Lama Jampa Thaye’s talk to sangha during Coronavirus 4th April 2020
To the Buddha, dharma and sangha
I go for refuge until enlightenment.
By the merit of the practices of giving and so on,
May I attain buddhahood for the benefit of all beings.
Glorious root lama, precious one,
Resting on a lotus on the crown of my head,
Protecting all through your kindness,
I pray you bestow upon me the siddhis of body, speech and mind.
So in this way we begin properly by reflecting upon the qualities and power of the Three Jewels: the Buddha, his teaching, and the community of his followers, to bestow protection upon us and to show the right way for us to follow in this life and in future lives. And so we should think very deeply, very slowly, very carefully about these great words of power. And then following that of course we recited the aspiration to become a buddha, to become a fully enlightened being for the benefit of all sentient beings by carrying out the necessary practices of the path.
In short not only have we taken refuge in the Three Jewels, the very mark of being a follower of the Buddha, of being a Buddhist, but also we have generated bodhicitta: the altruistic resolve to become a buddha for the sake of others, which is the very mark of being a follower of the Mahayana. And then, thirdly, we recited the short devotional prayer to our tsa-wa’i lama, to our root lama, to the root masters, invoking their blessings upon us so that we achieve the great accomplishments in this life: the accomplishment of swift progress along the path, and the supreme accomplishment of the transcendental wisdom itself, in short the mahamudra.
So in this way we begin by reminding ourselves of the fundamental foundations upon which we stand. Today we can’t all meet together in physical reality, so to speak, so as some kind of temporary measure in these difficult times we decided to have this kind of short session via the electronic media. Because at least it is some way we can exchange experiences – share together and recollect the basis of our life – which is none other than practising the dharma for the benefit of all beings.
So this time we thought that it might be helpful if people have the opportunity to ask some questions, because I know that many people are troubled by the present situation and have concerns about that. But sometimes the best laid plans of mice and men “gang aft agley”, as Robbie Burns I think said, and so when I realised that there were 81 questions that I would have to answer in this short hour, I thought it was time for a strategic rethink.
So what I have decided, and I hope this will be beneficial, is this: that by recollecting to ourselves, reminding ourselves, what are the fundamental bases of our dharma practice, what are they, and how they can support us at this time, and how through them we can support others, then this will go some way towards answering many of the questions and concerns that obviously people have at this time.
Because actually my real point is that the answer to all of these questions is to be found simply in the practise of the dharma, the dharma which many of you have received quite extensively. And even those of you who have not yet made a very big study of the dharma, because time has not yet permitted you to do that, you have at least made a sincere and genuine start on the authentic dharma of the Sakya or Kagyu traditions. So in a way you already have the resources at hand to answer your questions – but maybe it is good to remind ourselves of these resources.
You see in a way I think that it’s like this. Sometimes we come up in life against a rock or boulder that is so big that we can't rush round it. Normally in life we are in a hurry. Normally we can easily accomplish things without many obstacles, without much obstruction, so that we don’t even need to pay attention to what’s right in front of us. But this time something’s come up in our lives which we cannot ignore; which has kind of made, for the time being at least, quite a drastic change to our way of living, to our way of carrying out our work – even carrying out our dharma work, our dharma activities. There’s a big boulder in the way which we cannot simply skip round.
And that’s the important thing, because that means we now have to pause. We now have to the look at the nature of these obstacles and how we can find the strength, the resources, to deal with them, such that finally they are not obstacles, so that finally this boulder or rock in our road becomes something which actually helps us to develop the wonderful qualities to which the dharma points: the qualities of wisdom and compassion.
After all, that is the very reason we embarked upon the dharma: because we thought that it contained such wonderful medicine to cure all the ills that we are subject to in this world. So therefore there is no need for us Buddhists to be shocked, or even really to be troubled, by the present situation, but instead to turn inwards to what the dharma has pointed to.
You see when I say we shouldn’t be shocked, well let’s think about it. What are the fundamental teachings of the dharma? Well the fundamental teachings which make the dharma the dharma, which separate it out from all other traditions are expressed in, as you know, the four seals. And the person who takes to heart these four seals is really unshockable. They can’t be shocked by what difficulties come their way. Why? Because they are actually just a naked statement about the basic facts of life within samsara, within this cycle of birth and death.
There’s a fundamental sanity about them, there’s no disguise, there’s no euphemism, there’s no coy kind of hinting at the truth. The truth of the nature of conditioned things is described absolutely there. And somebody who wants to set out to help themselves and help others needs to be somebody who is grounded in reality: not in fantasy, not in the dreams that may be marketed by smooth talking salesmen or saleswomen, but in fundamental reality. And that is Buddha’s great gift to us, that he always levelled with us. He always told us how things really stand. And knowing how things really stand, we can stand, and then we can benefit others. So let’s recollect to ourselves those fundamental points expressed in the four seals.
They are of course firstly that all conditioned phenomena are impermanent.
The end of all rising is falling. The end of all meeting is parting. The end of all gathering is dispersal. The end of all rising is falling, so Lord Buddha has told us. That is just the nature of things.
Just a couple of months ago things looked like they were going in one way, everybody was happy in one sense or another with things, everything seemed solid and secure, and now just in a tiny way things seem to have changed very dramatically. Are we shocked? We shouldn’t be, because things come and go, things change, nothing remains the same. Actually what Lord Buddha is pointing to is that nothing remains the same even for a moment.
But we go to sleep, we’ve fallen asleep. We have this dream that things are permanent, that things continue unchanging, that they will always be like this. But that’s not possible, because whatever manifests, whatever phenomena arise they are exactly as he says, conditioned. They come about because of the temporary gathering of causes and conditions and they manifest. And that manifestation is only momentary. Nothing remains the same more than in the moment of its arising. It is already disintegrating at that very point, because the causes and conditions that gave rise to it themselves have only that momentary force.
Because we are sleepy, because we are dull, because we prefer to think in a self-comforting way, we don’t notice that change that is written into everything – as I often say, written into the fabric of our lives. But it is there and there’s no avoiding it. It’s there in the outer world, the environment, the worlds, the planets. It’s there in the inner world, the world of our experience as sentient beings. Nothing remains the same. Year follows year, month follows month, day follows day, hour follows hour, second follows second. It’s rushing on in that way.
And we need to relax with that. Actually, whether we are relaxed with it or not in a way doesn’t matter, because it’s the truth. We can either relax with it or we cannot. If we don’t relax with it we cause ourselves much agitation, disappointment, frustration and fear. If we are relaxed with it we will lose nothing, because it will always be true (of conditioned phenomena).
It’s the truth finally that’s there in the certainty of our death. Just as surely as we came into this world we will depart from it, and we never stand still between those two moments. We are always changing, always, in a way, growing and decaying simultaneously. And so we can relax with that. We can accept it. If we don’t accept it, as I say, then we cause ourself tremendous emotional grief, and we act in the world in many mistaken ways. But accepting it, then we come alive to this precious present moment.
Even the present seeming difficulties – which are nothing for us compared to difficulties of people in terribly distressing different parts of the world – even the tiny discomfort of maybe boredom or something like that, there is so much that is going on moment to moment. So much to attend to, so much magic in the momentary experience if we just open up to it. And that is the way we must approach this: not being shocked, not being disappointed that things have changed. Of course things have changed, things are always changing.
And then the second point, the second seal is this: all contaminated phenomena are suffering. We’ve been sold some kind of fantasy that everything is perfect, everything is fine; we can have whatever we want, things can always be arranged for our comfort, our maximum pleasure. But it is not true. The more we pursue selfish and self-centred aims – the more contaminated in other words our mind is, our emotions are, with self-centredness – the more we lock ourselves into suffering. And so that’s again, just like impermanence, an inescapable fact, an inescapable rule.
Whatever we think we’ve acquired, whatever we think will be the solution to our problems, whatever object we grasp at – whatever person even we grasp at – to satisfy ourselves, to give ourselves security and power and all the rest, it turns out not to provide that.
And so again this present pause in our life, this present tiny difficulty that we are encountering, should cause us to look at how we have lived up to now. From where have we gained happiness? From what sources have we been trying to create happiness for ourselves? And we will see that wherever those sources have been things that we have approached in a self-centred, grasping, self-clinging way, they bring not happiness or peace but actually just suffering.
Lord Buddha told us to look, really, dispassionately and deeply into the nature of our experience, into the nature of the way we live. And he said that when we do we will find that everything is in a way pervaded by suffering. Where there is self-centredness there is suffering.
From top to bottom of samsara, from the successful realms (seemingly) of the gods, to the miserable realms of the beings trapped in their hatreds and avarice and so on of the lower realms, there is suffering. Sure the suffering takes different forms: the suffering of the lower realms where the only happiness that’s ever found is when life there finishes, to the sufferings of the higher realms where there seems to be happiness but that’s just a temporary disguise.
Because every new happiness that we gain in these higher realms, that we currently abide in, leaves suffering in its departure, precisely because everything that we can grasp at, every object that we try to hold to make ourselves feel content, feel secure, actually leaves us unsatisfied, and its departure leaves us frustrated, disappointed and disillusioned.
So wherever there is self-centeredness there is suffering. So that’s something we should look at, at this time, because now we have lots of opportunity to look into how we keep tying ourselves into this wheel of suffering through our disturbing emotions. And how for instance we try to relieve our frustration by lashing out at other people, or by negative states of mind to other people, or thinking if I just possess this one object it would fill the hole that I feel in my life now, the void I feel in my life. But no matter how we indulge in hatred to others, by indulging greed and grasping we are always worse afterwards, because that’s the nature of the proliferation of samsara, the proliferation of samsaric sufferings.
It’s like Thogme Zangpo says, just like the more salt water you drink the thirstier you get, the more objects you try to grasp at the more suffering you produce.
So we’ve got to take this long cool look now at how suffering arises in us through our self-centredness. That is the point of the second seal, that all contaminated phenomena are suffering.
And then the third seal, in a way the most fundamental point of all, that is all phenomena are selfless, are empty. You see, again as part of our dream, we’ve been seeing this world all wrong. We’ve been seeing it from a mistaken perspective, as if there is some central being here, some kind of god-like being, the self: “myself”, “me”, “I and mine”. And we see everything through this perspective. But it’s entirely fictitious. We count up our pleasures, we count up our sufferings, we take this self so seriously and, as I’ve just explained, tie ourselves to a wheel of suffering by taking it so seriously.
But if we stop and ask, who is this? What is that? Who is that that is suffering? Who is that that is anxious? Who is that that is so worried? Where is it? Where is that entity? Where is that self? I cannot actually find it. I’ve been believing in something with such emotional intensity, such emotional strength so long, actually from time out of mind – from beginningless time as we say in the dharma. But it doesn’t make it any more true. It was a fiction yesterday and it’s a fiction today.
I should look at where I think this self is. And when I do, when I look at my body, when I look at my emotions, when I look at my thoughts, when I look at the flickering consciousness itself that chases one object after another, I don’t find anything which I can put my money on and say “this is a real self” – independent, permanent, singular. The attributes I imagine I have, I really don’t find them. I cannot find this entity with these attributes. Instead I see just continual process, continual arising and passing of states, of experiences. I don’t see any abiding entity that holds or possesses these things.
I imagine there is such a thing, and therefore I have an emotional attachment to such a thing, but it doesn’t make it any more real than any other fantasy to which one might have emotional attachment. Yet it’s ruining my world, it’s ruining my way of experiencing the world, it’s ruining my way of experiencing to others, because I see everything with that tight grasping mind that shrinks everything down to me versus others, to me versus the world.
And this third teaching, the teaching on the absence of self, doesn’t just mean an absence of self in what one might say “me”, this body and mind. But actually it’s an absence of self, an absence of solidity, an absence of substance in all phenomena whatsoever. Because actually everything that arises is arising through dependent origination exactly as we said earlier, through the coming together of causes of conditions. This phenomenon arises. But this phenomenon, whatever it might be – an atom, a thought, a planet, a sentient being, whatever it is – is neither different from its causes and conditions (as it were, something separate, a new entity) nor is it exactly the same as them. It’s neither different nor the same. It’s a dependently originated phenomenon and therefore it lacks any core, any solidity, any essence. That’s our nature. That’s the nature of the world, of which we are of course just an interdependent part, just a part of this dance of interdependence.
So what arises in our life is part of that dance of interdependence generated by our past actions, themselves stimulated by disturbing emotions, the ignorance that underlies them, and our interaction with all the other streams of being that exist. So I don’t control this. This self, this homunculus that thinks it’s in control of this gets upset when things don’t go to plan. It gets upset when it can’t control its world. But that homunculus is a fantasy, a fiction: there is nobody controlling the world. That is why things arise in the way that they do. In dependence upon prior causes and conditions, and in our life that means our karma, phenomena – appearances – arise.
So right now some appearances arise with a particular colour, a particular context, a particular feeling to them. Later other ones will arise. I’m not in control of this, because everything is just interdependently arising, like the illusions conjured by a magician. There’s nothing solid to any of it but appearances arise.
Similarly, right now certain appearances are arising for us and due to our similar karma we seem to be experiencing pretty similar appearances. But none is exactly identical. None of us are experiencing the present difficulties in exactly the same way, because these difficulties are all manifesting slightly differently for those beings like us who have a similar karma – not identical but similar.
So there is nothing solid to this: not to us nor to the phenomena themselves. But they arise. Due to certain causes and conditions interacting, then certain phenomena come about. And that is why things like illnesses, sicknesses, problems and so on arise – not randomly, not by magic, not by creation by a god – but simply out of the interaction of causes and conditions. And for us, particularly with the Mahayana dharma, the most important one is the ripening of our own karmic imprints. That is where the appearances that arise for us arise from.
So there is no need to get disappointed or upset about this, or to react with violence or aggression about it. It’s just a manifestation of karmic illusions: nothing solid, but arising in this particular way. Seeing it in that way gives us a fluidity, a kind of relaxed mind by which we can deal with it, by which we can deal with it in the appropriate way, find the appropriate responses. Because we take it seriously in the sense that it’s a particular type of appearance that arises, and so we respond to it in a way that is geared to that particular appearance. But we don’t invest it with a solidity that it doesn’t have. Because if we do that then we react to it with disturbed emotions – aggression, or something like that – which gives it more power over us.
That’s the whole point of why there is no need to be fearful or aggressive about present negativities. Because they are just dependent arisings, and therefore our mind can be calm and relaxed in its response to them, and therefore in the everyday world we will find the appropriate way to deal with them. Whereas if we react to them thinking they are something solid and substantial we become hypnotised by fear or aggression.
And then the fourth seal Lord Buddha taught us is that nirvana alone is peace, or nirvana alone is bliss. We’ve been looking in all the wrong places. That is the tragic, but also in a way kind of funny point. We’ve been looking in all the wrong places. Actually peace and bliss are here and present to us if we would just look within the true nature of the mind itself.
Right now our mind has been agitated since beginningless time by all those kind of disturbing emotions that I’ve talked about, and the karmic results that arise from the disturbing emotions which further distort and shape our perception. But underneath, the mind itself has remained as it always has been, fundamentally pure, because it never came into being as any kind of product, as any kind of entity. It is in that sense unconditioned, and in that sense therefore it is unceasing.
The fundamental empty nature of our mind is its fundamental purity. And that it why nirvana is both available, possible, and it is the great peace. It is available and possible because actually it is the true nature, it is the fundamental state. Samsara and all our neurosis that we manifest in samsara is the unreal; is based upon mistaken perceptions. Nirvana is the real state, it has always been our real state. Because what else is there? The rest is just dependently arising empty phenomena. Nirvana never came into being. It was not born, nobody manufactured it. It is the natural state that is there to be realised when we give up chasing after all our fantasies.
By understanding all conditioned phenomena are impermanent, that all contaminated phenomena are suffering, that all conditioned phenomena are empty, then we can relax in the natural ground itself, the natural basis of mind that we call sometimes the “all-base”, the causal tantra itself. It’s present in all sentient beings. It is the core of the mind of all sentient beings, and all the disturbing emotions, all the ego-clinging, never made it impure. So it’s available for all of us. Buddha awoke to this. He, as it were, awoke from the hypnotic spell of samsara and showed to us the way we can do so. So we have the most wonderful basis, that is to say we have that which is beyond birth and death. It’s there now available. It is the core, the true nature of our mind.
Sometimes it takes a rock in the road to make you pause and to look and to see what you already have and what is already there, and so this is the case for all us. It’s why we are Buddhists actually, because we know that this is the true nature, this really exists and we can find it. Because actually we are living in it even now, though we don’t realise it. And that is why all sentient beings will finally arrive at this place – because in a way they never really departed from it.
Yes, things come and things go in this world, moments of happiness, moments of suffering, rise and fall, empires come, empires go. Of course, all that happens. Just like in the sky: planets arise, stars arise, galaxies arise, and they also fade, they also end, but the sky itself is unchanging. So it is with the natural state, which we can call the buddha nature, or as I described it, the all-base, the causal tantra. That will never change, that will never fade.
So those are the four seals. They represent the fundamental sanity of the dharma, which is all the protection in a way that we need. When we do different protection practices, prayers of different deities and so on, they are wonderful skilful means, but actually all of them are simply expressions of fundamental sanity. That is where their power comes from.
And then through the interdependence of phenomena, the particular mantras, the particular visualisations of particular goddesses or deities, then the right dependent origination is created which can change particular displays of phenomena, particular appearances. But they only work because of this fundamental point, that actually everything is just the primordial state and has never really departed from that. So we should use those skilful practices. They are wonderful. But not because it’s like praying to some external being or some saviour, but because in a way it is simply tuning into this fundamental sanity that I have just described.
Now, if that is where we should derive our strength from, how should we behave to others at the present time? Well I think actually for that there’s wonderful advice to be found in Buddha’s teachings on the six perfections. The six perfections are of course the conduct of the bodhisattva, the man or woman who has generated the altruistic attitude which we call bodhicitta, the wish to become a buddha for others.
He or she then embarks upon the path to arrive at that state, buddhahood for others, through the practise of the six perfections, the six supremely virtuous actions which go right beyond self, which go right beyond self-interest, and therefore are not to be confused with ordinary virtuous actions which are still done with a measure of self-importance; where one is, as it were, looking for a pay-off in terms of merit for future lives and so on. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it doesn’t take us beyond contaminated samsara. Whereas we, if we are Mahayanists, should be aiming at buddhahood for the benefit of all beings.
And the wonderful thing about the six perfections is they both have the path to arriving at that state where we become of supreme benefit for others, buddhahood, because we have stripped away all traces of selfishness and our mind’s natural capacity for wisdom and compassion can flower endlessly; but also along the way to that, along the path, as it were from the get-go, from now, from just the level of being completely ordinary like we are, we have a guide to how we should behave in this world, without selfishness, without self-centredness, without putting ourselves first, but putting the interests of others always first. Because that’s how the bodhisattva is supposed to be.
Now, to be like that may sound very far from where we are. Because of course, as only people, we still have many disturbing emotions. We forget our good intentions and so on and so forth. But we have to make a start. And the present situation, where there are many difficulties that people are experiencing, people are fearing, or fearing they are going to experience, gives us an opportunity to put the six perfections into action. Let me say how I think that could be.
So the first perfection of course is the perfection of giving. In a general way it’s said there is no better friend than the perfection of giving – that’s what Nagarjuna says actually in the Friendly Letter – no better friend than the perfection of giving in terms of how it creates the conditions for real prosperity, not just material prosperity, but a prosperity of kind of emotions, a prosperity of attitudes. That’s really true. Even for our own interests we should practise giving.
But now we are talking about in the bodhisattva way. And it’s said therefore in the teachings on the perfection of giving that we can see it having three or four different aspects, and in all of them there may be an opportunity for us to practise in present difficulties. So for instance the first practice of giving, the first object, the first domain of the perfection of giving is giving material things. We can give material things to those [who need them]; we can feed those who need to be fed.
We can use material resources to give, even for instance in a way rejoicing in the contributions we make through the social system and so on. We should rejoice in that, because that will be helping other people. If we rejoice in it we are practising the perfection of giving by that means, by thinking that it’s good that I am able to give some payment here, I am able to make a contribution through the social system for the benefit of others’ medical help, food help and so on and so forth. That is the perfection of giving through material means.
But also we practise giving in other ways. We practise giving love and fearlessness – sometimes these are put together, sometimes they are separated. But we have that opportunity now to do so. When we meet those who are worried, those who are anxious, we should go out of our way (I don’t mean invade their space of course!) but we should go out of our way to take seriously the fears and anxiety they are having, even though we ultimately know no fears have any ground to them.
But we should take them seriously because it’s how they feel now, and try our best to reassure them, to give them comfort, to give them a feeling of peace and reassurance. We should go – as it’s said, to use the cliché – we should go the extra mile to do that at the moment, reaching out to those who are distressed. Even if it’s only in a very casual encounter, observing all the niceties of social distance, we should be like this. We should be spreading comfort and reassurance and positivity, and that way we are practising the giving of fearlessness to other people at this time.
I don’t mean of course you should paint an unrealistically rosy picture of things, that would just deceive people, but you should always be positive and uplifting and leave people feeling reassured and stronger.
And love, well it’s a little more intimate but I think it has the same meaning, in that in giving love you are thinking what is the best for them, what is the best for these other people. Just as I want to be happy, they want to be happy, therefore that’s what I want for them. I want them to experience happiness and its causes, whether it’s somebody who one directly encounters and talks to or whether it’s just sentient beings as a whole.
Right now is a very good opportunity to do a lot of meditation on loving kindness, whether it’s formal sessions of loving kindness meditation, or whether it’s just having this attitude towards the world in general: “may beings experience happiness and the causes of happiness". Which of course then gives rise to compassion: “may beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering”. Right now these two meditations should be very much in our mind towards other beings.
And then finally, the final object of giving is of course none other than the dharma itself. One might say “but I am cut off! I don’t see many people. I can’t even practise together with my dharma brothers and sisters.” Well of course, now thanks to the magic of things like Zoom, and so on, you can in a way. Yes it’s not the same, but still it’s good to do that.
But even when you are just doing your own practice, in enunciating the words of the Buddha that we find in our teachings, we are giving the dharma. Well if you say nobody hears it, of course in a way the world hears it. So even if you are not a great master, even if you are not a great teacher, you are practising the giving of the dharma whenever you repeat the words of the Buddha’s teaching. Even if it’s only invisible spirits who hear it, you’ve given them the dharma. So you can practise the giving of the dharma.
And now is a great time to do this, particularly as there’s some kind of trouble in the mind, trouble in the air, fear in the world, you are helping to pacify it by reciting the words of the Buddha. That is the practice of giving.
And then the practice of moral discipline. The essence of moral discipline is how do we behave for others, how are we for others? Right now is a fantastic opportunity to practise this, and the beginnings of this practice of the perfection of morality is restraining ourselves from self-centredness – in order to create a space in which we can flourish spiritually and others can do so – restraint from harming others. So there’s so much we can say about that isn’t there in the present circumstance. But we should think very deeply about how our behaviour is impacting on others and whether it’s creating the right space for people to prosper, to be well and to grow, or not.
And that means, I think that I should say, that also extends to our conduct through all kinds of invisible electronic media and so on and so forth. There we should not be indulging in hatred or aggression. There are many people worried, many people anxious, but there we should be a voice for kindness, and a voice for moral uprightness actually. So please, leave aside grievances and aggression and finger pointing and all the rest of it, and please speak with gentle restraint at the present time. It creates a much more positive and healing climate in which good work can be done.
So I think this is a very important aspect of the perfection of moral discipline, because for us as Mahayanists, as I said, the crucial thing is “how is my behaviour for others?” And if we are serious about our bodhisattva vow, what we want is that all other beings have the possibility to develop the qualities of love, wisdom, compassion, and finally buddhahood. So are our actions showing them that? Are they giving them the space for that? Are they encouraging that? Or are they spreading negativity? Are they spreading the disturbing emotions?
So that is the importance of our moral behaviour. It’s not just about restraint, it’s about seizing every opportunity to do good, to accumulate merit, to accumulate virtue, and finally it’s about directly achieving the benefit of others.
One might say, “oh but I am isolated twenty-three hours a day, I can’t do much for others”. Sure you can. In changing yourself, by developing in yourself this attitude of great compassion, privileging others above yourself, you are creating in yourself the right conditions to fully benefit others in your life. Just like somebody who goes into retreat. They are not turning their back on the world by being in retreat. They are developing the real strong qualities by which they can become like the best doctor of all for sentient beings. So it is now. So that’s how we should practise the perfection of moral discipline, how we have a chance to do that.
And then the practice of patience. Well I began today by talking about how it’s like somehow there’s a big boulder in our road. Normally we are so busy, we’ve got so many plans, so many schemes, so many dreams, so many things we must do, and something’s standing in the way. What it is? A red light is not allowing us to go any further. But that red light is not changing for a while. “Oh no, I’m really frustrated now, I’m really angry I must get rid of it. Who’s to be blame for that? I want to see them, I want to have them seen to. I’m going to smash that boulder I’m going to get rid of it.” But you know, the red light’s still on, the boulder’s still there, and what have your frustration and anger done? Nothing, except make the wait much more painful than it needs to be.
So, patience means responding to this boulder, responding to this pause with gentleness and with thoughtfulness and reflection. There must be some good purpose for this. Maybe I need to pause. Maybe I need to pay attention. You know that boulder? Actually he’s a bit of a friend, because he’s given us this opportunity to regroup, to relax, to look within, to find a way in which I can bear being in this traffic jam for a little longer than I ever thought. I can bear the red light staying on for a while because now I’m finding some deep qualities within myself: I’m finding some space within myself, I’m finding some resource, I’m finding some elasticity in myself.
Whereas before I was completely on edge, I was completely strung out. My guitar strings were so tightly wound the slightest touch would snap them. Now I’ve found a give in myself, and that means that when some difficulties arise in my life, like the present boulder, I have the capacity to deal with it without being destroyed by it. I’ve got some stability.
Does that mean I pretend the boulder is not a boulder? No, it’s a boulder, it’s a rock, it’s hard, so we pay respect to it for what it is. But we develop our inner qualities of patience in response to it, and that way that boulder becomes a teacher, a very profound teacher for us, as the present time is actually if we really look at it.
You know many people say “I wish I could stop rushing around, I really need some peace in my life. I must stop chasing this, that and the other”. Here you are. It’s here now. All that time you’ve been rushing too hard, you didn’t have a chance to read the Bodhisattvacharyavatara, the Jewel Ornament. Well you know, for those of you not working in the health service at least, and a few other important places like that, you do have the time for that now. That’s good.
And then the fourth perfection is effort. What is effort? Effort is described traditionally as never giving up, or never turning away, in one’s pursuit of the virtuous, in one’s practise of the virtuous. You know we are really just very short term people. We are sometimes enthused. We’re sometimes inspired by something. We go for it and then some difficulties come up and we easily lose interest, or something more exciting seems to arise.
That’s why we don’t ever achieve anything great in our lives. And even with dharma we are like, we are inspired temporarily by hearing about bodhicitta, bodhisattvas, qualities of the Buddha, but then we lose interest. Our meditation is a little too difficult to do, we’ve got other exciting interests showing up and we give up. No meal is ever cooked that way. Nothing good is ever achieved in that way. We need persistence. That gentle persistence is the meaning of effort, and again it’s perfect in the present situation.
You see, what’s not the perfection of effort is when, you know, “I’ll just do this for a week and then it will be all right”. How long did you say to enlightenment? Three days? I can do that. How long did you say to enlightenment? Two years? I can do that. How long did you say to enlightenment? A life – I can do that. No. You don’t know how long, but you apply yourself. You work steadily at this: gentle persistence day in, day out. Not a neurotic rush – because a neurotic rush leads to burn out, disillusion and going away – but gentle persistence day in day out with your studies, with your practice. We are trying to cultivate the good heart; it is the essence of the bodhisattva way. And so for such an attitude we need some encounters with difficulty – to arm ourselves, it’s said, with the armour of the bodhisattva.
The armour of the bodhisattva is this gentle persistence. She or he doesn’t give up. They take what comes their way and turn it into the path. Difficulties they make into their armour. And they never take a break and they are not worried about how long it will last because, well, what did they say? “I wish to become a buddha until all sentient beings are liberated from samsara.” All sentient beings? There’s an infinite number of them. This work is endless; the Buddha’s activity. Even when we arrive at buddhahood the work continues – unceasing non-conceptual compassionate activity for the benefit of others. So we get a tiny taste of that now by knowing we don’t know when these difficulties will end, but we’ll persist with our dharma practice through them.
And then the perfection of meditation, the fifth perfection. We’ve been building up to, it in a way, by developing these qualities of the preceding perfections. Already the agitation that afflicts our mind is beginning to be still. And that’s the essence of meditation: one-pointed settling in the mind. And you know for that you need a little isolation. That’s what is taught in the sutras and tantras. The beginning of meditation is isolation of one’s body and mind.
Up until now maybe we’ve been grabbing a bit of isolation every morning before rushing off to work, and that’s great you’ve been doing that. Maybe a little isolation in the evening. But perhaps now for some there’s more opportunity for this. Well, whether there is or not more time, you need that isolation to develop the ability to detach yourselves. And the current pausing of everything where nothing is certain is that. It’s when the narrative is certain, when you know things are going to occur, you never pause because you just rush from one things to another. But you’ve had to pause. You’ve had to stop and take stock.
That way you detach yourself from the neurotic internal and external rush that you’ve been involved in all this time, when you begin to gather inwards. And here’s where the formal meditation comes in, to help that gathering inwards, that attentiveness to the mind, that attentiveness to the present moment.
Of course you do many different types of meditation depending upon whether you are a practitioner of the common dharma – like shamatha, vipashyana or lojong – or a practitioner of the uncommon Mahayana, the Vajrayana in other words, the different deity meditations and so on. Here I don’t want to talk about them. Whatever practice you are doing for now, that is probably the best for you.
You can supplement it a little bit by these very skilful means practices that I mentioned earlier. They are great to do. But really you should be relying on the essence of your practice. What you’ve begun with there you will find most nourishment for the present time. Dig deep within it, it is the way to the treasure which is the buddha nature, and now you’ve got the opportunity to do that.
And through that come about the sixth perfection, the perfection of wisdom, which is exactly what we were talking about to begin with in the four seals. Because the perfection of wisdom is the arising in us of the natural perception. Not an intellectual idea or intellectual argument – although all those teachings on the analysis of conventional and ultimate truth are very wonderful, and very helpful for dealing with the kind of gross obscurations of our mind. But the real essence of the perfection of wisdom – supported by those things, but nevertheless not identical with them – the real essence is that rangjung yeshe as we call it, that transcendental wisdom of natural awareness, where the mind settles back in its own nature.
Having realised that all the disturbing emotions which have been agitating it have no ground to them, have no reality because they are all focused on objects that are empty, that are finally a fantasy, the mind then can settle within. When this has been achieved, whether through the common path or the uncommon path, the mind returns to its own fundamental nature, its own fundamental luminosity and emptiness. That is the real meaning of the perfection of wisdom.
And it’s here now in each of our rooms. It’s here now in each of our houses. It’s here now in each of our countries for us to find if we care to. And now we have a pause. Now we have a moment of stillness. Now we have a gap. Now we have a kind of bardo in which we can do this. So how wonderful is that? And from this we discover that we can act in the world for the benefit of others. And the present difficulties give us every opportunity to do that, to dig within, find these qualities and then act out of them for the benefit of all sentient beings.
*
So this is my feeling about this. I’ve thought about it a little bit and tried to meditate on the teachings that I have received, all the teachings that I have received from my masters, from H.H. Sakya Trizin, from Karma Thinley Rinpoche, and other great masters like Karmapa and so on. All these teachers I have been very lucky to meet with in the last 47 years or whatever it is, and many of whom you have also met and had the great luck to receive things from. By reflecting on those wonderful treasures that I have received, that you have received too, we can find the necessary strength for this present time. And out of this we will emerge as individual dharma people much stronger, much more sane, much more capable and our dharma community will also be much more capable, much more strong in emerging out of this.
We shouldn’t ask right now today “when will it end?”. We just don’t know. But we should be relaxed about that. And confident also that as the outcome of our prayers, for the prospering of the dharma, for the welfare of all sentient beings, then what can be realised through prayers will be realised. Sometimes people say, “can all things that are asked for in prayer be realised?” Actually no, there are both realisable aspirations and non-realisable. But the non-realisable aspirations are things like “may all beings immediately become free from sickness, awaken to enlightenment”. That cannot happen right now, but in generating such a wish that it does, we, our bodhicitta becomes stronger. We become more capable and that in the long run will contribute to the fulfilment of that aspiration.
Other aspirations are more realisable now and therefore we should practise them. Like for instance praying for the benefit of somebody who is sick now. This is realisable because by invoking the power of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, and that mixing with the karma of that individual person, this can really benefit them. It’s not our power of course. It is the blessing of the power of the buddhas and bodhisattvas. So that is how we should pray. “May the buddhas and bodhisattvas bless this person.” Even when we are practising the meditations on yidams and reciting their mantras, for instance with healing, it is the power of the buddhas and bodhisattvas’ transcendental wisdom expressed in that particular form of the deity that achieves the benefit.
So let’s finish now with a short dedication of merit for the benefit of all sentient beings. I am looking forward to meeting with you and sharing the teachings directly, because in fact for ordinary lamas like myself, we only have the means to benefit beings by the ordinary methods of meeting and giving teachings directly. So today I’m just reminding us all of the teachings we’ve heard. But otherwise, I’m afraid or I’m happy to say – I’m not sure which(!) – we have to just meet again directly, for me to share for instance the Vajrayana teachings with you.
So let’s now just recite the common dedication of merit, wishing for the benefit of all beings in relative terms. That is, that they are free from difficulties and problems right now in the present situation, and that they finally come to achieve the state of enlightenment which is beyond birth, old age, sickness and death.
By this merit may all beings gain omniscience,
May they defeat all the enemies that harm them,
Thus may they be liberated from this world
Which is like an ocean of birth, sickness, old age and death.