AMERICAN BUDDHISM
Comparing and investigating the role
of the American Buddhist practitioner is of vital importance to me. Often the
Centers and Temples in this country seem to validate practice of contributing
members, while not totally addressing the possible potential a person has for
practice on their own. Many factor contribute to this trend, including the concept
of validation through lineage: the idea being that true practice occurs only when
connected to an official dharma lineage that can be dated back to the actual lifetime
of Buddha. Although obviously the pattern for practice came from somewhere, it
is obvious that these lineage claims may in fact exaggerate or stretch the actual
connections between former generations, to further validate their own identity.
Many inconsistencies arise from these endeavors, including a comparison with the
Buddhist principles in regard to senses of identity or separateness. If both of
the latter are illusions, then why all the fuss about which identities agreed
with you in the past?
Another problem in dealing with the current state of
affairs, namely with American Zen Buddhism, is that in rejecting the religion
that they are brought up with, Americans seem to simply carry their cultural baggage
into the realm of Zen Buddhism. Greed and materialism seep in, until the practice
of non-attachment becomes an abstract motive that is not actualized. Part of non-attachment,
it seems, is the capability to live with serenity and dignity whether one drives
a sports car or walks; whether one can afford vacations from work or not; whether
one is in a position acquired through accomplishment and advancement or not. An
ongoing tradition of world culture has been that of over-consumption by the few,
resulting in the suffering of the many. Do we contribute to this as Buddhists
when we go on a retreat that bears a four-figure price tag? I have read of retreats
led by Thich Nhat Hanh, in which the participants yelled at each other in the
parking lot over who got to park their SUV where. As Americans, we need to watch
out for this tendency. Perhaps the most sincere modern American actualization
of Buddhist practice to date stems from the prison system.
A certain amount
of Orientalism enters in, also, when dealing with the uniquely Japanese characteristics
of Zen. Issues such as blind loyalty to a position of authority, regardless of
behavior, come into play. But no matter what the country of origin, or the certification
of dharma transmission, if the lay precepts cannot even be followed or actualized
then the whole process becomes a shadowplay done for looks
.the essence gone,
absorbed by the pages of glossy, expensive books that seek to validate the teachers
in question. Once a Zen Buddhist, "enlightened" or not, drinks, indulges
in sex and affairs, abuses the power that is granted by the students, boasts of
their own status, or harps on the superiority of Japanese culture, a heartfelt
reevaluation must be made by the people in support of such a person. It is very
hard to do; but it must be done.
America has the potential to bring equality,
democracy, and a healthy sense of questioning authority to the practice of Zen
Buddhism. It also has the potential to immerse the entire practice into a sort
of cultural elitism, materialism, hedonism, and outright quests for power in a
variety of manifestations. The individual practitioner, whether alone or not,
has a role to play in establishing this tradition. We must be very, very careful
how we do this.
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Chocolate
Frosting and Garbage
by Venerable Thubten Chodron©
We
hear the great masters say, "Practicing Buddhism is good. It will bring you
happiness in this and future lives," and we think, "Umm... This sounds
interesting." But when we try to do it, sometimes we get confused. There
are so many kinds of practice to do. "Should I prostrate? Should I make offerings?
Maybe meditation is better? But chanting is easier, perhaps I should do that instead."
We compare our practice to that of others. "My friend just made 100,000 prostrations
in one month. But my knees hurt and I can't do any!" we think with jealousy.
Sometimes doubt comes in our mind and we wonder, "Other religions teach about
morality, love and compassion. Why should I limit myself to Buddhism?" We
go around in circles, and in the process, lose sight of the real meaning of what
we are trying to do.
To resolve this, we need to understand what following
Buddha's teachings means. Let's look beyond clinging to the words. "I'm a
Buddhist." Let's look beyond the external appearance of being a religious
person. What is it that we want from our lives? Isn't finding some kind of lasting
happiness and helping others the essence of what most human beings seek?
One
does not have to call him/herself a Buddhist in order to practice the Dharma and
receive benefit from it. Interestingly, in Tibetan, there is no word, "Buddhism".
This is noteworthy, for sometimes we get so caught up in the names of religions
that we forget their meaning, and busy ourselves defending our religion and criticizing
others'. This is a useless venture. In fact the term, "Dharma" includes
any teaching that, if practiced correctly, leads people to temporal or ultimate
happiness. It doesn't exclude teachings given by other religious leaders, provided
that these teachings lead us to the attainment of temporal or ultimate happiness.
Examples
are readily available: moral discipline such as abandoning killing, stealing,
lying, sexual misconduct and intoxicants is taught in many other religions, as
is love and compassion for others. This is the Dharma, and it is beneficial for
us to practice such advice, whether we call ourselves Buddhist or Hindu or Christian
or whatever. This is not to say that all religions are the same in every respect,
for they aren't. However, the parts in each of them that lead us to temporal and
ultimate happiness should be practiced by everyone, no matter which religion we
identify with.
It is extremely important not to get bogged down in words. Sometimes
people ask me, "Are you Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, Hindu or Muslim? Are
you Mahayana or Theravada? Do you follow Tibetan Buddhism or Chinese Buddhism?
Are you Gelu, Kargyu, Sakya or Nyingma?" To this complexity of concepts,
I reply, "I am a human being searching for a path to discover truth and happiness
and to make my life beneficial for others." That's the beginning and end
of it. It so happens that I have found a path that suits my inclination and disposition
in such and such a religion, and such and such a tradition. However, there is
no use in clinging onto the terms, "I am a Buddhist of the Tibetan variety
and practice the Gelu tradition." We already have made enough simple words
into concrete concepts. Isn't this grasping at fixed and limited categories what
we are trying to eliminate from our minds? If we cling to such labels in a close-minded
way, then we give ourselves no choice but to quarrel with and criticize others
who happen to have different labels. There are already enough problems in the
world, what is the use of creating more by having bigoted religious views and
conceitedly defaming others?
A kind heart is one of the principal things we
are trying to develop. If we run around childishly telling others, "I'm this
religion, and you're that religion. But, mine is better," it is like turning
chocolate frosting into garbage: what was delicious becomes useless. Instead,
we would be much wiser to look inside ourselves and apply the antidotes to intolerance,
pride, and attachment. The true criterion of whether we are a religious or spiritual
person is whether we have a kind heart toward others and a wise approach to life.
These qualities are internal and cannot be seen with our eyes. They are gained
by honestly looking at our own thoughts, words and actions, discriminating which
ones to encourage and which ones to abandon, and then engaging in the practices
to develop compassion and wisdom in order to transform ourselves.
While we
are trying to practice the Dharma, let's not get entrenched in superficial appearances.
There is a story of one Tibetan man who wanted to practice Dharma, so he spent
days circumambulating holy relic monuments. Soon his teacher came by and said,
"What you're doing is very nice, but wouldn't it be better to practice the
Dharma?" The man scratched his head in wonder and the next day began to do
prostrations. He did hundreds of thousands of prostrations, and when he reported
the total to his teacher, his teacher responded, "That's very nice, but wouldn't
it be better to practice the Dharma?" Puzzled, the man now thought to recite
the Buddhist scriptures aloud. But when his teacher came by, he again commented,
"Very good, but wouldn't it be better to practice the Dharma?" Thoroughly
bewildered, the exasperated man queried his spiritual master, "But what does
that mean? I thought I have been practicing the Dharma." The teacher responded
concisely, "The practice of Dharma is to change your attitude towards life
and give up attachment to worldly concerns."
The real Dharma practice
is not something we can see with our eyes. Real practice is changing our mind,
not just changing our behavior so that we appear holy, blessed, and others say,
"Wow, what a fantastic person!" We have already spent our lives putting
on various acts in an effort to convince ourselves and others that we are indeed
what in fact we aren't at all. We hardly need to create another facade, this time
of a super-holy person. What we do need to do is change our mind, our way of viewing,
interpreting and reacting to the world around and within us.
The first step
in doing this is being honest with ourselves. Taking an accurate look at our life,
we are unafraid and unashamed to acknowledge, "Everything is not completely
right in my life. No matter how good the situation around me is, no matter how
much money or how many friends or how great a reputation I have, still I'm not
satisfied. Also, I have very little control over my moods and emotions, and can't
prevent getting sick, aging and eventually dying."
Then we check up why
and how we are in this predicament. What are the causes of it? By looking at our
own life, we come to understand that our experiences are closely linked with our
mind. When we interpret a situation in one way and get angry about it, we are
unhappy and make the people around us miserable; when we view the same situation
from another perspective, it no longer appears intolerable and we act wisely and
with a peaceful mind. When we are proud, it's no wonder that others act haughtily
to us. On the other hand, a person with an altruistic attitude automatically attracts
friends. Our experiences are based on our own attitudes and actions.
Can our
current situation be changed? Of course! Since it is dependent on causes --- our
attitudes and actions --- if we take responsibility to train ourselves to think
and act in a more accurate and altruistic way, then the current perplexed dissatisfaction
can be ceased and a joyful and beneficial situation ensue. It is up to us. We
can change.
The initial step in this change is giving up attachment to worldly
concerns. In other words, we stop fooling ourselves and trying to fool others.
We understand that the problem isn't that we cannot get what we want or once we
do get it, it fades away or breaks. Rather, the problem is that we cling to it
with over-estimating expectations in the first place. Various activities like
prostrating, making offerings, chanting, meditating and so on are techniques to
help us overcome our preconceptions of attachment, anger, jealousy, pride and
close-mindedness. These practices are not ends in themselves, and they are of
little benefit if done with the same attachment for reputation, friends and possessions
that we had before.
Once, Bengungyel, a meditator doing retreat in a cave,
was expecting his benefactor to visit. As he set up offerings on his altar that
morning, he did so with more care and in a much elaborate and impressive way than
usual, hoping that his benefactor would think what a great practitioner he was
and would give him more offerings. Later, when he realized his own corrupt motivation,
he jumped up in disgust, grabbed handfuls of ashes from the ashbin and flung them
over the altar while he shouted, "I throw this in the face of attachment
to worldly concerns."
In another part of Tibet, Padampa Sangyey, a master
with clairvoyant powers, viewed all that had happened in the cave. With delight,
he declared to those around him, "Bengungyel has just made the purest offering
in all Tibet!"
The essence of the Dharma practice isn't our external performance,
but our internal motivation. Real Dharma is not huge temples, pompous ceremonies,
elaborate dress and intricate rituals. These things are tools that can help our
mind if they are used properly, with correct motivation. We can't judge another
person's motivation, nor should we waste our time trying to evaluate others' actions.
We can only look at our own mind, thereby determining whether our actions, words
and thoughts are beneficial or not. For that reason we must be ever attentive
not to let our minds come under the influence of selfishness, attachment, anger,
etc. As it says in the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, "Vigilant,
the moment a disturbing attitude appears, endangering myself and others, I will
confront and avert it without delay." In this way, our Dharma practice becomes
pure and is effective not only in leading us to temporal and ultimate happiness,
but also in enabling us to make our lives beneficial for others.
Thus, if we
get confused about which tradition to follow or what practice to do, let's remember
the meaning of practicing Dharma. To cling with concrete conceptions to a certain
religion or tradition is to build up our close-minded grasping. To become enamoured
with rituals without endeavouring to learn and contemplate their meaning is simply
to playact a religious role. To engage in external practices like prostrating,
making offerings, chanting and so forth, with a motivation that is attached to
receiving a good reputation, meeting a boyfriend or girlfriend, being praised
or receiving offerings, is like putting chocolate frosting into garbage: it looks
good on the outside, but it's unhealthy.
Instead, if everyday we center ourselves
by remembering the value of being a human being, if we recall our beautiful human
potential and have a deep and sincere longing to make it blossom, then we'll endeavor
to be true to ourselves and to others by transforming our motivations, and consequently,
transforming our action. In addition to remembering the value and purpose of life,
if we contemplate the transience of our existence and of the objects and people
that we are attached to, then we'll want to practice in a pure way. Sincere and
pure practice that leads to so many beneficial results is done by applying the
antidotes that Buddha prescribed when afflictive attitudes arise in our minds:
when anger comes, we practice patience and tolerance; for attachment, we recall
transience; when jealousy arises, we counter it with sincere rejoicing in others'
qualities and happiness; for pride, we remember that just as no water can stay
on a pointed mountain peak, no qualities can develop in a mind inflated by pride;
for close-mindedness, we let ourselves listen and reflect on a new view.
Looking
holy and important on the outside brings no real happiness either now or in the
future. However, if we have a kind heart and a pure motivation free of selfish,
ulterior motives, we are indeed a real practitioner. Then our lives become meaningful,
joyful and beneficial for others.
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Disrupting
the Faith?
Interview with Dr. Alexander Berzin
Newsweek Magazine,
Asia & Atlantic editions, January 13, 1997, 56.
Mongolian Buddhism
barely survived under decades of Stalinist repression. Now, more than five years
after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mongolia's religious traditions could
be facing another threat: an invasion of Christian missionaries. Or so says Dr.
Alexander Berzin, 52, a prominent American Buddhist and a research fellow originally
from Harvard University. He recently toured Mongolia to deliver a series of lectures
on the country's ancient faith, a journey that he says allowed him to witness
the impact of foreign evangelists. Berzin shared his observations with Newsweek's
George Wehrfritz in Beijing. Excerpts:
WEHRFRITZ: What prompted your latest
visit?
BERZIN: I was invited by the National State University of Mongolia to
deliver a series of lectures on Buddhism. The background is that since the fall
of the communist regime, there has been a very large influx of American Christian
missionaries to Mongolia from various denominations. They are exerting tremendous
pressure on the population, particularly the young people, to convert to Christianity.
This is extremely disruptive to the process of trying to re-establish Mongolia's
traditional culture and religion.
How are missionaries disruptive?
For Mongolia
to adapt to a new market economy and democracy, it is very important that people
feel self-confident. This sense of self-worth comes from being rooted in one's
own culture. So if you take away the former Soviet culture, and in addition take
away Mongolia's traditional culture and values, which the missionaries are trying
to undermine, people are left with nothing. They feel they are not worthwhile,
that everything they've spent their lives on is garbage.
How, specifically,
do missionaries undermine Mongolia's traditional values?
They come and say
that Mongolia's poverty and backwardness are due to Buddhism. This is simply preposterous
when one looks at the development of Buddhist societies in Southeast Asia, Taiwan,
South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong. But many Mongolians believe it because they
don't have much information about the outside world. Also, the missionaries come
in the guise of English teachers. They print free Christian literature in colloquial
Mongolian and in English, which attracts language students. They give money, computers
to universities, scholarships to children of influential officials. They buy their
way in. The Buddhists can't compete.
Why not?
They are still trying to re-establish
themselves. Their monasteries were destroyed, some 700 during the Stalin period.
The communist government allowed only one monastery to stay open. Now they have
restarted 155 monasteries. But the old monks who survive are only able to teach
the young monks rituals. They don't have money for printing or translation to
colloquial Mongolian. And then, of course, the missionaries have parties for young
people, with music and free food - and a heavy hit of proselytizing.
What are
they trying to accomplish?
The missionaries sincerely believe that they are
saving the souls of these people and bringing them to heaven. In the long run,
they could destroy Mongolian society.
How might the Buddhist community respond?
There
are various steps. I am involved in a project to translate texts from either Tibetan,
English or classical Mongolian into the colloquial language. The other thing which
is being done is that His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been sending teachers from
India to help re-establish a Buddhist educational system. Mongolia received its
form of Buddhism from Tibet, starting in the 13th century. So there is a very
long relationship.
Another strategy is to send in American Buddhists like yourself,
right?
The missionaries are American, so Mongolian youth get the impression
that their Christian zeal is the backbone of Western culture. It isn't as effective
for Mongolian or Tibetan Buddhist teachers to challenge this. But as an American,
my presence sends another message: that not every American has this missionary
zeal, that there are many other religions in the United States and that we draw
our strength from many factors besides Christianity.
Is there a place for Christianity
in Mongolia?
I'll give an example. The Dalai Lama and the Pope have had a great
deal of contact over the years. One of the things they arranged was an exchange
of monastics. A number of Catholic monks came to Tibetan Buddhist monasteries
in India to learn meditation techniques, in particular how to improve concentration.
Likewise, the Dalai Lama sent monks to Christian monasteries to study how they
set up orphanages, old-age homes, schools and hospitals. In Tibet, the village
and family traditionally took care of these things. But in exile in India you
don't have the structure anymore, so monasteries need to do this. The Christian
monks who went to India certainly did not become Buddhists, nor did the Buddhist
monks become Christians. But they were able to learn from each other to enhance
their own religions and societies. This type of exchange on the basis of mutual
respect has a place in Mongolia.
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Teaching
Children by Example
by Venerable Thubten Chodron©
...Dharma
practice isn't just coming to the temple; it's not simply reading a Buddhist scripture
or chanting the Buddha's name. Practice is how we live our lives, how we live
with our family, how we work together with our colleagues, how we relate to the
other people in the country and on the planet. We need to bring the Buddha's teachings
on loving-kindness into our workplace, into our family, even into the grocery
store and the gym. We do this not by handing out leaflets on a street corner,
but by practicing and living the Dharma ourselves. When we do, automatically we
will have a positive influence on the people around us. For example, you teach
your children loving-kindness, forgiveness, and patience not only by telling them,
but by showing it in your own behavior. If you tell your children one thing, but
act in the opposite way, they are going to follow what we do, not what we say.
If
we're not careful, it is easy to teach our children to hate and never to forgive
when others harm them. Look at the situation in the former Yugoslavia: it is a
good example of how, both in the family and in the schools, adults taught children
to hate. When those children grew up, they taught their children to hate. Generation
after generation, this went on, and look what happened. There is so much suffering
there; it's very sad. Sometimes you may teach children to hate another part of
the family. Maybe your grandparents quarreled with their brothers and sisters,
and since then the different sides of the family didn't speak to each other. Something
happened years before you were born -- you don't even know what the event was
-- but because of it, you're not supposed to speak to certain relatives. Then
you teach that to your children and grandchildren. They learn that the solution
to quarreling with someone is never to speak to them again. Is that going to help
them to be happy and kind people? You should think deeply about this and make
sure you teach your children only what is valuable.
This is why it's so important
that you exemplify in your behavior what you want your children to learn. When
you find resentment, anger, grudges, or belligerence in your heart, you have to
work on those, not only for your own inner peace but so you don't teach your children
to have those harmful emotions. Because you love your children, try to also love
yourself as well. Loving yourself and wanting yourself to be happy means you develop
a kind heart for the benefit of everybody in the family.
Bringing Loving-Kindness
to the School
We need to bring loving-kindness not only into the family but
also into the schools. Before I became a nun, I was a schoolteacher, so I have
especially strong feelings about this. The most important thing for children to
learn is not a lot of information, but how to be kind human beings and how to
resolve their conflicts with others in a constructive way. Parents and teachers
put a lot of time and money into teaching children science, arithmetic, literature,
geography, geology, and computers. But do we ever spend any time teaching them
how to be kind? Do we have any courses in kindness? Do we teach kids how to work
with their own negative emotions and how to resolve conflicts with others? I think
this is much more important than the academic subjects. Why? Children may know
a lot, but if they grow up to be unkind, resentful, or greedy adults, their lives
will not be happy.
Parents want their children to have a good future and thus
think their children need to make a lot of money. They teach their children academic
and technical skills so that they can get a good job and make lots of money --
as if money were the cause of happiness. But when people are on their deathbed,
you never hear anybody wishfully say, "I should have spent more time in the
office. I should have made more money." When people have regrets about how
they lived their life, usually they regret not communicating better with other
people, not being kinder, not letting the people that they care about know that
they care. If you want your kids to have a good future don't teach them just how
to make money, but how to live a healthy life, how to be a happy person, how to
contribute to society in a productive way.
Teaching Children to Share with
Others
As parents you have to model this. Let's say your children come home
and say, "Mom and Dad, I want designer jeans, I want new rollerblades, I
want this and I want that because all the other kids have it." You say to
your children, "Those things won't make you happy. You don't need them. It
won't make you happy to keep up with the Lee's." But then you go out and
buy all the things that everybody else has, even though your house is already
filled with things you don't use. In this case, what you are saying and what you
are doing are contradictory. You tell your children to share with other children,
you don't give things to charities for the poor and needy. Look at the homes in
this country: they are filled with things we don't use but can't give away. Why
not? We're afraid that if we give something away we might need it in the future.
We find it difficult to share our things, but we teach children that they should
share. A simple way to teach your children generosity is to give away all the
things you haven't used in the last year. If all four seasons have gone by and
we haven't used something, we probably won't use it the next year either. There
are many people who are poor and can use those things, and it would help ourselves,
our children, and the other people if we gave those things away.
Another way
to teach your children kindness is to not buy everything that you want. Instead,
save the money and give it to a charity or to somebody who is in need. You can
show your children through your own example that accumulating more and more material
things doesn't bring happiness, and that it's more important to share with others.
Teaching Children About the Environment and Recycling
Along this line,
we need to teach children about the environment and recycling. Taking care of
the environment that we share with other living beings is part of the practice
of loving kindness. If we destroy the environment, we harm others. For example,
if we use a lot of disposable things and don't recycle them but just throw them
away, what are we giving to future generations? They will inherit from us bigger
garbage dumps. I'm very happy to see more people reusing and recycling things.
It is an important part of our Buddhist practice and an activity that temples
and Dharma centers should take the lead in.
The above is an excerpt from
the article "Buddhism in Modern Society" from "The Path To Happiness"
by Ven. Chodron
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The
Mystical Art of Contemplative Visualization
by Gan Starling
First let's try an experiment, to assay our present level of skill. Most
will find a surprising result...that they are far more adept at this art then
they had until now believed.
Exercise #1
Just imagine: you are standing
in line at the movie theater; a half-dozen folks are qued up before you while
nearly as many await behind. There is similar line on your left, and yet another
to your right. Do not create this mental image, just remember a like occurrence
from your past. Can you see it?
Exercise #2
Now you are inside the theater
waiting for the picture to start. The lights are still up and all manner of people
surround you: different races, different ages, different styles of dress, etc.
They all behave quite naturally. None are completely rigid or inanimate. To varying
degrees they move about, talk and gesture amongst themselves. You don't even necessarily
have to close your eyes. Just picture it and they will be there.
Exercise #3
While
waiting for the curtain to lift, you loose yourself in an idle daydream. How nice
it would be to visit Tahiti
Can't you just see it? Ah, yes
there you
are! You pause while walking along the beach and rest for a moment idlely leaning
against an outcrop of rugged, black, volcanic rock. You gaze dreamily at the sunset
verging softly ever downward toward the horizon. You wriggle your toes deeper
into the still-warm sand while the faintest of breezes tousles your hair. So what
if you've never been there? Still you can see it clearly
This is
the way to visualize. Everyone knows how to do it. Often enough we seem to do
it far too well, mostly when it's not socially convenient. The trick is to be
spontaneous, never too overtly deliberate, too firm or too assertive. Don't even
call it visualization. Don't call it anything at all. The mental image-building
process is neither sublime nor profoundly mystical. It is plain, ordinary, everyday
imagination. It's nothing really all that special. So lighten up. Just sit still,
relax and imagine.
Don't stress out and the pictures will come
all by
themselves. But if you struggle, if you strain, trying to sculpt each smallest
detail by deliberate mental effort
then you will fail. All you'll get is
a kind of red unfocused cloud; which just might be actual inside of your eyelids.
Don't look with your physical eyes. Don't look at all, just imagine.
Of course,
to properly imagine something first we must know it in fair detail. How can we
picture Tahiti so clearly? Only because we may have read Mutiny on the Bounty,
or watched an adventure travel series on television. We know pretty well what
Tahiti should look like. It is the same with meditative visualization. Before
sitting down upon our cushion (or at least before evoking an image) we need to
study up a bit first.
Acquaint yourself with the imagery. After a while you'll
know it by heart. But in so learning, don't lose your spontaneity. Don't get hung
up on exact precision according to any single artist. Study several such depictions
by different artists. Maintain some slight flexibility. Know in general the expression,
gesture and pose. Know also the implements, garments and background. And most
important, get to know the function of the imagery. What are the ultimate and
intermediate goals of this practice? These will be in full accord with those of
the deity.
Take Tara, for instance. Her purpose is guide and protect, to rescue
from danger, to lead toward Enlightenment, to inspire and give birth to every
good quality within us
most especially our Wisdom. In short, She is the perfect
Mother. She encourages us to make efforts for ourselves while still sitting always
at the ready, willing and able to aid us when needed. She is also eternally youthful
and beautiful beyond any words. This is how we should try to see her. In this
instance we are the artist. So it is rather more important that our private image
of Tara express these ultimate qualities than that it should match with exactitude
some other artist's depiction of Her.
So what of traditional Tibetan iconography,
with its detailed metrics and all? My own suggestion is to use it only as an informal
guide. First know that there is more than just a single Tibetan school of art;
and each promotes a slightly varied iconographic metrology. Secondly know that
even the early Tibetan artists did not adhere with slavish precision to the original
Indian iconography. They remained true instead to the heart of the matter, its
inner ideal. A few certain elements of style and expression were re-interpreted
so as to speak to the hearts of Tibetans.
And this may be called for in our
case also. An ever so slightly Westernized re-depiction of these same exact qualities
will not offend against tradition. Artistic license has its limits, but the boundries
are none too severe: Green Tara must be green; She must sit thus, pose thus, gesture
thus; we must attire her thus and so. Still we enjoy a rather full measure of
individual flexibility. Just page through any Tibetan art book; you will see quite
a range of variance in many details.
The image which we create for Tara is
just as much an offering as the rest of the depiction. First we remember Her image,
then we invite Her into it. Perhaps it may be that the image I offer is a composite
of several classically beautiful Western women and enlivened by the tender, concerned
expression of a certain, half-remembered student teacher from my fifth grade elementary
class (whom I then thought to be in love with). That is not at all improper. In
such a case, I will have done my best for Tara. And She will gladly communicate
to me through this image. That is the function of visualization.
Note the
order of events within our short Green Tara sadhana: first we have refuge prayers,
then motivational prayers. After that comes visualization. And after that the
invocation. Visualization
then invocation! First we imagine sublime environs
and a physical body for the deity to inhabit. Then we invite the deity to come
into them. So how does this work?
Suppose you were planning to invite someone
special, whom you admire, over to visit: what do you do? The very first thing,
you'd tidy up, clearing out anything unpleasant or offensive. Then you'd pretty
up the place as much as you could with decorations here and there. Properly, you
would make these special efforts prior to the invitation, rather than waiting
till he or she appeared at your doorstep.
And just where is it that we meet
the Enlightened Ones? In their realm? No. Not yet anyway. Until we are able to
see on their plane we must perforce invite them here, that is to say
into
our minds. So our minds are what we must tidy up and decorate. We tidy up by putting
things in their proper places, correcting our internal perspectives through going
for refuge. Then we scrub those old motivations until some real bodhicitta shines
through. Next we put out decorations and guest offerings through the power of
imagination. And more for ourselves than otherwise, we further include an inspiring
semblance for the deity to inhabit during our interview.
Perhaps this may
seem a bit contrived. Well, contrived is exactly just what it is
but only
at first. One's first steps in any endeavor are always awkward: highly deliberate
and contrived. This is true for any skill we wish to acquire. Take playing the
piano, for instance. First one struggles to hammer out Chopsticks progressing
by stages until one can comfortably manage Chopin. But there the similarity ends.
Our aspiring pianist may not realistically assume the spirit of Chopin is truly
present to offer direct encouragement. We, as tantric practitioners, may indeed
rightly do so.
***********************************************************************************************
The
Heart Sutra:
The Heart of Far-Reaching Discriminating Awareness,
the Vanquishing Lady Surpassing All
(bCom-ldan-'das-ma Shes-rab-kyi pha-rol-tu
phyin-pa'i snying-po,
Skt. Bhagavati Prajnaparamita-hrdaya)
translated from
the Tibetan, as clarified by the Sanskrit
by Alexander Berzin, 2004
These
words have I heard. At one time, the Vanquishing Master Surpassing All was dwelling
at Vulture Peak Mountain, by the Royal City of Rajagriha, together with a large
assembly of the monastic sangha and a large assembly of the bodhisattva sangha.
At that time, the Vanquishing Master Surpassing All was totally absorbed in
the absorbed concentration that expresses the multiplicity of phenomena, known
as "the appearance of the profound."
Also at that time, the bodhisattva
great-minded mahasattva, the Arya Avalokiteshvara, the Powerful Lord Beholding
All Around, conducting his behavior in profound and far-reaching discriminating
awareness, was beholding all around, in detail, like this: He was beholding all
around, in detail, the five aggregate factors of his experience and those as devoid
of self-establishing nature.
Then, through the might of the Buddha, the venerable
Shariputra addressed these words to the bodhisattva great-minded mahasattva, the
Arya Avalokiteshvara: "How does any spiritual child with the (Buddha) family
traits need to train, who wishes to conduct his or her behavior in profound and
far-reaching discriminating awareness?"
Addressed like that, the bodhisattva
great-minded mahasattva, the Arya Avalokiteshvara, addressed these words to the
venerable Son of Sharadvati, "O Shariputra, any spiritual son with the family
traits or spiritual daughter with the family traits, who wishes to conduct his
or her behavior in profound and far-reaching discriminating awareness, needs to
behold all around, in detail, like this:
"He or she needs to keep in view,
fully and in detail, the five aggregate factors of his or her experience and those
as devoid of self-establishing nature. Form - voidness; voidness - form. Form
not separate from voidness; voidness not separate from form. (What has form, that
has voidness; what has voidness, that has form.) Similarly, feeling, distinguishing,
affecting variables, types of consciousness - voidness. It's like that, Shariputra,
with all phenomena - voidness: no defining characteristics, no arising, no stopping,
no being stained, no being parted from stain, no being deficient, no being additional.
"Because it's like that, Shariputra, in voidness, no form, no feeling,
no distinction, no affecting variables, no kind of consciousness. No eye, no ear,
no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind. No sight, no sound, no smell, no taste,
no physical sensation, no phenomena. No cognitive source that's an eye, up to
no cognitive source that's a mind, (no cognitive source that's phenomena), no
cognitive source that's mental consciousness. No unawareness, no elimination of
unawareness, up to no aging and death, no elimination of aging and death. Likewise,
no suffering, cause, stopping, and pathway mind. No deep awareness, no attainment,
no non-attainment.
"Because it's like that, Shariputra, through there
being no attainment of bodhisattvas, he (or she) lives, relying on far-reaching
discriminating awareness, with no mental obscuration. (Because of there being
no mental obscuration,) there is no fear, gone beyond what's reversed, (thus)
nirvana release, complete to the end. In fact, it's by relying on far-reaching
discriminating awareness that all Buddhas arrayed throughout the three times are
full manifest Buddhas in peerless and perfect full Buddhahood.
"Because
it's like that, far-reaching discriminating awareness is the (great) mind-protecting
mantra, the mind-protecting mantra of great knowledge, the mind-protecting mantra
that's unsurpassed, the mind-protecting mantra equal to the unequaled, the mind-protecting
mantra completely stilling all suffering. Because of its being not deceitful,
it's to be known as the truth. In far-reaching discriminating awareness, the mind-protecting
mantra has been proclaimed, 'Tadyatha, (om) gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi
svaha. The actual nature: gone, gone, gone beyond, gone far-beyond, purified state,
so be it.' O Shariputra, a bodhisattva great-minded mahasattva needs to train
like that (for behavior that's) in profound and far-reaching discriminating awareness."
Then
the Vanquishing Master Surpassing All, arising from that absorbed concentration,
gave his endorsement "excellent" to the bodhisattva great-minded mahasattva,
the Arya Avalokiteshvara, "Excellent, excellent, my spiritual son with the
family traits, it's just like that. It's just like that that he or she needs to
conduct (his or her behavior) in profound and far-reaching discriminating awareness.
It's exactly as it's been shown by you for the bodhisattvas, (arhats, and Buddhas)
to rejoice."
When the Vanquishing Master Surpassing All had pronounced
those words, the venerable Son of Sharadvati, and the bodhisattva great-minded
mahasattva, the Arya Avalokiteshvara, and the pair of assemblies of those endowed
with all, as well as the world - gods, humans, anti-gods, and gandharva heavenly
musicians - rejoicing, sang praises of what had been declared by the Vanquishing
Master Surpassing All.
***********************************************************************************************
Preparing
for a Loved One's Death
by Venerable Thubten Chodron©
These
are notes taken from a talk by Ven. Chodron after the death of a student's mother.
In the weeks or months before they die:
" Express your positive feelings
for them. Tell them you love them (write a letter if you can't speak with them
directly.). Don't wait until they are no longer there to discover and express
your love.
" Encourage them to share their love and kindness with others.
Help them remember all of the love and kindness that they have given and received
from others during their lifetime.
" Encourage them to remember the beneficial
things they did in their life.
" If they express regrets, listen with
kindness.
" Clear up your relationship with them. If you need to forgive
them or apologize to them, do that. If they apologize to you accept their amends.
" Encourage them to forgive whomever they need to forgive and to apologize
to whomever they need to apologize to.
" Encourage family members to do
kind things to help the dying family member.
" Talk about end-of-life
issues -- "living will," medication, religious services, burial or cremation,
etc. -- if and when they are willing to do so. Let go of your own agenda of what
you want them to talk about or how you want them to die. Listen to them with your
heart. Talk about what they want to talk about, not what you think they should
think about.
" Let the person tell you how much (if any) pain medication
they need. Since the person is terminal, there's no need to be concerned with
addiction. On the other hand, avoid sedating them more than is needed.
"
Get in touch with your own issues about death, and use your Dharma practice to
help you work with them.
At the time of death:
" Make the room as quiet
and peaceful as possible.
" Be peaceful and calm. Avoid crying in the
room.
" Mentally give them a heartfelt hug and let them know of your love
for them, but do not cling or encourage them to cling.
" If it seems
necessary, remind them that their children and other family members will be all
right after they pass away.
" If person is of another faith, talk to them
in the language of that faith -- use words, symbols, and concepts that are familiar
to them. Encourage them to have faith and to generate a kind heart towards others.
If they are not religious, talk about compassion or loving-kindness. That will
help their mind to be calm and peaceful.
" Recite mantra or say prayers
for them, quietly or out loud, depending on what is appropriate, as they are dying
"
Don't do anything to bring up distress (old hurts, etc.)
" Frequently
the person who is about to die will wait to die until family members have left
the room and they are either alone or with someone who is not family. Don't feel
that you "did something wrong" or abandoned them if they die while you
are not there.
" Remember: you can't prevent anyone from dying.
"
Trust them in their process and be supportive.
" Tell surrounding family
members that we are fond of them (we love) them. Say thank you to them
After
death:
" If it is possible, allow the body to be untouched for three days
after breathing has stopped in order to give time for the consciousness to leave
the body. This usually needs to be pre-arranged with the hospital or family. Do
not touch the body during this time. If the body starts to smell or if you see
fluid come from the nostrils, it indicates that the consciousness has left and
the body may be moved before the three days are up. If it is not possible to leave
the body untouched for that long (it often isn't), then leave it untouched for
as long as possible. When you first touch it, touch it at the crown of the head.
" After the person has died, first touch their crown (top of the head)
and say, "Go to the pure land" or "Take a precious human rebirth."
Or, according to their faith, say, "Go to heaven or to a safe place."
"
Dedicate for them to have a precious human rebirth: May they have each and every
conducive circumstance to practice everything they need for enlightenment. Pray
that their transition to the next life is free from fear or anxiety. Express in
words or in your thoughts all the good wishes you have for them.
Meditation
and Prayers to Do After a Dear One Dies
After a dear one dies, it is very beneficial
for people who are close to him/her to do prayers and meditations on that person's
behalf. These are described below. It is also helpful to offer his/her possessions
to the poor and needy, and to make offerings to temples, monasteries, or Dharma
centers. You may also request people there to do meditations and prayers for the
person.
Do the Chenresig practice (Pearl of Wisdom, book II, page 1, or follow
the audio tape) Visualize your dear one in front of you, with Chenresig on their
head. As you recite the mantra, visualize much light and nectar from Chenresig
flowing into them, completing purifying all obscurations, negativities, distress,
disturbing attitudes, negative emotions, fear, etc., and bringing all enlightened
qualities -- love, compassion, generosity, wisdom, etc. If you prefer to do this
meditating on the Buddha, then refer to the "Meditation on the Buddha"
(Pearl of Wisdom, book I, page 32, or follow the audio tape).
At the end, dedicate
for the happiness and enlightenment of all sentient beings and especially pray:
May
______ have a precious human life. May he/she meet fully qualified Mahayana spiritual
guides, have all conducive circumstances for practice, generate the three principal
aspects of the path (the determination to be free, the altruistic intention, and
wisdom realizing emptiness), and quickly become a Buddha. Through my Dharma practice,
may I benefit this person, leading him/her on the path to enlightenment. By my
practice becoming stronger and purer, may I be able to teach this person the Dharma
in future lives.
If you wish, you can also recite "The Extraordinary Aspiration
of Samantabhadra" (Pearl of Wisdom, book II, page 48) for the person. The
practice of the Medicine Buddha can also be done.
Since family and friends
have a strong connection with the person, their doing meditation and dedications
for them is important. If you can do these on the 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th, 35th,
42nd, and 49th days after their death, it is especially good.
***********************************************************************************************
Prison
Dharma
by Venerable Thubten Chodron©
Recently,
I went to visit Michael, a prisoner in Ohio with whom I've been corresponding
for over a year and a half. He first wrote to me in the autumn of 1997, expressing
interest in the Heruka and Vajrayogini practices.
I wrote back, "It's
great you want to do those practices. Let's start with lamrim." And so we
did.
Over the months, I sent him books and tapes, as well as gave him questions
to think about in an effort to understand his life, his actions, and the workings
of his mind. He would write sometimes quite lengthy replies, slowly opening up
and gaining insights about how his mind worked.
At Dharma Friendship Foundation,
people join a "refuge group" in which they meet and discuss the meaning
of refuge and the five precepts for a few months before taking them. Michael wished
to do this, and joined one of the DFF refuge groups, corresponding with the people.
They all took refuge and precepts together last February: the DFF people at the
center in Seattle, and Michael calling us at the appointed time from Ohio. The
telephone was on the table in front of me, and two thousand miles away, he knelt
on the floor beneath an open wall-phone in the prison dorm, having made a little
altar with photos of the Buddha and his teachers he pasted on the phone.
He
faithfully does his daily practice, which is a real refuge for him, as life in
prison is not easy. He also tries to practice thought transformation in the various
circumstances he encounters in daily prison life. Recently he wrote a long, touching
letter about how he practices with the people he meets daily. I've asked him to
add some anecdotes to it, and he's given his okay for this to be shared with others
when it's ready.
Our correspondence continued, and I asked him more and deeper
questions, which he answered as best he could given that letters are read and
phone calls overheard by prison officials. He requested to take the eight precepts
for life and responded thoughtfully to my pointed questions, asked in order to
ensure he was ready to take this commitment. But how and when would the precepts
ceremony be?
As things worked out, I went to Madison, Wisconsin, to study with
Geshe Sopa for the summer, making it relatively easy to get to eastern Ohio where
the prison is. Michael, his mother, and Randi, a volunteer leading the Buddhist
group at the prison, went to great lengths to make preparations for the visit-there
were paperwork, bureaucracy, and many arrangements to make, even though I would
only be at the prison for four hours.
Last weekend I flew to Cleveland and
was met at the airport by Randi and Michael's mother, at whose home we stayed.
The next morning Randi and I drove two hours to the prison, and after going through
elaborate security, we entered the compound..
I saw Michael-6"5"
tall, with a shaven head-pacing down the walkway: his mother, sister, and the
chaplain all said that he had been excited for weeks about the visit. Earlier
that morning, Michael had set up altars, meditation cushions, and so forth in
two, otherwise stark rooms in the chapel area: one where Randi would meet with
the Buddhist group and the other where Michael and I would be.
It was simultaneously
familiar and strange to meet this person that I felt I already knew well. Michael
had prepared several offerings-goodies he had bought from the prison commissary,
wrapped in white handkerchiefs, and offered to me respectfully. Randi had brought
him a kata, which I showed him how to fold and to offer, and he did.
After
making offerings to the Buddha, we talked for about two hours, and he related
to me some of the things that he could not previously say or write. It was a "splitting
open of negativities," which he did earnestly and trustingly, and which I
listen to with similar attitudes. Just as we began to do Vajrasattva practice,
someone in another room turned on incredibly loud music. But we continued as if
nothing happened: that was the only time we had to practice together and it was
already very short, so we just did it. Having completed Vajrasattva puification,
we did the precepts ceremony, and Michael formally received the eight precepts-including
celibacy-for life.
He had been able to arrange for me to give a talk to the
Buddhist group, something not usually allowed on a private clergy visit, so we
joined Randi and the others in the next room. There, the men asked me, among other
things, about working with anger, the meaning of enlightenment, how to practice
daily, and why I chose to become a nun. When the chaplain gave us the times-up
signal, we quickly ended. As the men left, they smiled happily, bringing me much
joy: if I could bring some happiness and clarity to people in these circumstances,
my life was worthwhile.
Michael called us at his mother's that evening, and
I asked him how he felt. "Very clean inside," he responded. Trust has
built up over the time we had corresponded. He trusts the Dharma and the guidance
he receives, and I trust him to look hard at difficult issues and to put what
he learns into practice.
Many people wrote that they were inspired to read
about my visit last year to Michael, who is in a Federal prison in Ohio. I visited
him again this year, which was just as rewarding.
He had initially arranged
for me to give a talk to the Buddhist group as well as to a large assembly of
men, but unexpectedly he was thrown in "the hole"-the "punishment
quarters" in which the men are locked in a dingy two-person cell for all
but an hour a day. If I was to see him now, it would have to be on a clergy visit,
and according to prison rules, I could not do that and be a volunteer who gave
a talk to an assembly at the same time. Thus, the talks unfortunately had to be
cancelled (Did you really think prison rules were to help the men?).
As it
turned out, two days before my visit, the assistant warden told the officers in
"the hole" to let Michael out as he hadn't done anything to merit being
there to start with! So we met in an attorney's room-a stark white room with a
round table and blue chairs-off the general visiting room, for four hours on a
Sunday morning.
Michael continues with his daily meditation practice and Dharma
studies, as well as tries to practice in daily life-not easy in a prison environment
where hostility is the norm and violence is frequent. Last year he took the eight
precepts for life, and keeping them has helped him tremendously.
Our correspondence
continued throughout the year: I send him questions to contemplate, he writes
his reflections, and I comment on them. He has begun his 100,000 prostrations.
(Anyone want to be his prostration partner and keep each other going?)
For
several months, he has been asking me to do the aspiring and engaging bodhicattva
ceremonies during this visit. So that morning, we discussed the motivation for
taking the bodhisattva precepts and went through the eighteen root precepts, discussing
their implications in daily life. Due to lack of time, we couldn't get to the
auxillary precepts, so he will write his thoughts on how to abide by those and
send them. Then we did the ceremonies in the attorney room, with him kneeling
on a gray blanket on the floor and me sitting in a chair. Forget about setting
up an altar, but the Buddhas and bodhisattvas were there for sure! Those of you
who have taken bodhisattva precepts with me before will be happy to know that
I made it through the ceremony without crying. (A crying nun was all the prison
guards needed!)
While we were doing the ceremony, things felt "normal,"
but afterwards when I considered what had happened, I was amazed. Imagine trying
to generate even the slightest bodhicitta-the intention to become fully enlightened
in order to benefit all sentient beings most effectively-in a prison environment.
It's similar to generating it in hell! I felt profoundly thankful for the opportunity
to be there.
After our time together ended, Michael returned to the compound,
while I waited for a guard to escort me out. Then, his mother came into the visiting
room. Since he had left the room already, a guard arranged for him to meet us
at the gate as we left the visiting room. There he was, standing behind a huge
metal gate with enormous bars. He bent over and kissed his mother through the
bars and then we turned to walk away.
My last image was of him behind the
gate looking at two people he cared about leaving. My first thought was, "How
sad," but reconsidering and knowing Michael as I do, I knew that wasn't his
feeling at all.
He was feeling very full and grateful as he watched us depart.
He rejoiced at what he had, rather than lamented that it was over. If only the
rest of us could do that with the good things in our lives!
During the summer
and autumn of 2001, I had the opportunity to speak at a number of prisons around
the United States. I never intended to do prison work: it came to me. But now
that I'm involved, I find it very rewarding. In doing it, I learn much more than
I give.
A Talk on Anger
Pat picked me up at the Asheville, North Carolina,
airport, and we were off to Spruce Pine, the site of the prison that houses Sam,
an inmate I'd been corresponding with but had never met. Sam and Pat had arranged
for me to give a talk on anger to the Buddhist group and anyone else who showed
up. Present were fifteen inmates and four Buddhist volunteers. I was delighted
that the chaplain - a friendly, interested woman - also attended, because at some
prisons the Christian chaplains are not receptive to the needs and wishes of Buddhist
inmates.
We meditated for a while, and then I spoke on anger. The interesting
part began when the men asked questions. These people know anger intimately. They
have experienced their own, which may be the cause of their being in prison, and
they have experienced others', for anger reverberates in the walls of prisons.
Most people on the outside do not realize what a violent and dangerous place prison
can be for the inmates themselves. Rapes, attacks, and threats occur daily in
American prisons.
In prison, Buddhist teachings have to be presented as relevant
to the lives these men lead. Their shit detectors are acute, and if someone tried
to give them a fairy-tale method to deal with their own and others' anger, they
would have howled. They want straight answers, and that's what I gave them, as
best I could.
Many quarrels in prisons happen because someone feels disrespected
by another inmate. How do you handle a situation in which someone is trying to
take advantage of you? If you're nice, they'll keep on doing it; if you argue
back, the conflict will escalate. I suggested speaking to the other person firmly
and directly, yet kindly, which of course requires a lot of inner work.
How
do you keep from getting angry when someone is in your face, deliberately taunting
you to get a rise out of you and you want to retaliate? One man smiled when I
told him that if you retaliate, you're doing exactly what the other guy wants.
He's been successful in setting you off. If you want to maintain your own power
in the situation, keep your cool.
Closer to home, how do you let go of anger
towards yourself and forgive yourself? I suggested to first recognize that you
are no longer that person. That person was in the past. Then look at the person
you were when you did that action, see how he was hurting, and have compassion
for him.
We discussed these issues and more, the men actively participating
and being open about their own fears and concerns. While people on the outside
may think this is "normal," a safe environment in prison where men can
open up without danger is not easily created or to be taken for granted.
After
the talk, several of the men came up to me to talk. The expressions on their faces
had changed since they had entered the room. One man had such a winsome smile
I couldn't help complimenting him on it. Another later sent me a copy of an article
he wrote for the prison newsletter about the talk.
The Bodhisattva Vows
The
regular volunteer who leads the Buddhist group at the correction institute in
Marion, Ohio, arranged for me to visit the group. I had been corresponding with
a couple of the men and one had, after lengthy studies, requested to take the
bodhisattva vows. The group wanted to witness this, so we decided that I would
give a talk to the entire group and at the end do the ceremony of conveying the
vows.
The security people checked everything thoroughly. "This is the
big gong. This is the striker for the big gong. This is the cushion for the big
gong," and on and on. I've found that security in prisons varies widely.
At one, the staff didn't check us at all, at another they checked off everything
on a list of Dharma items we'd sent in advance. At yet another, we passed through
a metal detector and bags containing essential items only were x-rayed.
Before
the ceremony, I talked with Doug, the man wishing to take the bodhisattva vows.
Gospel music floated in the background as we were talking in the chapel area.
Previously he had written me about his childhood. He had experienced considerable
abuse as a youngster, as have most incarcerated men. Now, sitting with me, he
told me how he found the Buddhist meditation of seeing all sentient beings as
our mother and remembering their kindness so effective for his mind. He found
his heart opening to others. This is hardly what one would have expected him to
say. Westerners who have experienced a more comfortable and secure childhood than
this man have trouble with this meditation. But prisoners who are sincere in their
spiritual practice have a way of breaking through tough things in themselves that
the rest of us dance around.
Doug told me that a few years ago, after he was
incarcerated, he began asking his mother about her life. She too had been abused,
first by her family, then by religious leaders. The more he understood what she
had experienced, the more he felt compassion for her suffering. He saw that it
was her own pain and confusion that had made her neglect her children. It was
not that she was evil or that he deserved to be mistreated because he was bad
- both of which he thought as a child and even as an adult. As he understood her
suffering and its causes, he was able to forgive her. In the process, he discovered
he loved her very much.
I remember an excellent book, Finding Freedom by Jarvis
Masters, a death row inmate in San Quentin, in which Masters describes a few events
from his childhood. Some involved his family, others didn't. They were horrific,
and I wonder what else had happened that he chose not to include in the book.
Yet, when, as an innate, he received news that his mother had died, he wept. Another
inmate said, "Hey, man. Why you cryin'? I thought she'd neglected you as
a kid?" Jarvis responded, "That's true, but why should I neglect myself
by not admitting that I love her?" Reading that had stopped me in my tracks.
This man had tremendous wisdom. Since resentment harms only ourselves, why hold
on to it? Since others harm us because they are suffering, why hate them and want
them to suffer more?
After Doug and I had finished talking, we went into the
main room where the volunteers had been meditating with the rest of the group.
I gave a Dharma talk as part of the motivation before giving the bodhisattva vows,
talking a lot about kindness, love, and compassion. Suddenly I remembered that
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, before giving the bodhisattva vows, would do the
aspiring bodhicitta ceremony. While the vows were for people who were prepared,
he permitted everyone who was interested to participate in the aspiring bodhicitta
ritual. So I decided to do the same and opened up the aspiring bodhicitta section
to all the men who wished to join in. Much to my surprise, almost all of them
did. Here, enclosed within concrete walls and barbed wire, thirty men recited:
With
the wish to free all sentient beings,
I take refuge at all times
In the
Buddhas, the Dharma and the Sangha
Until the attainment of full enlightenment.
Today
in the presence of the enlightened ones,
Inspired by compassion, wisdom and
joyous effort,
I generate the mind aspiring for full Buddhahood
For the
wellbeing of all sentient beings.
For as long as space endures,
And for
as long as sentient beings remain,
Until then may I too abide
To dispel
the misery of the world.
I could barely believe my ears, nor could I believe
my fortune to be present at that moment.
After the talk and ceremony were completed,
several of the men came up to talk to me. I had noticed one of them during the
talk. At that time, he had had a tough, grim look on his face, and the thought
had popped into my mind, "Wouldn't want to meet this person alone."
Yet now his face was filled with joy as he smiled. We chatted for a few moments
and he asked for help with his meditation practice. My previous preconceptions
about this human being vanished.
A Typical Sunday Morning
I went to visit
Michael in Elkton, Ohio, once again. Due to prison rules and regulations, since
I corresponded with him, I was not allow to be a volunteer in the prison and thus
could not speak to the Buddhist group. Instead I went in as a friend, through
the visitors' channels. We arrived at the visitors' room about 11:00 a.m. on Sunday
morning, thinking it would take the usual twenty minutes to be processed before
entering. No way. We waited two hours while the clerks and guards processed the
large group there.
Sitting in the visitors' room, I saw people of every age,
race, and ethnicity. Of course most, though not all, of them were women - the
wives of incarcerated men. They had their children with them, kids of all ages
- infants, toddlers, young kids, teenagers. I thought about their lives. How does
going to visit your dad in prison affect you as a kid? How much do they understand?
How are these young minds affected by the stark environment -- the bare fields
without trees, the concrete buildings ,the barbed wire?
While we waited two
hours, the mothers had to keep their children amused, while at the same time talking
with other mothers they met there. When you visit a prison, you can't take toys,
coloring books, balls, crayons, or anything with you, only a change of diapers
and a bottle. That's it. Here were American kids growing up in the waiting room
of a prison. It flashed through my mind: our country has one of the highest rates
in the world for incarceration of its citizens. This same scene is going on in
thousands of prisons nationwide this morning. For many Americans this is a "typical
Sunday morning."
Something is very wrong. Are American citizens in some
strange way imprisoning not only the perpetrators of crimes but their wives and
kids as well? What kind of citizens will kids growing up in prison waiting rooms
become? Imagine a story in The NY Times Magazine entitled "A Typical Sunday
Morning" that talks about families of incarcerated people going to visit
their loved ones on Sunday. It would describe daily things - keeping your toddler
occupied when he can't walk anywhere, changing a diaper, diverting a brother and
sister from teasing each other so a fight doesn't begin, talking about your kids
and family - only it's all happening in a prison waiting room.
Meanwhile other
kids are spending Sunday morning with both their parents, taking a walk in the
park, reading a book, or eating brunch.
In the room, too, were elderly parents.
I, in fact, had come with Michael's mother. I couldn't imagine the grief they
must feel seeing their son in a prison uniform. Parents always remember their
kids as babies. How do they put that image together with this?
A Safe Place
One
of my students runs anger management programs in which he has made use of Buddhist
principles and meditations without mentioning Buddhism at all. He conducts some
programs at a jail and another at a prison. He invited me to be a guest speaker
at an open talk in a prison outside Madison, Wisconsin.
We sat in a circle,
four of the prison staff, including the assistant warden, joining the fifteen
men for the talk. I discussed Buddha nature, saying that the basic nature of our
mind is pure and free from defilement. Negative emotions are like clouds blocking
the sky. They obscure the unobstructed sky-like nature of mind, but, because they
aren't the nature of the mind, they can be eliminated. I also talked about how
to cultivate kindness, forgiveness, patience, and generosity.
After the talk,
I opened it up for questions. One man, whom I had noticed because he had a strong
chin and a mean expression, spoke, "I want you to know that I have a social
disorder and it's terrifying for me to speak in front of a group of people. But
you were just talking about generosity, and it's important for me to say to the
men here that that's how I want to live. I want to give to others. I want to be
kind."
I was dumbfounded. Another one of my preconceptions flew out the
window. We had created a safe place in this environment where he could say what
was in his heart.
Afterwards the assistant warden came up to thank me. "The
men here get so many negative messages. No one hesitates to tell them what's wrong
with them. It's so important for them to hear positive messages, like what you
said." She then invited me to do an in-service with the prison staff next
year.
A Free Boat Ride
Residents and visitors to the Pacific Northwest like
to take boat rides on Puget Sound. On a bright sunny day, Washington State gave
me a free ferry ride to a prison near Steilacoom. I had been there a year before
and had been writing to Michael, an inmate, for several years. He was new to Buddhism
when our correspondence began; now he was requesting to take refuge in the Buddha,
Dharma, and Sangha.
The chaplain that welcomed us was friendly. He had taken
part in some Zen sesshins before. I was glad that he was there, as it had required
some persistence to work with another chaplain that had been there previously.
Another
man had joined Michael in wanting to take refuge. I spoke with them both privately
before the ceremony, to make sure they were prepared and to learn more about them
and how I could help. I was surprised to learn that the other man was in prison
for a violent crime that had rocked the Seattle community several years ago and
had been in the paper for weeks. Of course, not reading the daily paper, I knew
little of the event, though later I recalled that the son of one of my students
was friends with one of the people who had died.
The refuge ceremony was in
a sunny room and from where I sat I could see the Sound. "Wow, what a view!
People would pay high prices for beach property like this," I thought. Then
my eyes focused on what was between me and the water - coiled barbed wire. The
shape of the coils reminded me of those on the walls surrounding wealthy homes
in El Salvador. When I had visited there to teach a few years back, I marveled
that from the outside, these wealthy homes looked like mini-prisons. Maybe they
are. Extreme wealth literally imprisons us.
Like some of my teachers, I often
spend a lot of time on the beginning of a text or the preparatory section of a
ceremony. The time went by, and, when the bell rang and we were only midway through
the ceremony, that was it. The men can move from one part of the prison to another
only during certain ten-minute slots during the day. Since this one preceded "Count,"
when they are counted in their residences, being late would bear particularly
bad consequences. I had to shorten the ceremony so we could finish in two minutes.
From letters I received afterwards, I was happy to learn that this didn't detract
from the ceremony's value and impact.
San Quentin
Just the name "San
Quentin" sounds ominous when we think about this maximum security prison
in California. Nevertheless, I was delighted to receive an invitation to speak
there from the Buddha Dharma Sangha Buddhist group in the prison and the Zen practitioners
who regularly go there to lead the sessions. We crossed into this oldest prison
in the state, established in the 1850s, through a large gate that, if I didn't
know better, looked like it led into a castle. About forty men attended our three
hour meeting, about half of them lifers - inmates who will spend the rest of their
life in prison, mostly on murder charges.
After telling them a little of my
background, to satisfy the usual curiosity people have about Western nuns, we
meditated. The energy in the room was concentrated, and there was less squirming
than I usually encounter in Dharma centers on the outside. Following this, we
did slow walking meditation, something valuable not only for inmates in a chaotic
prison environment but also for stressed out people on the outside (who, by the
way, often don't like to do walking meditation). Then I spoke about the mind,
meditation, anger, and compassion. We got into an interesting discussion about
the September 11th tragedy and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They asked: How
can we stand up for justice in the face of oppression and aggression and yet still
be compassionate and support non-violence?
I've never heard the word "justice"
mentioned in Buddhist teachings. What do we mean by justice? If we mean "punishment"
- as many people do after September 11th - Buddhists would not support it. Rather
than punish, we seek to stop harmful actions without being motivated by a mind
of revenge. Justice meaning "an eye for an eye" is also not a Buddhist
concept. As Gandhi said, that would leave the whole world uselessly blind. Justice
meaning "fairness" or "equality" as in economic or social
justice does have corresponding Buddhist meanings that we can work towards with
compassion for everyone in the situation, not with partiality towards one side
or the other.
After the formal session ended, a number of the men came to talk
to me, and some told me what it was like being a lifer. According to one, inmates
who know they will be released sometimes don't try so hard to make the best of
their situation in prison because they know they will leave. Lifers, on the other
hand, know that prison will be their whole life and thus seek to find a way to
be happy there. Religion and spirituality come in here, for after trying so many
other things in their lives that haven't brought happiness, self-examination and
internal transformation appeal to them. That showed in their respectful demeanor
towards the Buddhist volunteers and their peers in the group.
***********************************************************************************************
The
Endpoint of Samsara Is Suffering, the Endpoint of Dharma Is Happiness
Tsenzhab
Serkong Rinpoche
Longueuil, Quebec, Canada, August 19, 1980
translated
by Alexander Berzin
All beings wish to be happy, no one wishes to be unhappy.
The Dharma teaches the methods to get rid of suffering and achieve happiness.
The Dharma which we practice is, literally, something that holds us. This can
be explained in many ways. It holds us back from suffering and holds all true
sources of happiness.
Happiness can be either physical or mental. There are
also two types of suffering: physical and mental. Many of us, though we wish to
achieve happiness, we are ignorant of the methods to attain this. The methods
we use lead us to suffering.
Some people rob and kill to make a living. They
think this will bring them happiness. This is not so. There are many others who
try to achieve happiness by being a merchant, farmer, and so on, within the bounds
of the laws. Many people become very wealthy and famous through such methods.
This type of happiness is not something that can last forever; it's not ultimate
happiness. No matter how much happiness or material goods we have, we are never
satisfied that we have enough. Even if we owned an entire country, we would want
more.
The work we do to achieve happiness never ends. We try to go around by
the fastest means we can, cars, etc. - this type of pursuit has no end. That's
why they say samsaric existence has no end, it just goes around and around. We
can all understand this: worldly pursuits never end.
A flower is fresh when
new, fades when old. No matter what you achieve in this life, it will come to
an end. It comes to an end as time goes on and on, to the end of our lives where
we have the most suffering. For example, the automobile. You pass by junk yards
where old cars have been thrown away. This is the final end, in a state where
everything has turned to junk. Even when the car is in good order, we worry about
it. We worry that parts will break down, tax and insurance payments, etc., etc.
We can extend this example to all our material possessions. The more we have,
the more worries we have about them.
Dharma is that which teaches the method
for bringing about mental happiness. To achieve some type of mental happiness,
we don't do physical work: we need to do work with our minds. The mind, however,
has a long stream of continuity, even into future lifetimes, and from past lifetimes.
In each lifetime, we have a body and we try to get happiness for that body, but
at death the mind goes on. So, the happiness we need to wish for is not only a
happiness that is great and stable, but one that lasts for all our future lifetimes
and which has no break in its continuity.
No matter what type of activity
we do, constructive or not, that's not Dharma, but positive actions that are done
for the sake of our future lifetimes, that's the Dharma.
Happiness or unhappiness
comes from our actions. Regarding these karmic actions, negative actions bring
negative results and positive actions bring positive results. Anything we can
do well in this life, planting fields, and so on, this is the result of positive
actions we did in our previous lives. If we are very sick, or if we are unhappy
or have short lives, this is the result of negative actions we have done in the
past.
For example, there are two merchants, one is successful and one is not.
This is due to previous karma. You can see two businessmen, one works very hard
and is not successful while another doesn't have to work hard but is successful.
Another example, if you kill living beings, you will have a short life and will
have sickness. You can ask your Geshe-la here about all of this.
If you refrain
from committing these negative actions, you won't be born in a lower realm, but
as a human or in the god realms. But even if you are born as a human or as a god,
this doesn't bring you ultimate happiness - it's all in the nature of suffering.
Why is this so? If you achieve a high position, you fall to a low one; if you
are in a low position, you rise to a higher one. From this, there is a great deal
of suffering. For example if you are hungry, you eat food; but if you eat too
much, then you get ill. If you are cold, you turn on the heat and get too hot;
then you have to cool down. There are all these types of suffering.
Samsara
(uncontrollably recurring existence) consists of these types of suffering. It
is the result of karma and various disturbing emotions and attitudes. We need
to develop the wisdom (discriminating awareness) of voidness or identitylessness.
We
can see, as examples of those who have reached an end of their samsara, the sixteen
arhats and various other aryas who have achieved this state. Though we can put
an end to our own samsaric existence, it's not enough to do this, because no one
has been kinder to us than all limited beings (sentient beings). Dairy products
come from the kindness of animals. If we enjoy meat, this comes from animals slaughtered
while still healthy. In the winter, we wear fur coats and wool, which come from
the animals. They are very kind to provide this to us. We need to repay the kindness
of all living beings by attaining the state of Buddhahood ourselves - then we
can fulfil the aims of all limited beings.
Sravakas and arhats can't fulfill
all the purposes of limited beings. The only one who can do this is a Buddha,
and so this is what we must do in order truly to help them. We need to become
Buddhas ourselves.
How do we do this? By following the Dharma. In India, there
were the highly accomplished mahasiddhas, we have the life stories of eighty of
them, but really there are countless numbers of them. They achieve enlightenment
in their very lifetimes. In Tibet, there is the example of Milarepa, and many
other great masters from the Kagyu, Nyingma, Sakya, and Gelug schools.
Once
we achieve the state of a Buddha, our Dharma efforts come to an end. The work
we do in the Dharma is very difficult in the beginning, but it gets easier and
easier, and we become happier and happier as we progress. We finish our Dharma
work in a state of complete happiness. Worldly work brings us only more suffering.
For
example, when people die, their lives reaching their culmination or endpoint in
death causes only misery and suffering, not only to themselves, but also to those
left behind, for instance at their funerals. We need to think about this and do
some type of Dharma work. Reaching the culmination or endpoint of the Dharma with
the attainment of enlightenment brings only happiness, not only to us, but also
to all others.
We need to refrain from committing the ten negative actions.
If we do positive actions, we experience happiness, and if we do negative actions,
we experience unhappiness. We need to examine the results of our actions and we
need to examine our own minds as the causes of our actions. When we examine, we
see we have the three poisonous emotions and attitudes: desire, hostility, and
closed-minded ignorance (naivety).
From these, we get the 84,000 kinds of disturbing
emotions and attitudes. These 84,000 delusions are our main enemies, so we look
within, not around us, for our enemies. Of these 84,000, the main ones are these
three poisons, and the worst one is the closed-minded ignorance or naivety, right
in our own mind-streams.
In short, we need to look within ourselves and try
to put an end to these inner enemies. That's why followers of the Buddha Dharma
are called "insiders" (nang-pa), because they always look within. If
we put an end to these disturbing emotions and attitudes in our mental continuums,
then we put an end to all our suffering. A person who works to do this is known
as one who follows the Dharma.
The Dharma activity of someone who works to
eliminate the disturbing emotions and attitudes only within him or herself is
the Dharma activity of the Hinayana vehicle. If we work to eliminate our delusions
not just to get rid of our own suffering, but see others as more important and
strive to overcome our delusions so that we can help them remove the disturbing
emotions and attitudes in their minds as well, then we are Mahayana practitioners.
On the working basis of this body, we need to try to become Mahayanists, and the
result is that we can achieve the enlightened state of a Buddha.
The main point
is to try always to benefit everybody and never cause harm to anyone at all. If
we recite "Om Mani Padme Hum," you need to think, "May the positive
force of doing this benefit all limited beings."
These bodies we have
as our working basis are difficult to obtain: being born as a human doesn't easily
come about. For example, look at the globe. The majority of it is ocean, and think
how many fish there are in all these oceans. The life form with the largest number
is animals and insects. If we think of the entire planet and the number of animals
and insects there are, we will see the rarity of being born a human.
In the
Dharma, realizations and insights come very slowly. Not just in a few days, weeks
or months. Only a very few human beings even actually think about Dharma, let
alone realize it. We need to work at it consistently for a long period of time.
You have a well-qualified Geshe here who can answer all of your questions. In
the long term, the Buddha Dharma will continue to grow and become widespread.
It is still increasing and very much alive. When the Buddha first taught, he only
had five disciples. It spread from these people, and now is present to such a
great extent.
We now have someone equal to Shakyamuni, His Holiness the Dalai
Lama, who will be here in October. Whatever teaching His Holiness gives you, take
to heart and practice them sincerely. The essence of the teachings is never to
harm any creature and to have no harmful thoughts - try only to benefit them.
This is the main point. If you act like this, it will bring about great benefit
in the future.
***********************************************************************************************
Dealing
with Anxiety
by Venerable Thubten Chodron©
Before
talking about how to deal with anxiety, let's do a brief meditation that will
help us release some of our stress and anxiety. When meditating, sit comfortably.
You can cross your legs or sit with your feet flat on the floor. Place the right
hand on the left, the thumbs touching so they make a triangle, in your lap against
your body. Sit up straight, with your head level, then lower your eyes.
Setting
a Positive Motivation
Before we begin the actual meditation, we generate our
motivation by thinking, "I will meditate in order to improve myself, and
by doing so may I be able to benefit all the beings I come in contact with. In
the long term, may I eliminate all defilements and enhance all my good qualities
so that I can become a fully enlightened Buddha in order to benefit all beings
most effectively." Even though enlightenment may seem a long way off, by
generating the intention to transform our mind into one of an enlightened being,
we gradually approach that goal.
Meditation on the Breadth
One meditation
found in all the Buddhist traditions is the meditation on the breath. It helps
to calm the mind, develop concentration, and brings our attention to the present
moment. To focus on our breath and really experience what it feels like to breathe,
we have to let go of the thoughts that chatter about the past and future and bring
our attention simply to what is happening now. This is always more relaxing than
the hopes and fears of the past and the future, which exist merely in our mind
and are not happening in the present moment.
Breathe normally and naturally
-- do not force your breath and do not deep-breathe. Let your attention rest at
your abdomen. As you breathe in, be aware of the sensations in your body as the
air enters and leaves. Notice that your abdomen rises as you inhale and falls
as you exhale. If other thoughts or sounds enter your mind or distract you, just
be aware that your attention has strayed, and gently, but firmly, bring your attention
back to the breath. Your breath is like home -- whenever the mind wanders, bring
your attention home to the breath. Just experience the breath, be aware of what
is happening right now as you inhale and exhale. (Meditate for however long you
wish.)
The Attitude that Causes Anxiety
When Buddha described the evolution
of samsara -- the cycle of constantly recurring problems in which we are presently
trapped, he said that its origin was ignorance. This is a specific type of ignorance,
one that misunderstands the nature of existence. Whereas things are dependent
on other factors and are constantly in flux, ignorance apprehends them in a very
concrete fashion. It makes everything seem super-concrete, as if all persons and
objects had their own solid essence. We especially make ourselves very concrete,
thinking, "Me. My problems. My life. My family. My job. Me, me, me."
First we make our self very solid; then we cherish this self above all else.
By observing how we live our lives, we see that we have incredible attachment
and clinging to this self. We want to take care of ourselves. We want to be happy.
We like this; we don't like that. We want this and we don't want that. Everybody
else comes second. I come first. Of course, we're too polite to say this, but
when we observe how we live our lives, it is evident.
It is easy to see how
anxiety develops because of so much focus on "me." There are over five
billion human beings on this planet, and zillions of other living beings throughout
the universe, but we make a big deal out of just one of them -- me. With such
self-preoccupation, of course anxiety follows. Due to this self-centered attitude,
we pay an incredible amount of attention to everything that has to do with me.
In this way, even very small things that have to do with me become extraordinarily
important, and we worry and get stressed about them. For example, if the neighbor's
child does not do their homework one night, we don't get anxious about it. But
if our child does not do their homework one night -- it's a big deal! If somebody
else's car gets dented we say, "Well, that's too bad," and forget about
it. But if our car gets dented, we talk about it and complain about it for a long
time. If a colleague is criticized, it doesn't bother us. But if we receive even
a tiny bit of negative feedback, we become angry, hurt or depressed.
Why is
this? We can see that anxiety is very intricately related to self-centeredness.
The bigger this idea that "I am the most important one in the universe and
everything that happens to me is so crucial," is, the more anxious we are
going to be. My own anxious mind is a very interesting phenomena. Last year, I
did a retreat by myself for four weeks, so I had a nice long time to spend with
my own anxious mind and know it very well. My guess is that it's similar to yours.
My anxious mind picks out something that happened in my life -- it does not make
a difference what it is. Then I spin it around in my mind, thinking, "Oh,
what if this happens? What if that happens? Why did this person do this to me?
How come this happened to me?" and on and on. My mind could spend hours philosophizing,
psychologizing and worrying about this one thing. It seemed like nothing else
in the world was important but my particular melodrama.
When we are in the
middle of worry and anxiety regarding something, that thing appears to us to be
incredibly important. It's as if our mind doesn't have a choice -- it has to think
about this thing because it's of monumental significance. But I noticed in my
retreat that my mind would get anxious about something different every meditation
session. Maybe it was just looking for variety! It's too boring to just have one
thing to be anxious about! While I was worrying about one thing, it seemed like
it was the most important one in the whole world and the other ones weren't as
important. That is until the next session arrived, and another anxiety became
the most important one and everything else was not so bad. I began to realize
it isn't the thing I am worrying about that is the difficulty. It is my own mind
that is looking for something to worry about. It doesn't really matter what the
problem is. If I'm habituated with anxiety, I'll find a problem to worry about.
If I can't find one, then I'll invent one or cause one.
Dealing with Anxiety
In
other words, the real issue is not what is happening outside, but what is happening
inside of us. How we experience a situation depends on how we view it -- how we
interpret what is happening, how we describe the situation to ourselves. Thus
the Buddha said that all of our experiences of happiness and suffering don't come
from other people or other things, but from our own minds.
Having a Sense
of Humor
How do we deal with our minds when we become very self-centered and
anxious? It is important to learn to laugh at ourselves. We really do have a monkey
mind when it comes to anxiety, don't we? We worry about this and then we worry
about that, like a monkey jumping all over the place. We have to be able to laugh
at the monkey instead of taking it so seriously and to develop a sense of humor
about our problems. Sometimes our problems are pretty funny, aren't they? If we
could step back and look at our problems, many of them would seem quite humorous.
If a character in a soap opera had this problem or was acting this way, we would
laugh at it. Sometimes I do that: I step back and look at myself, "Oh, look
how Chodron feels so sorry for herself. Sniff, sniff. There's so many sentient
beings having so many different experiences in the universe, and poor Chodron
just stubbed her toe."
No Sense Getting Anxious
Thus one antidote is
to have a sense of humor and be able to laugh at ourselves. But for those of you
who can't laugh at yourselves, there is another way. The great Indian sage Shantideva
advised us, "If you have a problem and you can do something about it, there
is no need to get anxious about it because you can actively do something to solve
it. On the other hand, if there is nothing you can do to solve it, getting anxious
about it is useless -- it won't fix the problem. So either way you look at it,
whether the problem is solvable or unsolvable, there is no sense in getting anxious
or upset about it. Try thinking like that about one of your problems. Just sit
for a minute and think, "Is there something I can do about this or not?"
If something can be done, go ahead and do that -- there's no need to sit around
and worry. If nothing can be done to alter the situation, it is useless to worry.
Just let it go. Try thinking like that about a problem that you have and see if
it helps.
Not Worrying About Making a Fool of Ourselves
Sometimes we are
anxious and nervous before going into a new situation. Afraid that we will make
fools out of ourselves, we think, "I may do something wrong, I'll look like
a jerk, and everybody will laugh at me or think badly of me." In these cases,
I find it helpful to say to myself: "Well, if I can avoid looking like an
idiot, I'll do that. But if something happens and I look like an idiot then okay,
so be it." We can never predict what other people will think or what they
will say behind our back. Maybe it will be good, maybe not. At some point we have
to let go and say to ourselves, "Well, that's okay." Now I've also started
thinking, "If I do something stupid and people think poorly of me, that's
okay. I do have faults and make mistakes, so it's no wonder if others notice them.
But if I can acknowledge my mistakes and rectify them as much as possible, then
I have fulfilled my responsibility and surely others don't hold my mistake against
me."
Paying More Attention to Others
Another way of dealing with anxiety
is to lessen our self-centeredness and train our mind to pay more attention to
others than to ourselves. This doesn't mean that we ignore ourselves. We need
to pay attention to ourselves, but in a healthy way, not in a neurotic, anxious
way. Of course we need to take care of our body and we should try to keep our
mind happy. We can do this in a healthy and relaxed way by being mindful of what
we are thinking, saying and doing. This kind of focus on ourselves is necessary
and is part of Buddhist practice. However, it is very different from the self-centeredness
that makes us so distressed and restless. That self-centeredness puts undue emphasis
on ourselves and thus makes every small thing into a big one.
Considering the
Disadvantages of Self-Preoccupation
By considering the disadvantages of self-preoccupation,
we will find it easier to let go of that attitude. When it arises in our mind,
we will notice it and think, "If I follow this self-centered attitude, it
will cause me problems. Therefore, I won't follow that way of thinking and will
turn my attention instead to view the situation from a broader perspective, one
that encompasses the wishes and needs of everyone involved." Then we can
use the same amount of energy to be sensitive to others and develop a kind heart
towards them. When we look at others with an open mind, we recognize that everybody
wants to be happy and free of suffering as intensely as we do. When opening our
hearts to this fact, there will be no space left inside ourselves for self-centered
anxiety. Look in your own life, when your heart has been filled with genuine kindness
toward others, have you simultaneously been depressed and anxious? It's impossible.
Developing
Equanimity
Some people may think, "But I do care about others, and that's
what makes me anxious," or "Because I care so much about my kids and
my parents, I worry about them all the time." This kind of caring isn't the
open-hearted loving-kindness that we are trying to develop in Buddhist practice.
This kind of caring is limited to only a few people. Who are the people that we
care about so much? All the ones who are related to "me" -- my kids,
my parents, my friends, my family." We are right back to "me, me, me"
again, aren't we? This kind of caring about others isn't what we are trying to
develop here. Instead, we want to learn to care for others impartially, without
thinking some beings are more important and others are less worthy. The more we
can develop equanimity and an open, caring heart towards all, the more we'll feel
close to everyone else and the more we will be able to reach out to them. We have
to train our mind in this broad attitude, expanding our care from the small group
of people around us so that it gradually is extended to everyone -- those we know
and those we don't, and especially to those we don't like.
To do this, start
by thinking, "Everyone wants to be happy, just like me, and nobody wants
to suffer, just like me." If we focus on that thought alone, there is no
space left for anxiety in our minds anymore. When we look at each living being
with this recognition and immerse our minds in that thought, our mind will automatically
become very open and caring. Try doing this today. Whenever you are looking at
people -- for example, when you are in a shop, on the street, in a bus -- think,
"This is a living being that has feelings, someone who wants to be happy
and doesn't want to suffer. This person is just like me." You will find that
you will no longer feel that they are complete strangers. You will feel like you
know them in some way and will respect each of them.
Reflecting on the Kindness
of Others
Then, if we think about the kindness of others, our mood and the
way we see others totally transform. Usually we do not think about others' kindness
to us, but our kindness to them. Instead, we focus on the thought, "I care
for them and helped them so much, and they don't appreciate it." This makes
us very anxious and we start to worry, "Oh, I did something nice for that
person, but they don't like me," or "I helped that person, but they
don't recognize how much I helped them," or "Nobody appreciates me.
How come nobody loves me?" In this way, our monkey mind has taken over the
show. We focus so single-pointedly on how kind we have been to others and how
little they appreciate us that even when somebody says to us, "Can I help
you?" we think, "What do you want from me?" Our self-preoccupation
has made us suspicious and unable to see or accept the kindness and love that
others genuinely give us.
Kindness of our Friends and Relatives
By meditating
on the kindness of others, we will see that we have actually been the recipients
of an incredible amount of kindness and love from others. In doing this meditation,
first think about the kindness of your friends and relatives, all the different
things that they have done for you or given you. Start with the people who took
care of you when you were an infant. When you see parents taking care of their
kids, think, "Somebody took care of me that way," and "Somebody
gave me loving attention and took care of me like that." If nobody had given
us that kind of attention and care, we wouldn't be alive today. No matter what
kind of family we came from, someone did take care of us. The fact that we are
alive attests to that, because as children we could not take care of ourselves.
Kindness of the People who Taught Us
Think about the incredible kindness
we received from those who taught us to speak. I visited a friend and her two-year-old
child who was learning to speak. I sat there, watching as my friend repeated things
over and over again just so her child could learn to speak. To think that other
people did that for us! We take our ability to speak for granted, but when we
think about it, we see that other people spent a lot of time teaching us how to
speak, make sentences, and pronounce words. That is a tremendous amount of kindness
we have received from others, isn't it? Where would we be if no one taught us
how to talk? We did not learn by ourselves. Other people taught us. Everything
we learned throughout childhood and everything we keep learning as adults -- every
new thing that comes into our lives and enriches us -- we receive due to the kindness
of others. All of our knowledge and each of our talents exist because others taught
us and helped us to develop them.
Kindness of Strangers
Then consider the
tremendous kindness we received from strangers, people that we do not know. So
many beings whom we don't know personally have done things that have helped us.
For example, we received an education due to the kindness of people who dedicated
their lives to building schools and establishing educational programs. We ride
on roads that exist due to the effort of so many engineers and construction workers
whom we have never met. We probably do not know the people who built our home,
the architects, engineers, construction crew, plumbers, electricians, painters,
and so forth. They may have built our home in the summer, enduring the hot weather.
We don't know these people, but because of their kindness and effort, we have
homes to live in and a temple where we can come and meet together. We don't even
know who these people are to say, "Thank you." We just come in, use
the buildings, and receive benefit from their effort. Seldom do we consider what
they had to go through so that we could live so comfortably.
Deriving Benefit
from Harm
Next we reflect on the benefit from those who have harmed us. Although
it may seem that they harmed us, but if we look at it in another way, we have
received benefit from them. For example, a few years ago someone did something
quite mean to me behind my back. At the time, I was very upset and thought, "Oh,
this is awful. How could this person do this to me?" Now I realize that I'm
glad this situation happened because it opened up a new direction in my life.
If this person had not been so unkind to me, I would still be doing what I had
done before and would probably be stuck in a rut. But this person's actions pushed
me to be more creative. Although initially the situation was very painful, in
the long-term, it had a very good effect on my life. It forced me to grow and
to develop other talents. So, even the people or situations that we feel are bad
can turn out to be good in the long run.
It is interesting to look at some
of our present problems from that perspective. Instead of getting anxious about
our present problems, think, "Maybe in a few years, when my perspective is
broader, I will be able to look back on the people causing this problem and see
that it was really a beneficial situation. I will be able to see it as something
that propelled me in a new direction." Try to think about your present problems
in this way. If we do that, the present anxiety stops, and slowly, our heart will
be filled with appreciation for the kindness of others.
Feeling Stuck and
Alone in Our Problem
Meditating on the kindness of others is quite important.
So sit and do it slowly. Think of all the individuals from whom you have received
benefit, even those you do not know, like the people who built your cars, make
the books you read, and collect your garbage. Do you know the garbage collectors
in your neighborhood? I don't know the ones in my neighborhood. I don't see them.
But they are incredibly kind. If they did not take away my garbage every week,
I would have a big problem! So many people serve us in countless ways. If we can
open our heart and see how much we have received from them, our attitude completely
changes. We become very grateful, content, and joyful.
When we are in the
middle of a problem, we feel like nobody is helping us. We feel all alone with
our problem. But when we do this meditation, we can see that in fact, a lot of
people are helping us. More people could even help us if we would open ourselves
up to receive from them. If we think like this, our anxiety goes away. We do not
feel stuck and alone in our problem because we see that there is actually quite
a bit of help and assistance out there.
Overcoming Anxiety by Developing Love
and Compassion
After we meditate on the kindness of others, it is easy to feel
love and compassion towards them. Love is the wish for sentient beings to have
happiness and its causes. Compassion is the wish for them to be free from suffering
and its causes. When great love and great compassion are alive in our hearts,
we will want to take responsibility to benefit all others and will have a great
resolve to do so. From this comes bodhicitta, the altruistic intention to become
a Buddha in order to benefit others most effectively. When we have this altruistic
intention to become a Buddha, we become a bodhisattva. When we are a bodhisattva,
it is guaranteed that we will have no anxiety. Look at Kuan Yin. She looks at
all sentient beings and wants them to be happy. She does whatever she is capable
of doing to take care of all of us, but she does not get nervous, upset, worried
or stressed out. She is able to do what needs to be done to help others and lets
the rest go. We never hear of Kuan Yin getting depressed or having anxiety attacks.
She is able to handle everything that happens. We can also become that way.
We
can look to Kuan Yin for inspiration while we practice the Dharma. She is the
embodiment of and represents great love and great compassion towards all living
beings. Kuan Yin was once an ordinary being like us, with all of the same confusion
and anxiety. Through practicing the path with great effort, she developed such
wonderful qualities and became a bodhisattva. If we study the Dharma and practice
in the same way, we too can develop qualities just like hers.
Extracted
from "The Path To Happiness" by Ven. Chodron
***********************************************************************************************
Dealing
with Difficult Experiences that Arise in Meditation and in Retreat
Alexander
Berzin
July 12, 2002
Introduction
Buddha taught in terms of the
four noble truths: problems, their causes, the state of their total elimination,
and pathways of mind that lead to that elimination. Therefore, to deal with difficult
experiences that arise in meditation and in retreat and to eliminate them, we
need to know the causes of the problems.
Outlook, Meditation, and Behavior
A
balanced practice of Buddhism spans three areas:
1. a constructive outlook,
view, or attitude (lta-ba),
2. meditation on it (sgom), which means accustoming
ourselves to the attitude,
3. integration of the outlook into our daily behavior
(spyod-pa).
If any of these are missing, our practice will have only minimal
beneficial results. We are likely to face difficulties and frustration, not only
in meditation, but in life as well.
" To try to meditate, but without
a constructive outlook or attitude as the state of mind that we wish to develop
by means of the meditation, accomplishes little.
" To learn about a constructive
attitude without meditating on it makes little change in us.
" To meditate
on a constructive attitude without putting it into practice in our daily lives
renders our meditation into a hobby and has little effect.
" To try to
put a constructive attitude in our lives without meditating on it is extremely
difficult.
Listening, Pondering, and Meditating
To meditate, we need to
learn about a constructive state of mind, attitude, outlook, or view. Thus, we
need the power of listening (thos) to a correct explanation so that, with this
information, we get an accurate verbal idea (sgra-spyi) of
" the state
of mind and heart that we wish to develop - what it focuses on (dmigs-pa) and
how it cognitively takes this object ('dzin-stangs), such as compassion being
aimed at others' suffering and its causes, with the wish for them to be free from
both,
" the function of the state of mind - the destructive or disturbing
emotion or attitude that it counters and how it functions to counter it,
"
the benefits of developing the state,
" the drawbacks of not developing
it,
" what the state of mind depends on - what we need to develop beforehand
that will serve as the foundation for developing the state,
" the instructions
for developing it,
" how the methods for developing the state function
to produce the state.
Then, we need the power of pondering (bsam, thinking,
contemplating, reflecting) so that
" We understand all the above points.
" We gain an accurate idea of what the words describing the state actually
mean (don-spyi) and what the instructions actually entail.
" We are convinced
that the state and methods to achieve it conform to logic and experience, and
fit with Buddha's teachings.
" We are convinced of the benefits of gaining
the state and the disadvantages of not developing it, and therefore have the strong
wish and intention ('dun-pa) to attain it.
" This wish and intention
is what is meant by motivation (kun-slong) in Buddhism. The intention may be not
only to achieve this state as our goal or aim, but also to do something with it
once we have achieved it, such as help all others. The motivation or aim needs
to be accompanied and supported by a constructive emotion or attitude, such as
compassion.
" We are convinced that we can attain the state, based on
a realistic understanding of the nonlinear manner in which good qualities grow
- progress goes up and down.
Based on the powers of listening and pondering
properly, we may then engage in meditation to achieve and accustom ourselves to
the constructive state of mind. For this, we need a spiritual teacher to guide
us, to check our progress, and to correct any mistakes in our practice.
Daily
Meditation
To make any progress with meditation, it is essential to have a
daily practice. As with taking a vow, if we have a practice that we promise to
do everyday, we eliminate the difficulty of indecisiveness about whether or not
to meditate today. The good habit of meditating needs to become as ingrained as
the habit of brushing our teeth.
In addition to following the general Buddhist
methods for overcoming laziness and frustration, and for developing ethical self-discipline,
patience, and joyous perseverance, further steps are helpful for minimizing difficulties
in establishing a daily meditation practice.
" Meditate either in the
early morning upon awakening or late at night before retiring. This will minimize
distraction from the busywork of the day and from street and house noise. Do not
wait, however, until being so tired at night that it becomes a struggle to stay
awake.
" Do not meditate on a full stomach, to avoid feeling heavy or
dull.
" Sweep the floor and tidy the meditation room, to help the mind
to be more orderly.
" Make offerings, at least of water bowls, and offer
prostration before sitting down to meditate, to show respect.
" Make
sure the meditation seat is comfortable, to minimize physical pain.
"
Have the minimum daily practice be short, so that it is manageable even when very
busy, sick, or traveling.
" Structure the meditation period with (1)
preliminaries - such as quieting down by focusing on the breath, reaffirming the
motivation, and performing the seven-part practice - (2) the main meditation,
and (3) the dedication. Unless the positive force of the meditation is dedicated
to attaining enlightenment for the benefit of others, it simply serves to benefit
our samsaric existence.
" Do not attempt a meditation that is too advanced
without being well prepared and ready - not only in terms of having the powers
of listening and pondering and having meditated on the steps that lead up to it,
but also in terms of having sufficient emotional maturity and stability.
Tantric
Retreats
In traditional Tibetan Buddhism, a retreat usually means performing
a serviceability retreat (las-rung) for a specific Buddha-figure (yidam, deity).
Completing such a retreat, together with its concluding fire puja (sbyin-sreg),
makes our minds serviceable with the Buddha-figure and its practice. It makes
our minds serviceable to take the self-initiation (bdag-'jug) to renew our tantric
vows and serviceable to engage in more advanced practices of the Buddha-figure.
During
a serviceablity retreat, we recite the sadhana for visualizing ourselves as a
Buddha-figure and repeat the associated mantras hundreds of thousands of times.
We may do this in the context of four, three, two, or one session a day.
The
number of mantras we recite during the first session of the entire retreat establishes
the minimum number that we need to recite each day. Therefore, it is recommended
to recite the mantra during this initial session only a few times, for instance
only three times, so that if we are sick, we are able to do at least this number.
It is important never to break the continuity of the retreat by missing a day
of practice. Having only three repetitions of the mantra as our required number
minimizes difficulties if we become sick.
Serviceability retreats are not intended
as a period for studying and acquainting ourselves with a tantric practice - to
gain a "taste" or an "experience" of them. Practitioners undertake
them only after they have already studied and practiced them, so that they already
have deep familiarity and are free of questions or doubts.
Many practitioners
take a period off from their daily lives to perform one or more of the special
preliminary practices for tantra - a hundred thousand repetitions typically of
prostration, the Vajrasattva hundred-syllable mantra, mandala offerings, and guru-yoga.
Such intensive practice is not formally called a "retreat."
Retreats
in the Modern Western Usage of the Term
Contemporary Western Buddhists often
use the term retreat for any residential meditation course, even if for only a
weekend, and for any period of time taken out of their busy daily lives and spent
in secluded meditation on any topic. This may include time spent on pondering
topics, such as from the lam-rim (graded path to enlightenment), to gain a basic
understanding of them.
Some Westerners also call a "retreat" secluded
time spent studying and familiarizing themselves with a particular practice. The
stated aim is to gain a "taste" or an "experience," to inspire
them for further practice.
Such types of retreat may lead to competition with
other practitioners and to disappointment if we do not gain any experience. If
gaining an experience is the aim of a retreat, it is important to undertake it
without any hopes or expectations for any results to come from it.
Solitary
Versus Group Retreats
Traditionally, Tibetan Buddhists do solitary retreats.
Thus, they need to rely on themselves for discipline. If they do retreat with
others - mostly done to pool economic resources - each person typically meditates
alone; and, when the retreat entails mantra-repetition, at his or her own rate.
Many Westerners prefer group retreats in which all the participants meditate
together. The main advantage is that such method of practice provides the discipline
that would be difficult to establish on one's own. The disadvantages are that
it may lead to dependency, competition, distraction, and annoyance.
Maintaining
strict silence during the retreat can minimize some of these dangers. Periodic
optional discussion sessions can provide the opportunity to share experiences.
Periodic compulsory consultations with the spiritual teachers guiding the retreats
provide the supervision that can help participants avoid mistakes and resolve
doubts.
Lung (Subtle Energy Disorders)
Whether in retreat or in daily meditation,
it is important not to push ourselves too hard. Pushing ourselves causes anxiety
and frustration, commonly referred to in Tibetan as a lung (rlung, subtle energy-wind)
disorder. Lung may also arise due to insufficient preparation for the retreat
or meditation practice, and the confusion and frustration that follow from lack
of clarity about what we are doing or why.
Lung may manifest as quickened pulse,
pain around the heart and back, and a general feeling of nervousness, restlessness,
and irritability. It may cause visions, ringing in the ears, seemingly "out-of-body"
experiences, and/or insomnia.
Imbalances of lung are not easy to quiet. Knowing
when to take a break and to rest is helpful, as are long distance views, laughter,
friendly affection, and keeping warm. If it is necessary to take a nap during
the day, sleeping for only twenty minutes is sufficient to refresh ourselves,
and short enough to avoid the heavy, dull feeling that comes from sleeping too
long during the day. Avoid getting cold, being in drafts or wind or under a fan,
and listening to loud music, particularly music with strong base and drums. Loud
machinery and television and computer screens that emit much radiation may also
aggravate lung.
Diet also affects lung. Items that will worsen a lung disorder
include:
" coffee, black tea, green tea, chocolate, and anything else
containing caffeine,
" lentils,
" chicken,
" pork.
Items that quiet a lung disorder include:
" fatty dairy products,
" warm milk,
" lamb,
" wheat products, such as bread.
Emotional Upheavals during Retreat
Often during retreats, deep memories
and suppressed emotions surface. This particularly happens when pondering the
teachings and doing analytical meditation, particularly in reference to our own
life experiences. The quiet space of the retreat and the meditation lowers our
inner defenses and, consequently, these naturally arise. In Western psychological
terms, the meditation process helps us to gain access to the unconscious.
If
such memories and emotions arise and the experience of them is extremely disturbing,
it is helpful to recite a mantra, such as om mani padme hum, with a feeling of
compassion, and not to repress them. The mantra and compassion provide a stable
container for the experience. Especially when not engaging in a serviceability
retreat or a retreat to develop concentration, working through such emotional
material by applying the Dharma methods can be very beneficial.
***********************************************************************************************
Dealing
with Jealousy
Alexander Berzin
March 2004
Disturbing
Emotions
We all experience disturbing emotions (nyon-mongs, Skt. klesha, afflictive
emotions) - states of mind that when we develop them cause us to lose our mental
peace and incapacitate us so that we lose self-control. Common examples are greed,
attachment, hostility, anger, and jealousy. They trigger various mental urges
(karma) to arise, usually ones that lead to destructive behavior. The urges may
be to act destructively toward others or to act in some self-destructive way.
The result is that we create problems and suffering for others and, inevitably,
for ourselves.
There is a vast range of disturbing emotions. Each culture mentally
draws some arbitrary line around a set of common emotional experiences that most
people in its society experience, decides on some defining characteristics that
describe it as a category, and then give the category a name. Of course, each
culture chooses different sets of common emotional experiences, different defining
characteristics to describe them, and, in this way, makes up different categories
of disturbing emotions.
Categories of disturbing emotions specified by different
cultures usually do not exactly overlap, because the definitions of the emotions
are slightly different. For example, Sanskrit and Tibetan each have one word for
"jealousy" (phrag-dog, Skt. irshya), while most Western languages have
two. English has "jealousy" and "envy," while German has "Eifersucht"
and "Neid." The distinction between the two English terms is not precisely
the same as that drawn between the two German words, and the Sanskrit and Tibetan
do not correspond exactly to any of the terms in either language. If, as Westerners,
we experience emotional problems in this general category, designated by the categories
formulated by our own cultures and languages, and we wish to learn Buddhist methods
for overcoming them, we may need to analyze and deconstruct our emotions, as we
conceptualize them, into a combination of several disturbing emotions as defined
in Buddhism.
"Jealousy" as Defined by Buddhism and "Envy"
as Defined in English
The Buddhist abhidharma texts classify "jealousy"
(phrag-dog) as a part of hostility. They define it as "a disturbing emotion
that focuses on other peoples' accomplishments - such as their good qualities,
possessions, or success - and is the inability to bear their accomplishments,
due to excessive attachment to our own gain or to the respect we receive."
Attachment, here, means that we are focused on some area of life in which
others have accomplished more than we have, and we exaggerate its positive aspects.
In our minds, we make this area one of the most important aspects of life and
base our sense of self-worth on it. Implicit is an inordinate preoccupation with
and attachment to "me." Thus, we are jealous because we are "attached
to our own gain or to the respect we receive" in terms of this area. For
example, we may fixate on the amount of money we have or on how good-looking we
are. As an aspect of hostility, jealousy adds to this attachment a strong element
of resentment at what others have achieved in this area. It is the opposite of
rejoicing and feeling happy at what they have accomplished.
In English, one
of the definitions of jealousy is "hostility toward someone believed to enjoy
an advantage." It has only part of the Buddhist definition; it omits the
factor of attachment to the area in which the other person has the advantage.
The definition only implies that the advantage may be true or not, but does not
question the actual importance of the area or the preoccupation with "me."
Furthermore, jealousy, as defined in Buddhism, covers part, but not all of
the English word envy. Envy adds a little more. It adds what Buddhism calls "covetousness"
(brnab-sems). Covetousness is "the inordinate desire for something that someone
else possesses." Thus, the definition of "envy" in English, is
"a painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by someone else,
joined with the desire to enjoy the same advantage." In other words, in addition
to the inability to bear others' accomplishments in an area of life that, as Buddhism
points out, we exaggerate the importance of, envy is the wish to have these accomplishments
ourselves. We might be poor or lacking in this area, or we may already have an
adequate or even above average measure of it. If we are envious and want even
more, our covetousness has grown into greed. Often, although not necessarily,
envy entails the further wish for others to be deprived of what they have achieved,
so that we can have it instead. In this case, there is an ever further ingredient
to the emotion, spite.
Envy, as a combination of jealousy and covetousness,
leads to competitiveness. Thus, Trungpa Rinpoche discussed jealousy as the disturbing
emotion that drives us to become highly competitive and to work fanatically to
outdo others or ourselves. It is connected with forceful action - the so-called
"karma family." Because of being jealous and envious of what others
have accomplished, we push ourselves or we push others under us to do more and
more, like with extreme competition in business or sports. Thus, Buddhism uses
the horse to represent jealousy. It races against other horses because of jealousy.
It cannot bear that another horse is running faster.
Jealousy and
Competitiveness
It is true that, in Buddhism, jealousy is closely related to
competitiveness, although the former does not necessarily lead to the latter.
Someone could be jealous of others, and with low self-esteem, not even try to
compete. Similarly, being competitive does not necessarily entail jealousy. Some
people like to compete in sports simply for fun, to enjoy themselves and the company
of others, without ever wishing to keep score.
Buddhism connects jealousy
and competition differently. For example, in Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior
(sPyod-'jug, Skt. Bodhicharya-avatara), Shantideva puts together in one discussion
jealousy toward those in higher position, competitiveness with equals, and arrogance
toward those who are lower in status. His discussion is within the context of
learning to view all beings as equal.
The problem Buddhism is addressing here
is the feeling that "I" am special, which underlies all three disturbing
emotions. For example, if we think and feel that "I" am the only one
who can do a specific task well or correctly, like teaching our friend to drive
a car, we become jealous if anyone else teaches him or her. That does not necessarily
lead to competitiveness. If, on the other hand, we think and feel that "I"
am the only one who deserves to do a specific thing, such as get ahead in life,
and we are envious if someone else succeeds, we become competitive. We have to
outdo the other person, even if we are already moderately successful. In both
examples, underlying jealousy and envy is a strong feeling of "me" and
a strong preoccupation with us alone. We do not consider others in the same way
as we do ourselves. We consider ourselves special.
The remedy Buddhism offers
to the problems and unhappiness caused by these types of jealousy, envy, competitiveness,
and arrogance is to treat the underlying fallacy concerning "me" and
"you." We need to realize and view everyone as equal. Everyone has the
same basic abilities, in the sense that everyone has Buddha-nature. Everyone has
the same wish to be happy and to succeed, and not to be unhappy or to fail. And
everyone has the same right to be happy and to succeed and the same right not
to be unhappy or to fail. There is nothing special about "me" in these
regards. Buddhism also teaches love - the wish for everyone, equally, to be happy.
When we learn to view everyone as equal, in terms of Buddha-nature and love,
then we are open to see how to relate to someone who has either succeeded more
than we have or who has succeeded when we have not. We rejoice in his or her success,
since we want everyone to be happy. We try to help our equals also succeed, rather
than competing with them and trying to outdo them. Toward those who are less successful
than we are, we try to help them do well, rather than gloat and arrogantly feel
better than they are.
Cultural Reinforcement of Jealousy and Competitiveness
These
suggested Buddhist methods are extremely advanced and particularly difficult to
apply when our automatically arising jealousy and competitiveness are reinforced,
strengthened and even rewarded by certain Western cultural values. After all,
almost all children automatically like to win and cry when they lose. But, on
top of that, many Western cultures teach capitalism as the naturally best form
of a democratic society. Underlying it is the theory of the survival of the fittest,
which sets competition as the basic driving force of life, rather than, for instance,
love and affection. Further, Western cultures reinforce the importance of success
and winning with an obsession with competitive sports, and their glorification
of the best athletes and the richest people in the world.
In addition, the
whole political system of democracy and voting entails competition - offering
and then selling ourselves as candidates, by publicizing how much better we are
than our rivals for office. As commonly practiced in the West, campaigning adds
to this an intense effort to find out every possible weak point in the rival candidates,
even in terms of their private lives, and inflating them out of proportion and
widely publicizing them in order to discredit him or her. Many people even view
such type of behavior, based on jealousy and competition, as praiseworthy and
just.
Tibetan society, on the other hand, frowns on anyone who depreciates
others and claims he or she is better than they are. These are considered negative
character traits. In fact, the first root bodhisattva vow is never to praise ourselves
and belittle others to people in positions lower than ourselves - which would
include, here, advertising such words to the voting public. The motivation is
specified as desire for profit, praise, love, respect, and so on from the persons
addressed, and jealousy of the persons belittled. It makes no difference whether
what we say is true or false. In contrast, when speaking about ourselves, extreme
modesty and saying "I have no good qualities; I don't know anything"
is considered praiseworthy. Thus, democracy and campaigning for votes are totally
alien and do not work in Tibetan society if practiced in the usual Western form.
Even just to say that we want to run for office is taken as a suspicious sign
of arrogance and of a nonaltruistic motive. The only possible compromise may be
for representatives of the candidates - and never the nominees themselves - merely
to speak to others about their candidates' good qualities and accomplishments,
without comparing them to those of the rivals for the office or saying anything
bad about them. This, however, is hardly ever done. Usually, candidates who are
well known, such as from noble families or incarnate lamas, are nominated, without
even asking them if they wish to run. If they say they do not wish to run for
office, this is taken as a sign of modesty, since immediately to say "yes"
indicates arrogance and greed for power. It is almost impossible for someone nominated
to refuse. Voting is then done, without campaigning. People usually vote for the
candidate who is most well known.
Thus, the Buddhist method of rejoicing in
the victories of others - and the even stronger one of giving the victory to others
and accepting defeat for ourselves - may not be the most suitable first remedy
to try for Westerners who are strongly convinced of the virtues of capitalism
and of the Western electoral system of campaigning. As Westerners, we might need
first to reevaluate the validity of our cultural values and deal with the doctrinally
based forms of jealousy and competition that arise from accepting those values,
before addressing the automatically arising forms.
An example that may help
us to see the relativity of Western culturally based jealousy and competitiveness
is an Indian market. In India, there are cloth markets, jewelry markets, vegetable
markets, and so on. Each has row after row of stalls and shops, right next to
each other, all selling almost exactly the same goods. Most of the shopkeepers
are friends with each other and often sit drinking tea together outside their
shops. Their attitude is that it is up to their karma whether or not their shops
do well.
Jealousy in the Western Sense
While the discussion of jealousy
in Buddhism primarily addresses, although does not overlap with, the disturbing
emotion of what English defines as "envy," English specifies another
similar disturbing emotion that it calls "jealousy." For most Westerners,
this type of jealousy gives them even more suffering than the types that Buddhism
discusses.
Rather than focus on what another has person received that we have
not, this form of jealousy focuses on someone who gives something to someone else,
rather than to us. Thus, in English, the first definition of jealousy we find
in the dictionary is "an intolerance of rivalry or of unfaithfulness."
For example, we feel jealous if our partners flirt with other men or women or
spend a lot of time with others. Even a dog feels this type of jealousy when a
new baby arrives in the house. Thus, like jealousy in Buddhism, it has elements
of resentment and hostility. But, in addition, it has strong elements of insecurity
and mistrust.
If we are insecure, then when a friend or partner is with someone
else, we are jealous. This is because we are unsure of our self-worth, insecure
of the other person's love for "me," and thus we do not trust our friend.
We fear that "I" will be abandoned.
To deal with this type of jealousy,
we also need to learn the equality of everyone. But here, our problem is not doctrinally
based on cultural values, so perhaps it is easier to go directly to trying the
Buddhist insight. The heart has the capacity to love everyone - this is an aspect
of Buddha-nature. Reaffirming this fact is a way to overcome jealousy. In other
words, everyone's heart has that capacity, including our friend or lover. If they
are so closed that they have no room in their hearts for me, we can develop compassion
for them. They do not realize their Buddha-nature capacities and, consequently,
are depriving themselves of some of the greatest joys in life.
We ourselves
need to become open to everyone. With open hearts, we can have love for friend,
partner, child, pet, parents, country, our people, Nature, God, hobby, job, etc.
There is room in our hearts for love for all of them. Love is not exclusive. We
are perfectly capable of dealing with and relating to all these objects of our
love, expressing our feelings in manners appropriate to each object. We do not
express our love and affection to our dogs in the same way as we express it to
our wives or husbands, or to our parents. We do not have sexual relations with
all of them.
The issues of monogamy and sexual unfaithfulness are extremely
complex and bring in many further issues. They are not the topics here. In any
case, if our sexual partners, especially our marital spouses and especially when
we have young children together, are unfaithful or spend a great deal of time
with others, jealousy, resentment, and possessiveness are never helpful emotional
responses. We need to deal with the situation in a more sober manner. Yelling
at our partners or trying to make them fell guilty can hardly ever succeed in
making them love us.
Also, these disturbing emotional responses are, in part,
culturally influenced. For example, a traditional Japanese or Indian wife does
not expect her husband to spend his social time with her after work, rather than
to follow the norms of his society and go out with his male friends. Thus, in
most cases, she will be content to lead her social life with her women friends,
separately from that of her husband.
Further, when we think that love and
having a close friendship can be only with one person exclusively, and if he or
she has a friendship with someone else, there is no room for "me," this
is jealousy. It is based on the feeling of a solid "me" who must be
special, and a solid "you" who is so special that we want only this
person's love. Even if there are many others who love us and whom we love, we
tend to ignore that fact and think, "That doesn't count."
Continually
opening our hearts to as many others as possible and acknowledging the love that
others - friends, relatives, pets, and so on - have for us now, have had in the
past, and will have in the future helps us to feel more emotionally secure. This,
in turn, helps us to overcome any fixation we may have on anyone being a special
object of love, not even ourselves.
Omniscience and all-loving both imply
having everyone in our minds and hearts. Nevertheless, when a Buddha is focused
on or with one person, he or she is 100% concentrated on that person. Therefore,
having love for everyone does not mean that love for each individual is diluted.
Therefore, we need not fear that if we open our hearts to many people, our personal
relations will be less intense or fulfilling. We may be less clinging and less
dependent on any one relation to be all-satisfying, and we may spend less time
with each individual, but each is a full involvement. The same is true in terms
of others' love for us when we are jealous that it will be diluted because they
also love someone else.
Also, it is an unrealistic expectation that any one
person will be our special perfect match, like our "other half," who
will complement us in all ways and with whom we can share every aspect of our
lives. Such an expectation is based on the ancient Greek myth told by Plato that
originally we were all wholes, who then were split in two. Somewhere "out
there" is our other half; and true love is when we find and reunite with
our other halves. Although this myth has become the foundation for Western romanticism,
it does not refer to reality. To believe in it, like believing in the beautiful
prince who will come to rescue us on a white horse, is an acquired, culturally
specific phenomenon.
The Deceptive Appearances Underlying Jealousy and Envy
As
we have seen, jealousy is the inability to bear someone else's achievement in
an area that we exaggerate the importance of, for instance his or her financial
success. Envious of it, we wish that we could achieve it instead. We also have
seen the variation of this, which occurs when someone receives something from
someone, such as love or affection. We wish that we could receive it instead.
This disturbing emotion derives from two deceptive appearances that, because
of confusion and just not knowing how things exist, our minds create and project.
The first is the dualistic appearance of (1) a seemingly concrete "me"
who inherently deserves to achieve or receive something, but did not, and (2)
a seemingly concrete "you" who inherently did not deserve to get it.
Unconsciously, we feel that the world owes us something and it is unfair when
others get it instead. We divide the world into two solid categories: "losers"
and "winners," and imagine that people truly exist and are findable
inside the boxes of these seemingly solid true categories. Then we put ourselves
in the solid permanent category of "loser" and we put the other person
in the solid permanent category of "winner." We might even put everyone
in the winners' box, except ourselves. Not only do we feel resentment, we feel
doomed. This leads to fixation on the painful thought, "poor me."
Naivety
about behavioral cause and effect usually accompanies jealousy and envy. For example,
we do not understand and even deny that the person who received a promotion or
affection did anything to earn or deserve it. Moreover, we feel that we should
get it without having to do anything to bring it about. Alternatively, we feel
that we did do a lot, but still did not get the reward. Our minds thus create
a second deceptive appearance and project it. Our confused minds make things appear
to happen for no reason at all, or for only one reason: what we alone did.
Deconstructing
Deceptive Appearances
We need to deconstruct these two deceptive appearances.
Our cultures might have taught us that the driving principle inherent in the world
of living beings is competition: the drive to win, survival of the fittest. But
that premise might not be true. Nevertheless, if we have accepted it, we then
believe that the world is inherently divided, by its very nature, into an absolute
dichotomy of winners and losers. Consequently, we perceive the world in the fixed
conceptual categories of winners and losers, and of course view ourselves with
the same conceptual framework.
Although these concepts of winners, losers,
and competition may be useful for describing evolution, we need to realize that
they are only arbitrary mental constructions. "Winner" and "loser"
are only mental labels. They are convenient mental categories used to describe
certain events, such as coming in first in a race, getting a promotion at work
instead of someone else getting it, or losing a client or student to someone else.
We could just as easily divide people into the categories of "nice persons"
and "not nice persons," depending on how we define "nice."
When we see that all such dualistic sets of categories are merely mentally
constructed, we start to realize that there is nothing inherent on the side of
"me" or "you" that locks us into solid categories. It is not
that we are basically losers, inherently, and, in thinking of ourselves as losers,
we have finally discovered the truth - the real "me" is a loser. Poor
"me." Rather, we have many other qualities besides losing a client to
someone else, so why dwell on that one as if that were the real "me."
Furthermore,
it is only because of our limited minds and preoccupation with thinking "poor
'me'" and "you bastard 'you,'" that it seems like success and failure,
gain and loss, happen for no reasons at all, or for irrelevant reasons. That is
why we think that what happened to us was unfair. What happens in the universe,
however, happens because of a huge network of cause and effect. So many things
affect what happens to us and to others, it is beyond our imaginations to include
every factor.
When we deconstruct these two deceptive appearances (winners
and losers, and things happening for no good reason) and stop projecting them,
we relax our feelings of injustice. Beneath our jealousy is merely awareness of
what has been accomplished, what has happened. We lost a client to someone else
and now someone else has this client. This makes us aware of a goal to achieve.
If we do not begrudge someone else for achieving or receiving it, we can perhaps
learn how the person accomplished the feat. This enables us to see how to accomplish
it ourselves. We only feel jealous because of overlaying this awareness with dualistic
appearances and concrete identities.
Conclusion
Thus, Buddhism offers a
variety of methods to deal with the disturbing emotions of jealousy and envy,
whether we define them in the Buddhist manner or in Western ways. When we are
troubled with a disturbing emotion in these general categories, the challenge
is to recognize correctly the defining characteristics and our cultural backgrounds.
When, through meditation practice, we have trained ourselves in a variety of methods,
we can chose an appropriate one to help us work through any emotional difficulties
we may be experiencing.
***********************************************************************************************
Dharma
and the Iraq War
April 2, 2003
Dear friends,
In the short
time since the war began, I've taught in Idaho, California, and Missouri. In all
these places, people were asking for Dharma advice on how to work with the emotions
that were coming up for them around the war. The following, then, is not meant
as a political statement - although my personal view is present - but as suggestions
on how to work with our feelings about what is happening.
The Nobel Peace Prize
winner, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, was in the midst of giving the traditional
Tibetan New Year teachings when the Iraq War broke out. The day after fighting
began, he said, "The war is happening now. Let's pray that at least something
good comes from it." I interpreted this to mean that we did our best to prevent
it and now, instead of falling prey to feelings of despair and anger, which only
create more suffering, we must shift our attention to deal with the situation
in a constructive way. How do we do this?
Many people who were hoping the conflict
could be resolved without violence are now feeling helpless, afraid, and angry.
First we need to work with these destructive emotions that not only enhance our
suffering, but also limit our ability to help others. Then we seek to generate
a kind and compassionate heart. Having done this, each of us will discover his
or her own ways to create and contribute to peace.
Many people feel helpless
to change the course of events as governmental leaders seem to be blindly pursuing
their own agenda. If we give in to feeling helpless and thinking that there is
nothing we can do, it is as if we are saying cause and effect do not exist. But
the law of cause and effect does exist; that is a fact of daily life as well as
a basic Buddhist principle. We can plants seeds for peace through Dharma practice,
social action, and generosity to aid organizations. We may not be able to stop
war instantly or single-handedly, but it's important the voice of peace be spoken
and heard, regardless of whether it has an immediate or long-term effect. The
mutual support that we offer each other just by speaking words of peace helps
us and others. In addition, the power of speaking our truth has an influence.
Making prayers for peace; doing the taking and giving meditation (tong.len); meditating
on Chenresig, the Buddha of Compassion, also have effects. We can attend peace
rallies, write to our leaders, engage in social action, and contribute to aid
organizations. We may not be able to get food and medicine to those on both sides
of the war who are subject to bombing and live fire, but we can at least help
the poor and ill in our own country. Reaching out to others with our thoughts
and actions is what is important. Helplessness cannot survive in an environment
of care.
Two kinds of fear may arise in reaction to the war. One is self-centered,
the second other-focused. Self-centered fear is debilitating. We may fear a variety
of things: increased terrorist activities in our own countries, the end of the
carefully constructed international cooperation that the U.N. has fostered since
its inception; the loss of rights and freedom due to the present administration's
security policies; a failing economy that restricts our lifestyle. There is a
quality of panic about fear, as the mind creates worst-case scenarios that end
with, "This situation will overwhelm me."
Asking ourselves a few
questions helps to counteract fear:
1. How likely to happen is the situation
I fear? How much of this is my mind writing horror stories? Often we find that
the drama we create is highly unlikely to occur.
2. Even if it did happen,
what resources do I have to deal with it? We find that there are external resources
in the community to draw on as well as internal resources of the strength that
comes from Dharma practice and the compassion born from it.
3. Although this
fear is unrealistic, but real dangers may be present. What can I do to prevent
them? Here we again come to the power of speaking the voice of peace, of positive
aspirations, and of reaching out to others in whatever way we can. We each have
different ways to help. For some it may be healing an interpersonal conflict;
for another it may be social or political action; for a third it may be offering
service of any kind.
Other-focused fear is concerned with the safety and well-being
of others. Imagining what it would be like living in a city being bombed or one
in which clean water and food are in short supply, we find the suffering of those
experiencing this unbearable. We worry if these people will live, if their loved
ones will survive, if their homes and belongings will remain. We fear for the
lives troops and civilians on both sides of the conflict. This fear has the potential
to transform into compassion, the wish that living beings are free from suffering
and its causes. That compassion is dynamic and invigorating, and although tinged
with the sadness of witnessing suffering, it is optimistic that in the long-run
suffering and its causes can be removed.
However, if we aren't careful, other-focused
fear can morph into personal distress in which we become more focused on our own
uncomfortable feelings when we see others suffering than on their misery. Personal
distress impedes the development of true compassion. Another possible glitch with
other-focused fear is bias. That is, we have compassion for the well-being of
those that we view as victims of aggression, but lack compassion for those we
label perpetrators. In fact, we may even develop animosity towards the perpetrators,
in which case our way of thinking resembles theirs in some aspects: we see things
in terms of "us and them," blame others, and wish them ill. In other
words, we are compassionate to one side but hostile to the other. This is not
genuine compassion, which goes beyond bias.
Helplessness and self-centered
fear are extremely uncomfortable emotions, and we frequently resort to anger to
divert ourselves from experiencing them. At present, our anger is likely to focus
on government leaders, whose actions seem ignorant and counterproductive to the
welfare of our own and other countries. Or we may be angry at the situation, "I
don't have a bone to pick. Why am I stuck in the middle of other people's conflicts?"
Here
it is helpful to remember that our own actions - our karma - caused us to be in
this situation. There's no one outside to blame. If we hadn't created the karmic
causes through our own harmful actions, we wouldn't be in these circumstances.
Instead of rejecting the situation, we must accept it and make the war and the
threats to safety that go with it our Dharma practice.
We may wonder, "What
did I do in the past that I find myself involuntarily dragged into this conflict
now?" If we look closely, we may find that in the past we have stirred up
conflict by back-biting, gossip, or spreading false stories. We may have a little
of Sadam and Bush inside ourselves. Our spiteful speech, which hurts others to
the core, is our weapon of mass destruction. Our control issues in which we impose
our way on those around us are our bombs and artillery attacks. It's rather sobering
to recognize this, and even though it's not at the scale where it influences as
many people, still our jealousy and hatred and the actions motivated by them bring
suffering. There's work we can start doing now to clean up our own attitudes and
behavior as part of our contribution to peace.
Some people fear and distrust
Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld as much or more than Sadam. It is extremely easy to
vilify the coalition's leaders, in which case we put more anger into an already
hostile environment. Here, too, our mind has become like those whose war cries
we dislike, just the object of our hatred is different. We see the world in terms
of "us and them," denounce one side and praise the other, and wish harm
to those who disagree with us. This does no good at all, either for ourselves
or others.
This is where compassion comes in. How can we have compassion for
those who promote war? How can we be kind to those whose political views differ
from ours? How can we wish well to those who harm others, including government
leaders and soldiers on both sides?
In my mind opposing the war and supporting
the troops are two different issues. I don't hate the US and British troops. These
young men are as much victims of others' agendas as everyone else is. I wish them
well; I don't want them to be killed or to kill. We can love our country's soldiers
as individual sentient beings and still oppose the actions they engage in.
Similarly,
opposing this war doesn't mean we don't love our country. In fact, it is because
we care about our country that we don't want its leaders to take us down a path
that we consider mistaken. We appreciate the freedom we have here but think that
an international policy based on understanding and respect for other cultures
will protect it better than the current one.
What about the government leaders
who command them to fight? How can we hate those whose ways of thinking are so
ignorant and misguided? Just imagine - if we grew up in Bush's family or in Sadam's
home town with all the conditioning they received as youngsters, it's highly likely
that we would think like them. Aren't both of them victims of the conditioning
they received? Aren't they oppressed by the force of their own ignorance, attachment,
and hostility? When we think of the karma they are creating and the results they
will experience due to it, how can we hate them? Aren't they objects worthy of
our compassion?
Compassion isn't just for those who are ostensibly suffering
in the conflict. Compassion is needed especially for those who perpetrate harm.
We need to wish them to be well and happy. If they were content, they wouldn't
be doing what they are doing. People only harm others when they're miserable themselves,
not when they feel happy.
Compassion doesn't necessitate that we agree with
what others think or do. We can speak out against harmful activities while having
compassion for their perpetrators. Compassion doesn't mean we escape the realities
of war. In fact, I believe it sees those realities more accurately and leads us
to creative ways of seeking resolutions. A kind heart is something we have the
capability and power to generate. We have some work to do; let's begin right now,
and let's help each other do it.
With metta,
Chodron
May all sentient
beings have happiness and its causes.
May all sentient beings be free from
suffering and its causes.
May all sentient beings not be separated from sorrowless
bliss.
May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free from bias, attachment
and anger.
************************************************************************************************************
His
Holiness the Dalai Lama's Comments on Prison Life.
By Bhikshuni
Thubten Chodron©
During the time he was teaching in New York City in September, 2003, His Holiness the Dalai Lama met privately with a group of former inmates. They told him about their experience in prison and their endeavors to practice the Buddhadharma there. His Holiness later shared his reflections on this meeting when he spoke to the thousands of people attending his teachings at the Beacon Theatre and the estimated 65,000 who attended his Sunday morning talk at Central Park. What he said was similar, though not exactly the same, on these two occasions, and I share with you what I remember (I didn't take notes, nor was I at the meeting).
His Holiness was very appreciative of the meeting and said how touched and saddened he was hearing the suffering that people experienced while incarcerated. He admired their efforts to learn and practice the Dharma in such a hostile and violent environment and said that the cultivation of compassion is extremely important.
He also commented on the injustices present in a prison system designed to punish rather than rehabilitate, a system which brands people as "evil" instead of seeing their potential and the purity of their Buddha nature. The structure of the prison system is in bad need of reform, he said. Looking directly at the audience, he stated emphatically: But I am not a citizen of this country, you are. Therefore, you are responsible for changing this system. You need a system helps both the inmates themselves and society in general. A loud round of applause by the audience followed this statement.
Having done prison work myself for several years-both corresponding with inmates and teaching Buddhist groups in prisons-I was very moved by the depth of His Holiness' knowledge of and care for people who are generally feared and therefore discarded by society. His care was not only for the individuals themselves, but for the system in general, in which everyone-inmates, their families and friends, guards, and prison staff-is trapped. I wished that all those imprisoned could have heard His Holiness directly and experienced his tremendous compassion for them.
***********************************************************************************************
Renunciation
- Determination To Be Free
Alexander Berzin
Morelia, Mexico,
October 10, 2001
Definition and Implications
Renunciation (nges-'byung)
is the determination to be free from not only some form of suffering, but also
from its causes. It entails the willingness to give up that suffering and its
causes. Thus, it requires great courage. It is not just aiming to get something
nice without paying a price.
Renunciation also implies belief in the fact
that it is possible to be free from that suffering and its causes. It is not just
wishful thinking. It is belief in a fact to be true (dad-pa) in all three ways.
1. Clearheadedly believing it (dvangs-ba'i dad-pa), clears the mind of disturbing
emotions and attitudes about the object. Thus, correct renunciation clears the
mind of indecisiveness, self-pity, and resentment about having to give up something
desirable.
2. Believing a fact to be true based on reason (yid-ches-pa). We
need to understand how liberation from suffering and its causes is possible.
3.
Believing a fact with an aspiration toward it (mngon-dad-kyi dad-pa). As with
the two stages of bodhichitta (the aspiring and the involved stages), we need
not merely to wish or to be willing to give up some level of suffering and its
causes. We need actually to give them both up, as much as we presently are able,
and to involve ourselves in the practices that will enable us eventually to gain
freedom from them forever.
Moreover, correct renunciation is not the same as
short-lived all-excited renunciation (sna-thung spu-sud-kyi nges-'byung): the
enthusiastic and fanatic renunciation of everything, based on blind faith that
an external source will save us. It entails a realistic attitude about the hard
work involved. We may gain inspiration from others, but we have to work hard ourselves.
Further, we need a realistic attitude about how progress occurs. Becoming
free from samsara is never a linear process, with things getting better each day.
Until we are free forever, samsara will continue to go up and down. When viewed
from the perspective of a long period of time, we can see progress, but on a day-to-day
basis, our moods will continue to go up and down.
Thus, we need discipline
and patience to endure the difficulties of following the Buddhist path, and armor-like
joyful perseverance (go-cha'i brtson-'grus) to press on despite the ups and downs.
With clearheaded belief backing our determination to be free, we will not become
frustrated or dismayed.
Two Stages of Renunciation According to Tsongkapa
In
The Three Principal Paths (Lam-gtso rnam-gsum), Tsongkhapa differentiates
1.
the initial scope renunciation with which we turn our primary concern from benefiting
this life to benefiting future lives,
2. the intermediate scope renunciation
with which we turn our primary interest from benefiting future lives to gaining
liberation from uncontrollably recurring rebirth in samsara.
The first is
a level of renunciation developed in common with non-Buddhists who aim to go to
heaven. The second is exclusively Buddhist.
Dharma-Lite Renunciation
We
can implement this differentiation by adding a preliminary stage, the "Dharma-Lite"
version (like CocaCola Lite). Dharma-Lite renunciation is turning our primary
interest from gratifying the moment to benefiting later periods in this life or
later generations.
Dharma-Lite renunciation, however, is only valid as part
of the Buddhist path when we view it merely as a stepping stone for reaching the
two "real-thing " Dharma levels. To reach the "real-thing"
levels, we need to understand the Buddhist teachings on rebirth correctly and
believe them to be fact, based on reason. Otherwise, how can we sincerely work
to benefit our future lives or to gain liberation from uncontrollably recurring
rebirth?
With Dharma-Lite renunciation, then, we look at the everyday problems
we have in life - in our relationships, in our dealing with difficulties, and
so on. We also look at the causes and we are willing to give up both, in order
to improve the quality of this life - and not just immediately, but also later
in life. This is renunciation on a level in common with psychotherapy.
Parallel
to this level, we can have a Dharma-Lite version of putting safe direction in
life (taking refuge). We put the safe direction in our lives of working to live
with our neuroses so that they cause us only minimal problems. We look to those
who have achieved this, in full and in part, as indicating the way.
[See: "Dharma-Lite"
Versus " The Real Thing" Dharma.]
Provisional Renunciation and Safe
Direction
Lamrim (the graded stages of the path) presents the topic of taking
safe direction first in terms of initial scope renunciation. There, it is based
on dread of worse rebirths and belief in the fact that the Three Gems can lead
to better rebirth. Like the Dharma-Lite versions, this level of renunciation and
safe direction is also only provisional. They are also not the full, definitional
forms.
The Dharma Gem is true stoppings of suffering and its causes, and true
paths leading to them. On the initial level, however, the Dharma Gem is not an
actual Dharma gem. The suffering we aim to stop is only gross suffering; its cause
is only unawareness of behavioral cause and effect; the stopping is only temporary;
and the path is restraining from destructive behavior.
Moreover, those who
have attained this so-called Dharma Gem are those in the best states of rebirth
- human and gods, not Buddhas and not necessarily the arya sangha community of
those with nonconceptual cognition of voidness.
Definitional Renunciation and
Safe Direction
Only on the intermediate lamrim level do we find full, definitional
renunciation and full, definitional safe direction. True sufferings, here, are
of all three types (pain, change, and all-encompassing), true causes are unawareness
of voidness, true stopping is forever - not just temporary like going to higher
realm rebirths or meditative states - and true paths are nonconceptual cognitions
of voidness.
Correspondingly, here, we put the definitional safe direction
in our lives and aim for the actual Dharma Gem of true stoppings and true paths,
as exist in full on the mental continuums of Buddhas and exist in part on the
mental continuums of the arya sangha.
[See: Identifying the Objects of Safe
Direction (Refuge).]
Bodhisattva Level of Renunciation and Safe Direction
On
the advanced lamrim level of a bodhichitta motivation, renunciation aims for the
freedom of all others from samsaric suffering and its causes - not just their
suffering of pain, and not just the suffering of some beings. This wish for all
others to be totally liberated from suffering and its causes, with conviction
that it is possible, is called "compassion." Compassion is one aspect
of the bodhisattva level of renunciation.
To bring about the ability to help
liberate all others, we need the other aspect of bodhisattva renunciation. We
need to renounce not only the obscurations preventing our liberation (nyon-sgrib),
but also the obscurations preventing our omniscience (shes-sgrib). Again, this
implies understanding omniscience, the obscurations that prevent it, and firm
belief that it is possible to rid ourselves forever of those obscurations. It
also implies firm belief that it is possible for everyone to rid themselves forever
of these obcurations.
Concluding Remarks
All along the Buddhist path, then,
we need the willingness to give up suffering and the causes of suffering. Thus,
we need to recognize as sources of our suffering our selfishness, laziness, attachment,
anger, and so on; give them up as much as possible now; and strive as soon as
possible to rid ourselves of them forever.
In tantra, we need even deeper
renunciation. We need to be willing to give up and then actually let go, as much
as we can, our ordinary self-images and our identifying with them. Renunciation
is indeed a deep and far-reaching practice, from Dharma-Lite all the way to highest
tantra.
***********************************************************************************************
Static
and Nonstatic Phenomena
Alexander Berzin
Freiburg, Germany,
March 15, 2002
Existent Phenomena
According to the Buddhist analysis,
existent phenomena (yod-pa) comprise everything validly knowable. If something
exists, it is validly knowable and, in fact, the existence of something can only
be established in relation to its being validly knowable. Otherwise, we cannot
even discuss an item or consider whether it is existent or not.
What exists
and can be known, however, may be either the establishment of something (an affirmation)
(sgrub-pa), such as a table, or the absence of something (a nullification) (dgag-pa),
such as the absence of a table.
Anything that cannot be validly known does
not exist. "Prince" or "Princess Charming" on a white horse,
for example, does not exist. Something representing "Prince Charming"
or "Princess Charming" can be known, such as a fairy tale story, a cartoon
image, or merely the words "Prince" or "Princess" and "Charming."
However, an actual Prince or Princess Charming cannot be validly known, since
there is no such thing.
Although there are no such things as nonexistent phenomena
(Prince or Princess Charming), yet the nonexistence of something (the nonexistence
of a Prince or Princess Charming) is a validly knowable nullification and is therefore
an existent phenomenon. Thus, no matter how much we may seek the perfect partner,
we will never find a Prince or Princess Charming. With deep understanding of reality,
we may come to know there is no such thing and accept our partners as they are.
Static Phenomena
Existent, validly knowable phenomena include both static
(rtag-pa) and nonstatic (mi-rtag-pa) phenomena, usually translated as permanent
and impermanent phenomena. The distinction between the two, however, is drawn
not in terms of how long a phenomenon exists. Rather, it is drawn in terms of
whether or not the phenomenon changes from moment to moment while it exists, no
matter for how long that might be.
Static phenomena include facts about something.
These facts are abstractions imputed about something and they only exist and can
be known so long as the basis for their imputation last. When the basis for imputing
a static fact ceases to exist, the static fact about it no longer exists and is
no longer the case. Moreover, so long as a static fact exists and is the case,
it does not change or do anything.
An example is a voidness - an absence of
something existing in an impossible way. An impossible way for something to exist
might be, for example, in a vacuum, all by itself, totally independently of anything
else, as if with solid lines around it as in a coloring book. The absence of a
table, for instance, existing with a solid line around it exists only so long
as the table exists. When the table no longer exists, we can no longer cognize
or speak about the absence of it existing with a solid line around it. We can
only speak of the absence of a solid line around the past table, but not around
the present table, because there is no present table. On the other hand, the absence
of anything knowable existing with a solid line around it exists forever, because
knowable phenomena exist with no beginning and no end.
A more down-to-earth
example is the absence of my partner existing as Prince or Princess Charming.
That is an impossible way of existing, because there is no such manner of existence.
This fact is true about my partner for as long as my partner exists. It is never
going to change. Therefore, there is no hope that my partner will change some
time in the future and become Prince or Princess Charming. Moreover, it was never
the case that he or she existed as Prince or Princess Charming before meeting
me, but now has changed into the Monster. Further, the absence of all people existing
as Prince or Princess Charming is a static fact that is true and is the case forever.
No one will ever exist as the Prince or Princess; therefore, it is best to give
up false hopes and expectations of ever meeting someone who exists as that.
The
static fact of the absolute absence of anyone existing as Prince or Princess Charming
is a neutral fact, neither good nor bad. Therefore, there is no need to become
upset about it. We need to accept it, whether we like it or not. Moreover, the
fact itself cannot do anything; it cannot produce any effect. However, knowing
and accepting the fact can do something: it can help us avoid frustration and
problems. Confusion about it can also do something: it can cause us to create
problems in our relationships. Therefore, it is important to learn and try to
remain mindful of the facts of reality.
Four Types of Nonstatic Phenomena
Nonstatic phenomena are those things that
" arise from or are supported
by causes and conditions,
" change from moment to moment,
" produce
effects.
There are four types of nonstatic phenomena. Those that
1. have
a beginning and an end - such as our gross bodies, a relationship with someone,
or an episode of anger;
2. have no beginning and no end - such as our mental
continuums;
3. have no beginning, but have an end - such as the presence of
unawareness (ignorance, confusion) accompanying our mental continuums;
4.
have a beginning, but no end - such as the death of a loved one, or the functioning
of our mental continuums as omniscient minds of Buddhas.
Gross Impermanence
Nonstatic phenomena that have a beginning and an end undergo both gross and
subtle impermanence.
Gross impermanence is the final destruction of something.
For example, a relationship with someone will have an end. Such things last only
so long as the causes and conditions that support and give rise to them are gathered
together and continue. Once the supporting causes and conditions are gone, these
things come to an end.
If we fail to accept this fact, we delude ourselves
and suffer greatly. We cling to a relationship or to our youthful vigor, for example,
as if they could last forever, and our attachment and confusion cause enormous
pain when these things inevitably end. If we accept the fact of gross impermanence,
we are able to enjoy a relationship or our youthful vigor for as long as they
last.
It is like the example of a beautiful wild bird that comes to our window.
The bird will of course fly away, and if we grasp at it and try to catch it, it
will either fly away sooner or die in captivity. If we accept that it will inevitably
leave, we enjoy the moment. We may be sad when the bird flies away, but the sadness
does not overwhelm us. It too will pass.
Subtle Impermanence
Subtle impermanence
is not merely the moment to moment changing of a nonstatic phenomenon that has
a beginning and an end. It is not merely the fact that the phenomenon is drawing
closer each moment to its ultimate end, like a time bomb. It is also the fact
that the cause for the phenomenon's final disintegration or end is its coming
into being, its arising.
For example, the fact that we enter a relationship
with someone and start living together is the cause for it eventually to end.
An argument or death is only the circumstance for it to end, but not the deepest
cause. This does not mean that the relationship cannot grow and develop into something
beautiful. It does not mean that is doomed, and so we cannot enjoy it while it
lasts. Rather, it means that we do not blame the other person or ourselves for
making the relationship end. Of course, it will end, simply because it began.
Moreover, each moment of living together is one moment closer to the arrangement
ending. This aspect of subtle impermanence is not so obvious. Thus, although we
might understand and accept gross impermanence - that some day we shall part our
ways - still we might think that while we are living together, our situation is
remaining stable and static. Under such a delusion, we are caught by surprise
when gross impermanence strikes and our living together comes to an end. With
awareness of subtle impermanence, we appreciate more the fragility of the situation
and cherish it more deeply.
The Problem of Change
The so-called "worldly
happiness" - the usual happiness with which we are all familiar - is problematic.
Every small period of it ends; we never know when that will happen; the experience
of it doesn't rid us of all our suffering and problems; and we have no way to
know how we will feel next. Thus, in a relationship with someone, we need to be
realistic about the happiness that we experience and not inflate it into something
impossible. The nature of samsara, and thus the nature of any relationship, is
that it goes up and down.
Nonstatic Phenomena with No Beginning and No End
Our individual mental continuums, which are the continuities of our individual
subjective experiencing of things, have no beginning and no end. They are eternal;
they last forever. It is illogical for them to have an absolute beginning at which
they arise
1. from no cause,
2. from causes that are of a different category
of phenomena, such as physical matter,
3. from another being's subjective mental
activity, or
4. from the power of a creator.
Similarly, it is illogical
for them to have an absolute end, without generating, by the laws of behavioral
cause and effect, a next moment of continuity.
Consider the case of the continuity
of our living together with someone. Living together with someone has a beginning,
because the causes and conditions for its arising - each party being a certain
age, being in the same location, having certain emotional needs, and so on - come
together at a specific moment. The circumstances and conditions for our living
together to begin were not gathered together before. Because the conditions for
it arising come together newly at some moment and are not naturally together,
the conditions will fall apart at some later moment. At that moment, the continuity
of our living together will end.
The situation is quite different with the
continuity of our individual subjective experiencing of things. Although our experiencing
of something specific, such as of a specific event, arises newly when that event
occurs, our experiencing things in general is not created newly at any specific
moment. It is the characteristic feature of our mental continuums and is always
together with our continuums, regardless of the causes and conditions affecting
the contents of what we experience at any given moment. Thus, a continuity of
experiencing is not coming closer each moment to its ultimate end.
In summary,
the fundamental nature of experiencing things does not change; nevertheless, experiencing
itself changes from moment to moment. This is because experiencing must have contents
and, because the contents change each moment and because experiencing arises dependently
on contents as its condition, the experiencing also changes from moment to moment.
Nevertheless, the continuity of individual subjective experiencing of things does
not undergo gross impermanence. It will not come to a final end. Although it changes
from moment to moment, it also does not undergo subtle impermanence - either in
the sense of it approaching closer, every moment, to its final demise or in the
sense of its arising being the cause of its ending.
Even if we do not think
in terms of past and future lives, still, if we realize that the continuity of
our individual, subjective experiencing of things goes on in this life, we do
not suffer so greatly when something within our lives comes to an end, such as
living with someone. We understand that life goes on, experience continues, without
a break, and so new relationships can arise in the future.
Nonstatic Phenomena
with No Beginning, but with an End
The unawareness (of how everything actually
exists) that accompanies a continuum of individual, subjective experiencing of
things has no beginning, as is the case with the continuum itself. However, unlike
that continuum, it can have an end. Thus, it can undergo gross impermanence. The
unawareness, however, does not undergo subtle impermanence. Because it has no
absolute beginning, it is not slowly falling apart and approaching closer, each
moment, to its ultimate end.
Unawareness and awareness are mutually exclusive.
In the same moment, we cannot both know and not know how everything exists, nor
can we know how everything exists both correctly and incorrectly. Moreover, correct
understanding can be validated. It withstands the force of analysis, whereas unawareness
or confusion falls apart the closer we scrutinize it. Therefore, unawareness can
come to an end because it can be replaced by awareness.
Moreover, once the
continuity of correct understanding can be maintained without a break, unawareness
ends forever. As the great Indian Buddhist master Shantideva explained, unawareness
is not like an external enemy. Once it is definitively banished from the mental
continuum, it cannot go anywhere. When we turn on the light in a room, the darkness
doesn't go somewhere and hide.
In terms of a relationship, then, the unawareness
that no one exists as a Prince or Princess Charming, which accompanies our interaction
with a partner either consciously or unconsciously, will not weaken and go away
by itself. With correct understanding, however, that there is no such thing as
a partner who exists in this impossible manner, the unawareness can come to an
end.
Nonstatic Phenomena with a Beginning, but No End
The continuity of
an individual's correct understanding of everything (the functioning of an individual
mental continuum as the omniscient awareness of a Buddha) has a beginning, but
no end. It begins with the attainment of enlightenment, and continues forever.
The first moment of the continuity, however, is not created anew from the gathering
of causes and conditions that were not previously together. The situation resembles
that of a mirror covered with dirt.
A mirror covered with dirt does not function
to reflect objects. The removal of the dirt marks the beginning of the mirror
reflecting, but it does not create the mirror functioning to reflect. The functioning
of the mirror is a natural characteristic of the mirror. It was simply blocked
by the dirt.
Similarly, unawareness blocks the functioning of our mental continuums
as omniscient awarenesses reflecting everything. The removal of the unawareness
signals the start of our continuums functioning omnisciently, but does not create
that functioning. Reflecting everything, as a mirror does, is a natural feature
of our mental continuums.
Therefore, although an omniscient awareness changes
from moment to moment as its focus and contents change, it undergoes neither gross
nor subtle impermanence. This is because, although its functioning omnisciently
has a beginning, its functioning is not created by causes and conditions coming
together anew. Knowing this helps us to gain the self-esteem and self-confidence
that allows us to work on removing our confusion in a healthy manner.
In terms
of a relationship, our mental continuums, like mirrors or cameras, have always
taken in the factual information of the other person - how he or she has looked,
acted, and spoken. The removal of our confusion and projections does not create
that camera-like ability. It was already there and will continue forever.
***********************************************************************************************
The
Compassionate Heart of Bodhichitta
Alexander Berzin
Singapore,
August 10, 1988
Revised excerpt from Glimpse of Reality.
Singapore: Amitabha
Buddhist Centre, 1999
. I have been asked to speak on bodhichitta this
evening. This is a vast subject, which deals with our motivation -- specifically
why we want to follow a spiritual path. It is a motivation that we build up gradually
within ourselves; it is difficult to generate it immediately. Bodhichitta refers
to a heart set on becoming a Buddha, a heart that has a firm determination: "I
have to overcome all my limitations and realize all my potentials in order to
be able to benefit everyone." We are striving for enlightenment not just
because it is the best and the highest, but in order to help everyone by attaining
it. Although we may often verbally say that we are working to become a Buddha
in order to benefit all sentient beings, it is very hard to feel that continuously
and sincerely in our hearts. However, by repeatedly building up this aspiration,
we can reach a stage in which it arises within us spontaneously. A bodhisattva
is someone with genuine bodhichitta as his or her primary motivation day and night.
Since you have probably had teachings and explanations on the ways to develop
bodhichitta, I shall not emphasize that now. Instead, I shall talk about the importance
of going through all the stages that lead up to this motivation. It is quite easy
to skip over these stages and try to go straight to this highest Mahayana motivation.
We may say, "I practice because I want to help others. It is my social responsibility."
Because this is something obviously beneficial to do, we immediately try to do
it. However, if we have not gone through the earlier stages, we get into trouble.
I would like to discuss how to avoid these difficulties when we are developing
a motivation of love and compassion to help others.
With the lamrim, or gradual
path to enlightenment, we work through graduated paths to the highest level of
spiritual development. The initial spiritual motivation involves working for the
happiness of our future lives. Striving just for the happiness of this life is
what everybody does. Even animals do that. They are concerned about the food they
eat and about taking care of their young. Although this is an essential concern,
it does not necessarily involve spiritual practice.
Taking care of this life
is important, however. Some people do not take themselves and their situations
seriously, and never want to look at what happens in their lives. Thus, they do
not even want to improve their current situation. They just accept what is going
on and never aim for anything better. Therefore, it is important at least to start
on the level of being concerned about ourselves, our families, and our situations
-- even if this is not a particularly spiritual motivation. When we have problems,
we actually admit them; we examine our lives to see what difficulties we are having.
"Am I happy? Am I unhappy? Are there difficulties that I am facing that make
my life unpleasant?"
Future Lives
The boundary indicating that we
have actually entered spiritual practice is when we are interested and concerned
primarily about our future lives. All texts agree on this. When we are concerned
with future lives, we want to avoid having worse problems than the ones we have
now. We look at the situations that could follow in the future from what we are
doing now. We think about our precious human lives: "How fortunate I am!
I am not starving to death. I am not in a concentration camp. I am not mentally
handicapped. I am not in a barbaric situation in which everyone is attacking each
other. I am very fortunate that I am free from all these things and have the opportunity
to develop myself spiritually. Nevertheless, this will not last forever. Death
is going to come for sure. It comes to everybody, and there is no certainty when
it will happen. A truck could hit me at any time. I do not have to be old to die;
I could die young." Then, we think about what could happen after we die.
We go either to a better situation or to a worse situation. Looking at these worse
situations -- for example, being an insect or hungry ghost -- we develop a great
sense of dread. Not fear, but dread.
We do not try to cultivate fear in Buddhism.
Saying that we fear rebirth in the lower realms is a mistaken translation. To
say that we dread a lower rebirth conveys the meaning better. Fear is a crippling
state of mind in which we put a big solid line around the situation we dislike
and make it into something monstrous and horrible. Then we freeze. We are not
able to handle it. This is not what is meant in Buddhism. What is discussed is
dread: not wanting a terrible situation to happen to us. The difference between
dread and fear is like the situation of having to spend an afternoon with an obnoxious
and horrible person who makes the afternoon very unpleasant. We do not fear that,
but we dread it. Dread is a strong wish for something not to happen.
Taking
a Safe Direction
Dreading these worse situations in the future, we then look
for a direction to take in order to get out of them. The direction out of them
is taking refuge. Refuge is a safe direction that we take in our life. We go in
the direction of the Dharma. The complete Dharma is the state in which all of
our limitations and problems have been eliminated and all our potentials have
been realized. Dharma means preventive measures, things we do in order to avoid
problems. The greatest and ultimate thing that we could do to avoid all our problems
is to rid ourselves of the limitations that cause them. "If I get angry,
or upset, or nervous, or worried, that is going to cause me a lot of problems.
However, if I could realize all my potentials, I would be able to handle all situations,
I would be able to help everyone in the best way possible." When we see that,
then we want to go in that direction.
Going in that direction is positive
and beneficial. It is the direction that the Buddhas have taken and is the direction
toward which the Sangha community is working. The Sangha is the community of highly
realized beings who have beheld reality straightforwardly and nonconceptually.
The monastic community of monks and nuns represent them for us. Putting that safe
and positive direction into our lives is the solution to avoid going in a worse
direction in future lives.
Specifically, we need to think of behavioral cause
and effect. We need to see that if we act destructively, that results in harm
and problems. We create a lot of negative energy and then experience that negative
energy ourselves. We are stuck with it. Whereas if we restrain ourselves from
acting in destructive ways and act in constructive manners instead, we build positive
potential and, consequently, things go better in the future. In this way, we work
to improve future lives.
Determination to Be Free
No matter what type
of future life we obtain, there are still going to be uncontrollably recurring
problems -- frustrations, confrontations and conflicts with people, not getting
what we want, getting what we do not want, and so on. These are inevitable. They
come about because of our lack of awareness of who we are, how we exist, and how
other people exist. Because we are unaware of this, we become very confused; because
we are confused, we feel insecure; and feeling insecure, we grasp at an identity
to give us some form of security. We grasp at some aspect of ourselves, either
true or imaginary, and we identify with it: "That is ME."
We could
identify ourselves with certain social roles or occupations: I am a BUSINESSMAN;
that is who I am." Or, "I am a MOTHER." Or, "I am a FATHER."
We base our entire identities on that, and still feeling insecure, we try either
to defend those identities or to assert them. In doing that, we act in a very
impulsive and compulsive way. We bully people around. "I am a FATHER and
I must be respected!" Of course, our child has difficulty with that, and
there is a big conflict. The child says. "I am an independent person. I know
what I want to do!" The child bases his or her identity on being an independent
person as a teenager. Then the father has to maintain his own identity and says,
'No, you MUST obey me!' Everybody is insecure and grasps more and more at his
or her social role. This produces uncontrollably recurring arguments, fights,
resentments, and so on. This is what is known as samsara -- uncontrollably recurring
problems.
We need to develop a determination to be free from this cycle of
constantly recurring problems. This is often translated as renunciation, but this
is a misleading translation. It gives the connotation in English that we are supposed
to give up everything and go live in a cave. Buddha did not say that. We get this
idea because we read about people like Milarepa, who left his family and village
to live in a cave. We think that we have to do that too. That is not the meaning
of renunciation. Obviously, we have to give up our gross attachments and our clinging
to what we have, but it does not mean that we have to throw everything out the
window.
Rather, the idea translated as "renunciation" actually means
"the determination to be free." Our mind is made up and determined:
'All the problems that I have, all these confrontations with my family, difficulties
with my work - enough already! I am fed up! I am disgusted! I have to get out!'
Based on that, we try to develop the discriminating awareness that sees reality
and understands how we exist, for, in fact, we do not exist locked inside these
solid identities. Things are much more open than that. We do not exist in these
strange, fantasized, impossible ways. We are not only parents; we are also friends
and children of our own parents. We are many things in relation to others. Thus,
we want to develop this determination to be free, which will propel us to follow
a spiritual practice and gain wisdom.
Universal Responsibility
After that,
we think, 'I am not the only one who exists in this universe. There is everybody
else. What about them? Do I have some responsibility toward them?' We may say,
'No, who cares about them? I am not really connected to them. I can just work
for myself alone.' But, this is being very unrealistic. The great Indian master,
Shantideva, used the example of the hand and the foot. If we have a thorn in our
foot and if our hand were to say to our foot, 'Tough luck, foot! That is your
problem, I am okay up here,' that would be very silly. The hand has to help the
foot because they are interconnected. Likewise, we cannot work for ourselves alone
because we are very much interconnected with everybody else.
We can easily
see this if we think about everything we use or enjoy during the course of a day.
Take, for instance, what we had for breakfast this morning. We may have had a
bowl of hot cereal. Where did that bowl of cereal come from? There were very many
people involved in growing the wheat; there were people who harvested it and those
who brought it to the mill where it was made into flour; some people made it into
cereal, and others packaged it. All these people were involved in preparing the
cereal for us. Then the box of cereal had to be transported here by airplane,
ship, or road. Who built the roads? Who built the airplanes? Where did the materials
that made the trucks or the airplanes come from? What about the fuel? Think about
all the dinosaurs whose bodies decomposed in order to make the gasoline! There
are so many people and animals involved in making this one box of cereal.
How
did we cook the cereal? There must have been electricity in the kitchen and gas
for the stove. These are due to the people working at the electric plants and
those who drill for and pump the gas. There are so many people, involved in all
these activities -- and we are just considering one little bowl of cereal! What
about everything else we eat? And the clothes we wear? How about all the objects
in the house? Where did the bowl from which I ate the cereal come from? There
was also a piece of plastic or cardboard containing the cereal. Where did that
come from? Think of all the people in the lumber industry, the paper or plastic
industry, and the printing industry who were involved in making the wrapper.
Hundreds
of thousands of people are involved in making our lives possible everyday. To
work for ourselves alone does not make any sense, because we are so interconnected
with everybody else. If everyone else is in a terrible situation and we are okay,
it is not going to work. Similarly, it is not going to work if we are the only
survivors of a nuclear war, alone by ourselves down in the bomb shelter with a
gas mask on when everybody else is dead. How long can we last like that? Not very
long. Also, it is not going to be very much fun.
In this way, we start to
think of others. We remember their kindness and want to repay it. We develop love,
wishing them to be happy, and compassion, a genuine wish for them to be free from
their problems. In addition, we take on the responsibility to actually do something
aboutit. It is not enough to stand by the side of the pool while we watch our
child drown, and say, 'Tsk tsk! What a shame! I wish that would not happen.' Compassion
is not enough. We actually have to do something. We have to jump in and help our
child; we take the responsibility to save him or her. This is an exceptional resolve,
the resolve: 'I am going to do something to help others.'
Then we ask: Am I
really capable of doing the best job to help others? Honestly speaking, no. I
can hardly help myself. So how can I help others? The only way is by becoming
a Buddha myself. To become a Buddha, I need to overcome all my limitations and
realize all my potentials. Then I can really help everybody in the best way possible.--
We generate bodhichitta: we set our hearts on becoming Buddhas in order to benefit
everyone. Developing bodhichitta refers to expanding our hearts increasingly more
toward others, expanding our hearts to the goal of reaching our fullest potentials
and overcoming all our limitations so that we can help others in the best way
possible.
This is the graduated path by which we develop ourselves. First,
we want to ensure that we have good future lives. Then, we develop the determination
to be free from all our problems altogether. Finally, we dedicate our hearts to
becoming Buddhas in order to be able to help everyone. We take on this responsibility
based on love and compassion, caring for the happiness of all others and not wanting
them to be unhappy.
Without Taking Future Lives Seriously
What happens
if we try to jump to that final stage of aspiring to become Buddhas without going
through the initial stages? We have problems. For example, the first important
step is to think about future lives and to take them seriously. We may not have
given much thought to that. Or maybe we have accepted it in a very vague way,
without taking it to heart. If we have not thought about the fact that we have
infinite lives, we may think, 'Well, things are not going well in my relationship
with a particular person. So why not give this person up and get involved with
someone else?' We may have this attitude toward people that we do not know well,
or friends with whom things are going sour -- we just want to leave them. When
we get tired of our partners or we have difficulties with them, we simply get
a new husband or a new wife. In some countries, as many as 50% of all marriages
end in divorce. It is really shocking! And very sad too.
What is behind this?
It is the idea that we do not have connections with others, so we can throw them
away like old cabbages. 'Well, I am not going to help this person any more. I
can just leave him or her aside. It does not matter.' However, if we have thought
about future lives and infinite lives, then we realize that we cannot avoid a
relationship with somebody. If the relationship is not working well, we cannot
get out of it by ignoring that person and never seeing him or her again. If we
do not resolve this relationship now in this life, then, in future lives, similar
situations will recur. If we have problems with this person now and we just walk
out, in future lives, we are going to meet somebody very similar -- the continuity
of this same person -- and again we will have the same difficulties and problems.
We cannot escape from it.
If we have difficulties with somebody, it does not
mean that we always have to stay with that person. Sometimes, that might be difficult.
But, at least we try to improve the situation, or to part on good terms. We try
to improve the quality a little because in future lives, it is going to continue.
Maybe we are not fully prepared to deal with these situations now, but, hopefully,
in future lives we shall be.
When we are trying to expand our hearts out to
everybody and to reach Buddhahood in order to help them, it is very helpful if
we have thought of future lives. If we have not, then we can have the problem
of 'I am expanding my heart out to everybody, but I really do not like that person
so I shall forget about that one and work with some other people.' It helps us
to expand our hearts out to everybody when we realize that we cannot escape from
anyone, that in future lives, we shall continue to encounter these people. Therefore,
we have to deal with them. We need to be able to develop more love, more warmth,
and more kindness toward everybody. That is an important point.
Another aspect
is that very often we identify with our own small groups. We identify with just
Americans, or Chinese, or Buddhists, or our families, or our own genders or our
age groups -- teenagers, adults, or seniors -- and we feel, 'I can only relate
to people from my own group. I can only understand their problems. Therefore,
I can only help them. I can only help other American people. How can I understand
people in Africa?' 'I can only help other Buddhists, because it is impossible
to understand people from other religious backgrounds.' 'I can only help other
men, because how can I possibly understand women?' 'I can only help women because
all men are chauvinists and are pushing me around. How can I possibly relate to
them?' 'I can only understand and help other teenagers, because parents have no
idea of what is going on. They do not understand.' 'I can only help mature adults,
because all kids are rotten and you cannot say anything to them.'
Thus, we
limit ourselves when we think of just this life and the particular situations
that we are in now in terms of our age, gender, family, country, and so on. If
we think of infinite lives ' future lives and past lives ' we realize, ' I have
been every age. I have been young; I have been middle-aged; and I have been old.
I can relate to people of all different ages because I have been them myself.
I can appreciate them. I have been every race and every nationality. I have come
from every type of cultural background.' This realization allows us to be able
to relate to all groups and feel some connection with them.
We can extend
this and remember that in past lives we have also been animals. ' How did I feel
when someone kicked me or smashed me?' In this way, we remember that animals too
experience pain and pleasure, and we are more careful in the way we treat them.
Thinking of past and future lives is therefore very helpful in giving us a
feeling of connection with everybody. We can also relate to everybody of both
sexes: ' I have been both a man and a woman in the past.' We can appreciate, empathize
with, and understand the problems and situations of all groups. This is very helpful
for expanding our hearts to help everyone, and wanting to reach Buddhahood in
order to do so in the best way possible. These are some important points that
follow from thinking about future lives. Without them, the way that we expand
our hearts becomes very limited.
Without the Determination to Be Free
When
dedicating our hearts to benefiting others, another major and important aspect
is the determination to be free. When we are involved in helping others, often
we are doing it for certain neurotic reasons. We are helping others because we
want to feel loved. ' I shall help you in order to become very popular.? ' Everybody
likes me because I am helping that person. I am doing it in order to be loved
and appreciated.? ' I am doing it because everybody else is going to think what
a good person I am. Then I shall have a good reputation.' ' I am doing it because
if I do not, I shall lose face and people will think badly of me; I feel obligated
to do it.' Or, we want to feel needed: ' I shall help you so that I will feel
important. I will be loved in return for the help I am giving.' Parents sometimes
have this attitude: ' Even if my children are thirty or forty years old, I still
have to tell them what to wear and what to eat because then I feel needed. I feel
that I have some function, that I am important in my children' s lives.' To help
others so that we feel needed is to exploit them.
If we have the determination
to be free, we look at all these uncontrollably recurring situations and all these
neurotic relationships, and we see the problems that they bring about. Then we
develop a determination to be free. ' Enough already! I have to get out of this.
This is just ridiculous! This is causing so much aggravation, so much anxiety,
so much tension!'
When we have that determination to be free, we are also
determined to be free from any type of neurotic interaction with the people we
are helping. ' I help so that everybody will think that I am a wonderful person.
I worry about what this person thinks, what that person thinks. I only help others
when someone else is around to witness it, so that they can tell other people.
I do it in order to impress people. I give to charities, but I certainly do not
do it anonymously. I do it so that everybody knows that I have given. In fact,
I shall put up a plaque with my name to show that I gave this amount!' With the
determination to be free, we see the disadvantage of thinking, ' I am helping
others so that they will be dependent on me and I will feel important.' If we
have a strong determination to be free from these problems, we abandon all these
ulterior motives for helping others.
Although we may not be able to stop it
immediately, at least we see that helping others for neurotic reasons will create
problems. The other person is eventually going to resent it. They are going to
realize what we are doing and this will undermine our sincerity in benefiting
others.
We need to clear away whatever neurotic motivations we have. The way
we do this is through the determination to be free from all the aggravation and
pretension that occur when we are acting with an impure motivation. To develop
this determination to be free so that our interaction with others will not be
so strongly tainted by neurotic motivations is very important. Although it is
important, we tend to skip over it.
Working on Ourselves
The major purpose
of the Dharma is to recognize our shortcomings, correct them, and develop our
good qualities. In working on improving ourselves, we progress through a graded
series of methods and use our personal experiences to learn about ourselves. For
example, suppose we have a habit of nagging our partners or children. ' Why don'
t you do this? Why don' t you do that? Why didn' t you come home on time? Why
didn' t you call? Why don' t you take out the garbage?' etc. We know that this
is very destructive. It creates a lot of tension in the relationship. It is probably
going to result in our partners or children being colder and more distant and
saying, ' Leave me alone.' Or, if they are not so vocal, they will just ignore
us and be completely cold. Then we say, ' Why don' t you talk to me? Why don'
t you do this? Why don' t you do that?' and they become even quieter, more withdrawn,
and do not come home at all. This produces so much unhappiness. What do we usually
do to stop this?
First, we try to use self-control: ' I know I shouldn' t
say that, so I am not going to say it.' We control ourselves tightly, but that
is often difficult to do and we find that we start to nag anyway. ' I know intellectually
that I shouldn' t nag, but I cannot help myself. I do not have the strength to
be able to stop it.' Then we get angry with ourselves, ' That is terrible! I tried
to hold my tongue but I could not.' In that state of anger, it is very difficult
for us to change or to improve ourselves because we are so upset.
The anger
quickly changes into guilt. ' I blew it! I feel so guilty! I am terrible! I shouldn'
t have nagged. I have caused another confrontation.' Guilt is a very unfortunate
and unhappy state of mind, in which we strongly identify ourselves with being
a naughty child: ' I am so naughty. Look at what I have done! Mummy and Daddy
are not going to like me anymore.' We feel bad. The guiltier we feel, the more
we identify with being a naughty child; the more we identify with being a naughty
child, the guiltier we feel. It is a vicious circle. Again, it is difficult for
us to change the situation when we are feeling such guilt.
Then, we go to
the step beyond guilt, which is boredom. ' I am so tired of all these arguments.
I am so tired of all these scenes that happen when I nag and when, in response,
my partner or child closes up with resentment and tells me to stop nagging. I
am sick and tired of it! I am bored with it! ENOUGH! I have to get out.'
Those
are the steps that we go through to develop the determination to be free. We do
not change when we are angry with ourselves. We do not change when we feel guilty.
We change in a state of boredom ' ' This is stupid!' That is when we try to get
out of it.
If we have not gone through all these stages of working on ourselves,
then when we try to help others, we tend to project all these destructive emotions
onto them. That becomes very unfair. For instance, I am trying to help somebody
and the first thing that I do is bully the person into it: ' I want to use selfcontrol
with myself, so you, too, HAVE to change, you HAVE to stop doing that.'
Very
often, we act like that with our children. It is easy to bully them and to try
to impose our will and control on them. Nobody likes to be treated like a child,
especially if they are not our child.
Nobody likes to be bullied into changing
or improving himself or herself. When we push others ' ' You have to change. You
have to go to school. You have to get a job. You have to do this. You have to
do that' ' we are coming on too strongly. We are getting into a power trip. What
happens is that he or she does not follow our advice or accept the help we want
to give. So, just as we would have gotten angry with ourselves, now we get angry
with the other person, ' You terrible person! I told you to do this and you did
not do it. Look at all the trouble that you have caused for yourself!' That is
not the ideal interaction to have with somebody whom we are trying to help. To
get angry when he or she does not take our advice just causes a lot of resentment.
Then, we go on to the next step. Just as we felt guilty ourselves, now we
try to make the other person feel guilty. ' You do not appreciate what I am trying
to do for you. Look at all the hardship that I have gone through! The least you
could do is to appreciate it, the least you could do is to try.' We become the
' parent' and try to make him or her feel guilty.
After that, we go to the
next stage. ' I am so tired myself, so tired of having all these problems and
difficulties. I have to get out of them.' In the same way, we look at the other
person and think, ' We have to get out of this. This is really too much!' In that
way, we work to help him or her. Just as we felt this determination to be free
from problems ourselves, likewise we have this determination to help the other
person to be free from his or her problems as well. This is very important. If
we have not worked through the stages on our own, through our own experiences,
then when we try to help others, we tend to project all our problems on the other
person; we try to change him or her by bullying, getting angry, or making the
person feel guilty. These are big obstacles to helping others.
Self-Respect
Another aspect to be aware of when helping others is the situation that occurs
when somebody comes to us with a problem, tells us their story, and, after a while,
we get tired of it. It is like a bad television program, and we want to change
the station and put on a different show because this is a very unpleasant, uninteresting
program. This occurs because we are not taking the other person seriously. He
or she is talking about a problem and we are thinking, ' This television program
is lasting too long! I am hungry. Let me press the button and switch off the TV.'
We are not taking that person seriously, even though those problems are real for
him or her and they do hurt. Often we do not take others seriously because in
the earlier stages of the path we have not taken ourselves seriously.
Taking
ourselves seriously, by looking at our problems and trying to deal with them,
is very important. If we cannot take ourselves and our problems seriously, how
can we take anybody else and their difficulties seriously? If we do not care about
ourselves being happy, how can we , the mind that wants all others to be happy?
Caring about ourselves does not mean being selfish, it does not mean, ' I
have to get a million dollars and buy this and that.' Rather, we respect ourselves
as a living being.
Many people have negative ideas and attitudes about themselves,
feeling, ' I am no good; I do not deserve to be happy; I do not deserve to be
loved.' If that is how we feel about ourselves, then the thought easily follows,
' If I do not deserve to be happy, why should you deserve to be happy?' However,
if we look at ourselves and think, ' I have Buddha-nature. I have all the factors
within me that allow me to be able to develop and grow to become a Buddha, to
be able to help everyone: I have a mind, I have energy, I have the ability to
communicate, I have some level of good heart. All of these things can be developed.
So, of course I deserve to be happy. I deserve to have a better life.'
In
this way, we take ourselves seriously and have respect for ourselves. We acknowledge,
' I do deserve to be happy and to get out of my problems.' With this as a basis,
we can transfer this respect to others. We see that they also have the ability
to improve, they have Buddha-nature; they have all the potentials. On that basis,
they too deserve to be happy and to be free from all of their problems. We take
them seriously.
From the Beginning
These are some of the major points
that are important when we are developing a bodhichitta motivation to help others
and to reach enlightenment in order to benefit them in the best way possible.
That is not saying that we do not help others in the beginning, that we should
just work on ourselves and only when we have reached an advanced level, do we
help others. From the Mahayana point of view, we help others from the beginning.
However, we do not do it thinking, 'I can skip over all the earlier stages and
just involve myself with helping others.' We help to the best of our abilities
along the path. That is essential to the Buddhist path.
Nevertheless, while
helping others as much as we can now, we need to be sure to put a fair amount
of time in developing the earlier fundamental or foundation-building motivations
and experiences. This is because if we do not, we are likely to have problems
when helping others. We may think that when we are having trouble with others,
we can ignore them. We cannot. We have infinite lives and we are always going
to meet them again. Or, we may feel that we can only help people of our own ages
and from our own cultural backgrounds. That is not so. We have been everything.
We have been all ages, all cultures, and both genders. So, we can relate to everybody.
Also, we do not want to help others only to be loved, to feel important, or
to feel needed. We have a determination to be free from such neurotic interactions
because we see that they bring about uncontrollably recurring problems. We are
not going to get into power trips with others when we are helping them or try
to bully them into taking our advice. We are not going to get angry with them
or make them feel guilty when they do not take our advice. This is because we
have gone through the whole process of working on ourselves: we tried self-control,
we became angry with ourselves, we felt guilty, but then we became so fed up,
that we were determined to be free. We set our decision firmly to get out of it.
Having gone through that, we are not going to project it onto others.
Throughout
the whole process, we have also taken ourselves seriously. We acknowledge our
Buddhanature and know that we have the ability and all the factors that allow
us to grow and become enlightened and to help everyone. Having taken ourselves
seriously, we have respect for ourselves. In Buddhism, respecting someone does
not mean fearing him or her; respect means, ' I take myself seriously and look
positively upon myself. I deserve to be happy.' We can then sincerely have the
same attitude toward others: ' I respect you as well. I respect that you have
Buddha-nature. Even if you are acting like an idiot now; nevertheless, I see that
you do have the potential to become a compassionate and wise person. Just as I
take my own problems seriously, I take your problems seriously. Just as I saw
how my own problems hurt, likewise I can appreciate that your problems hurt you
as well." Such an attitude allows us to benefit and help others in a much
more sincere manner.
Understanding Karma
Another source of trouble is
that sometimes we try to help somebody and it does not work. Then we become discouraged.
A drastic example is trying to help someone in our family and the person commits
suicide. That is a horrible situation and it is easy to blame ourselves: ' If
I had only done this or that, then this person would not have or herself.' We
can become very discouraged in the process of trying to act like a bodhisattva.
When it seems like we have failed, we feel so guilty and horrible that it could
become a big obstacle in our paths.
The problem here is that we think in terms
of inappropriate models. We think that we are God, or that we should have been
God, and we should have been able to stop something from happening to someone
else. In Buddhism, we say, "That is not possible. No one is omnipotent. There
is only a certain amount of energy in the universe" ' scientists agree to
this as well. One aspect of the energy in the universe is the force of Buddha-activity,
which is the enlightening influence that a Buddha can exert on anybody. The other
is the energy of the impulses that come into people' s minds, in other words karma.
Karma refers to the impulses that come to our minds based on previous habits of
doing things. Because there is only a certain amount of energy in the universe,
one cannot override the other. All that a Buddha or a bodhisattva can do is to
try to influence someone in a positive way. He or she cannot stop anyone from
doing something. If the impulse to commit suicide is so strong in someone's mind,
the person is going to do it anyway.
A very interesting example happened one
day when I was in Dharamsala in India. In front of the library where I worked
was a mouse drowning in a drain. One of my friends rescued the mouse and put it
on the ground to recover. As soon as he walked away, a large hawk swooped down
and took the mouse.
We need not think, from that example, that we cannot help
anybody because it is his or her karma what will happen. Do not think that karma
is fate. "It is the fate of the mouse that it is going to die. There is no
reason for me to help because it is the mouse' s karma to die." We try our
best. If the person we are trying to help has some seed or potential from his
or her side to be helped, then our helping will connect with that and we shall
be able to benefit the person. If there were no seed, it would be like the example
of this mouse: we rescue it, but it dies anyway.
It is the same thing when
we try to help others. Aspiring to be bodhisattvas, we try our best to help them.
If it works, fine. We do not congratulate ourselves or go around telling others
how compassionate and wonderful we are. If it does not work, we need not feel
guilty. We need not emotionally whip ourselves or punish ourselves. We tried our
best and if that person had been receptive, it would have worked. They were not,
so there is nothing that we could have done. Nobody is an omnipotent God. Certainly,
we are not. Nobody can stop somebody from doing something if the impulses in that
person' s mind are so strong.
It is important to be realistic when we are
trying to help others and to realize that we cannot eliminate everybody' s problems.
We develop the wish to be able to do that. We sincerely care and genuinely take
the responsibility to help them. If it works, it works; if it does not work, we
have tried our best. We do not get discouraged.
The Purpose of Enlightenment
His Supreme Presence, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, has said that when we recite,
"May I reach enlightenment to benefit all sentient beings," there is
a bit of danger in the order of the aspirations here. Often, for us, the main
emphasis seems to be "may I reach enlightenment." Why' Because it is
the highest, it is the greatest; it is the most blissful. After all, we have to
have the highest rank, the highest title. But, "may I reach enlightenment"
is followed by "to benefit all sentient beings," which seems like some
nasty tax that we have to pay afterwards. It is not really what we want to do,
but if we want to become a Buddha, that is what we are obligated ' we have to
benefit all sentient beings. His Holiness has said that the emphasis needs to
be the other way around: "I want to help all sentient beings as much as is
possible, and in order to do that, I have to become a Buddha." The major
emphasis needs to be "I want to help everybody."
Sometimes, when
we think of benefiting others, we may face the obstacle of not being sincere in
our practice. We say, "I am going to help all sentient beings, and I love
all sentient beings," but when our parents or our children ask us to do something,
we snap at them, "Stop bothering me! I am trying to help all sentient beings!"
As it says in the lojong teachings of cleansing our attitudes (training the mind),
we need to start helping ourselves first; then, expand our help to our families;
next, to people around us; and so on. In other words, we need to help those who
are close to us. We do not ignore them. Often, people involved in social work
have resentful children because they are so involved in helping others that they
never have any time for their own families. That is very unfair. If we follow
Buddha' s advice, then we would start with our families first and take care of
them.
Developing equanimity does not mean, "Now I am going to ignore
my own children and just work for everybody else," it means, "Just as
I have an intense loving attitude toward my own children, I am going to expand
it to include more and more people. Instead of having two children, now I have
five, ten, a hundred, a thousand
" We are expanding the range of our
loving concern. We do not take care and love away from one area and transfer it
to another. It is important to take care of those who are close to us and then
extend it to others: our friends, strangers, and people we do not like, animals,
spirits, and beings in all the different realms.
To develop bodhichitta means
to expand our heart. Expanding our heart does not mean we can go from being selfish
to cherishing all sentient beings in one jump. We have to work up to it gradually.
In that way, we will be more sincere. We cannot be sincere when we say, "I
am working to benefit all sentient beings," but we do not take care of our
parents or our children. Bodhichitta is not at all contradictory to our usual
cultural values of the importance of the family, parents and children. It builds
on that basis and extends it further and further.
These are some important
points to be aware of when we are engaged in the Mahayana path of expanding our
hearts toward others, setting our hearts on the goal of eliminating all our limitations
and realizing all our potentials so that we can help everybody in the best way
possible. If we keep these in mind, we shall have less difficulty on that path.
Question: Is it possible, from having gained experience in past lives, to
bypass some of these steps and take a short cut in this life'
Answer: Yes,
that is possible. There are two types of practitioners: those for whom everything
happens all at once and those who follow a gradual path. Thus, there is the sudden
path and the gradual path. One of the great Tibetan masters who wrote a commentary
on this particular point, however, said that it is a very rare person for whom
everything happens all at once. It is very rare to have built up all the positive
habits and instincts in past lives so that in this life we are able to jump steps.
Often, itis because we are lazy and do not want to go through all the stages that
we make the excuse, "I am someone who has built up so much potential in my
past lives. I am one of the select few for whom everything happens all at once,
so I can skip some stages and jump ahead." We need to be completely honest
with ourselves. It is extremely rare that anyone has build up that much positive
potential in past lives. There is no harm in going through all the steps, although
we do not have to spend years and years in each one. One of the texts on the gradual
path to enlightenment states that even if the instincts are there, it is good
to reconfirm them by going through the steps quickly, not just skipping ahead.
Question: Can we be kind and compassionate without being taken advantage of'
Answer: Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche coined an excellent expression that is relevant
to this question: "idiot compassion." Idiot compassion is compassion
without wisdom. For instance, the baby always asks for candy. With idiot compassion,
we would constantly give the baby candy just because it asks for it. Or, a maniac
comes and says, "Get me a gun. I want to shoot someone." If we say,
"I am practicing generosity, so I will get a gun for him," that is idiot
compassion.
Likewise, when people take advantage of us, if we continue to
give, it is not helping them. In fact, it is detrimental to their growth. Sometimes,
it is important to be very firm and strict. We need to give what others need,
and what they may need is discipline. They may need someone saying "No"
to them; they may need someone setting limits for them. For example, an unruly
child needs discipline. There is a generation in the West that was raised with
the philosophy of no discipline: "Just let the children do whatever they
want, let them be free." This policy was disastrous. Many of the children
felt unloved and insecure because other parents would set rules, but theirs did
not. They felt that their parents did not love them and that they did not care
enough to set rules. So, itis very important sometimes to say "No,"
to set limitations and not let everybody take advantage of us.
Idiot compassion
is not beneficial. We need compassion with wisdom. This is fundamental in the
Buddhist teachings, and is expressed in the mantra om mani padme hum. Mani is
"jewel," which represents compassion, and padme signifies "in the
lotus," which refers to wisdom. The two are together.
Sometimes, then,
it is necessary to say "No." However, this may hurt the other person
because he or she does not understand. Is that good? It says in the teachings
on karma, that if it is a little harmful in the short run, but very beneficial
in the long run, that action should be done. Obviously, if it is beneficial both
in the short and long run, that is the best. But, if I give the kids candy, for
instance, so that they will stop screaming and I can go to sleep, that is beneficial
in the short run but not in the long run. It harms the children because they will
get sick from constantly eating candy. Also, they will get spoiled and become
brats. In this case, it is better to cause a little bit of harm and unpleasantness
in the short run; because in the long run, it is beneficial. It requires wisdom
to see what will be beneficial and what will not be, but some of these things
are common sense.
Question: If our lives end prematurely, will we again be
the husbands or wives of the same persons in our next lives?
Answer: Not necessarily,
although it is possible. It could happen if the connection is very strong. There
are examples: a child was born to a family and died as a baby, but the individual
had such a strong connection with the family that this person was born as another
baby in that family. That does happen but, in general, there are many different
karmic possibilities. At the time of death, different karmic imprints can be activated
to propel us into different rebirths.
Also, we do not have a relationship
with just one person like a wife or husband. We have had relations with many different
people in many different lifetimes. These relationships change continuously. In
one lifetime, certain interactions with another person occur and our relationship
changes. Therefore, the continuity of that relationship may not necessarily be
in the same form of husband and wife. Maybe you become two cows chewing grass
together or two ants in an anthill working together. It depends on how the relationship
developed before. Also, we may not meet that person in the next life or the life
after that. It could be thousands of lives in the future.
It is important
to combine the understanding of rebirth with the basic teachings on the lack of
a truly existent, solid self or person. It is not that I am going to meet my husband
' whatever his name is ' or my wife ' whatever her name is ' in a future life.
Each person is a continuity ' a continuity of energy, a continuity of consciousness,
a continuity of tendencies and habits. In some future lives, the continuities
of the two people will meet, but it will not be you and me exactly as we are now.
We all have experienced walking into a crowded room and having one or two
people attract our eye. We have a close and warm feeling about them, and we want
to talk to them. On the other hand, somebody else gives us the feeling of "Ugh!
I do not want to become involved with that person." Why does this happen?
This is an indication of a previous connection with that person. We have connections
with millions and millions of beings. Some connections are more recent or stronger,
so our experiences with these people affect us more. Other connections may be
weak: we may be born in the same city but never meet.
Question: How is merit
or positive potential carried to future lives?
Answer: "Merit" is
a misleading translation. We do not gain points ' like being in the Scouts ' andwhen
we earn enough points, we get a badge. Nobody is keeping score. "Merit"
is better translated as "positive potential." We build up positive potentials
just as we put more and more energy into a car battery. When there is enough potential,
the car will go. Likewise, we are building up a lot of positive potential for
something positive to happen. We also build up habits of acting in a positive
way.
There are various levels of mind and various levels of body. The gross
mind or consciousness is our sense consciousnesses ' seeing, hearing, tasting
and so on. There is also subtle consciousness, which is a mental consciousness,
and refers mostly to conceptual thinking. Then there is the subtlest level of
mind, which is free from concepts.
Our gross and subtle consciousnesses function
while we are awake. We see, hear, think and so on. Our dream consciousnesses are
subtler. When we are asleep with no dreams, that is still more subtle. As we go
through the death process, our consciousnesses become more and more subtle as
our mental continuums separate from our gross bodies. The subtlest level is the
bare continuity, the bare clarity and awareness of the mind that provides the
continuity from one moment to another. The grosser levels are like a radio being
tuned on various stations or at different volumes, and that subtlest level is
just the radio being on.
Correspondingly, we have the gross body, which is
the basis for the gross mind. We have eyes, ears, body, and so on, which are the
bases for seeing, hearing and other sense perceptions. The subtle body is the
energy ( qi in Chinese) of the channels and chakras. The subtle body is the basis
for the subtle mental consciousness. When the energy is disturbed in our bodies,
we have strange thoughts and feelings. The subtlest energy is the support for
the subtlest consciousness. It is like the electricity for that consciousness.
The subtle energy and subtle mind together constitute something like the spark
of life.
What goes on into future lives is not the gross body, which is cremated
or buried, nor the gross consciousness. Neither is it our conceptual mental consciousness,
the energy, channels and so on. What goes on into future lives is the continuity
of the subtlest consciousness and the energy that supports it. There is not a
solid self ' like a little statue sitting on a conveyor belt ' going from one
life to the next. It is more analogous to a movie. A movie appears to be solid,
but it is actually made up of individual frames forming a continuity, without
one thing existing throughout. Likewise, this continuity of the subtlest consciousness
and subtlest energy, which are both constantly changing, goes from one life to
the next. This is the spark of life that continues.
Merit or positive potential
is a type of energy that is built up. That positive energy is carried along with
the subtlest energy, the spark of life. The potentials are a form of subtle energy
that continue on into future lives.
What is a habit or instinct? Suppose we
have the habit of having cereal every morning. We had cereal yesterday, the day
before, and today too. What is the habit? It is not something physical. It is
not a bowl of cereal that pops up in our minds. It is not something mental: "Eat
cereal, eat cereal" going on in our minds. All we can say is that there is
a sequence of similar events of our eating cereal on so many days. Based on that,
as a manner of speaking, we say that there is a habit of eating cereal. On that
basis, we can predict that we are probably going to eat cereal tomorrow morning.
It is just a manner of speaking or describing. A habit is imputed onto a series
of similar events. That is what we call mental labeling.
A habit is nothing
concrete or even mental. Neither are instincts. Suppose we have the habit of being
kind. We were kind yesterday, we were kind the day before, and we are kind today.
Based on that, as a manner of speaking, there is the instinct of being kind. Later
we have a future life. In the future life, the child that we become is kind. She
shares things and wants to give her cookies to others. She does not want just
to take from others. There is kindness there. Thus, we can say that there is a
habit of kindness that has continued into future lives. Nevertheless, the habit
is not something concrete. The way it continued was just on the basis of individual
moments. There was the time yesterday, the time before that and the time before
that.
The subtlest consciousness and energy have underlain each of those moments,
because they are there all the time. The radio is always on. Based on this, we
can say that the instincts are carried along. The instincts need not be something
solid and concrete in order to continue on to the future. They are not physical
seeds.
That is the mechanism of how things are carried into future lives.
The positive potentials ("merits") are a type of very subtle energy
that goes with the energy that supports life. The instincts and habits are just
a manner of speaking, based on a sequence of similar events both in this life
and future lives. On thebasis of there being the subtlest mind and energy that
go from one life to the next, we say that there is a sequence of similar events
' a habit or an instinct.
Question: Do you believe in rebirth?
Answer:
Yes, I do. But, it has taken a long time for me to reach that point. Belief in
rebirth does not come instantly. Some people may come from a background in which
belief in rebirth is part of the culture. This is the case in many Asian countries,
and thus, since people have heard about rebirth since they were children, the
belief in it comes automatically. However, for those of us from Western cultures,
it seems strange at first. We do not usually gain conviction in rebirth all of
a sudden, with rainbows and music in the background and "Hallelujah! Now
I believe!" It does not usually work like that.
It takes most people
a long time to get used to the idea of rebirth. I went through various stages
in the process of gaining conviction in it. First, I had to become open to the
idea in the sense that I thought, "I do not really understand rebirth."
Acknowledging that we do not understand it is important, because sometimes we
could reject rebirth and what we are actually rejecting is an idea of rebirth
that Buddhism would also reject. Someone may think, "I do not believe in
rebirth because I do not think that there is a soul with wings that flies out
of the body and goes into another body." Buddhists agree, "We do not
believe in a soul with wings either." In order to decide whether I believed
in rebirth, I had tounderstand the Buddhist concept of rebirth, and that concept
is not simple. It is very sophisticated, as you can see from what I explained
before about the subtlest consciousness and energy, and the instincts that accompany
it.
Then I thought to give rebirth the benefit of the doubt. Provisionally,
let us say there is rebirth. Now, what follows from viewing our existence in this
way? We can establish all the bodhisattva trainings, we can recognize everybody
as having been our mother and thus can feel some connection with all others.
It
could also explain why the things that happened in my life happened. Why was someone
from my background drawn strongly to study Chinese language? Why was I drawn to
go to India and study with the Tibetans? Considering my family' s interests and
the environment in which I grew up, it made no sense that I was interested in
these things. However, when I thought in terms of rebirth, there was an explanation.
I must have had some connection with India, China and Tibet in differentlifetimes,
and this has caused me to be interested in these places, their languages and cultures.
Rebirth started to answer many questions that I could not find any answers to
otherwise; if there were no past lives and no karma, then what happened in my
life did not make any sense. Rebirth could also explain the recurring dreams that
I used to have. In this way, I started slowly to become more familiar with it.
I have been studying m India for the last nineteen years and have had the
great privilege and opportunity to study with some of the very old masters while
they were still alive. Many of them have died and have come back, and now I meet
them again as small children. I know them in two of their lives.
There is
a certain point on the Buddhist path atwhich you can control your rebirths. You
do not have to be a Buddha, or even a liberated being, an arhat, to do this. Nevertheless,
you do need to be a bodhisattva. You also need to have advanced to a certain stage
on the tantric path and to have a very strong determination to be reborn in a
form so that you can help everybody. There are certain visualizations and methods
that enable you to transform death, the intermediate state and rebirth. If you
have mastered that level, you can control your rebirths. There are about a thousand
people among the Tibetans who have achieved that level and when they pass away,
they are found again. In the Tibetan system, they are called tulkus. A tulku is
a reincarnate lama, someone given the title Rinpoche. The title Rinpoche, however,
is not used exclusively for tulkus, or reincarnated lamas. It is also used for
an abbot or retired abbot of a monastery. Not everyone who is called Rinpoche
is a reincarnate lama.
Also, I should point out that the way the word lama
is used varies from one Tibetan tradition to the next. In some, lama refers to
a very high spiritual teacher, such as a geshe -- one who has the equivalent of
a Ph.D. in Buddhist studies -- or a reincarnate lama. In some traditions, lama
is used for someone who functions somewhat like a community priest. This person
has done a three-year retreat and has learnt the various rituals. He or she will
then go to villages and do rituals in people's homes. The title lama can have
different meanings.
Again, there are about one thousand recognized incarnate
lamas, or tulkus, and they are identified through various indications that they
themselves give as well as by other indications such as oracles or significant
signs in the environment. The attendants of the previous lama will look for the
new incarnation. They will bring ritual objects and personal belongings of the
previous lama together with other similar items. The child will be able to recognize
what belonged to his or her previous life. For example, His Supreme Presence,
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, recognized the people who came looking for him. He
called them by name and started speaking to them in the Lhasa dialect, which is
not the language of the region where he was born. By such signs, they are able
to identify the child.
Meeting my teachers again in their next lives has been
quite impressive for me. The most impressive example was Ling Rinpoche, who was
the senior tutor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He was also the head of the Gelug
tradition. When he passed away, he remained in meditation for nearly two weeks,
although his breath had stopped and for all medical purposes, he would have been
considered dead. However, his subtle consciousness was still within the body:
he was absorbed in a very profound meditation with the very subtle mind. The region
around the heart was still slightly warm, and he sat in meditation position without
his body decomposing. When he finished the meditation, his head tipped and a bit
of blood came from his nostrils. At that time, his consciousness had left his
body.
In Dharamsala, where I live, this sort of things occurs two, three,
four times a year. It is not uncommon, even though someone needs to be at a high
level of spiritual practice to do this. This ability can be attained.
Ling
Rinpochey's reincarnation was recognized when he was one year and nine months
old. Usually, children are not identified so young, because when they are older
-- about three or four years old -- they can speak and give some indications themselves.
The child was brought back to his old house. There was a very large ceremony to
welcome him. A few thousand people lined the streets, and I had the fortune to
be among them. They were dressed in special clothes and were singing. It was such
a joyous occasion
Question: How was the child identified?
Answer: It was
through oracles and mediums, as well as his being able to identify various objects
from his previous life. Also, he displayed certain physical characteristics. For
instance, his predecessor always held his mala (the garland of beads) with two
hands, and the child did this as well. He recognized the people from his household,
too.
What was the most convincing for me, however, was the child's behavior
during the ceremony. The child was carried to the house where a throne was set
up near the doorway facing a large verandah and two to three thousand people gathered
in the yard. Most children under two years old would be very frightened in such
a situation. He was not. They put the child on the throne. Normally, a child would
want to get down and would cry if he could not get his way. This child sat cross-legged
without moving for an hour and a half while the people did a long-life puja (ritual)
for him. He was completely interested in what was going on, and being amidst this
huge crowd did not bother him at all.
Part of the ceremony entailed making
offerings to the lama and requesting him to live long. There was a procession
of people, each holding an offering - a statue of the Buddha, a scriptural text,
a stupa reliquary monument, a set of monks' robes, and many other things. When
someone gave an offering to him, he was supposed to take it with two hands and
give it to a person standing on his left. He did this perfectly with each object.
It was really remarkable! How can you teach a one year and nine-month old child
to do something like that? You cannot.
When the ceremony had finished, all
the people lined up to receive his hand blessing. Someone held the child, and
he gave hand blessings, holding his hand in the correct position. With total absorption,
and without losing interest or getting tired, the child then gave a hand blessing
to two or three thousand people. After that His Supreme Presence, His Holiness
the Dalai Lama, had lunch with him and they spent some time together. The only
time that the child cried and made any fuss was when the Dalai Lama started to
leave. He did not want him to go.
In fact, the child was giving hand blessings
even before he was recognized as being Ling Rinpoche. Both he and his older brother
were in an orphanage, because the mother died shortly after he was born. The father
was very poor and so had to put the children in an orphanage. He used to give
hand blessing to the people there. His older brother, who was three or four years
old, would say to people, "My brother is very special. He is a lama. He is
a Rinpoche. Do not do anything bad to him. Treat him special."
The previous
Ling Rinpoches have been the teachers of three consecutive Dalai Lamas. One Ling
Rinpoche was the teacher of the twelfth Dalai Lama; the next Ling Rinpoche was
the teacher of the thirteenth; the next one was the teacher of the fourteenth.
Certainly, people look at this one to be teacher of the next Dalai Lama.
Seeing
examples like this made a big impression on me about the feasibility of future
lives. So, by thinking, by hearing stories and by seeing things like this, gradually
one becomes more and more convinced about the existence of past and future lives.
If you ask me now, "Do you believe in future lives?" Yes, I do.
Question:
Are incarnate lamas found only among the Tibetans?
Answer: No, about seven
have been identified in Western countries as well. One of these, Lama Osel, the
reincarnation of Lama Thubten Yeshe, is a Spanish child. Meeting Lama Osel has
given the people who knew Lama Yeshe much conviction in rebirth.
Question:
Some people here carry little Buddha statues for protection. How does this work?
Answer: Two factors are involved here. One is from the side of the object.
Such statues are consecrated by very high lamas. Many masters may gather together
and recite om mani padme hum ten million times and blow on the objects. One lama
could also do this, or he could sit in deep and concentrated meditation. To use
a scientific analogy, the recitation of mantra and concentration changes the magnetic
field -- the energy field -- of the objects so that they have a certain spiritual
magnetic quality to them.
The second factor is the faith and confidence of
the people using the objects, as well as their previously created actions or karma.
If people have faith and confidence that something will protect them, then their
own confidence can protect them. It may not protect them from an atom bomb, but
it could protect them in events where they would not have confidence to deal with
a situation in a beneficial way.
If a blessed cord or image were put around
the neck of a pig, I do not know if it would protect it from being slaughtered.
However, if a person has the potential that will allow for this blessing to work,
then it works. Both factors are needed. It is like two pieces of a puzzle fitting
together.
Thank you.
***********************************************************************************************
Identifying
the Objects of Safe Direction (Refuge)
Alexander Berzin
December
1998, revised April 2002
Introduction
Taking a safe direction in life
(skyabs-'gro, taking refuge) is an active process, not a passive one of seeking
protection from higher powers, as the term taking refuge might imply. By striving
in this direction, we protect ourselves from fear and suffering.
To put a safe
direction in life, we need to identify correctly the objects that indicate that
safe direction (skyabs-yul). These are the Three Rare and Supreme Gems (dkon-mchog
gsum), usually called the Three Jewels of Refuge, the Triple Gem, or the Three
Precious Gems. They are the Buddhas (sangs-rgyas, clear evolved ones), the Dharma
(chos, preventive measures), and the Sangha (dge-'dun, intent community or network).
Although
there are several formulations of the Triple Gem, the sutra tradition of all four
traditions of Tibetan Buddhism follow the Mahayana presentation of them found
in the texts of Maitreya, the future Buddha.
Apparent and Deepest Level Rare
and Supreme Gems
According to the tradition based on Maitreya's Filigree of
Realizations (mNgon-rtogs rgyan, Skt. Abhisamaya-alamkara), each of the Three
Gems has an apparent (kun-rdzob-pa'i dkon-mchog, superficial) and a deepest (don-dam-pa'i
dkon-mchog, ultimate) level. The apparent level gems conceal the deepest level
ones. The presentation accords with the definitions of the Three Gems that Maitreya
gave in another of his texts, The Furthest Everlasting Continuum (rGyud bla-ma,
Skt. Uttaratantra). Except for the apparent level Dharma Gem, all the others fulfill
these definitions.
Let us look at the explanation of the two-level Gems by
the seventeenth-century Gelug master Jetsun Chokyi-gyeltsen (rJe-btsun Chos-kyi
rgyal-mtshan) in The Ocean Playground of the Fortunate Naga King: The General
Meaning of the First Chapter [of "A Filigree of Realizations"] (sKal-bzang
klu-dbang-gi rol-mtsho zhe-bya-ba-las skabs-dang-po'i spyi-don).
Buddha:
1.
The apparent Buddha gem is a Buddha's rupakaya (gzugs-sku, bodies with form, corpus
of enlightening forms, Form Body). This network of bodies with form include both
sambhogakaya (longs-sku, bodies of full use, corpus of full use, Enjoyment Body)
and nirmanakaya (sprul-sku, bodies of emanations, corpus of emanations, Emanation
Body). The former teach arya ('phags-pa, highly realized) bodhisattvas, who have
nonconceptual cognition of voidness, while the latter are emanations of the former
and teach ordinary beings with the fortune to meet them.
2. The deepest Buddha
gem is a Buddha's dharmakaya (chos-sku, bodies encompassing everything, corpus
encompassing everything, Truth Body). This network of bodies encompassing everything
includes both a jnana-dharmakaya (ye-shes chos-sku, body of deep awareness encompassing
everything, corpus of deepest awareness of everything, Wisdom Truth Body) and
a svabhavakaya (ngo-bo-nyid sku, essential nature body, corpus of essential nature,
Nature Body). The former refers to a Buddha's enlightening mind, which has the
full network of all true pathway minds (lam-bden, true paths) that have brought
about the elimination forever of all suffering and its causes, and of all mental
obscuration. The latter refers to the voidness of a Buddha's omniscient mind and
is equivalent to the network of its true stoppings ('gog-bden, true cessations)
of the two sets of obscuration. The two are the obscurations that are disturbing
emotions and attitudes, and which prevent liberation (nyon-sgrib), and the obscurations
regarding all knowables, and which prevent omniscience (shes-sgrib).
Dharma:
1. The apparent Dharma Gem is the twelve textual categories of teachings proclaimed
by a Buddha's enlightening speech.
2. The deepest Dharma Gem is the true stoppings
and true pathways of mind on the mental continuum of an arya, whether a layperson
or a monastic.
Sangha:
1. The apparent Sangha Gem is the individual person
of any arya, whether lay or monastic.
2. The deepest Sangha Gem is the true
stoppings and true pathways of mind on the mental continuum of an arya.
Variant
Presentation
The tradition based on Maitreya's Filigree of Mahayana Sutras
(mDo-sde rgyan, Mahayana-sutra-alamkara) presents an apparent and deepest level
for only the Buddha Gem. It presents the deepest Dharma Gem as Maitreya does in
Filigree of Realizations, but presents that text's apparent Sangha Gem as the
deepest level Sangha Gem.
The Deepest Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha Gems Share
the Same Essential Nature
The deepest Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha Gems, as
formulated in Filigree of Realizations, share the same essential nature (ngo-bo
gcig), but have different logical isolates (ldog-pa tha-dad). They each refer
to the same aspect of a phenomenon, namely the true stoppings and true pathways
of mind on a mental continuum. They can be logically isolated and differentiated
from each other since they describe this aspect of a mental continuum from different
points of view.
[See: Relationships between Two Objects in General.]
Consider
the case of the true stoppings and true pathways of mind on the mental continuum
of a Buddha. As guides that are the sources of inspiration (byin-rlabs, blessings),
they are the deepest Buddha Gem. As preventive measures that are the sources of
actual attainments (dngos-grub, Skt. siddhi), they constitute the deepest Dharma
Gem. As a network that brings enlightening influence ('phrin-las, Buddha-activity,
virtuous conduct), they function as the deepest Sangha Gem. Like a nurse, they
bring us support and help while on the path.
Ultimate and Provisional Providers
of Safe Direction
The deepest Dharma and deepest Sangha Gems include the true
stoppings and true pathway minds on the mental continuums of all aryas - from
the path of seeing to the attainment of liberation as an arhat or of enlightenment
as a Buddha. With the attainment of nonconceptual cognition of voidness and thus
the path of seeing, aryas begin to have true stoppings and true pathway minds
on their mental continuums. They achieve the full networks of both only with the
attainment of Buddhahood.
Thus, only Buddhas are the ultimate providers of
safe direction (mthar-thug-gi skyabs-gnas), because only Buddhas have realized
the full networks of true stoppings and true pathway minds. Only Buddhas have
rid themselves forever of the two sets of obscuration. Aryas with attainments
less than those of a Buddha, then, are only provisional providers of safe direction
(gnas-skabs-kyi skyabs-gnas). They cannot provide safe direction all the way to
enlightenment because they have not yet achieved enlightenment themselves. This
is the meaning of Maitreya's statement in The Furthest Everlasting Continuum that,
in terms of the deepest level Gems, only Buddhas are the deepest source of safe
direction.
Another reason behind Maitreya's statement is that the true stoppings
and true pathway minds on the mental continuums of aryas who have not yet achieved
enlightenment are examples of only deepest level Dharma and Sangha Gems. They
are not deepest level Buddha Gems. Only the true stoppings and true pathway minds
on the mental continuums of Buddhas serve as all Three Gems. Therefore, only Buddhas
are the deepest providers of safe direction.
Formulated in another way, Buddhas
are primary because they are the source of safe direction all the way to enlightenment
and are the endpoint of the Sangha. They became Buddhas because of Dharma, through
the stages of being Sangha.
Causal and Resultant Providers of Safe Direction
Taking safe direction in life from the apparent and deepest level Triple Gem
is the mere taking of safe direction (skyab-'gro tsam-pa-ba). It is also called
causal taking of safe direction (rgyu'i skyabs-'gro), since the providers of direction
are the persons or phenomena that act as causes for our own attainments of the
Three Gems.
The special taking of safe direction (skyabs-'gro khyad-par-ba),
also called resultant taking of safe direction ('bras-bu'i skyabs-'gro), takes
as its providers of direction the Triple Gem that we will attain in the future,
based on actualizing our Buddha-natures.
Consequently, when we offer prostration
to the Triple Gem, with both the mere and special taking of safe direction, we
show respect not only to those who have become aryas, arhats, and Buddha themselves,
and to their attainments, but also to ourselves and to our own future achievements
of the same.
Nominal Gems
Each of the Three Rare and Supreme Gems has
a representation, which is merely a nominal gem (brdar-btags-pa'i dkon-mchog),
but not an actual provider of safe direction. Since actual Buddha, Dharma, and
Sangha Gems are not readily available as objects that we can encounter, representations
of them serve as focuses for showing respect.
1. The nominal Buddha Gem includes
paintings and statues of Buddhas.
2. The nominal Dharma Gem includes printed
Dharma texts from the twelve categories of teachings.
3. The nominal Sangha
Gem refers to four or more people from any of the four groups of the monastic
sangha: full or novice monks or nuns. The four need not necessarily be all from
one group or one from each group.
Since nominal Gems are not actual Gems, the
practice of Buddhism does not entail the worship of idols, books, or monks and
nuns.
The modern Western usage of the term sangha for the members of a Dharma
center or organization, as if it were an equivalent term for the congregation
of a church, is a nontraditional use of the term. If members of the monastic community
include emotionally disturbed and even unethical persons who are neither qualified
nor reliable to serve as actual sources of safe direction, how much less so are
the wide variety of members of a Dharma center.
Causes for Putting a Safe
Direction in Life
In general, the two causes for taking the safe direction
in life indicated by the Triple Gem are dread ('jigs-pa) and believing a fact
to be true (dad-pa).
Dread
Dread, in this context, is a state of mind
focused on the first two noble truths (true facts of life) - true problems (true
suffering) and their true causes. Often misleadingly translated as "fear,"
it is not a disturbing emotion. With fear, we inflate the negative aspects of
suffering and its causes and project true inherent existence onto them and onto
ourselves. We then feel that the inherently existent objects of our fear will
overwhelm the inherently existent "us," and although we wish to be free
of the objects of our fear, we feel helpless to do so.
Dread, on the other
hand, regards true suffering and its true causes objectively, without inflating
them or projecting onto them or onto ourselves inherent existence. With dread,
we deeply wish not to continue experiencing the objects of our dread. It does
not imply, however, feeling helpless; although, in this case, we acknowledge that
we need help. Rather, it leads to renunciation (nges-'byung), the determination
to be free from true problems and their true causes.
[See: Renuncation - Determination
to Be Free.]
The scope of our understanding of the first two noble truths expands
as we progress through the three levels of lamrim (graded) motivation. On the
initial level, true problems include rebirth in one of the worse realms and the
experience of gross suffering; the true cause is acting destructively, based on
unawareness of behavioral cause and effect. On the intermediate level, true problems
include any uncontrollable recurring samsaric rebirth and all forms of suffering
experienced therein; the true causes are the obscurations that are the disturbing
emotions and attitudes, and which prevent liberation. On the advanced level, true
problems include the inability to lead others to liberation most effectively;
true causes are the obscurations regarding all knowables, and which prevent omniscience.
On this highest level, an additional cause for taking safe direction is compassion
- the wish for others to be free from true problems and their true causes.
Believing
a Fact to Be True
The second cause for taking in life the safe direction of
the Triple Gem is believing as true the fact that the Three Rare and Supreme Gems
have the ability to help us free ourselves from true problems and their true causes.
In other words, we need to believe as true the fact that the deepest Buddha, Dharma,
and Sangha Gems - the third and fourth noble truths (true stoppings and true pathways
of mind that bring the attainment) - have the ability to remove the first two
noble truths forever. Moreover, we need to understand this fact on two levels.
On
the level of causal taking of safe direction, the true stoppings and true pathways
of mind on the mental continuums of aryas, arhats, and Buddhas show us the way.
Putting their direction in our lives, we gain inspiration, actual attainments,
and nurture from their enlightening influence all along the path. What actually
eliminate our true problems and their true causes, however, are our own attainments
of true stoppings and true pathways of mind - our future attainments of Triple
Gems ourselves. With resultant taking of safe direction, then, we work toward
that goal.
Believing a fact to be true - in this case, that the second two
noble truths eliminate forever the first two noble truths - is not blind faith.
When properly developed, it has three aspects.
1. Believing a fact to be true
based on reason (yid-ches-pa). For a stable taking of safe direction, we need
a deep understanding of the four noble truths and of the reasons why the last
two truths eliminate forever the first two truths.
2. Clearheadedly believing
a fact to be true (dvangs-ba'i dad-pa) clears the mind of disturbing emotions
and attitudes. When we correctly understand the four noble truths, our belief
in their facticity clears our minds of hopelessness and despair. The further we
strive in this safe direction and begin to achieve the Triple Gem ourselves, we
gradually clear our minds of all disturbing emotions and attitudes forever.
3.
Believing a fact with an aspiration toward it (mngon-dad-kyi dad-pa). When we
understand not only the four noble truths, but also our Buddha-natures that enable
us to achieve resultant Triple Gems ourselves, we naturally aspire to put this
safe direction in our lives. As with the two stages of bodhichitta (the aspiring
and the involved stages), we not only aspire to go in this direction, but we actively
put this safe direction in our lives.
***********************************************************************************************
Stages
of Bodhichitta
Alexander Berzin
April 2001
Conventional
and Deepest Bodhichitta
Corresponding to the two truths as defined in the Mahayana
tenets, there are two bodhichitta aims:
" conventional bodhichitta (kun-rdzob
byang-sems, relative bodhichitta),
" deepest bodhichitta (don-dam byang-sems,
ultimate bodhichitta).
With a conventional bodhichitta aim, our minds focus
on the future enlightenment imputable on our mental continuums that we will attain,
based on our Buddha-natures, when the circumstances are complete. Accompanying
it are the intentions to attain that enlightenment and to benefit all limited
beings by means of that attainment.
With a deepest bodhichitta aim, our minds
focus on voidness, with the force of having conventional bodhichitta.
The
Stages of Developing a Conventional Bodhichitta Aim
The conventional bodhichitta
aim to achieve enlightenment to benefit all limited beings has two stages:
"
aspiring bodhichitta (smon-sems),
" engaged bodhichitta ('jug-sems).
Aspiring bodhichitta is the aspiration to achieve enlightenment to benefit
all beings. It has two stages:
" merely aspiring bodhichitta (smon-sems
smon-pa-tsam), with which we merely aspire to reach enlightenment to benefit everyone
as much as is possible,
" pledged aspiring bodhichitta (smon-sems dam-bca'-can),
with which we pledge never to give up our bodhichitta aim until we reach enlightenment.
This stage entails pledging to do certain actions that will help us not to lose
our aim in this lifetime or in future lives, all the way to enlightenment.
Engaged bodhichitta has, in addition to the two aspiring states, the bodhisattva vows and bodhisattva behavior to practice the six far-reaching attitudes (six perfections), which will actually bring us to enlightenment.
Additional Mental
Factors Accompanying Engaged Bodhichitta
In Auto-Commentary on the Difficult
Points of "Lamp to the Path to Enlightenment" (Byang-chub lam-gyi sgron-me'i
dka'-'grel), Atisha quoted The Sutra Requested by the Arya Akashakosha ('Phags-pa
nam-mkha' mdzod-kyi mdo). There, Buddha explained that engaged bodhichitta has
two mental factors included in it:
" sincerity (bsam-pa),
" exceptional
sincerity (lhag-bsam).
Sincerity
Sincerity has two factors included in
it:
" lack of hypocrisy (g.yo-med) - not hiding our own faults,
"
lack of pretension (sgyu-med) - not pretending to have qualities that we do not
have.
Lack of hypocrisy has two factors included in it:
" being honest
and straightforward (drang-po),
" being clear and open (gsal-ba).
Lack
of pretension has two factors included in it:
" not being contrived or
artificial (not making things up) (bcos-ma ma-yin-pa),
" having a pure
motivation (bsam-pa dag-pa), not mixed with any ulterior motives.
Exceptional
Sincerity
Exceptional sincerity has, in addition to the factors comprising
sincerity, two more factors:
" nonattachment (ma-chags-pa),
"
going forward in a special way (khyad-par-du 'gro-ba).
Nonattachment has two
factors included in it:
" not liable to suffer a loss of mind (giving
up bodhichitta) because of attachment to some other goal (sems ma-god-pa),
"
not liable to suffer a loss of joyful perseverance because of attachment to something
else (brtson-'grus ma-god-pa).
Going forward (proceeding to enlightenment)
in a special way has two factors included in it: proceeding with:
" an
enlightenment-building network of positive force (bsod-nams-gyi tshogs),
"
an enlightenment-building network of deep awareness (ye-shes-kyi tshogs).
Thus,
although the Tibetan term for exceptional sincerity (lhag-bsam) is also the term
for the exceptional resolve that is the sixth of the seven-part cause and effect
guideline for developing a bodhichitta aim, the term has a different meaning here.
Exceptional resolve is taking universal responsibility actually to help alleviate
the suffering and bring happiness to all beings. As a cause for developing a conventional
bodhichitta aim, it is a mental factor that accompanies both aspiring bodhichitta
and engaged bodhichitta.
***********************************************************************************************
Teaching
in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, 1994
by Venerable
Thubten Chodron©
Planning for the trip to Eastern Europe and
former Soviet Union (FSU) was an adventure in itself, with my passport getting
lost twice in the U.S. mail, the Ukrainian embassy refusing my visa, and the travel
agent keeping my urgent itinerary at the bottom of the stack of papers. I called
the places in Eastern Europe to let them know the dates of my visit, and a man
in St. Petersburg was supposed to organize the part of the tour in FSU. But I
soon learned that organizing a sixteen city teaching tour in former communist
countries made travel in India look like a piece of cake.
My first stop in
Eastern Europe was Prague, a beautiful capital whose buildings were comparatively
unscathed during World War II. I stayed with Marushka, a delightful woman with
whom I'd been corresponding for a number of years, although we had never met.
She had been hospitalized twice for emotional difficulties and told me hair-raising
tales of being in a communist mental institution. Juri, my other host, showed
me around the city, one memorial site being the exhibit of children's art in the
Jewish museum. These children, confined in a ghetto in Czechoslovakia during the
war, drew pictures of the barbed wire compounds in which they lived and the cheerful
houses surrounded by flowers in which they formerly lived. Below each drawing
were the child's birth and death dates. Many of these little ones were taken to
Auschwitz to be exterminated in 1944. All over Eastern Europe and the FSU, the
ghost of the war reigns. I was constantly reminded that the demographics of the
area changed radically in a few years and that people of all ethnic groups suffered.
My talks in the Prague were held downtown. They were attended by about twenty-five
people, who listened attentively and asked good questions. Jiri was an able translator.
The
next stop was Budapest, where spring was just beginning. Most of the city had
been destroyed by door-to-door fighting at the end of the war. I stayed with a
lovely extended family, two members of whom had escaped during the communist regime
and gone to Sweden to live. The talks were at the recently-established Buddhist
College, a first in that part of the world. But I was surprised when entering
the principal's office, to see on the wall behind his desk not a picture of the
Buddha, but a painting of a nude woman!
I also visited a Buddhist retreat
center in the countryside where ten people had just begun a three-year retreat.
Over lunch, the Hungarian monk explained the difficulties that people raised under
communism have when becoming Buddhists. "You don't know what it's like to
learn Marxist-Leninist scientific materialism since you're a child. This does
something to your way of thinking, making it a challenge to expand your mind to
include Buddhist ideas," he said. True, I thought, and on the other hand,
people in Western Europe and North America have to undo years of indoctrination
of consumerism and if-it-feels-good-do-it philosophy when they encounter Buddhism.
Oradea,
a town in Transylvania (Rumania) that is renown as Count Dracula's home, was the
next stop. Rumania was much poorer than Czech Republic and Hungary, or rather,
it was more neglected. As I later found in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, people
had things, but they were falling apart and left unrepaired. The roads, once paved,
were now rutted. The trams, once brightly painted, were now dilapidated. There
was no idea of fixing things, or if there was, no money to do it. Transylvania
was traditionally inhabited by Hungarians and in recent years, there has been
an influx of Rumanians. The Dharma group was mostly Hungarians and took every
opportunity to tell me how awful the Rumanians were. I was shocked at the prejudice
and ethnic hatred, and found myself talking passionately about equanimity, tolerance,
and compassion in the Dharma talks.
The people I stayed with were kind and
hospitable, and as in most places, I felt real friendships develop. However, they
knew little about etiquette around monastics, and at a gathering in someone's
flat after a talk, I was surrounded by couples making out. They would take turns
talking to me and then resume their (obviously more pleasurable) activities. Needless-to-say,
I excused myself as soon as possible and went to my room to meditate.
Then
on to Krakow, Poland, the site of Schindler's List. Venerable Tenzin Palmo, a
British nun who meditated twelve years in a cave in India, was also teaching in
Poland at the time, and our schedules were arranged so we could meet in Krakow.
It was lovely to see her again, and together we discussed the recent tragedy that
had befallen many Polish Dharma centers. Years ago, a Danish teacher in the Tibetan
tradition had set up centers in many cities. But in recent years power struggles
developed, and the teacher, becoming involved in the Tibetans' dispute over the
new Karmapa, forbade his centers to invite other teachers from even his own Tibetan
tradition. As a result, the centers throughout Poland split into opposing groups,
with the Danish man and his followers retaining the property. The tragedy is that
many friendships have disintegrated and much confusion generated about the meaning
of refuge and relying on a spiritual mentor. Ven. Tenzin Palmo and I did our best
to alleviate the confusion, encouraging people in the new groups to go ahead with
their practice, to invite qualified teachers, and to practice together with their
Dharma friends. This experience intensified my feeling that we Westerners need
not and should not get involved in political disputes within the Tibetan community.
We must remain firmly centered with a compassionate motivation on the real purpose
of Dharma practice and check teachers' qualifications well before establishing
a teacher-student relationship with them.
The Poles were warm and friendly,
and we had long, interesting and open talks. "As an American, do you have
any idea what it's like to have your country occupied by foreign forces? Can you
imagine what it feels like to have your country carved up and your borders rearranged
at the discretion of powerful neighbors? Do you know how it feels when citizens
are deported to foreign lands?" they asked. All over Eastern Europe, people
remarked that their countries were the walking grounds of foreign troops, and
indeed so many of the places were alternately occupied by the Germans and the
Russians. The smell of history lingers on in each place.
Inter-religious Connections
I
enjoy inter-religious dialogue and while in Prague met with the novice training
master at a monastery. In Budapest, I met with a monk from a monastery with its
church carved as a cave in the rock along the river in Budapest. In both these
conversations, the monks were open and curious about Buddhism -- I was probably
the first Buddhist they had met -- and they shared their experiences of following
their faith despite the fact that their monasteries had been shut down during
the communist regime.
In Krakow, Ven. Tenzin Palmo and I visited some sisters
of St. Francis at their cloister in the center of the city. Two sisters in full
traditional nuns' dress sat behind the double grill as we exchanged questions
and answers about spiritual life and practice. One topic of interest was how to
keep our religious traditions alive and yet adapt to the circumstances of modern
life, challenges that both Buddhist and Catholic monastics face. Our discussion
lasted two hours, and by the end thirteen Catholic nuns (half of the monastery's
inhabitants) were crammed into the tiny room. With much laughter we showed them
how our robes were worn and they peeled off layers of black and white cloth to
show us how to assemble their robes. We traded prayer beads through the grill,
like teenage girls sharing secrets, and parted with a sense of love, understanding
and shared goals.
Later, in Russia and Ukraine, I tried to meet with Orthodox
nuns, but could not find any. One large Orthodox nunnery we visited in Moscow
is now a museum. Fortunately, in Donetsk, Ukraine, a young Orthodox priest and
a Catholic woman attended my talk at the Buddhist center. We spent a long time
talking about doctrine, practice, and religious institutions. I explained to the
priest that many people in America who had been raised Christian suffered from
guilt -- from their youth, they were told that Jesus had sacrificed his life for
them and they felt they were too egotistical to appreciate or repay this -- and
asked how this could be alleviated. He explained that many people misunderstand
Jesus' death -- that Jesus sacrificed his life willingly, without asking for anything
in return. He also said that women played a greater role in the early Church than
they do now in Orthodoxy, and that slowly, he would like to see them resume that
place.
Ven. Tenzin Palmo and I also visited Auschwitz as well as the Jewish
neighborhood, the ghetto, and the cemetery in Krakow. It was rainy and cold those
days, the weather illustrating the horror of what human beings' destructive emotions
can perpetrate. Coming from a Jewish background, I had been raised knowing about
the tragedy there. But I found it odd, and all too familiar, that people were
now vying for their share of suffering and pity. Some Jews objected to a Catholic
nunnery being built near the concentration camp, and some Poles felt that the
fact they lost a million Polish patriots at Auschwitz wasn't adequately recognized
by the world. The importance of meditating on equanimity became obvious to me
-- everyone equally wants to be happy and to avoid suffering. Creating too strongly
of a religious, racial, national, or ethnic identity obscures this basic human
fact.
In Warsaw, I went to the site of the Jewish Ghetto where now a monument
stands for those who died in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The area is a park surrounded
by socialist flats, but old photos reveal that after the uprising it was nothing
more than leveled rubble. At the Jewish cemetery, we overheard an older woman
visiting from America say that she had been in Warsaw at the time of the uprising
and came back to look for the graves of her friends. It seems to me that Caucasians
haven't completely come to terms with the atrocities committed under Hitler and
Stalin (to name a few) -- they view these as flukes or aberrations, because white
people could never cause such heinous events. I believe that this is why we have
such difficulty grappling with events such as the situations in Bosnia and Kosovo
in the 1990s.
From time to time on the trip, I met some Jewish Buddhists, in
Eastern Europe and the FSU, where so few Jews are left! They are generally assimilated
into the main society now, and although they say, "I am Jewish," they
don't know much about the religion or culture. It's similar to many people from
my generation of Jews in USA. In Ukraine they told me that since so many Russian
Jews in Israel can get Ukrainian TV, that there are now advertisements in Hebrew
on their TV! They also told me that since things opened up in the FSU, that many
of their Jews friends have left for Israel and the USA. It was interesting that
the people I met didn't want to leave, given how chaotic and directionless those
societies are now.
The Transition from Communism to ??
As I traveled northward,
spring disappeared, and I entered the countries of the former Soviet Union, where
winter lingered on. I realized that the person in St. Petersburg who was supposed
to organize this part of the tour had dropped the ball. Some places didn't know
I was coming until I called them the night before to give them the arrival time
of the train! People told me this was normal -- since the disintegration of the
Soviet Union, ties had been broken, there were now border checks and customs in
what used to be one country, and things were not well-organized.
All over Eastern
Europe and the FSU, people told me how difficult the change from communism to
free-market economy and political freedom had been. First there were economic
hardships due to the changing system. Then there was the change in mentality required
to cope with it. People said that under communism they lived better -- they had
what they needed -- while now they had to struggle financially. Under the old
system, things were taken care of for them, and they didn't have to take personal
initiative or be responsible for their livelihood. They worked a few hours each
day, drank tea, and chanted with their colleagues the rest, and collected a pay
check that allowed them to live comfortably.
Now, they had to work hard. Factories
were closing down, and people losing their jobs. Although the markets had plenty
of Western goods, in the FSU hardly anyone could afford them. Even people who
were employed were not paid well, if their employers had money to pay them at
all. Many educated and intelligent people, especially in Russia, Belarus, and
Ukraine left their jobs to do business, buying and selling from one place to another.
The poverty was real. In the Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine we basically ate rice,
bread and potatoes.
In Eastern Europe, the situation was not so grave, and
the mood was upbeat. People were glad to be free from communism and from Russian
domination. Circumstances were difficult, but they were confident they would get
through them. The people in the Baltics felt the same and were especially happy
to have their independence. In all these areas, which had been under communism
only since the war, the people removed the statues and symbols of communism as
quickly as possible.
But in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine -- areas that were
communist since the early 1920s -- the atmosphere was different. Economically,
they were more desperate, and socially, more disorganized. Their great empire
was lost and their confidence destroyed. Only one woman I met in Moscow saw the
present situation optimistically, saying that Russians now had the opportunity
to develop an economic system which was neither capitalist nor communist, a system
which could fit their unique cultural mentality.
But others I met felt confused.
With the advent of peristroyka, things snowballed, changing so fast in ways that
no one had expected, with no advance planning or firm direction for the society.
Now clever people are profiteering from the chaos, and the gap between rich and
poor is growing. It broke my heart to see old grandfathers in St. Petersburg begging
outside the churches and old grandmothers in Moscow with their palms held out
in the subways. Such things never happened before, I was told. But when I asked
people if they wanted to return to the old system, they replied, "We know
we can't go back." Yet, they had little idea of what lay ahead, and most
did not have confidence in Yeltsin's leadership.
The Baltic Countries and Former
Soviet Union
Back to my time in the Baltics. I taught in Vilnus (Lithuania)
and Riga (Latvia), but had the best connection with the people in Tallinn (Estonia).
They were enthusiastic, and we did a marathon session on the gradual path to enlightenment,
after which all of us were elated and inspired.
In previous decades a few people
from the Baltics and St. Petersburg had learned Buddhism, either by going to India
or to Buryatia, an ethnically Buddhist area in Russia just north of Mongolia.
Some of these people were practitioners, others were scholars. Yet, the public
has many misunderstanding about Buddhism -- I was asked if I could see auras,
if Tibetan monks could fly through the sky, if one could go to Shambala, or if
I could perform miracles. I told them that the best miracle was to have impartial
love and compassion for all beings, but that wasn't what they wanted to hear!
I met people who had learned a little about tantra from someone who knew someone
who knew someone who had gone to Tibet in the twenties. Then they read Evans-Wentz's
book on the six-yogas of Naropa, invented their own tummo (inner heat) meditation
and taught it to others. They were very proud that they didn't have to wear overcoats
in the icy Russian winter, while I was relieved that they didn't go crazy from
inventing their own meditation. It brought home to me the importance of meeting
pure lineages and qualified teachers, and then following their instructions properly
after doing the necessary preliminary practices.
The teachings in St. Petersburg
were well-attended. While there, I visited the Kalachakra Temple, a Tibetan temple
completed in 1915 under the auspices of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. In the 1930s,
Stalin had the monks killed, and the state took over the temple, turning it into
an insect laboratory. In recent years the Buddhists were allowed to return, and
there is now a group of young men from Buryatia and Kalmykia (between the Caspian
and Black Seas) who are training to be monks. The women at the temple -- some
European, others Asian -- were enthusiastic about Dharma, and we talked for hours.
With excitement, they kept saying, "You're the first Tibetan nun who's been
here. We're so happy!"
In Moscow, the teachings were organized by a new-age
center, although there are many Buddhist groups in the city. Before leaving Seattle,
I met with the Russian consul, who was interested in Dharma. He gave me the contact
of his friend in Moscow who was a Buddhist. I looked him up and had an impromptu
meeting with some of the people from his group. We discussed Buddhism from the
point of view of practice not theory, and there was a wonderful and warm feeling
at the end of the evening.
Then on to Minsk, Belarus, where the trees were
barely beginning to bud and the Dharma group was earnest. Again, people were not
very familiar with etiquette for monastics, and I was housed at the flat of a
single man who had a huge photo of a naked woman in his bathroom. Fortunately,
he was kind and minded his manners, but it put me in an awkward position -- do
I ask to stay elsewhere even though everyone else's flats were crowded?
On
the way from Minsk to Donetsk, we stopped for a few hours in Kiev and met a friend
of Igor, the man translating for me. She and I had a good connection and I was
touched by how she shared the little she had with us. She and I were about the
same size, and the idea popped into my head to give her the maroon cashmere sweater
that friends had given to me. My ego tried to quench that idea with all sorts
of "reasons" about my needing it. A "civil war" broke out
inside me on the way to the train station, "Should I give her the sweater
or not?" and I hesitated even after she got us sweet bread for the trip,
although she had little money. Fortunately, my good sense won out, and I reached
into my suitcase and gave her the beautiful sweeter minutes before the train pulled
away. Her face lighted up with delight, and I wondered how I could have considered,
just five minutes prior, being so stingy as to keep it myself.
Donetsk, a coal
mining town in eastern Ukraine, was the last stop. Here I stayed at a center begun
by a Korean monk, where the people were friendly and open to the Dharma. The town
had little "Mount Fujis" all around it -- when the mines were dug, the
excess earth was piled in hills of pollution around the town. Nevertheless, the
town had trees and green grass--welcome sights after the dreariness of Moscow
-- and spring was again present. In addition to speaking at the center, the public
library, and a college, I gave talks to two large groups at a high school, with
many students staying afterwards to ask more questions.
With a good sense of
timing, after finishing the last talk of this six-week tour, I promptly lost my
voice. On the train from Donetsk to Kiev, I was coughing and sneezing, and the
compassionate people who shared the train compartment -- two slightly-tipsy Ukrainian
men -- offered to share their precious vodka with me, saying that it would definitely
make me feel better. But being unappreciative of their generosity, and using the
(in their eyes) lame excuse that drinking was counter to my monastic vows, I refused.
In an effort to overcome my ignorance, they kept repeating their offer, until
I finally feigned going to sleep to have some peace.
As a final touch to the
trip, on the flight from Kiev to Frankfurt, I sat next to an evangelical Christian
from Seattle who had just been to Kazakhstan, Moscow, and Kiev to spread the "good
news." He was a pleasant man, who meant well and wanted to help others. But
when I asked him if the Muslims who converted to Christianity faced difficulties
with their families, he said, "Yes, but it's better than going to hell."
By the time I arrived in Frankfurt and my friend, a German monk, picked me
up at the airport, I felt like Alice reemerging from the hole, wondering about
confusing and wonderful experiences -- the kindness and the complexity -- that
others had just shared with me.
***********************************************************************************************
The
Foundation for Good Qualities
(Yon-tan gzhi-gyur-ma)by Tsongkhapa
(Tsong-kha-pa Blo-bzang grags-pa)
translated by Alexander Berzin, 1982,
revised
2003
(1) (Healthy) reliance on a kind spiritual master,
The
foundation for all good qualities, is the root of the path.
Seeing this well,
I request inspiration to rely
With great appreciation, through many endeavors.
(2) This excellent working basis with its respites, found but once,
Is difficult to obtain. Having realized its great importance,
I request
inspiration to develop without disruption
An attitude to take its essence
in all ways, day and night.
(3) At death, my body and life-force
will perish quickly
Like bubbles on a moving stream. Remembering this
And
having found stable certainty that after death,
The fruits of my noble and
dark actions will follow behind,
(4) Like a shadow to a body, I
request inspiration always to take care
To rid myself of even the slightest,
most minor action
That would build up a network of faults and to accomplish
Every
possible deed that will build up a network of constructive force.
(5)
The splendors of compulsive existence, even when indulged in, never suffice;
The
gateway of all problems, they are unfit to make my mind secure.
Aware of these
pitfalls, I request inspiration
To develop a great avid interest in liberation's
bliss.
(6) I request inspiration to take to heart, with mindfulness,
alertness,
And great care, induced by this pure motivating thought,
The
practices for individual liberation,
The root of the teachings,
(7)
Just as I have fallen into the ocean of compulsive existence,
So, too, have
all wandering beings - they have been my mothers.
Seeing this, I request inspiration
to grow to a supreme bodhichitta aim
To take responsibility to free these
wandering beings.
(8) Even if I have developed merely this resolve,
if I lack the habit
Of the three types of ethical discipline, I will be unable
to attain
A (supreme) purified state. Seeing this well, I request inspiration
To train with strong efforts in the bodhisattva vows.
(9) I
request inspiration quickly to develop on my mind-stream a path
That combines
the pair: a stilled, settled mind and an exceptionally perceptive mind,
By
stilling mental wandering toward objects of distortion
And properly discerning
the correct meaning (of voidness).
(10) When I have trained myself
through the common paths
And become a vessel, I request inspiration easily
to board
The Diamond-strong Vehicle, the supreme of all vehicles,
The
sacred fording passage for those of good fortune.
(11) Then, when
I have found uncontrived certainty in what has been said,
That the foundation
for realizing the two types of actual attainments
Is the closely bonding practices
and vow restraints kept totally pure,
I request inspiration to uphold them
even at the cost of my life.
(12) Then, understanding correctly the
essential points of the two stages
That are the essence of the tantra classes,
I request inspiration
To actualize them in accord with the Holy One's enlightening
speech,
Never straying from the conduct of four (daily) sessions of yoga.
(13) I request inspiration for the feet of the spiritual mentors
Who indicate the excellent path like this
And of friends for proper practice
to remain firm,
And for the masses of outer and inner interference to be stilled.
(14)
May I never be parted for all my lives from perfect gurus;
May I put to good
use the all-around perfect Dharma;
And by achieving in full all good qualities
of the stages and paths,
May I quickly attain a Vajradhara supreme state.
***********************************************************************************************
The
Four Axioms for Examining a Dharma Teaching
Alexander Berzin
January
2001
Success in Dharma practice depends on having a realistic attitude.
This means examining the Dharma teachings in a manner that accords with how things
actually exist. For such examination, Buddha taught four axioms (rigs-pa bzhi),
which are the basic assumptions in Buddhist thinking. Remember, Buddha said, "Do
not accept what I teach just out of faith or respect for me, but investigate for
yourself as if buying gold."
The four are the axioms of
1. dependency
(ltos-pa'i rigs-pa),
2. functionality (bya-ba byed-pa'i rigs-pa),
3. establishment
by reason (tshad-ma'i rigs-pa),
4. the nature of things (chos-nyid-kyi rigs-pa).
Let
us look at how Tsongkhapa explains the four in A Grand Presentation of the Graded
Stages of the Path (Lam-rim chen-mo).
The Axiom of Dependency
The first
axiom is that certain things depend on other things as their bases. This is the
axiom of dependency. For a result to come about, it must depend upon causes and
conditions. This is an axiom we can all accept. It means that if we wish to develop
a good quality or an understanding of something, we need to investigate what it
relies on. What do we need to develop beforehand to serve as its basis?
Each
level of spiritual attainment relies on other attainments and factors as its basis.
For example, if we wish to develop the discriminating awareness or understanding
of voidness or reality, we need to investigate and know what this understanding
relies on. It relies on concentration. Without concentration, we cannot develop
understanding. What is the basis that concentration depends on? It depends on
self-discipline. If we do not have discipline to correct our attention when it
wanders astray, we cannot possibly develop concentration. Therefore, if we wish
to develop the discriminating awareness of voidness, we need to work first on
building up at least some modicum of self-discipline and concentration.
Applying
this first axiom is very important when studying the Dharma. Many of us would
like to achieve the wonderful things we read about in the Dharma texts, but if
we wish to be realistic about our wishes, we need to investigate what their achievement
relies upon. When we know what we need to build up to reach our goals, we know
how to reach them. We can then start from the foundation upward. This makes our
quests realistic.
The Axiom of Functionality
The second is the axiom of
functionality. Every phenomenon that is affected by causes and conditions performs
its specific function. Fire, not water, performs the function of burning. This
is, again, a basic assumption in Buddhism, an axiom, and is something that we
can accept as well. Its application is that in studying and learning the Dharma,
we need to investigate the function that this or that performs. We are given instructions
about certain states of mind or emotions that we need to develop, such as love
and concentration, and about other ones that we need to rid ourselves of, like
confusion or anger. We are also taught certain methods to follow. To understand
the methods, we need to investigate what they do, what are their functions? Since
certain things are compatible and others are not, certain states of mind will
function to enhance or increase other states.
For example, investigation and
experience of a specific meditation method for developing love increases our confidence
in it. We investigate "Is this right or not?" and then we try to gain
an experience of it. The function of doing this is that it gives us confidence
about the method. What is the function of confidence that a method of practice
is correct and that it works? It enhances our ability to practice it deeply. If
we lack confidence in what we are doing, we will not practice it. If we understand
the function each step has, we will put our hearts into each one. If we do not
understand, we will not do any of them.
In addition, we need to understand
the function of something to damage or counter another. For instance, confidence
in a method destroys indecisiveness about it. Lack of confidence in a method or
in our abilities to follow it prevents us from succeeding or getting anywhere
with it.
It is very important to know what each thing that we learn and each
step of practice we take will strengthen and what it will destroy. Then we have
a realistic attitude about what we are doing. For example, why would we want to
develop a particular positive state of mind or attitude, such as love? A valid
reason is because it functions to bring about peace of mind and enables us to
help others. Why would we want to rid ourselves of a particular negative state
of mind, such as anger? Because of what it does: it makes trouble for others and
us. Knowing this is very important when we wish to stop destructive patterns of
behavior that we are attached to, such as smoking. If we understand clearly what
an action functions to do, such as what smoking does to our lungs, we understand
why we need to stop doing it. That is how we apply the axiom of functionality.
The Axiom of Establishment by Reason
The third is the axiom of establishment
by reason. This means that a point is established or proven if a valid means of
knowing does not contradict it. First we need to investigate anything we learn
as Dharma to determine whether scriptural authority contradicts it. How do we
know a teaching is a Dharma teaching? It is consistent with what Buddha taught.
Since Buddha taught varying things to different disciples, that on the surface
seem contradictory, how do we know Buddha's deepest intention? The Indian master
Dharmakirti explained that if a teaching appears as a recurrent theme in Buddha's
teaching, we know that Buddha really meant it. This is important, especially concerning
ethical issues.
The second means of validly knowing something is by logic
and inference. Is it logically consistent or does logic contradict it? Does it
make common sense or is it completely weird? Then the third valid way of knowing
is straightforward cognition. When we actually meditate, does our experience contradict
or confirm it?
Let us look at an example of how to apply this axiom. We might
receive a teaching that applying a certain opponent eliminates a certain shortcoming
or problem, like for instance, "love overcomes anger." First, we consider
is this consistent with what Buddha taught? Yes, it is not contradicted by anything
Buddha taught.
Is it logically correct? Yes, love is the wish for others to
be happy. Why is this other person who is harming me and with whom I am angry
acting this way? This person is doing these terrible things because he or she
is unhappy; the person is mentally and emotionally upset. If I had love for this
person, I would wish that he or she were happy; I would wish that the person were
not upset and were not so miserable. Such an attitude prevents us from getting
angry with the person, doesn't it? It is perfectly logical. If this person is
causing a lot of harm, if I want him or her to stop doing that, I need to extend
my love. I need to wish the person to be happy, because if he or she were happy,
the person would not do this harm. Getting angry with the person is not going
to make him or her stop harming me. This teaching makes logical sense.
Lastly,
we investigate with straightforward cognition or with the experience of meditation.
In other words, we try it out to see whether it works. If I meditate on love does
it lessen my anger? Yes it does. That is the third test of whether something is
a reasonable teaching. This is how we apply the axiom of establishment by reason.
The
Axiom of the Nature of Things
The last is the axiom of the nature of things.
This is the axiom that certain facts are just the nature of things, such as fire
being hot and water being wet. Why is fire hot and why is water wet? Well, that
is just the way things are. Within the Dharma, we need to investigate which points
are true simply because it is the nature of things, such as all beings want to
be happy and nobody wants to be unhappy. Why? That is just the way it is. Take
another example. Unhappiness results from destructive behavior and happiness from
constructive behavior. Why? That is just the way the universe works. It is not
that Buddha created it that way; it is just the way it is. If we investigate and
discover that certain things are just the way things are, we need to accept them
as facts of life. To drive ourselves crazy about them would be a waste of time.
One of the points regarding the nature of things that is most relevant to
Dharma practice is the fact that samsara goes up and down. This refers not simply
to taking fortunate and unfortunate rebirths, but also applies moment to moment
in our daily lives. Our moods and what we feel like doing go up and down. If we
accept that as the way things are, we do not get upset about it. What do you expect
from samsara? Of course some days meditation is going to go well and some days
it is not. Some days I am going to feel like practicing, other days I will not.
No big deal! That is the just the way things are. Leave it and do not get upset
by it. That is very crucial.
If we wish to approach the Dharma in a realistic
manner, these four points that Buddha taught are very helpful. To confirm our
understanding of them and of how to apply them to a teaching that we learn, let
us look at an example, detachment from our bodies.
1. What does the development
of this detachment depend on? It depends on the understanding of impermanence,
rebirth, how the self exists, the relationship between body, mind, and self, and
so on.
2. What is the function of developing detachment from our bodies? It
functions to help us not get upset and angry when we fall sick, grow old, or become
senile.
3. Is this established by reason? Yes, Buddha taught that detachment
from the body eliminates one of the causes of suffering: attachment based on identifying
with something transitory. Is it logical? Yes, because the body changes and grows
old from moment to moment. Do we experience its function? Yes, as we develop detachment,
we see that we do experience less unhappiness and problems.
4. What about
the nature of things? If I meditate on detachment from my body, does my happiness
grow stronger each day? No, it does not. This is samsara; it goes up and down.
Eventually, from a long- term perspective, I can become happier and my life can
get better, but this is not going to happen in a linear fashion. That is not the
nature of things.
With this example, we can see that by applying the four
axioms to investigate a teaching such as the development of detachment from our
bodies, we develop a realistic attitude about how to approach it. Thus, when Buddha
said, "Do not believe what I teach simply because of faith or respect, but
investigate yourself as if buying gold," he meant to investigate by applying
the four axioms.
***********************************************************************************************
The
Four Immeasurables
by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron©
The
four immeasurables-so called because we generate equanimity, love, compassion,
and joy towards an immeasurable number of sentient beings-are an integral part
of Tibetan Buddhism. As thought-feelings that open our heart towards ourselves
and others, they are forerunners of bodhicitta, the altruistic intention that
seeks enlightenment in order to benefit all sentient beings most effectively.
The following verses are taken from the practice of Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha
of Compassion.
How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings were to abide
in equanimity, free of bias, attachment, and anger. May they abide in this way.
I shall cause them to abide in this way. Guru Chenresig, please inspire me to
be able to do so.
How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings had happiness
and its causes. May they have these. I shall cause them to have these. Guru Chenresig,
please inspire me to be able to do so.
How wonderful it would be if all sentient
beings were free from suffering and its causes. May they be free. I shall cause
them to be free. Guru Chenresig, please inspire me to be able to do so.
How
wonderful it would be if all sentient beings were never parted from upper rebirth
and liberation's excellent bliss. May they never be parted. I shall cause them
never to be parted. Guru Chenresig, please inspire me to be able to do so
The key word in the four immeasurables is all sentient beings. "All"
is a short word with great meaning. We don't simply think, "May my friends,
relatives, and everyone who loves me have happiness and its causes." Even
animals wish for that. But, as human beings, we try to extend the limits of our
love and think, "May the jerk who cut me off on the highway have happiness
and its causes. May that doctor who screwed up my prescription be freed from suffering
and its causes. May the person who hung up on me, may the person who complained
about me, may my friend who won't speak to me, may my cousin who doesn't invite
me to her parties-may all these people have happiness and its causes and be free
from suffering and its causes."
When our compassion becomes strong, we will be able to think and feel, "May Timothy McVeigh, Sadam Hussein, and George W. Bush have happiness and its causes and be free from suffering and its causes. We must try to gradually extend the scope of our equanimity, love, compassion, and joy, spreading them out to all sentient beings, not excluding even one.
If our hearts shut down when thinking of one sentient being and we can't bring ourselves to include them in "all," we should stop and observe what's happening in our heart/mind. With compassion for ourselves, we ask, "What in me is resistant to this? Am I hurt? Angry? Prejudiced?" When we become aware of what we're feeling then we apply the appropriate Dharma antidote. For example, think of Osama bin Ladin when he was a baby. Doing this, we realize that he didn't come out of the womb as a terrorist, but due to conditioning in this and previous lives, his mind was overwhelmed by confusion and hatred. He's acting in the way he is because he's trying to be happy and doesn't know the real method to find happiness. Thinking like this, we let go of our anger and bias. Then contemplating the kindness of others, we open our heart and wish them well.
Each of the four immeasurables has four parts-a wish, an aspiration, a resolve, and a request for inspiration-and each part progressively leads our mind to a deeper, more committed state. Going through each step slowly, thinking of specific people or situations, and making examples from our life is very helpful.
The first immeasurable is equanimity. First we wish, "How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings were to abide in equanimity, free of bias, attachment, and anger." That is, may we and all others have this impartial, caring attitude. Then we aspire, "May they abide in that way." Third we resolve to act, "I shall cause them to abide in that way." Fourth, we request Avalokiteshvara's inspiration so that we will have the strength of mind and the courage to continuously work to help sentient beings be free of bias, attachment, and anger and to abide in equanimity.
The second immeasurable is love. "How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings had happiness and its causes." Meditate on that wish for a while and then aspire, "May they have these," and generate that feeling. This aspiration is stronger. We're not simply wishing for sentient beings to be happy, but strongly feeling that we want them to have happiness and its causes. Then we resolve to get involved to bring this about. Here we're committing ourselves to work towards this aim. Recognizing that our selfishness is great and that this noble aim is hard to actualize, we request the inspiration and blessings of Avalokiteshvara, "Guru Chenresig, please inspire me to be able to do so." Here we feel that we are not alone, but are supported by our own Buddha nature and by all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. We feel-or imagine we feel because it takes a long time to completely transform our attitude-the courage to joyfully work for the happiness of all beings, without getting exhausted or discouraged.
The third immeasurable is compassion, wishing sentient beings to be free from suffering. We progressively meditate on the same four steps here. Compassion is extremely important: it is a strong motivation for us to practice Dharma and it is a source of all goodness in the world.
The fourth immeasurable is joy, wanting
sentient beings never to be separated from happiness. Here happiness includes
1) temporal happiness, which is the happiness that exists as long as we're
in cyclic existence-for example, fortunate rebirths-and
2) definitive goodness-the
cessation of all suffering and its causes-liberation and enlightenment.
***********************************************************************************************
Ruminating
by
Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron©
We have a precious human life with
the potential to develop love, compassion, and wisdom limitlessly. How do we use
that potential? What occupies our mind most of the time? When observing my mind,
I see that much time is spent ruminating about the past and the future. Thoughts
and emotions twirl around, seemingly of their own accord, but I must admit to
sometimes churning them up or at least not making the effort to counteract them.
Are you similar? What do we ruminate about and what effect does it have on our
life?
The Past
One big topic of rumination is past hurts. "I was so
hurt when my spouse said xyz." "I worked so hard for the company but
they didn't appreciate me." "My parents criticized the way I look,"
and on and on. We have an excellent memory for all the times others have disturbed
or disappointed us and can dwell upon these hurts for hours, reliving painful
situations again and again in our minds. What is the result? We get stuck in self-pity
and depression.
Another topic is past anger. We repeatedly go over who said
what in a quarrel, analyzing its every detail, getting more and more agitated
the longer we contemplate it. When we sit to meditate, concentrating on the object
of meditation is difficult. But when we reflect on an argument, our concentration
is great! In fact, we can sit in perfect meditation posture, looking very peaceful
externally, but burning with anger inside as we single-pointedly remember past
situations without getting distracted for even a minute. When the meditation bell
rings at the end of the session, we open our eyes and discover that the event
we spent the last half hour contemplating is not happening here and now. In fact,
we're in a safe place with nice people. What is the effect of ruminating on anger?
Clearly, it's more anger and unhappiness.
When we ruminate on feelings of being
misunderstood, it is as if we were chanting a mantra, "My friend doesn't
understand me. My friend doesn't understand me." We convince ourselves of
this; the feeling becomes solid, and the situation looks hopeless. The result?
We feel alienated, and we unnecessarily back away from those we want to be close
to because we're convinced they never will understand us. Or we may spill our
neediness over the other person in an attempt to make them understand us in the
way we want to be understood.
All our ruminations aren't unpleasant, though.
We can also spend hours recalling past pleasurable events. "I remember lying
on the beach with this wonderful guy who adored me," and off we go on a fantastic
fantasy. "It was so wonderful when I won that reward and receive the promotion
I wanted," and the real life situation appears like a movie to our conceptual
mind. "I was so athletic and healthy. I could throw a ball like no one else
and catch the ones no one else could" and happy memories of past victorious
sports events glide through our mind. The result? We feel the tinges of nostalgia
for the past which is long-gone. Or, dissatisfied and anxious, we seek to re-create
these events in the future, which leads to frustration because circumstances have
changed.
Meditators are no exception to this. We hold onto a wonderful feeling
in meditation and try to re-create it in future sessions. Meanwhile, it eludes
us. We remember a state of profound understanding and feel despair because it
hasn't happened since. Accepting an experience without getting attached to it
is hard for us. We cling to spiritual experiences in the same way we used to grasp
at worldly ones.
The Future
We also spend lots of time ruminating about
the future. We may plan things for hours. "First I'll do this errand, then
that, finally the third. Or would it be quicker to do them in the reverse order?
Or maybe I should do them on different days?" Back and forth our mind swings
trying to decide what to do. "I'll go to this college, do graduate work at
that one, and then send out my resume to land the job I've always wanted."
Or, for Dharma practitioners, while doing one retreat, we daydream about all the
other practice opportunities that lie before us. "This teacher is leading
a retreat in the mountains. I can go there and learn this profound practice. With
that under my belt, I'll go to this other retreat center and do a long retreat.
When that is done, I'll be ready for a private hermitage." No practice gets
done now because we're too busy planning all the wonderful teachings we're going
to receive and retreats we're going to do in the future.
Envisioning the future,
we create idealistic dreams. "The Right Man/Woman will appear. S/He'll understand
me perfectly and then I'll feel whole." "This job will fulfill me completely.
I'll quickly succeed and be nationally recognized as excellent in my field."
"I'll realize bodhicitta and emptiness and then become a great Dharma teacher
with so many disciples who adore me." The result? Our attachment runs wild,
and we develop unrealistic expectations that leave us disappointed with what is.
In addition, we don't create the causes to do the things we imagine because we're
stuck in our head just imagining them.
Our future ruminations may also spin
around with worry. "What if my parents get sick?" "What if I lose
my job?" "What if my child has problems at school?" In school,
we may not have been very good at creative writing, but in our heads we dream
up fantastic dramas and horror stories. This results in our stress level zooming
sky high as we anxiously anticipate tragedies that usually do not occur.
Our
worries may zoom outward about the state of world. "What happens if the economy
plummets? If the ozone layer keeps increasing? If we have more anthrax attacks?
If the terrorists take over the country? If we lose our civil liberties fighting
the terrorists?" Here, too, our creative writing ability leads to fantastic
scenarios that may or may not happen, but regardless, we manage to work ourselves
into a state of unprecedented despair. This, in turn, often leads to raging anger
at the powers that be or to apathy, simply thinking that since everything is rotten,
there's no use doing anything. In either case, we're so gloomy that we neglect
to act constructively in ways that remedy difficulties and create goodness.
The
Present
The only time we ever have to live is now. The only time that spiritual
practice is done is now. If we're going to cultivate love and compassion, it has
to be in the present moment, because we don't live in any other moment. So, even
though the present is constantly changing, it's all we have. Life happens now.
Our past glories are simply that. Our past hurts are not happening now. Our future
dreams are simply future dreams. The future tragedies we concoct do not exist
at this time.
A spiritual practitioner may remember previous illuminating
moments and dream of future exotic situations, replete with fully enlightened
teachers and blissful insights, but in fact, practice occurs now. The person in
front of our nose at this moment represents all sentient beings to us. If we're
going to work for the benefit of all sentient beings, we have to start with this
one, this ordinary person in our everyday life. Opening our hearts to whoever
is before us requires discipline and effort. Connecting with the person in front
of us necessitates being fully present, not off in the past or the future.
Dharma
practice means dealing with what is happening in our mind at this moment. Instead
of dreaming of conquering future attachment, let's deal with the craving we have
right now. Rather than drown in fears of the future, let's be aware of the fear
occurring right now and investigate it.
Counteracting Forces
H. H. the Dalai
Lama speaks of counteracting forces for the disturbing emotions. These counteracting
forces are specific mental states that we cultivate to oppose the ones that are
not realistic or beneficial. Reflection on impermanence and death is an excellent
opponent force for mental states that spin around with either worry or excitement.
When we reflect on impermanence and our own mortality, our priorities become much
clearer. Since we know that death is certain but its time isn't, we realize that
having a positive mental state in the present is of utmost importance. Worry can't
abide in a mind that is content with what we have, do, and are. Seeing that all
things are transient, we stop craving and clinging onto them, thus our happy memories
and enjoyable day dreams cease to be so compelling.
Recognizing past turmoils
and future rhapsodies as projections of our mind prevents us from getting stuck
in them. Just as the face in the mirror is not a real face, the objects of our
memories and daydreams are likewise unreal. They are not happening now; they are
simply mental images flickering in the mind.
Reflecting on the value of our
precious human life also minimizes our habit of ruminating. Our wondrous potential
becomes clear, and the rarity and value of the present opportunity shines forth.
Who wants to ruminate about the past and future when we can do so much good and
progress spiritually in the present?
One counteracting force that works well
for me is realizing that all these ruminations star Me, Center of the Universe.
All the stories, all the tragedies, comedies, and dramas all revolve around one
person, who is clearly the most important one in all existence, Me. Just acknowledging
the power of the mind to condense the universe into Me shows me the stupidity
of my ruminations. There is a huge universe with countless sentient beings in
it, each of them wanting happiness and not wanting suffering just as intensely
as I do. Yet, my self-centered mind forgets them and focuses on Me. To boot, it
doesn't even really focus on Me, it spins around My past and future, neither of
which exist now. Seeing this, my self-centeredness evaporates, as I simply cannot
justify worrying about only myself with everything that is going on in the universe.
The
most powerful counteracting force is the wisdom realizing there is no concrete
Me to start with. Just who are all these thoughts spinning around? Who is having
all these ruminations? When we search we cannot find a truly existent Me anywhere.
Just as there is no concrete Me to be found on or in this carpet, there is no
concrete Me to be found in this body and mind. Both are equally empty of a truly
existent person who exists under her own power.
With this understanding, the
mind relaxes. The ruminations cease, and with wisdom and compassion, the Me that
exists by being merely labeled in dependence on the body and mind can spread joy
in the world.
***********************************************************************************************
Ten
Doubts about Pure Land
By Tien
Tai Patriarch Chih I
Translated by Master Thich Thien Tam
Question
1
Great Compassion is the life calling of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Thus,
those who have
developed the Bodhi Mind, wishing to rescue and ferry other
sentient beings across, should
simply vow to be reborn in the Triple Realm,
among the five turbidities and the three evil paths.
Why should we abandon
sentient beings to lead a selfish life of tranquillity? Is this not a lack
of
compassion, a preoccupation with egoistic needs, contrary to the path of enlightenment?
Answer
There are two types of Bodhisattvas. The first type are those
who have followed the
Bodhisattva path for a long time and attained the Tolerance
of Non-Birth (insight into
the non-origination of phenomena). This reproach
applies to them.
The second type are Bodhisattvas who have not attained the
Tolerance of Non-Birth, as
well as ordinary beings who have just developed
the Bodhi Mind. If they aspire to perfect
that Tolerance and enter the evil
life of the Triple Realm to save sentient beings, they should
remain in constant
proximity to the Buddhas. As stated in the Perfection of Wisdom Treatise:
"It is unwise for human beings who are still bound by all kinds of afflictions,
even if they
possess a great compassionate mind, to seek a premature rebirth
in this evil realm to
rescue sentient beings.
"Why is this so? It
is because in this evil, defiled world, afflictions are powerful and
widespread.
Those who lack the power of Tolerance (of Non-Birth) are bound to be
swayed
by the external circumstances. They then become slaves to form and sound,
fame
and fortune, with the resulting karma of greed, anger and delusion. Once this
occurs, they cannot even save themselves, much less others!
"If,
for example, they are born in the human realm, in this evil environment full of
non-believers and externalists, it is difficult to encounter genuine teachers.
Therefore, it
is not easy to hear the Buddhadharma nor to achieve the goals
of the sages.
"Of those who planted the seeds of generosity, morality
and blessings in previous lives
and are thus now enjoying power and fame,
how many are not infaturated with a life of
wealth and honor, wallowing in
endless greed and lust?
"Therefore, even when they are counselled by
enlightened teachers, they do not believe
them nor act accordingly. Moreover,
to satisfy their passions, they take adavantage of
their existing power and
influence, creating a great deal of bad karma. Thus, when their
present life
comes to an end, they descend upon the three evil paths for countless eons.
After
that, they are reborn as humans of low social and economic status. If they do
not
then meet good spiritual advisors, they will continue to be deluded, creating
more bad
karma and descending once again into the lower realms. From time
immemorial, sentient
beings caught in the cycle of Birth and Death have been
in this predicament. This is called
the 'Difficult Path of Practice'."
The Vimalakirti Sutra also states,
"If you cannot even cure your
own illness, how can you cure the illness of others?"
The Perfection
of Wisdom Treatise further states:
"Take the case of two persons, each
of whom watches a relative drowning in the river.
The first person, acting
on impulse, hastily jumps into the water. However, because he
lacks the necessary
skills, in the end, both of them drown. The second person, more
intelligent
and resourceful, hurries off to fetch a boat and sails to the rescue. Thus, both
persons escape drowning.
"Newly aspiring Bodhisattvas are like the
first individual who still lacks the power of
Tolerance (of Non-Rebirth) and
cannot save sentient beings. Only those Bodhisatttvas
who remain close to
the Buddhas and attain that Tolerance can substitute for the Buddhas
and ferry
countless sentient beings across, just like the person who has the boat."
The Perfection of Wisdom Treatise goes on to state:
"This is not
unlike a young child who should not leave his mother, lest he fall into a well,
drown
in the river or die of starvation; or a young bird whose wings are not
fully developed. It must bide
its time, hopping from branch to branch, until
it can fly afar, leisurely and unimpeded.
"Ordinary persons who lack
the Tolerence of Non-Birth should limit themselves to Buddha
Recitation, to
achieve one-pointedness of Mind. Once that goal is reached, at the time of death,
they will certainly be reborn in the Pure Land. Having seen Amitabha Buddha
and reached the
Tolerance of Non-Birth, they can steer the boat of that Tolerance
into the sea of Birth and Death,
to ferry sentient beings across and accomplish
countless Buddha deeds at will."
For these reasons, compassionate practitioners
who wish to teach and convert sentient
beings in hell, or enter the sea of
Birth and Death, should bear in mind the causes and
conditions for rebirth
in the Pure Land. This is referred to as the 'Easy Path of Practice' in
the
Commentary on the Ten Stages of the Bodhisattvas.
Question 2
All phenomena
are by nature empty, always unborn (Non-Birth), equal and still. Are we not
going
against this truth when we abandon this world, seeking rebirth in the Land of
Ultimate
Bliss? The (Vimalakirti) Sutra teaches that "to be reborn in
the Pure Land, you should first
purify your own Mind; only when the Mind is
pure, will the Buddha lands be pure." Are not
Pure Land followers going
against this truth?
Answer
This question involves two principles and
can be answered on two levels.
A) On the level of generality, if you think
that seeking rebirth in the Pure Land means
"leaving here and seeking
there", and is therefore incompatible with the Truth of Equal
Thusness,
are you not committing the same mistake by grasping at this Saha World and
not
seeking rebirth in the Pure Land, i.e., "leaving there and grasping here"?
If, on the
other hand, you say, "I am neither seeking rebirth there,
nor do I wish to remain here,"
you fall into the error of nihilism.
The Diamond Sutra states in this connection:
"Subhuti, ... do not have
such a thought. Why? Because one who develops the Supreme
Enlightened Mind
does not advocate the (total) annihilation (of the marks of the dharmas.)"
(Bilingual Buddhist Series, Vol. 1. Taipei: Buddhist Cultural Service, 1962,
p. 130.)
B) On the level of Specifics, since you have brought up the truth
of Non-Birth and the
Pure Mind, I would like to give the following explanation.
Non-Birth is precisely the truth of No-Birth and No-Death. No-Birth means
that all dharmas
are false aggregates, born of causes and conditions, with
no Self-Nature. Therefore, they have
no real "birth nature" or "time
of birth". Upon analysis, they do not really come from anywhere.
Therefore,
they are said to have No-Birth.
No-Death means that, since phenomena have
no Self-Nature, when they are extinguished,
they cannot be considered dead.
Because they have no real place to return to, they are said
to be not extinct
(No-Death).
For this reason, the truth of Non-Birth (or No-Birth No-Death)
cannot exist outside of
ordinary phenomena, which are subject to birth and
death. Therefore, Non-Birth does not
mean not seeking rebirth in the Pure
Land.
The Treatise on the Middle Way states:
"Dharmas (phenomena)
are born of causes and conditions. I say they are thus empty.
They are also
called false and fictitious, and that is also the truth of the Middle Way."
It also states:
"Dharmas are neither born spontaneously nor do
they arise from others. They are born
neither together with nor apart from
causes and conditions. They are therefore said to
have Non-Birth."
The Vimalakirti Sutra states:
"Although he knows that Buddha Lands /
Are void like living beings / He goes on
practicing the Pure Land (Dharma)
/ to teach and convert men." (Charles Luk, The
Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra,
p. 88.)
It also states:
"We can build mansions at will on empty
land, but it is impossible to build in the middle
of empty space."
When the Buddhas preach, they usually rely on the Two Truths (ultimate and conventional).
They do not destroy the fictitious, provisional identities of phenomena while
revealing their
true characteristics.
That is why the wise, while earnestly
striving for rebirth in the Pure Land, also understand
that the nature of
rebirth is intrinsically empty. This is true Non-Birth, and also the meaning
of
"only when the Mind is pure, will the Buddha Lands be pure".
The
dull and ignorant, on the other hand, are caught up in the concept of birth. Upon
hearing
the term "Birth", they understand it as actual birth; hearing
of "Non-Birth", they (cling to its literal
meaning) and think that
there is no rebirth anywhere. Little do they realize that "Birth is precisely
Non-Birth, and Non-Birth does not hinder Birth."
Because they do
not understand this principle, they provoke arguments, slandering
and deprecating
those who seek rebirth in the Western Pure Land. What a great mistake!
They
are guilty of vilifying the Dharma and belong to the ranks of deluded externalists
(non-Buddhists).
Question 3
All the Pure Lands of the Buddhas of
the ten directions have equal qualities and virtues.
Their Dharma Nature is
also the same. Therfore, the practitioner should meditate on all
the virtues
of the Buddhas and seek rebirth in the various Pure Lands of the ten directions.
Why should he specifically seek rebirth in the Pure Land of one particular
Buddha (i.e.,
Amitabha)? Is this not contrary to the truth of "equally
in seeking rebirth"?
Answer
All the Pure Lands of the Buddhas are,
in truth, equal. Nevetheless, since the majority of
sentient beings in our
world generally have dull faculties and defiled, scattered minds, it will
be
difficult for them to achieve samadhi, unless they concentrate exclusively on
one realm.
The practice of constantly focussing on Amitabha Buddha is the
"Single Mark Samadhi".
Because the Mind is exclusively devoted to
one thing, the practitioner achieves rebirth in
the Pure Land. In the Sutra
Rebirth According to One's Vows, Buddha Sakyamuni was
asked by a Bodhisattva,
"Honored One! There are Pure Lands in all ten directions. Why
do you
especially extol the Western Pure Land and urge sentient beings to focus continuously
on Amitabha Buddha, seeking rebirth in His Land?"
The Buddha replied,
"Sentient beings in this Saha World generally have polluted, scattered
minds.
Therefore, I only extol one Pure Land in the West, focussing their Minds on a
single
realm. If they meditate on all Buddhas, the scope of attention will
be too broad, their Minds
will be lost and scattered and they will find samadhi
difficult to attain. Thus, they will fail to
achieve rebirth in the Pure Land.
"Furthermore, seeking their virtues of one Buddha is the same as seeking
the virtues of
all Buddhas -- as all Buddhas have one common Dharma Nature.
That is why to focus
on Amitabha Buddha is to focus on all Buddhas, to be
born in the Western Pure Land is
to be born in all Pure Lands."
Thus, the Avatamsaka Sutra states:
"The bodies of all the Buddhas /
are the body of any one Buddha. / They have the same
Mind and the same wisdom.
/ They are also equal in power and fearlessness."
The Avatamsaka Sutra
further states:
"It is like the full moon, round and bright, its image
reflected in all rivers and ponds.
Although the reflection is everywhere,
there is but a single moon. So it is with ... (the
Buddhas). Although they
appear in all realms, their bodies are non-dual."
In summary, based
on these examples, the wise will understand the truth that "one is all, all
is
one". When this truth is grasped, concentrating on one Buddha is precisely
concentrating on all
Buddhas.
Question 4
There are many Buddhas and
Pure Lands in all the ten directions. Even if sentient beings
in this world
have polluted, scattered minds and dispositions, so that focussing on many
Buddhas
makes it difficult for them to attain samadhi, why should they not recite the
name
of any Buddha, as they wish, and seek rebirth in any Pure Lamd, in accordance
with their
vows? Why concentrate specifically on Amitabha Buddha and seek
rebirth in the Land of
Ultimate Bliss?
Answer
Common people lacking
in wisdom should follow the teaching of the Buddha rather than
acting arbitrarily
on their own. This is why, from time immemorial, Pure Land practitioners
have
all diligently recited Amitabha Buddha's name.
What does it mean to follow
the Buddha's teaching?
During his entire preaching career, Buddhs Sakyamuni
constantly enjoined sentient
beings to focus on Amitabha Buddha and seek rebirth
in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.
This is mentioned in such sutras as the Longer
Amitabha Sutra, the Meditation Sutra,
the Amitabha Sutra, the Lotus Sutra,
the Avatamsaka Sutra ... In numerous sutras,
the Buddha constantly urged us
to seek rebirth in the Western Land. This is not only
true of the sutras;
in their commentaries, the Bodhisattvas and Patriarchs unanimously
advise
us to seek rebirth in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.
Moreover, Amitabha Buddha
possesses the power of His forty-eight compassionate vows
to rescue sentient
beings. The Meditation Sutra states:
"Amitabha Buddha possesses 84,000
signs of perfection, each sign has 84,000 minor marks
of excellence and from
each minor mark 84,000 rays of light shine forth, illuminating the entire
Dharma
Realm (cosmos) to gather in, without exception, all sentient beings who practice
Buddha
Recitation. If any sentient being recite His name, there will be correspondence
between cause
and response, and he will surely be reborn."
Furthermore,
the Amitabha Sutra, the Longer Amitabha Sutra, etc., teach that when
Sakyamuni
Buddha preached these sutras, the Buddhas of the ten directions, numerous
as
the grains of sand in the River Ganges, all "extended their tongues to cover
the entire
universe", bearing witness to the truth that any sentient
being who recites Amitabha
Buddha's name shall be assured of rebirth in the
Land of Ultimate Bliss, thanks to the
great, compassionate vow-power of the
Buddha.
We should know that Amitabha Buddha has great affinities (causes
and conditions)
with this world. As the Longer Amitabha Sutra states:
"In the Dharma-Ending Age, when all other sutras have disappeared, only this
sutra will
remain for another hundred years to rescue sentient beings and
lead them to the Western
Pure Land."
This demostrates that Amitabha
Buddha has strong affinities with sentient beings
in this defiled world.
Although one or two sutras have, in a general way, urged rebirth in other Pure
Lands, this
cannot be compared to the fact that numerous sutras and commentaries
have earnestly pointed
out to the Land of Ultimate Bliss as the focus of rebirth.
Question 5
Ordinary people are entirely enmeshed in heavy evil karma
and are full of all kinds of
afflictions. Even though they may have some virtues
as a result of cultivation, they find it
difficult to sever even a fraction
of their defilements and hindrances. The Land of Ultimate
Bliss, on the other
hand, is extremely purely adorned, transcending the Triple Realm. How
can
such depraved common mortals hope to be reborn there?
Answer
There are
two conditions for rebirth: "self-power" and "other-power".
As far as self-power
is concerned, while the ordinary beings of this world,
totally bound (by their attachments and
afflictions), may have some level
of cultivation, in reality, they still cannot be reborn in the Pure
Land nor
deserve to reside there.
The Peace and Bliss Collection states:
"Those
who first develop the Bodhi Mind -- starting from the level of completely fettered
ordinary beings ignorant of the Three Treasures and the Law of Cause and Effect
-- should
base themselves initially on faith. Next, when they have embarked
upon the Bodhi path, the
precepts should serve as their foundation. If these
ordinary beings accept the Bodhisattva
precepts and continue to uphold them
unfailingly and without interruption for three kalpas,
they will reach the
First Abode of Bodhisattvahood.
"If they pursue their cultivation in
this manner through ... the Ten Paramitas as well as countless
vows and practices,
one after another without interruption, at the end of ten thousand kalpas they
will reach the Sixth Abode of Bodhisattvahood. Should they continue still
further, they will reach
the Seventh Abode (Non-Retrogression). They will
then have entered the stage of the 'Seed of
Buddhahood', (i.e., they are assured
of eventual Buddhahood). However, even then, they still
cannot achieve rebirth
in the Pure Land" -- that is, if they rely on self-power alone.
With
regard to "other power", if anyone believes in the power of Amitabha
Buddha's
compassionate vow to rescue sentient beings and then develops the
Bodhi Mind,
cultivate the Buddha Remembrance (Recitation) Samadhi, grows weary
of his temporal,
impure body in the Triple Realm, practices charity, upholds
the precepts amnd performs
other meritorious deeds -- dedicating all the merits
amd virtues to rebirth in the Western
Land -- his aspirations and the Buddha's
response will be accord. Relying thus on the
Buddha's power, he will immediately
achieve rebirth.
Thus, it is stated in the Commentary on the Ten Stages of
Buddhahood:
"There are two paths of cultivation, the Difficult Path
and the Easy Path. The Difficult Path
refers to the practices of sentient
beings in the world of the five turbidities, who, through
countless Buddha
eras, aspire to reach the stage of Non-Retrogression. The difficulties are
truly
countless, as numerous as specks of dust or grains of sand, too numerous to imagine.
I will summarize the five major ones below:
a) Externalists are legion,
creating confusion with respect to the Bodhisattva Dharma;
b) Evil beings
destroy the practitioner's good, wholesome virtues;
c) Worldly merits and
blessings can easily lead the practitioner astray, so that he ceases
to engage
in virtuous practices;
d) It is easy to stray onto the Arhat's path of self-benefit,
which obstructs the Mind of
great compassion;
e) Relying exclusively
on self-power, without the aid of the Buddha's power, makes
cultivation very
difficult and arduous. It is not unlike the case of a feeble, handicapped
person,
walking alone, who can only go so far each day regardless of how much effort
he
expends.
"The Easy Path of cultivation means that, if sentient beings
in this world believe in the
Buddha's words, practice Buddha Recitation and
vow to be reborn in the Pure Land,
they are assisted by the Buddha's vow-power
and assured of rebirth. This is analagous
to a person who floats downstream
in a boat; although the distance may be many
thousands of miles, his destination
will be reached in no time. Similarly, a common being,
relying on the power
of a 'universal monarch' (a kind of deity), can traverse the 'four
great universes'
in a day and a night -- this is not due to his own power, but, rather, to
the
power of the monarch."
Some people, reasoning according to "noumenon",
(principle) may say that common
beings, being "conditioned", cannot
be reborn in the Pure Land or see the Buddha's
body.
The answer is that
the virtues of Buddha Recitation are "unconditioned" good roots.
Ordinary,
impure persons who develop the Bodhi Mind, seek rebirth and constantly
practice
Buddha Recitation can subdue and destroy afflictions, achieve rebirth and,
depending
on their level of cultivation, obtain vision of the their level of the rudimentary
aspects of the Buddha (the thirty-two marks of greatness, for example). Bodhisattvas,
naturally, can achieve rebirth and see the subtle, loftier aspects of the
Buddha (i.e.,
the Dharma body). There can be no doubt about this.
Thus,
the Avatamsaka Sutra states:
"All the various Buddha Lands are equally
purely adorned. Because the karmic practices
of sentient beings differ, their
perceptions of these Lands are different."
This is the meaning of what
was said earlier.
Question 6
Although sentient beings, completely enmeshed
in afflictions and evil views, may achieve
rebirth in the Pure Land, they
are bound to develop afflictions and perverse views constantly.
Under these
circumstances, how can they be said to have "transcended the Triple Realm
and attained the stage of Non-Retrogression"?
Answer
Those who
are reborn in the Pure Land, though they may be ordinary beings totally
enmeshed
in evil karma, cannot ever develop afflictions or perverse views, nor can they
fail to achieve non-retrogression. This is due to five factors:
a) The
power of the Buddha's great, compassionate vow embraces and protects them;
b) The Buddha's light (wisdom) always shines upon them and, therefore, the Bodhi
Mind of these superior persons will always progress;
c) In the Western
Pure Land, the birds, water, forests, trees, wind and music all preach the
Dharma
of "suffering, emptiness, impermanence and no-self". Upon hearing this,
practitioners
begin to focus on the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha;
d) Those who are reborn in the Pure Land have the highest level Bodhisattvas as
their
companions and are free from all obstacles, calamities and evil conditions.
Moreober there
are no externalists or evil demons, so their Minds are always
calm and still;
e) Once they are reborn in the Pure Land, their life span
is inexhaustible, equal to that of the
Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Thus, they
can peacefully cultivate for countless eons.
As a result of these five causes
and conditions, sentient beings who are reborn in the Pure
Land will certainly
achieve non-retrogression and will never develop afflictions or perverse
views.
Sentient beings in this world of the five turbidities, on the other hand, have
short life
spans and face a host of perverse conditions and obstructions.
Therefore, they have great
difficulty achieving non-retrogression. This truth
is self-evident and beyond doubt.
Question 7
The Bodhisattva Maitreya
is a One-Life Bodhisattva who is now in the Tushita Heaven.
He will succeed
Buddha Sakyamuni and become a Buddha in the future. I venture to think
that
we should cultivate the loftier aspects of the Ten Virtues and seek to be reborn
in the
Tushita Heaven, to see Him in person. When the time comes for Him to
descend to earth
and become a Buddha, we will follow Him and certainly achieve
Sagehood in the course
of His three teaching assemblies. Therefore, where
is the need to seek rebirth in the Western
Pure Land?
Answer
Seeking
rebirth in the Tushita Heaven could be considered equivalent to hearing the
Dharma
and seeing the Buddha. It seems very similar to seeking rebirth in the Western
Pure Land. However, upon close scrutiny, there are many great differences
between
the two. Let us cite two points for the sake of discussion.
A)
Even though we may cultivate the Ten Virtues, it is not certain that we will achieve
rebirth in the Tushita Heaven. As states in the sutras:
"The practitioner
must cultivate the various samadhi and enter deeply into right concentration
to
obtain rebirth in the Inner Court of the Tushita Heaven."
From that
we can deduce that the Bodhisattva Maitreya lacks the expedient of "welcoming
and escorting". This cannot be compared to the power of Amitabha Buddha's
Original Vow
and His power of light, which can gather in and rescue all sentient
beings who concentrate in
Him.
Moreover, when Buddha Sakyamuni explained
the meaning of the "welcoming and escorting"
expedient in his exposition
of the nine grades of rebirth, he earnestly enjoined sentient beings to
seek
rebirth in the Western Pure Land. This expedient is very simple. The practitioner
need only
recite the name of Amitabha and, thanks to the congruence of sentiment
and response, he will
immediately achieve rebirth. This is analogous to an
enlistment campaign: those who wish to
join the army may do so immediately,
as their desire parallels the goal of the state.
B) Secondly, the Tushita
Heaven is, after all, still within the Realm of Desire (to which our
Saha
World also belongs). Therefore, those who retrogress are legion. In that Heaven,
the
birds, rivers, forests, trees, wind ... do not preach the Dharma and thus
cannot help sentient
beings destroy afflictions, focus on the Triple Jewel
nor develop the Bodhi Mind. Moreover,
in that realm, there are goddesses who
kindle the five desires in the Minds of celestial beings,
to the point where
few of them escape distraction and infatuation.
How can this be compared
to the Western Pure Land, where the trees and birds proclaim
the wonderful
Dharma and the wind sings enlightenment, destroying the afflictions of sentient
beings and reinforcing the Bodhi Mind of practitioners? Moreover, in the Pure
Land of
Amitabha Buddha, there are no seductive beings or beings concerned
with self-enlightenment
alone. There are only pure vessels of the Mahayana
way. Therefore, afflictions and evil karma
cannot arise. Under these circumstances,
how can cultivators fail to achieve the stage of
non-retrogression swiftly?
We have only drawn a few points of comparison, yet the differences
between
the Pure Land and the Tushita Heaven are already obvious. How can there be any
further doubt or hesitation?
Moreover, seeing the Bodhisattva Maitreya
and achieving the fruits of Arhatship is not
necessarily a sure thing! During
the lifetime of Buddha Sakyamuni, there were many who
saw the Buddha but did
not achieve Sagehood. In the future, when the Bodhisattva
Maitreya appears
in the world, the same will be true: countless sentient beings will see
Him
and listen to the Dharma but not attain Arhatship. Such is not the case in the
Pure
Land of Amitabha Buddha: to be reborn there is to be assured of attaining
the Tolerance
of Non-Birth, with no possible retrogression to the Triple World
nor bondage to the karma
of Birth and Death.
In the Accounts of the Western
Land, (i.e., India), there is the story of three Bodhisattvas,
Asanga, Vasubandhu
and Simhabhadra, all of whom practiced meditation, determined to seek
rebirth
in the Tushita Heaven. They all vowed that if the first one of them to die were
reborn
in the Inner Court of the Tushita Heaven and saw the Bodhisattva Maitreya,
he would return
and inform the others. Simhabhadra died first, but a long
time elapsed and he still had not
returned. Later, when Vasubandhu was nearing
death, Asanga said to him, "After paying
your respects to Maitreya, come
back and let me know right away." Vasubandhu died, but
did not return
for three years. Asanga inquired, "Why did it take you so long?" Vasubandhu
answered, "After paying my respects to the Bodhisattva Maitreya, listening
to His sermon
and exhortations, and respectfully circumambulating Him three
times, I came back immediately.
I could not return sooner because a day and
night in the Tushita Heaven is equivalent to four
hundred years on earth."
Asanga then asked, "Where is Simhabhadra now?" Vasubandhu replied,
"He has strayed
into the Outer Court of the Tushita Heaven, and is now
entangled in the five pleasures. From
the time of his death to now, he has
been unable to see Maitreya."
We can deduce from this anecdote that
even lesser Bodhisattvas who are reborn in
the Tushita Heaven are subject
to delusion, not to mention common mortals. Therefore,
practitioners who wish
to be assured of non-retrogression should seek rebirth in the
Western Pure
Land rather than the Tushita Heaven.
Question 8
From time immemorial,
sentient beings have committed countless transgressions. Moreover,
in this
life, from infancy to old age, they create additional evil karma because they
do not have
the opportunity to encounter good spiritual advisors. Under these
circumstances, how can it
be said that "At the time of death, they will
achieve rebirth with only ten perfect utterances of
the Buddha's name"?
Furthermore, how do you satisfactorily explain the teaching that such
practitioners
"transcend the binding karma of the Triple Realm"?
Answer
In
truth, it is difficult to assess the number or the strength of the good and evil
kamic seeds
that sentient beings have created from time immemorial. However,
those who, at the time of
death, encounter a good spiritual advisor and accomplish
ten utterances, must have created
good karma in the past. Otherwise, they
could not even meet a good spiritual advisor, let
alone accomplish ten pure
recitations!
Now, lest you think that the evil karma from beginningless time
is heavy while ten utterances
at the time of death are light, I shall cite
three reasons why rebirth in the Pure Land does not
necessarily depend on
the weight of bad karma, the amount of practice or the duration of
cultivation.
The three reasons concern a) the Mind, b) the conditions and c) the issue of certainty.
a) Mind
The trangressions committed by sentient beings spring from deluded,
perverse thought.
Recitation of the Buddha's name, on the other hand, arises
from right thought, that is,
hearing of Amitabha Buddha's name and true virtues.
One is false and the other is true.
There is no possible comparison between
them!
This is similar to a house which has been boarded up for ten thousand
years. If the windows
are suddenly opened to let the sunlight in, all darkness
immediately dissipates. However long
the period of darkness may have been,
how can it fail to disappear? It is likewise for sentient
beings who have
committed transgressions for many eons but achieve rebirth at the time of death
through ten pure recitations.
b) Conditions
Transgressions grow
out of dark, inverted thoughts, combined with illusory circumstances
and environments.
Buddha Recitation, on the contrary, arises from hearing of Amitabha Buddha's
name
and pure virtues, combined with the aspiration for enlightenment. One is false
and the
other is true. There is no possible comparison between them!
This is analagous to a person struck by a poisoned arrow. The arrow has penetrated
deep
inside his body and the poison is strong, deeply wounding his flesh and
bones. Still, if at that
moment he hears the "celestial drum", the
arrow will "shoot out" of his flesh by itself and the
poison will
be neutralized. The arrow has not penetrated so deep nor is the poison so strong
that he cannot recover! It is likewise for sentient beings who have committed
transgressions
for many eons but achieve rebirth at the time of death through
ten pure recitations.
c) Certaintiy of Salvation
When sentient beings
commit transgressions, they do so enter from the "intervening mental
state"
or "post-mental state". These two mental states do not apply, however,
at the time of
death: there is only one extremely powerful, utterly intense
thought of recitation, letting go of
everything before dying. Therefore, rebirth
is achieved.
This is analogous to a very large, strong cable which even thousands
of people cannot break.
Yet, a child wielding a "celestial sword"
can cut it in several pieces without difficulty. It is also
similar to a huge
pile of wood, accumulated for thousands of years, which, when set on fire by
a
small flame, is completely consumed within a short time. The same is true of someone
who
has practiced the Ten Virtues throughout his life, seeking rebirth in
the Heavens. If, at the time
of death, he develops an intense perverse thought,
he will immediately descend, instead, into
the Avici (Never-Ending) Hell.
Although bad karma is intrinsically false and illusory, the overpowering
strength of Mind
and thought can still upset a lifetime of good karma and
cause the individual to descend
onto evil paths. How, then, can Buddha Recitation,
which is true, wholesome karma,
generated intensely at the time of death,
fail to upset his bad karma, even though that karma
may have been accumulated
from time immemorial? Therefore, someone who has committed
transgressions
for many eons, but, at the time of death accomplishes ten recitations with a
totally
earnest Mind, will certainly be reborn in the Pure Land. Not to achieve rebirth
under
such circumstances would indeed be inconceivable!
The sutras teach:
"A single utterly sincere recitation of Amitabha Buddha's name obliterates
the grave
wrongdoings of eight million eons of Birth and Death."
This is possible because the practitioner recites the Buddha's name with a Mind
of utmost
sincerity and therefore can annihilate evil karma. As long as, on
his deathbed, he utters the
Buddha's name in such a frame of Mind, he will
be assured of rebirth. There can be no further
doubt about it!
Traditionally,
it has been explained that the dying person's ability to recite ten utterances
is
due entirely to previous good karma. This explanation is not, however,
correct. Why is this
so? It is because, as a commentary states, "if it
were merely a question of previous karma,
only the vow for rebirth would be
necessary, and there would be no place at all for practice ..."
The
practitioner who, on his deathbed, accomplishes ten recitations, is able to do
so
because of his previous good conditions (enabling him to meet a good spiritual
advisor)
and because of his own wholehearted recitation. To attribute rebirth
in such circumstances
exclusively to previous good karma would be a great
mistake! I hope that practitioners
will ponder this truth deeply, develop
a firm Mind, and not be led astray by erroneous
views.
Question 9
The Western Pure Land is ten billion Buddha Lands away from here. Common, ordinary
people are weak and frail. How can they reach it?
Answer
The Western
Pure Land is described as being ten billion Buddha Lands away from here
only
with respect to the limited concepts of ordinary people with eyes of flesh and
blood,
mired in birth and death.
For those who have attained the pure
karma of rebirth in the Pure Land, the Mind in
samadhi at the time of death
is precisely the Mind reborn in the Pure Land. As soon as
the thought (of
rebirth) arises, rebirth is achieved. Thus, the Meditation Sutra states
that
"the Land of Amitabha Buddha is not far from here!" Moreover, the power
of karma
is inconceivable. In the space of one thought, rebirth in the Pure
Land is achieved. There
is no need to worry about distance.
This is analogous
to a person asleep and dreaming. Although his body is on the bed,
his Mind
is travelling all over, to all worlds, as though he were awake. Rebirth in the
Pure Land is, generally speaking, similar to this example.
Question 10
I have now resolved to seek rebirth in the Western Pure Land. However, I
do not know
which practices to cultivate, nor what the seeds of rebirth in
the Western Pure Land are.
Moreover, ordinary people all have families and
have not rid themselves of lust and attachment.
This being the case, can they
achieve rebirth?
Answer
If a cultivator wishes to be assured of rebirth,
he should perfect two practices: the practice
of "disgust" (at the
five desires) and the practice of "joyfulness in vows".
A) The
practice of "disgust" refers to the fact that common people have been
bound by
the five desires from time immemorial. Thus, they wander along the
six paths, enduring
untold suffering! In that quagmire, unless they become
disgusted with the five desires, how
can they escape the cycle of birth and
death?
Therefore, the Pure Land cultivator should constantly visualize this
body as a mass of
flesh and bones, blood and pus, a skinbag containing phlegm,
pus, urine, feces and other
foul-smelling substances. The Parinirvana Sutra
states:
"This fortress of a body -- only evil, deluded demons could
tolerate living in it. Who
with any wisdom would ever cling to or to delight
in such a skinbag!"
Another scriptures states:
"This body
is the confluence of all kinds of suffering; it is a jail, a prison, a mass of
ulcers;
everything is impure. In truth, it is not worth clinging to -- even
the celestial bodies of deities
are no different."
Therefore, whether
walking, standing, sitting or reclining, whether asleep or awake,
cultivators
should always visualize this body as nothing but a source of suffering, without
any pleasure, and develop a sense of disgust ... (thus gradually becoming
free from lustful
thoughts).
Moreover, the cultivator should also engage
in the Seven Types of Meditation on Impurity
(e.g., as a fetus, in the impure,
dirty area of the womb, drinking the mother's blood, emerging
from the womb
with pus and blood gushing forth and foul odors in profusion ... after death,
the body swelling up and rotting away, with flesh and bones in disarray ...).
Our own bodies being thus, the bodies of others are likewise. If we constantly
meditate
on these seven impurities, we will develop disgust toward those male
and female forms
which ordinary people judge handsome and beautiful. The flames
of lust will thus gradually
diminish.
If, in addition, we can practice
the meditations on the Nine Kinds Of Foulness, (e.g.
meditation on the fresh
corpse, the bloated corpse, the bleeding and oozing corpse, the
skeleton ...
and other progressive stages of decay of the human body after death), so
much
the better.
We should also vow to be forever free from rebirth in a deluded,
impure male or female
body in the Triple Realm, eating a hodgepodge of foods,
and aspiring instead to be endowed
with a Pure Land Dharma Nature body.
This constitutes a general discussion of the practice of disgust.
B) There
are, in general, two aspects to making the joyous vow of "rescuing oneself
and others".
1) The practitioner should clearly realize the goal
of rebirth -- which is to seek escape
from suffering for himself and all sentient
beings. He should think thus: "My own strength
is limited, I am still
bound by karma; moreover, in this evil, defiled life, the circumstances
and
conditions leading to afflictions are overpowering. That is why other sentient
beings
and myself are drowning in the river of delusion, wandering along the
evil paths from time
immemorial. The wheel of birth and death is spinning
without end; how can I find a way
to rescue myself and others in a safe, sure
manner?
"There is but one solution: it is to seek rebirth in the Pure
Land, draw close to the Buddhas
and Bodhisattvas, and, relying on the supremely
auspicious environment of that realm, engage
in cultivation and attain the
Tolerance of Non-Birth. Only then can I enter the evil world to
rescue sentient
beings."
The Treatise on Rebirth states:
"To develop the Bodhi
Mind is precisely to seek Buddhahood; to seek Buddhahood is
to develop the
Mind of rescuing sentient beings; and the Mind of rescuing sentient beings
is
none other than the Mind that gathers in all beings and helps them achieve rebirth
in the
Pure Land."
Moreover, to ensure rebirth, we should perfect
two practices: abandoning the three
things that hinder enlightenment and abiding
by the three things that foster enlightenment.
What are the three things
that hinder enlightenment?
First, the Mind of seeking our own peace and happiness,
ego-grasping and attachment
to our own bodies. The practitioner should follow
the path of wisdom and leave all such
thoughts far behind.
Second, the
Mind of abandoning and failing to rescue sentient beings from suffering.
The
practitioner should follow the path of compassion and leave all such thoughts
far
behind.
Third, the Mind of exclusively seeking respect and offerings,
without seeking ways to
benefit sentient beings and bring them peace and happiness.
The practitioner should follow
the path of expedients and leave all such thoughts
far behind.
Once he has abandoned these three hindrances, the practitioner
will obtain the three
things that foster enlightenment. They are:
First,
the "undefiled Pure Mind" of not seeking personal happiness. That is,
enlightenment
is the state of undefiled purity. If we seek after personal
pleasure, body and Mind are defiled
and obstruct the path of enlightenment.
Therefore, the undefiled Pure Mind is called consonant
with enlightenment.
Second, the "Pure Mind at peace", rescuing all sentient beings
from suffering. This is because
Bodhi is the undefiled Pure Mind which gives
peace and happiness to sentient beings. If we
are not rescuing sentient beings
and helping them to escape the sufferings of Birth and Death,
we are going
counter to the Bodhi path. Therefore, a Mind focussed on saving others, bringing
them peace and happiness, is called consonant with enlightenment.
Third,
a "blissful, Pure Mind", seeking to help sentient beings achieve Great
Nirvana.
Because Great Nirvana is the ultimate, eternally blissful realm,
if we do not help sentient
beings to achieve it, we obstruct the Bodhi path.
Hence, the Mind which seeks to help
sentient beings attain eternal bliss is
called consonant with enlightenment.
How can we abandon the things that hinder
enlightenment and abide by the things
that foster enlightenment? -- It is
precisely by seeking rebirth in the Western Pure Land,
remaining constantly
near the Buddhas and cultivating the Dharma until Tolerance of
Non-Birth is
reached. At that point, we may sail the boat of great vows at will, enter
the
sea of Birth and Death and rescue sentient beings with wisdom and compassion,
"adapting to conditions but fundamentally unchanging", free and
unimpeded. This ends
our discussion of the goal of rebirth.
2) The cultivator
should next contemplate the wholesome characteristics of the Pure Land
and
the auspicious features of Amitabha Buddha.
Auspicious features:
Amitabha
Buddha possesses a resplendent, golden Reward Body, replete with 84,000
major
characteristics, each characteristic having 84,000 minor auspicious signs, each
sign
beaming 84,000 rays of light which illuminate the entire Dharma Realm
and gather in those
sentient beings who recite the Buddha's name (Ninth Visualization
in the Meditation Sutra).
Wholesome characteristics:
The Western Pure
Land is adorned with seven treasures, as explained in the Pure Land
sutras.
In addition, when practicing charity, keeping the precepts and performing
all kinds of
good deeds, Pure Land practitioners should always dedicate the
merits toward rebirth
in the Pure Land for themselves and all other sentient
beings.
If the practitioner can cultivate joyfulness in vows, as set out
in Section B, he will develop
a Mind of hope and longing for the Pure Land
and achieve rebirth without fail. This is what
is meant by vowing to rescue
oneself and others.
************************************************************************************************************
Are
Buddhists Ambitious?
by Venerable Thubten Chodron©
When
people first begin Dharma practice, they often ask, "Buddhism says clinging
attachment is a disturbing attitude. If I diminish my clinging attachment, what
will happen to my ambition? Will I be listless and lack motivation to do anything?
What will happen to my career?" Similarly, they wonder, "What role does
ambition play when we organize Dharma events and volunteer work in a Dharma center?
How do we know if our efforts are positive?"
These are good questions
and to answer them we must distinguish between constructive ambition and destructive
ambition. Ambition, like desire, can have two aspects, depending upon the motivation
and the object sought. Negative ambition pursues worldly success and worldly pleasures
with a self-centered motivation. Positive ambition seeks beneficial goals with
one of the three kinds of Dharma motivation: to have a good rebirth in the future,
to be liberated from the difficulties of cyclic existence, and to attain full
enlightenment in order to benefit all beings most effectively.
When speaking
of the first hindrance to genuine Dharma practice -- attachment to the happiness
of only this life -- the Buddha spoke of the desire or ambition for material possessions,
money, fame, praise, approval, and sensory pleasures such as food, music, and
sex. Due to our strong desire to have the pleasure we think these things will
bring, we often harm, manipulate, or deceive others to obtain them. Even if we
strive for these things without directly ill-treating others, our mind is still
locked into a narrow state, seeking happiness from external people and objects
that do not have the ability to bring us lasting happiness. Thus, the time we
could spend developing unbiased love, compassion and wisdom is diverted into seeking
things that do not satisfy us in the long term. To bring about lasting happiness,
we need to decrease this kind of ambition by first, seeing its disadvantages --
these actions create problems in our relationships with others and also plant
negative karmic imprints on our mindstream -- and second, recognizing that the
things worldly ambition seek lack the ability to bring us long-term happiness.
There are many rich and famous people who are miserable and suffer from emotional
problems and alcoholism.
As we gradually decrease our worldly ambition, space
opens up in our mind to act with compassion and wisdom. This is positive ambition.
Compassion -- the wish that living beings be free of suffering -- can be a powerful
motivator for action. It can replace the anger that previously motivated us when
we saw social injustice, and inspire us to act to help others. Similarly, constructive
ambition is imbued with the skillful wisdom that reflects carefully on the long-
and short-term effects of our actions. In short, through consistent practice,
the energy of our selfish ambitions for worldly pleasures is transformed into
the energy of practicing the Dharma and benefiting others.
For example, let's
say Sam is very attached to his reputation. He wants people to think well of him
and speak well of him to others, not because he really cares about people, but
because he wants people to give him things, to do things for him, and to introduce
him to famous and powerful people. With this motivation, he may lie, cover up
his shortcomings, pretend to have qualities he doesn't have, or to have contacts
are, in fact, bogus. Or, he may even do something seemingly nice, such as speak
sweetly to someone, but his intention is solely to fulfill his selfish wish.
If
he stops and reflects, "What is the result of such an attitude and actions?
Will attaining what my ambition seeks really bring me happiness?" Sam would
realize that, in fact, he is creating more problems for himself and others through
his deceit and manipulation. Although at the beginning he may be able to fool
people, eventually he will give himself away and they will discover his base motives
and lose faith in him. Even if he succeeds in getting the things he wants and
initially feels good, these things will not leave him totally satisfied and will
bring with them a new set of problems. In addition, he is creating negative karma,
which is the cause to have problems in future lifetimes. By thinking in this way,
his worldly ambition will die down and there will be now space to think clearly.
Reflecting on his interdependence with all beings, Sam will understand that his
own and others' happiness are not separate. How could he be happy if those around
him are miserable? How could he bring about others' happiness if he neglects himself?
He could then engage in various projects with this new, more realistic motivation
of care and concern for self and others.
As we leave behind worldly ambitions,
we can approach our job and career with a new motivation. With worldly ambition,
we grasp at our paycheck and everything we want to buy with it, and are concerned
with our reputation in the workplace and getting the promotions we seek. When
we recognize that even if we got those things they would not make us everlastingly
happy, nor would they give ultimate meaning to our lives, then we can relax. This
relaxation is not laziness, however, for now there is room in our minds for more
altruistic and far-reaching attitudes which motivate our work. For example, in
the morning before going to work, we can think, "I want to offer service
to my clients and colleagues. My purpose in working is to benefit these people
and to treat them with kindness and respect." Imagine how different our working
environment would be if even one person -- us -- acted with that intention as
much as we could! We can also think, "Whatever happens today -- even if I
get criticized or stressed out -- I will use it to learn about my mind and to
practice the Dharma." Then, if unpleasant things happen at work, we can observe
our minds and try to apply the Dharma antidotes to disturbing emotions such as
anger. If we are not successful with quieting our mind down on the spot, when
we come home we can review what happened and apply the Dharma antidotes, in this
example, by doing one of the meditations to generate patience. In this way, we
can see that giving up worldly ambition will actually make us kinder, more relaxed,
and thus more efficient at our work. And curiously, those are the qualities that
will naturally bring us a better reputation and even a promotion, although we
may not directly be seeking them!
Sometimes, if we are not careful, our worldly
ambitions become involved with Dharma projects. For example, we may become attached
to being someone important in the eyes of our spiritual master and become jealous
of or compete with fellow disciples for our teacher's attention. We may seek to
be powerful in our Dharma center so that things are done according to our ideas
and we get the credit for the center's achievements. We may want to have many
expensive and beautiful Buddha statues, Dharma books, and photographs of spiritual
masters so that we can show them off to our Buddhist friends. We may want to have
the reputation of being a good meditator or one who has taken many initiations
and done several retreats.
In such cases, although the objects and people
we are around are Buddhist, our motivation is not. It is the same worldly ambition,
only now it is more deadly because it focuses on Dharma objects. It is easy to
get caught in this trap. We think that just because we work in Dharma groups,
go to teachings, or have Buddhist objects, that we are practicing Dharma. This
is not necessarily the case. A motivation seeking reputation, possessions and
so forth for the happiness of only this life contaminates our actions It is only
by repeatedly looking at our motivation that we can discern whether or not it
is worldly or Dharmic. Often, we discover our motivations are mixed: we do care
about the Dharma and want to serve others, but we also want our efforts to be
noticed and appreciated and to receive some recognition or remuneration in return.
It is normal to find such mixed motivations, for we are not yet realized beings.
Should we discover a mixed motivation or one tainted by worldly concern, then
we need to contemplate its disadvantages as explained before and deliberately
generate one of the three Dharma motivations.
The purpose of our practice is
not to look like we are practicing Dharma, but to actually practice it. Practicing
Dharma means transforming our minds. This occurs in our own minds. Statues, books,
Dharma centers, and so forth help us to do this. They are the tools which help
us actualize our purpose; they are not the practice itself. Thus, to progress
along the path, we continuously have to be aware of our internal thoughts and
feelings and examine if they concern worldly ambitions and desires, which are
by nature self-centered and narrow. If they do, we can transform them into the
positive ambition and desire for more noble aims such as the happiness of others,
liberation from cyclic existence, and the full enlightenment of a Buddha. As we
gradually do so, the benefit to ourselves and others will be apparent.
***********************************************************************************************
Achieving
Shamatha
Alexander Berzin
May 30, 2001
Objects
of Shamatha
Shamatha (zhi-gnas, calm abiding) is a stilled and settled state
of mind that has the accompanying mental factor (sems-byung, subsidiary awareness)
of a sense of physical and mental fitness (shin-sbyangs, flexibility). This is
an exhilarating feeling of fitness to be able to concentrate on anything for as
long as we wish.
Shamatha is settled on an object or in a state of mind. It
can be a sense object, such as the breath, or a visualized mental object, like
a Buddha. In Anthology of Special Topics of Knowledge (Chos mngon-pa kun-las btus-pa,
Skt. Abhidharma-samuccaya), the third-century Indian master Asanga emphasizes
concentrating only on a mental object.
" In following that instruction,
the Gelug tradition mostly uses a visualized Buddha as the object of focus.
"
The Kagyü and Sakya traditions also employ what Gelug would consider sense
objects, such as paintings of Buddhas, flowers, pebbles, and so on. This does
not violate Asanga's instruction. In the non-Gelug traditions, the objects of
sensory cognition are only sensibilia, such as patches of colored shapes, not
decisively determined as being a "this" or a "that." Because
such patches need to be mentally constructed into a Buddha image or a flower,
focus on a Buddha image or flower is exclusively with mental cognition.
Nevertheless,
most meditation masters of all Tibetans traditions recommend choosing a Buddha
- whether a visualized one or an actual image - since it helps with safe direction
(refuge), bodhichitta, and tantra. While focusing on a Buddha, we may also focus
on a Buddha's good qualities (yon-tan). We may then accompany our focus with belief
in the fact (dad-pa, "faith") that Buddhas have these qualities, and
we may pay attention to them as features that we aspire to attain ourselves.
For
attaining shamatha, we may also focus on other objects, pay attention to them
in other beneficial ways, and accompany our focus with other constructive emotions
and attitudes. For example:
" With the four immeasurable attitudes (tshad-med
bzhi), we focus progressively on ourselves, friends, strangers, and those we dislike,
and we pay attention to them with equanimity, love, compassion, and then joy.
" With equalizing and exchanging our attitudes about self and others
(bdag-gzhan mnyam-brje), we focus on ourselves and all others, and pay attention
to everyone as being equal. Continuing our focus, we then pay attention to others
with the strong caring concern that we previously reserved for ourselves, and
to ourselves with the weak caring concern that we previously had for others. These
are the objects of concentration that Shantideva explains in Engaging in Bodhisattva
Behavior.
" With the four close placements of mindfulnesses (dran-pa
nyer-bzhag bzhi), we focus on the body as unclean, feelings as suffering, mental
states as impermanent, and all phenomena as lacking true identities.
"
With the four noble truths, we focus on our changing aggregates in terms of true
problems and true causes of problems, and on our minds in terms of true stoppings
(cessations) and true paths.
Alternatively, our focus may remain unaimed at
any specific object (dmigs-med). We may remain focused:
" in a state
of love and compassion, unaimed at any specific being, but extending out to everyone,
like sunshine emanating from the sun,
" on voidness, unaimed in the sense
of not being aimed at true existence,
" on mind (mental activity) itself,
unaimed at objects of cognition as if they existed on their own.
The latter
method of focusing for attaining shamatha is used in mahamudra (phyag-chen, great
seal) and dzogchen (rdzogs-chen, great completeness) meditations. There are at
least four major manners of meditating:
1. In the Karma Kagyü tradition
of mahamudra, we focus first on commonsense objects constructed from the sensibilia
of each of the senses (the sight of an orange, the smell of an orange, the taste
of an orange, and so on) and then on a visualized object. When we gain a stable
level of concentration, we then focus with it on the mind itself, but without
being aimed at the mind as an object. We do this by settling down into the mind's
natural state of bliss (bde-ba), clarity (gsal-ba), and bareness (stong-pa).
2.
In the Sakya tradition of mahamudra, we stare at a visual object and then focus
on just the clarity aspect (gsal-ba) of the cognition, which is the aspect that
is giving rise to the cognitive appearance.
3. In the Gelug/Kagyü tradition
of mahamudra, we focus on the superficial nature (kun-rdzob, conventional nature)
of mind as the mental activity of merely giving rise to cognitive appearances
and cognitively engaging with them (gsal-rig-tsam, mere clarity and awareness).
4. In the Nyingma tradition of dzogchen, we settle down into the natural state
in between thoughts.
Regardless of the object we choose, we need to stay with
that object until we achieve shamatha, and not switch objects part way through
the process.
Conducive Conditions
To practice and achieve shamatha, we need
to gather six conditions conducive for it:
1. A conducive place (yul).
2.
Little attachment - to people, friends and loved ones, food, clothing, our own
bodies, affection, comfort, praise, blame, sleep, and so on.
3. Contentment
with the food, clothing, weather conditions, and so on that we have.
4. Being
rid of the busy work ('du-'dzi) of having many distracting activities, such as
carrying out business and other worldly affairs, gardening, elaborate cooking,
chatting with fellow practitioners, speaking on the telephone, writing letters
or email, and so on.
5. Pure ethical self-discipline.
6. Being rid of
obsessive prejudiced thoughts (rnam-rtog) about what we usually consider desirable
to do, such as watching television or videos, looking at the Internet, listening
to music, reading novels, reading about astrology, medicine, and so on.
In
Filigree of Mahayana Sutras (mDo-sde rgyan, Skt. Mahayanasutra-alamkara), Asanga
gives the five qualities of the first of the above six conducive conditions (a
conducive place):
1. Easy availability of food and water.
2. An excellent
spiritual situation (gnas), having been approved and sanctified by our own spiritual
mentor or by previous masters who have meditated there.
3. An excellent geographic
situation (sa), being secluded, quiet, distant from people who upset us, with
a pleasant long-distance view of nature, no sound of running water or the ocean
to mesmerize us, and a good climate.
4. The excellent company of friends similarly
engaged and either living nearby or practicing with us.
5. The items required
for a happy bonding (Skt. yoga) with the practice, namely having the full teachings
and instructions for the practice and having thought about and understood them
beforehand so that we are free of questions and doubts.
The Five Deterrents
to Concentration
Having the full teachings and instructions for shamatha refers
primarily to having detailed teachings on the five deterrents to concentration
(nyes-pa lnga) and the eight composing mental factors ('du-byed brgyad) for overcoming
them. Maitreya delineated these deterrents and factors in Differentiating the
Middle from the Extremes (dBus-mtha' rnam-'byed, Skt. Madhyanta-vibhanga).
The
five deterrents to concentration are:
1. Laziness (le-lo), of three types:
1. putting meditation off until later because we do not feel like doing it
(sgyid-lugs),
2. clinging to negative or trivial activities or things (bya-ba
ngan-zhen), such as gambling, drinking, friends who are bad influences on us,
going to parties, and so on.
3. feelings of inadequacy (zhum-pa).
2. Forgetting
the instructions or losing the object of focus (gdams-ngag brjed-pa).
3. Interruptions
due to mental flightiness or mental dullness (bying-rgod).
4. Not applying
opponents to them ('du mi-byed).
5. Not stopping applying opponents when they
are no longer necessary ('du-byed).
Levels of Mental Flightiness and Mental
Dullness
The mental hold ('dzin-cha) on an object of focus has two aspects,
mental placement (gnas-cha, mental abiding) and appearance-making (gsal-cha, clarity).
The latter aspect gives rise to the cognitive appearance of the object.
Mental
flightiness (rgod-pa, agitation), a subcategory of mental wandering (rnam-g.yeng)
or distraction ('phro-ba), is a fault of the mental placement on the object due
to desire or attachment. There are two levels:
1. With gross flightiness of
mind, we completely lose mental placement on the object because our mental hold
on it is so weak that it is lost.
2. With subtle flightiness of mind, we keep
the hold, but not tightly enough, so that there is an undercurrent of thought
about the object or about something else. Even if there is no undercurrent of
thought, yet because the hold is slightly too tight, we feel restless and are
"itching" to leave.
Mental dullness (bying-ba, sinking) is an interruption
to concentration due to a fault in the appearance-making factor of the mental
hold. It has three levels:
1. With gross mental dullness, we lose the object
because the appearance-making factor is too weak to give rise to it. This can
be with or without foggy-mindedness (rmugs-pa) (heaviness of body and mind), and
with or without sleepiness (gnyid).
2. With middling mental dullness, we give
rise to an appearance of the object, but the hold is not tight and so it lacks
sharp focus (ngar).
3. With subtle mental dullness, we give rise to an appearance
of the object and have sharp focus, but because the mental hold is still not sufficiently
tight, it is not fresh (gsar). Being "spaced out" can refer to all three
levels of dullness.
The Eight Composing Mental Factors
To overcome laziness,
we need to apply the first four of the eight composing mental factors:
1. Belief
in a fact (dad-pa), namely in the advantages of achieving shamatha.
2. This
leads to the conscious intention ('dun-pa) to concentrate.
3. This leads to
joyful perseverance (brtson-'grus), happily making an effort to do something constructive.
4. This leads to a sense of fitness (shin-sbyangs), which gives us the flexibility
to apply ourselves to the practice.
Shantideva explains four supports (dpung-bzhi)
and two forces (stobs-gnyis) to enhance joyful perseverance:
" Firm aspiration
(mos-pa) is being firmly convinced of the benefits of the goal and the drawbacks
of not achieving it, so that aspiration to attain it cannot be swayed.
"
Steadfastness (brtan) or self-confidence (nga-rgyal) comes from examining if we
are capable of achieving the goal and, being convinced that we are, applying ourselves
steadily, even though progress goes up and down.
" Joy (dga'-ba) is not
being satisfied with just a little progress, but taking joy in advancing, with
a sense of self-satisfaction.
" Rest (dor) is taking a break when tired,
but not out of laziness, in order to refresh ourselves.
" Naturally accepting
(lhur-len) is naturally to accept what we need to practice and what we need to
rid ourselves of in order to reach our goals, and naturally to accept the hardships
involved, having examined them realistically.
" Taking control (dbang-sgyur)
is to take control of ourselves and apply ourselves to what we wish to achieve.
To overcome forgetting the instructions or losing the object of focus, we
need to apply:
5. Mindfulness (dran-pa), remembering, keeping the mental hold
on the object of focus (dmigs-rten), like "mental glue."
To overcome
mental flightiness or mental dullness, we need to apply:
6. Alertness (shes-bzhin),
to check the condition of our mindfulness. If the mental glue becomes undone due
to gross flightiness or dullness, so that we lose the object, alertness triggers
the restoring attention (chad-cing 'jug-pa'i yid-byed) to focus once more on the
object. Alternatively, it triggers tightening the grip or loosening the grip of
mindfulness in the case of middling and subtle dullness or subtle flightiness.
To overcome the deterrent of not applying the opponents for them, we need
to apply:
7. Readiness to apply opponents ('du-byed). This comes from the two
powers to enhance joyful perseverance: naturally accepting what has to be done
and what has to be gotten rid of, and taking control to apply ourselves.
To
overcome not stopping applying opponents when they are no longer necessary, we
need to apply:
8. Relaxation of opponents ('du mi-byed). This refers also to
knowing when to take a rest, knowing not to push more than is appropriate.
Concentration
and Alertness as Automatic Features of Mindfulness
For achieving shamatha,
we need to put our main energy on maintaining mindfulness (mental glue) on our
object of focus. This means making effort primarily on holding on to the object.
With mental glue, we automatically have concentration. Mental glue and concentration
are merely two ways of describing the same mental activity. Mental glue describes
it from the point of view of the mental hold on the object of focus; concentration
describes it from the point of view of mental placement (mental abiding) on the
object.
Moreover, if we liken mental glue to the sun, then alertness is like
the sunlight - it is automatically present. In other words, if we are able to
maintain a mental hold on an object of focus with mental glue, this implies that
we are automatically keeping a check to see if the hold is proper.
Occasionally,
however, we need to apply a second type of alertness, one that makes a spot check
of the condition of the mental hold on the object. When doing so, however, we
only use a corner of our attention, so as not to be distracted from having the
main focus of our attention be on the object of the meditation.
The Nine Stages
of Settling the Mind
There are nine stages of settling the mind (sems-gnas
dgu) into a state of shamatha:
1. Setting the mind (sems 'jog-pa) on the object
of focus. At this stage, we are merely able to set or place our attention on the
object of focus, but are unable to maintain it.
2. Setting with some continuity
(rgyun-du 'jog-pa). Here, we are able to maintain our mental hold on the object
with some continuity, but only for a short time before losing it. It takes some
time before we recognize that we have lost the object and before we can reestablish
our focus.
3. Resetting (glan-du 'jog-pa). Here, we are able to recognize
as soon as we have lost our mental hold on the object, and we are able to reset
or restore our focus immediately.
4. Closely setting (nye-bar 'jog-pa). Here,
we do not lose our mental hold on the object, but because the subtle mental flightiness
of an undercurrent of thought and middling dullness are strong dangers and can
still occur, we need to maintain their opponents very strongly.
5. Taming
(dul-bar byed-pa). Here, we no longer experience gross flightiness, the subtle
flightiness of an undercurrent of thought, or gross or middling dullness. However,
because we have overstrained to concentrate and have sunk too deeply inwards,
we have relaxed the appearance-producing factor giving rise to the appearance
of the object of focus. Consequently, we experience subtle dullness. We need to
refresh and uplift (gzengs-bstod) the mental hold by remembering the benefits
of gaining shamatha.
6. Stilling (zhi-bar byed-pa). Here, although there is
no longer great danger of subtle mental dullness, nevertheless in uplifting the
mind, we became too excited and the mental hold became too tight. Consequently,
we experience the subtle flightiness of itchiness to leave the object of focus.
We need to use strong alertness to detect this and to relax our mental hold slightly.
7. Complete stilling (rnam-pa zhi-bar byed-pa). Here, although the danger
of subtle flightiness or dullness is minimal, we still need to exert effort to
rid ourselves of them completely.
8. Single-pointedness (rtse-cig-tu byed-pa).
Here, by just relying on a slight effort to apply mental glue at the beginning
of the session, we are able to sustain our concentration uninterruptedly throughout
the session, without experiencing any level of flightiness or dullness.
9.
Setting with ease (mnyam-par 'jog-pa). Here, we are able effortlessly to maintain
concentration, free of any interruptions, throughout the entire session. This
is the attainment of single-minded concentration (ting-nge-'dzin, Skt. samadhi.)
When, in addition to single-minded concentration, we gain the mental factor
of an exhilarating sense of mental and physical fitness to concentrate perfectly
on anything for as long as we wish, we gain shamatha.
The Six Powers
We
gain the nine stages of settling the mind by relying on six powers (stobs-drug):
1. We gain the first stage by relying on the power of listening to the instructions
(thos-pa'i stobs).
2. We gain the second stage by relying on the power of
thinking about the instructions (bsam-pa'i stobs).
3. We gain the third and
fourth stages by relying on the power of mindfulness (dran-pa'i stobs).
4.
We gain the fifth and sixth stages by relying on the power of alertness (shes-bzhin-gyi
stobs).
5. We gain the seventh and eighth stages by relying on the power of
joyful perseverance (brtson-'grus-kyi stobs).
6. We gain the ninth stage by
relying on the power of complete familiarity (yongs-su 'dris-pa'i stobs).
The
Four Types of Attention
In the process of progressing through the nine stages
of settling the mind, we use four types of attention (yid-byed bzhi), which are
four ways of taking the object of focus to mind:
1. During the first two stages,
we use painstaking attention (bsgrims-du 'jug-pa'i yid-byed), with which we use
great control and force to take the object of focus to mind.
2. During the
third through the seventh stages, we use restoring attention (chad-cing 'jug-pa'i
yid-byed), with which we repeatedly bring our focus back to the object or repair
our focus if there is some fault.
3. During the eighth stage, we use uninterrupted
attention (chad-pa med-par 'jug-pa'i yid-byed), with which we can focus on the
object without interruption.
4. During the ninth stage, we use spontaneous
attention (lhun-gyi 'grub-pa'i yid-byed), with which we can maintain our focus
on the object effortlessly.
***********************************************************************************************
A
Pilgrimage to Tibet, 1987
by Venerable Thubten Chodron©
Many
people have asked about my pilgrimage to Tibet this summer, but while one person
wants to hear a travel log, another is interested in the social and political
situation, another in the Dharma, another in the mountains. So where do I begin?
How about with the taxi ride from Kathmandu to the Nepal-Tibet border? The taxi
broke down about thirty km from the border - the fan belt was shredded. When the
driver took out a piece of yellow plastic cord and knotted it together in an attempt
to make a new fan belt, we decided not to wait for him and to hitch a ride to
the border. That we did, and lo and behold, the taxi pulled up fifteen minutes
later!
Due to landslides, the road up the mountain from the Nepali border
to just beyond Kasa, the Tibetan border town, was impassable. We trudged up the
steep trails and mounds of rocks to the Chinese immigration office. From that
moment on, it was clear that we were in an occupied country. The baggy green Chinese
army uniforms don't fit in. The Tibetans certainly don't want foreign troops occupying
their country as the Red Chinese have done since l950. Judging by the attitude
of the numerous Chinese I came in contact with there, they don't seem too happy
living there. They came to Tibet either because the Beijing government told them
to, or because the government will give them better salaries if they go to colonize
the more geographically inhospitable areas. Generally, the Chinese in Tibet aren't
very cooperative or pleasant to deal with. They are condescending towards the
Tibetans, and following government policy, they charge the foreigners much more
than locals for hotel accommodation, transportation, etc. Still, I couldn't help
have compassion for them, for they, just as we all are, are bound by previously
created actions.
But to return to the travel log -- the next day we caught
a bus ascending up to the Tibetan plateau. The bus ride was bumpy, with a mountain
on one side of the road and a cliff on the other. Passing a vehicle coming from
the other direction was a breath-taking experience (thank goodness, it wasn't
life-taking!). We ascended to the Tibetan plateau, headed for Shigatse. What a
change from the lush greenery of lower altitudes! It was barren, with much open
space and beautiful snow-capped Himalayan peaks. But what do the animals (let
alone the people) eat? It is the end of May, but hardly anything is growing!
The
bus stopped for the night at a Chinese military-operated truck stop near Tingri.
It was an unfriendly place, but I was already feeling sick from the altitude and
didn't pay much attention to the controversies the other travelers had with the
officials. I slept the next day on the bus, and by the time we arrived in Shigatse,
felt okay. At first it is strange to be out of breath after climbing one flight
of stairs, but soon the body adapts.
Tibetans' Warm Welcome of Western Monastics
Walking
down the streets in Shigatse was quite an experience. People looked at me, some
with surprise, most with happiness, for they are over-joyed to see monks and nuns
after so many years of religious persecution in Tibet. Generally, the people know
very little about other countries and peoples (some had never heard of America),
so the sight of Caucasians is new. But a Western nun was almost beyond belief
to them. As a young Tibetan woman later explained to me, the Chinese communists
have been telling the Tibetans for years that Buddhism is a backward, demon-worshipping
religion that impedes scientific and technological progress. Since Tibet has to
modernize, the communists were going to liberate them from the effects of their
primitive beliefs. This they did very efficiently by destroying almost every monastery,
hermitage, temple, and meditation cave in the country, and by making the Tibetans
lose the feeling of the dignity and value of their religion in a modern world.
Although internally, most Tibetans never abandoned their faith and desire to practice
the Dharma, the communist society around them makes that difficult. Thus when
they see Westerners -- who are educated in modern ways and come from a technological
society -- practicing the Dharma, they know that what they have been told during
the Cultural Revolution was wrong.
Many people came up to ask for blessed pills
and protection cords as well as for hand blessings. At first this was rather embarrassing,
for I am far from being a high lama capable of giving blessings. But I soon realized
that their faith had nothing to do with me. It was due to my monastic robes, which
reminded them of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and their teachers in exile. Thus
seeing anyone in robes made them happy. The closest many Tibetans can get to contacting
His Holiness in this life is seeing Buddhist robes. Although they desperately
wish to see His Holiness -- I often had to choke back tears when they told me
how they longed to see him -- His Holiness cannot return to his own country now,
and it is very difficult for the Tibetans to get permission to visit India. It
began to dawn on me that my pilgrimage to Tibet was not just for me to receive
inspiration from the many blessed places where past great masters, meditators,
and practitioners lived, but also to act as a sort of link between His Holiness
and the Tibetans. Again, this had nothing to do with me, it was the power of the
robes and of whatever encouraging words I could say in garbled Tibetan.
Many
people would give the "thumbs up" sign and say "very good, very
good," when they saw an ordained Westerner. This appreciation for the sangha
reminded me of how much we, who live in places with religious freedom, take that
freedom for granted. We can easily go to listen to His Holiness teach; we can
study and practice together without fear. Do we appreciate this? Do the Tibetans
in exile appreciate this? As much as those in exile have gone through difficulties
in the past, now they enjoy religious freedom and are far better off materially
than those who remained in Tibet. It saddens me to recall Tibetan families in
India who go to teachings with a thermos of butter tea and bread, and then chat
and enjoy a picnic while His Holiness teaches.
One woman in Shigatse told me
of the plight of her family after 1959. Her father and husband were imprisoned
and all the family's property confiscated. Living in poverty for years, she was
sustained by her devotion to His Holiness during those difficult times. I told
her that His Holiness always has the Tibetan people in his heart and constantly
makes prayers for them and actively works for their welfare. Upon hearing this,
she started to cry, and my eyes, too, filled with tears. Little did I know, after
being in Tibet only two days, how many times during my three-month pilgrimage
people would tell me even more woeful stories of their suffering at the hands
of the communist Chinese government, and of their faith in the Dharma and in His
Holiness.
Then we went on to Lhasa, to meet Zopa Rinpoche and a group of approximately
sixty Westerners doing pilgrimage with him. Like pilgrims of old, I strained to
catch the first glimpse of the Potala and was elated when it came into view. Such
a strong feeling of His Holiness' presence arose, and I thought, "Whatever
else happens during this pilgrimage, no matter what difficulties may arise, compassion
is all that is important. Several days later, when about thirty-five of us Westerners
were doing the puja of the Buddha of Great Compassion at the Potala (to the amazed
gazes of Tibetans, Chinese and Western tourists), this same feeling arose again.
Compassion cannot be destroyed, no matter how confused and evil people's minds
become. There we were, Buddhists coming from a variety of countries thousands
of kilometers away to meditate on compassion in a land that has endured incredible
suffering, destruction, violation of human rights, and religious persecution since
1959. But anger at this injustice is inappropriate. It was as if people had gone
crazy -- what happened during the Cultural Revolution is almost too bizarre for
comprehension. We can only feel compassion, and humility, for who amongst us can
say with certainty that, given the conditions, we would not inflict harm upon
others?
Early in the morning of the day celebrating the Buddha's enlightenment,
Zopa Rinpoche led a large group of Western Dharma students in taking the eight
Mahayana precepts at the Jokang, Lhasa's holiest temple. The crowd of Tibetans
gathered around us were surprised, yet joyful to see this. As the days went on,
we visited the Potala, Sera, Ganden, and Drepung Monasiteries, Ta Yerpa, Pabongka
Rinpoche's cave, and many more sights in the Lhasa area. Suddenly all the stories
about great masters that I had heard for years became alive. I could envision
Atisha teaching on the sun-drenched hillside of Ta Yerpa, and felt the peace of
the retreat house above Sera where Lama Tsong Khapa composed texts on emptiness.
In so many places figures of Buddhas have naturally arisen out of stone. At times,
the stories of miracles, footprints in rocks, and self-emanating figures were
a little too much for my scientifically-educated mind, but seeing some of these
broke some of my preconceptions. To tell the truth, some of the statues had so
much life-energy that I could imagine them talking!
Destruction of Tibetan
Society and Lack of Religious Freedom
My mind alternated between the joy of
the inspiration of these sites, and the sadness of seeing them in ruins. Ganden
Monastery was the hardest hit of the major monasteries in the Lhasa area, and
it lies almost entirely in ruins. It is located at the top of a huge mountain,
and as our bus laboriously chugged up there, I marveled at the perseverance of
the Red Chinese (and the confused Tibetans who cooperated with them) in leveling
the monastery. Especially years ago when the road was not so good (not that it's
great now), they really had to exert effort to get up the mountain, tear down
building made of heavy stones, and cart away the precious religious and artistic
treasures. If I had a fraction of the enthusiasm and willingness to overcome difficulties
that they had in destroying Ganden, and used it to practice Dharma, I'd be doing
well!
In the last few years, the government has allowed some monasteries to
be rebuilt. Living amongst the rubble of Ganden are two hundred monks, who are
now endeavoring to restore not only the building, but also the level of study
and practice that once existed at this famous place, which is the site of Lama
Tsong Khapa's throne. Of those two hundred only fifty are studying, the rest have
to work or to help the tourists. The situation is similar in other monasteries.
I also noticed that in most monasteries, the number of monks that were quoted
exceeded the number of seats in the prayer hall. Why? I was told because they
had to go outside to work or were at private homes doing puja. They must have
stayed away for a long time, because I did not see them return although I stayed
in the area a few days. When I inquired at the monasteries what texts they were
studying, those few monasteries that had been able to re-instate the philosophical
studies were doing the elementary texts. They had been able to start the study
program only recently.
In spite of the recent liberalization of government
policy, there is no religious freedom. Lay officials are ultimately in charge
of the monasteries, and they determine, among other things, who can be ordained,
how many monks or nuns a monastery can have, what building and work are to be
done. In a few places I had occasion to observe that the rapport between the monks
and the local officials in charge of the monastery was not relaxed. The monks
seemed afraid and wary of the officials, and the officials at times were bossy
and disrespectful to the monks and nuns. When I saw Tibetan officials like this,
it saddened me, for it shows the lack of unity amongst the Tibetans.
After
1959, and especially during the Cultural Revolution, the Red Chinese tried to
suppress the Dharma and harm Tibetans by violent means. Some people call it attempted
genocide. But the effects of the recent, more liberalized policy is even more
insidious. Now the government offers jobs to young Tibetans, although their educational
possibilities and job positions are inevitably lower than those of the Chinese.
In order to get a good salary and good housing, Tibetans have to work for the
government. Some get jobs in Chinese compounds, where they then abandon Tibetan
dress and speak Chinese. So slowly, in the towns, young people are leaving aside
their Tibetan culture and heritage. In addition, this diluting of Tibetan culture
is encouraged by the government sending more and more Chinese to live in Tibetan
towns.
The fact that some Tibetans have government positions of minor authority
divides the Tibetans in general. Those not working for the government say that
government employees are concerned just with their own benefit, seeking money
or power by cooperating with the Red Chinese. In addition, because they don't
know when the government may reverse its policy and begin gross persecution of
Tibetans again, the Tibetans who don't work for the government cease to trust
those who do. They start to worry about who may be a spy. The suspicion that one
Tibetan has for another is one of the most destructive forces, psychologically
and socially.
The future of Buddhism in Tibet faces many obstacles. In addition
to the mass destruction of the monasteries and texts that occurred in the past,
the monasteries are now controlled by the government, and since l959 the children
have had no religious instruction in school. Save for what they learn at home,
people aged thirty and younger have little understanding of Buddhist principles.
Many people go to temples and monasteries to make offerings and pay their respects,
yet among the young people especially, much of this is done without understanding.
Without public Dharma instruction available, their devotion will become more and
more based on blind faith rather than on understanding. Also, monks aged thirty
to fifty-five are rare, for they were children during the time of the Cultural
Revolution. After the remaining teachers, who are already quite old, pass away,
who will there be to teach? The young monastics will not have learned enough by
then, and the generation of monastics that should be the elders doesn't exist.
Many monks and nuns do not wear robes: some because they have to work, others
because of lack of money, some because they don't want to be noticed. But this
is not a good precedent, for it eventually will lead to a weakening in the sangha.
While
Tibetans in exile blame the Chinese communists for the destruction of their land,
this is not the whole story. Unfortunately, many Tibetans cooperated with them
in destroying the monasteries, either because they were forced or persuaded to
or because they harbored jealousy or animosity towards the religious establishments.
Many Tibetans came to see the Tibetan friend from India with whom I traveled.
In tears, some of them told how they had joined in desecrating the temples years
ago and how much they now regretted this. This was sad, but not surprising to
learn, and I believe that Tibetans must acknowledge and heal the divisions existing
in their own society.
In spite of all this, the monasteries are being rebuilt
and many youngsters request ordination. The lay Tibetans are remarkable in their
devotion. I marvel at how, after twenty-five years of strict religious persecution
(one could get shot or imprisoned for even moving one's lips while reciting mantra
or prayer), now, given a little space, such intense interest and faith in the
Dharma blossoms again.
Most Tibetans still have the hospitality and kindness
for which they are so well-known. Lhasa, unfortunately, is becoming touristy,
with people trying to sell things. But outside of Lhasa, especially in the villages,
people are as friendly and warm as ever. They still look at foreigners as human
beings, which is a pleasant relief, for in India and Nepal, many people see foreigners
and think only of business and how to get money from them.
Pilgrimage and Meeting
People
When Zopa Rinpoche and the other Westerners went to Amdo, I went to
the Lokha region with the attendant of one of my teachers. There I really felt
Tibetan hospitality and warmth as I stayed in the homes of my teacher's relatives
and disciples in small villages. One very old man inspired me with his practice.
He would do various Dharma practices the entire day, and I loved to sit in the
shrine room with him and do my prayers and meditate in that peaceful atmosphere.
While I was staying at his house near Zedang, his son returned from the Tibetan-Indian
border where there was much tension between the Chinese and the Indians. The young
men in Zedang and other areas had been divided into three groups, which rotated
doing one-month work shifts in the military installments at the border. The government
gave them no choice about going. They had virtually no military instruction and
were sent to the border unprepared. The son told us that part of his job was to
look across the river to see what the Indian army was up to. But who was in the
Indian army stationed at the border? Tibetans in exile. So Tibetans in Tibet could
potentially have to fight against Tibetans in exile, although both groups were
working in foreign armies.
For years I had wanted to go to Lhamo Lhatso (the
Palden Lhamo lake) and to Cholung (where Lama Tsong Khapa did prostrations and
mandala offerings). Both are in Lokha. Six of us did this pilgrimage on horseback
for five days. (Incidentally, for some unexplainable reason, the government does
not allow foreigners in this area. But somehow we managed to do the pilgrimage
anyway.) I hadn't ridden a horse in years and was quite relieved when they gave
me a docile one. However, her back got a sore after two days, and so I was to
ride another horse on the day we were making the final ascent to the lake (at
18,000 ft.) I got on, and the horse immediately tossed me off. It was on soft
grass, so I didn't mind too much. Later, when the saddle slipped and he reared
up, I fell onto rocks. I decided to walk after that. But all this was part of
the pilgrimage, for pilgrimage is not just going to a holy place and maybe seeing
visions (as some people do at Lhatso). Nor is it only making offerings or touching
one's head to a blessed object. Pilgrimage is the entire experience -- falling
off the horse, getting scolded by a traveling companion, eating with the nomads
in their tent. All this is an opportunity to practice Dharma, and it is by practice
that we receive the inspiration of the Buddha.
As we neared Lhatso, my mind
got happier day by day, and I thought of the great masters, those with pure minds,
who had come to this place and seen visions in the lake. It was here that Reting
Rinpoche had seen the letters and house that indicated the birthplace of the present
Dalai Lama. After the long walk up, we sat on the narrow ridge looking down at
the lake below. A few snowflakes began to fall -- it was July -- and we meditated.
Later we descended the ridge and stayed the night at the monastery at its base.
The
next day we headed towards Chusang and Cholung, places where Lama Tsong Khapa
had lived. Even someone like me, who is as sensitive to "blessed vibrations"
as a piece of rock, could feel something special about these places. Places like
these exist all over Tibet, reminding us that many people throughout the centuries
have followed the Buddha's teachings and experienced their results. Cholung, a
small mountainside retreat, also had been demolished. A monk living there had
been a shepherd during the difficult years of the Cultural Revolution. He had
also done forced labor under the Red Chinese. In the last few years, as government
policy began to change, he raised funds and rebuilt the retreat place. How much
I admire people like this, who kept their vows during such hardship and have the
strength and courage to return to devastated holy places and slowly rebuild them.
It
was at Cholung that Lama Tsong Khapa did 100,000 prostrations to each of the thirty-five
Buddhas (3.5 million prostrations total) and then had a vision of them. The imprint
of his body could be seen on the rock where he prostrated. I thought of the comparatively
comfortable mat on which I did my meager 100,000 prostrations. I could also see
figure of deities, flowers, and letters on the stone on which Je Rinpoche did
mandala offerings. They say his forearm was raw from rubbing it on the stone.
Upon
returning to Zedang, I saw some friends who had gone to Amdo. They had been to
Kumbum, the large monastery located at Lama Tsong Khapa's birthplace. It is now
a great Chinese tourist place, and they were disappointed, feeling that the monks
were there more for the tourists than for the Dharma. However, Labrang Monastery
made up for it, for the 1000 monks there were studying and practicing well.
They
said that demographic aggression had set in in Amdo. It seemed hardly a Tibetan
place any more. The street and shop signs in Xining were almost all in Chinese,
and in the countryside, one finds both Tibetan and Chinese Muslim villages. Some
friends tried to find the village where the present Dalai Lama was born, but even
when they learned its Chinese name, no one (even monks) were able to direct them
to it.
Bus and boat led me to Samye, where the traditional pujas and "cham"
(religious dancing with masks and costumes) during the fifth lunar month were
in progress. People said that in the past it would take over a week to visit all
the temples and monasteries in this great place where Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava)
had lived. Certainly that is not the case now, for within half a day, we had seen
all of it. I was dismayed to see animals living in one small temple and sawdust
and hay piled up against the faces of Buddhas and bodhisattvas on the walls of
another. Another temple was still used for grain storage, as so many had been
during the Cultural Revolution.
Arising well before dawn one day, I walked
up to Chimbu, where Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal had meditated in caves. There
are meditators now living in the many caves up and down the mountainside. As I
went from one to the other to make offerings, the meditators greeted me warmly,
and I felt like I was meeting old friends.
With a few friends, I then traveled
back to Lhasa and on to Pembo and Reting. Tourists usually go there in hired jeeps
as no public transportation is available. However, a friend and I hitch-hiked
(in Tibet, you call it "kutchie"), walked, and rode on a donkey cart.
It was definitely slower and not so luxurious, but we got to know the people.
The first night, after wallkng through wide valleys ringed by multi-layered mountains
where the colors of the rocks varied from red to green to black, we finally persuaded
the teachers at a village school that we weren't Marsians and we would appreciate
being able to sleep in a spare room. The children, however, continued to think
we were people from outer space and fifty or sixty of them would cluster around
us to watch us do such interesting things as eat a piece of bread. Being able
to go to the toilet in peace was considerably more difficult. This, too, was the
first place I encountered children ridiculing us and being generally obnoxious.
Unfortunately, similar episodes were to be repeated in other places. The good
thing about it was that it made the I-to-be-refuted appear very clearly! Later
I asked a Tibetan friend why the children were so rude to travelers, especially
if they were sangha. It hardly seemed to fit in with what I knew about Tibetan
friendliness. "Because they don't know the Dharma," he replied. It made
me think.
By this time, I was accustomed to the wide-open spaces and lack of
trees in Tibet. How startling and enriching Reting appeared, situated in a juniper
forest, which is said to have sprung from Dron Dompa's hair. This area, where
the previous Kadampa geshes had lived, had been leveled during the Cultural Revolution,
and just in the last year, rebuilding the monastery began. Up the mountain was
the site where Lama Tsong Khapa wrote the Lam Rim Chen Mo. Amidst manifold nettles,
we prostrated to the simple seat of stones used to commemorate his seat. Further
up the mountain is Je Rendawa's abode, and around the mountain, Drom's cave. Up,
around, and up again we climbed until we came upon a boulder field. It was here
that Lama Tsong Khapa had sat in meditation and caused a shower of letters to
fall from the sky. I had always been skeptical about such things, but here they
were in front of my eyes, many letters AH, and OM AH HUM. Veins of different colored
rock inside the boulders formed the letters. They clearly hadn't been carved by
human hands. At the nunnery further down the mountain was a cave where Lama Tsong
Khapa had meditated, and his and Dorje Pamo's footprints were etched in the rock.
Because I have deep respect and attraction for the simplicity and directness of
the Kadampa geshes' practice, Reting was a special place for me.
However, being
there also made me recall the incident with the previous Reting Rinpoche and Sera-je's
fight with the Tibetan government in the early 1940s. This had left me perplexed,
but it seems that it was a forewarning, symptomatic that amidst the wonder of
old Tibet, something was terribly amiss. What perplexed me as well was why, after
the Red Chinese take-over, some Tibetans joined in the looting and destruction
of the monasteries. Yes, the Red Chinese instigated it and even forced many Tibetans
to do it. But why did some Tibetans lead the groups? Why did some villagers join
in when they didn't have to? Why did some turn over innocent friends and relatives
to the police?
Leaving Reting, we went to Siling Hermitage, perched on the
steep side of a mountain. I wondered how it was possible to get up there, but
a path led the way to this small cluster of retreat huts where we were so warmly
received. Then on to Dalung, a famous Kargyu monastery that once held 7700 monks
and the relic of the Buddha's tooth. Need I repeat that it, too, had been demolished.
An old monk there told us how he had been imprisoned for twenty years. Ten of
those he was in shackles, ten more chopping wood. In 1984, together with twelve
other monks, he returned to Dalung to reconstruct the monastery.
Upon returning
to Lhasa, we made an excursion to Rado by hitching a ride on a tractor filled
with ping noodles. Very comfortable indeed! A few days later, we got a ride towards
Radza, this time in the back of a truck filled with watermelon. As the truck rolled
down the road, we rolled along the watermelons.
We then began to slowly make
our way back toward the Nepali border, visiting Gyantse, Shigatse, Shallu (Buton
Rinpoche's monastery), Sakya, and Lhatse. At Lhatse I visited the monastery and
the family of one of my teachers. His sister burst into tears when she saw me
for I reminded her of her brother who she hasn't seen for over twenty-five years.
But it was lovely staying with his family and meeting the abbot and head teachers
who were Geshe-la's friends.
In Shelkar, I stayed with relatives of another
Tibetan friend in Nepal. Amala fed us aplenty and was constantly and lovingly
barking out orders like an army sergeant, "Drink tea. Eat tsampa!" She
far outshone even my grandmother with her ability to push food at you!
Behind
Shelkar is Tsebri, a mountain range associated with Heruka and said to have been
thrown to Tibet from India by a mahasiddha. It looks very different from other
mountains in the area and has a variety of the most magnificent geological formations
I've ever seen. This is another place that is spiritually very special for me.
Together with an old Tibetan man as a guide and his donkey to carry our food and
sleeping bags, my friend and I circumambulated this mountain range. We stayed
in villages along the way, most of them making me feel like I had gone back a
few centuries in a time machine. But the trip to Tibet was teaching me to be flexible.
There were also a couple of tiny gompas with mummified bodies of great lamas that
we visited along the way. Along the way we visited Chosang, where the previous
life of a friend had once been abbot. The monastery was totally demolished, save
a few rocks piled up to form an altar of sorts and a few prayer flags fluttering
in the wind. Because this place was special to my friend, I sat and meditated
there a while. Afterwards, when I looked up, there was a rainbow around the sun.
On we went to the border, stopping at Milarepa's cave en route, and then descending
from the high plateau of Tibet to the lush monsoon foliage of Nepal. Due to strong
monsoon rains, a good portion of the road to Kathmandu had either fallen into
the river or been covered by landslides. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant walk.
Awaiting me in Kathmandu was a message from my teacher, asking me to go to Singapore
to teach. Now at sea-level, at the equator, in a sparkling-clean modern city,
I have merely the memory and the imprints of this pilgrimage, which has changed
something deep inside me.
***********************************************************************************************
Q&A:
Working with Anger
by Venerable Thubten Chodron©
Does being patient with people who harm us mean being passive? Must
we let them get their way or walk all over us?
No. We can redress a bad situation
without antagonism. In fact, we'll be more effective in doing so when we're calm
and clear-thinking.
Sometimes we may have to speak strongly to someone because
that is the only way to communicate with her. For example, if your child is playing
in the street and you very sweetly say, "Susie dear, please don't play in
the street," she may ignore you. But if you speak forcefully and explain
the danger to her, she'll remember and obey.
As a sports enthusiast, isn't
anger good because it helps you to win the game? Is sports a good way to release
anger?
Yes, sports is a socially accepted way of venting anger. However, it
doesn't cure the anger, it only temporarily releases the physical energy accompanying
anger. We are still avoiding the real problem, which is our disturbing emotion
and misconceptions regarding a situation.
Yes, anger may help you win the game,
but is that really beneficial? Is it worthwhile to reinforce negative characteristics
just to get a trophy? The danger in sports is making the "us and them"
too concrete. "My team must win. We have to fight and beat the enemy."
But
let's step back for s moment. Why should we win and the other team lose? The only
reason is "My team is best because it's mine." The other team feels
the same way. Who is right? Competition based on such self-centredness isn't productive
because it breeds anger and jealousy.
On the other hand, we can concentrate
on the process of playing the game, not on the goal of winning. In this case,
we'll enjoy the physical exercise, the camaraderie and team spirit, whether we
win or lose. Psychologically, this attitude brings more happiness.
How do we
deal with anger when we witness a person harming another?
All the techniques
described above are applicable here. However, being patient doesn't mean being
passive. We may have to actively stop one person from harming another, but the
key is to do this with impartial compassion for everyone in the situation.
It's
easy to have compassion for the victim. But compassion for the perpetrator is
equally important. This person is creating the cause for his own suffering: he
may be tortured by guilt later, he may encounter trouble with the law, and he
will reap the karmic fruits of his own actions. Recognising the suffering he brings
on himself, we can develop compassion for him. Thus, with equal concern for the
victim and the perpetrator, we can act to prevent one person from harming another.
We
needn't be angry in order to correct a wrong. Actions done out of anger may complicate
the situation even more! With a clear mind, we'll be able to determine more easily
what we can do to help.
How can we help someone who is creating negative karma
by getting angry at us?
Each situation is different and will have to be examined
separately. However, some general guidelines may apply. First, check up if the
other's complaints about us are justified. If so, we can apologise and correct
the situation. That stops his anger.
Second, when someone is very upset and
angry, try to calm him down. Don't argue back, because in his state of mind, he
can't listen to you. This is understandable: we don't listen to others when we
are in a temper. So it's better to help him settle down and later, perhaps the
next day, discuss it.
What do we do when people criticise Buddhism?
That's
their opinion. They're entitled to have it. Of course, we don't agree with it.
Sometimes we may succeed in correcting another's misconceptions, but sometimes
people are very closed-minded and don't want to change their views. That's their
business. Just leave it.
We don't need others' approval to practice the Dharma.
But we do need to be convinced in our hearts that what we do is right. If we are,
then others' opinions aren't important.
Others' criticisms don't hurt the Dharma
or the Buddha. The path to enlightenment exists whether others recognise it as
such or not. We don't need to be defensive. In fact, if we become agitated when
others criticise Buddhism, it indicates we're attached to our beliefs - that our
ego is involved and so we feel compelled to prove our beliefs are right.
When
we're secure in what we believe, others' criticisms don't disturb our peace of
mind. Why should it? Criticism doesn't mean we are stupid or bad. It's simply
another's opinion, that's all.
Tibetan Buddhism has many images of fierce deities.
What do they mean?
These deities or Buddha figures are manifestations of the
Buddha's wisdom and compassion. Their ferocity isn't directed towards living beings,
because as Buddhas, they have only compassion for others. Rather their force is
aimed at ignorance and selfishness, the real causes of all our problems.
By
showing a fierce aspect, these deities demonstrate the need to act firmly and
swiftly against our ignorance and selfishness. Being patient with internal enemies,
the disturbing attitudes, isn't beneficial at all. We should actively oppose them.
These deities illustrate that instead of being wrathful towards other beings,
we should be fierce with internal enemies like ignorance and selfishness.
In
addition, as manifestations of compassionate wisdom, these deities symbolically
represent compassionate wisdom conquering disturbing attitudes.
How do we identify
our anger?
There are several ways to do this. When we do the breathing meditation,
clearly focussing on the inhalation and exhalation of the breath, observe what
distractions arise. We may recognise a general feeling of restlessness or anger.
Or we may remember a situation from years ago that we're still irritated about.
By noting these distractions, we'll know what we need to work on. We can also
identify our anger by being aware of our physical reactions, whether we're meditating
or not.
For example, if we feel our stomach tightening, or our body temperature
increasing, it may be a signal that we're starting to lose our temper. Each person
has different physical manifestations of anger. We can be observant and note ours.
This is helpful, for sometimes it's easier to identify the physical sensation
accompanying anger than the anger itself.
Another way is to observe our moods.
When we're in a bad mood, we can pause and ask ourselves, "What is this feeling?
What prompted it?" Sometimes we can observe patterns in our moods and behaviours.
This gives us clues as to how our minds operate.
What can we do about anger
that has been building up over a long period of time?
It will take a while
to free our minds from this. Habitual anger must be replaced with habitual patience,
and this takes time and consistent effort to develop. When we notice our anger
building up towards someone, it's helpful to ask ourselves, "What button
is this person pushing in me? Why am I so irritated by her actions?" In this
way, we research our reactions to determine the real issue involved. Do we feel
powerless? Do we feel no one listens to us? Are we offended? Observing in this
way, we'll come to know ourselves better and can then apply the right antidote
to that disturbing attitude.
Of course, prevention is the best medicine. Instead
of allowing our anger to build up over time, it's better to be courageous and
try to communicate with the other person earlier on. This stops the proliferation
of misconceptions and misunderstandings. If we allow our anger to build up over
time, how can we blame it on the other person? We have some responsibility to
try to communicate with people who disturb us.
For a fuller version, please
see "Working With Anger" by Ven. Chodron, published by Snow Lion Publications,
Ithaca NY.