A System
of Practice at Bodhi Path
the
Dharma Path
To
be successful in your Dharma practice, you need to walk the
path of Dharma. There are two types of paths: the
common
(ordinary)
path and the extraordinary path. Without the support of the
common path, you can never reach the extraordinary path.
Ultimate enlightenment
depends very much on the extraordinary path, which in turn
depends on the common path. This means that you have to
practice both
together.
Whether
or not you meet the extraordinary path depends on karma. If
your karma is fully functioning well towards enlightenment
then you will meet the extraordinary path. If your karma is all
right and you have only a good foundation, then you will always
connect with the common path. Eventually, you will likely meet
up with the extraordinary path. Again, it all depends on your
individual karma.
Refuge
With
respect to the ordinary path, you need the Refuge and Bodhisattva
vows. To take Refuge means to take refuge
in the Buddha, the
Dharma and the Sangha. This is a first and fundamental level
of Dharma practice. It acts like a fertilizer. When you want
something to grow, first you need some soil, and then the
soil has to be fertilized. Similarly, Enlightenment depends
on your
mind. The path of Dharma has to develop from your mind and
your mind has to be purified. Any ignorance of mind
has to be cleared
away. Therefore, taking Refuge affords you a very important
foundation.
The
Bodhisattva vow - Relative and Absolute Bodhicitta
The
Bodhisattva vow is like a staircase. In a many-storied house,
you cannot
reach any higher levels without a staircase.
The Bodhisattva
vow has two aspects: relative Bodhicitta and absolute
Bodhicitta. Relative Bodhicitta is like the root of a plant,
and absolute
Bodhicitta its main stem. You need to take the Bodhisattva
vow. It will enable you to develop the special quality
of Bodhicitta towards all sentient beings, an attitude
of loving kindness
and
compassion towards all.
Absolute Bodhicitta is the wisdom of Bodhicitta mind, and is
therefore non-dualistic. When the attitude of loving kindness
and compassion is dualistic in nature, then it is relative Bodhicitta.
This is connected to the emotional states of mind and does not
carry much quality. Nevertheless, it is the base of absolute
Bodhicitta or wisdom. In other words, you have to develop the
absolute Bodhicitta mind from the ground of relative Bodhicitta.
Relative Bodhicitta is compassion and loving-kindness mind.
Lacking the wisdom of absolute Bodhicitta, you will attach to
things, and you will grasp. The effect is that a lot of emotions
will be stirred up making your Bodhicitta not pure.
Bodhi
means enlightenment. Bodhicitta means the heart of enlightenment.
Bodhi Path means the path to enlightenment. While on the Bodhi
Path, the heart should be detached from the emotions. So, the
view of absolute Bodhicitta is called for on the Bodhi Path.
relative
and ultimate truths
In
order to develop absolute Bodhicitta, a few steps have to come
first. The first step is to hear the
precise instructions
about the nature of phenomena. The teachings of the Buddha
explain
precisely how phenomena are just illusions of your mind.
On a relative level, everything is there as you see it. However,
the
absolute or ultimate nature of any phenomenon is that it
does
not truly exist.
Take the beams of
this house, for example. They are supported by the pillars,
and the pillars in turn stand on the ground.
So we say that the beams depend on the pillars, which depend
on the ground. And the roof of the house depends on the beams.
Put all these interdependent parts together, and you have a house.
This is the relative truth of the house –a collection of
the many interdependent parts.
But, if you were to look for the absolute truth of the house
itself, you would not find it in any of its parts. The ground
is not the house. The pillars are not it and neither is it the
roof nor the beams. In absolute/ultimate truth, the house does
not exist. Ultimate, in this sense, means that which cannot be
removed or altered.
Relatively, everything exists in an interdependent way. You
are in a relative existence in samsara. If you wish to liberate
yourself from samsara, then you will have to depend on the Dharma,
as well as both relative and absolute Bodhicitta. They are all
the parts that you need in order to build up your (house of)
enlightenment. In other words, to reach the ultimate truth of
enlightenment, you rely on the path of Dharma, which is the relative
truth.
Enlightenment is when all the ignorance of your mind is cleared
away. It is the final, ultimate truth. But you need a path
to get there, a path that can clear away the ignorance. The
path is relative so long as you need it to get to your destination,
just like you need all the parts to build a house.
We could also think of using the relative path to ultimate truth
as taking remedies for problems until there is a full recovery.
The meaning of terms like remedy, or solution, is relevant in
the face of a problem. Where there is no longer a problem, or
a full recovery, there is no longer the need to talk of a remedy.
The remedies are therefore relative and dependent on the problems.
In the same way, the Path of Dharma containing all the remedies
is therefore relative and dependent on all the problems of mind.
We take the remedies until we are fully recovered. We walk the
relative Path of Dharma until we have reached ultimate enlightenment.
Samsara has only relative existence, like a dream, and so it
can be eliminated. If Samsara ultimately existed, then it could
not be removed. If a dream truly existed, then it would not disappear
even when you wake up. Because a dream itself has no real existence,
it can disappear naturally upon waking. The dream has not gone
off somewhere, nor could you put it away in some corner and walk
off either. The dream itself does not exist, and therefore, it
disappears when you wake up.
Samsara
is like a dream that is made up of all the negative emotions
and karma. Its basis is ignorance, which gives rise
to negative emotions on a stage of karma displaying uninterruptedly
the illusions of samsara. All these conditions depend and feed
on each other. Together, they are experienced as samsara. Yet
nothing truly exists. There is ultimate enlightenment. It is
possible only because all of samsara's problems can be solved
and removed since they are not ultimately real. Develop ultimate
enlightenment and samsara will end!
the
precious human life
This
human life is precious. In the introduction to all Buddhist
teachings, you can find this fact. A human
life has the potential
and the capacity to see enlightenment, to know all the paths
leading to it, and to be able to go on such a path to get
there. A human life has wisdom. It has potential, opportunity,
and
richness enough to absorb the path of enlightenment. We
are quite capable
of understanding the meaning of ultimate Bodhicitta – that
all phenomena do not truly exist. Human mind can understand
all of this.
the
3 steps of the path - listen, reflect, and meditate
Therefore,
first you have to listen to the teachings of the Buddha.
Listen to how he explained the ultimate nature
of
phenomena. You have to think about it over and over again
to find the
actual
meaning. When you do, the path of meditation will become
clear to you. Listen to the teachings, reflect on the
teachings, and then meditate. These are then the steps of the
Dharma
path.
Your
capacity to absorb the most profound meaning of the Dharma
depends on your reflecting on its teachings.
Once you have self-clinging,
then you have many things to cling to. This is what I want.
Thinking like this, you will cling to
everything. All living beings are in this trap of clinging. And
meditation has naturally come about to solve this chain of clinging,
which is actually a mistake of your mind. The process of meditation
clears up the chains of clinging. There are two types of clinging:
clinging to the samsaric phenomena and a more advanced level
of clinging – clinging to the path of Dharma. The latter
is also a problem. Your precise understanding and view of absolute
Bodhicitta, of Madhyamaka free from the four extremes, and together
with the view of emptiness, can remove both types of clinging.
The
Refuge vow comes first. Then later, the Bodhisattva vow may
be taken. As I have explained already, there are two aspects
to the Bodhisattva vow: relative Bodhisattva vow and ultimate
Bodhisattva vow. The relative Bodhisattva vow is taken as a commitment.
You commit to uphold the relative Bodhicitta mind of loving kindness
and compassion. The ultimate Bodhisattva vow is more than a vow.
You actually will have to develop the wisdom of Bodhicitta mind.
Shi'nay
After
you have taken these two vows, the Bodhi Path program will
give you teachings on Shi'nay (calm abiding meditation).
Shi'nay
practice consists of two stages: preliminary Shi'nay and
advanced Shi'nay. You can follow the Bodhi Path program where
you will
be guided through the stages of Shi'nay. At the same time
you will also do the prostrations to the 35 Buddhas, which
is a
practice to purify bad karmas. The practice text has
now been translated
into German as well as English. The Centre here will provide
you with the instructions for this practice.
The purpose of Shi'nay is to train your mind to be free from
the bad habit of constantly thinking, and constantly being busy
and confused. Your mind has to be free from all its preoccupations.
The first level of Shi'nay, or common Shi'nay, trains your mind
to be stable. Of course, the stability of your Shi'nay depends
on your own diligence. If you maintain your Shi'nay practice
constantly, then you will achieve it as your nature. It actually
becomes your nature, and not something that you bring into your
mind. Common Shi'nay is a very smart way to train your mind to
be free from bad habits. Later, the more advanced Shi'nay allows
you to develop the unobstructed peace of mind, the open mind.
The realization of emptiness is the eye of meditation. The realization
of the emptiness of self, and of phenomena, is the eye of meditation
for enlightenment. To develop these two eyes, one has to have
stability in the contemplation of mind. And the practice of Shi'nay
develops this stability. When you have a very strong base in
Shi'nay, it becomes the foundation that allows you to develop
a realization of the emptiness of phenomena and of mind. These
two eyes actually are the view. It is not a view that you learn
from books. It is a view that you experience. With these two
eyes in your experience, then you will be able to look at your
mind, examine each of your negative emotions whereby you will
clear up all the ignorance of your mind.
Shantideva said, "Through developing stable Shi'nay, you
conquer the emotions by emptiness. Therefore, first you must
practice Shi'nay." You can develop successfully this level
of Shi'nay if you are not terribly attached to things, or to
phenomena. It does not mean that you should not own a car. It
does not mean not to enjoy your breakfast. It means not to be
emotionally grasping at your breakfast.
This
is what Tilopa taught Naropa. The chain is not what you see;
the chain is what you are attached to. The chain which ties
you, is not what you see. What you grasp turns into a chain that
ties you up. This is why avoiding emotional grasping is a necessary
condition to develop your Shi'nay. And once you have a good foundation
of Shi'nay then you can develop the precise view of Lhakthong
(Vipassana).
Prostration
to the 35 Buddhas
While
we will first teach Shi'nay to subdue your mind's confusion
and its restlessness, there is yet another
obscuration, another
problem in your mind that has to be addressed. It is the
problem of bad karma. Karmic problems can be totally purified
by doing
the practice of the prostrations to the 35 Buddhas. The 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.
Mandala
offering
After
prostrations comes the Mandala practice. The Mandala practice
is for the accumulation of merit power. As
long
as you are on
the path of Dharma you need merit. On the one hand, you
purify your karma, on the other, you gather the support
of merit.
To be a successful Bodhisattva for the benefit of sentient beings,
you have to depend on the accumulation of merit, which depends
on giving, on generosity. The practice of the Mandala offering
allows you to practise generosity mentally. It is a kind of mental
therapy. In the mind you visualize, or think of, all the things
that you are attached to, then you release your clinging to them
by offering them. You give away, give away, and give away all
these things. In this way, you are accumulating the thoughts
of giving them all away, and that is a very meritorious practice.
You
don't have so many things to give to sentient beings now, right?
Your capacity to give to others depends on your karma.
So the first step is to give away everything mentally, and through
that, you will accumulate the mind-merit of generosity. I don't
mean that you are not lucky right now. Rather, by practising
generosity and giving, you will perhaps become a very, very wealthy
Bodhisattva able to give many things to sentient beings to benefit
them.
Tonglen
While
you are doing the 35 Buddhas prostrations and Mandala practice,
you continue to practise Shi'nay. First, you
do the common Shi'nay
and then later, when you are well used to the common Shi'nay,
the teacher will teach you Tonglen – the practice of
giving and taking. Tonglen is also Shi'nay but a more advanced
practice.
It is a Bodhisattva practice where you give your happiness
to sentient beings, and you take on their suffering. It is
effective
in accumulating very powerful merits.
You
will do the Tonglen, the prostrations to the 35 Buddhas, and
the Mandala practice, which would enhance your Shi'nay practice.
You will definitely be able to achieve very good experiences
of Shi'nay. This result is natural because the greater the purification
of negative karma, the shinier and clearer your mind. Your Shi'nay
will be very advanced, very familiar to you, and very tranquil.
Your stability of mind will be much more mature.
Lhakthong
At
the Centre, we will teach analytical meditation. This practice
is connected to Lhakthong (higher seeing, or
insight meditation,
or vipassana). It is more of a preliminary level of Mahamudra.
In the analytical practice, mind is divided into three parts:
past mind, present mind and future mind. There is a way to
analyze the mind as such. If you have a good level
of Shi'nay, then you
can do this practice very comfortably and it is very effective.
So we will teach the analytical meditation, called analytically-examining-the-mind-meditation.
Vajrasattva
You
will do the Tonglen meditation (giving and taking) combined
with analytical meditation where you examine the mind.
During that time we will give you the Vajrasattva empowerment.
Then
for some time, you will do the Vajrasattva practice.
Kyerim
and Dzogrim, Chenrezig
After that we will teach the Kyerim practice (creation
stage). A Vajrayana practice has two phases: Kyerim
and Dzogrim (completion
stage). Dzogrim is the Mahamudra meditation.
We will teach the Vajrayana view of Kyerim, what it is versus
Dzogrim. We will give instructions on the philosophical view
of Kyerim. There are three parts to the instructions. One part
is on how one receives an empowerment. The second part is on
the kinds of precepts, or samayas to protect the Vajrayana practice.
And the third is on the reason for Kyerim practice.
After the teaching on Kyerim, we will give the Chenrezig empowerment
as well as the teachings on how to practise it.
I have thus given you a general course or direction of the teachings
offered at the Bodhi Path Buddhist Centre. The way is now laid
out for you in order for you to achieve enlightenment within
one lifetime. And the system of programs available to you at
the Bodhi Path Centre will provide you with the necessary teachings
and guidance.
This afternoon I will teach Shi'nay.
Shi'nay
(Calm Abiding Meditation) >>>
The S h a m a r p a
