THE WAY TO
FREEDOM
By His Holiness The Dalai Lama
Translated by Nguyễn Thúy Phượng
----o0o---
CHAPTER 6 REFUGE
CHAPTER 7 KARMA
CHAPTER 8 THE FOUR
TRUTHS
CHAPTER 9 THE
BODHISATTVA IDEAL
CHAPTER 10 THE
BODHISATTVA DEEDS
CHAPTER 6
REFUGE
A
Buddhist is someone who, motivated by fear of the sufferings of the
cycle of rebirth and of the lower realms of existence, takes refuge in
the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma (the teachings), and the Sangha
(the spiritual community). A Buddhist, through practice and experience,
knows that the Three Jewels have the capacity to protect him or her from
falling into the lower realms of existence. The eleventh-century teacher
Po-to-wa once remarked that when he visited a monastery, even among the
senior monks sitting inside in prayer, there were some who are not even
Buddhists. Many of them lacked a proper understanding of the Three
Jewels. It is taking refuge that fortifies the wish to achieve nirvana.
The Buddha is a being who is totally free of all delusions and faults,
who is endowed with all good qualities and has attained the wisdom
eliminating the darkness of ignorance. The Dharma is the result of his
enlightenment. After having achieved enlightenment, a Buddha teaches,
and what he or she teaches, is called the Dharma. The Sangha is made up
of those who engage in the practice of the teachings given by the
Buddha. These are the basic definitions of the Three Jewels. The
activity of the Buddha is to give teachings and show the path. The
activity or the function of the Dharma is to eliminate sufferings and
their causes, the delusions. The function of the Sangha is to take
pleasure in undertaking the practice of this Dharma. You should regard
the Buddha with respect. Your attitude toward the Dharma should be one
of aspiration, trying to bring about experience of it within your mind,
and you should regard the Sangha as noble companions who assist in the
process of the path. The Buddha is the master who shows us the path to
enlightenment, the Dharma is the actual refuge in which we seek
protection from sufferings, and the Sangha consists of spiritual
companions through the stages of the path.
One of the benefits of refuge is that all the misdeeds you have
committed in the past can be purified, because taking refuge entails
accepting the Buddha’s guidance and following a path of virtuous action.
Most of the negative actions you have committed in the past can be
alleviated or reduced and your stores of merit increased. Having sought
refuge in the Three Jewels, we will be protected not only from present
harm, but also from the harm of rebirth in the lower realms of
existence, and the full enlightenment of Buddhahood can be quickly
attained. We should never give up the Three Jewels, even at the cost of
our lives. There have been many cases in Tibet where the Chinese have
tried to force people to abandon their faith. Many responded by saying
that they could not give up their faith and have instead chosen to give
up their lives. This is the true commitment of taking refuge.
Tsong-kha-pa says that if your fear and conviction are mere words, then
taking refuge is just words also, but is your fear and your conviction
in the Three Jewels’ ability to protect you from such fear are deeply
rooted, then your refuge will also be very powerful.
The objects of refuge themselves have achieved a state that is totally
free of fear and suffering. If the objects themselves had not obtained
such a state, they would not have the ability to protect us, just as
someone who has fallen down cannot help you to stand up. Those from whom
we seek protection should be free of suffering and fear; otherwise, even
though they may have the wish to do so, they will not have the capacity
to protect us. The Buddha Shakyamuni is not only free from suffering and
fear himself, he is also supremely skillful in leading sentient beings
along the right path. This we can understand by reflecting upon the
diverse interests and dispositions of sentient beings. He left us with
teachings that can reach us no matter what our level of spiritual
development. When we realize the importance of this, we will also begin
to admire all the religions of the world, because the very aim of their
teachings is to help others.
Tsong-kha-pa says that if you reflect upon the great qualities that make
something an object of refuge and develop deep, one-pointed conviction
in the three objects of refuge, there is no way that you will not be
protected. What we need is a deep sense of fear of the sufferings of the
lower realms and trust in the capacity of the Three jewels to protect us
from them. We develop this trust through meditating on the qualities of
the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.
The Buddha’s compassion is without bias. He does not distinguish between
sentient beings who help him and those who do not. His working for the
benefit of all the sentient beings is unbiased. These qualifications are
complete only in the Buddha, and so he and his many forms and emanations
are the refuge, along with the teachings that he was given and the
community that emulates him and engages in his way of practice.
The Buddha’s speech is such that if he is asked any question or many
different questions at the same time, he is said to be able to
understand the essence of them all and can reply in one statement. As a
result, the answers are in harmony with the questioner’s understanding.
The Buddha’s wisdom is able to perceive the entire range of phenomena,
conventional and absolute, just as if he were looking at something in
the palm of his hand. Therefore, all objects of knowledge are perceived
and are within the grasp of his wisdom.
The Buddha’s mind is also omniscient. The reason that it is possible for
a Buddha’s mind to perceive the entire sphere of phenomena without
exception is that he has achieved a state that is totally free of all
obstructions to knowledge. The obstructions to knowledge are the
imprints or predispositions left in the mind by the delusions-ignorance
of the nature of reality, attachment, and hatred-since beginningless
time. When these imprints are removed, we gain the state called
omniscience, because there is no longer any obstruction to knowledge. We
gain the omniscient state of mind, which perceives the entire range of
phenomena without any obstruction.
The Buddha’s mind is spontaneously moved by uninterrupted compassion
when he sees suffering sentient beings. At the beginning of the path the
Buddha developed strong compassion toward all sentient beings and, over
the course of the path, has brought that compassion to its ultimate
level. Compassion, being a virtuous state of mind and based on the clear
nature of the mind, has the potential to increase infinitely.
The body, speech, and mind of the Buddhas are always actively engaged in
the task of working for the benefit of others. They fulfill the wishes
of sentient beings and lead them through the stages of the path in a
skillful manner appropriate to the diverse needs, interests, and
dispositions of sentient beings. Tsong-kha-pa says that if your faith in
the Buddha is firm, as a result of your recollection of his great
kindness and other qualities, your faith in the other two, the Dharma,
his teachings, and the Sangha, the spiritual community, will come
naturally, and the entire canon of Buddhist scriptures will be like
personal advice. So, having developed strong faith in the Buddha, you
should develop strong faith in his teachings as well.
Statues or images of a Buddha, irrespective of their material of shape,
should never be criticized. You should respect them as you would the
Buddha himself. Having taken refuge in the Buddha, you should not be
concerned with what the image is made of but should pay it respect
regardless. You should never make Buddha statues objects of commerce or
use them as collateral for a loan. Once Atisha was asked by one of his
disciples to comment on a statue of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of
Wisdom, and said that if Atisha thought it was good, he would like to
buy it. Atisha said that one cannot make judgments about the body of
Manjushri, but so far as the sculpture was concerned it was quite
average, but then he placed the statue on his head as a sign of respect.
It seems that when Atisha said the sculpture was quite average, he meant
that it did not look very good, so the artist should be more careful.
Artists have a very great responsibility to paint images and sculpt
statues with a good appearance. Otherwise there is a grave danger of
causing many people to accumulate nonvirtuous actions, because sometime,
due to the images’ odd appearance, we cannot help laughing.
The method that leads to the omniscient state is the path. The path and
the cessation make up the Dharma, the true refuge. The Dharma is
something we cannot absorb immediately; it has to be realized through a
gradual process. In the context of the practice of refuge, you must be
very skillful in being virtuous while avoiding negative actions. That is
what is called the practice of the Dharma. If you are afraid of the
sufferings of the lower realms of existence, you should transform your
mind and prevent it from indulging in negative actions, which cause your
downfall. That depends very much upon whether your practice is serious
or not, on whether you are committed to accumulating virtuous actions
and avoiding negative ones, and that in turn depends upon whether or not
you have deep conviction in the law of karma.
There are two different kinds of experience, the desirable and the
undesirable, and each has its own cause. Suffering, the undesirable
experience, is called the cycle of existence (samsara), and it has its
origin in the delusions and the nonvirtuous deeds they compel us to
commit. The ultimate form of happiness, the desirable, is nirvana, and
it is the result of the practice of the Dharma. The origin of sufferings
and of the lower realms of existence is the ten negative actions
[described in chapter 7]. The desired prosperity and rebirth in
favorable realms of existence are caused by the observance of pure
morality, or the practice of the ten virtuous actions. In order to
prevent your taking rebirth in the lower realms of existence and
undergoing suffering there, you must put a stop to their causes by
turning your body, speech, and mind toward virtuous actions. The degree
of your commitment to serious practice depends very much upon how
convinced you are, how deep your conviction is in the law of cause and
effect, how fully you believe that undesirable sufferings and
misfortunes are the consequences of negative actions, and how convinced
you are that desirable consequences, like happiness, pleasure, and
prosperity, are the results of positive actions. It is very important
first of all, therefore, to develop a deep conviction in the
infallibility of the law of karma.
Having taken refuge in the Dharma, as a commitment of affirmation, one
should show respect to Buddhist texts. You should not step over even a
single page, and the texts should not be kept in a clean place. You
should not have a possessive attitude toward scriptures; you should not
sell them or place them as security for borrowing money. You should not
place your eyeglasses or pens on top of the scriptures. When you turn
the page, you should not lick your finger. It is said that Geshe
Chen-nga-wa used to stand up when he saw texts being carried by, but
later when due to his age he was unable to stand up, he used to still
fold his hands. When Atisha was in western Tibet there was a tantric
practitioner who would not take teachings from him. One day Atisha saw
another Tibetan mark the place in a text he was reading by picking some
food from his teeth. Atisha asked him not to do that, and as a result
the tantric practitioner saw Atisha’s commitment to the precepts for
taking refuge, was very impressed, and is said to have become his
disciple.
We
should also have faith in the Sangha, the spiritual community. When we
talk of the Sangha, it chiefly refers to those superior beings who, as a
result of their diligent practice, have realized the Dharma within their
own minds and penetrated the nature of reality. The real Sangha is those
who are always engaged in the practice of the Dharma, who uphold the
precepts properly, who are excellent in their observance of morality,
and who are always truthful, honest, pure in heart, and always filled
with compassion.
Having taken refuge in the Sangha, you should never insult any monk or
nun who maintains the ordained life. You should be respectful of them.
Within the Sangha community you should be sectarian or hold any rivalry.
In places like Thailand, the Sangha is held in great respect. Just as
people respect them, so the monks also should not behave disgracefully,
causing the laypeople to lose faith. In general, I do not think it is
necessarily good to have a large community of monks, as there was in
Tibet, but that it is better to have truly pure monks, even if it is
only a small community. Whether you become a monk or not is a matter of
personal choice, but after having chosen to lead the life of a monk or
nun, it is naturally better not to be a disgrace to the doctrine.
Otherwise, not only is it bad for you, it also causes other people to
lose faith and unnecessarily accumulate nonvirtues. It is said that Drom-ton-pa
would not even step over a small piece of red or yellow cloth, because
it represented the robes of monks and nuns.
Tsong-kha-pa says that taking refuge is really the entrance to the
Buddhist community, and if our refuge is more than mere words and is
really deeply felt, we will be invulnerable to harms from human beings
and will make easy progress in our practice. Realizing these benefits,
we should try to reinforce our fear of suffering and develop a strong
faith and conviction in the Three Jewels’ capacity to protect us from
those sufferings. We should try never to act against the precepts that
we have taken. Thus, with awareness of death and fear of lower realms of
existence, we will find that the Three Jewels have the capacity to
protect us, that they are a true source of refuge.
The Buddha is the master who reveals the actually refuge, and the Sangha
is like the companions on the path leading to enlightenment. The
actually refuge is the Dharma, because through the realization of the
Dharma, we will become free and be relieved from suffering. The Dharma
consists of cessation and the path to cessation. The absence of our
freedom from delusions is called cessation. If we do not apply the
appropriate antidote to our faults and delusions, they continue to
arise. But after the application of the antidote, once a delusion is
totally uprooted, it will never arise again. Such a state, free from
delusions or the stains of the mind, is said to be a cessation. In
short, anything that we want to abandon like suffering and its origins,
can be eliminated by the application of opponent forces. The final
cessation, also known as nirvana, is a state of complete liberation.
The Buddha, the fully enlightened ones, are inconceivable, and the
Dharma, their teaching, is inconceivable, and the Sangha is also
inconceivable. Therefore, if you develop inconceivable faith, the result
will also be inconceivable. It is said in the scripture that is the
benefits of taking refuge in the Three Jewels could be made visible, the
entire universe would be too small to enclose it, just as the great
oceans cannot be measured in your hands. Being mindful of these great
benefits, you should rejoice in the opportunity to make offerings to the
Three Jewels and take refuge in them. You will be able to alleviate the
influences of negative actions committed in addition to karmic
obstructions. All these will be eliminated, and you will be counted as a
sublime being, which will please the Three Jewels.
CHAPTER 7:
KARMA
The consequences of karma are definite: negative actions always bring
about suffering, and positive actions always bring happiness. If you do
good, you will have happiness; if you do bad, you yourself will suffer.
Our karmic actions follow us from lifetime to lifetime, which explains
why some people who indulge constantly in negativity are still
successful on the worldly level or why others who are committed to
spiritual practice face myriad difficulties. Karmic actions have been
committed in infinite numbers of lives, so there is infinite potential
for an infinite number of outcomes.
The potential of karma always increases over time. Small seeds have the
potential to produce massive fruits. That is also true of the inner
cause and effect; even a small action can bring about a massive
consequence, whether positive or negative. For example, a small boy once
offered the Buddha a handful of sand, vividly imagining it to be gold.
In a future life, the boy was reborn as the great Buddhist emperor,
Ashoka. From the slightest positive action can come the greatest
consequence of happiness, and in the same way the smallest negative
action can bring about very intense suffering. The potential of karma to
increase within our mind-streams is far greater than the potential of
mere physical causes, such as an apple seed. Just as drops of water can
fill a large vessel, in the same way the smallest actions, when
continuously committed, can fill the minds of sentient beings.
Within the human community we see a lot of differences. Some people are
always successful in their lives, some are always unsuccessful, some are
happy, some have a good presence and calmness of mind. Some people seem
always to face great misfortune, against our expectations. Some people
whom you would expect to have misfortune do not. All of this testifies
to the fact that not everything is within our hands. Sometimes, when we
try to start an endeavor, we accumulate all the necessary conditions
that are required for its success, but still something is missing. We
say that someone is lucky and someone is unlucky, but this alone it not
enough; luck must have a reason, a cause. According to the Buddhist
explanation, it is the consequence of your actions committed either in
the past life or in the earlier part of this life. When the potential
has ripened, then even if you are facing adverse circumstance, still the
endeavor proves successful. But in some cases, even is you have all the
necessary conditions gathered, still you fail.
We
Tibetans have become refugees and have undergone a lot of suffering, but
still we are relatively fortunate and successful. In Tibet the Chinese
have tried to make the entire population equal by creating communes and
limiting private property. But still, in the communes, some gardens grow
more vegetables than others, and some cows give more milk. This shows
that there is a great difference between the merits of individuals. If
someone’s virtuous actions ripen, even though the authorities confiscate
his or her wealth, this person will still prove successful because of
the force of his or her merit, because of the force of that karma. If
you accumulate virtuous actions properly, such as avoiding killing,
freeing animals, and cultivating patience toward others, it will be
beneficial in the future and in the lives to come, whereas if you
indulge in negative actions continuously, you definitely will face the
consequences in the future. If you do not believe in the principle of
karma then you do as you like.
Once you commit an action, the cause for a reaction remains and
increases until its effect it experienced. If you have not committed the
action you will never face the consequences; once you have committed the
action, unless you purify it through proper practices, or if it is a
virtuous action, unless it is destroyed by anger or opposing factors,
the effect of the action will be experienced. An action, even if it was
performed many lifetimes ago, will never lose its effect simply due to
the passage of time.
Positive and negative actions are determined by one’s own motivation. If
the motivation is good, all actions become positive; if the motivation
is wrong, all actions become negative. The karmic actions are of many
different types; some are totally virtuous, some are totally
nonvirtuous, some are mixed. If the motivation is right, although the
action itself might spear quite violent, it will bring about happiness,
whereas if the motivation is wrong and devious, then even though the
action might seem beneficial and positive, in reality it will be a
negative action. It all depends upon the mind: if your mind is tamed and
trained, all actions become positive, whereas if your mind is not tamed
and it is influenced constantly by desire and hatred, although actions
might appear to be positive, in reality you will accumulate negative
karma. If more people believed in the law of karma, we would likely
never have to have a police force or a penal system. But if individuals
lack this internal faith in karmic actions, even though externally the
people might apply all sorts of techniques to execute the law, they will
not be able to bring about a peaceful society. In this modern world
sophisticated equipment is used for surveillance and for determined
criminals become. If this human society is o change for the better, then
enforcing a law externally alone will not be enough; we need some kind
of internal deterrent.
A
civilized, peaceful, way of life and a spiritually based morality should
go hand in hand. Before the Chinese invaded in 1959, the kings of Tibet
created laws for the country based on the Buddhist concept or morality.
People throughout the world say that the Tibetan people are
exceptionally gentle and benevolent. I do not see any other reason to
explain this unique feature of our culture than by the fact that it has
been based on the Buddhist teaching of nonviolence for so many
centuries.
There are three doors through which we commit actions: body, speech, and
mind. Through these doors, we can commit either the ten positive deeds
or the ten nonvirtuous deeds. Of the nonvirtuous deeds, three are
physical, four are verbal, and three are mental. The first physical
nonvirtue is taking the life of another. For killing to take place,
there must be another living being, taking one’s own life is not
regarded in the same way because no other person is involved. If you
have the initial motive of killing a certain person, but in the actual
performance of the killing you happen to kill someone else by mistake,
then it does not constitute a complete nonvirtuous action of killing. On
the other hand, when your primary motive is to kill anyone you meet,
then if you kill anyone, that constitutes accumulation of the full
nonvirtue of killing.
Killing can be motivated by any of the three poisons: attachment,
hatred, or ignorance. For example, we can kill animals out of attachment
for the meat, we can kill enemies out of hatred, and we can perform
animal sacrifices out of ignorance. Whether you do the deed yourself or
let others do it for you does not matter; both constitute the same
negative action of killing. In order for the action of killing to be
complete, the person who is killed must die prior to the killer.
The second negative action is stealing. Stealing can be motivated by
attachment, or you can steal out of hatred for someone, in order to harm
that person. Stealing could also be motivated by ignorance due to a
mistaken belief that you can take anything you want. The intention is to
separate the possession from its owner. Stealing can be done by force or
by stealth, or you can borrow something and let the owner forget and
then keep it yourself, or you can borrow money and do not pay it back.
The deed is complete when you think that the object now belongs to you.
Even if you do not do it yourself directly, if you let others do it for
you, it still constitutes as stealing.
The last of the three negative actions of the body is sexual misconduct,
which is a sexual act performed with an unsuitable person, with an
unsuitable part of the body, at an unsuitable time, in an unsuitable
place, or against the will of the other person-which of course included
rape. For a man, unsuitable women include one’s own mother, the wife or
girlfriend of someone else, prostitutes temporarily paid by someone
else, one’s relatives, or ordained women, like nuns. It also includes
other males. Unsuitable parts of the body are the anus and the mouth.
Unsuitable places are around the residence of one’s own spiritual master
or near a stupa or inside a temple or in the presence of one’s own
parents. Unsuitable time for a man is when the woman is having
menstruation, when she is pregnant, and when she is pregnant, and when
she is suffering from an illness that intercourse would worsen. If a man
engages in sexual intercourse in these ways, even with his own wife, it
is said to be sexual misconduct. Generally speaking, intercourse is
engaged in out of attachment, but one could also do so out of hatred,
such as a man sleeping with the wife of an enemy. It is also sometimes
done out of ignorance, thinking that through sexual intercourse one can
gain great realizations. The negative action of sexual misconduct can
only be committed by oneself, and the act is made definite when the two
sexual organs meet.
The next four negative actions are deeds of speech. The first is telling
lies. This includes speaking contrary to what one has seen, heard, or
knows to be fact. Lying can be motivated by attachment, hatred, or
ignorance. The intention is to confuse the other person, and it can be
carried out either by speaking or nodding the head and gesturing with a
hand. Any action done out of the intention to confuse someone
constitutes the negative action of lying. If the other person hears it,
that constitutes completion of this act.
Next is divisive talk. The intention is to cause dissension between
friends or people in the spiritual community for one’s own sake of
others. Whether one succeeds in causing dissension or not, the moment
the other person hears the divisive talk, that constitutes the
completion of this act.
Next is verbal abuse. The intention is to speak harshly, and the deed is
complete when the abusive words are heard by the person to whom they are
directed. Abuse includes insulting others, speaking about their faults,
whether true or untrue; if one does it to hurt the other person, it is
abuse.
Next is senseless gossip. It is frivolousness without any purpose, and
it can be motivated by any of the three poisons. One’s intention is
simply to chat without any reason, to just gossip without any purpose.
The execution of this act does not require a second person. You do not
need a partner; you can do this by talking to yourself. Idle gossip
would include talking about wars, the faults of others, or arguing just
for the sake of argument. This would also include reading unimportant
books out of attachment.
Lastly, there are three negative actions of the mind, the first being
covetousness. The object of covetousness is possessions belonging to
others. The delusion that prompts covetousness can be any of the three
poisons-desire, hatred, or ignorance. Completing this nonvirtue involves
five factors: strong attachment toward others’ possessions, the desire
to hoard wealth, coveting other’s possessions, desiring another’s
possessions for oneself, and not seeing the harm in coveting others’
belongings. If these five factors are complete, then when one covets
something, it completes the execution of this mental act.
Next is harmful intent, which is similar to harsh speech. The intention
is to hurt someone or speak harshly or hope that others will suffer
misfortune and fail in their activities. Once one indulges in such
thoughts, the outcome or completion is either that you physically strike
the person or mentally intend to do so. This would also require five
factors: 1/ that one has as the basic motive hatred or anger, 2/ that
one has a lack of patience, 3/ that one does not realize the faults of
anger, 4/ that one actually intends to harm the other person, 5/ and
that one does not realize the faults of the harmful intention. Simply
wishing that the other person would suffer is harmful intent.
The last of the ten negative actions is wrong views or perverse views in
which one denies the existence of thing that exist. There are generally
four types of wrong views: wrong views with respect to cause, with
respect to effect, with respect to the function of a thing. Wrong view
with respect to cause would be believing that there is no karmic action;
with respect to effect would be believing that certain actions do not
have consequences; with respect to effect would be believing that
certain actions do not have consequences; with respect to function would
be thinking that children are not raised by their parents and seeds do
not produce their results, and also thinking that there is no past life
or life after death. The fourth type of wrong view is wrong view with
respect to existent things-believing out of ignorance and attachment
that enlightened beings, nirvana, and the Three Jewels do not exist.
Tsong-kha-pa says that although there are many different types of wrong
views, these wrong views really cut the root of one’s collection of
virtue and as a result force the individual to indulge in negative
actions without any control. Therefore, wrong views about the Three
Jewels and the law of cause and effect are said to be the greatest of
wrong views.
We
should also be aware of the relative gravity of karmic actions. When the
deed is motivated by very strong delusions, then the deed is said to be
very grave. The way in which the deed is actually performed also
determines the karmic weight. For example, if a murder is committed with
great pleasure, first torturing the person and then mocking and
insulting the person, it is said to be very grave because of the inhuman
manner in which that person or living being was killed. If the
murderer’s mind has no conscience or sense of shame, then because he or
she lacks the opponent forces, the negative action of killing is very
grave. If your killing of a living being is motivated by ignorance, like
making a sacrificial offering, thinking this killing is actually a
religious act and it does not constitute a negative action, then that is
said to be very grave. In general, the more you perform certain negative
actions, the more grave the act becomes. The weight of the karma also
depends on the person who performs the action. If you dedicate your
merit for the benefit of other sentient beings for the purpose of
achieving enlightenment, it is said to be more powerful, whereas if it
is dedicated to lesser aims it is said to be less powerful. This applies
to negative action as well; the more forceful the motivating delusions
are, the more forceful the karmic action is, and among all these
delusions anger is said to be the most powerful. A single moment of
anger directed toward a bodhisattva would destroy all the virtuous
collections that you might have accumulated over the last thousand eons.
The effect of negative actions is based also on the intensity of the
delusions that prompt them. There are also effects that correspond to
the cause. For example, as a result of killing, even when after taking
rebirth in the lower realms of existence one takes rebirth as a human
being, one’s life will be short. As a result of stealing one will lack
material wealth, as a result of sexual misconduct one will have a very
unfaithful spouse, as a result of harsh speech people will insult you,
as a result of divisive speech there will be dissension among one’s
friends, and so forth. Another type of effect is instinctive behavior.
As a result of killing in a past life, even as a human being one would
have instinctive impulses, taking delight in killing. There are also
environmental effects, which ripen more collectively for a community. As
a result of killing, for example, one would have to live in a place
where the crops are not very good, harvests are not abundant, the
countryside is very desolate, the climate is not very good, full of
poisonous trees and thorns. As an environmental effect of stealing, a
farmer would not have successful crops. As an environmental effect of
wrong views, one would lack protection and one would have no refuge.
If
as a result of morality one refrains from indulging in these negative
actions and resolves not to indulge in them, that constitutes
accumulation of positive actions. If ones does not have the ability or
the capacity to indulge in negative actions, however, that does not mean
that you have accumulated virtuous actions; virtuous actions can be
accumulated only when one has the ability and capacity to do these
negative actions but one does not do so out of moral restraint.
Some actions are committed but not done intentionally, like accidental
killings, killing in dreams, or doing something against one’s will. In
these cases the action is committed but the karma is not accumulated;
the completions of the karmic action does not take place, because it
lacks the necessary factor of intention. If, on the other hand, you
compel someone to commit a non-virtuous act on your behalf, then the
negative karma is accumulated on you.
The result of an action can ripen within this lifetime or within the
very next life or after an interval of many lives. Some of the actions
that are very grave, done out ignorance or intense hatred, are said to
be so grave that they will produce their results even in this lifetime.
That also is the case with some positive actions; if you have strong
compassion for sentient beings, if you have strong refuge in the Three
Jewels, and if you repay the kindness of the spiritual master and your
parents, the fruits of these actions are said to be so powerful that
they will begin to ripen within this lifetime.
Attaining a human form is mainly the result of observing pure morality
and refraining from the ten negative actions. However, in order to
attain a human form that is endowed with the conditions that will
expedite one’s process on the path, other factors are necessary. These
include a long life for the completion of Dharma practice. It also helps
to have a sound, handsome, and healthy body as well as birth in a
respectable family, because then you would naturally command great
respect from people and you would have greater influence. Other factors
that are mentioned in the texts are having credible speech and powerful
speech and a powerful body and mind so that you would not be vulnerable
to interferences. With an attractive form the mere sight of you will
attract disciples and cause them to have great faith in you, without any
difficulty. Coming from a respected family, people will listen to you
and heed your advice. You will be able to gather many people together
under your influence by giving them material aid, and you will cause
others to take what you say as true because of your credible speech.
Whatever you say will be accomplished quickly, as you wished, just as
when a king gives an order. You will not be afraid or shy to teach the
Dharma to a large crowd of people, and there will be fewer obstacles to
the practice of the Dharma. By having a powerful body and mind you will
be able to endure great physical hardship, and you will not have any
regrets or frustration about working to fulfill any of your own or
other’s aims.
Each of these various qualities has a specific karmic cause. The cause
of a long life is always having a helpful, altruistic attitude, never
harming others. The cause of a strong, healthy body is giving others new
clothes and abstaining from losing your temper. Birth in a respected
family is the result of always being humble, never being proud, and
regarding oneself as a servant to one’s teacher and parents. The cause
of great wealth is giving material aid to poor people, and the cause of
credible speech is abstaining from negative actions of speech. Having a
great influence is the result of making offerings to the Three Jewels,
one’s own parents, teachers, and so on. Having a powerful body and mind
is the result of giving food and drink to others. If you accumulate
these causes, you will achieve the unique human existence with those
qualities.
If
we remain idle and do not think seriously about karmic law, we might
sometimes feel that we are not accumulating any negative actions and
that we are good practitioners. If we analyze our thoughts and actions
closely, however, we will find that we are engaging in idle speech,
harming others, or engaging in covetousness on a daily basis. We will
find that we actually lack the primary factor of deep conviction that is
necessary to really observe the law of karma. We need to see the gap
between the practice of the Dharma and the way we are living our lives
at the moment. In order to close the gap, integrate the knowledge of the
law of cause and effect into your actions. If you see the potential
danger of your way of thinking and acting, then you will repeatedly
cultivate the resolve to correct your thoughts and behavior.
Tsong-kha-pa says that although we should make great effort not to
indulge in these negative actions ever again, as a result of long
association with delusions, we sometimes find ourselves uncontrollably
having committed them. These should not be left unheeded. Rather, we
should engage in the purification techniques that the Buddha himself has
recommended. He said that by applying four opponent powers we will be
able to purify the negativity that has already been committed and will
be able to overcome it. The first is the power of regret. By reflecting
upon the gravity of the consequences of negative actions, you should
from the depths of your heart develop a deep sense of regret for the
actions committed. The second is the power of purification. This can be
achieved through a variety of techniques, including reciting,
memorizing, and reading sutras, meditating on emptiness, reciting
mantras, making images of the Buddha, making offerings, and reciting the
names of the Buddhas. These purification practices should be undertaken
until you see signs and indications of success in your purification
practice. These signs include having dreams of vomiting, dreams of
drinking milk or curd, seeing the sun and moon in a dream, dreaming of
flying or of fires burning or of overpowering buffaloes or people with
black coats, dreaming about monks and nuns, dreaming about climbing
hills, and dreaming of listening to teaching. These are indications of
success in your purification practice.
The third is the power of resolve not to engage in the non-virtuous deed
in the future. If you have the power of resolve and restrain yourself
from committing the ten negative actions, you will not only be able to
purify the negativities of the ten non-virtuous actions alone, but you
also will that the power to purify the delusions and the imprints left
by them. If your power of resolve is very superficial, your purification
practice will also be superficial. The last power id meditation on
taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha and developing the wish
to become enlightened for the sake of all sentient beings.
If
a negative action is committed and left unpurified it will have the
potential to bring about rebirth in the lower realms of existence.
Negative actions can either be totally purified in the sense that their
potential will be totally destroyed, or the potential to produce rebirth
in lower realms will be destroyed but they could manifest as simple
headaches within this lifetime. That is, any negative actions that would
otherwise have brought about their consequences over a long time can be
experienced within a short period of time. These results depend upon
whether or not the practitioner is skillful in the purification
practice, whether or not the four powers are complete, and also how
intense one’s practice is and for how long this purification practice is
undertaken. In some cases the potential of karmic action is destroyed;
in other cases it can manifest in lighter experiences. You should not
take this as contradictory to the statement in the scriptures that
karmic actions once committed will never lose their potential even for a
hundred eons. This means that id the karmic actions once committed are
left unpurified, then they will never lose their potential just because
of passage of time. There is no action that cannot be purified.
Purification destroys the potential of the negative karmic actions in
the same way in which positive actions lose their potential due to the
arising of anger. But the Buddha has said that you can never purify a
karmic action once it has already produced its results. For example, the
negative experiences we have had in this life are effects of negative
actions committed in the past-actions that have already taken place;
there is no way you can purify these.
Tsong-kha-pa says that since it is possible for positive actions to lose
their potential by the arising of their opposing factors, like anger, we
should not only be very careful to accumulate virtue, we should also be
equally careful to protect virtues after having once accumulated them.
This is done by dedicating our merit for the achievement of
enlightenment for the purpose of achieving Buddhahood. It is said that
once you have dedicated your merit achievement of such aims, then until
you fulfill that aim, the virtuous action you have accumulated will
never lose its potential. It is like depositing your money in a bank
impregnable to robbers-who in this case would be anger, attachment, or
ignorance.
Although through the application of proper opponent forces we can purify
the negativities totally and destroy their potential to bring about
undesirable consequences, it is far better simply not to commit these
negative actions in the first place. Therefore, it is better right from
the beginning never to indulge in them, never to stain your mind with
such negative actions. Tsong-kha-pa says it is analogous to someone
breaking a leg; later it is healed, but compared to a leg that has never
been broken, it is far different.
Some might think that since in other scriptures the prosperity and
benefits of this life within samsara are described as objects to be
avoided and renounced, it is not suitable for a practitioner to wish to
gain favorable forms of existence, because that also is a life within
samsara. This is a very attitude. When we talk of aims, they are of two
types: temporary aims and ultimate aims. Temporary aims include
achieving the precious human form in the next life. On the basis of such
a precious human form you would be able to carry on your practice of the
Dharma in order that you can eventually fulfill your ultimate aim of
achieving enlightenment. Although for a Mahayana practitioner the
ultimate aim is to work for the achievement of omniscience for the sake
of other sentient beings, it is also necessary for a practitioner to
wish to gain a favorable rebirth in the future, like human existence, so
that he or she will be able to continue practicing. Shantideva says that
the precious human life should be thought of as a vessel in which one
can cross over the ocean of samsara. In order to fulfill the ultimate
aim of achieving the omniscient state, you must attain the precious
human form in many lifetimes. The basic cause of achieving such
favorable forms of rebirth is the practice of morality.
After having developed the wish to undertake the practice of the Dharma,
it is very difficult for the majority of people totally to renounce the
world. The best type of practitioner renounces worldly life and spends
the rest of his or her life in an isolated, solitary practice. This is
really commendable and it has great benefits, but for the majority of us
it is very difficult to undertake a practice like that. You have to also
think of your own life and also work within the community and serve the
people. You should not be totally preoccupied with worldly activities;
you should also expend must energy and time for the practice of the
Dharma aimed at the betterment of your future life. You being to realize
that compared to your future destiny, the affairs of this life are not
that important.
By
taking refuge and living within the karmic law, making effort to abandon
negative actions and accumulate positive actions, you might enjoy a
favorable rebirth in the future. However, we should not be satisfied
with that alone, because that favorable rebirth, as a place in samsara,
is of the nature of suffering. We rather should cultivate the perception
that every form of existence within this cycle of existence is of the
nature of suffering. Since beginningless time, we have had this
instinctive attachment to the prosperity of samsara, and we have never
been able to perceive the pleasures of samsara for what they are: actual
and genuine suffering. As long as prisoners do not know that they are in
prison and do not perceive the life of the prisoner as difficult and
painful to bear, they will not develop any genuine wish to free
themselves from prison. The same is true of samsara: as long as you are
not able to perceive the defects of life within this cycle of existence,
you will never develop a genuine wish to gain nirvana, freedom from
samsara.
You should not have the wrong notion that Buddhism is pessimistic.
Rather, it is very optimistic, because the aim of each individual is
complete enlightenment, which brings a total, lasting happiness.
Buddhism reminds us that this is possible for everyone. The pleasures of
samsara seem desirable temporarily, but they can never satisfy us no
matter how long we enjoy them, and they are not reliable because they
are subject to change. In contrast to the bliss and happiness of
nirvana, which is ultimate, permanent, and eternal, these pleasures and
happiness within samsara become insignificant.
CHAPTER 8
THE FOUR TRUTHS
In
order to build solid aspiration for liberation from the cycle of
existence, we must thoroughly examine our condition and consider the
reasons for wanting to escape. The first thing to recognize is that our
bodies and minds are predisposed to suffering. The Four Noble Truths-the
Buddha’s first teaching-address this issue directly. These truths are
the truth of suffering, the truth of the origin of suffering, the truth
of the cessation of suffering, and the truth of the path leading to
cessation. The Buddha’s decision to teach the truths in this sequence
has great significance for our practice. In order to underline the
important of understanding that what we ordinarily regard as happiness
is in fact suffering, the Buddha taught the truth of suffering first.
When you perceive that you have fallen into an ocean of suffering, you
will develop the wish to be liberated from that suffering, and for that
purpose you will see first that it is necessary to eliminate the origin
of suffering. When you look for the origin of suffering, you find the
delusions and karmic actions. You will then be able to perceive that the
cycle of existence and its sufferings are produced by your own karmic
actions, which in turn are propelled by the delusions, which are rooted
in the mistaken belief in the solidity, or inherent existence, of the
self. If we analyze how we think of the self, we will find that we tend
to think of it as existing intrinsically, independent of the mind and
body. And yet when we seek to locate it, it eludes us. The Buddha taught
that no such self exists and that our belief in an independent self is
the root cause of all suffering.
Among the many different religions, one group does not accept any life
after death and one group does. Those who accept life after death many
be divided into two groups: one asserts that the delusions and stains of
the mind can be eliminated and purifies, while the other believes that
they cannot. The latter group maintains that as long as the mind is
there, we can never purify and separate the mind from its delusions.
Therefore, elimination of delusion means that the mind itself must be
terminated. Within the group that believes that the mind can be
eventually separated from its stains and delusions-that is, who believe
in nirvana-one group identifies nirvana with a kind of a place up in a
lofty realm. Others identify nirvana with the state of mind in which the
delusions are totally dissolved into reality.
Nirvana exists on the very basis of the mind itself. This is the
Buddhist view.
The Truth of
Suffering
In
order to understand the first truth, that of suffering, one must
meditate on suffering. We see ourselves as the most precious thing in
the universe, and we treat ourselves as though we are more precious than
a Buddha. But that kind of clinging has still not led to perfect
happiness. Since beginningless time we have gone through the cycle of
existence and had an infinite number of lives. From childhood till now,
we have gone through ups and downs, all kinds of frustrations and
confusions. Our lives are beset by problems, sufferings, miseries,
frustrations. Eventually this life will end with death, and after that
we have no certainty where it will lead us. We should really examine
whether there is a way to free ourselves from this unsatisfactory
existence. If life were such that it arose independent of causes and
conditions and ended without further continuity, we would be helpless to
escape. And if that were true, we should live by hedonistic principles.
But we know that suffering is something we really do not desire and that
if it is possible to obtain total freedom from it, that this freedom is
worth achieving.
Karmic actions of body, speech, and mind are what bind us to the cycle
of existence and suffering. As we know, we can accumulate these actions
even within a moment, and that moment can throw us into a lower realm.
This bondage is rooted in the untamed mind and caused by our own
ignorance, our own misunderstanding of the self. This instinctive notion
of a kind of independent, isolated self prompts us to indulge in all
sorts of negative actions, which result in suffering. This self-centered
attitude has long been our master; we have always obeyed its order. We
should realize that we have not benefited from following its advice. As
long as we do so there is no chance for happiness. At this juncture we
should examine whether or not it is possible to overcome this delusion.
The very experience of birth is painful for both mother and child. After
we are born, delusion has an instinctive hold over our bodies and minds,
preventing the mind from being directed toward practice of the Dharma.
Our own bodies become causes for the arising of delusions. For example,
when the body is weakened by certain diseases you get angry, and when it
is healthier you have attachment. Birth is inevitably followed by death,
and death is followed by another rebirth. If this were not enough,
rebirth itself serves as the basis for further sufferings, because this
rebirth provided the setting for further delusions, which again motivate
negative actions that have karmic consequences.
This human existence, which we hold as precious arose from something
filthy. Our bodies are produced by the combination of the regenerative
fluids of the parents, the semen and ovum. If we find blood and semen on
a cloth or a drop spilled on the ground, we are repulsed. Yet we
continue to worship our own bodies. We try to cover our bodies with fine
clothes and disguise the smell with perfume. Our parents also arose from
the same substances, as did their parents and grandparents. If we trace
is back, we will see that the body is the end product of all these
impure substances. If we take it one more step, we can see that the body
is like a machine for producing excrement and urine. When you see
earthworms that eat mud at one end and then excrete it from the other,
it is really very pitiful. The same is true of our own bodies; we keep
on eating and we keep on excreting. Such a body is nothing to cherish.
In
addition, human beings have the potential to threaten the very survival
of the earth. As a result of their untamed minds, people like Stalin,
Hitler, and Mao not only have accumulated limitless stores of negative
actions, but also they have affected the lives of innumerable persons,
causing distress, suffering, and torment.
The there is the suffering of aging. Aging comes about gradually;
otherwise we would not be able to bear it all. When we become old, we
lose the suppleness we have when we were young; we cannot digest the
food we once enjoyed. We are unable to recall the names of people or
things that we used to remember vividly. Gradually our teeth fall out,
our hair falls out, and we lose our eyesight and hearing. Eventually we
reach a stage of decline at which people begin to find the mere sight of
us repulsive. When you have reached a stage when you need the assistance
of others, people will shy away from you.
Next, there is the suffering of illness. Physical suffering and mental
anxiety increase, and you have to spend days and nights wracked by
illness. Sickness prevents you from eating the food that you really
like, and you are prevented from doing the things that you love to do.
You have to take medicines that taste awful. Next is the suffering of
death. You will part from your precious belongings, and you will part
from your own loved ones, and you will part from your own physical body
that has accompanied you throughout your life. The suffering of death is
very obvious to us; there is no need to explain it further.
Then there is the suffering of meeting with the unwanted, such as
enemies. Within this lifetime, many experiences take place against our
wishes. We Tibetans have lost our freedom; this is the suffering of
meeting with the unwanted. Even people in a superpower like the United
State are beset with all sorts of problems. Since they have been brought
up in such material affluence, sometimes they get spoiled. As a result
of unbridled competition they live with more anxiety than others.
Competition is good to a point, but if it gets out of control, as it has
in the United States, it creates jealously and overwhelming
dissatisfaction. In the materially developed countries, there is so much
food that people sometimes throw it into the ocean, but on the other
side of the planet are countries, such as those in Africa, where
millions of people are starving. It is difficult to find someone who is
completely satisfied.
Next is the suffering of having what we want taken away from us. We
Tibetans lost our country and had to part from our loved ones. There is
also the suffering of not obtaining what is desired although it is
sought. Even though you work in the fields, you do not get a good
harvest, or if you start a business, it is not successful.
Another perspective on suffering is to contemplate the suffering of
uncertainty. In this cycle of existence, over the course of many
rebirths, and sometimes within a single lifetime, everything changes.
Our parents will turn into enemies, our relatives will turn into
enemies, our enemies will turn into friends, our parents will be born
later as our own children. There is no certainty. Tsong-kha-pa says that
we should try to prevent the kind of emotional fluctuations that we have
toward other people, based on the discrimination or classification of
some as enemies and some as relatives or friends. We should reflect upon
the uncertainty of the entire life within this cycle of existence and
try to develop some sense of aversion for samsara.
There is also the suffering of lack of contentment. If we really
consider how much food we have eaten over the course of one life, then
we feel depressed and wonder what use we have made of it. If that is the
case with this lifetime, what if we consider all of our past
lifetimes-the amount of milk we have drunk from our mothers as children,
for example? It is beyond our imagination. You should reflect upon all
sorts of prosperity and suffering in this cycle of existence and think
that there is no kind of experience that you have not already undergone
in samsara. We try to enjoy ourselves in order to have some kind of
mental satisfaction, but the pleasure and happiness of samsara are such
that no matter how much we try to enjoy them, there is no sense of
contentment; it is just endless. You should reflect upon this lack of
contentment, which in itself is a great suffering. We have gone through
all these experiences and ups and downs in samsara infinite numbers of
times. Reflecting upon the pointlessness of such experiences, you should
determine that if you do not put a stop to this vicious circle now,
there is no point in going on at all. Thus we should develop a deep
sense of aversion toward the entire range of experience within this
cycle of existence.
There is the suffering of having to discard the body again and again. Up
to now we have lived so many lives and had so many bodies, and still we
have not been able to make use of them in a meaningful way. We have
achieved nothing simply by taking on these countless bodies. We have had
to undergo conception again and again. The Buddha said that if we were
to count our mothers by setting aside pebbles, with each one
representing our mother, there would be no end to this counting.
Reflect upon the fact that all the prosperity within samsara ends in
some kind of misery and frustration. As the texts says, the end of
gathering is depletion, the end of high status is downfall, the end of
meeting is separation, and the end of living is death. In short, all
experiences, pleasure, and pleasure, and happiness within this cycle of
existence, no matter how forceful and how great they appear, end with
misery.
Finally, a further perspective is provided by the three types of
sufferings. The first type is called the suffering of suffering, the
obvious experiences of physical and mental pain that we ordinarily
identify as suffering. The second type is called the suffering of
change. Because all worldly pleasures and happiness eventually turn into
sufferings, they are called sufferings of change. Sufferings of change
are misidentified as experiences of happiness. For example, if you have
a fever or you feel very hot and cool water is thrown on your body, you
feel a kind of pleasure. This is what we regard as happiness. Or is you
have been walking for a long time and after a while you get a chance to
sit down, at that moment is seems really very blissful. However, in
actual fact it is not a blissful experience; what you are actually
experiencing is a gradual cessation of the earlier suffering. Is sitting
down were a true pleasure, then going on sitting should cause you the
same pleasure, but if you continue sitting, after a while you will get
tired and will want to stand up.
The third type of suffering is the suffering of pervasive conditioning,
the fact that our minds and bodies are so conditioned as to be capable
of undergoing suffering at any moment. The three types of suffering can
be illustrated in this way. If you have a burn and you apply an ointment
that gives you some kind of feeling of protection and pleasure, that is
like the suffering of change, because although that is momentarily
pleasurable, the pleasure will not last. Then if someone touches it
accidentally or hot water is splashed on it, you really feel acute pain.
That is obvious suffering, the suffering of suffering. What makes these
two sufferings possible is that we have that burn in the first place. If
we have not been burned, we would have the subsequent experiences. The
burn provided the condition for further suffering, just as our
possession of a body and mind predisposes us to further suffering. And
the nature of the body itself provides the condition to be burned. It is
predisposed to suffering. This is the suffering of pervasive
conditioning.
We
should recognize that the sufferings of animals, hungry ghosts, and hell
beings can also occur among humans. In Tibet many people died of
starvation after the Chinese occupation began. It seems that they
sometimes had to eat the leaves of trees and also some insects and
worms. These are very similar to the experiences of hungry ghosts. The
same suffering is occurring now in Africa, where millions of people are
starving because of famine. When countries are at war, due to political
differences, the people suffer almost as they do in the hell realms.
When Stalin came to power, he ruled the Soviet Union in an authoritarian
and inhuman way. It is said that before the Second World War, 14.5
million people lost their lives under Stalin’s rule. They were Russian
peasants, many of whom died of starvation or torture. The Communist
party members had access to good food and a good life. When they had
lunch that had to be protected by guards because of the danger that the
peasants might riot and take the food.
Even the gods suffer. They are able to foresee their deaths before they
die, so they suffer mentally. It is said that their flower garlands wilt
and their clothes and bodies begin to sink. After having experienced all
the pleasure of heaven, they have exhausted the entire potential of
their positive actions. As a result, when they die they will go straight
to the lower realms of existence. Tsong-kha-pa says that having thus
reflected upon the general suffering of all of samsara in general and
also the specific sufferings of each of the realms of existence, we
should develop a deep sense of aversion for all experience within
samsara and develop deep renunciation. Then we will begin to really
examine exactly what the causes are that lead to such miseries and
frustrations. Therefore the question of the second truth, the truth of
origin of suffering, comes next.
The Truth of
Origin
Delusion is the chief cause of rebirth in samsara. Without delusions
karmic actions would not have the power to produce rebirth; they would
be like seeds that have been burned. It is very important to seek the
antidotes to the delusions, and that in turn depends upon whether or not
you have identified the delusions properly. Therefore, we should be very
clear about the general and individual characteristics of the delusions.
As the First Dalai Lama said, tame the one enemy within, which is
delusion. External enemies might seem very harmful but in future lives
they could turn into our friends. Even now they provide us with the
opportunity to practice patience and compassion because we area all
basically the same: we all want happiness and do not want suffering. But
the inner enemy, the enemy of delusion, has no positive qualities; it is
only to be fought and destroyed. We thus have to identify the enemy
properly and see how it operates. Any mental state that destroys
calmness of mind and brings about mental misery, which upsets, afflicts,
and torments the mind, is said to be a delusion.
Let us identify some of the chief delusions. First, there is attachment,
which is the strong desire for beautiful things, or pleasurable
experiences. Attachment is very difficult to get rid of, it is as if
your mind has become fixed to the object. Another delusion is anger.
When people become angry, we can immediately see that they lose their
composure; their faces become red and wrinkled, and even their eyes
become red. The object of anger, whether animate or inanimate, is
something found to be undesirable and repulsive. Anger is a very untamed
state of mind, very rough and uneven. Another delusion, pride, is a
state of mind in which one feels conceited about one’s own status,
position, and knowledge, based on a self-centered attitude. Regardless
of whether one has really achieved something or not, one feels inflated.
Someone who has very deep pride is very pompous and appears very
inflated. Next is ignorance, which misconceives the identity of the Four
Noble Truths, the law of karma, and so forth. In this particular
context, ignorance refers to a mental factor that is totally ignorant of
the nature of the Three Jewels and the law of karma. The delusion of
doubt is wavering thought concerning whether there are Four Noble Truths
or not, whether there is a law of karma or not.
Another category of delusions is wrong views, active misconception about
the nature of reality. The first of these is a state of mind that
focuses on one’s self and misconceives it to be truly or substantially
existent- to imagine that within our impermanent bodies and minds there
is some kind of permanent, autonomous self. Other types of wrong view
would hold that there is no life after death, no law of karma, and no
Three Jewels. Based on the mistaken view of self, the other delusions
arise. For example, if there is a coiled rope and it is a little dark,
you might misidentify that coiled rope as a snake. Then the mistaken
idea that the rope was a snake would set off all kinds of reactions in
your mind, such as fear, and would lead to all sorts of actions, such as
running out of the house or trying to kill the snake, all based on a
simple misapprehension. In the same manner, we mistakenly believe that
the body and mind possess some kind of self, and as a result all the
other delusions, like desire and anger, follow. Due to this
self-centered attitude, this misconception of self, we discriminate
between ourselves and others. Then based, on how others treat us, we
hold some to be dear and feel attachment for them and hold others to be
distant and classify them as enemies. We then have experiences of anger
and hatred, and, focused upon ourselves, we become inflated and proud.
Then, if the grip of the misconception of self is very strong, we may
begin to question the validity of the Buddha himself who taught
selflessness. We therefore may begin to doubt the law of karma, the Four
Noble Truths, the Three Jewels. These wrong views lead to doubts. All of
this arises because of the mistaken belief in an intrinsically existent
self.
When delusion arise within you it upsets your calmness, your presence of
mind, and it also clouds your judgment of people. It leaves a very
strong imprint. It harms not only you but others as well. For example,
if you are so angry that you begin to hit people, you cause trouble for
your neighbors. Anger will decrease your power of virtue and will cause
you to lose your possessions and your friends. When someone is under the
sway of anger, he or she really loses the characteristics of a human
being. We humans are naturally equipped with a very sophisticated brain,
and we have the power to judge what is right and wrong and weigh the
pros and cons of a situation. We have that natural gift, which is unique
to human beings compared to other forms of existence, but when we are
under the strong influence of delusion, we lose that power. Although we
might decide to do something, we lose the power of judgment. Taming the
mind is the most important task of one’s life.
The Truth of
Cessation
As
Tsong-kha-pa said, all the realms in which we might take rebirth in the
cycle of existence, from the peak of existence to the lowest hell, have
the nature of suffering. These sufferings do not come about without any
cause, nor are they created by some kind of almighty god. They are
products of our delusions and karmic actions prompted by untamed states
of mind. The root cause of all suffering is the ignorance that
misconceives the nature of phenomena and apprehends oneself as
self-existent. This ignorance leads us to exaggerate the status of
phenomena and create the categories of self and others. These bring
about experiences of desire and hatred, which in turn result in all
sorts of negative actions. These in turn bring about all our undesirable
sufferings. If we do not want these sufferings we should determine
whether or not it is possible to get rid of them. If the ignorance that
misconceives the self is a mistaken consciousness, it can be eliminated
by correcting the mistake. This can be accomplished by generating within
our minds a wisdom that realizes the direct opposite of that state of
mind, a wisdom realizing that there is no such intrinsically existent
self. When we compare these two states of mind-one believing in an
intrinsically existent self, the other perceiving the absence of such a
self-the apprehension of self might initially appear very strong and
powerful. But because it is a mistaken very strong and powerful. But
because it is a mistaken consciousness, it lacks logical support. The
other type of mind, the understanding of selflessness, might be very
weak at the initial stage, but it has logical support. Sooner or later
this wisdom realizing selflessness is going to gain the upper hand. The
truth at the initial stage may not be very obvious, but as we get closer
to it, it becomes increasingly self-evident. Something false at the
initial stage might seem very vivid and firm, but eventually, as we
probe it further, it becomes more flimsy and eventually dissolves.
Delusion is separate from consciousness; it is not part of the essential
nature of mind. For example, someone who might be very short-tempered
does have some moments of peace of mind. Just being a very angry person
does not mean that one has to be angry all the time. Therefore, when
these deluded states of mind like hatred and desire arise within us,
they are really very forceful and strong, but it is never the case that
they will remain manifest for as long as we care conscience. Another
fact is that we cannot possible have two opposing types of mental state
focused upon one object at the same time, like a very deep hatred toward
someone and at the same time a very deep feeling of pity toward that
person.
Within our minds there are many different aspects, very subtle ones,
some negative, some positive. Within these two polarities we find that
it is also obvious that the more we enhance and increase our familiarity
with one side, the weaker the grip of the other side becomes. Therefore,
the stains and delusions within our minds can be eliminated. Our own
experiences testify that some people when young are really very
short-tempered and easily provoked, but later they turn into very gentle
people. This shows that it is possible to change our mental states. As
we familiarize our minds with love and compassion, the strength of anger
will gradually decrease.
The Truth of the
Path
Having seen that all experience in the cycle of existence has a nature
of suffering, we should develop a genuine wish to gain liberation from
it. Motivated by that wish, we should enter the path of the three
trainings: the trainings of morality, concentration, and wisdom. Among
these three, the antidote that will eliminate the delusions is the
wisdom realizing selflessness. For that purpose, we first require the
mental stability of concentration as the basis, and that in turn depends
upon the observance of pure morality. Therefore, we need training in
morality as well. At the initial stage, the first priority should be
given to the practice of morality; that is the immediate need.
Tsong-kha-pa says that mindfulness and introspection are the foundation
of the entire Dharma. In order to have a pure observance of morality,
the faculties of introspection and proper mindfulness are required.
For laymen and laywomen the observance of pure morality, refraining from
the ten negative actions, is the foundation of the practice of the path
leading to enlightenment. If we do not consider practical needs, like
the observance of morality, but instead go in search of more
sophisticated practices, our practice will be simply a sham and not
really very serious. With the practice of these three trainings, we
should work for the achievement of liberation, not just for ourselves
alone but also for other sentient beings.
Human existence is said to be the best form of existence to practice the
Dharma and try to bring an end to this cycle. Among human beings, the
life of lay people is beset with all sorts of troubles and problems, and
they are more involved with worldly activities that are not very
conducive to the practice of the Dharma. Life as a monk or nun is said
to be far more conducive to the practice of the Dharma, to put an end to
this cycle of existence. Tsong-kha-pa says that to reflect upon the
faults and the disadvantages of lay life and the advantages of monks’
and nuns’ life reinforces your commitment to such a life is you already
are a monk or nun. If someone has not yet chosen such a way of life,
such reflection leaves a very strong karmic imprint on one’s mind so
that later one will have the chance to lead such a life. In lay life, if
you are too wealthy, your life will be beset with problems and worries
about protecting your wealth; if you are poor, then your life will just
be involved in searching for material sustenance. To have many material
possessions and not be content is not the way of life for a monk or nun.
Monks and nuns should not be involved in business unless they have
fallen into some kind debt. Doing business and having to much
involvement in trying to raise money when you have sufficient provisions
should really be avoided. If you do not live according to the monastic
way of life, with modesty and contentment, there is hardly any
difference between laypeople and monks and nuns apart from the mere
external appearance of different types of clothes.
There was a monk from Ganden monastery who was a very serious meditator.
He had taken a pledge never to live under a roof and had done that for
many years. He told me that one day he was meditating when a big snake
crawled in front of him and just gazed at him. The meditator looked back
at the snake and started to say some religious words. I found it quite
funny, because it seemed as if the meditator was giving teachings to the
snake. He told me that the snake looked at him for a long time and then
went gently away.
The importance of moral discipline was emphasized by the Buddha himself.
When he was passing away, the Buddha was asked who would succeed him,
and he said that the practice of morality should be the guide and the
master of the entire Buddhist doctrine. He named moral discipline as his
successor.
In
order to overcome the abundance of delusions, it is important to check
your own mind, and whatever emotion is more forceful and abundant should
be given first priority. For example, some people are very attached to
sensual pleasures, some people are very short-tempered, some people are
very ignorant and lazy. You should check your own personality and try to
overcome whatever emotion is most obvious and strong within your mind.
As explained earlier, you should really make an effort to ensure that
none of your vows are broken. However, if you find that some vows have
been transgressed, you should not leave them like that but rather should
apply the necessary procedures and immediately restore and purify them.
Purification of the transgression should always be accompanied by a very
deep resolve not to repeat it; having the notion that “it does not
matter what I do because even is I transgress the vows I can restore
them” is really very dangerous, like deliberately eating poison thinking
that you can be cured.
Having realized the importance of morality ad reflected on how peaceful
it would be if you could be free of these delusions, then, as explained
earlier, you should first identify the delusions individually. Having
identified them, reflect upon their destructive nature, and then apply
mindfulness and the power of introspection. Whichever delusions are more
forceful and obvious should be countered immediately, just like hitting
whatever sticks out with a hammer. If you simply leave them they will do
real harm to yourself and others. Delusion might seem very forceful, but
it is not that powerful if you analyze it carefully. I once asked one of
my lamas if the delusions were truly weak, because sometimes they seem
so strong. He answered that delusions are weak because you do not need
nuclear weapons to destroy them. I began to understand what he meant.
All we are lacking in order to combat the delusions successfully is the
necessary will and effort. Defeating our enemies, the delusions, is
largely a matter of having the right attitude. Our state of mind is so
important that whenever the Indian master Atisha met someone, the first
question he would ask was, “Do you have a kind heart today?” You might
defeat ordinary enemies once, but they can regroup and attack again. But
once the delusions are eliminated, there is no possibility or
resurgence.
Whatever realization you gain from your practice of the Dharma should be
valued and judged on the basis of whether your commitment to the law of
karma has increased and, as a result, whether your practice of morality
has become pure and whether the force of delusions, like ignorance,
hatred, and desire, has decreased within you. If you notice that as a
result of your practice you have managed to change your mind and have
overcome some of the gross manifestations of the delusions, like anger,
hatred, ignorance, and desire, that really is a great achievement. As
Shantideva says, ordinary heroes who kill their enemies are not really
heroes because the people they kill would have died sooner or later;
they are actually killing corpses. But someone who is fighting the
delusions and is able to kill that enemy is a hero in the true sense of
the world.
CHAPTER 9
THE BODHISATTVA IDEAL
Being content with the achievement of liberation from the cycle of
existence is not enough. Even speaking from the viewpoint of your own
aims, it is the omniscient state of Buddhahood that is the complete
fulfillment of your own welfare. After having developed the wish to
achieve liberation and having undertaken practice of the three
trainings, instead of being concerned with the achievement of your own
personal liberation, it is better for intelligent practitioners to
meditate on the altruistic aspiration to Buddhahood, called bodhichitta,
right from the outset and enter the Mahayana, the Great Vehicle. If you
see people who are under the constant sway of delusions and undergoing
suffering, yet you do not work for their benefit, it is really unfair
and disappointing. You should not be content with working for your own
personal benefit alone. You should think in broader terms and try to
work for the benefit of many people. This is what distinguishes human
beings from animas, because the wish to work for the benefit of oneself
and one’s relations is something that even animals do. The unique
feature of human beings is that they work for the benefit of others, not
being concerned with their own welfare alone. That is the beauty and the
specialty of a human being.
People like the American president Lincoln and the Indian leader Mahatma
Gandhi are regarded as really great men because they did not think of
themselves alone but worked for the benefit of the people. They thought
of the entire human society, and they struggled and fought for the
rights of the poor. Take the example of Mahatma Gandhi: after gaining
Indian independence he just remained as an ordinary citizen, never
taking any position, such as prime minister. That is the mark of a
distinguished person. Mao at first worked very hard for the rights of
the masses, but after gaining power, he himself because a member of the
very same class he had fought against. He succumbed to power and became
utterly totalitarian, taking even the slightest dissent as a great
personal offense. Once Mao was praised, but now that people have become
disillusioned, more and more things are revealed.
When the sun shines, it shines without any discrimination; it shines on
every point of the country, every nook and corner. We should be like
that. We practitioners of the Mahayana should not be concerned with out
own benefit but with a single-pointed mind should develop the courageous
altruistic attitude, taking upon our own shoulders the responsibility of
working for all sentient beings.
Bodhichitta, the compassionate wish to achieve Buddhahood for the sake
of others, is the entrance to the Mahayana path. When you cultivate
bodhichitta, even though you might not make any further progress on the
path, you become a Mahayanist, but the moment bodhichitta degenerates,
even though you might have very high realizations, you fall from the
ranks of the Mahayana. Shantideva says that the moment you develop
bodhichitta, even though you might be living in a lower realm of
existence, you will be balled a bodhisattva, a child of the Buddhas. As
a result of bodhichitta, you will be able to purify negativities very
easily and be able to fulfill your aims. You will be invulnerable to
interferences and harm, because if you have this faculty of bodhichitta,
you regard other people as more important and precious than your own
life. When harmful spirits realize this, they hesitate to harm you. As a
result of bodhichitta, if you are able to purify negativities and
accumulate great stores of merit, you will encounter favorable
circumstances that are necessary for making speedy progress on the path.
Bodhichitta can compassion are the very sources and foundations of all
the goodness in this world and nirvana. You should regard bodhichitta as
the essence of your practice and should not leave it only at an
intellectual level; you should not be satisfied with your practice of
bodhichitta if it consists merely of the recitation of a few verses at
the beginning of a meditation session. You should try to generate it
through experience.
Tsong-kha-pa says that if you have an authentic aspiration to
enlightenment, then any act of goodness, even something minor like
giving grain to a crow, becomes a bodhisattva deed. However, if you lack
this motivating factor, even though you might make offerings of an
entire universe filled with jewels to other sentient beings, it will not
be the deed of a bodhisattva. If your practice of bodhichitta is not
successful, no matter how long you try to practice the Dharma, it will
be a very slow and laborious process, like cutting grass with a blunt
tool. But if you have a perfect and successful realization of
bodhichitta, even though it may take some time to make that your primary
motive, all of your practices will be very powerful. If you do not
repeatedly reinforce your compassion, improving and enhancing it, there
is a great danger of losing your courage and becoming depressed, because
sentient beings are infinite. There are many hostile sentient beings
who, instead of repaying your kindness, will try to harm you. Therefore,
you should not be satisfied with a single experience of compassion but
should really work to enhance it to the point where your compassion is
deeply rooted. If that happens, you will not care much about hardships,
and as a result you will never be depressed by circumstances when you
work for the benefit of others. It is because of the force of compassion
that the Buddhas remain committed to working for the benefit of other
sentient beings. The Buddha said that bodhisattvas do not need to be
concerned with many aspects of the path; they need not practice many
other things. It is by one practice alone that Buddhahood will be in the
palm of your hand. That one practice is great compassion, meaning the
desire to become enlightened in order to liberate all other sentient
beings. In order to generate this aspiration to enlightenment it is not
enough to have great compassion and love, wishing sentient beings to be
free of suffering. In addition, what is required is the sense of
personal responsibility to shoulder the task of freeing them from
sufferings and providing them with happiness.
When we reflect upon the suffering nature of sentient beings, we might
be able to develop the wish that they be free from such sufferings. In
order to discover a warm and kind heart that is forceful, stable, and
firm, it is very important first of all to have an affectionate attitude
toward sentient beings, regarding them as precious and dear. The more
affection you feel toward other sentient beings and the more you hold
them dear, the better you will be able to develop genuine compassion for
them. Normally, when we let out natural reactions follow their own
course, we find it unbearable to see the sufferings of our relatives and
friends. We tend to delight in the misfortunes and failures of our
enemies, and we tend to remain indifferent to people we do not know. Our
emotions fluctuate in relation to these different people. The more we
regard a person as close and dear to us, the stronger our feeling of
being unable to bear it when that person suffers.
In
order to equalize your feelings, visualize three people in front of you:
a very close friend, an enemy, and a neutral person. Having visualized
these three people, let your mind react naturally. You will find that
your mind reacts in an unbalanced way. You find yourself attached to the
friend and repelled by the enemy, and your attitude to the third person
is totally indifferent. Then, examine why you react in such a manner.
Friends might be friends now, but they may have been our enemies in the
past, and they could be our enemies in the future. Those whom we call
enemies now may have been our best friends or relatives in the past and
could also turn out to be the same in the future. What is the point of
making such discriminations? Friends are those whom we wish to have
happiness and to enjoy life. We wish them happiness and success because
they are our relatives and friends and have been good to us. But in the
future they could turn out to be our enemies, and even in this life they
could turn against us. Similarly, when we react to our enemies, we tend
to reach in a very negative manner, wishing instinctively, deep down,
that they face misfortune, hardship, and failure. We react like that
because we think that they have harmed us. But even though they might
actually be harmful at present, they could turn out to be our friends in
the future. There is no certainty, no totally reliable or permanent
friend or enemy. Likewise, although the neutral person is totally
unconcerned with us and we are indifferent to him or her in turn, in the
past that person may have been either our friend or enemy. If you train
your mind this way, you will come to see all people in the same light,
and gradually such a drastic discrimination among the three types of
people will begin to fade. You should extend this practice to include
everyone, eventually encompassing all sentient beings. That is how you
develop equanimity. This is not to suggest that we do not have friends
and enemies. What we are concerned with here is to offset our drastic,
imbalanced emotional reactions to others. This equanimity is very
important; it is like first leveling the ground before cultivating it.
Although equanimity itself is not a great realization, if you have that
foundation, further practices become very successful.
After developing equanimity, the first of the cause-and-effect precept
for creating the aspiration to enlightenment is the recognition that all
sentient beings have been our mother in a past life. This is because
there is no beginning to the cycle of existence. Because life in the
cycle of rebirth is beginningless, our own lives are also beginningless.
Life and death succeed each other without any interruption. Whenever we
take on a body, we require a mother. Since the cycle of existence has no
beginning, there is no sentient being we can point to and say, “That
person has not been my mother in the past.” Not only have they been our
mothers in the past, but also they will be our mothers in the future. If
you are able to develop deep conviction in this fact, it will be quite
easy to recollect and reflect upon their great kindness. Although it is
usually recommended that you see all sentient beings as your mother, you
should do this meditation according to your own experience. For example,
some people feel closer to their father. The person to whom you feel
closest and regard as most kind should be taken as the model. There is
not a single sentient being who has not been either our mother or father
or relative in the past. The fact that we do not remember or recognize
them does not mean that they have not been our mothers. For example,
even in this lifetime there are cases of parents and children being
separated when the children are very young. Later, these children are
unable to recognize their parents.
The nxt precept is to reflect on the kindness of all sentient beings.
This meditation is said to be the most successful if, after having
recognized all the other sentient beings as your mother, you recollect
their kindness, taking your own mother as an example. Visualize your
mother in front of you, and reflect that she has been your mother not
only in this lifetime but also numerous times in the past. Then think of
how kind she has been to you, how she has protected you from danger and
how she has helped you, how in this life she first conceived you and
even during the pregnancy she took great care of you. She looked after
you with no sense of hesitation. She was willing to use devious and
irreligious means to obtain what you needed with no care for the
hardships it caused her. Her commitment and love for her child was such
that she would prefer to fall ill herself rather than have her child
become sick. You should single-pointedly meditate on her great kindness.
When you develop a deep feeling of indebtedness to your mother for her
great kindness by reflecting this way, you should apply the same method
to other people who have been kind to you, such as your friends, and
relatives. Eventually you can extend it to include neutral persons. If
you are able to shift it to your enemy as well. Gradually include all
other sentient being within the sphere of your recognition of kindness.
Next is meditation on repaying their kindness. You should understand
that it is only because of our constantly changing lives that we are not
able to recognize that all sentient beings have been our kind mothers,
parents, and relative. Now they are protectorless; they have no refuge.
If we see their suffering and their helplessness and then still work for
our own benefit and personal liberation alone, we will not only be
acting unfairly, but also extremely ungratefully. You should develop a
deep sense of commitment that you will never abandon them but will
instead repay their kindness. Even in a worldly sense, if someone does
not repay the kindness of people but acts against them, he or she is
regarded as a very bad and ungrateful person. How then can a Mahayana
practitioner completely neglect the welfare of other sentient beings and
not think of repaying their kindness?
Imagine your mother, mentally unstable, blind, and without any guide,
walking toward a cliff. She calls out to her own child nearby, her only
refuge, in whom she places her hopes. If her own child does not help
her, who is going to? We should reflect on the idea that since the
beginning of time sentient beings have been mentally unstable because
they have been slaves of delusion, they lack the eye of wisdom to see
the path leading to nirvana and enlightenment, and they lack the
necessary guidance of a spiritual teacher. Moment by moment they are
indulging in negative actions, which will eventually bring about their
downfall. If these mothers cannot seek help from their own children, in
whom can they place their hope? Feeling a sense of responsibility, you
should repay the great kindness of the mother.
Next is the meditation on love. The Buddhist definition of love is the
wish that all sentient beings may enjoy happiness and never be parted
from happiness. It is said that meditation on love even for a moment far
exceeds the merits accumulated through making infinite offerings to
infinite Buddhas. It was by the power of meditation on love that the
Buddha defeated the hosts of demons who tried to keep him from his goal.
Meditation on love is the supreme protection. The actual sequence of
meditation on love is that fist you should cultivate love directed
toward your own friends and relatives, then you should shift the
attention to neutral persons, then on to your enemies as well. Then
gradually all other sentient beings whom you encounter.
Next is meditation on compassion. There are two types of compassion; one
is just a wish that sentient beings be free of suffering, and the other
is more powerful: “I shall take the responsibility for freeing sentient
beings from suffering.” First you should meditate on your own parents,
friends, and relatives and then shift that attention to neutral persons
and eventually to your enemies, so that eventually all sentient beings
you encounter will be part of your meditation. This has great
significance because when you are able to extend your meditation to all
sentient beings, your compassion and love will become so pervasive that
the moment you see suffering, compassion will spontaneously arise.
Otherwise, if you try to meditate on compassion and love for all
sentient beings, thinking about “all sentient beings” without first
identifying them individually, your idea of “all sentient beings” will
be very vague, and your compassion will not be very strong and firm.
When you meet with certain individuals, you will begin to doubt whether
you really wish them to enjoy happiness. On the other hand, if you
cultivate compassion in a gradual process, first of all picking out
individual categories of people and making a very special effort to
cultivate that kind of love and compassion focused on your enemy, who is
the most difficult object, then having love and compassion toward others
will become very easy, and your compassion will be able to withstand any
circumstances you might meet.
In
the actual meditation you should contemplate how sentient beings, like
yourself, rotate in the cycle of existence tormented by all types of
sufferings. To be successful in developing love and compassion, it is
very important to understand and realize the faults and defects of the
cycle of existence. If you are able to do that in terms of your own
observations, you can extend your understanding to other sentient
o=beings through experience. Otherwise, if you have not developed
renunciation yourself and a sense of aversion for the entire range of
experience within this cycle of existence, there is no way you can
cultivate compassion. Renunciation is indispensable for the cultivation
of compassion. Compassion and renunciation differ only in their object:
renunciation is focused upon yourself; it is the wish that you be
liberated from suffering. Compassion is directed toward other sentient
beings; it is the wish that all beings be liberated from suffering.
It
is very important to study and understand the many types of suffering.
Having gained extensive knowledge by reading many texts and thinking a
lot, you should contemplate the faults and defects of the cycle of life
and death and how sentient beings in this cycle of existence spin
through this chain reaction. For example, in scientific laboratories,
guinea pigs are tortured with all sorts of equipment. To understand how
the brain operates, scientists have to experiment on animals. It is a
very strange situation, because their primary aim is to help and prolong
the life of human beings. In a way it is a noble aim, but it is also
difficult to justify. Although they may use tranquilizers, scientists do
these kinds of experiments without any sense of compassion or mercy for
the animals. In the West there are groups who protest against such
treatment of animals, not out of religious sentiments but out of their
compassionate attitude towards animals. I support this effort.
Initially it might prove quite difficult to generate any experience of
compassion for all beings, but once you begin to develop it, it will
become firm, genuine, and unshakable, because it is based on a firm
foundation of knowledge and reason. If you have some experience of
compassion, it is really important to try to stabilize it by reinforcing
it with reasons and extensive understanding. Merely depending upon some
kind of intuition alone is not very reliable, because there is a danger
that afterward that kind of experience will disappear without a trace.
This is true not only of meditation on compassion and love, but for all
the other practices as well.
As
a result of your continuous meditation and contemplation, your feeling
of compassion toward other sentient beings will become as intense as the
love of a mother toward her only child when she sees him or her
suffering from an illness. The child’s suffering would cause her worry
and pain, and day and night she would have the natural wish that her son
or daughter be well.
If
your attitude toward any other sentient being is such that, regardless
of whether or not that are related to you, the moment you see any
suffering you are able to develop an equally intense compassion toward
all other sentient beings without partiality, that is the sign of having
achieved and developed compassion. This applies to love as well. Such
love and compassion will lead naturally, without any effort, to the
superior attitude of taking upon your own shoulders the responsibility
of working for the benefit of other sentient beings, which in turn leads
to the eventual realization of the aspiration to enlightenment.
In
meditating on repaying kindness you have reflected on the great kindness
of the mother sentient being and on the necessity of working for their
benefit. Here the primary concern is to cultivate a deep-felt sense of
responsibility to work for their benefit and shoulder the task of
relieving sentient beings of suffering and providing them with
happiness. Throughout your daily life and activities, wherever the
occasion arises, you should immediately seize that opportunity to train
in this meditation. Only then can you begin to hope for progress in the
realization. The Indian poet Chandragomin (sixth century C.E.) said that
it is stupid to expect to change the taste of a very sour fruit simply
by adding one or two drops of sugar cane. In the same way, we cannot
expect the taste of the mind, which is so contaminated with the sour
flavor of delusion, to be instantly changed into the sweet taste of
bodhichitta and compassion, just by one or two meditations. Sustained
effort and continuity are really very important.
In
the last step, the actual development of bodhichitta, the mind aspiring
to achieve enlightenment for others, you should not be satisfied by
seeing the importance of enlightenment for the sake of others alone.
There is no way to fulfill that ultimate aim without your achievement of
the omniscient state of Buddhahood, from which you can best benefit
others. You should develop a very deep, heartfelt faith in the
enlightened state, and that will lead to a genuine aspiration to achieve
it. Generally speaking, there are many causes and conditions for the
cultivation of bodhichitta, but chief among all of them is compassion.
We
should realize that the purpose of taking birth in this world is to help
others. If we cannot do that, at least we should not harm other living
beings. Even people who are opposed to religion speak highly of the
altruistic attitude. Although the Chinese Communists are ideologically
opposed to religion, they talk of the wish to work for the welfare of
the masses. If these people truly had an altruistic attitude, they would
be able to fulfill the wish for a perfect socialist state. On the other
hand, if they continue to use violent methods to enforce a totalitarian
system, there is no way that they can bring about what they are looking
for. Nations have diverse political systems, but an essential factor in
most societies is the altruistic attitude-the wish to work for others,
for the welfare of the majority. The altruistic attitude is the root of
happiness within the human community. All the major religions of the
world encourage cultivation of an altruistic attitude, irrespective of
their different philosophical systems. In short, if you cultivate the
altruistic attitude, is only helps you by providing peace of mind, it
also creates a peaceful atmosphere around you. That is one of the
practical results that you can see. The ultimate purpose of cultivating
the altruistic attitude is to achieve the enlightened state so that you
will be able to work for the total fulfillment of the wishes of other
beings. Therefore, the Buddha has not left the importance of cultivating
bodhichitta as a matter of simple advice; he has also shown the
techniques and means by which we can develop such an altruistic
aspiration.
Once we have taken rebirth in this world, as long as we are human beings
we depend for our survival on other human beings. We cannot survive
independently. That is the nature of being human. Therefore, we should
help our fellow human beings and relieve them of their suffering, both
physical and mental. That is the proper way to treat our fellow human
beings. Insects like bees and ants do not have a system of education,
but in practical terms, because they have to depend upon each other for
their survival, they somehow help each other, regardless of whether they
have a strong sense of affection and compassion. When ants get a large
piece of bread, they help each other to carry it. Human beings depend
for their survival on their fellow human beings yet do not treat each
other as fellow human beings. All human beings have a natural tendency
to wish for the experience of happiness and to avoid suffering. Taking
that into account, it is very important to cultivate an altruistic
attitude to help others.
We
have obtained this life as a human being. Whether we make it worthwhile
or not depends upon our own mental attitude. If we adopt a devious
attitude but show a benevolent and kind face, we are making a mistake.
If we have this altruistic attitude and treat others as they deserve to
be treated, then our own happiness is assured as a by-product of working
for the happiness of others. When we experience happiness, we should
rejoice in the fact that it is the consequence of virtuous actions we
have committed in the past. At the same time, we should dedicate that
virtue to the happiness of all sentient beings in the hope that they may
experience this type of happiness as well. If we undergo suffering, we
should realize that it is the consequence of non-virtuous actions that
we have committed in the past, and we should develop a wish that through
our experience of this suffering, all the suffering that other sentient
beings have to undergo in the future may be avoided. Pledge that whether
you achieve enlightenment or not, you will work for the welfare of other
sentient beings come what may. Having received instruction on the method
of overcoming the self-centered attitude, you can die without regret.
When I give explanations of my practice in aspiring to develop this
aspiration to enlightenment, I feel very fortunate to be doing so. My
mouth and tongue have served their purpose. Listeners and readers should
rejoice at the great fortune of becoming acquainted with such marvelous
teachings whose practice bestows benefits both now and in the future.
The practice of bodhichitta is indispensable for someone who wishes to
achieve enlightenment. All the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the past have
achieved these high realizations by cultivating this altruistic
attitude. Some ideologies lose their relevance as time passes. The
Buddha taught that life is out most cherished possession and that we
should treat the lives of others as more important and precious than our
own. This kind of message and teaching retains its relevance throughout
the ages. In this modern age when there is a great danger of the
destruction of the entire world, we find the message of the Buddha more
and more relevant.
The other method for developing the altruistic aspiration to
enlightenment is the equalizing and exchanging of self and others. The
first step in this practice is to recognize the advantages of exchanging
oneself for others and the disadvantages of not doing so. All the good
qualities in this universe are the product of cherishing the welfare of
others, and all the frustrations and confusions and sufferings are
products and consequences of selfish attitudes. But is it possible to
exchange oneself for others? Our experience testifies that we can change
our attitude toward certain types of people whom we formerly found
repulsive and fearful, that when we get closer to such persons and
understand them, we can change our attitude. Exchanging self and others
does not mean that you physically change yourself into others but rather
that the attitude that you have about yourself is applied to others. The
strong cherishing that you feel for yourself should now be shifted to
others, so that you will have a natural tendency to work for the welfare
of others instead of yourself.
There are two main obstacles to developing such an attitude. The first
is this strong discrimination between self and others, regarding self
and others as totally independent and separate. In fact, self and other
are relative, like “this side of the mountain” and “that side of the
mountain.” From my perspective, I am self and you are other, but from
your perspective, you are self and I am other. We also have a natural
feeling of indifference because we feel that the happiness and suffering
of others is not our business; they do not matter to remember that there
are certain types of people, like relatives, whom we hold very dear.
Even though your relatives are not you, the sufferings and happiness
they experience do affect you. Also, despite the fact that our bodies,
collections of parts, as very precious. In the same way, we should look
at what unites us, the common feature that ll the sentient beings like
ourselves share, the natural wish to achieve happiness and avoid
sufferings. We regard a person who gives up his or her life for the sake
of others as noble, but we think that it is foolish to sacrifice ten
people to save one. This has nothing to do with religion; it is simply a
human response. Therefore, to give up the rights, benefits, and
privileges of the few for the sake of the many is right and fair. This
is what the Buddha teaches-that to give up the privileges and rights of
one individual for the welfare of all other beings, who are as infinite
as space, is right and fair.
Therefore, we should decide, “From now on I shall dedicate myself, even
my body, for the welfare of others. From now on, I will not work for my
own happiness but rather for the happiness of others. From now on others
are like my master; my body will obey and take orders from others
instead of myself.” Reflecting upon the great disadvantages and harms of
the selfish attitude, you should develop a strong determination, saying
to the self-cherishing attitude, “Your domination of my mind is a thing
of the past. From now on I will not obey your orders. You have only done
me great harm by your devious means. From now on do not pretend that you
are working for my own happiness, because I have realized that you are
the great enemy and the source of all my frustrations and suffering. If
I do not abandon you and work for others, you will again plunge me into
the sufferings of unfortunate rebirth.” Understand that a self-centered
attitude is the source of all suffering, and concern for others is the
source of all happiness and goodness.
If
you meet ten equally poor beggars, it is wrong to make distinctions
among them, deciding that some are more deserving than others. If there
are ten equally sick persons, it is senseless to start making
discriminations among them. Similarly, you should develop an equal
attitude among toward all the other sentient beings, who either are
suffering or who have the potential to suffer. These sentient beings
have shown you boundless kindness in the past. From a religious point of
view, even the enemy is kind because he or she provides you with the
opportunity to develop patience. All of us have the same nature, and all
of us are suffering the same fate; there is no point in being
antagonistic and unfriendly to each other. The Buddhas see only the
delusions as faults to be eliminated; they never discriminate among the
sentient beings who are beset by delusions, helping some and not helping
others. If some beings were intrinsically evil, the Buddhas would se
this and would abandon such people. Because they, who see reality
exactly as it is, do not act this way, we can conclude that evil is a
temporary affliction that can be eliminated. It is said that is the
Buddha was flanked by two people, one striking the Buddha with a weapon
and the other massaging the Buddha with oil, he would not favor one over
the other.
Thus in the ultimate sense enemies and friends do not exist. This does
not mean that there are not people who sometimes help us and others who
sometimes harm us. What we are concerned with here is trying to overcome
our fluctuating emotions. We should reflect upon the relativity of
friends and enemies in order to reduce the grip of emotional reactions.
We can then more easily identify the great advantages of cherishing
others-the door to the achievement of all good qualities. We will then
naturally wish to work for others, and the indifference that we
previously felt for others can now be applied to our own welfare. The
strong emotional attachment normally associated with our own welfare in
the past can now be transferred to others.
If
we think carefully, we can see that even the achievement of our own
enlightenment very much depends on others. Without the practice of the
three trainings in ethics, meditation, and wisdom, there is no way we
can achieve nirvana. The practice of the three training begins with
morality, such as vowing not to kill. If there were no other sentient
beings, how could we refrain from killing them? All these practices
depend upon the contribution of others. In short, right from the
beginning of our conception in the womb up to now, we have been entirely
dependent upon the kindness and contribution of others. A Tibetan would
not enjoy drinking Tibetan tea without the contribution of animals like
the female yak. Milk is the natural right of the calf, but we take it
away and make it into butter. Without other beings’ contributions, we
would not have these things. The same is true of shelter and food and
especially fame. In this modern world, without the activities of
journalists, no one could become famous. Even if one person shouts out
loud, he or she will not become famous that way.
We
find that our very survival is something that is dependent upon others.
This is true in the world, and it is true on the path: everything
depends upon the contribution and kindness of others. So if we reflect
along such lines, our recollection of the kindness of others will have a
greater dimension. I often remark that if you would like to be selfish,
you should do it in a very intelligent way. The stupid way to be selfish
is the way we always have worked, seeking happiness for ourselves alone
and in the process becoming more and more miserable. The intelligent way
to be selfish is to work for the welfare of other, because you become a
Buddha in the process.
In
order never to separate from the aspiration to become a Buddha for the
sake of others, even in future lifetimes, we have to maintain certain
kinds of training. Specifically, we should abandon the four negative
actions and undertake the practice of the four virtuous actions
associated with this training. The first negative action is deceiving
your spiritual master, especially by telling lies. The second negative
action is causing a religious practitioner who has no regret about his
or her past virtuous actions to develop such regret because of something
you say. The third negative action is to insult bodhisattvas, beings who
have generated bodhichitta, by belittling them and insulting them. This
is a negative action we are very prone to commit, because it is very
difficult to say who is a bodhisattva and who is not. We should be very
careful to avoid this. The Perfection of Wisdom Sutras explain the
gravity of generating anger. If you realize that you have lost your
temper toward a bodhisattva, it is very important to regret it
immediately and engage in means of purifying your negative action, with
a strong resolve never to indulge in such actions in the future. The
greatest stumbling block in your cultivation of compassion and the
aspiration to enlightenment is hatred toward others. The fourth negative
action is deceiving others without any sense of conscience, especially
concealing your own faults and pretending to have high realizations.
The four virtuous actions are
the opposite of these four. The first is never to lie to any living
being. There are a few exceptions where you might have to tell lies in
order to protect the Dharma or other people, but otherwise you should
avoid telling lies to anybody. The second virtuous action is to be
honest, and the third is to praise and have high regard for
bodhisattvas, who are constantly working for others. Again, it is very
difficult to assess who is and who is not a bodhisattva, so it is safer
to develop a strong sense of respect toward all sentient beings and
always speak highly of them and praise their positive qualities. The
fourth virtuous action is exhorting others to work for the achievement
of Buddhahood, the completely enlightened state.
CHAPTER 10
THE BODHISATTVA DEEDS
Although the generation of the aspirational aspect of the bodhichitta
alone if remarkable and a virtuous action in itself, that alone will not
fulfill your aim of achieving Buddhahood. It is important to engage in
the practice of the bodhisattva deeds. These deeds, called the six
perfections, constitute the essential and comprehensive path to
enlightenment, combining method and wisdom. The Buddha himself said that
by the force of their wisdom bodhisattvas abandon all the delusions, but
by the force of their compassionate method they never abandon sentient
beings. These two aspects of the path should always be undertaken in
combination, never in isolation. The entire practice of the bodhisattva
is classified under the six perfections, which are generosity, ethics,
patience, effort, concentration, and wisdom.
To
fulfill the wishes of others it is very important to engage in the
practice of generosity, and generosity itself should be reinforced by
the pure observance of ethics, abstaining from inflicting harm upon
others. Ethical practice itself should be completed by the practice of
patience, because you should have forbearance toward harm inflicted upon
you by others. In order to engage in such practices, you must have
strong effort. Without concentration, your practice will not be
powerful. And without wisdom realizing the nature of phenomena, you will
not be able to guide others rightly on the path leading to the
achievement of enlightenment. Not I will explain the six perfections in
more detail.
Generosity
Generosity is an attitude of willingness to give away without a touch of
miserliness, your own possessions, body, virtues, and so forth. You give
away your own possession and wealth, and the virtues accumulated through
giving these away should also be dedicated to others’ benefit. The
perfection of generosity is not dependent upon rooting out the poverty
of all living beings; it is the ultimate development of a generous
attitude. The texts speak of the importance of developing a sense of
generosity, especially of giving your body to others. The physical body
in itself is full of faults and defects, but with this body you can
fulfill great aims by using it to help others instead of being
possessive about it. The same applies to your possession. If you are
possessive about your belongings, you will accumulate more non-virtuous
collections you accumulate by giving these to others should be dedicated
toward their benefit.
It
is said that if you undertake the practice of generosity in this way,
giving away your possession, body, and your virtuous collections, the
merit that you accumulate will be vast. Therefore, you should not be
possessive about your belongings, nor should you work to hoard more and
more, because possessions will prove an obstacle to your practice of
generosity. The Buddha gave away his possessions and belongings for the
benefit of others and achieved the state of perfect enlightenment.
Having realized the futility of being possessive about your belongings,
you should try to increase your sense of generosity and put it into
practice by giving your possessions to others. A person who realizes the
futility of being possessive and gives away his or her belongings, out
of a pure wish to help others, is called a bodhisattva. It is said that
since you have dedicated your own body and possessions and virtuous
collections for the benefit of other, when you do use them, you must do
so with the attitude of borrowing them from others and doing so for
others’ benefits.
In
the practice of generosity, a stable and firm aspiration to
enlightenment should be your motive. Whatever you give should be
beneficial to others. The practice of generosity should be undertaken
for the benefit of others and should be done in a very skillful way,
that is, with the understanding that ultimately there is no self to give
or to receive. The practice of generosity should be dedicated to the
benefit of others, but it should also be endowed with what is called
sublime purity, meaning that the other five perfections should also be
present. For instance, when you give the Dharma to others, you should
have the morality of abstaining from falling into a selfish attitude,
and also you should have the patience to endure hardships during the
practice of the path. There are three types of generosity: the giving of
the Dharma, the giving of fearlessness or protection, and the giving of
material possessions.
The intention with which you should practice generosity is the wish to
achieve enlightenment for the sake of others. When you actually engage
in giving, your attitude toward the person to whom you give should not
be one of pity. You should see them as a source of great kindness,
contributing to your progress in the practice of the Dharma. Although
you should not discriminate, you must pay special attention to those who
are materially poor and those who are suffering greatly. In short,
whenever you practice giving, you should always look and speak of the
good qualities of others and never speak of their faults. Your attitude
should not be influenced by a wish for reward or fame or the hope of
receiving something in return. And after having given something, you
should never regret having parted with that possession. Try to increase
the joy in giving, and never back away from situations in which you
might have to actually physically engage in giving something away.
To
increase and develop your sense of generosity, you should begin by
giving away small possessions. With practice, this will lead to your now
having even the slightest sense of apprehension or reservation in giving
away your own body. It is said that one’s state of mind depends always
on what one is familiar with. For example, when we learn a language, we
start from the beginning with the alphabet. Initially it seems very
difficult. If at that point we were given a complex grammar, it would
not be helpful. But if we begin with the alphabet in a skillful manner,
eventually even the complexity of the grammar will seem very easy. In
the same way, if we train ourselves in giving away our material
possession, then later even parting with our known bodies will seem
quite natural.
You should not postpone giving something away or wait for the other
person to do something good. You should not give one gift when you have
promised to give another, and you should not refer to your own kindness
when you give something to make the recipient indebted to you. When you
do give something away, you should do so out of pleasure and joy, with a
pleasing expression. You should practice generosity yourself and
encourage others to do so, to help others to develop a sense of
generosity as well. Anything that harms others in the short term and
that brings about sufferings and unhappiness in the long term is not a
suitable gift. Anything that brings happiness in both the short and long
term is suitable to be given to others. When you practice giving the
gift of teachings, you should first analyze the nature of the listener
to determine whether he or she will benefit from the teaching that you
are thinking of giving. Otherwise, instead f being helpful to that
person it might end up being harmful, and your listener may lose faith
in the Dharma. In addition, you should not make gifts to hunters that
they might use to kill animals, nor should you teach them techniques to
catch animals. In some cases, refusal proves more beneficial than the
giving. The bodhisattva should be skillful in such situations.
If
you find yourself incapable of parting with something, you should
reflect upon the futility of material possessions and also realize the
impermanence of your own life. Sooner or later you will have to part
with these possessions, so instead of dying in the grip of miserliness
it is better to be free of the miserliness and give away your
possessions now. Think to yourself, “I have been undergoing the torments
of suffering in the cycle of existence just because I have not developed
familiarity with the attitude of giving away my possession. From now on
I must change my attitude and develop a sense of generosity.” To do
this, mentally create all sorts of marvelous possessions and imagine
giving them to others.
Ethics
The second perfection is ethics. Ethics is a state of mind that abstains
from engaging in any situation or event that would prove harmful to
others. The perfection of ethics is accomplished when you have developed
to the ultimate point the conviction not to harm others. Ethics here is
broadly classified under ten headings, that is, abstaining from the ten
non-virtuous actions. Ethics is like a cool rain, which extinguishes the
fire of attachment, hatred, and anger within you. The intention with
which you should undertake the practice of ethics should be
nonattachment, non-hatred, and also right view. The observance of pure
ethics should be influenced by fear of the consequences you will have to
face if you indulge in negative actions, whose negative consequences
have already been explained. The pure observance of ethics is like a
beautiful jewel that suits everyone, irrespective of height, weight,
age, and nationality. Material ornaments may look beautiful on one
person but not on another, whereas the ornament of ethics looks
beautiful on all practitioners irrespective of their physical
appearance.
With the pure observance of ethics you will naturally command respect
within the human community. Under the influence of ethics you will treat
human beings in a proper and virtuous way, and you will be protected
from indulging in negative actions. In the sutras it is said that even
the dust of the ground on which the person with pure ethics walks is an
object of veneration; such is the great quality of ethics. Your
intention in observing pure ethics should not be confined to protecting
yourself from engaging in negative actions but should also set an
example for others, so that they too can be protected from the harm of
negative actions.
Patience
Patience is a state of mind that forbears in the face of harms inflicted
by others. There are three types of patience. The first is not being
upset by harms inflicted by others; the second is voluntarily taking
suffering upon oneself, and the third is being able to endure the
sufferings involved in the practice of the Dharma. It is very important
to reflect upon the great qualities and benefits of possessing patience.
Those who have not undertaken any practice of patience will be seized at
the time of death by a strong sense of remorse for the negative actions
they have committed during their lifetimes, whereas those who have
undertaken the practice of patience and endured harms inflicted by
others will not have any sense of remorse at death. The most effective
antidote to the attitude of abandoning others is the practice of
patience. Patience also protects the practitioner from the harm
inflicted by anger. It is said that even an instant of anger directed
toward a bodhisattva can destroy the entire collection of meritorious
virtue you might have accumulated over one thousand eons. So patience
protects you from being discouraged when others harm you, and it also
protects you from situations when your anger would destroy the entire
collection of your virtues. It is an ornament admired by others; it is
the armor that protects you from your own anger and from any harm
inflicted by others.
The immediate effect of losing your temper is that you lose your calm,
your presence of mind. Those around you will not be happy, because anger
creates a bad atmosphere around you. Anger and hatred destroy your power
of judgment, and instead of repaying someone’s kindness you end up
miserably retaliating. Even though you might enjoy material comforts, if
your mind is filled with a powerful anger and hatred, you will not enjoy
even the slightest pleasure because you will be in constant emotional
torment. Realizing this, put great effort into this practice of patience
and try to get rid of anger.
When someone harms you, you should not lose your temper and retaliate,
but realize that the other person does not have any control over his or
her emotions. The person is not doing it willfully but under the
influence of negative emotions. The primary cause of someone getting
angry and inflicting harm upon you is that he or she is under the
constant influence of the delusions. Instead of losing your temper, you
should develop mercy and compassion. The very simple point is that if
individuals had control over their emotions, they would not do you harm
at all, because what they seek is happiness. They would not work for
their own downfall by accumulating the negative karma that comes from
harming others. Because they do not have control over their emotions,
there is no point in losing your temper.
You should analyze whether the anger and hatred and harmful intention
are intrinsic to human beings or not. If anger is the essential nature
of human beings, as heat is the nature of fire, there is nothing one can
do to overcome it, and there is no point in retaliating when harmed. If,
on the other hand, anger is not the essential nature of living beings
but is just an adventitious quality, then again there is no point in
losing your temper and retaliating, because what actually inflicts the
pain is the instrument the person used, like a stick or a club. We
should lose our temper at these instruments instead of at the person,
but in fact we do not. Just as we do not lose our temper at inanimate
objects like clubs, we should try to calm down and not lost our tempers
at all. Instead, try to probe for the deeper cause of harm. You will
find that it is your own karmic actions, negative actions you have
committed in the past, that have caused the person to harm you.
Therefore, is you are going to lose your temper and retaliate, you
should do so toward your own delusions and negative actions. There is no
point in losing your temper toward others. It is only our delusions that
cause us to face such circumstances and suffering.
If
I lose my temper and retaliate in response to some small experience of
suffering that I am not able to bear, I will accumulate negative actions
that will have a far-reaching impact in the future. Instead, I should
feel indebted to the person who has harmed me, because he or she has
given me the opportunity to test my own patience. Instead of losing our
temper and retaliating, we should feel thankful to the person who harm
us. When we are struck, the pain is equally the result of the injury and
o our own body. Without the body, we would not experience physical
suffering. Therefore, if we are going to be angry, we should also be
angry with our own body.
The practice of patience is very important for overcoming resentment and
jealousy of the success and happiness of others. We should rejoice that
instead of our having to work for all others, some individual are
capable of working for their own well-being. When we see such success,
we should be happy and rejoice. We must overcome the sense of pleasure
we experience when we see the downfall of our enemies or rivals and
should not feel resentful or depressed about our enemy’s success. Our
resentment not only harms that person but also causes us to accumulate
more non-virtuous actions, which will cause our own downfall in the
future.
In
normal life, we often have more suffering than happiness. It is very
important to be able to view all these experiences of suffering in the
context of furthering our practice of the Dharma. If we have developed
patience, in the sense of voluntarily taking sufferings upon ourselves,
even though we might not be able to take on others’ suffering
physically, we will not lose our power of judgment. Even in ordinary
life two people may be suffering from the same illness, but due to their
different attitudes and ways of looking at things, one person suffers
more because he of she is not equipped with the right attitude to face
the situation, whereas the other person can face the situation better
and can avoid the additional mental anguish and torment. We should
remember that if a situation cannot be changed, there is no point in
worrying about it. If the situation can be changed, there is also no
point in worrying; we should simply work to change it.
If
we do not face suffering, we will not have the wish to achieve
liberation from the cycle of existence. That is one positive aspect of
suffering. Without suffering, how can you have the experience of
renunciation? In this context it is important to reflect upon the fact
that up to this point from beginningless time we have been undergoing
this cycle of suffering and torment constantly, never giving up our
selfish motives, trying to cling to our self-importance, working for our
own selfish ends. Now, we should realize the importance of changing that
attitude and trying to work for the benefit of others. If, in the
process, we have to face suffering, we will be able to endure it without
losing the power of judgment and without being depressed about such
experiences. There is no experience that through constant familiarity
does not become easy in the end. Enduring sufferings in the process of
the path is something that we can get used to.
It
is very important to be decisive and courageous and resilient in your
determination. When heroes see their own blood in battle, instead of
being discouraged and losing heart, they become more determined; it
serves as an impetus to fight more fiercely. That is the type of
attitude that bodhisattvas should adopt when they meet situations in
which they have to undergo sufferings. We should endure the suffering of
poor physical circumstances in the process of the practice. We should
endure the discomfort caused by people insulting us or speaking against
us. We must bear the suffering of our own illness and aging. These
should not overwhelm us; we should be able to endure them. We should be
prepared to undergo hardships that are involved in the process of
leading an ardent life in the practice of the Dharma, devoted to the
ultimate welfare of all sentient beings. We should never lose the force
of our effort and should carry on with our practice without ever being
resentful of the situation. On this stable foundation of patience we can
construct our future realization of the path.
Effort
The next perfection is effort. Effort is the state of mind that delights
in virtuous actions. It serves as the foundation for practices by which
we avoid falling into the lower realms of existence. It is said to be
the forerunner of all virtuous actions. If you are endowed with effort,
all your studies and practice will be successful, because you will have
no sense of weariness or discouragement. It is said that if you are
endowed with perfect effort, free from any sense of discouragement or
inadequacy, there is no endeavor in which you will not succeed. If, on
the other hand, you are seized by laziness, you will make no progress in
wisdom or in any other practice. A lack of effort brings downfall, not
only in this life, but in the long term as well.
Armorlike effort enables you to endure any form of suffering or hardship
in the process of working for the benefit of others. It protects you
from discouragement and depression when faced with hardships. Your
armorlike effort should be such that is you were to take rebirth in hell
for innumerable eons, just for the sake of fulfilling the wishes of one
individual, you would be prepared to do so. In order to achieve the
effort needed to accumulate virtue, you must first identify the obstacle
to effort, laziness. There are here types of laziness: the laziness of
indolence, which is the wish to postpone what you have to do; the
laziness of inferiority, which is the sense of not being able to do
something; and the laziness that is attachment to negative actions, or
putting great exertion into nonvirtue. To overcome laziness, you must
reflect upon the fact that the practice of the Dharma has favorable
consequences. You must also see the harm and futility of just engaging
in senseless gossip and so forth. Senseless gossip and being constantly
distracted and attracted to the worldly way of life serve as the
greatest stumbling blocks to progress in our practice. To overcome the
sense of inferiority, you must reflect upon the fact that all the
Buddhas of the past have achieved enlightenment through the faculty of
effort. Originally they were not Buddhas but were ordinary beings, like
ourselves. But because they made great effort in the practice of the
Dharma, they have been able to achieve the final goal. In order to
overcome our lack of confidence we much realize that in order to achieve
Buddhahood we have to be prepared to make some sacrifice. Is we find
that we are not yet prepared to make such effort, to part from our
possessions, the we should realize that sooner or later we will have to
part from these possessions and even from our bodies. Instead of having
to uncontrollable part from them at the time of death when it would
serve no purpose at all, we should give them away. Through the force of
our generosity, we can at least derive some kind of benefit from them.
Just as when you fall sick you have to endure the sort of physical pains
that doctors inflict upon you by giving you injections, so for the sake
of overcoming the great suffering that is the plague of the cycle of
existence, it is necessary to endure a certain amount of hardship and
physical pain on the path to enlightenment.
We
should not feel depressed or discouraged by the fact that in order to
achieve enlightenment we have to accumulate vast merit and wisdom for
innumerable eons. The purpose for which we are trying t achieve this
enlightenment is the welfare of all sentient beings. The number of
sentient beings is limitless, and their sufferings are infinite. The
process of working to relieve all these infinite beings from their
limitless sufferings is bound to be a long and hard process. We must be
prepared to make some sacrifices in the process. A bodhisattva is a
being who, due to his or her compassion, love, and mercy for all
suffering sentient beings, does not have even the slightest sense of
regret or depression when he or she has to face suffering and hardship.
There has never been a case where someone has achieved something with a
lack of confidence. On the other hand, is we develop the courage and
exert the necessary effort, even things that might have previously
seemed complicated and difficult will eventually turn out to be very
simple and easy. When you venture into an undertaking, first of all it
is very important to assess the situation, analyze it, and see whether
you will be able to do it or not. Is you find that it is beyond your
present ability or capacity, instead of trying to plunge into it
immediately, it is better to back off and wait rather than leaving it
half done. But once you have decided to do it, it should not be left
half done; you should carry it through to the end.
It
is said that in order to succeed in the venture you have undertaken, it
is important to have confidence. This confidence does not have any
negative implications; it is a simple sort of courage. Your confidence
must be such that you are prepared to do anything alone, without
depending upon the contribution or help of others. You should think that
all other sentient beings, because of the influence of delusions, do not
have the capacity or ability to work for themselves. You should have the
confidence to feel that you have seen the harm of the delusions that you
will not allow yourself to remain under the influence of delusions, that
you have the ability and capacity to work for the benefits of others.
You should be confident never to let yourself come under the sway of
delusions but always face and combat them. If you back down, even the
slightest harm can destroy you. When a snake is dying, even crows act
like vultures.
You should also cultivate the power of joy. Whenever you engage in these
practices, it is very important that they are always accompanied by the
faculty of joy. Your attitude of joy and pleasure in your practice
should be just like the pleasure that children take in their games. This
faculty of taking joy or pleasure in the practice of the Dharma
overcomes your being satisfied with minor achievements. At the same
time, you should not neglect the power of relaxation. When you make an
effort in your practice and you feel tired and exhausted, it is
important to relax so that you will feel refreshed and recharged and
ready to engage in practice again. Otherwise, physical exhaustion will
cause depression. It is said that the faculty of effort should be like a
river, sustained and continuous.
When you apply the faculty of effort, you should try not only to combat
the opposing factors that you are trying to overcome, but also to
protect yourself from committing other negative actions as well. For
example, when you are concerned with overcoming ignorance and you make
constant efforts to identify ignorance and combat it, you may totally
neglect other types of delusions and end up accumulating other
non-virtuous actions, like attachment. When a warrior drops his sword,
he immediately picks it up without hesitation. In the same way, when you
apply the faculty of mindfulness, so that you do not fall under the
influence of other negative states of mind. Mindfulness should serve as
the primary factor for protecting yourself from the other delusions in
the process of making effort, because even the slightest negative
actions can have grave consequences. When you are pierced by a small
poisonous arrow, the wound might be very small, but the poison pervades
your entire body and eventually kills you. All the negative states of
mind have that kind of potential. Some might seem not to be very grave,
but all these emotions have this kind of potential. Your vigilance
should be like that of a person forced to carry a glass of milk on his
or her head under the threat of death is a single drop is spilled.
Naturally that person would be careful not to spill anything. Your
vigilance in undertaking the practice of the Dharma should be equally
scrupulous. Under the circumstances it is very important to regret the
negative actions that you have committed in the past and to develop a
strong resolve never to indulge in them again. This will serve as a
constant reminder never to lose the faculty of mindfulness, just as a
feather is carried on the wind, your body and mind should be sustained
by the effort and joy you take in the practice of the Dharma.
Concentration
Concentration is the mental state of focusing single-pointedly on a
virtuous object. Our ordinary mental state if one of distraction. Our
ordinary minds are too uncontrolled and weak to be able to understand
the nature of reality. And it is essential to under the nature of
reality if we are going to liberate anyone, ourselves or others, from
the sufferings of the cycle of birth and death. It is therefore
necessary to develop the mind into a suitable tool for investigating
reality, like a strong microscope. It is necessary to develop the mind
into a suitable weapon to sever the root of suffering, like a sharp
sword. Concentration is the practice whereby one’s ordinary, distracted,
uncontrolled mind is developed to the point that it can remain
powerfully, effortlessly, and one-pointedly on whatever object one
chooses. Bodhichitta should be at the basis of the practice of
concentration.
Tsong-kha-pa says that our minds have been under the influence of
delusions since the beginning of time. The function of concentration is
to gain control of your mind so that you can steer it to any virtuous
object you choose. Up to now we have been under the influence of our
minds, and our minds have been under the influence of delusions. Because
of that, we have indulges in negative actions. As a result, we have to
undergo unwanted sufferings. In order to terminate this vicious circle
of the causes and conditions of suffering in the cycle of rebirth, we
have to transform our minds and gain control over them. The mind, like a
horse, should be directed to virtuous activities rather than to
non-virtuous ones. We should not let the mind simple wander into
virtuous actions at random. In order to make your meditation effective,
you have to do it in a systematic order with a degree of control.
Otherwise, although you might initially experience a vivid visualization
by accident, as long as it id not properly controlled, it is not very
helpful. You will develop the bad habit of letting the mind go wherever
it wishes. When you make real progress, on the other hand, you should be
able to place your mind on a certain point easily and without
difficulty. Until you reach that stage it is important to follow the
proper sequence, just as you must lay proper foundations for a house if
you are going to construct stable walls. You should have a plan right
from the beginning, and you should decide in advance how much meditation
you will do. During the main meditation itself you should be able to
apply both mindfulness and introspection to see whether your mind is
being distracted to other topics or not. It is said that at the
beginning it is better to do shorter sessions, because if your session
is very long there is a danger of coming under the influence of mental
sinking or excitement. If you do a long session of two or three hours,
even though you are spending the time, if your mind is not very
attentive and comes under the influence of either mental sinking or
excitement, your meditation will not be as effective as it should be. It
is also important to have short session at the beginning so that when
you do the meditations you will take pleasure in them. Otherwise, if you
do a long session and do not enjoy it, there is a danger of becoming
discouraged. When you see your meditation seat again, you will feel a
sense of boredom or reluctance. However, if you do short sessions, when
you resume your meditation you will actually enjoy doing it, because the
impact of the earlier session will not have faded.
What is the role of sleep in practice? It is important not to sleep
during the day or the first and last parts of the night. Westerners have
a very strange habit. They go to bed very late at night and get up very
late in the morning. If there is a special reason for doing this, that
is another matter, but if not, it is better to go to bed early and get
up early. Sleep is said to be a changeable mental factor. If you have a
virtuous thought when you fall asleep, your entire sleep is said to be
changed into virtuous thought. We have to go to bed for a specific
amount of time, so try to cultivate a virtuous thought, like compassion,
beforehand; then your entire sleep will be virtuous. Proper sleep
actually sustains your body and maintains your physical health, which
will help you in your spiritual practice. If you follow the Indian
custom, you should wash your feet and then go to sleep. I doubt if many
Tibetan masters followed this practice because of the cold. It is said
that one should sleep like a lion, lying on the right side. Sleeping in
this posture is said to have many advantages, for example that your body
will not be overly relaxed; even though you fall asleep you will not
lose the power of mindfulness; you will not fall into a very deep sleep;
and you will not have bad dreams.
When you go to bed, you should try to imagine a vision of light, so that
you will not be subject to the darkness of ignorance during sleep. You
should also have mindfulness and introspection and the wish to get up
early. To be mindful before going to bed, just review the activities of
the day or mentally go through your meditations. If you are successful
in that, even when you are asleep you will not be out of control. Not
only will your sleep be virtuous, it will also be possible to have
virtuous thoughts. When you wake up, you will be mentally awake, but
since the sense consciousness have still not regained their power, you
can sometimes have a very clear state of mind. If you can use it for
analytical practices, it is really very powerful. So you should have an
intention to wake up at such-and-such a time, sleeping lightly, like
animals do. By the force of that intention you will be able to get up as
you plan. Tsong-kha-pa says that if you are able to use the activities
of eating and sleeping properly, you can turn them in a virtuous
direction and many negative actions will be prevented.
Tsong-kha-pa says that it is very important to realize that meditation
is of two types, stabilizing and analytical, and that of these the
skillful application of the analytic faculty of the mind is very
important. For example, in order to make their silver and gold workable,
goldsmiths and silversmiths first heat it and wash it and clean it and
do all sorts of things so they can use it to make jewelry of any shape.
Similarity, in order to overcome the root and secondary faults and
destructive nature of delusions and how they induce negative action-how
as a result of this action one rotates in the cycle of rebirth. All of
these have to be understood by applying the analytical faculty of
wisdom, and only then can we hope to achieve the commitment to engage in
the practice of the path. All of these analytical processes are like
preliminaries that prepare the mind to benefit from the main thrust of
the meditation. After having laid the proper foundation and made your
mind fertile by such analytical processes, you can do any meditation,
whether it concerns quiescence or insight.
When we do meditations, we should have an aim; we should make an effort.
That effort is developed by seeing a purpose, and the purpose of our
meditation should be understood. The better your understanding of the
purpose, the more committed you will be in your practice. Tsong-kha-pa
says that whether or not all the scriptures appear to be personal advice
depends very much upon whether or not you can see how indispensable and
important it is to practice both analytical and stabilizing meditation.
He says that it is very sad that not only have people not studied
properly, but even those who have undertaken a wide range of studies,
when they actually engage in serious practice, discard all their studies
and are satisfied with mere nonconceptuality alone. That is really very
sad. If you do not try to explore the analytic faculty of the mind and
just continuously remain absorbed in stabilizing meditation, simple
maintaining nonconceptuality, you become less and less intelligent, and
the wisdom to discriminate between right and wrong decreases. This is
very dangerous.
Wisdom
Wisdom analyzes the nature of phenomena. There are many different types
of wisdom, such as the five sciences: the inner science of religion and
the four outer sciences of logic, medicine, grammar, and the arts. I
speak here of the inner science. This form of wisdom is the foundation
of all good qualities. Without the guidance of wisdom, all the other
perfections, like generosity and ethics, would be like a group of people
without a leader. The practice of the other perfections without the
faculty of wisdom will not lead to the desired destination, toward the
achievement of enlightenment. Compared to other faculties, like faith,
mindfulness, effort, and so forth, wisdom is said to be more important
because it is only through the other faculties, that one can actually,
combat the force of the delusions. The other perfections, like
generosity and ethics, depend heavily upon the realization of wisdom.
The power of wisdom is like that of a powerful king. If he is assisted
by very skillful and intelligent ministers, he will not make any
mistakes. In the same way, seemingly contradictory situations, like
having very strong love and compassion and still not being polluted by
attachment and desire, are due to the impact of wisdom. With wisdom,
although you develop strong compassion and love toward others, you will
never have desire and attachment towards them. If you are endowed with
the faculty of wisdom, you will not fall to an extreme philosophical
position of permanence or nihilism.
The obstacle to wisdom is ignorance, and the cause that promotes and
increases ignorance is constant indulgence in pointless activities, such
as laziness and sleeping too much. Ignorance also arises from having no
joy or pleasure in the power of wisdom. The method for overcoming this
ignorance is to increase your knowledge through study. For those who
take serious interest in the practice of the Dharma, it is important to
realize that the wisdom discriminating the nature of phenomena is the
primary cause for achieving enlightenment. If someone is only concerned
with teaching and not practicing, there is no need to acquire a broad
knowledge; but instead of teaching it would be more beneficial if people
like that kept quite. For a serious practitioner, both learning and
contemplation are very important. The progress you make in your own
practice should match the increase in your knowledge of the Dharma.
Having obtained this precious human life endowed with a complex brain,
we must make use of its special qualities and apply the unique faculty
that we are endowed with, that it, the power to discriminate between
right and wrong. This is done by increasing our understanding. The more
you increase your knowledge, the better your understanding will be.
When you work for the achievement of wisdom, it is very important never
to isolate your practice of wisdom from the other perfections. A
practitioner who is working for the achievement of enlightenment
actually requires realization of all six perfections. We can draw
inspiration from the Buddha’s own example. He first underwent severe
penances and endured great hardships in the process of the path.
Finally, under the Bodhi tree, he became enlightened and taught others
what he had realized himself. Although it is initially very difficult
for us to plunge into the practice of the six perfections, it is
important at first to develop admiration for them and increase our
understanding of them. This will eventually lead us to the true
practice, enabling us to find freedom from the difficulties of the cycle
of existence and enjoy the bliss of perfect enlightenment.
----o0o---
Back to Content
----o0o---
Typing: Kim Thu & Kim Chi
Update: Vinh Thai
Cập nhật: 9-2007
