Engaging with the Buddha - S1 25 Feb 2011

Engaging with the Buddha - S1 25 Feb 2011 You saw the 2 YouTube movie clips presented just now. The first movie clip showed the busy city-life which is exactly how our lives are right now - we are seeking peace and happiness and liberation from problems but due to our ignorant mind, instead of searching for the solution inwardly, we search for it externally. We spend effort towards gaining money, name, fame, wealth and hoping to find ultimate lasting happiness. And yet, not a day passes by where we are completely exhausted and empty-handed; genuine happiness escapes us. Then, we engage in an endless search for desirous relationships but at the end of the day, all turn out to be disappointments. The fact is that there is no solution to be found in the external world which will help us obtain lasting or genuine happiness. For those who are young and healthy, it is urgent for you to wake up to understanding the fact that in life, money, the ordinary concept of love and status is not enough. There is something else that we must cultivate, namely the spiritual path. The first clip showed how we are now and the second clip showed how we can be and how we need to discover the Buddha nature, ultimate happiness and total perfection. This cannot be discovered from amongst external phenomena but within our own mind. So today, I d like to split the topic into two: Why we need spiritual practice for our present lives and why we need spiritual practice for future lives too. why we need spiritual practice for purposes of our present life. We can see for ourselves that somehow we cannot find happiness that lasts. Today, science has advanced greatly and yet we face environmental disasters, more adversities, there are more new illnesses emerging and compared to 1000 years ago, it is a far more degenerate time. The world has become more and more unsafe. At a physical level, medicine are now more powerful and sophisticated. However, these have not been able to keep up with the new illnesses being discovered. Thirty years back, cancer was rare but today, cancer is more common than the flu. Despite medical progress, its methods do not always extend life and sometimes become an obstacle to long life. Then, although people have more possessions, mentally they are not contented and afflicted desire has increased greatly. As a result, the mind suffers more and more - more discontented; more distracted; more negative. The reason for this is that the beings who live in this universe never look towards inner cultivation, never used wisdom to learn about karmic impact, never looked into the nature of mind and only relied on external, material factors for help. Therefore, If we are unable to obtain some control over our mind in the sense of transforming it through understanding of for example, karma; if we don t manage our emotions, then no matter how conducive external conditions may be, we will not find peace. Bliss and contentment can come from learning the spiritual path and making it part of our lives so that it becomes one with our mental continuum. For us as Buddhists, if we wish to experience a fruitful, peaceful, present life, Dharma/spiritual practice is necessary. If we wish to experience the sensation of floating high in the sky without the obstruction of afflicted emotions, we have to engage into Dharma practice. We cannot obtain such happiness through money, fame, staying in a big house or driving

a nice car. The contentment received through training of one s mind is the best. It comes from cultivating the spiritual path/dharma which is the advice of Shakyamuni Buddha and consists of what he cultivated to eliminate all suffering and attain all happiness. The advice then has become the tools for us to cultivate to achieve the same things. If one wishes to live in genuine peace for even one day, money alone cannot give you that. There may be some joy but it will be temporary and superficial. Thus, if we wish to truly live in peace even for at least an hour of a day, we must cultivate Dharma. Why we need spiritual practice for our future life. Whether you believe in future lives or not, there is a continuation of our consciousness/feelings. One needs to subdue one s mind and to do this, one has to practice Dharma. There is no reason not to believe in future lives. We can observe and think. The Buddha himself declared that there are numberless past and future lifetimes. As long as mind exists, whether now or in the future, at its core is the wish for peace and not suffering. Therefore, if you want to secure genuine lasting happiness in future lifetimes as well, it is necessary to learn & cultivate Dharma now, while we have the intelligence and wisdom to appreciate virtue; to understand the value of life and benefits from cultivating Dharma. When we experience the last moment of this life - i.e. death, the last moment of consciousness, the perceptions experienced then, every single thought and feeling as we go through the death passage without the cultivation of Dharma, will be intense suffering. It will be physically torturing, mentally torturing and all experiences at that time will be dominated by suffering. This suffering has to be experienced by everyone at death unless one has spiritual practice. Buddha himself went through this and taught that only Dharma can protect us from suffering and secure a happy death and good rebirth. We cannot hope to escape the suffering of death. We may trick ourselves into thinking that my death will not be one of suffering but as long as we have taken human rebirth, sickness, old age, death and the continuation of life after life, is a package deal. The Buddha experienced sufferings in previous births too as human and nonhuman and in that life as Siddartha, he was born as a prince, wealthy, famous and protected but his through analysis of many lifetimes, he knew that there would be no genuine happiness until one is able to practice renunciation. Not everyone can renounce in the sense of becoming monks and nuns but can practice renunciation to worldly attachments and this means reducing grasping and creating the space to cultivate the inspiration of liberation from all suffering. How does one cultivate Dharma? We need to study and practice the Lam Rim, the graduated path to enlightenment which contains the Buddha s 84,000 teachings. These can be broadly categorised under 3 principles (hence referred to as the Three Principal Aspects of the Path) namely, renunciation, bodhicitta and right view of emptiness.

Renounce worldly/samsaric afflictions, samsaric ideas i.e. all that is based on the afflictions of ignorance, anger, attachment etc. Cultivate the bodhi mind, which is the great compassionate mind to free not ponly onself but all living beings from suffering. See the true nature of true existence: See that things do not exist as they appear to us; see that we mistakenly think that samsara is enjoyable, without realising that is suffering. Some people go to Australia thinking it s safer but they then experienced house break-ins. Life is not as we perceive it. The truth of existence is the nonexistence of its own independent nature. Things comes about dependently and through various factors. They don t just pop up out of nowhere. The conclusion is the whether in this or next life, we need to cultivate Dharma. What is Dharma? What is the essence of Buddha s advice? What is the meaning of the spiritual path which we label Dharma it refers to the teaching which helps us transform/cure our mind of afflicted emotions and enables us to gain enlightenment. What are the objects that we need to apply Dharma to? We need to apply it to our 3 doors of body, speech and mind. One s present body, speech and mind is controlled by contaminated emotions and delusions. Example the moment we walk, so many ants die underneath our giant feet; just one movement, many formless beings are struck; our speech harms others or we gossip; our minds are cunning and negative think of it - within one minute, how many negative thoughts arise? How many positive thoughts arise? Try to count them with white and black beads. White bead for virtuous thoughts; black beads for negative thoughts. You ll find that at the end of the day there will be more black beads than white! Our thoughts are quite violent. A combination of the actions of our body, speech and mind can be powerful and affect many others. Therefore, it needs to be subdued. It needs Dharma to subdue and transform it. For the newcomers a bit of history Gautama Buddha who was born Prince Siddartha, understood the nature of samsara and the value of liberation and enlightenment. He renounced his princely life at the palace, cultivated Vinaya vows, actualised solitary meditative practices, engaged in the practice of the 3 higher trainings (morality, concentration and wisdom) and was able to purify immense past negative karma plus actualise a great amount of virtue. This assisted him in realising the stages of the path and under a bodhi tree in Bodhgaya, Bihar, at the dawn of Vesak day, he destroyed the 4 maras including delusion and death and entered into retreat for 49 days and thereafter, turned the Dharma 3 times (such special groups of teachings are called the Turning of the Wheel ). At the 1 st Turning of the Wheel at Varanasi, Buddha taught the 4 Noble Truths (principally for the Theravadan disciples); the 2 nd Turning at Rajgir, he gave teachings on wisdom (Heart Sutra) to mainly to the higher capability beings of the Mahayana path; the 3 rd turning of the wheel was at Vaisali was to disciples who were also of the Mahayana school but held a lower view of the explanation on emptiness. While the Buddha was turning the 2 nd Wheel (at Rajgir), he simultaneously turned the wheel of Dharma on tantra, where he arose in the form of Vajradhara to deliver the tantra teachings.

When the Buddha taught at Varanasi and Rajgir, he took the aspect of a monk; when was teaching tantra, he manifested as Vajradhara which is the sambogayakaya aspect of the Buddha (perceivable only by bodhisattvas). Hence, Buddha taught both Sutra and Tantra. Many people have a misunderstanding of tantra or simply don t believe that there is Buddhist tantra. They think tantra is a Hindu concept and didn t come from the Buddha. Some practitioners even comment that Buddhist tantra copied Hindu tantra. This is totally untrue. The tantra that Buddha taught was cultivated by all the past Buddhas for numberless aeons before and even before this universe was formed. What he revealed were the teachings he received from past Buddhas, his Gurus. So all these teachings were taught by the Buddha. The main followers of the 1 st turning of the wheel were Theravadans. Of course, the 4 Noble Turths is the common teaching amongst all Buddhists. What is commonly practiced by Chinese Mahayanic practitioners is the Heart Sutra, the perfection of wisdom sutras taught during the 2 nd Turning of the Wheel. These teachings together with the tantra teachings were brought to Tibet. So you are now in a Tibetan Buddhist centre and you are receiving these teachings from a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Although you may say that you are studying Tibetan Buddhism, the fact is that you are studying Buddhadharma. One shouldn t be discriminatory when studying e.g. we shouldn t say, I only practice the Theravadan way and not the Mahayana or, I only practice Mahayana and not tantra. Tibetan Buddhists practice the entire aspects of the Buddhadharma namely, they regard as preliminary practices, the teaching of the 4 Noble Truths and 8 fold path and the Vinaya vows; this is followed by practising the bodhisattva path / the Sutra path (containing all the 3 principal aspects of the path) and then they also practice tantra, which involved meditatios to transform the impure to the pure. Buddha said without putting into practice all these teachings together, one cannot complete the practice to attain enlightenment. This means that once one has a stable understanding of the 4 Noble Truths, vows, bodhicitta, then to speed up your progress towards enlightenment it is necessary to adopt tantra practice. If we cultivate only the common path of the Mahayana, it will take 3 countless eons merit. Tantra however has the method of expediting our practice to purify 3 countless eons of karma within this very lifetime on this very cushion. Enlightenment can be attained on this very cushion. This unique uncommon method of tantra can only be digested by practitioners who have a firm understanding of Lam Rim, all the stages of the Path including the 3 principal aspects of the path. We can only succeed in tantra if we have such a clear and firm understanding. If however as newcomers, you are uncomfortable saying you are practising Tibetan Buddhism, you can just say that I m practising Buddhism. When the Buddhadharma went to Tibet around 3 rd or 4 th century. During the 7 th century the Dharma declined due to King Langdharma who destroyed many monasteries and texts; after that, came Guru Padmasambhava and gradually, the authentic Dharma was restored. There was at one time in Tibet something called Yungdrung Dharma or Bon, which is similar to Taoist practice. It was common for them to depict the Buddha with a swastika. Nevertheless, Yungdrung Dharma also taught ethics to it followers. When the actual Buddhadharma went into Tibet, it followed precisely the tradition of Nalanda. Due to the kindness of King Yeshe Oe and his nephew Jangchp Oe, they invited Lama Atisha (who was also from Nalanda) to Tibet. In acknowledging the Tibetans faith and conviction in the

Buddhadharma and due to their merits, Lama Atisha composed the first Lam Rim text called Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, containing the entire 84k teachings of the Buddha, organised in a sequential manner. This teaching has become the root teaching for the entire Sutra and tantra as it contains all that is found in the Kangyur (more than 100 volumes of Buddha s teachings). //Later, Lama Tsongkhapa who wrote the short Lam Rim text called Foundation of All Good Qualities which we are going to study. In fact, he composed various Lam Rim texts, using Lama Atisha s teachings such as the Lam Rim Chenmo, the Middle length Lam Rim, Foundation of All Good Qualities. These texts contained both Lam Rim teachings and mind training teachings (lojong). Tibetan Buddhism is not Lamaism but authentic Buddhadharma. The author of the text that we are going to study, Lama Tsongkhapa, had inner wisdom since he was a boy and displayed great compassion. Conventionally, he was born as ordinary being with high wisdom and cultivated extensive studies engaging into solitary practice, preserving pure monastic vows, at the end of his life, he attained Buddhahood in one lifetime. In the ultimate aspect however, he is emanation of Manjushri, although conventionally, Manjushri was his Guru. So Buddhist tantra is about eliminating afflictions ignorance, anger, desire whereas Hindu tantra enhances desire. You need to be clear about the differences between Buddhist Tantra and Hindu tantra. Buddhist Tantric images can be misunderstood as soe depict mother and father embracing. In fact these are mere symbols that illustrate the illusory form, the form which negates ordinary, inherent existence. Buddhist tantra taught by Buddha himself and taught by the mahasiddhas and premised on strict morality. Lama Tsongkhapa himself was supreme in sutra and tantra and until the moment he passed away, remained a pure monk upholding all vows perfectly. Not even a slight transgression. Buddhist tantra is most suited to be practiced by only those who uphold pure vows perfectly. Other faiths may use this term in their own way but we must be clear about Buddhist tantra, which enables us to attain enlightenment in one lifetime.