Mon, 31 Aug 2009
Wu Wei
The next stanza in Ganges Mahamudra is really difficult to explain well, but I'll do my best.
When, through remaining in an ongoing state of non-meditation, non-attainment is attained, mahamudra is attained. These worldly affairs are the useless causes of suffering. Look at the ultimate essential meaning [that realizes] the futility of deliberate action!
From the Buddhist perspective, attainment is seeing the non-existence of the ego. But when you see this, you see that there's really not much to see. It's not look everything dissolves into pure energy or similar nonsense. Here's a story about the pholosopher Wittgenstein that makes the point. Someone once told Wittgenstein that it was not surpising that people believed for so long that the sun went around the Earth, because that's how it looks. Wittgenstein esked, then how would things look if it looked like the Earth went around the Sun? Of course, both look exactly the same. In the same way, the experience of ego and the experience of non-ego are the same. Only the understanding is different. So attainment is non-attainment.
Non-meditation means dropping any deliberate attempt to meditate. When starting to meditate, some effort is needed. But if we treat meditation as something we do, there is a stain to our practice, because in our minds doing is inevitably tied up with ego. So to see the falseness of ego, one needs to let go of deliberate meditation. It's difficult to explain how non-meditation can be a kind of meditation, The sentence itself is contradictory. To start with, it's best to end a period of deliberate concentration with a short period of just sitting and not doing anything.
Thu, 27 Aug 2009
Renunciation and Retreat
The second stanza in the Ganges Mahamudra says:
O! Look well at worldly phenomena! Dream-like and illusory, they cannot last! [But] they are not dreams or illusions in actuality. Therefore, when giving rise to disenchantment, you have insight into worldly activities. Completely severing the connections of attachment and aversion — the domain of samsara — meditate alone in mountain and forest hermitages!
This stanza talks about solitary retreat and though I'm sure it's helpful, it's not necessary to do solitary retreat to be a mahamudra practitioner. As Thrangu Rinpoche says, it can be done along with your daily life, which makes it such a valuable practice for Westerners. But even if solitary retreat isn't necessary, it's still necessary to practice, and not just a little practice. No one has more than twenty four hours in their day and time spent meditating has to be taken away from something else. This will be difficult to do unless you have a genuine spirit of renunciation, which is called disenchantment in this text. The stanza says that we develop renunciation by meditating on impermanence and then seeing phenomena as dreamlike. These are traditional contemplations in Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhism, respectively, so the stanza is asking us to familiarize ourselves with the philosphical teachings of Buddhism. After understanding these teachings, a sense of detachment from daily life will develop and one will have an enthusiasm for meditation practice.
Mon, 24 Aug 2009
Ganges Mahamudra
Lama Gursam left for North Carolina on Sunday. He finished up the visit with a bodhisattva vow ceremony and a reading transmission for Tilopa's Ganges Mahamudra Upadesha. And, of course, more shamatha meditation. I thought I would give my impressions of Arima's translation of Ganges Mahamudra. I can't really call it an explanation, because I'm out of my depth. But thinking about the text helps me a little and may also help others.
The text starts:
Intelligent Naropa, forbearing of suffering, you have endured hardships and are devoted to the guru. Thus, though mahamudra cannot be shown, take this to heart, you fortunate one!
The upadesha is addressed to Naropa. Naropa underwent many hardships as Tilopa's disciple and as a result of the merit he accumulated through being a faithful and devoted disciple he was able to benefit from this teaching. If anyone who is unable to bear the pains of a few prostrations during ngondro thinks they will understand mahamudra, they are only fooling themselves. No understanding of mahamudra comes except trough devoted practice. The text says mahamudra cannot be shown, which means that it cannot be directly conveyed through explanation, although explanation the teacher gives should be taken to heart.
Fri, 21 Aug 2009
Clarity, Purity, and Pride
I've been reading The Practice of Vajrakilaya and it makes a point that Lama Phurbu Tashi also made about sadhana practice. That is, when you visualize yourself as a deity , that visualization should have three qualities: clarity, purity, and pride. Clarity is pretty straightforward, it means that the visualization is as vivid and detailed as you can manage. Purity doesn't have the usual meaning. Instead it means that you understand the symbolic meanings of the appearance of the deity and how they indicate the deity's enlightened qualities. Pride is divine pride, meaning that you really feel that you're the deity while you do the practice and not like you're just faking it.
Mon, 17 Aug 2009
Why We Need Nagarjuna
I've been debating the merits of a new translation of Nagarjuna's Fundamental Treatise on the Middle Way and some people asked why it was imprtant. Why isn't it enough to just meditate. If you only want to meditate, that's fine as far as it goes. But the problem is that you are practicing with a selfish motivation. The cause of our problems is our afflictive emotions and sitting with a selfish cannot transform it, because it falls into the same pattern as the rest of our lives. So Buddhism teaches cutting off what is unhelpful and cultivating what is helpful. We learn to distinguish the two through the dharma. It is the study and contemplation of the dharma which makes one a Buddhist and not only the practice of meditation. The understanding that samsara and nirvana are not two is essential to the bodhisattva's path, so that htey neither cling to or reject phenomena. As Gampopa explains in the Jewel Ornament, if one clings, one falls to the side of samsara and if one rejects, one falls into the one sided nirvana of extinction. This is expressed in the Heart Sutra when it says, "form is emptiness and emptiness is form." But the Heart Sutra simply asserts this and does not explain why it is so. Nagarjuna explains how samsara and nirvana, apparently opposites, are by nature the same, it's his purpose in writing the Fundamental Treatise. And understanding this on the intellectual level keeps you from deviating in your meditation practice, so that eventually you see it in your practice.
Sun, 16 Aug 2009
The Lama from Pittsburgh
I haven't been posting lately because Lama Gursam has been visiting Baltimore. He flew in from Pittsburgh on Tuesday evening, and I've been with him every day dince. Most of what he's doing this year is teaching shamatha practice, but today we went through the Green Tara practice. He's got a different teaching style, he intersperses periods of meditation with his talk, so you get half an hour of talk followed by fifteen minutes of meditation. It's an interesting style of teaching that I've never seen before. Today someone asked a questio about the eight fears that Tara protects against. Lama didn't remember them all, but I said that Google would, and here they are: (1) water, (2) lions, (3) fire, (4) snakes, (5) elephants, (6) thieves, (7) false imprisonment and (8) ghosts.
I received a new book order from the Buddhist publisher Snow Lion. The book I wanted was The Practice of Vajrakilaya, but I also ordered the third volume of Karma Chagme's Mountain Dharma and the Eight Great Bodhisattvas, a compilation of texts from the sutras made by Ju Mipham. I've only glanced at the books so far. The Vajrakilaya text was based on a teaching given at KPC, which surprised me a little. I hope to get the Vajrakilaya text read before I start doing the practice. It looks like there's also useful information in Mountain Dharma.
Sat, 08 Aug 2009
Vajrakilaya Empowerment
Last Wednesday Lama Phurbu Tashi gave the Vajrakilaya empowerment, as I mentioned on the Gampopa Center blog. I was the reason for the empowerment. Lama asked me to practiced the Vajrakilaya sadhana and I told him I had never had the empowerment, so out of his kindness he gave it. But I wasn't the only one to get the empowerment, Michael and Patty got it as well, which is a good sized crowd for our little group. I have been doing the Chenrezig sadhana eery morning ever since I finished ngondro. Chenrezig is the epitome of a peaceful deity and Vajrakilaya is an extremely wrathful deity. So going from one practice to the other will be like switching from drinking to milk to drinking coffee. The practice itself is not so difficult, but it has a section where one makes a torma offering, so I'll need some instruction on that from Lama before I begin the practice.
Lama has also written an essay called The Armor of Love and Compassion. He's asked me to improve the English of his text. I've been doing so and I've been having fun doing it, though it has taken longer than I expected, so far one hour for the first page. Most editing is done with pruning shears, it's a rare essay that can't be improved by shortening it. Read Stephen King's advice on writing, the story he tells is worth taking to heart. So when I highlight a phrase and press the delete key, I feel like I'm wielding Manjushri's sword.
Thu, 06 Aug 2009
Lama Is Fine
I sometimes forget the first rule of the Internet, which is to never joke about anything, because someone will not get the joke. Last week I joked about Lama Phurbu Tashi almost living out of a dumpster. Some people expressed concern about Lama's well being, and I don't blame them, for they were genuinely concerned. But I was only joking.
Here is the longer story of what happened. Sometime before I knew Lama, he met Matt, who offered Lama a space behind his store for a practice center and also offered Lama a room in his house. Lama was already living in Karen's old house, but moved into Matt's place because it was close to the center and he could ride his bike over on the evenings he taught there. Later, Matt had second thoughts about the help he was giving Lama. He's Catholic, and even though he liked and was impressed by Lama, the idea that he was helping to establish a center of another religion started to bother him and he asked Lama to move out. So Lama moved back with Karen into her new house. At no time was Lama in danger of being cast out into the cold. He is well housed, well fed, and wll cared for by the members of our small group. Lama deserves a larger group of students than we currently have, simply because he could benefit more. But we're still working on that.
Mon, 03 Aug 2009
Luther Comes Through
Luther has published his notes from the talk Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen gave on the guru yoga sadhana he composed. Here, for comparison, are my notes, which are not nearly as complete as his.
We are fortunate to have the opportunity to come together and share dharma knowledge. This is something very precious. Many people have come from a distance to be here. You came here from seeing the benefits of the dharma, how it helps us and others, and eventually leads to enlightenment. The reason why people are so busy is that they are seeking happiness, peace, and freedom from suffering. We practice dharma for the same reason. This tradition stated with Shakyamuni Buddha 2500 years ago. And before Shakyamuni became enlightened, he started practicing countless eons ago. After Shakyamuni, his followers took his teaching to many countries in Asia, walking day and night. This can be seen in the life of Marpa. To go to India these days we make a lot of preparations and travel by plane and car. But none of these were available to Marpa. Marpa traveled to Tibet not only for himself, but also for all beings. Nowadays getting the teaching is so much easier. And the teachings are spreading because there is a need. They lead to wisdom and an insight into mind. Mind is so complex and hidden. But the mind rules the whole world. According to Buddhist cosmology, at the beginning of this eon wind arose from empty space, then water from wind, then earth from water. Similarly the mind arises from emptiness. So zero is the most important number. All the afflictions arise from empty mind and when emptiness is seen they are cut through.
All the causes of peace and happiness are permitted and the causes of suffering are prohibited. You should investigate and see how things work, and then follow this path. When you understand this clearly you will feel you have no choice, as when you must cook a meal when you are hungry. If you don't need happiness and peace then there is no need to practice. But to have the cause of happiness is important. So that is how we study and practice the teaching. This is not because it's spiritual. or because we're interested, this is the reality of the situation. Sometimes we have a wrong understanding. We need to have a mind for the path and put the mind in the right place, because when it's in the wrong place it leads to suffering. So mind is powerful for good or bad. This is something we can understand, not just believe. Impermanence is how phenomena are. not just what we believe. It starts with a philosophical understanding, but then a practical understanding must be born out of it. Normally we think that everything except me is impermanent. But we should see everything is impermanent, including me. Then there will be peace and happiness. So there are so many things to learn.
There are several qualities that describe reality. It is uncompounded, without beginning or cause. It does not abide anywhere. It is everywhere and nowhere. And when thoughts dissolve, the mind goes nowhere. When you realize mind, that is everything. To realize mind is to see that it is uncompounded. And when you see the nature of mind, all the qualities are spontaneously established. Mind does not depend on conditions.
Buddha perfected the three qualities of wisdom, compassion, and ability. The perfection of wisdom is knowing everything as it is and knowing the qualities of everything. Buddha has an indomitable compassion to sentient beings. Because of that, he teaches. The Uttaratantra Shastra has the analogy of a poor family camping on the empty ground, suffering. A miner knows there is gold under the ground and tells them they can dig it up. So Buddha has the ability to purify all the delusions. So Buddha has wisdom, compassion, and ability. In that we take refuge. Buddha is not a person, Buddha is the dharmakaya. The word dharma has several meanings. Every phenomenon that exists is called dharma. Dharma is also the path to enlightenment. It is also the object of the mind. So "dharma" means everything that exists and "kaya" means the quality of this, that is the dharmakaya. From this arises the form body the rupakaya. This arises from Buddha's compassion and ability. So we take refuge in this. We also have these same qualities, but we have not seen them.
Next comes dharma, the truth of cessation and the truth of the path. Cessation is beyond our conceptual thought. I'm sure you have heard of mahamudra or dzogchen. It's like that, non-dual beyond perception or conceptual thought. Cessation is not just the cessation of suffering. It is not just mere emptiness. Within emptiness all wisdom and compassion displays. The more you understand emptiness, the more compassion arises. So that is the truth of cessation. Dharma study purifies all the afflictions. That is the path that dispels confusion and purifies afflictions. First we read and understand the dharma. Then we must put what we read into practice. Since dharma is the mode of abiding of all phenomena, we can understand it. Some people think the dharma is so hard. It seems hard because our habitual tendencies are so hard to break through. Dharma is the way to become a better human being, with a clearer mind and more peace. Renunciation does not mean we give up the cause of happiness, it means giving up the cause of suffering. So that is what the dharma is, purification, dispelling, and the antidote for the defilements. If we apply it, dharma is the antidote for every affliction. So that is how we take refuge in the dharma.
The sangha is all the great bodhisattvas of the eighth bhumi or above. The ordinary sangha is not the object of refuge. That is, unless you have a brave mind. So the sangha is the high bodhisattvas, close to the Buddhas' level. In the ultimate refuge, the Buddha, dharma, and sangha are one in the Buddha. Sometimes I am asked if the Buddhas are inside or outside. Until we are enlightened, Buddha is on the outside. But when we are fully enlightened, we become our own refuge. So we take refuge in the Three Jewels until we become enlightened ourselves.
Sentient beings are victims of their mental afflictions and projections. My suffering is created by my delusion. That is the reality of samsara. It's important to recall this again and again and use the dharma to purify it. Sometimes people commit suicide out of confusion. They feel there's no help, no space. We should regard these people with great compassion. Usually we have compassion for those who are suffering and not for those who are causing it. But because all is interconnected, both are involved in suffering. We need to use our wisdom to see this. We generate the mind for enlightenment so that all beings can be freed from samsara. So this is the establishment of bodhicitta.
Next we visualize Jigten Sumgon, who is Vajradhara himself. He sits on a lion throne representing the ten strengths, four fearlessnesses, and eighteen unmixed dharmas. We should know these exactly so we can cultivate the causes of them. If you practice the ten non-virtues, that will not benefit you. If you practice the ten virtues, they will. As an enlightened being, he knows how karma materializes. He knows the six elements and eighteen dhatus. Buddha can explain all these without mistake. Buddha can see the inclinations and needs of all sentient beings. He knows the faculties and capacities of sentient beings, what they need to hear and how they need to hear it. Buddha knows every path that sentient beings may take. Buddha is the greatest scientist, because everything is clear to him. He knows the pure and afflicted mental states, the different levels of samadhi. He recalls where he dwelt in countless previous lives. He knows when beings will die and where they will be reborn. So these nine strengths constitute the Buddha's omniscience. The tenth is the strength of knowing the exhaustion9n of afflictions in himself and others.
Buddha has the four fearlessnesses. A Buddha has no fear of proclaiming that he has discarded all that needs discarding and that he possesses all good qualities. Once there was a famous doctor. Buddha asked him what medicine could be made from each plant and rock. There were a few the doctor did not know and Buddha explained them to him. Buddha has no fear to proclaim to others what needs to be adopted and discarded.
He has the eighteen unmixed qualities. He is without confusion physically, verbally, or mentally. He is not noisy. He is not forgetful. He never loses the meditative state. He does not distinguish between what he likes and dislikes. He does not fail to note the distinctness of things in this equanimity. His motivation, perseverance, mindfulness, samadhi, prajna, and liberation do not degenerate. Every action is preceded by wisdom and followed through by wisdom. He sees the past, present, and future with a wisdom which is unattached and unobstructed. Sitting on a lion seat means he has these qualities. He has the 32 major and 80 minor marks of the form of a Buddha. These are described in the Abhismayalamkara. His activities reach to all sentient beings in the form of radiant light. The earth is the basis for all sentient beings, but has no thought of benefiting beings. In the same way the Buddhas benefit all beings without effort. The earth cannot fulfil the needs of one greedy person. So we need to appreciate this.
So we visualize Lord Jigten Sumgon in front of us and think how he embodies all the enlightened qualities. He radiates light in all directions as we recite the mantra. Then we recite a short prayer describing his qualities and light rays dissolve into all four places, purifying the four obscurations. These are white light dissolving into the forehead purifying obscurations of body, red light dissolving into the throat, purifying obscurations of speech, blue light into the heart purifying all our delusions, and yellow light dissolving into the navel purifying the combined obscurations of body, speech, and mind. Then he dissolves into white light and dissolves into our head. Our minds are unified and we meditate in mahamudra.
So this meditation can be done in five minutes or we can spend several hours on it. This practice will help you if you do it daily. I'm sure you've heard of the prayer, Calling the Lama from Afar. Jigten Sumgon said he is present when everyone calls on him. If you practice this, Jigten Sumgon will be more than a statue. We finish the practice with a dedication prayer.
Q: What is the biggest thing that holds us back from practice?
A: Attachment. When Milarepa was meditating in the mountains a deer ran up and sat by him, by the power of his compassion. The dog that was chasing him also sat down by him. He sang a song saying through hope and fear you wander through samsara. Hope is attachment and fear is aggression.
Q: When we meditate on Jigten Sumgon, he is in front of us? Are we in our ordinary form?
A: Yes, he is in front of you. You can visualize yourself in the form of any deity you have the empowerment for.
Sat, 01 Aug 2009
The Treasures of Danzan Ravjaa
Danzan Ravjaa is an interesting figure in Nineteenth Century Mongolian Buddhism. Recognized as an incarnate Nyingma lama, he was an artist, scholar, and educator. You could call him Mongolia's Goethe. At the time Mongolia was under the control of the Manchu dynasty. Chinese officials wanted to execute Danzan Ravjaa when he was recognized as a tulku, but the Dalai Lama persuaded them not to. However, as his fame grew, he became a thorn in the side of the government and was poisoned by the Chinese when he was 54. His artworks, religious items, and other posessions were gathered and stored in his monastery. When the Communists came to power in Mongolia after the Russian revolution, a caretaker at the monastery took sixty four chests from the monastery and buried them, to protect them until the day when it would be safe to reveal them again. Today some of the chests were dug up, as you can see here. And here is a link to the biography of Danzan Ravjaa and the story of the men who guarded his treasures.
