“While we were working on this book, Shamar Rinpoche once gave the following advice as to how a practitioner could integrate his three instruction texts, or manuals, as he liked to call them: Boundless Awakening, Boundless Wisdom, and The Path to Awakening.

• First, he recommended that the practitioner read the short booklet Boundless Awakening, which gives an overall idea of meditation practice and its importance.
• Second, the practitioner is invited to read chapters 1 and 2 of this book, Boundless Wisdom, and to practice accordingly. These two parts deal with the four approaches of spiritual practice, as well as the meditations of calm abiding and deep insight common to all Buddhist approaches.
• Third, the practitioner is encouraged to study the book The Path to Awakening up to the line: “Analyze the unborn nature of mind.” To deepen the understanding of this key instruction for training in ultimate bodhicitta, the practitioner is then invited to continue reading Boundless Wisdom, chapters 3 and 4. Regarding the line “Purify the strongest negative emotion first” and the two lines that follow it in The Path to Awakening, it is recommended that the practitioner implements the special practice of vipaśyanā as described in Boundless Wisdom, starting with chapter 5.
• Fourth, when reaching the line “In post meditation, know that all phenomena are illusory,” in The Path to Awakening, the practitioner is invited to focus on the instructions for Mahāyāna mind training, both in formal meditation practice and in daily life.

Shamar Rinpoche emphasized that a practitioner who engages in this kind of practice would definitely attain the state of awakening, because through this practice, the conditions come together that allow for an unfolding of the buddha potential inherent in every sentient being.”

The post Direct Advice about Three Manuals from Shamar Rinpoche appeared first on Bodhi Path.

This is a transcription of a teaching and a question and answer session held at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) on October 4, 2002. Shamar Rinpoche spoke in Tibetan and English, and the Tibetan was simultaneously interpreted into English by Lama Rinchen in Rinpoche’s presence.

Teaching

Buddha Shakyamuni’s Three Types of Teachings

The Buddha gave his first teaching about how he viewed reality now 25 centuries ago. And since that time, he has, and his followers have, continued to transmit the specifics of his teaching and of his way of practice. In this way, what we call the Dharma, that is, all of the teaching of the Buddha throughout these 25 centuries, has been able to speak sensibly to all of the beings and people who have heard this teaching throughout that time. Otherwise, it would not have lasted for so long.

It was because the Buddha was able to give advice and explanations which would be in harmony and be fitting for the people of each of those times throughout the 25 centuries, that the Buddha’s teaching has still survived today and is still able to correspond to the needs and the way of life of people nowadays, even though that way of life has considerably changed over the course of 25 centuries.

When we look at the way that the Buddha gave his teaching, then, there are three types of teaching, or three levels of teaching, which he gave to the people around him, his disciples, which were transmitted down through the centuries. The initial teaching, which he chose to give to his close followers, is what we refer to as the Four Noble Truths. This was followed by another cycle of teaching, where the Buddha explained how the reality which we consider to be around us in ultimate terms is not true reality at all. It is on a relative level from our point of view simply an experience of our own confusion and does not correspond to true reality. So he taught a series of explanations, a series of sutras, on those particular topics and this was a major part of his teaching. And then this was followed by a third level of teaching, a third cycle of teaching, where he took care to, through this teaching, prevent people from falling into a state of denial of saying nothing existed, nothing was real. This third cycle of teaching is what’s called the cycle of teaching which describes the characteristics of reality.

So particularly in this third cycle of teaching, the Buddha took care to present the teaching in such a way that there could be a clear distinction between a reality which is explained as simply an illusion and a reality which would be affirmed as something genuinely existing with certain characteristics. The Buddha thus developed in his third cycle of teaching a balance or a harmony, an ability to distinguish between these two extremes.

First Cycle: Four Noble Truths Teaching

If you go back to the first cycle of teaching which he gave, this was on the Four Noble Truths. This was the initial teaching he gave to his disciples. First of all he explained suffering, frustration, what it meant, what are the characteristics of the experience of suffering in our lives. He went on to explain secondly, the second noble truth, that is the cause of suffering, the source, or the reason, why our lives can feel frustrating or unsatisfactory for different reasons. The Buddha explained the whole basis for that experience of life, that frustrating experience of life. And then, having explained suffering, or frustration, in detail, he went on to explain the third noble truth, that is the way to get out of that suffering. He gave a great deal of teaching about the path, which would be necessary to follow, to put into practice, so as to cure or transcend that suffering. He dedicated the major part of his teaching to this topic so as to clearly explain to those who wish to follow the path the way to do so.

The fourth noble truth is called the noble truth of the cessation of suffering. This is referring to the result which we attain when we have gotten rid of all suffering through following the path. In the initial cycle of teaching the Buddha didn’t explain this in a great deal of detail. The reason is that simply by following the path, each individual person by their inner experience will come to know what the stopping of suffering is, as gradually, through the methods of the path, the different causes of suffering are brought to an end within the mind of each individual. Thus, in this first cycle of teaching there was not a huge amount of explanation or definition about what the result of the path would be.

In response to this initial development of the teaching, the disciples around the Buddha at that time began to question the Buddha in a great deal of detail about the exact nature of suffering. This was suffering, or frustration, keeping in mind suffering is a very broad term in Buddhism. It doesn’t just mean the ordinary sense of suffering, but the basic dissatisfaction of suffering which we all experience. Of course, this is a common experience. Naturally the disciples of the Buddha questioned the Buddha more and more so as to get more deeply into the actual nature of this suffering, to better understand it, better define it. It was in response to this inquiry that the Buddha began to give the second cycle of teaching.

Second Cycle

In this second cycle he explained that what we experience as suffering or frustration is simply the confusion of the mind which is manifesting in the world and which prevents us therefore from experiencing things as they really are. The mind falls under the influence of the confusion that itself has created, and this confusion forms a pattern such that one is going to relate to that confusion in a personal sense, accepting some things and wanting to keep them, denying other things and wanting to reject them, whether those things constitute other people or other situations. Thus, there is an emotional basis for our relationship with life. As a result this builds up into confusion, the characteristic of which is suffering. The Buddha explained therefore that this confusion in reality is not really happening. In that sense he explained the lack of reality of the world that we experience around us.

Once again, this second level of teaching gave rise to an enormous amount of discussion amongst the Buddha’s disciples as they gradually assimilated this new level of teaching. Through the very extensive teaching which the Buddha gave throughout those years of his life, there was initiated a great discussion about what exactly is the end when all suffering is pacified. If everything is like an illusion, then that must mean everything is empty, everything is unreal, everything is hollow. And his disciples began to ask themselves, “Well, separate from the confusion, is there something else? Is it just that the confusion ends and there is nothing, there is emptiness, or what exactly happens when the confusion is pacified?”

Third Cycle

This led the Buddha to develop his final level of teaching, what we call the third cycle of teaching, in which he explained that even though the manifest world around us is a product or an expression of the mind’s confusion, the mind also has a capacity to be not confused. This lack of confusion in the mind is the quality of mind or the capacity of mind we call primordial awareness. The Buddha therefore in his third cycle of teaching gave the means to distinguish between the confused mind and the wisdom mind, or the mind based on primordial awareness. Associated with the mind’s freedom from confusion are many qualities, and these qualities the Buddha described in great detail—what kind of resources the basic nature of mind had. However, once the mind has fallen under the influence of its own confusion, the confusion itself has created, the mind develops many faults. The Buddha taught about the distinction between faults and qualities, how all faults arise from confusion, and how all qualities arise from the mind, or within the mind, when the mind is free of confusion. This then constitutes the third cycle of teaching.

As part of these explanations the Buddha described how the mind could get free of its dualistic clinging and within that freedom from dualistic grasping discover its own inner nature, its primordial awareness. At this point the mind would be free of confusion and a source of all qualities. About these qualities, or this level of mind, the Buddha also explained in this cycle of teaching that it’s very difficult for us, it’s hard for us from our present state of confusion, to actually appreciate what the mind is like when it is not confused. The reason is our only reference point at the moment is the state of confusion. Thus, it’s in this third level of teaching that the Buddha often talked about how the true nature of mind is beyond the intellect, it’s beyond our comprehension, it is inconceivable, inexpressible and so on. These are the terms which intervened at this point, in recognition of the fact that from our current point of view we cannot fully grasp what primordial awareness really is.

Integration of the Three Cycles

Which aspects within these cycles of teaching would the practitioner put into practice so as to follow the path to Buddhahood? Initially, one starts with the basics, the foundation, the starting point. One forms these basics by learning about the Four Noble Truths and particularly in detail about the truth of the path out of suffering, the way out of suffering which the Buddha taught. One would train oneself in these methods taught by the Buddha to transcend suffering and throughout that training use the other, or consider the other, two cycles of teaching as a support; the support helps us cultivate the right view, the right understanding of the path we have chosen to take and the development that we are engaging in through our practice. In this way we integrate all three of the cycles of the Buddha’s teaching when we practice.

Path Out of Suffering: Two Parallel Roads of Path of Study and Path of Meditation

When we follow the path out of suffering, our path tends to develop two parallel roads which we follow simultaneously. There’s one which constitutes a path basically to retrain our thinking, to get a more correct understanding of where we are going, what we are doing. This forms the path of study which we develop. At the same time, we are working on the mind particularly through the practice of meditation, and this is backed up by constant efforts in body, speech and mind to transform the way we behave when we’re not meditating—what we do with our lives, how we behave—so that this behavior becomes a help to our meditation practice, a help to our understanding of the true nature of mind.

In summary, what we have discussed so far is that we’re starting to consider the path which has two aspects to it, which we practice in parallel, a study aspect in order to develop our understanding, our thinking about ourselves and the world we live in, and then with that the meditation practice where we learn to understand the mind better and work directly with the mind, for which we need the support of our out-of-meditation behavior.

When we’re learning how to deal with the confusion, the mistaken understanding of the mind about the world that we function in, then there are different techniques which the Buddha gave, teaching us for instance how to deal with the confusion from within the confusion. This means that we also need to weaken the sources or the origins of this confusion and ultimately to take them away, so the confusion actually disappears or is removed. We also need to learn about the actual cause of this confusion, where it comes from and therefore how we can get rid of it. The first aspect where we tend to work on the means—which will help reduce the force of this confusion, weaken our confused mind, this dualistic clinging, so as to gradually be able to remove it, the method we use here in particular—is cultivating a mind based on virtue. And the principal way to do this, or the principal area in which we cultivate this kind of mind, is the practice of love and compassion.

Once we have this basis, we can then go on to pay attention directly to the mind itself, the source of our confusion. This is where the path of meditation, or the practice of meditation comes in. It’s only through meditation that we can actually come to see the true nature of mind. The cultivation of virtue or qualities such as love and compassion referred to earlier, these will help reduce our strong attachment to illusion, but they cannot lead us to see into the very nature of mind, which is why we need to work with the practice of meditation. Working with meditation involves two phases. Initially, we have to try to train the mind—we have to tame it or pacify it, bring the mind under our control, make the mind workable. This is because we’re busy, worried, confused, and often in a great deal of agitation, which makes meditation extremely difficult. Thus, there’s a first phase of the mind’s stability or the mind’s pacification, practices aimed at this. Then once the mind is considerably tamed, we can then go on to a second phase where we learn how to see into the mind’s true nature, and see what the mind is like when it is free of confusion. We see this for ourselves. This is not theoretical knowledge, but the direct perception of the non-confused mind, in meditation.

So the first phase is pacification meditation. It’s called in Tibetan shinay; the Sanskrit term is shamatha, which you may have heard of. The second phase of meditation in which we see into the mind’s reality; this we call lhaktong in Tibetan, or vipassana in Sanskrit. We usually translate this as insight meditation.

This then, all of this practice, constitutes what we call the noble truth of the path. We apply these methods, and as we apply the methods, gradually we make our way along the path. And due to the effectiveness of the methods, we will be able to judge for ourselves, through our own experience, to what extent these methods are applied correctly and to what extent they bring the actual result, which is called the noble truth of the cessation of suffering. Suffering will not cease immediately at one precise point in time; it’s something which develops in harmony or in tune with the path that we follow. The more we practice meditation, the more we develop, then, the results of meditation, the more we will discover the reality of mind, and through this more and more approach the ultimate and final discovery of the mind’s true nature, what we call the noble truth of cessation. In this way the path we follow is the path of meditation. As our experience of meditation grows, this meditation is giving us the means to estimate the criteria for understanding for ourselves—through our own direct experience of life—how our meditation is resolving gradually the suffering and the confusion and the frustration of life around us in a very natural way, as a natural effect of meditation.

It’s common usage to translate the word in the Buddha’s teaching as suffering. But of course, each time we could perhaps consider this word not as something so precise, but more to apply it to the term confusion. In this way, the path out of confusion is what we are doing, arriving at the cessation of confusion.

There’s a relationship between these four noble truths. One could consider them almost in terms of two pairs of truths in the sense that: [one] we have the confusion, which is like our current reality, this is the noble truth of suffering, or the noble truth of confusion; and [two] under that, then there is the cause of this confusion, the noble truth of the cause of confusion, where did this confusion come from? Then parallel with that, we have [three] on the top level the path out of confusion, the noble truth of the path. Underneath that, [four] what will happen when the path is completely followed and fulfilled, we have the noble truth of the cessation of confusion. By following the path, then the cessation of confusion will naturally increase and make itself felt, make itself manifest within the path itself. As we are going along the path, then the cessation of confusion occurs, let’s say the confusion starts to get resolved more and more; this makes its appearance in the path as we go along in the practice of meditation in particular. In parallel with that, on the other side, we can say the cause of confusion is getting weakened so that the confusion itself is also starting to fade, it’s starting to disappear, it’s starting to no longer be a part of our life.

When we talk about confusion, we can say that probably the simplest definition of confusion is dualistic manifestation; our world experience is one of duality. The cause of this is dualistic clinging: it’s clinging to the idea of double, self-other, subject-object. Of course this is developed in an enormous amount of detail in the Buddha’s teaching, but we can give a brief outline as to how this dualistic clinging develops and how it manifests as the world around us. Initially we have the basic mind, and this basic mind makes the mistake of clinging to a self, thinking that there is a truly existing ego, which it identifies as itself and therefore separates itself from others. Then it goes on to consider the other, everything which is not itself, as only in relation to itself, so we talk about my world, my possessions and so on. From the “I” we get a world experience based on “mine” and this then is duality. Once we have this, using the world’s manifestations as a kind of way to support the self, this is where the sensory functions begin to enter into operation. There, from within the mind, the sense consciousnesses develop, so the part of the mind which is able to see and perceive visual objects, the part of the mind which is able to hear and taste and smell and feel tactile sensations and so on, all of these senses arise from the mind. When these senses are in operation, or simultaneously with that, then the mind creates objects which it considers to be other than itself; and it considers these objects as things to be perceived, and therefore we have the whole sensory functioning which is going on. There is this constant co-operation between the mind and how it thinks of itself, and the senses in operation and the world it considers to be outside but with which it’s constantly relating always in this functioning of self -importance, self-identity. This then is what we call the confusion of dualistic manifestation, and the cause of that confusion then is the basic tendency in the mind to think of things in terms of self and other.

When we practice meditation and we go on to the second phase of the practice where we learn how to see into the mind’s true nature, this then is the phase of insight meditation, so called because it’s a dimension of practice where we get a much deeper, a more profound view into what really the mind is. This phase of insight meditation, its effect or its purpose is going to be to increase our ability to see into the true reality of mind and therefore transform the confusion of the mind.

The purpose of insight meditation is to transform specifically the source of the confusion, that is the dualistic clinging. By looking deeply into the mind as it really is in profound meditation, we discover that this dualistic tendency that the mind has, that the mind’s constant habit of thinking in terms of duality, that this is actually not real. It’s not a fundamental functioning of mind; it’s just a mistake that the mind keeps making over and over again. In this sense we say it is not real, it is not something which is definitely there.

By looking more deeply into the mind as it really is, we discover that instead of the dualistic creation of mind, we can access the primordial wisdom of mind, that is the part of the mind which does not make the mistake of thinking in dualistic terms. This primordial awareness, what we call the wisdom mind, is something which we cannot fully be aware of, we cannot imagine, we cannot directly know, if we haven’t actually seen it in our practice of meditation. This is because from the state of confusion, it’s not directly accessible. We may have some hint of it, we may have some idea of it, we may have some cloudy, hazy notion of it. But until we actually encounter it directly in our meditation, we will be unable to describe it. It’s not like pointing to something and then being able to describe all its details. To do that, first we have to see what we are pointing at, and this primordial wisdom is something we will only see when the mind’s confusion is cleared.

Therefore, that’s why the Buddha, when talking about the ultimate nature of mind or the primordial awareness of mind, he used terms such as inconceivable, unimaginable, inexpressible, and so on. However, when we are on the path, then we are from within this confusion able to apply the relevant remedies to the relevant difficulties, problems, or faults which are in the mind—each method, each remedy, is coupled with the right thing it’s trying to get rid of, the right illness it’s trying to cure, so that gradually we are able to clarify this confusion even from within the confusion, and then at one point see the underlying wisdom. This whole process works because underneath the confusion there is the wisdom waiting to be seen.

This discussion is basically covering an outline of the points given in the title of this talk, “Mind and Reality”; that’s what a Buddhist is doing when practicing within this theme. On this basis of the Buddha’s teaching, there will be the approach, for instance, of the practitioner, which is the systematic learning and application of the path of meditation, so that the practitioner will study the relevant texts and begin to apply the relevant methods, so as to discover the innate primordial awareness of mind. And there is also a path which is more theoretical, where we learn to understand about the nature of mind so we try to see through some of the mistakes we are making on an intellectual level; this is the approach of Buddhist philosophy. Thus, there’s a theoretical approach of Buddhist philosophy, and there’s the practical approach of systematic meditation.

This completes the outline of the topic itself as given in the talk.

Question and Answer Session

Questioner: How much does one meditate a day?

Rinpoche: Well, meditation is a training. Meditation, as I explained here, has two types. One is the training of the mind. The training depends on how much your mind is used to it. Therefore, as much time as you have is, of course, better. But it is not that one time you do it for a long time alternating confusion and not confusion; that will not serve to accomplish purposes quickly. There is a proper way to do it. However, as many times as possible in a day will be of course better. Then the other part is, also of course it depends on how much you do, which determines how much you will progress. Eventually it can be more spontaneous, not needing a lot of effort, because you can easily access it at that point. So in the beginning time, for training, you have to put a lot of effort.

Questioner: Could you please give a more of a detailed explanation on how actually to do the two types of meditation or is it required to have a guide that you should go to?

Rinpoche: You need a guide. Definitely you need a guide. And then the two types; you will not do two together. First one and then second.

Questioner: Where would someone go to get a guide?

Rinpoche: She’s here all the time. [Refers to Dharma Teacher Khaydroup, 2002, Los Angeles area.] We appointed her as a guide here. She’s very qualified for teaching on meditation. She practiced a lot in a nice Buddhist center in France. She started there. Before that, she also learned Buddhism in the USA. But for meditation training, she went to France, to a very, very well-organized meditation center. She practiced there and trained there. Now we invited her here, to teach here. Sometimes we come, but permanently she is here.

Questioner: Could you say a few words about the relationship between compassion and the confusion of the mind?

Rinpoche: Actually, when we are talking about the confusion of the mind, if we look at how that confusion was created using this duality or the initial self-clinging, clinging to oneself, we can see automatically in that functioning or in that experience of the world around us, we give an enormous amount of space to ourselves. Most of what we do, most of the way we behave, is based therefore on pride, anger, all these very negative emotions. That’s why the mind is so agitated. The confusion is something very agitating; the mind cannot see its own reality. For this reason we pacify the mind, we calm the mind down, and one of the best ways to do this is to practice love and compassion because they are the direct remedy to anger, hatred, pride and so on. Now these qualities, they are not things we have to get from outside; they’re actually part of the very nature of our mind. We don’t have to go looking for them; we just simply have to work to bring out the natural qualities of love and compassion which are already there. As they begin to emerge in the mind, they will diminish, reduce, the influence of pride and anger.

When we use the word compassion, we have to be careful to understand what it means in Buddhist terms. In ordinary Western terms, compassion is very often an emotional state of mind, something we feel, something we feel strongly even. In Buddhist terms, compassion is a natural quality of mind which emerges when we understand the role confusion is playing in the suffering of the world. The quality of the compassion doesn’t have the same emotional overtones as it has as usual.

Questioner: Does the insight meditation relate to say receiving teachings, or learning, or from self-study? Does receiving teachings help you?

Rinpoche: Receiving teachings is a guide, a guide on how to do the insight meditation.

Although we may receive teachings, some of them also on the practice of insight meditation, this teaching is basically a guideline, an external guideline. It’s not going to allow us to, on its own, produce or develop insight meditation. For that, we need to be guided gradually by a meditation teacher because the insight meditation progress is the way that understanding of reality is going to emerge from our own mind as we meditate. It’s not something we can go and get from outside by reading a book or by following a course or whatever. In that sense the insight is something which grows from within the mind, as was said for love and compassion. These are innate qualities of the mind to recognize its own true nature, and these have to be gradually brought out by the correct guidance.

Questioner: You said something like clinging to myself is caused by ego, and that is part of the confusion. Then we can establish a self-consciousness, and visual objects, you said something like smell, taste, all from our mind. But I was just wondering, establishing my own, for example, aesthetic taste, I like this or I don’t like that, or I like this style or I don’t like this style. Are these ego too?

Rinpoche: These are the result from self-clinging. Once you have self-clinging, the manifestation is that self has something to remain in as a body. Then, it has faculties to access the consciousness. Through the faculties, according to your interest, then you have discrimination mind, that says: that is I want, or that is I don’t want. As well as through seeing, through hearing, everything, through feeling.

Questioner: So, just to follow up, is all discrimination, is all of it concept?

Rinpoche: It will, yes, not necessarily but majority yes, maximum yes, then when you have the discrimination, then always you go to: what you want or don’t want. Yes, always, maximum like that.

Questioner: Related to the patience, perseverance, and tolerance, how do you tell some of the difference between when you should stay in a difficult situation and largely patient, and be in it, or when it’s a mistake, and it’s actually harming you to be in a situation?

Rinpoche: Actually if we look at what’s the root or the kind of basis behind this, it’s always the ego-clinging. And this is because the ego is asking itself, “Well, should I put up with this or should I not?” Whereas, in fact, we have to see that the practice of patience is gradually going to enable us to overcome the kind of compromising effect of the ego-clinging. What happens is that in the case of beginners, we try to cultivate patience, that is the ability to put up with difficulties, support difficulties and problems. We cultivate this by reflecting on the benefits or the advantages of practicing patience and the disadvantages or the problems which arise when we don’t have enough patience. In that case, we can see very clearly how advantageous it is to practice patience. That gives us the basic motivation. Once we’ve got the mind well-trained in this, got our priorities well-trained, then we can, through the practice of love and compassion, we can directly work on anger, love and compassion being the antithesis of anger; therefore, that’s another way of practicing patience. Patience is a natural outcome of the practice of, or the cultivation of, love and compassion. And all of this is possible because from an ultimate point of view there is none of this really going on. It’s just part of the illusion from within which we are working.

Questioner: I’ve read again and again practitioners of Buddhism say—I dedicate the merit of this meditation, I dedicate the merit of this action for the benefit of all sentient beings. What does that mean and how can I do it?

Rinpoche: Actually, this kind of dedication, it would be better to consider it like a wish. Every time we voice those words, we are wishing that all the positive action we do, that it may somehow contribute and be of benefit to living beings. So it’s just by making the wish that one is actually doing it.

If one has a very genuine compassion and loving kindness mind, any wish you made, it will happen. It will happen to others as a very positive illusion. It will happen to you until all ignorance has gone, as a positive illusion. The word “illusion” in English is very negative, but there is no other word better than “illusion,” is there? So, better I say positive illusion. [Gentle laughter.]

Questioner: In talking about patience, and in the same way with generosity, let’s say you’re generous, and then the next morning you’re in your mind thinking how you were generous the day before with something, but in your mind you’re going, “Why the heck did you do that?” And you lessen the generosity.

Rinpoche: If you regret? If you regret for your generosity, then…

Questioner Follow-up: Or the patience you know, that you’ve done, what’s the best way to move through that?

Rinpoche: If you did not make mistakes with your generosity and patience, there’s nothing to regret about it. Nothing to regret about, about mistakes. Let’s say somebody needs, okay, somebody needs very bad drugs, yah? Is it all right to say those words? Drugs. So you think it is generosity, so you try to get it, give it, and make the other person very sick or something. It is regrettable, yes. That generosity is regrettable. But otherwise generosity, you don’t have to regret. And if you regret for the right generosity, it’s not good. [Gentle laughter.] It’s wasted.

Questioner Follow-up: So how do you not waste it once you’ve performed it?

Rinpoche: You should have a clear understanding. Regret means the generosity is finished up; all lost. Merit is lost, your giving is also wasted. So you should have proper understanding. Right.

Questioner Follow-up: Through meditation?

Rinpoche: No, no, proper understanding. Meditation is one practice, but proper understanding.

If you . . . If you jump from a rock as you use your arms as wings, you know yourself that is not proper judgment. [Audience laughter.] If you practice hang gliding properly and then you use it and then fly, that is proper judgment, isn’t it? [Audience laughter.]

I know precisely it’s the judgment. So, for example, as I explained to her here now about her generosity yesterday—generosity yesterday, if you did not regret, the generosity yesterday is fruitful, you help the other, and yourself, you did very good, generosity. And today regret is not good for your mind, and then you’ve wasted what you’ve done yesterday.

60% wasted. [Audience laughter.]

30% left is for the other one who received your help.

Questioner: So in the moment if you say you were generous yesterday, but today you have a regret, in this moment when you experience the regret and you’re aware of it, what’s the remedy?

Rinpoche: No, that’s the training, training. Training means that spontaneously you have this understanding after you train, then you will not regret, yah?

As you are asking questions of me, then I explain to you and you understood, that means knowledge, yah? Accumulation of knowledge. While you are accumulating the right knowledge, you have to think it over and over, and question the guide, the teacher, and the teacher will answer you—that confirms what you understand is precise. Then when you have some kind of faults in the mind, the remedy will be there, simultaneously. It depends on your memory, of course. What you understood is the remedy—you will implement on that, is it?

So there are three phases, in fact, in this process. It’s what’s called traditionally listening, reflecting, and then meditating, or putting it into practice. The listening refers to any kind of informative situation where we receive explanations about what to do, and we therefore, through the information we receive, we develop an understanding about what’s being told to us. That therefore means we have a certain level of knowledge. This knowledge then we apply in the second phase which is reflection. We think about it. Have we really understood it; do we need to ask any more questions; do we need to demand more details. Until we can confirm that our understanding of the subject does indeed correspond to what the teacher was really telling us, that we haven’t misunderstood. And then we put this into practice. And by putting it into practice, it becomes integrated into ourselves, and it becomes an automatic functioning. We don’t have to deliberately develop it beyond a certain point; it happens automatically. And this is because it’s really sunk into the memory, because we’ve learned it properly, and we thought about it properly, and so now we can actually do it.

Is it clear?

Questioner: I think a lot of the confusion is coming from the attachment. But when cultivating love, I understand my confusion, love is limited to my family, my wife, friends. How can we cultivate that without also attachment? Can we have love without attachment?

Rinpoche: Initially, it’s not very easy at all, because our current habit is to always think of love as something we experience in a relationship based on attachment. That’s why we really have to work at this because true love, free of attachment, is very profound, and we cannot understand it and apply it immediately from our current experience, which is often tainted with attachment. This therefore brings in the role of meditation. This is because we need to use meditation, we need to use methods and particularly the view, initially the view, to soften our fixation on the reality of things. If we cultivate an awareness of how everything is simply the illusion of mind, the illusory manifestations of mind, then we develop an understanding or an experience of the world around us, which is not so fixed, not so full of attachment, things seem like a dream or like an illusion. That already is weakening the attachment. Then once we’ve done that, we can go on to use loving kindness, the methods which were explained earlier. We, for instance, meditate or think about the advantages of being a loving person, being able to develop love and compassion for all beings, and we think about the disadvantages, the drawbacks or the faults of not being able to have these qualities and being constantly ruled by anger and other opposing qualities. Then through meditation, by cultivating love and compassion in our practice of meditation, there comes a point where even though we may still have feelings of not genuine love and compassion, they can immediately be countered by the love and compassion cultivated in our meditation, which is free of attachment. When we get trained in this, there comes an experience from the mind where our love and compassion has no attachment whatsoever.

Actually, the emotional attachment is very different from the sensible love.

Questioner follow-up: Sentimental?

Rinpoche: No, I say sensible. Sensible. For example, I think you know about this lady. There was one lady who tried to save the guerrillas in Africa, a volunteer. She has a lot of compassion for them, as people hunt them. But she doesn’t know how to influence by a right view, her compassion. Then it became extreme; later it’s emotional. It has become a tragedy. That kind of compassion, one should not develop that kind of compassion. Well, she has the compassion, of course good. But it should not develop in that way.

Yes, because the attachment, when love and compassion are tainted with attachment, sooner or later they transform into anger, into resentment of various kinds.

Questioner: When we pray for the benefit of all sentient beings, I feel that we exclude minerals, sand, ocean, and I feel it makes me separate from all the non-sentient part of the world. How do we include everything?

Rinpoche: Well, you can Invite them also, you can, no problem, no problem for them. Usually they don’t get included, because they don’t get pain; they have no mind, so they have no pain. That’s why we are not specifically concerned about them. But yes, you can invite them, no problem.

But then difficult to work on? [Audience laughter.]

Thank you. Thank you, folks.

Photo by Thule G. Jug

© Bodhi Path Buddhist Center

The post Mind and Reality appeared first on Bodhi Path.

This is a transcription of a teaching given in Santa Monica, CA on October 4, 2002. Shamar Rinpoche spoke in Tibetan and English, and the Tibetan was simultaneously interpreted into English by Lama Rinchen in Rinpoche’s presence.

There are two levels of benefit experienced by the practitioner of meditation.

The first benefit is the immediate improvement in the conditions of daily life. The practice of meditation leads to a mind that is more peaceful, more tranquil and more at ease. Because the mind is more relaxed, events that usually disturb us seem to take on less importance and we stop taking them in such a serious way. Likewise, through meditation the mind gradually learns to be independent of external conditions and circumstances. This mind that is unaffected by outer conditions is then able to discover its own stability and tranquility. A stable mind, one that is not disturbed, leads to the experience of less suffering in our lives. These are the immediate benefits that come from regular meditation practice.

The long-term benefit of meditation is that when the mind is pacified, this gradually leads to purification of the mind’s basic ignorance, which ultimately leads to buddhahood or enlightenment. In this state of enlightenment, the confusion of ordinary, everyday life no longer exists.

To experience pacification and tranquility, the mind must learn how to remain still. This is not our usual experience of mind. The mind is usually agitated, always in motion, thinking about many different things. We need to look deeply at the causes of this. Since beginningless time to the present moment we have cultivated a perception, a way of seeing things that is based on duality. We have a strong sense of ‘I,’ of personal existence due to what we call ego-clinging. This gives rise to the perception of external objects that are separate from the ego. This misconception inevitably involves a relationship between ‘self’ and the world around us, the objects with which we interact. This is the dualistic experience of the world that we all share. This fundamental sense of duality gives rise to all sorts of thoughts, ideas and movement in the mind. Therefore, when we initially sit down to meditate our experience of the mind is far from being peaceful or at ease. This is because the mind is completely distracted by strong activity in relation to external objects. This is the basic cause; this is how mental distraction comes about.

We need to apply a method to train this unstable mind to remain stable in one place. In this way, the mind becomes accustomed to the experience of stability. For this reason, in meditation we give the mind one single object to rest upon.

Qualities of mind

Before we begin to meditate, we should understand something about the qualities of mind, what the mind actually is. The mind is not a thing – it is not a material substance, a fixed object. It is comprised of the nature of knowing. It has this capacity. The mind is simply a succession of moments of consciousness, moments of awareness or moments of knowing. In essence, the mind is without obstruction, it is vast, it is unlimited. The mind is not an entity that exists as such and that lasts for a certain length of time. As the mind enters into relationship with objects, there arise a series of ever-changing instances of perception; therefore, the mind is not one continuous thing – it is impermanent. Thus, this mind, which has the capacity to know and is by nature unobstructed, must be trained to remain stable.

Stability to recognize itself

We need stability in order for the mind to recognize its true essence. Without this stability the mind is unable to recognize itself. The mind has the capacity to know or to recognize its own instability, its own impermanence. Because it is by nature something that knows, it can have knowledge of itself, i.e., knowledge of the fact that it is not stable. It is on the basis of that knowledge, that understanding of itself that the mind can then learn to be stable. So this mind, even though it is agitated, always in motion, nonetheless, it recognizes this instability and can transform it. This is quite different than the wind, for example. The wind is also constantly moving, but, because it is not comprised of mind, it cannot know that it is moving and therefore cannot calm itself down. It cannot stabilize itself. It is this knowing aspect of mind that allows the mind to work on itself.

The instability of mind will not be permanently removed simply by a meditation technique. In order to stabilize the mind, we need the mind to recognize its own nature. Once the mind has recognized its own nature it can reach true stability. Mind can experience itself directly. This means that the mind is capable of experiencing its true nature, unobstructed, free from grasping and fixation on the endless stream of mental content – our thoughts, perceptions and concepts. We habitually grasp at mind’s appearances as if our own version is quite solid and real, thus losing the perspective to recognize the unobstructed quality of mind. We say that mind’s true nature is emptiness. By empty, we mean that mind is clear; that it is empty of anything that is solid, permanent, or inherently self-existent.

Seeing the mind is agitated so we train the mind

If we do not meditate on the mind as it is, that is our personal experience of mind as it is in the moment, we will not be able to clearly see how the mind is agitated, how it is constantly distracted with an endless stream of thoughts. Once we realize that we are unable to experience a stable mind, we understand the necessity to train the mind, to tame it to bring it to a state of tranquility and stability. However, in order to train the mind, we need a reference point. We need to give the mind something to focus on. In the Buddha’s teachings are explanations about the different supports or reference points to help stabilize the mind. Among those supports, the Buddha emphasized the method of resting the mind on the breath. The Buddha explained that in living beings, the mind is closely connected to the body. Therefore, mind and body are in close relationship, particularly mind and the subtle energy system of the body. This means that one way to experience tranquility is through working with the breath, because breathing is related both to the body and its subtle energies. This is why the initial meditation instruction recommends counting the breath.

The first meditation technique we use to tame the mind is called shamatha (Sanskrit) or shinay (Tibetan) meditation, which means ‘calm abiding.’ Shamatha consists of six steps – counting the breath, following the breath and resting on the breath are the first three steps. After you practice these for a long time, the mind will become tame. Then you progress to the next three steps that develop from concentration on the breath. Here we use analysis to see the connection between mind and the breath. Through this analysis you will realize the emptiness of the mind’s nature. You can develop an intuitive feeling for the mind and then you can play with it. You can change the concentration, the image upon which you focus and know that the mind is like a mirage – you can play with. After that you concentrate upon the nature of objects to see the essential emptiness of phenomena. This is how you complete shamatha, the concentration practice that trains the mind.

The purpose of a one-day teaching such as this is to give an overview of the different steps in meditation practice. When it comes to actually learning a meditation technique, then it is better to have a systematic series of explanations on a regular basis so that one can gradually develop one’s understanding of the practice of meditation.

When we are using the meditation method of counting the breaths, we count the breathing cycles (in-breath and out-breath being one complete cycle). We initially count continuously from one through five, the idea being to rest the mind on the breathing without any distraction until we reach five cycles and then continue to repeat the process. When we feel we can do this easily, we increase the number of cycles we count, but only for the duration of time we’re able to remain undistracted. All the time the mind is resting on the breathing and is not distracted elsewhere. With time we can actually reach a count of one thousand using this method without the mind wandering away from the breathing during that time. This constitutes the measurement of a certain level of stability wherein the mind is definitely under our control. This is what we call the pacified mind, tranquil or tamed mind.

Through this practice we develop in our meditation an inner experience of tranquility. As we improve our skills in this meditation technique, this ease and tranquility becomes an ongoing experience of the mind. This is the result of shamatha practice.

Correct and incorrect meditation

In general, when we receive teachings on meditation it is not customary to describe all the various different meditation techniques in the space of one single lecture. We have to systematically learn the practice of meditation, beginning with being able to sit in the correct posture. Sitting properly in meditation is the first subject that is taught. This is followed by a second series of explanations that describe how the mind learns to rest on the meditation object. This is followed by a third level of explanations where we learn to distinguish faults of incorrect meditation and how to prevent these kinds of defects from arising in our meditation. We also learn to recognize the qualities that arise in correct meditation. Actually, the initial meditation instruction is very important because it provides the foundation for which development of our future meditation practices rest. Thus, the instructions on experiencing a mind that is tranquil and pacified are of utmost importance.

Lhaktong or Vipashyana

After practicing shamatha meditation where we’ve learned to develop the mind’s tranquility and stability, we then move into the second phase of meditation called vipashyana (Sanskrit) or insight meditation. This is a meditation practice in which we gain a profound insight into the true nature of mind. When we look into the mind we discover what is called primordial awareness. This primordial awareness is non-dualistic and it is only through insight meditation that we can access or recognize this non-dual mind. Without insight meditation we will always be caught up in dualistic clinging and the mind’s true nature – the wisdom or primordial awareness aspect – will remain obscured and we will not be able to access it at all.

Once we have seen into the nature of mind, then through further insight meditation we improve the quality of our experience of primordial awareness. With time, this becomes natural, something that will develop by itself. This is the point where there is spontaneous growth of our experience of primordial awareness. If the mind is agitated, however, we will not be able to see this primordial awareness. This is why it is important in the initial practice of meditation to cultivate mental calm, tranquility and stability.

This, then, is how one experiences through meditation the growth of primordial awareness in the mind. The method to develop this is the practice of insight meditation where we learn not to grasp at the reality or the fixed existence of external objects. Inwardly we recognize that the mind itself is not something that is dull or obscured, but is in fact the nature of clarity. When we encounter directly in our meditation the non-grasping at objects and the inner clarity of mind, these two work together to allow us to see the essence of mind. We can only see the essence of mind if the mind is unobscured by thoughts. A thought arises through the contact or the relationship between the mind as subject and an object that is being related to by the mind. Thus, thought is necessarily a dualistic process. When the mind is in a state of dualistic clinging it will think. When, however, the mind knows its own essence and can recognize its true nature, then this is the experience of non-dualistic, primordial awareness. In fact, the mind at that point is seeing itself.

To illustrate this process at this level of meditation, when we wake up in the morning the sunlight is already beginning to filter into the world and the day is getting lighter. As the day goes by the light increases as the sun gets higher and as the light increases the darkness is dispelled. This is the automatic effect of sunlight. This is analogous to what happens in our meditation. The more we see the nature of mind, the more clearly the nature of mind shines. This all happens because the mind has the capacity to know itself. It can initially recognize what is already there in the mind and because of that, the mind is no longer affected by uncontrolled thinking. This is like the unobscured, cloudless sky. The sunlight is free to shine without hindrance; just as through the gradual continuance of our insight meditation practice, the ability to light up or to see the nature of mind increases without interruption. Gradually, the practice becomes completely natural.

It is through the practice of meditation as outlined that we accomplish the last two of what are referred to as the six paramitas or the six transcendental virtues. These two are the practice of meditative concentration and the practice of full knowledge or full understanding, wisdom. Paramita is a Sanskrit word that means literally something that has reached its fulfillment. Here, we are talking about these two qualities of meditation and wisdom having reached their full achievement, their full accomplishment. The transcendental or fully accomplished meditative concentration, the fifth of the six paramitas, is related to the practice of tranquility meditation as explained earlier. It is through training the mind and the gradual development of our experience that we come to the complete fulfillment of this quality of mental stability or meditative concentration.

Three stages of stability

When we discuss the stability of mind, we often refer to the three stages of stability. The first stage might not seem like stability at all because it is in fact the recognition of just how agitated our mind really is. Our experience in meditation may be that there seems to be an increase in thought, that the mind is greatly agitated like a river flowing down a rocky mountain. This, however, is not a defect in our meditation. It just means that the mind is now calm enough to be able to recognize its own agitation. Not being involved in that agitation, it can actually recognize just how agitated it is.

Once we recognize this, we should not become stuck on it, but move on with our tranquility practice until the mind becomes more trained. At that point, we will experience mind as a constantly flowing river, gently moving along. This is the result of the mind being more pacified and trained. This is followed by a third stage of practice during which the mind is able to remain in a state of stability for as long as it likes. Here, one has complete control or mastery of the state of stability.

These three stages of meditative concentration are called the three stabilities. In the first stage we still need to teach the mind to stabilize itself by resting on an external reference point – some kind of object. This is absent in the second and third stages where there is no longer any need for a reference point.

In the second stage, while we do not have a reference point, there is still certain watchfulness. We need to observe when the mind is stable and when it is moving and thinking. We need to recognize these states and gradually stabilize the mind further. There’s a certain amount of deliberate effort required in this phase in order to maintain the quality of our meditation.

By the time we reach the third stage, mental pacification and tranquility automatically occur without any effort whatsoever. The second stage leads to the third stage without any intervention on our part. This third and final stage corresponds to the accomplishment of tranquility meditation. This is the equivalent of the accomplishment of meditative concentration or what we call the fifth paramita, the transcendental virtue of meditative concentration. It is from then on that we can enter into the phase of insight meditation.

Lhaktong

The stage of insight meditation is much more difficult for us to actually judge or measure because it is endless. In fact, we continue insight meditation practice right up until the very moment of enlightenment. Therefore, it is not a practice that can be judged to last for a certain amount of time and then we do something else. Insight meditation will take us to enlightenment itself.

Insight meditation is so vast it is difficult from our point of view to comprehend what it really is; it is a realm of meditation that takes us beyond dualistic manifestation. Initially, insight meditation brings some minor experience of reality or the true nature of things. As we continue with this practice it expands and grows – it develops beyond our current ability to follow its progress. That’s why we say it is endless. Insight meditation is the perfection of wisdom, the sixth paramita or the sixth perfection.

Presently, we are unable to see the nature of mind, even though mind has the capacity to see its own nature. Right now our mind is full of obscurations. However, these very obscurations can become the means through which we can access the genuine qualities of mind. The minds of most all living beings are currently in a state of ignorance. This ignorance forms the basis upon which the obscurations of the mind appear. However, all of these obscurations can be purified and lead to the attainment of enlightenment. The capacity to transform obscurations into qualities is what we refer to as buddha-nature. Each and every living being has this capacity to transform their mental obscurations into the qualities of enlightenment.

Karma

To better understand obscurations, we will briefly discuss karma, the law of cause and effect. This will help us to understand the relationship between our actions and the results we experience. The practice of virtue is the remedy that allows us to purify all past karmic actions.

Karma is the accumulation of actions based on thoughts in our mind and actions that are produced by that thinking. If we look at how the mind thinks, or the ideas or concepts that come up in the mind, we see that they are based upon the interrelationship between mind and objects that is produced by the emotions. Sometimes the mind is influenced by ego-clinging or selfishness. Sometimes the mind is influenced by strong anger or aggression and sometimes by strong desire or attachment, pride, or jealousy. All of these emotional states cause the mind to create ideas and to perform actions that create what we call a karmic potential, a karmic seed. These karmic seeds are collected in the mind where they continue as habitual tendencies. As these tendencies ripen, as the karma created by confused thought or action comes to full fruition, this produces the experience of an event in our impression of the world around us. This is our karma, the manifestation of the confused mind. So karma can be either in the consciousness as a potential; it can be in the process of ripening; or it can be fully-ripened karma.

If instead of developing negative emotions in the mind such as desire, anger or jealousy, we develop the qualities of love and compassion, then we have good motivation as a basis for the actions we perform. The result will then be that all our actions will strengthen the quality of virtue. All actions that are motivated by genuine love and compassion are inevitably going to result in virtuous actions. There is no way that a genuine loving or compassionate action could produce a non-virtuous result. These virtuous actions are also collected in the mind stream and they will ripen into an experience of the world – an illusion or a manifestation around us that contains positive qualities and fortunate circumstances.

When we talk about positive and negative we have to view or understand these terms in relation to attaining enlightenment. We define fortunate karma as conditions that help us move closer to enlightenment and negative karma as unfortunate conditions that compromise our opportunity to reach enlightenment.

We talk about existence as being either fortunate or unfortunate. A fortunate existence is to be born as a human being with a human body in a human world with human friends. Our experience of life is a very positive one, giving us many opportunities to further our progress towards enlightenment. An example of an unfortunate rebirth is if we manifest as a ghost rather than as a human being. In that case we would have the body of a ghost; we’d live in a ghost world; we would perceive the world around us as the kind of manifestation experienced by a ghost and all our friends would be ghosts. Life would be very unfortunate indeed. However, things could get worse – we could have the karma to manifest as an insect. Even though the insect may be flying through the human world, it doesn’t have the ability to contact human beings and benefit from the human world. The world in which the insect is living is not a human world; it is a world that is experienced from the point of view of an insect. This means that in order for the insect to make meaningful contact with another living being, such a contact can only take place when it makes contact with another insect. If the insect makes contact with a human being the insect doesn’t perceive that as beneficial or of any use whatsoever. This is the life of an insect. The insect has various faculties and sense perceptions, as well as certain tendencies. Driven by its instinct to survive, an insect can easily commit a negative act; whereas, even though all beings have buddha-nature, in the insect realm accomplishment of virtuous actions is of extremely difficult.

Therefore, we can see how important it is to have a fortunate existence with all the faculties, potential and capacities to develop toward enlightenment. It is highly beneficial to have this kind of rebirth, this human situation. What do we do to ensure that it continues? We need to engage in actions and behaviors that are motivated by love and compassion. For instance, one of the kinds of actions that we can engage in is the practice of generosity, cultivating generosity based upon the motivation of love and compassion. If we practice generosity with this kind of pure motivation then everything we do will continue to create good fortune and fortunate conditions. This means that from year to year, from life to life, we will be getting closer to attaining enlightenment. That is the practice of generosity, the first paramita, the perfection of generosity.

The second paramita is the perfection of ethical conduct. This affects everything we do, including all the other paramitas. Here we work within the illusion that we are caught in in order to develop something positive within that illusion. In these practices, whether it is meditation where we are dealing directly with the causes of the illusion, or the practice of generosity where we’re dealing with the situation of the illusion, we should not harm living beings by our actions. This is the essence of ethical conduct. It means that whatever our practice we should avoid causing any harm to living beings. Even in our practice of virtue, we must ensure that it doesn’t cause harm to others. If we do this, then the mind can be more firmly rooted in positive karma and this will mean that our meditation progresses, the confusion of mind diminishes, the mind becomes freer and ultimately becomes more able to see its own true nature. All this is the result of the perfection of the paramita of ethical conduct.

The discipline of ethical conduct is to enable us to give up or renounce anything that can be harmful to our practice and to encourage all things that can be beneficial to our practice. The practice of ethical conduct becomes the basis for purification and improvement in whatever practice we are doing.

Concerning the third paramita, the practice of patience, there are two categories. Patience or tolerance can be exercised in relation to outer circumstances or to inner circumstances. If we look at outer circumstances, this means not replying in kind when we are attacked or insulted in some way, but instead reacting from the basis of love and compassion. We must learn to respond to aggression with love and compassion. As for the inner kind of patience, there is a strong practice and a more subtle practice. The more obvious practice of inner patience is accomplished when we cut off thoughts and feelings of anger as soon as we are aware they are arising in the mind. We don’t follow or engage with these thoughts and emotions. The more subtle practice of patience is related to overcoming the darkness of ignorance in the mind. This means that when any thoughts or ideas of a dualistic nature develop in the mind, we exercise the practice of wisdom – the practice of complete understanding of the nature of thoughts so as to not get caught up in dualistic thinking. In this way we see through or into the very nature of our thoughts. This is also patience.

Concerning the fourth paramita, the practice of perseverance, initially this is quite simply the exercise of cultivating exertion or will power in more circumstances and applying it. This is followed by a second stage that involves constant effort. That means our efforts to do anything should be continual, not off and on, but regular. There is then a third phase where our ability to persevere, to exercise energy and to deal with a situation is something that is easy, automatic and completely untainted by any deliberate effort because this is a natural functioning of the mind. This kind of ingrained or innate perseverance will lead us as we continue with this practice to the very threshold of enlightenment. As we travel the path it will allow us to be of great benefit to living beings.

The cultivation of the perfections of ethical conduct, patience and perseverance will be of great benefit to our practice of the other three perfections – generosity, meditation and wisdom. It is through the gradual accomplishment of all six paramitas that we progress on the path towards enlightenment.

Photo by Thule G. Jug

© Bodhi Path Buddhist Center

The post About Meditation and More from Kunzig Shamar Rinpoche appeared first on Bodhi Path.

Talk transcribed by Lara Braitstein

Shamar Rinpoche begins by reciting the mantras of Śākyamuni Buddha and Mañjuśrī:

om muni muni mahamuni shakyamuni svaha
om arapachana dhih

Introduction

The main objective of the Bodhi Path Buddhist Centers is to give teachings on the many subjects contained in Buddhism, and in particular on the teachings of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. 

Two main streams of Buddhist practice are upheld within the Kagyu lineage. One is the practice of the Six Dharmas, a lineage transmitted from Tilopa to Naropa. The other is called Mahamudra (Great Seal) and is a lineage that was transmitted from Saraha to Maitripa. Naropa and Maitripa were Marpa’s gurus. From Marpa the transmission continued to Milarepa and then from Milarepa to Gampopa. Gampopa combined the Mahamudra with Atisha’s Lojong (Mind Training) practice and taught this extensively. A very special lineage of Gampopa, it is known as ‘the combined lineage of Kadampa and Mahamudra’. Since his time, it has been upheld as one of the main streams of teachings of all Kagyupas. 

Mahamudra

Mahamudra is one of the principal teachings of the Karma Kagyu lineage. The Karmapas and other Karma Kagyu lamas wrote various commentaries on Mahamudra, and in particular the 9^th Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje composed a concise, a medium-length, and an extensive commentary on Mahamudra. The concise volume is called The Finger Pointing out the Dharmakaya (Chöku Dzubtsuk), the medium-length volume is called Eliminating the Darkness of Ignorance (Marik Munsel), and the extensive volume is called The Ocean of Ultimate Meaning (Ngedön Gyatso). All three volumes teach the Mahamudra. 

The term ‘Mahamudra’ is a combination of two Sanskrit words that denote a tantric topic. It is translated as Great Seal in English (chakgya chenpo, or chakchen in Tibetan). The majority of Kagyu Lamas who became enlightened achieved this realization through Mahamudra practice. Depending on the individual, some practitioners only engage in Mahamudra practice, and some also need the support of inner heat practice (chandali in Sanskrit, tummo in Tibetan). The practice of inner heat may speed up the accomplishment of Mahamudra, but not everyone needs it. Some of the realized Kagyu Lamas needed the support of inner heat and other practices from among the Six Dharmas of Naropa in order to accelerate their realization. Many other Lamas did not and were awakened through the Mahamudra practice alone. 

Saraha’s pointing out the mind meditation lineage of Mahamudra is very profound. This teaching or method points precisely to the nature of mind and leads the practitioner in a special way. Saraha simply sang his instructions on the nature of mind, accompanied by a plucked string instrument. He travelled as a beggar and gave Mahamudra instructions with his songs. Many people became enlightened just by listening to Saraha’s songs together with the power of his blessings. Many of his listeners attained the first level of the Mahamudra path. A number of collections of Saraha’s songs—known as dohas—are available to us. Principal among them is a set of three: the King Doha, the Queen Doha, and the Minister Doha. Saraha’s lineage was passed down to us in the beginning through his disciple Nagarjuna, and then through Shawaripa, Maitripa, Marpa, Milarepa and Gampopa. 

The Study of Mahamudra

Teachings may be transmitted in two ways: textually and orally. Written instructions tend to be more superficial. Books entitled ‘Mahamudra’ tend to be limited in scope and are often restricted only to the first level of Mahamudra even though the titles give the impression that they contain the entire Mahamudra system. In cases such as these, ‘Mahamudra’ is just a name. 

To start, people may read a book on Mahamudra and receive a few instructions from a teacher. It is only the practitioners who are able to reach a more advanced level in their practice, however, who receive the secretly kept part of the Mahamudra teachings. These secretly kept teachings are the oral instructions. As the term ‘oral’ implies, they are not written down. The reason why that part of the teachings is kept secret is that if it were written down and publicly available, people would be naturally drawn to meditate on what they have read. Their meditation would therefore simply consist of their own imagination based on what they have read. As such it would not be accurate or direct. This would also mean that the key points of Mahamudra are being distorted, benefitting no one. To avoid this distortion of the teachings, the oral instructions have been strictly maintained as such. 

A student starting out on the path of progression in Mahamudra may first receive some instructions together with readings from a book, and then they should really apply themselves to understand the way properly. When the student follows the way and does the practice, the teacher will then give more profound instructions as needed.  

The teaching of this lineage has not yet been properly organized in western countries. His Holiness the 16^th Gyalwa Karmapa, Kalu Rinpoche, Lama Gendun Rinpoche and others who taught here in the west introduced it gradually and meant to teach it later. These teachers laid down a very good foundation, although they have now passed away. 

The most important preliminaries to both the practice of Mahamudra and the Six Dharmas are the Ngondro practices. Some teachers, such as Kalu Rinpoche, taught these extensively. Other teachers focused more on the Refuge Vow and the Bodhisattva Vow, in addition to the Ngondro. They did so according to the request of the 16^th Gyalwa Karmapa. Over the past few decades, most teachers have taught general Buddhist practices, including the Kadampa Lojong (Mind Training).

Bodhi Path: a Mahamudra Teaching Center 

I am organizing Bodhi Path Centers in order to teach Mahamudra. I am doing this since until now nothing like this has been established. The first Bodhi Path Center was set up in the United States, and since that time several more have been established there. Now I am beginning to establish Bodhi Path Centers in Europe. This—here in Remetschwiel—is the first one. Herbert Giller’s foundation purchased this house, and I hope that the center will be very beneficial to people in Europe. 

I myself will teach at these centers. His Holiness Gyalwa Karmapa will come here to give initiations and teachings. Jigme Rinpoche, Khenpo Chodrak Tenpel Rinpoche, many Rinpoches, Lamas, Khenpos, and the Druplas from Le Bost who are very experienced with Mahamudra teachings will all, on occasion, visit and teach here as well. 

When the Mahamudra teaching is combined with tantra, it is generally the Four-Armed Chenrezik, the Two-Armed Chenrezik, or Khorlo Demchok. There are two different Four-Armed Chenreziks: white and red. The red one is called Gyalwa Gyamtso. The Two-Armed and Four-Armed White Chenrezik Mahamudra practices are also mixed with Ati Yoga. Korlo Demchok and Red Chenrezik are only combined with Mahamudra practice. 

When a disciple arrives at a certain stage, the teacher will select a yidam (specific meditation deity) for them. The selection is based on the disciple’s own qualities. They will then do Mahamudra practice according to their designated yidam. When I was first organizing a Bodhi Path practice curriculum, I did quite a few predictions to determine which yidam would be suitable for disciples in general. Every time the result showed me that it is White Chenrezik combined with both Mahamudra and Ati Yoga. 

The White Chenrezik lineage of the Karma Kagyu comes from the 9^th Karmapa. It is a combination of all lineages of White Chenrezik, of which there are many. In Tibet, for example, there is the lineage from Songtsen Gampo, the Bodhisattva King of Tibet. Then there is the lineage of Padmasambhava, Guru Rinpoche. There are also other lineages from Sakya and Kagyu masters who came after them. The 9^th Karmapa concentrated all these lineages into one White Chenrezik practice. Karma Chagme was a very great bodhisattva of the Karma Kagyu lineage. He taught the 9^th Karmapa’s White Chenrezik combined with Mahamudra and Ati Yoga. This combined practice became immensely popular among the Kagyu, Nyingma, and also Sakya practitioners. It was the heart practice of most of the Kagyu and Nyingma meditators. They still practiced the Guru Yoga of Padmasambhava, Milarepa, or Karmapa. They still received teachings and initiations on many yidam practices which they put into practice. But in the end, they chose and kept this combined practice of Chenrezik as their heart or core practice. 

A System of Practice at Bodhi Path

To be successful in your Dharma practice, you need to walk the path of Dharma. There are two types of paths: the common (or ordinary) path, and the extraordinary path. Without the support of the common path, you cannot reach the extraordinary path. Without the extraordinary path, you cannot experience ultimate enlightenment. This means that you have to practice both the common and the extraordinary paths together. Whether or not you meet the extraordinary path depends on your individual karma. If your karma is conducive towards enlightenment, then you will meet the extraordinary path. If your karma is just alright and you simply have a good foundation, then you will always connect with the common path. In that case it is likely that you will eventually meet up with the extraordinary path, but it all depends on your individual karma. 

The common path requires that you have refuge vows and bodhisattva vows. The refuge vow consists of going for refuge to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. It is the first ground, the first fundamental level of dharma practice. You can think of it as a kind of fertilizer. When you want to grow something, you need soil. And soil needs fertilizer. To explain the metaphor more fully, the mind is the soil, the refuge vows are the fertilizer, and what is being cultivated or grown is enlightenment. Enlightenment depends on your mind. That rich soil, the mind, has to be purified. All the ignorance of the mind has to be cleared away, and that is accomplished through the path of the Dharma. To develop the path of the Dharma first requires that you take refuge. The refuge vows, therefore, are the very basis of that purification, the fertilizer for the soil. Thus, taking the refuge vows is a very important foundation. 

I will explain the bodhisattva vow using a different metaphor. If you build a multistory house but without a staircase, then you cannot access the upper stories. The bodhisattva vow is that staircase. The quality of the bodhisattva vow is to have the bodhichitta attitude towards sentient beings, which means to have compassion and loving kindness towards sentient beings. Bodhi means enlightenment and chitta means heart. Bodhichitta therefore means ‘heart of enlightenment’ (and bodhi path means the path to enlightenment!). The bodhisattva vow itself has two aspects: relative bodhichitta and absolute bodhichitta. Relative bodhichitta is the root and absolute bodhichitta is the main staircase. In order to develop these two aspects, you have to take the bodhisattva vow. As I just mentioned, the quality of the bodhisattva vow is to have the bodhichitta attitude of compassion and loving kindness towards sentient beings. There is a very dualistic kind of compassion and loving kindness which is connected to emotions. This very emotional compassion and loving kindness does not have much quality. That is because if it is very emotional you will get attached to something, grasp something. With all those emotions involved it cannot be pure bodhichitta. To have pure bodhichitta, you must have the attitude of absolute bodhichitta together with relative bodhichitta. The heart should be detached from emotion, and therefore the absolute bodhichitta view is needed. Absolute bodhichitta is the wisdom of the bodhichitta mind. Absolute bodhichitta is developed on the ground of relative bodhichitta. 

Relative and Ultimate

A few steps need to be taken in order to develop absolute bodhichitta. The first step is to hear precise instructions about the nature of phenomena. The teachings of the Buddha—the Dharma—explain precisely how phenomena are illusions of your mind. On the one hand, on a relative level everything is there just as you see it. However, the absolute or ultimate nature of any thing is that it does not truly exist. Take this house as an example. The pillars depend on the foundation, the beams depend on the pillars, the roof depends on the beams, and so forth. So on the relative level, you have a house. That is a relative truth. But when you look for the ‘truth’ of the house you find that it is a collection of many parts which all depend on one another. You cannot find the house in any of the parts. The ground is not the house, the foundation is not the house, the walls, pillars, beams, roof and so forth, none of these is the house. That is how you approach the absolute. In absolute truth no thing is really existent. But relatively, everything exists.

Enlightenment is ultimate truth. But it is dependent on the path, which is relative truth. Just as beams need pillars, pillars need foundations and so forth, just in that way, in order to attain liberation you need relative bodhichitta and you need absolute bodhichitta. You need all this to build up to the ultimate truth that is enlightenment. Relatively, however, you need a path. It is the same as when you build a house.

Enlightenment is when all the ignorance is cleared away from your mind. That is the final ultimate truth. To clear the ignorance from your mind, you need remedies that work according to your illusions. As long as illusions exist, the remedies exist. Relatively. By really knowing the problems of the mind, you will know the appropriate remedies to solve them. So, solving the problem depends on the remedy. That is the path, the relative path for ultimate enlightenment. 

The Basic Problem

Sentient beings are totally drowning in a problem: the relative existence of illusions which bring about relatively existent samsara. ‘Samsara’ means the realms of living beings. There are no realms of living beings which ultimately exist. There is no such thing as ‘ultimately existent samsara’. To be ‘ultimately existent’ means that a thing cannot be removed. By contrast, since all of samsara exists relatively, like a dream, you can eliminate it. If it were ultimately existent, you could not eliminate it. For example, if a dream really ultimately exists then the dream will not disappear, even when you wake up. So you know that the dream itself is not ultimately existent because when you wake up, it disappears. It doesn’t go anywhere. It disappears because by its nature it does not exist. To emphasize the point: the dream does not go anywhere—it is not that you put all the dreams in a corner when you wake up. The dream itself is not existent. That is why dreams disappear when you wake up. Samsara is like that. Its basis is ignorance. Based on ignorance there are negative emotions, then karma, then all the illusions of samsara. Each one depends on the other. That is the path to samsara. None of these exist ultimately. Therefore, all the problems of samsara can be solved because they are not ultimate truth. Samsaric problems should be solved, and ultimate enlightenment needs to be developed. Then your samsara will end. 

This Precious Human Life

This human life is precious. Buddhist teachings will always introduce you to how your life is useful and precious. A human life has wisdom, potential and opportunity: wisdom is in the capacity to see enlightenment; the potential is in the capacity to embark on the path that leads there; and opportunity is having a human mind that is rich enough to absorb the path to enlightenment. The human mind can understand ultimate bodhichitta very well. As was described above, this means the capacity to understand not only that all phenomena are not existent, but also how they are not existent.  The human mind can understand all this. 

Listen, Reflect, Meditate

Listening, reflecting, and meditating are the steps of the dharma path. First you have to listen to the teachings of the Buddha that explain the ultimate nature of phenomena. This careful listening is called töpa in Tibetan. Then you have to think it over, reflect on it. Think about it over and over until you find the actual meaning. This process is called sampa in Tibetan. Absorbing the most profound meaning of the dharma depends on you thinking over the teachings. Then the path of meditation will be clear to you. Meditation is called gompa in Tibetan. 

Meditation naturally solves the problem of clinging—clinging and self-clinging. Once you have self-clinging then there are many things to cling to, things about which your self thinks, “this is what I want!” So, first there is self-clinging, then after that comes clinging to all the things you want. You will cling onto everything. That is how all living beings find themselves in the trap of clinging, are bound by the chain of clinging. This chain of clinging, which I will explain in more detail below, is actually a mistake made by your mind. The process of meditation is how you can clear away all these problems, all these chains of clinging. 

There are fundamentally two types of clinging: clinging to the phenomena of samsara and clinging to the path of Dharma. This latter one is a more advanced level of the problem. Both types of clinging can be removed through a precise understanding of the view of absolute bodhichitta: emptiness. This means the emptiness aspect of Madhyamaka thought, in other words freedom from the four extremes. 

Embarking on the Path: Shiné

As I explained already, you begin by taking the refuge vow and then the bodhisattva vow. The bodhisattva vow has two aspects: relative and ultimate. When you take the relative vow you will make a commitment to maintain the mind of relative bodhichitta. The ultimate bodhisattva vow is not really a vow, instead it is something that you will develop. After taking the refuge vow and the bodhisattva vow, you will receive the teachings on shiné, or calm abiding meditation. There are a few steps of shiné, preliminary and advanced. 

Shiné is practiced in order to train your mind to be free from the bad habit of constantly thinking, being busy, confused. Your mind has to be freed from that. The first or common level of shiné is how you can train your mind to be stable. Your success of course depends on your diligence. If you maintain shiné practice constantly then you will achieve it as your nature, not as something that you bring into your mind. Common shiné, therefore, is a very smart way to train your mind to be free from bad habits. Then the more advanced shiné is how you develop unobstructed peace of mind, the open mind. 

The realization of the emptiness of self and of phenomena are the eyes of meditation for enlightenment. To develop these two eyes depends on the stability of the contemplation of your mind. That stability will be developed through shiné. First you need a very strong grounding in shiné and then on that basis you can develop the realization of the emptiness of phenomena and mind. To have these two eyes means to have the view. It is not a view that you learn from books. It is the view that you experience. When you have the experience of the view —these two eyes—you will examine each and every negative emotion in your mind. That is how you will clear all the ignorance from your mind.  

Shantideva said: 

Penetrative insight joined with calm abiding 
Utterly eradicates afflicted states.
Knowing this, first search for calm abiding,
Found by those who joyfully renounce the world 

(8.4, translated by the Padmakara Translation Group)

All the afflicted negative emotions will be incinerated by these two eyes, and you can successfully develop that level of shiné when you are not terribly attached to phenomenal things. This doesn’t mean that you should not own a car or enjoy your breakfast! It means that you are not emotionally grasping your breakfast. 

Tilopa taught Naropa: the chain is not what you see, the chain is your grasping. The chain of grasping is what ties you. Not emotionally grasping everything will be a good condition to develop your shiné. That is how you develop shiné. When you have a good foundation of shiné then you can develop this precise view of lhaktong (penetrative insight). 

Prostrations to the 35 Buddhas

We will teach shiné here in order to develop this wisdom and then shiné will subdue confusion and the problems of a restless mind. But there is another problem, another obscuration: bad karma. Karmic problems can be totally eliminated and purified by prostrations to the 35 Buddhas. This practice is contained within the Four Foundations practised by Marpa and all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism embrace this lineage of practice. We will teach it here. The text for practice on the 35 Buddhas has been translated into English and German.   

Mandala Offerings

After the prostrations is the practice of mandala offerings. Mandala practice is done in order to accumulate the power of merit. As long as you are on the path of the Dharma you need merit. On the one hand you must purify your karma, and on the other hand you need the support of merit. To be a successful bodhisattva accomplishing the benefit of sentient beings you must depend on merit. And the accumulation of merit depends on generosity, giving. Even mentally practicing generosity is good for accumulating merit, therefore mandala practice is important. It is a kind of mental therapy. In the mind you visualize all the things to which you are attached. Now you no longer think “I need this”. Instead, you offer it, give it away. Give it away, give it away, give it away. That is a very meritorious practice. 

At this time, you may not have so very many things to give to sentient beings. In order to have that ability in the future, the first step is to mentally give everything away. Accumulate the merit of generosity mentally. I don’t mean that you are not fortunate now—but maybe in another lifetime you will be a very wealthy bodhisattva and you will give away many things to sentient beings.

Tonglen: Giving and Taking

While you are doing the practice of prostrations to the 35 Buddhas and the mandala practice, continue to practice shiné. When you are well grounded in common shiné, then the teacher will teach you tonglen: giving and taking. Tonglen is also shiné, but it is more advanced plus it is a bodhisattva practice. You are giving your happiness to sentient beings and taking on their suffering. It has very powerful merit. You will do tonglen practice while you are doing prostrations to the 35 Buddhas and the mandala offerings. With time you will definitely develop a very good experience of shiné. This is because the more negative karma is purified, the more your mind will shine and be clear. Then your shiné will be very advanced, very tranquil, you will be so familiar with it. Your shiné will be much more mature. 

Note to Reader: As Shamar Rinpoche continued developing the Bodhi Path curriculum, he provided additional refinement, including the importance of learning lhaktong practice before tonglen (see The Path to Awakening, “The Second Point: Train in the Two Bodhicittas”).

Analytical Meditation

Following tonglen, we will teach an analytical meditation called ‘analytical examination of mind’. It is connected to lhaktong but is a more preliminary level of Mahamudra. It is an analytical practice where you divide mind into three parts: past mind, present mind, and future mind. There is a way to analyze this. Once you have a good level of shiné you will be able to comfortably and effectively do this practice. 

Vajrasattva

You will practice tonglen meditation combined with the analytical examination of mind meditation. During that time we will give you the Dorje Sempa empowerment and for some time you will do Dorje Sempa practice. 

Kyerim and Dzokrim

After this we will teach you the Vajrayana view and philosophy of kyerim (generation or creation stage) and dzokrim (completion stage, Mahamudra meditation). There are, broadly, three sets of instructions. The first are instructions on how to properly receive empowerments. Second are instructions on the types of precepts (samaya) necessary to protect the practice of Vajrayana. Finally, the third is the subject of kyerim and dzokrim. 

Chenrezik

Once you have learned about kyerim and dzokrim practice we will give the Chenrezik empowerment and teach you the practice of Chenrezik. 

Final Words

This is the systematic program of Bodhi Path teachings. Practicing this is how you will achieve enlightenment within one life. 

May this be auspicious!

Tibetan—Sanskrit—English Glossary

In his spoken lecture, Shamar Rinpoche moved easily between Tibetan, Sanskrit, and English terms. This transcription respects his choices for preferred language of specific terms, but a short glossary of some of the terms and deity names may be helpful.

Deity Names:

Tibetan–Sanskrit

Chenrezik–Avalokiteshvara

Dorje Sempa–Vajrasattva 

Gyalwa Gyamtso–Jinasagara

Khorlo Demchok–Chakrasamvara

Terminology:

Tibetan–Sanskrit–English

Chakgya Chenpo/Chakchen–Mahamudra–Great Seal

Chödruk–n/a–Six Practices

Dzokpa Chenpo/Dzokchen–Ati Yoga–Great Perfection

Dzokrim–Sampannakrama–Completion Stage

Kyerim–Utpannakrama–Generation/Creation Stage

Lhaktong–Vipashyana–Penetrative Insight

Shiné–Shamata–Calm Abiding

Tummo–Chandali–Inner Heat practice

Reference Note: The book A Path of Practice was also completed, based on the whole series of talks from this program at Remetschwiel.

© Bodhi Path Buddhist Center

The post 2004 Talk from Remetschwiel, Germany appeared first on Bodhi Path.

Karma Trinlay Rinpoche Online (2023)

Stupas have had special and particular meaning as far back as the time of Buddha Shakyamuni and prior. A new initiative is beginning for eight stupas to be produced for the Natural Bridge Retreat Center, as well as a stupa from Nepal for the Martha’s Vineyard Center. This talk is an introduction to the topic of stupas and this new initiative. The talk describes the design of the eight stupas in detail, as shown in the illustration to the left.

The post Talk on Stupas and the 8-Stupa Project appeared first on Bodhi Path.

The post Shamar Rinpoche Introduction to Meditation appeared first on Bodhi Path.

The post Foundations of Buddhism appeared first on Bodhi Path.

By Shamar Rinpoche

_{as told to Pamela G. White}

Terms from Shamar Rinpoche

During his years of explaining Buddhist philosophy and practice in the West, Shamar Rinpoche has invented many colorful terms to drive the point home. Here are a few of the idioms he has used in recent teachings:

Pushy crowdy karma is a loose translation of the Tibetan term lenpé namshé (len pa’i rnam shes), the perpetuating consciousness that leads to a certain kind of rebirth as it identifies with a particular physical form and the modes of perception specific to it. When factors and conditions cause karmic seeds to sprout and ripen, this pushes individual consciousness to assume a new form and identify with it. An example of this is the great Indian king Ashoka who, despite having garnered enormous merit through spreading the Dharma, died in a moment of anger. Of all the karmic seeds he had sown during his lifetime as an emperor, the seed of anger was the most immediate and pushy; it ripened first and Ashoka was reborn as a python for a short while.

Mahasiddhas such as Tilopa are able to recognize which mantric mind corresponds with a student’s karmic predisposition.  By introducing the student to the meditation deity, or yidam, practice that is most likely to serve as an antidote to confusion and lead to awakening, the master guides the student’s mantric mind to reconnect with its fundamental nature.

Because there are countless sentient beings with as many karmic predispositions, Buddha Shakyamuni taught innumerable tantras in lands such as Oddiyana to the students that would best benefit from such practices. The reason tantric practices of this kind are so secret is to protect students from phony “masters” who might invent fake tantras for dishonorable reasons such as personal fame or wealth. Ill-chosen or bogus yidam practices can potentially cause a great deal of harm or, at the very least, hinder a student’s progression along the path to awakening, because the practitioner’s mantric mind and the tantra don’t match.

Among the twelve interdependent links, the fourth is often translated as “name and form.” Although this is a literal translation of the Sanskrit and Tibetan terms (Skt: nama-rupa; Tib: ming dang gzugs), Shamar Rinpoche favors the term labeling form, as it refers to the mind which grasps a physical form and its constituents as being “me” or “I,” and anything perceived as belonging to it as being “my” and “mine.” Once an individual consciousness has appropriated a new form and other aggregates, it identifies with them in terms of a self: I am a person, I am a dog, I am a fish, and so on. This identification is what is meant by labeling form.

These first three are related and work together. Rinpoché has also used the term package believer to describe Western practitioners whose understanding of the Dharma is limited because they lump everything together and tend to be rather inflexible.

Another major problem is that Westerners are machine-minded in that they are inclined to believe that everything exists, including the mind which meditates. Their understanding is often quite technical and intellectual. Even in meditation, the concept of subject and object is present and thinking is considered a sort of wiring process which arises out of mind: three wires come together and thought occurs. The thinker is a button; press the button and a thought arises. In truth, however, this machine-minded point of view is terribly reductionistic because mind’s nature is perfectly vast and unlimited.

© Bodhi Path Buddhist Center

The post Some Modern Terms appeared first on Bodhi Path.

Introduction

In general when we practice the Dharma and we commit ourselves to accomplishing positive actions, we encounter obstacles and difficulties. This is due to the fact that our minds are laden with emotions. Of these negative emotions, the main one is pride, which leads us to feel contempt for others (due to an over-estimation of oneself: I am the best, the strongest, etc). The existence of pride automatically gives rise to jealousy, hatred, or anger. With pride as its underlying cause, the emotion of anger creates the most powerful effects. This is because it leads us to carry out all kinds of seriously negative actions that will bring about future rebirths in the lower realms.

In Western societies, the distinction between pride and firmness of mind is often confused. A lack of pride is construed to be a weakness. Pride is a built-up and concentrated form of ego grasping. So in this respect, it is a weakness. A person can have great strength of character, and a strong resolve to achieve a goal, such as enlightenment, for example, without pride ever manifesting.

We need to dissociate pride — the affirmation of our own supremacy over others, which suggests a certain blindness — from firmness of mind that is a quality free of all the negative aspects of pride. In the same way we often have a distorted view, which equates humility with a weakness of character. What we really need is courage and strength of character, without developing pride.

Mental Calm and Stability

The meditation on love and compassion goes hand in hand with the cultivation of mental stability. Indeed, with respect to pride and anger, it is difficult for the beginner to give up these emotions straight away. Until we are able to do this, we need to practice mental calm in conjunction with the meditation on love and compassion. This is the very essence of Shi’nay meditation.

For example, we can examine the mental image or concept of anger. Think of a person who appears unpleasant to you, someone whom you regard as your enemy. If you do not have an enemy, try to think of a person who can make you angry. Once you actually feel the anger, do not act it out, as you may end up hurting someone. Instead, try to relate to the anger as a type of thought and try to see what it looks like and where it comes from. Does it come from the person or from yourself? If you think it comes from the mind, where does it arise from, how does it remain, and where does it go when it disappears? In this way one takes the anger itself as the object of meditation and reflection.

From time to time, you can practice a method of exchanging roles. Once you feel really angry with someone, you can put yourself in that person’s place. For example, I am Shamar Rimpoche. I am angry with you. Then I imagine that I am you. In this way, I adopt a different viewpoint, your viewpoint. The same exchange can be applied to the emotions of jealousy and pride. This is a form of Shi’nay (the pacification of the mind). By observing the strong emotional state of anger and then a peaceful state of mind, you will come to observe the nature of mind itself. This is the superior form of insight, which we call Lhaktong. If you can apply this method to all of the disturbing emotions, then it will be extremely beneficial for you.

If there are many thoughts in the mind and you manage to pacify them with this method, this is excellent. However, when the emotions are so strong that we cannot control them, we need to stabilize the mind by focusing on our breathing. Concentrating on the in-and-out breaths in this case is more effective.

Many people often take this meditation to be a breathing exercise. In fact, the important point here is not the breathing but in composing the mind, through being constantly aware of the in-and-out breaths without being distracted. The main point is really this concentration itself, this mental stability. Some people think the physical aspect of the practice is significant, but this is not the case. What is essential is our familiarity with the practice. The success of meditations such as Shi’nay and Lhaktong does not depend on the conceptualization of these meditative states. Rather, the essence of these practices is in our becoming accustomed to the meditation process itself. We have to differentiate between Gompa, which means to conceive, and Sgompa, which means to meditate, to train oneself or to become familiar.

The correct conception and understanding arises from meditation and familiarization with the practice. Therefore, the meditation itself must be established on very precise foundations. In order to obtain the state of a Buddha, we have to turn away radically from becoming; in other words, from all the forms of worldly happiness associated with the different realms. One might, for example, aim to achieve a relative happiness in a higher state of existence, or to be free from the sufferings of the lower realms. One might aspire to acquire the peaceful state of the Shravakas where there is no possibility of benefiting others. However, it is only in the ultimate state of enlightenment that the real power and capacity to act for the benefit of others can be found.

Love and Compassion—Relative Level

The remedy for an attachment to the happiness of becoming is to reflect on impermanence and the “four fundamental thoughts which turn the mind away from the cycle of existences.” As our attachments start to weaken, we may experience a certain peace in our mind. Grasping, or clinging to this mental state of calm may then arise. The remedy for grasping onto this peaceful state is to meditate on altruistic love and compassion. We should develop love and compassion within us until they have become completely natural attitudes for us. Love and compassion are qualities that will accompany us throughout our entire spiritual progression: from the moment we first give rise to the enlightened attitude right up until we achieve Buddhahood itself. This enlightenment will then be endowed with the body, speech, mind and qualities of a Buddha.

Through the power of love and compassion, all unfavourable conditions, the disturbing emotions, samsara and its causes will be destroyed and completely annihilated. Without love and compassion, we simply do not have enough energy. Even while we remain trapped in this prison of samsara, subjected to the influences of the emotions and karma, the qualities of love and compassion allow us to be guided in the right direction.

This love and compassion has an object, which is all beings. By beings, we do not simply mean those who are around us — humans. Anything that possesses a mind is a being. And where there is a being, there is suffering. Just as we have a mind and through this we experience suffering, the same goes for all other types of beings. Here, we must distinguish between that which is living and that which has a mind. A living thing does not necessarily have a mind. But where there is mind, there is consciousness, and there is life. There are all kinds of beings, some which are very small like the insects. A common misconception is to attribute consciousness only to beings of a certain size. We often associate the existence of consciousness first with a certain degree of intelligence and then to a certain size. In this way, scientists and certain schools of philosophical thought are reluctant to acknowledge that smaller animals, insects, or tiny marine life possess a consciousness similar to ours, even though they recognize that some larger sea dwellers, such as dolphins, do have consciousness.

In fact, even the tiniest and most minuscule of insects seeks pleasure and fears suffering. If we try to touch the fin of a small fish, its initial reaction is to move away. If it is tamed, then it may recognize the hand that feeds it to be a source of satisfaction. It will then approach the hand, quite simply because, in the same way as humans, it seeks a state of well-being and flees suffering.

Beings have various sizes, but the mind is not proportional to the physical appearance. The degree of suffering or happiness depends on individual karma. The same mind can reincarnate in a tiny feeble body, or in the body of a whale, or as a king endowed with a higher faculty of mind than that of an animal. However, size does not have any bearing on the quality or power of the mind.

Therefore, all beings, without any exception, should be the object of our love and compassion. Cultivate the same attitude for all beings as you would feel for your father, mother, or those whom you love the most. In traditional cultures, particularly in the East, family ties are extremely strong. The father and the mother are the people whom one reveres the most, and the idea of any harm coming to them is unbearable. For this reason, when we meditate on the enlightened attitude, we take this example considering all beings as our parents.

In the West, esteem for parents does not have the same intensity. But this difference does not matter for the meditation. Simply use someone whom you love most and consider all beings as that person.

Of course, it is not possible for us to develop this love and compassion for each being individually. But we can regard all beings collectively as one entity and meditate on the fact that they too wish to have happiness with the same fervor as we do. We develop this intense wish for their happiness by putting ourselves in their place. However, be careful not to make the wish into a fixation or attachment. Rather, concentrate on what beings have to go through. We must then continue to maintain the mind in this aspiration for their happiness while applying the same contemplation of its essence as was previously mentioned for the emotions such as anger, pride and jealousy.

Love and Compassion—Ultimate Level

This love for all beings is, in the beginning, an artificial and fabricated attitude. We do not really feel it automatically. By training ourselves, it will develop gradually, and sooner or later this impartial love towards all beings will become a natural feeling. Right now, when we feel love for one or several beings, very often, this love is partial because it is selective, and it comes from our attachment. When we talk of spiritual love, this is not a partial and exclusive attitude, but it is founded in the nature of mind, which is emptiness. It is from emptiness that everything manifests.

We meditate on love; its nature is emptiness, non-existence. The object of this love (i.e., beings) is also empty in nature from the ultimate point of view. However, its relative nature does exist; it arises without contradicting its essence. If it were different and the existence of an intrinsic ultimate reality were enough in itself, it would not enable relative phenomena to manifest. If a dream were real, it could not take place in the space of the mind. If the dream’s essence does not have an empty mirror-like quality, images cannot be reflected in it. Thus, the nature of beings’ confusion is emptiness. Otherwise, how could it appear if it were solid and material?

Although this contemplation of Bodhicitta’s ultimate nature is something that one must realize, this comes later on. In the beginning, it is advisable to cultivate mainly the relative aspect of love and compassion, in order to progress afterwards into a recognition of emptiness or ultimate Bodhicitta. Parallel to this meditation on ultimate Bodhicitta, a profound understanding will develop. If one meditates on love by means of emptiness, it becomes a superior love. Not only that, but at the same time, while meditating on the nature of love, we will achieve a stable pacification of mind (Shi’nay), and simultaneously the force of our positivity will increase. By constantly recollecting the enlightened attitude, we will be able to create a source of considerable benefit for others. Through the samadhi (complete absorption) of love, we will penetrate the ultimate and authentic benefit. Our mind will be united with the unchanging ultimate reality so that our consciousness will no longer be inhabited by anything other than love for all beings. It will never be separated from this.

By the force of our meditation, our love for beings will be like the mother hen’s love for her chicks. This process will develop itself by its own nature, until it embraces all beings in the state of enlightenment. Gradually, we will gain the capacity to be beneficial towards an increasing number of beings. This has nothing to do with telepathy or any particular intention, as if we were sending energy waves to help those who are inferior to us. But spontaneously, beneficial and positive activities will arise through the force of virtue. The power of this meditation is so strong that it has the ability to spread to others. This love extends outwards and radiates, and is born in the minds of other beings, particularly in small animals such as birds.

© Bodhi Path Buddhist Center

The post Meditation on Love and Compassion appeared first on Bodhi Path.