English Dharma talk
September 24, 2016
By Geshe Pema Tshering
Land of Compassion Buddha Edmonton
Eight verses of thought transformation – Class 5
So Geshela says there are many new students today. He’d like to start by greeting you with Tibetan greeting: TashiDelek, which means auspiciousness, happiness and goodness.
So let’s start by discussing a citation form the Buddha sutras in which he says you are your own protector, you are your own enemy. What’s meant by this stanza is we can’t rely on external agents to give us protection. We need to act ourselves to protect ourselves. We are our own enemy. The real troublemakers that give us difficulty in our lives are within ourselves. Of course there might be external conditions that give us problems, but ultimately, the real troublemakers lie within ourselves.
Why is it said we are our own enemy? If we have a very narrow minded perspective of how things are, then it’s easy for the slightest condition to make our mind upset / annoy us. For that reason, our biggest enemy is ourselves. If we don’t have the right mental attitude, we don’t have the right way of looking at things, then it’s very easy for us to become unhappy. For that reason, we need to not change others, but change our own mind. B/c depending on how we look upon things, we can control the experience we have. If our mind is unskillful, we experience suffering. So for that reason our enemy is ourselves.
Why is it said we are our own protectors? This is because we are the ones who have control over our own mind. If we have a very open spacious mind, when we encounter difficulties, we won’t get easily stressed / feel overly worried. If we can cultivate a mindset that’s very vast, this is what protects us from worry, stress and unhappiness. So for that reason we are our own protectors. I won’t go on about this b/c we need to finish the text today.
If we have an open spacious mind, this will help us stay calm in situations of difficulty or crisis. But it’s not that easy to maintain an open spacious mind, b/c we have the habit of being quite nervous about things. So sometimes we tend to be quite narrow minded or feel kind of tight about certain things simply through habit. Therefore, we need to slowly train our mind so it can become open and spacious. In that way, we will not experience too much suffering. We all want happiness and not suffering. We need to train our mind so it’s more relaxed. This kind of mind training is relevant to everyone. Not matter if you are religious / Buddhist or so on, b/c the explanations on mind training apply to everyone, b/c we all want a happy life and relaxed mind. So this kind of explanation I will give benefits those of you who are interested in spiritual …
Not matter if you are interested in spiritual practice, b/c these explanations on training the mind are helpful to everyone. So regardless if you’re Buddhist / not / religious/ not, they benefit all b/c they make the mind more open and relaxed.
We will look at a text for how to engage in … it tells how kinds of unhealthy mental patterns we may have. And methods for counteracting such unhelpful methods. 2 sets of content: 1 set explains the flaws we may have and the set that explains the methods for counteracting those flaws. We need to transform the way in which we deal with things / work with problems. Else, we will encounter many instances of suffering in our life. If we are able to change our attitudes to eliminate the unhealthy thought patterns, we will be able to increase the amount of happiness we experience by making our mind more relaxed / open/ spacious. If the way we counteract unhappiness is simply trying to do things on the outside, by thinking my unhappiness / problems come from outside, it will make our mind more narrow and tight, and cause us to be more unhappy. So important to train our mind.
So content of this text entitled 8 verses of thought transformation: 4 sections.
1st section: how to make our mind very spacious and vast. If we can, we think of all living beings. Else, at least the living beings in our world. We think about the fact they all want happiness and not suffering. We think I will try my best to benefit them, help them. If I can’t benefit them, at least not harm them.
The next section of the text that concerns what we do when we actually meet people. We are not going to meet everyone in the world. So we generate this aspiration: whoever I meet, I will be kind to that person, be altruistic. In case I meet someone unpleasant, then I shall practice patience, kindness.
Next shows difficult conditions we may meet in course of practice, and what we should do when we meet difficult conditions.
We covered first four stanzas before. Now stanza 5:
5. When, out of envy, others mistreat me with abuse, insults, or the like, I shall accept defeat and offer the victory to others.
This talks about the situation where we are engaging in practice (mind training), but we encounter some people who treat us badly. Out of negative emotion / miserliness / jealousy, such people mistreat us with abuse / insults / like. It’s possible they insult us in front of us or do so behind our backs. By insulting us and telling others bad things about us. So the practice in this case is to accept defeat and offer victory to others.
How is it that when others mistreat us with abuse and insults and the like, we should accept defeat and offer victory to others? If someone were to criticize us in front of us / behind our backs, there are different ways of thinking such that our mind does not become upset. E.g. let’s say we have a certain appearance, pleasant / attractive / beautiful / handsome, and someone comes up to us and says you are ugly. Just by them saying you are ugly doesn’t change our appearance. It doesn’t change anything just by them saying it. We will still be attractive. Similarly, we hear someone who says to us, you are stupid, this statement will not change our intelligence. If we have been wise and intelligent before, just by someone saying you are stupid, nothing will change. Our wisdom will not affected in any way. By someone saying it, we will not reduce our intelligence / wisdom. If we have those good qualities, we have them, no matter what others say. If you are able to see things from that perspective, you see no point in getting angry. They say what they say, they don’t harm you. So no reason to get angry.
Advice here is indeed unconventional. The last part I shall accept defeat and offer victory to them. Main point is to keep our mind in a calm state without getting angry. Person who mistreats us can cause great danger e.g. they can threaten our life / make us get into trouble with the law and so on, then realizing this person is in reality harming himself, we can respond accordingly so we can correct the wrongdoings of this person, so that we can prevent this person from causing danger to others. But we should do so in a way so our mind doesn’t get upset so we don’t get angry. So fact we accept defeat and offer victory to them doesn’t mean we let them do terrible things. Point is our mind doesn’t get affected by anger / negative feelings, but we certainly do what’s necessary to correct mistakes of this person.
In fact, this stanza 5 has been applied by a great being in the past. In the history of India, there was a period in which England tried to colonize the country. Mahatma Gandhi used an approach that was completely nonviolent. So some people criticized him, saying this approach is not suitable. Then he cited this stanza in which it’s advised one should accept defeat and offer victory to others.
So Mahatma Gandhi said that when I’m protesting, I’m not protesting against the people who are trying to impose their authority over us. Rather, I’m targeting their actions, their politics, b/c their policies will cause ours people in India to lose our freedom. So for that reason, I need to do something about this. But I’m not attacking the people. I’m attacking their policies, which will cause us to lose our freedom. So the point here is if there is some person who is very negative / harmful, then we have to think about what this really is causing the harm. The negative emotion of the person, rather than that person. B/c it’s the anger of the person that’s really at fault. That’s the source of the problem. So we should generate compassion for the person but acted very assertively to counteract the negative emotion / unskillful action of that person.
The next stanza: 6:
6. When someone whom I have benefited and in whom I have great hopes gives me terrible harm, I shall regard that person as my holy guru.
I’ve treated them with great kindness, affection, I’ve helped them in many ways on many occasions. And so I placed great hope on this person, but this person gives me harm in return. So the advice is: I shall regard that person as my holy teacher.
So the meaning of this stanza is that if we help someone, and we have expectations of that person repaying our kindness / us getting a good reputation / others thinking well of us, then we are setting ourselves up for anger and disappointment in the future. B/c if our action to help others isn’t done with unconditional love / altruism, then we have this expectation we’ll get something in return. If we don’t get it and we get opposite (harm), then we’ll get terribly upset. So let go of expectations. When we help others, we should do so with a pure heart to benefit others, with no strings attached. In that way, we won’t be disappointed or frustrated in the future.
How do we regard such an ungrateful person as our excellent spiritual guide? Whenever we do actions for others to help others, we should do so with this mind wanting solely to benefit them, not thinking how we can gain from the action. We simply do it for the welfare of others. In case others harm us, then we should try not to get upset / angry and we think that well, this person has given me an opportunity to practice patience. I like to practice patience; if I were to specifically find an opportunity to practice patience, I may not be able to do so. But here it is. This person has come to me and caused me harm. A chance to practice patience, compassion. If we can train our mind like that, then we won’t get upset. This person is giving us opportunity to train our mind.
We’ve completed 6 stanzas. 7th stanza: practice of tonglen, giving and taking is explained. Given all the different kinds of approach we should adopt, occasionally we can do this practice of giving and taking.
7. In short, both directly and indirectly, do I offer every happiness and benefit to all my mothers. I shall secretly take upon myself all their harmful actions and suffering.
This stanza is actually very helpful for those of you interested in doing meditation. I will explain how to do the visualization of tonglen (giving and taking).
Let’s begin by explaining the simple way of doing breathing meditation. So you can count your breaths. When you breathe, you should breathe in a way that’s very natural and relaxed, not trying to control breath or in forceful manner. As you inhale and exhale, that’s 1 breath. Each cycle consists of 7 or 10 breaths. So every time you complete one cycle, you start all over again and do another cycle. In the beginning, it’ll be hard for you to keep your mind concentrated and count 10 breaths. You may become distracted after 3 breaths and your mind becomes scattered. So you can begin from 1 and try to complete the cycle and you can start a new cycle.
It’s important you try to focus your mind in a single pointed way. Else, there’s a danger you simply count your breaths without your mind being concentrated on the breath. In that case, you may actually confuse your inhalation and exhalation. When you inhale, you think you’re exhaling and so on. The essential point is to follow your breath with your mind. When you are breathing out, you need to ensure your mind is concentrated on this process. When you are breathing in, your mind is completely aware you are breathing in. So no confusion between inhalation and exhalation. So you need to ensure your mind is following your breath.
Once you find your mind is able to remain on the breath in a stable manner, then you can move onto the next level, which is to combine it with tonglen (taking and giving).
In the practice of tonglen, the main point is that you want to take on the sufferings of others and you want to give your happiness and virtues to others. But this is to be done in stages. If we try to take suffering of all living beings right at the beginning, we may find this overwhelming. Similarly, if try to give all happiness and virtues to others right at the beginning, it may not be very effective for the mind. So we need to train in this final stage of taking sufferings and giving all happiness to all living beings.
We can begin by focusing on people close to us: family, etc. Think I take on all your sufferings and difficulties, and give you happiness.
How do we practice giving and taking in relation to our loved ones? We imagine that when we breathe out, we breathe out our happiness and virtue from our right nostril. It goes out in the form of white light and goes to our loved ones. This white light enters their body through their left nostril. When this white light (which represents our happiness and virtues) absorb into their bodies, think all their suffering is eliminated. When you breathe in, think their sufferings and difficulties leave their bodies in the form of black light and this comes to us and enters our left nostril. When this black light goes to our heart at the centre of our chest, it destroys our self-centred mind. … Then these beings become free from suffering and you become free from this self-grasping mind. You do this meditation continuously.
By doing this visualization, your mind will become stronger. When you feel your mind strong enough, you can think beyond your parents, siblings, etc. you can think of neighbours, friends and so on. Taking on their suffering, their difficulties, and giving them your happiness and virtues. When you’re done that meditation, you can move on to all living beings. You think you’re taking on difficulties of all living beings and give them your happiness and virtues.
What we described above is how to practice giving and taking with respect to inhabitants. We can also do this practice to the environment: where the inhabitants live. E.g. the environment can be unpleasant. It can be too hot, too cold and so on. So there are certain unpleasant aspects of environment. We can think when we breathe in, we are taking on all unpleasant aspects of environment: heat and cold. And breathe out: give out good aspects to the environment, so it becomes very pleasant and comfortable for all living beings. So when you practice this visualization (taking/giving) in relation to inhabitants / environment, this can make your mind very vast, open, spacious and help purify negativities of your mind. So that’s how you can practice tonglen described in stanza 7.
In stanza 7, it’s said I shall secretly take upon myself all their harmful actions and suffering. This advice is given to Bodhisattvas. One should practice in a way that’s not boastful. So do it secretly. In fact, when we engage in these practices of Bodhisattvas, such as generosity, patience, we should do so in a way that’s not boastful. We don’t try to show off and say, hey, I’m doing this generosity practice. I’m taking on your suffering and giving you benefit and so on. Don’t make a display of your practice and attainments and so on.
What’s the problem if we tell people about our practices? If we don’t keep our practices of generosity and so on secret? What fault would that be? By telling people about our practices, we can create obstacles for ourselves. Bodhisattvas: when try to get to path of accumulation from path of preparation, they can encounter hindrances that cause their realizations to degenerate and be lost.
Let me tell you a story of how Dharma practitioner can encounter obstacles and thus lose their realizations. There was a Bodhisattva (beginner) who was engaging in meditation. In general, it’s said one can obtain signs of irreversibility on the paths. One sign is that one will not be affected by maras / demons. One is able to recognize a demon as a demon. Before that, there’s this danger that one encounters a demon but mistakes them for some holy being. There was this Bodhisattva engaging in meditation. While they were, an emanation appeared to the Bodhisattva and was actually a demon. But it appeared exactly like the Buddha. When this Bodhisattva looked up and saw this emanation, he was completely taken by this appearance of the Buddha and made prostrations to the demon. As a result, the Bodhisattva lost his realizations b/c one of the refuge precepts is to not take refuge in figures other than the three jewels. This Bodhisattva completely believed this emanation was the Buddha and wholeheartedly took refuge in the demon and so lost his realizations and had to train for many years before he could gain the same level of realization. So it’s important for one to keep one’s practice secret.