What is GOD? What is BUDDHA? - Tsem Rinpoche

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 criteria, 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.

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TRANSCRIPT

I need everyone to go beyond taking refuge in a God, in a supreme being, and then throwing one’s problems onto this being and pushing away one’s responsibilities, and just doing prayers and mantras to say, “Solve my problems”. We need to go beyond that already.

We need to follow religion correctly. If religion was only about acceptance of a superior being and then everything is solved. Then the great prophets and masters such as Buddha and Jesus and all that would not have taught volumes of teachings on how to change your mind.

Jesus Christ taught volumes and volumes of teachings if you take the time to read. Acceptance of a God is just one small or one minor or one preliminary criteria. Same thing for Buddha, he taught for 40 years until he was 81.

If acceptance of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, taking refuge was enough to solve our problems and to release us of our predicaments, then Buddha doesn’t need to teach 108 volumes as in the Kangyur teachings. Kangyur is the spoken words of the Buddha. The bible is one book, in Buddhism, there are 108 bibles. Those were the spoken words of the Buddha, recorded and written very extensively.

My point, if it was just ok to come along and say “Oh, I made all these problems, solve it because I accept you”, then just all we need is half a page. In the Kangyur we need half a page, in the bible just half a page, it’s enough. It is so simple, just accept and everything is fine. You show me one person in this room, or anywhere in the world, by accepting everything is fine. I have accepted for 25 years, look at me, and I am still not fine.

How much more do you want me to accept? I’ve shaved off my hair. I’ve given up all the things that you consider pleasurable. And I’ve trapped myself as a monk. How closer do I need to get to my God? Oh my God! How closer do I need to get?

So, we make all these problems for 10, 20, 30 years, and then all these problems come back to us. And when these problems come back to us – our boyfriend wants to leave, our girlfriend wants to leave, our kids don’t listen to us anymore, our business is not working out, or we have too much money and we don’t know what to do with ourselves, we are bored, or we are too old – when all these problems come to us, then we say “Oh, let’s go to the temple”, “let’s go to the church”, “let’s go to the synagogue”, or whatever, and then we pray. And we pray fervently, religiously, voraciously, emotionally, dramatically in some cases. And we pray from the depth of our hearts for the God to remove all our problems.

Where can a God remove your problems? Whether it’s a Christian God, a Hindu God, a Buddhist God, or whatever God, where can a God remove your problems? That means every single one of us who are pious, and devout, and pray from our hearts should have zero problem. And trust me, you would be surprised that I have more problems than you and I am a monk. You would be surprised if you knew the problems that I have to deal with on a daily basis.

When you have for decades created all these problems for yourself, your own mind and your surroundings, and you go to a God and do one million Setrap mantras, one million Hail Marys, but your problems are still there. Well you have two ways to get rid of it, one is you give up the faith and say it doesn’t work, it doesn’t exist; or you reassess yourself and say, “Maybe that’s not the purpose of religion.”

Religion has degenerated. Partly my fault, your fault, all of our faults. Religion has degenerated into that – where we want an instant quick fix – for all the problems we have created for decades.

You go out and you say nasty things, you are mean to people, you hurt them, cheat them, lie to them, and you basically took things from them, and then you go to church and pray, “Dear God, can you please make them go away although I have cheated them, I have lied, I have stolen from them. But can you please make them go away? Because I am a devout follower of yours, I am your wonderful son and daughter, and you are a forgiving, kind and compassionate God.

To read the rest of the transcript, click here https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=195892

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