The Kingdom, the Cocoon, the Great Eastern Sun

Driven by survival, hassled by the demands of life, we live in a world compl etely thronged by holding on to our state of existence, our livelihood, our jobs. People throughout this century and for at least the last few thousand years have been trying to solve our problems right and left. Throughout histo1y, in fact, great prophets, teachers, masters, gurus, yogins, saints of all kinds have appeared and tried to solve the problems of life. Their message has been quite definite: Try to be good. Be gentle to yourselves, to your neighbors, your parents, your relatives, your spouse- to the whole world. If you are good to others, you will relieve their anxiety. Then you will have excellent neighbors, excellent relatives, an excellent wife, an excellent husband, an excellent world. That message has been presented a thousand times. Our lives are enriched by many sacred writings, including the ancient traditions of Taoism, Vedic texts, sutras, tantras, and shastras-sacred texts of all kinds. Modern libraries and bookstores are filled with these attempts to reach us. People try so hard to help, even placing the Gideon Bible in hotel rooms.

Many of those teachers and saints belong to a theistic tradition. That is to say, they worship the one God, and they are monotheists, or they are presenting sacred messages from the multitheism of other traditions. On the other hand, Buddhism is a nontheistic spiritual discipline, which does not talk in terms of worship and does not regard the world as somebody's creation. Accord ing to the Buddhist teachings, there was no great artificer who fashioned the world. This world is created or produced and happens to be purely through our own existence. We exist; therefore, we have fashioned this particular world. Then there are entirely different schools of thought, supported by scientific discoveries, that say that everything is an evolutionary process. We have Darwinian theories of how, from a monkey or a flsh, human beings came to exist.

There are many conflicting notions about the origins of existence. But whether it is according to theism, nontheism, or a scientific approach, there is this particular world-which is created and which we have. To theologians or scientists, it may be terribly important to figure out why we are here or how we came to be here. But from the point of view of Shambhala vision, the main concem is not why I am here or why you are here. Why you happen to have a white shirt, a red shirt, long hair, or short hair is not the question. The real question is, Since we're here, how are we going to live from now onward? We may or may not have a long time to live. Impermanence is always there. Hight now, you may cease to live. As you walk out of the room you're in right now, something may happen to you. You may face death. There are many eventualities of life or death. You may face physical problems, sicknesses of all kinds. You may be subject to cancer. Nonetheless, you have to live from now onward.

The basic point of the Shambhala teachings is to realize that there is no outside help to save you from the terror and the horror of life. The best doctor of the doctors and the best medicine of the medicines and the best technology of the technologies cannot save you from your life. The best consultants, the best bank loans, and the best insurance policies cannot save you. Eventually, you must realize that you have to do something rather than depending on technology, financial help, your smartness, or good thinking of any kind-none of which will save you. That may seem like the black truth, but it is the real truth. Often, in the Buddhist tradition, it is called the vajra truth, the diamond truth, the truth you cannot avoid or destroy. We cannot avoid our lives at all. We have to face our lives, young or old, rich or poor. Whatever happens, we cannot save ourselves from our lives at a ll. We have to face the eventual truth- not even the eventual truth but the real truth of our lives. We are here; therefore, we have to learn how to go forward with our lives.

This truth is what we call the wisdom of Shambhala. The introduction of such wisdom into North American culture is a historical landmark. However, my purpose is not to convert you to what I have to say. Rather, the more you understand, the more you will realize your own responsibility. So I am speaking to you not only from the point of view of the trumpeter but also from the point of view of the trumpetees. Rather than watching the trumpeter, what is important is to hear the trumpet music.