistency so as to create heaven on earth.
Thank you Rinpoche for the enlightened teaching.
thank you rinpoche for wonderfull teaching. we nothing to do with god or buddha we have to be better person.i love this teaching.
We have been brought up with the mindset that religion is only for the older generation and religion is here to solve our problems. In this manner we have degenerate religion by our lack of knowledge and pure selfishness.
Interesting talk, I love it. It enlighten me. Thank you Rinpoche!
Rinpoche’s teaching always suitable for all, whether you are new to Buddhism or not so new. This is one of the teachings that suitable for all, and it hits you with a very simple fact and force you to think and contemplate.
It’s also a teaching you can repeat listen from time to time, to reminds us of how we take our religion and at what level we are in our spiritual path.
In today’s society religion has become a huge debate where people are starting to dismiss it completely or to take lightly as just another label to fill up the section when applying for their IDs or passport. This is not because religion is bad per se but it is because those representing the religion have some how represented them wrongly. I’ve many friends who does not believe in religion any more because it just does not give them the results they are looking for. However, there are many of them who also think that if the trust in a supreme God that whatever they do, they will be saved and the will be fine at the time of death. But when they hit rock bottom, that is when they will start questioning, doubting and maybe even end up disliking their religion all together.
If we actually understand and follow the teachings the religion we choose to be in, we would realise that the only way we can achieve true happiness and “heaven” is through actually putting effort in to applying the teachings and not throw the responsibility and expect our problems to be solve by someone we call “God” or “Buddha”.
One most universal teaching in all religion is kindness and compassion and is this was really applied and practised, then most of our problems would be solve natually. Hence, to go beyond just prayers, like what Rinpoche has mentioned in the teachings is actually to learn and know how to use the teachings to help oneself. In Christianity we often hear “God help those who help themselves”… this simply says, one must take responsibility in ones actions and to put in effort to help oneself instead of expecting it to come from someone. Through our internalizations and practice, we will then inspire many others to do the same. Thank you Rinpoche for this simple yet profound reminder on what religion truly is about!
“The purpose of religion is for me to accept and understand the teachings and to apply them to improve my good qualities and transform my bad qualities to good qualities…”
It is not which religion is good and which is bad… but we are truly spiritual, we will strive to work on ourselves, take responsibility to improve my good qualities and transform my bad qualities to be a better person.
Thank you Rinpoche for such a short but profound teaching.
Have fallen upon this bit of treasure again and just read through some of the comments and wanted to add – I think that this kind of question, about who Buddha and who God is can sometimes become a discussion about who is better or why one is wrong or one is more correct. I appreciate and love that Rinpoche never goes into that discussion but challenges us to look at the logical basis of what we say instead. This itself is a teacher – for us to think about things, to question and to be firm in the fundamentals behind what we believe.
Rinpoche has always been very firm in insisting that there is no “better”. It might be a better method FOR ME because this is what helps me to improve, become a better and more beneficial, less harmful person. A belief in karma may work much better for one person who by their belief in this stop their harmful actions and become more responsible and caring to the world around them; a belief in God may work much better for someone else to gain strength from and to aspire towards in their every day behaviour. So in this case both are just as “better” as the other, surely? While God (whoever he is and whatever she looks like) and Buddha may have absolutely no disagreement between them, we could perhaps look at them, in a very crude way, as a means to an end – when we free ourselves from suffering and become luminous, inspiring, compassionate, wise beings, then how does it matter anymore how we got there and through whom? God and Buddha, if we really truly believe in who they are and how they can help us, would surely not have a kind of tally going on up in the heavens for how many people they had enrolled in their club.
Thank you for the teaching. However, though, and I am certainly not an expert on either religion and, also, I agree with much of what you said, there are some points I question. First, you said Jesus has volumes of teachings if we only took time to read them; but, as far as I can determine there are only a little more than 2000 words of Jesus recorded. Second, I don’t think the point of Christianity is that you don’t have to try to be like Jesus, but rather that the constant sincere attempt to be like him, though filled with endless failures, IS enough to grant you heaven.
Think of it as something CLOSE to this: We as human beings are beings of becoming, so we will always be in the state of becoming. So for us heaven is in the trying. If ever we were perfect we would be God.
Please, help me correct any errors I have made here.
Thank You,
- George Sanguinetti -
I think the reason why people think religion is not important is because people don’t know what to do after they accept the existence of God/Buddha. We take the teaching on its surface meaning, we never reflect on ourselves and go deeper into the real meaning of all teachings. Like what Rinpoche said, we think that after we accept God or Buddha, we think everything should be fine. We don’t have to change ourselves, we don’t have to practice because God and Buddha are mercy and compassionate.
But we forget the happiness/unhappiness that we have are from ourselves. All the good/bad things that done are all because of our own action. We take up the responsibilities is logical. The belief in God/Buddha is valid if we follow their teachings, and the belief express perfectly in this way. Not just keep praying for all the problems we have to be taken away. Thank you Rinpoche for this teaching! It sure does wake people up!
I believe that regardless of religion, they all teaches us to do good and be good. For example, I could be a Christian and still practise Dharma at the same time. How to practise Dharma? Just do unto others what you wish others do unto you. Simple as that. If we don’t do good at least try not to harm others.
That’s my simple understanding.
Thank you for sharing, Rinpoche!
“Degeneration in religion is when we use religion to continue to fulfil our negative, our selfish aspirations…but i want everybody to check themselves to say, when you do you prayers, IF you do your prayers, what do you pray for?”
“If you pray for materialistic, worldly advantages, that is not spirituality, that is not religion. That is not the purpose of religion. Our religion cannot be forced upon by fear, it cannot be forced upon by coercion or by bribery, going to poor people giving them things and then converting them. That is not conversion.”
“The purpose of religion is, for you to accept and understand the…the teachings and to apply back to your qualities to make your good qualities increase and your not so good qualities to transform into good qualities and when you have these good qualities and you operate from that space then you become successful. Prayers and liturgies are reciting something we are suppose to do, not a god is suppose to do for us.”
“Let me repeat. The prayers that we recite are not something you recite to a god for him to do to you, it is for you to do for yourself.”
Some of my favourite quotes from this teachings.
I really really enjoyed this talk, this had been on my mind for quite sometime and always boggled me as to why people pray to religion and i truly agree with what Rinpoche is saying because what do we pray for? How can we pray for our negative selfish needs. What is the point of religion then. It only makes me feel when we pray like that and say we are a believer in God, it just feels like we only put them so low as to think they are our servants. They are not, they are there to inspire us, be better, a better person for society, transform our mind to be compassionate, to be kind to others, tolerant, patient and understanding. So many things, yet most of us pray for materialistic posessions.
I remember till this day, when i was young Rinpoche had always reminded us, dont pray for yourself, always pray for others, if there isnt anyone you need to pray for, pray for those who are in suffering, may those who are naked find clothes, may those who are starving find food…it made me realise, its time to stop always trying to pray for yourself, i wanna get rich, i wanna be popular, i want everyone to love me and be good to me, religion was not born some get rich quick scheme, it was made for us to transform our minds to becoming better people. Like Rinpoche says TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOURSELF.
Killing someone, cheating, lying and then saying you’ll go to heaven because god loves you and you can be forgiven, it really doesnt make any sense. I don’t like praying for myself, because where I am today, with a roof under my head, with clothes on my body, with food in my stomach, with knowledge from education, was not because of my effort, but from the love, care, time, effort and patience my parents put into raising me, so i pray for them. Because of how good they have been to me, scolded me when i did wrong, pushing me to do things and be productive, teaching me to be a better person. I would be in jail if i hadn’t be growing up with my parents, mixing around with the wrong people, taking the wrong substances, I’m not saying i had those chances in life but i know i wouldn’t have known whats right and wrong if it werent for them.
I may not fully understand or grasp the full realisation of this teaching, but i will take it with me to contemplate and to practice. Thank you for your kind teaching Rinpoche. I really enjoyed this video. The music was really interesting in the backgound, it helped me concentrate of what Rinpoche was teaching us.
Thank You Rinpoche for the teaching, this teaching make me think of Mind Transformation in life is so important in our daily life, transform to be a better person, transform to be kind, love, care, acceptance, patience and forgiveness to others.
Much Appreciated Rinpoche teachings for all the times.
Best Regards : Eric kksiow