I've been asked to speak about this topic: daily life and practice of
Buddhism in the West. I think the first question that comes up is, is
there anything special about the practice of Buddhism in the West that
is different from the practice of Buddhism anywhere, at any time
in history? Is there anything special about us? And, why would we be
interested to know if there's something special about us, in the West,
now? It could be...the best of reasons...that we face various
difficulties and we would like to know are there some extra difficulties
that we face that we need to work on and overcome? Or, for a much less
noble reason, it could be because we are looking for an excuse to not
have to practice as hard or as intensively as other people in other
parts of the world at other times. In other words, we're looking for a
bargain. To get enlightenment cheap. So, let's put that type of motivation aside, and look more seriously at, are there any specific difficulties that we face?
Now, if we look at the most basic things which are involved in the
Buddhist path, and what we have to work with, I think we would have to
say that there's nothing special about us at all. I don't think we could
say that now, in the West, in this present time, we have more anger,
or more greed, or more selfishness, than people have had elsewhere in
the world, or people have had in the past. People have been working with
the same disturbing emotions, all over this universe, throughout time.
So that is nothing special about now, is there? And, the number of
sentient beings has not increased.
So, throughout time and everywhere, we've all been faced...everybody
has been faced with the incredible challenge of wanting to reach
enlightenment to benefit so many people. So many beings I should say. So
that's the same.
So, we've spoken...if we think in terms of the graded path...of lam-rim, the intermediate scope, aiming for liberation
from disturbing emotions. Same, now, as it's been in the past, or
elsewhere. Working for enlightenment to help everybody. Same. Same
number of beings as there always have been. And, if we speak about the
initial scope...pardon me for not speaking in the proper order, but the
initial scope is to improve future lives, guarantee that we continue to
have a precious human rebirth. Well, that hasn't changed at all has it?
We all have beginning mental continuums.
Which means that we have been born in other parts of the world, in
other parts of the universe, in all previous times, and we've always
faced future rebirths, and needing to try to insure that we have a
precious human one. So that's the same. So, what's different? Is there
anything different?
Well, some people might say that our circumstances are different. We
have, for instance, very stressful lives, we're very busy. Well, has a
struggling farmer in the times of the Middle Ages, who has had to work
in the fields, sixteen hours or more a day, have they been less busy
than we are, working in an office? Their activity
may have been different, but they certainly were as busy. And, cave
people. Didn't they have a lot of stress and worry, about wild animals,
and these sort of things. A lot of fears. Fears of lightning or thunder –
things that they didn't understand? People have always lived with fear
and stress, haven't they?
How about living in times when there was the bubonic plague. We think
that we have stress and fear now. How about if we lived then? So, I
don't think that we could say that what is so special about us is that
our lives are so busy and stressful. It might be a different flavor of
busy, a different flavor of stressful, in terms of the activities that
we are involved with. But stress, worry, no time? That's been going on
all the time, everywhere.
Well, we could also say that our society, our culture, doesn't share
any, or many, of the fundamental assumptions that you have in Buddhism.
So it's really very alien to us. But, if we look at the example of
Buddhism coming to China, the Chinese didn't believe in rebirth. Chinese
have always thought in terms of ancestors. And when you die, there's
some sort of spirit, or a soul, of ancestors that lives on. And you have to make offerings
to the ancestors. That's quite different from rebirth, isn't it? If you
think of rebirth, ancestors are no longer around...the spirits of
ancestors...are they? And so, it took quite a while for the Chinese to
understand a lot of these very fundamental, basic Buddhist concepts. So when we face the similar challenge, that's nothing new. That's nothing special.
So, I think that realizing
that, we're not "special," it can be very helpful. If you think of
teenagers and not even necessarily teenagers, but people who have a
certain type of problem. Let's say, their parents were alcoholic or
whatever. They often think, "I'm the only one who has this problem." And
then the problem becomes really very, very large to them. But, if they
learn that there are many, many others, who face the same type of
problem, then they are not alone; they don't feel alone. Their problem
fits into a larger context. They get a very different perspective on it.
And optimally, they would develop compassion
for everybody else with a similar problem. Rather than thinking of it
as simply "my" problem, now they start thinking of it as “our” problem.
When something becomes “our” problem, rather than "my" problem, it's
very different emotionally, and psychologically. So, I think it's the
same, in terms of daily practice of Buddhism. It really is everybody's
problem. How do we apply Buddhism to life? It's not "my" special
problem, "me" individually, or "me" culturally individually living in
the West, now, in our present age. It's just that the conditions are different – from one point of view. The specifics are different, I should say.
Now, there are many different levels of practice of Buddhism and how
we would go about applying it into our daily life. There is a very, very
superficial level which doesn't really do very much to change us
internally. And, then there is a deeper level, in which we are actually
working on ourselves, working on our personalities, working toward the
goals of liberation and enlightenment. Now, in the beginning, many
people are attracted to this superficial level and so they deal with
externals. By externals I mean you have to have a red blessing string
around your neck, or around your wrist, or both, and wear a mala...a
rosary of beads...around the other wrist and, maybe when we are walking
around or sitting, then you thumb the rosary and mumble something. And
we have to have a good supply of incense and candles, and all the proper
meditation
cushions, and Tibetan paintings and pictures, and, if we really go far
in this direction, we might even start to wear some sort of Tibetan
clothing.
I remember when I first went to India, in 1969, when I started living
there. That was the height of the hippie era and there were very few
Westerners who were there at that time. But many of them dressed fully
in Tibetan exotic robes and costumes, and things like that. And I was
rather judgmental about the whole thing and thought that it was
offensive to the Tibetans; that these Westerners were just mimicking
them and copying them. At that time, I was living with a Tibetan monk.
So I asked him, “What do Tibetans think of these Westerners, who go
around dressed in Tibetan clothes?” And he said, "We think that they
like Tibetan clothes." So, no judgment there, whatsoever. It was very,
very helpful.
But, whether we are judgmental about it or not, just changing our
clothing, wearing a rosary around our wrist, having many blessing cords,
red strings around our neck, doesn't really change us very much, does
it? Internally? So, I think that, particularly in the West, it's not
such a great idea to go around with all of this because it brings about
people making fun of us. If a woman is dressed in a very beautiful,
elegant dress for an evening event and they have some dirty red strings
around their neck, that doesn't quite look proper, does it? So, I always
advise people that if they would like to keep these red blessing cords,
keep it in their wallet, keep it in their pocket, keep it in their
pocketbook, whatever. You don't have to actually display it. Displaying
it doesn't bring more “blessings,” does it? And, if you want to say mantras, the same thing; you don’t have to bring out your rosary and make a whole big show out of it. You can say it silently in your mind,
if you are in a crowd, or on a bus, or whatever. So, this is what I
mean by a slightly changed circumstance that we have. If we are in a
society in which such type of behavior, or such type of strings, would
look pretty weird, then there's no need to have them – externally. And,
if our practicing Buddhism is simply wearing these strings, then
obviously that's not a very deep practice of Buddhism, and not very
helpful.
Actually, if you look at the way that Tibetans deal with these
strings, they only wear them for a short period of time. They don’t just
wear them until they really get them dirty and horrible. They wear them
for a very short period of time and then retire them; put them on their
altar or something like that. So, I think the advice that we have in
the seven points of attitude training,
or mind training, lojong, is very helpful here. Which is, “Transform
internally, but leave your external form consistent with what is
ordinarily around.” So, it's best to keep our practice private. This is
particularly true if we are lay practitioners living in a non-Buddhist
society.
Now, if we’re monks or nuns, that's something different. That becomes
a big issue. How do we practice as Westerners, living in Western
society, as monks and nuns. Do we wear our robes to work? Well, that's
not an easy one. Particularly because it was never intended that
Buddhist monks and nuns go and work in the ordinary work force. The
whole point of becoming a monk or nun was to live in a monastery with
other monks and nuns. And, if you did a retreat, you went off to...from
your monastery...to a cave, or whatever and then came back to your
monastery. So, it was always in connection with a whole community of
others, who were likewise dressed and involved in the same type of
activity. So this becomes a major problem. How do we become monks and
nuns as Westerners? And how do we practice, if we don’t have Western
monasteries – or we have very few Western monasteries?
Well, we look at historical examples. The Mongols adopted Tibetan Buddhism and before monasteries were well established and supported
in Mongolia, you want to become a monk or a nun and seriously practice,
you went to Tibet and studied there in the monastery. So, as Westerners
we're no different; there's nothing special. The Mongols didn't know
Tibetan. It was a completely alien language. They had to learn it. And
so do we. It wasn't easy for them to go to Tibet – and they had to walk!
We at least don't have to walk to India or Nepal. And they faced
difficulties; we would also need to face difficulties. We are not going
to get it cheap. And, it's important to try to establish monasteries and
nunneries in the West.
Then we could say, for instance, “Well, but we don't have the custom
of begging.” If we went around barefoot in our city with a begging bowl
and...when you beg as a monk or a nun, you're not even supposed to ask
for anything; you just walk by and people are supposed to know to give
you food and so on...and we are likely to go very hungry. The Tibetans
didn't go around with their begging bowls. Distances were very far in
Tibet to go into town. But the society developed in such a way that
people brought food to the monasteries. So very nice. And the government
supported the monasteries. So they were given land and they got...there
were various people who worked on the land and gave a certain
percentage to the monasteries. So, the system worked. But that took
quite a while to evolve. But the Chinese had no tradition of begging and
the monks and nuns in China did not beg. They slightly modified the
system, so that the monks and nuns actually worked in the monastery. And
they had fields and they did their own agriculture. So, in the West we
probably will have to do something similar to that in the monasteries
and nunneries, in order to practice Buddhism and support themselves,
they probably will have to be involved with some sort of work.
If we look in India, things have developed a little bit in that
direction. In the monasteries...in the south of India...they were given
land by the government of India. In the beginning, the monks farmed the
land. Everybody had to farm the land. And if they were able to get
support...either from their family or from foreign patrons or
whatever...then they would hire local Indians to work in the fields for
them. So, the point of this is that if we’re going to be a monk or a
nun, then I think it's important to try to work within the boundaries of
being a monk or a nun. Somehow we are going to have to be
self-supporting and you continue to wear the robes. The robes are very significant.
I remember Geshe
Wangyal. He was Kalmyk Mongol, the first teacher that I met. He lived
in America and he was not very keen on having his Western students
become monks or nuns. But, if you did become a monk or a nun, what he
would have you do is sit in your robes right next to the check-out
counter in the supermarket with your begging bowl. He said, “If you're
going to be a monk or a nun here's what you have to do. You're not going
to get off cheap...” in terms of ignoring most of the traditions.
But I think that what this discussion leads to is the fact that
practicing Buddhism in the West requires getting teachings. And getting
teachings in the West requires money. This, I think, is one of the very
difficult points and one of the points that is fairly unique in Buddhist
history. Usually, you didn’t have to pay to get teachings. You made
offerings, but it wasn’t required that you pay at the door in order to
get in.
So, what does Buddhist practice require? What it requires...we’re not
talking about money, not that it requires money...if we’re talking
about real
Buddhist practice, real Buddhist practice requires working on
ourselves. Transforming ourselves. The practice of transforming
ourselves is not something which is done through rituals. We could learn
how to do a ritual and recite mumbo-jumbo in some foreign language that
we don’t understand at all. And learn when we say this syllable, you
ring a bell, and you say that syllable, you play a drum, and in the end,
so what? It doesn’t transform us at all. We still get angry. We still
can’t get along with our parents, and so on. So, His Holiness the Dalai
Lama always says that practicing these rituals when we have no
understanding of what we are doing really is not going to get us very
far. That really is not so helpful.
The practice of Buddhism is...it says very clearly both in Nagarjuna,
Aryadeva, all the great Indian masters said...it all comes down to tame your mind.
And tame your mind means, first of all, to learn the teachings. Learn
the methods of how to deal with disturbing emotions and problematic
situations. And to analyze various situations that we’re in. Try to
remain mindful, which means to remember the teachings and apply them in
different situations, so that it can help us to overcome at least
the ordinary problems that we have in life – like anger, like worry,
like nervousness, like not getting along with our parents – this type of
things. Dealing with frustration, dealing with sickness, dealing with
old age, problems in relationships, problems with your children. All
these things. This is the field, in which we work with Buddhism.
So, we need to transform ourselves. We need to work on ourselves;
improve our personalities. To do that requires a tremendous amount of
work. That's not very easy to do. We have to develop patience. We have to develop perseverance,
concentration, all of these things. But our tendency in the West is to
want things easy, to want things quickly, and to want them cheap. We
want all the teachings instantly. We want to gain all the wonderful
things that we read about, that a Buddha has attained and so on, with the least amount of work as possible.
The fact that teachings cost something at least causes us to think, on many levels, of why does it cost something? Well, Dharma
centers need to pay rent. Teachers need to buy food and health
insurance, and pay their rent, etc.. So some money is needed if you
don't have people who just willingly give offerings, like it was done in
Tibet, in traditional Buddhist societies. So, if we want teachers, if
we want facilities, somehow they need to be supported. Either
voluntarily or you have to pay an admission. But that is just one level
of reason. That's on a practical level. I think there's a deeper level
here. And the deeper level is that if you want to receive something
which is precious, namely the teachings, you are going to have to put a
great deal of effort and work into getting it; otherwise you don't
really appreciate it.
So, if we look at history, then, in order to invite various teachers
to Tibet, not only did the Tibetans need to walk to India to invite
them, but they also gathered all sorts of resources, not just to pay for
the journey, but as offerings and so on. So, they put a tremendous
amount of effort into getting the teachings. And a lot of people then
needed to make great sacrifices in order to get the teachings. Look at
what Marpa made Milarepa go through in order to get the teachings. So,
in a sense, if we really want the teachings, then we need to make some
effort – to get the money together, for example. Or, to travel to India.
Or, to travel to a place where the teachings are available, if there
not available where we live.
Now it is possible. I mean, you people here in Latvia lived under the
Soviet Union. You couldn't travel very far or go anywhere, or move if
you wanted to move to a different location where teachings were
available. Now teachings are available. You can move much more easily.
Especially now as a member of the EU. So you need to take advantage of
that and not just say, "Well, there's nothing available where I live or
very little available where I live." I don't mean to sound
harsh but, if we really, really are serious about transforming
ourselves, working on ourselves with the Dharma, and so on, this
requires a tremendous commitment. It has to have top priority in our
lives. And we have to have the courage and the bravery and the energy to
make whatever moves, or do whatever is necessary, to get the optimum
circumstances for study and practice.
And if we are not as serious as that, then fine. But acknowledge
that. “I would like to learn a little about Buddhism, maybe it can help
me a little bit in my life, but I am not willing to relocate if the
circumstances aren't fine where I am. And it doesn't have top priority
in my life: there are other things that are more important.” If that's
our situation - fine. No problem. But be honest about it. That's
perfectly fine. But don’t expect to get the type of results that we
might get if we put full time and full effort into it. You have to be
realistic. Put in a little bit of time, you get a little bit of result.
You put in a lot of time, you get a larger result - maybe. Obviously we
each have different obstacles, but that's a generalization.
So, I think in the West, in the present days, what is a bit different
is that most people seem to prefer to practice as laypeople, not as
monks or nuns. This is very different from traditional Buddhism. Because
of that, rather than having so many monasteries and nunneries for monks
and nuns, we have Dharma centers. There was no such thing as Dharma
centers before Buddhism started to develop in the West.
So, then the question comes: What do we expect to achieve from going
to a Dharma center? “I go once a week after work. I’m really tired and
half the time I sleep if there's a talk. Maybe I just go and sing a song
in Tibetan language. I don’t really know what's going on, but it's
relaxing, and I ring a bell, and I go home.” So, what result can we
expect from that? Not so much and, what's really sad, I find, is that
the Dharma center's not even really a social club, in a sense. Like
going to church. When you go to...whether it's speaking about
Christianity or Judaism or Islam...there's a sense of a congregation;
that these are the members of your church, or synagogue, or mosque, or
whatever, and there's a sense of community. We’re not talking here about
a sectarian sense, but on a deeper sense of social interaction. So,
what is noticeable in these other non-Buddhist religious communities is
that if someone is sick in the community, other people in the community
help. They might bring food; they ask if somebody has not been coming
for a week or two; they call up; they check up on what's going on, etc..
This seems to be missing in most of our Dharma centers. The people
come, they sit in class, or they do a meditation, or they do a puja
together, and, that's it. Maybe they go out for a beer afterwards, which
is a little bit odd from a Dharma center. But in any case, I hear so
many complaints from people who say, “What is Buddhism all about? I’ve
been sick and nobody called. I was in the hospital, nobody came to
visit, nobody cared.”
If our daily practice as a Buddhist in the West just means that we go
by ourself to a Dharma center, do our little puja, or listen to a talk,
or whatever it is that we do, and we go home and maybe we do a little
bit of meditation each day, but we don’t care about even the other
people who are part of our Dharma center, what is this? We sit there and
we say, “I’m doing this for all sentient beings; may all sentient
beings be happy – but someone in our Dharma center is in the hospital
and I don’t have time to go visit, and, what do I care?” This is not
proper. I mean, if our daily practice of Buddhism in the West is like
that, something's wrong. So, I think often we become a little bit too
focused...too narrow, shall I say...in our focus on doing pujas, doing
meditation by ourselves, or in a group, but not really, socially taking responsibility
to help, as I say, even people in our group. Let alone our family. Let
alone our community. And even when we get social, so-called “engaged
Buddhism” starting in the West... It started actually in Thailand. But
in any case, we start to have it. So in some Buddhist centers they have
prison programs, for example. So, a few people volunteer and they go to
the prisons and they have Dharma lessons for prisoners. Very nice. They
still don’t get along with their parents. They still don’t go to visit
somebody who's sick. Or bring food to somebody who's sick in their
center. But because they go to the prisons, then they think, “Ah, well
I’ve done my social duty.” That's not enough.
Okay. Now, to get down to what do we actually do each day as a
practicing Buddhist? There are certain types of practices that are
recommended each day; and they are helpful. It means having Buddhism
integrated as part of our whole day, not just as something that we do as
a hobby – a little time during the day or during the week, but we
forget about it the rest of the time. Now one point is important here,
which is, the whole point of being a nice, kind person. Being a Buddhist
doesn’t just mean to be a kind person. It means something in addition
to being a kind person. So, of course we have to be a kind person. That
is the basis. But that’s not exclusive to the Buddha's teachings. All
religions teach us to be a kind person. You don’t even have to follow a
religion to be taught that it is important to be a kind person. So, of
course we try in our daily life to be of help to others. And, if we
can't be of help, at least not to hurt others. Sort of the basic
minimum. If we want to say, “That's my Buddhist practice,” okay. But
don’t think that that's the “ real-thing” Buddhism. That's a very light
version. But an absolutely necessary thing. Not something to be ignored.
So, fine. We try to learn what it means to be a kind person and to be
mindful of when we’re not acting like that, and to correct it.
This involves not getting angry with others. If we do get angry,
apologize as quickly as possible. Try to be less selfish. Try to be
sensitive to other peoples' needs to the effect of our behavior on
others. All these sort of things - very basic. If we are involved in
some sort of business; we try to be honest in the business. If we deal
with customers...if we are in some sort of service business...to
remember that they are human beings just like I am and they like to be
treated nicely, not to be ignored, or dismissed in a very unpleasant
way. The last customer of the day deserves as much attention
and care and pleasantness as the first of the day. All of this is what
His Holiness the Dalai Lama refers to as “basic human values.” Not
necessarily based on any philosophy or religion. And not just with
strangers, where it's a little bit easier because you just see them for a
few minutes and then you don’t have to deal with them after that. But
with the members of our families, the people that we live with, the
people that we work with, etc.. We don’t ignore those who are closest to
us.
Classic example in the West: We go to visit our parents, or we’re
staying with our parents, and they would like us to sit and watch
television with them. I remember when my mother was alive and I would
visit her, she would like for me to watch television with her, and the
quiz shows...she loved
quiz shows...and would always encourage me to try to answer the
questions on the quiz shows. Like, “ How much does this refrigerator
cost?” In these type of situations, it's very important to be generous –
generous with our time. Not sit there and look totally bored. Not sit
there and take out our rosary and do mantras while we’re sitting there
in front of the TV. But actually be generous to our parents, give them
this time. Try to answer the questions, no matter how stupid it might
seem to us.
Now, we might not have to sit there the whole night! We could say, “I
have other things that I need to do, but I’ll sit with you for a half
hour, or an hour,” or whatever it is. But be kind. Don’t say
cruel things like, “Oh come on, that's so stupid; it's such a waste of
time; I have better things to do than that.” That's one of the bodhisattva vows – one of the secondary vows: “Go along with what the other person is doing, so long as it's not destructive.”
So, if we are a Buddhist practitioner, when we get up in the morning
it's very important to...it says this in so many texts...set the intention
for the day. What is our motivation? Our motivation remember was: “What
is the goal that we're trying to achieve? What am I doing with my life?
What is the emotion behind that?” And then the intention to actually
pursue that goal. When we wake up, ideally it should be, “Thank goodness
I didn’t die during my sleep and how wonderful that now I have a whole
day ahead in which I can work further along the Buddhist path.” Rather
than, “Oh, not another day.”
It's the same thing when we go to sleep. Rather than, “Oh, thank God
the day is finished and I can't wait to just sort of drop into
unconsciousness,” more “I can't wait until I wake up next morning to
continue.” So, what does this all come down to? It comes down to refuge.
Refuge. I don’t use that word very much because I think that what it
really is talking about is having a direction in our life. A direction
in our life which is safe, which protects us from suffering. That's the
whole point of refuge. It protects us from suffering. So, we’re going in
a safe direction
in our lives. So we reaffirm, “This is the direction I’m going in my
life. It has meaning; it has purpose. I’m working in the direction of
the Dharma – true stopping of all my disturbing emotions, all my unawareness,
all my ignorance. I’m working in that direction, to get rid of all this
junk on my mental continuum that's causing so much trouble. And to
realize and actualize all the qualities, all the understanding, all the good qualities of heart and so on, that will bring that stopping about, that true stopping about.”
Whether we’re doing that for our own sake or we’re doing that for the sake of everybody – after all, the safe direction is both Hinayana and Mahayana.
So, fine, whichever one. But that's the direction that I’m going in.
That's the Dharma Jewel. The way that the Buddhas have done it in full,
and the way that the arya Sangha
– the highly realized Sangha, that's what the Sangha is talking about –
have done it in part. So that's the goal that I’m seeking. And why?
Well, I’m disgusted and really don’t want to continue suffering. Or, I
have in addition to that, compassion for everybody else who has
suffering, then there's some emotion behind it.
This direction in our life, this safe direction, this needs to be
something which is really, very, very deep, very internalized. This is
what makes us a Buddhist. Not just being a nice, kind person. It's in addition to being a kind person. For this to be really deep and really sincere...this
direction...it's not very easy. Because what it really requires is
total conviction that it's possible to achieve this. If you don't think
it's possible, then it's just wishful thinking for something
that...well, I don't know, it's just fantasy, isn't it? “I can become a
Buddha? Come on. How can I become a Buddha?”
So, as a Buddhist in the beginning, of course, we’re not going to
believe that it's possible. We might have faith, based on who knows
what? Charisma of a teacher or whatever wishful thinking. But, we need
to work on it. Work on becoming convinced that this is really possible
to achieve these goals. If we’re really convinced it's possible, then
you can really put your full heart and energy into it. Otherwise it's
half-hearted. And it's going to require a great deal of understanding of
the mind, the mental continuum, how the self exists...it can't be an
ego trip... and a proper understanding of what we call Buddha-nature, the factors that will enable us to become a Buddha. Well what does that really mean?
So this is part of our work, as a Buddhist. To try to really
understand of all these things. They're very, very important, so that
this direction that we’re going in is something which becomes very, very
stable in us. We’re fully convinced not only that I want to go in this
direction, but that it's possible to achieve the goal.
So we start the day with reaffirming this intention. And we end the
day with a dedication: with reviewing what we've done during the day.
“Have I really followed this? How have I acted?” If we’ve acted against
this, if we’ve gotten angry, etc., to admit that, regret,
purification, there's all sorts of things we can do that help. And
whatever positive force, whatever understanding we’ve gained, dedicate
that toward achieving these goals. So we reaffirm the goal and I want to
continue tomorrow as well. But it's important that this intention at
the beginning of the day and dedication at the end of the day not be
like two sides of a bookcase: that you just have something supporting it
on this side, and something supporting it on that side, and that's it.
It shouldn’t be like that. Tsongkhapa says, “This intention, this
motivation, needs to carry through the entire day – not just the
beginning, and not just the end,” which means reminding ourselves of
this during the day. Remembering it.
Thich Nhat Hanh has a very lovely method for that. He has the
“mindfulness bell,” which, during the course of a day, a bell rings at
random times and that everybody stops for a few moments
and regains their mindfulness of the intention, motivation, etc.. So
one of my students has programmed his cell phone so that the cell phone
gives a beep at various times during the day. He uses this as his
mindfulness bell. So there are various methods that we can use to help
us to remember this motivation, if it's not something which comes to us
automatically. There's also the custom to reaffirm our refuge, our safe
direction, and make three prostrations in the morning when we get up and
in the evening before we go to sleep. Very good, very helpful.
Obviously, if we take an overnight flight on an airplane, we don't get
out into the middle of the aisle and do prostration. If we can't do that
or we're in the army, in an army barrack, or whatever, then you just
hold your hands in a respectful position and imagine that you are
prostrating. That's fine. It's the state of mind that's important.
Then, if we have the ability, then we would set up the water bowls,
offerings, etc., and a little bit of an offering shelf or an altar. But
before that, one sweeps the room. There's a whole set of preliminaries
that one does: sweeping the room, cleaning up. That's very important.
The way that it's explained is that we're showing respect to the honored
guests that we are inviting to our meditation session, the Buddhas, bodhisattvas,
etc.. If Buddha was actually coming to our house physically, certainly
we would sweep the floor, and we would pick up our clothes and make the
bed. Similarly, we do that before our morning meditation.
So, this is a practice, that we do and it helps on another level.
Because if our environment is clean and neat, the mind is influenced by
that, and the mind becomes neat and clean. If the environment around us
is chaotic and messy, that has an influence on our minds - on our way of
thinking. So, an orderly environment is helpful.
Then, we make some offerings. Usually it's water bowls. They don't
have to be made of gold; they don't have to be made of silver. Milarepa
just used his drinking cup. Just something. And if we make an offering
of food, you don't leave it on the altar until it gets rotten and then
throw it away. You leave it for a day, or maybe two days, and then you
eat it. The water that you offer in the bowls, at the end of the day,
either you use it to water the plants...but obviously you don't want to
drown the plants by flooding them with water too much... or pour it down
the sink, but not the toilet. In other words, we try to show respect
for what we're doing. It's very important. It's not just respect for the
Buddhas and bodhisattvas. It's respect for ourselves and respect for
our spiritual path.
Then having a daily practice – very, very important. By daily
practice, I don't mean merely what we've been saying, that you practice
all day long by trying to apply the teachings in our life, in real life
situations. But also, a formal meditation session.
Now, what do we do during our formal meditation session? First of
all, the environment. It's not necessary to have the incense and the
music, and elaborate everything. If you have that, fine. But don't make
it into an ego pride trip. It's not necessary. Simple is always better.
We need to first of all, in our practice, quiet down and set a very
strong intention. We already set our motivation. But set the intention
that, “During this session, I’m going to try to not fall asleep, not get
dull, and not just sit there and have mental wandering.” It's very easy to skip that. We sit down and forget about any of the setting ourselves in the proper mental framework. Our attitude
is, “I’m going to be late for work and I just want to get through this
as quickly as possible,” and then you speed through it and, “Thank
goodness I finished. Maybe I set the new speed record for going through
my practice, that's good.” And then we go off and do our day. So daily
practice gives us stability. It give us continuity in our lives. No
matter what's going on in our lives, there's always one part of the day
which remains stable. So having a daily practice is very helpful for
that.
Daily practice doesn’t have to be long. It can be five minutes. It
doesn’t matter. Just something. What is always recommended is the
seven-part practice. Shantideva outlines it very nicely, the great
Indian master. We already started it with the prostration and making
offerings. Then openly admitting the mistakes that we’ve made, the
shortcomings that we have. Regretting them, “I'm going to try not to
repeat it.” Reaffirm my direction in life, “I’m going to do something
positive to counteract it.” And then, rejoicing in the positive things
that others have done, that we have done. Requesting the teachers to
teach and not to go away – that I’m serious, I really want to go all the
way to liberation, enlightenment. And then the dedication at the end:
“Whatever positive force comes from this, and from everything that I and
others have done, may it contribute, not just to my own enlightenment,
but to everybody's enlightenment.” We read over and again in all sorts
of teachings...Indian, Tibetan, and so on...this is the most basic
fundamental Buddhist practice, the seven part practice.
Then in addition, if you want to do mantras, if you want to do any
other type of meditation, fine. But this is the basis of it. As His
Holiness the Dalai Lama always emphasizes, what we really need the most
is what's called “analytical meditation,” which is basically...at our
stage...thinking over the teachings – taking some topic and thinking
about it in terms of our personal individual lives. For example: “I'm
having difficulty with this person at work,” and, then we analyze that.
“What do I find difficult? What's the problem? How do I deal with it? I
need to develop patience. What are the teachings on patience? What is
the method?” We sit there and we practice being patient while we think
of this person. That's Buddhist practice. That is exactly the word:
“practice.” We are practicing to be able to do that later in
actual real life situations. And then during the day, try to remember
these teachings. Try to actually apply them. That's real Buddhist
practice – not just having an “Om Mani Padme Hum” screen-saver on our
computer. Or having the computer program so it repeats the line “Om Mani
Padme Hum” going through the screen every second, or whatever. I mean,
come on!
And then, as I say, at the end of the day, review what we’ve done.
Certainly don’t feel guilt, but, “I’m going to try better if I haven’t
done so well.” And, always remember the basic feature of samsara
is that it goes up and down. Progress is never linear. It's never going
to get better every day. No matter how hard we’re trying, some days
will go better, some days will go poorly. Some days we will feel like
practicing, some days we won’t. That is perfectly normal, and it's going
to continue to happen until we become an arhat – a liberated being. That's going to be a long time from now.
That means we’re not going to get rid of anger or greed until we
become an arhat. That's very sobering. It may be less, but we’re not
going to get rid of it completely until then. So, up until arhatship, it's going to go up and down. And what is the attitude that is most helpful in that situation? It's called “equanimity.”
That translates into the attitude of, “So what? I don’t feel like
practicing, I’m in a bad mood, so what?” You just go ahead anyway. What
do I expect from samsara? Of course I'm going to not feel like
practicing some days. Of course I'm going to get into a bad mood. So
what? No big deal. And if I need to take a break for a little while,
fine. No big deal. We have to avoid the two extremes of being too hard
on ourselves, or treating ourselves like a baby. But just go ahead, no
matter what. That's called, “the armor-like perseverance” that protects
you from any situation. You just go on. And you use skillful means. You
learn from the Dharma what are the skillful means for dealing with
difficult situations and apply them in practical life. I'll give you an
example.
I live on a busy corner in Berlin. And a couple years ago they built,
underneath me on the ground floor, a very, very popular cafe. And, it
is open from 7 o'clock in the morning until 3 o'clock in the morning,
seven days a week. In the summer...it's on a corner, my house is on a
corner...so there are tables outside on both sides of my house. People
outside drinking beer, talking loudly, laughing, etc., until 3 o'clock
in the morning, every night. So, after a short period of lying in bed at
night and trying to go to sleep with all this noise...and having
visions of medieval times, and having large vats of boiling tar that I
can pour down on the people – dismissing that as the solution, then I
remembered the teaching, “Give the victory to the others, accept the
defeat on yourself.”
My kitchen is the only room in the house that doesn't face the
street. I moved my mattress and put it on the floor of the kitchen and I
sleep in the kitchen the whole summer. This way, the doors are closed.
It's quiet. I'm very, very happy. It's comfortable. And I give the
victory to the others. So, very practical application of this teaching.
And, no big deal sleeping in the kitchen. So what? You put the mattress
up against the wall during the day and put it down at night. No big
deal.
So, like that. We need to be inventive, creative, with the teachings. Apply them. And in order to do that, we need to know
the teachings. So as part of daily practice, which is very, very
helpful, is to read each day, if we can, the list of the bodhisattva
vows, the guidelines of how to deal with difficult situations, The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas, The Seven-Point Attitude-Training, The Eight-Verse Attitude-Training,
and these lojong texts are filled with very, very practical advice.
These are the most practical teachings. And when you go through them
each day, it not only helps you to be mindful of them...in other words
to remember them...but also, if you're facing a particular problem, then
as you read through, you come up with what would be the most
appropriate thing to apply. And then you stop there and you think about
it, and really decide how I'm going to apply this. Very, very useful.
Very practical.
So these are daily practices, how we practice Buddhism in the West. I
think it's appropriate to anybody, in any situation – whether the West,
whether the East, whether nowadays, whether in the past, or the future.
And, as I said, to get any results, we need to put in a lot of hard
work. And, it's not going to come cheaply.
Nowadays, teachings are quite readily available. I was mentioning
before, at a lot of Dharma centers, or big events, you have to pay to
get in. But also...like the example of my web site...a huge amount of
Dharma teaching is available there for free. So, as long as you have a
computer and access to the Internet...which is becoming easier and
easier around the world...then you don't have to travel anywhere. And
you don't have to pay anything. You can just get all the teachings, or
at least a lot of teachings, and it will just increase in the future.
So is this defeating the purpose of the Buddhist training to train
our personalities to really put in the effort to make a transformation?
Would it be better to make the teachings not so easily available: you
have to pay for everything? Keep them hidden and secret in some
libraries that you can't get access to very easily? Well, you could make
an argument for that, surely. But, on the other hand, if the teachings
are available for free, and more easily accessible everywhere, still you
have to put in the hard work to actually make the time to read the
teachings, to study them, to go through them, and so on. And, when there
are Dharma centers and there's no teacher at the Dharma center...as is
the case in many places in the world still...then rather than spending
the entire time together just chanting and playing bells and drums, it
might be helpful...you can do that part of the time if you like, that's
not a problem...but it might be nice if everybody read something
beforehand and comes in and discusses it, tries to understand. Debate
back and forth with each other, “What have you understood from this?”
So, regardless of how many benefits we have now in the modern time,
in terms of more easy access to the teachings, nevertheless we're still
going to have to put in the hard work to understand them and internalize
them. And, there's no cheap way around that. So in this respect,
there's nothing special about us, practicing in the West. So we need to
take advantage, then, of the opportunities that we have. And, yes, as I
say, be a kind person. But that's just the start. That's just the basis.
If we're really going to practice the Buddhist path, that means working
toward liberation and enlightenment. So we need to understand what that
is and develop the proper motivations for achieving that, and become
convinced that it is actually possible.
So, what questions do you have?
Question: The questions concerns how do we become convinced of
the possibility that we can actually achieve liberation and
enlightenment?
Answer: It has to do with understanding: What do we
mean by “mind,” the mental continuum, which is a continuity of mental
activity. I'm not going to go into a detailed teaching here, but what
are the basic characteristics of that mental activity? It goes on,
moment to moment to moment, with a different object each moment; but
nevertheless, the actual defining characteristics are the same. And is confusion, unawareness, anger, and so on, are they part of that essential nature
of that mental activity, or is it something which is what's called
“fleeting”...in other words like a cloud...and can be removed? So, it
really requires an understanding of the nature of mental activity – or
mind.
And this requires not just deep study of the nature of the mind: what appearances
are, how appearances arise, all these sort of things; but also some
experience of trying to actually observe what's actually going on, and
to recognize what's going on in our daily experience, in the daily
moment to moment. Also, I think what is important is the context of this
type of study and practice, which is to understand what actually it
means to be liberated and what actually enlightenment means. What are
the qualities of it? If it's just a word, then that's too vague.
So one needs to really learn, what do we mean by liberation? What do
we mean by enlightenment? And, don't think it's easy. Very, very subtle
points. So, in the beginning, of course, we give what's called “the
benefit of the doubt.” “I don't really know, but I will assume that it
is possible,” and study further, and meditate further, because “I would
really like to become convinced of this. I take it seriously and I
will...for the moment...accept it. But I want to go deeper. Because,
even if it's not possible, and I don't really understand it, but going
in that direction seems like a pretty good idea. That it's certainly,
from the little experience I have and from seeing people who have gone
in that direction, they certainly have less problems and deal with life
much better. So based on that, even if it's not possible, aiming in that
direction, going as far as possible is pretty good.”
That's a good working basis to start with. And, as one of my friends
said very nicely, “I don't know whether it's possible to achieve
liberation or enlightenment. And I don't know if His Holiness the Dalai
Lama is actually a liberated being or an enlightened being. But if I
could become like him...like the Dalai Lama...and be able to deal with
as many difficulties as he deals with, like having a whole Chinese
nation against him, and the unbelievable problems and things that he
faces, if I could become like that, and deal with such things, like His
Holiness deals, that would be enough.”
This is why it's said that, for us, it is very difficult to relate
directly to the Buddhas. I mean, their qualities are just beyond
imagination. But, we can relate through the spiritual teacher. That's
not just any spiritual teacher – not just some lama who's done a three
year retreat and comes and teaches in a center. We're talking about the
greatest of the great. That's the example that we want to look at, in
terms of how to relate to enlightenment and liberation. Whether they're
liberated or not, who am I to say? But here's somebody really with
outstanding qualities. Then it gives us a great deal of...a realistic
example.
I don't mean to say that all lamas who have done just a three year retreat and come to the West are not qualified and not inspiring
– I don't mean to say that. But often we can become quite disappointed
with their conduct, with the way that they handle situations. So it's
best to look at a really outstanding example: so the greatest of the
great lamas, since we have some access to them, we can go to their
teachings. Their teachings are available on the Internet and so on. Same
thing with somebody who has gotten a geshe degree. Or even somebody who
is a tulku...a reincarnate lama...a rinpoche. It doesn't mean that they
are necessarily of the highest quality. So it always says in the
teachings, “Examine the teacher for a long time.” That's important.
There's another point about practicing Dharma in the West...last
point, because we need to end...is that often all sorts of lamas, and
tulkus, and geshes, and kenpos, and whatever, come through our cities,
some cities more than other cities. And they even give initiations. And
we've never heard of this person; we don't know anything about them. And
yet, there's this event which is happening; and many of us just go
because other people are going, or because it seems as though we should
go. That's not really proper.
It's the same thing with so much being available on the Internet.
Just because something is available, like somebody coming to our city
and giving an initiation, or just because it's on the Internet, or just
because there's a book that you could buy, doesn't mean that it is
reliable. You have to check up. Find out “Who is this lama.” Ask. For
the first time...it's the same thing, like looking at something on the
Internet or a book. You can read it. You can go to the initiation. That
doesn't mean that you actually take the initiation and seriously accept this person as your tantric master.
That's something very different. You want to go, check it out. That's
fine. You read something on the Internet – well, is this garbage? Is
this reliable? Who wrote it? If it's garbage – you forget about it. So,
same thing. You are going to find lamas who come who are more qualified,
some less qualified. Even those who are qualified, they might not
resonate with you. You might not feel any connection with them. Check it
out. Just because somebody has a title, or just because somebody knows
how to perform an initiation ritual, that's not sufficient, as a
qualification, to be your tantric teacher.
So, rather than saying that in the West the particular problem that
we have is that not so much is available, I think it's just the
opposite. Our problem is that too much is available. And how do we discriminate
when you have...this I think is terrible...that there are three hundred
different brands of Buddhism? Because every lama who comes starts their
own center and there's three hundred of them available...either
Internet, or wherever...how do you choose? This is a big problem. This
is different from what has been in the past. I don't have the magic
answer to that question. Just because something comes up number one in
Google when you search, doesn't mean that it's the best. So we have to
use our intelligence, our discrimination, to check it out and be patient, and not be premature in deciding that “This is for me – this is the best.”
So, let's end here with the dedication.
We think: “Whatever understanding, whatever positive forces come from
this, may it go deeper and deeper, and act as a cause for reaching
enlightenment for the benefit of all.”
Source: berzinarchives.com