Integrating Dharma into Our Lives
Alexander Berzin
Bok, Poland, December 13, 2002
This evening, I’d like to speak about the practice of Dharma in daily life. The word Dharma
means a preventive measure. It’s something that we do in order to avoid
problems. The first thing that we need to do in order to involve
ourselves with Dharma practice is to recognize the various types of
problems or difficulties we have in life. The next is to realize that Dharma practice is aimed at helping us to get rid of these problems.
The
practice of Dharma is not just to feel good, or to have a nice hobby,
or to be trendy, or anything like that. The practice of Dharma is
intended to help us get rid of our problems. That means that in order to
practice Dharma realistically, we need to realize that it’s not going
to be a pleasant process. We have to look at and actually face the
unpleasant things in our lives, the difficulties we’re having -- not
run away from them, but rather face them with the attitude that now we’re going to try to deal with them.
Our
problems can take many forms. We are all familiar with most of them --
we’re insecure; we have difficulties in our relationships with others;
we feel alienated; we have difficulties with our emotions and feelings
-- the usual stuff we all have. We have difficulties dealing with our
families and with our parents; they get sick and old. We have
difficulties dealing with our own sicknesses and old age. And if we’re a
young person,
we have difficulties in figuring out what we’re going to do with our
lives, how to make a living, which direction to go in, and so on. We
need to look at all such things.
One of the most important points in Buddhism is to realize that these problems we all experience arise from causes. It’s not that they’re there because of no cause at all. The source of these problems is within ourselves. This is a big insight
and not easy for most people to accept. This is because most of us tend
to place the blame for our problems on other people or on external
situations. We feel, “I’m unhappy because of what you did -- you didn’t
call me; you abandoned me; you don’t love
me. It’s all your fault.” Or we put the blame on our parents -- on what
our parents did or didn’t do to us when we were little children. Or we
place the blame on the economic situation or the political situation,
social situation, and so on. Now of course, all these factors play a
role in our experience of life. Buddhism doesn’t deny that. But the main
cause, the deeper cause of our problems, is within ourselves -- it’s
our own attitudes, especially our confusion.
If we want to
find one factor that clearly defines the Buddhist attitude concerning
what it means to practice Buddhism in daily life, I would say it is
this. When we’re having difficulties, we look within ourselves to try to
find the source and, once we identify it, we try to change the
situation from within. When we talk about looking within and finding the
source of our problems, it’s not based on having made a moral judgment
that I’m a bad person and I have to change and be good. Buddhism does
not make moral judgments. We try to locate the source of our problems
inside simply because we suffer and want to get rid of our problems and
unhappiness, and the main source of them is our own attitudes.
Specifically, Buddha
said the deepest cause of our problems and suffering is our confusion.
So, what we need to do is to discover how we’re confused about what’s
going on and how we can correct that by gaining correct understanding.
What is our confusion about? It’s about several things. One is behavioral cause and effect.
We think that if we act in a certain way that it's going to have no
effect at all. For example, we think, “I can be late, ignore you, and so
on, and it doesn’t matter.” That’s wrong; that’s confused. Or we think
that something we do or how we behave is going to have a certain effect
that is absurd and couldn’t possibly happen. For instance, “I was nice
to you and so you’ll love me in return. I bought you a nice present, so
why don’t you love me now?” With thoughts like these, we imagine that
our actions and behavior are going to have an impossible effect or we
inflate them, thinking that they’re going to produce more of an effect
than they possibly could. Also, we might think that certain things are
going to bring about one type of effect; whereas, in fact, they bring
about the exact opposite. For instance, we want to be happy and so we
think that the way to become happy is to get drunk all the time. But this just produces more problems than happiness.
The
other thing that we are confused about is how we exist, how others
exist, and how the world exists. For example, we suffer and become
unhappy at growing old and getting sick. But what else do we expect as
human beings? Human beings get sick and human beings grow old, unless we
die young -- these things are no big surprise. When we start seeing
gray hair in the mirror and we’re unhappy and shocked about it, this is
being unrealistic and confused about how the world exists, about how we
exist.
Let’s say we have a problem with growing older. Because of our confusion about that -- our not accepting the reality of it -- we act in destructive
ways under the influence of disturbing emotions and attitudes. For
example, compulsively trying to look young and attractive, we act with longing desire to try to get things that we hope will make us secure -- like the attention
and love of others, especially of younger people whom we find
attractive. Behind this syndrome usually lies the confusion that I am
the most important person in the world; I’m the center of the universe.
So everybody should pay attention to me. Regardless of what I look like,
everybody should find me attractive and like me. It drives us crazy if
someone doesn’t find us attractive or they don’t like us. It drives us
even more crazy if they ignore us -- if they don’t pay attention to us
when we would like them to find us attractive, if not physically, at
least in some way. But, not everybody liked Shakyamuni Buddha; so what hope is there that everyone is going to like us!
Our wish to be liked by everyone is an unrealistic expectation. It’s not reality. It’s based on confusion, longing desire, and attachment that everybody should find us attractive and pay attention to us. Underlying it is the disturbing attitude of naivety.
We think that we are so important and loveable that everybody should
like us, so there must be something wrong with this person if he or she
doesn’t like me. Or worse, we start doubting ourselves: “There’s
something wrong with me that’s causing this person not to like me,” and
so we feel bad or guilty. This is all naivety.
The
main thing, then, is working on ourselves. This is what Dharma practice
is all about. No matter what the situation is -- if we are having
difficulties, feeling insecure, or whatever, we need to look in
ourselves to see what’s going on. Where is the confusion behind these
disturbing emotions I’m feeling? However, if we’re looking at a
relationship we’re in that’s developed problems, we also need to realize
that we’re not the only one with confusion. Obviously, the other
person has confusion as well. The point is that we don’t just say, “You
have to change; everything I’m doing is fine and perfect; you are the
one who has to change.” On the other hand, we don’t say that I’m the
only one that has to change either, because that can degenerate into a
martyr complex. We try to discuss things openly with the other person --
although, of course, the person needs to be receptive to this. We need
to acknowledge that both of us are confused. There’s a problem in both
of us in terms of how we’re understanding what’s going on in our
relationship, so let’s try to clear up the confusion in both of us. This
is the most realistic and Dharmic way in which to proceed.
There
are many different types of Buddhist practice. It’s not sufficient
merely to get instructions on how to perform them like learning how to
perform some trick. It’s very important to understand, with any
practice, how is it going to help us in overcoming difficulties. We need
to learn not only when and how to apply the practice, but also the
assumptions behind it. This means that we don’t start with advanced
practices. We start from the beginning and build up a foundation, so
that we know, from the sequence of how the Dharma teachings build up,
what’s going on with any practice.
Now, it’s true that we do
read teachings that say, “If you’re given a medicine, don’t ask
questions about how it works, just take the medicine!” Although this is a
good piece of advice, we need to understand that it’s warning against
an extreme. The extreme is just to study and try to understand the
teachings, but never to put anything we learn into practice. We want to
avoid that extreme. There is also the other extreme, however, which we
equally need to avoid. That is when we hear some Dharma instructions
concerning some practice, then, with blind faith, just doing it without
having any understanding of what we’re doing or why. The main problem
that comes from that extreme is that we never really understand how to
apply the practice to daily life. If we understand the point behind any
practice -- if we understand how it works and what its intention
is -- then we don’t need someone else to tell us how to apply it in
daily life. We understand and we know how to apply it ourselves.
When
we talk about eliminating our problems, we’re talking not only about
eliminating just our own personal problems, we’re also talking about
getting rid of the difficulties we have in helping others. “I have
problems helping others because of laziness or selfishness, or because
of being too busy.” Or, “I just don’t understand what your problem is
and I have no idea of what to do to help you.” That’s the big difficulty
we have, isn’t it? All of these difficulties in helping others are also
because of our confusion. For instance, the confusion that I should be
like Almighty God and all I have to do is one thing and that’s going to
solve all your problems; and if it didn’t solve all your problems,
there’s something wrong with you. You didn’t do it right, so you’re
guilty. Or I’m guilty, because I should have been able to solve your
problems and I didn’t, so I’m no good. Again, it’s confusion about cause
and effect.
Another
point is that to be able to apply the Dharma effectively in daily life
in a non-neurotic way, we also need to have the conviction that it is
possible actually to get rid of our problems. We must be convinced that
it is possible to get rid of our confusion by following the basic
Buddhist approach: to get rid of something, we need to eliminate the
causes that make it occur. But, of course, it’s very difficult to gain
deep, firm conviction
that it is possible to eliminate all our confusion so that it never
recurs, and also firm conviction that it is possible to gain liberation
and enlightenment. This is especially difficult when we don’t even
understand what liberation and enlightenment really are. So how can we
really consider whether it’s possible or not to achieve them? If we
don’t think they’re possible, isn’t it a bit hypocritical to aim to
achieve something that we don’t think even exists? Then it becomes some
sort of crazy game that we’re playing; our Dharma practice is not for real.
We have to be really convinced, and this requires a lot of study and understanding, as well as deep thought and meditation.
We must be convinced that not only are liberation and enlightenment
possible; but also that it’s possible for me to achieve them. Not that
it was possible only for Shakyamuni to achieve them, but I can’t do it.
But rather, it’s possible for me to achieve them, and it’s possible for
everybody to achieve them as well. We must understand what it is that we
have to do to get rid of our confusion. What is it that will really rid
us of it? What will really rid us of confusion is correct
understanding; and so we have to understand how correct understanding
can overpower confusion and eliminate it so that it never returns. As
the result of all of this, we see that the actual working place of
Dharma practice is daily life; it’s dealing with our problems, our
confusion, and our difficulties in life from moment to moment.
Dharma
practice is not simply time out from life, going to a nice, quiet
meditation cave, or even just to our room, and sitting on a cushion to
escape having to deal with our lives. Escaping is not the focus of
Dharma practice. When we go to a quiet place to meditate, we do so in
order to build up the skills we need to deal with our problems in life.
The main focus is life. The focus is not on winning the Olympic medal in
sitting and meditating! Dharma practice is all about applying Dharma in
life.
Moreover, Dharma practice is introspective. With it, we try to be attentive of our emotional states, our motivations,
our attitudes, our compulsive patterns of behavior. We especially need
to look out for disturbing emotions. The defining characteristic of a disturbing emotion or attitude is that when it arises, it makes us and/or others feel uncomfortable. We lose our peace of mind
and become out of control. This is a very helpful definition, because
knowing it helps us to recognize when we’re acting under the influence
of one. We can know that there’s something disturbing going on in our
minds if we feel uncomfortable. At such times, we need to check what’s
going on inside and apply the antidotes to correct it.
This
requires becoming very sensitive to what’s going on inside us. And to do
anything about changing our emotional state, if we find it disturbing,
requires the realization that if we act in a disturbed and disturbing
way, it’s going to create a lot of unhappiness both for us and for
others. We don’t want that; we’ve had enough of that. And if we’re
upset, how can we be of help to anybody?
Dharma
practice also requires familiarity with many different opponent forces,
not just one or two. Our lives are very complex and one particular
antidote is not always going to work. One particular practice is not
going to be the most effective in every single situation. To really be
able to apply things in daily life requires a great deal of flexibility
and many different methods. If this doesn’t work, then we do that; if
that doesn’t work, then we try this.
My teacher Tsenzhab
Serkong Rinpoche used to say that when you’re trying to do something in
life, always have two or three alternative plans. Then, if plan A
doesn’t work, you won’t just give up. That’s because you have a backup
plan, B or C. One of them will eventually work. This I found to be very
helpful advice. It’s the same thing with the Dharma: if method A doesn’t
work in some particular situation, we always have a backup plan. There
are other things we can turn to. All this is obviously based on study,
on learning various methods and meditations, which we then practice in
preparation, like we do with physical training. We work to train
ourselves to be familiar with these methods so that we can actually
apply them in daily life when we need them. This requires looking at
Dharma practice not as a hobby, but as a full-time commitment.
We
apply Dharma practice in our families. We apply it in dealing with our
parents, with our children, and in dealing with the people at work. In
doing this, we need to avoid various extremes. We mentioned a little bit
of this already. We have to avoid the extreme of putting the blame for
our problems on others or the blame wholly on ourselves -- both of us
contribute. We can try to get other people to change, but it is easiest
to change ourselves.
Self-improvement, then, is the focus; but in doing this, we have to try to avoid the extreme of narcissistic self-preoccupation.
With self-preoccupation, we are always looking at just ourselves and
don’t pay attention to anybody else. This can reinforce the feeling that
we’re the center of the universe and our problems are the most
important ones in the world. No one else’s problems are important or
hurt.
Another extreme is thinking that we’re all bad or we’re
all good. It’s true that we need to recognize our difficult sides, the
sides we need to work on. But we also need to recognize our positive
sides, our positive qualities, so that we can develop them more and
more. Many of us Westerners have low self-esteem. If we focus too much
on our problems and confusion, this can easily reinforce that low
self-esteem. This is not the point at all.
At the same time as keeping watch on our disturbing emotions, we need to balance this with remembering our good qualities.
Even the cruelest people do have some experience of good qualities.
Undoubtedly they’ve had the experience of holding a puppy or kitten in
their laps, petting it, and feeling a little warmth toward it. Almost
everyone has at least had that experience. So we recognize that we are
capable of giving some warmth like this and, in this way, we see our
positive sides as well. Dharma practice is not just working on our
negative sides; it must be balanced. We need to work on reinforcing our
positive sides too.
In doing this, in trying to sustain a
balance between looking at our shortcomings and at our good qualities,
we need to avoid another set of extremes. One extreme is guilt, “I’m
bad. I should practice and since I’m not practicing, I’m even worse.”
This word should needs to be eliminated from our way of looking
at Dharma practice. It is never a matter of “should.” If we want to rid
ourselves of the problems we have and avoid further ones in the future,
the healthiest attitude is to think, simply, “If I want to get rid of
my problem, this practice will do that.” Now, whether or not we do the
practice, that’s our own choice. Nobody is saying, “You should do this and, if you don’t do it, you’re bad.”
But, we also need to avoid the other extreme, which is the extreme of, “We are all perfect; just see your Buddha-nature
and everything is perfect.” This is a very dangerous extreme because it
can lead to the attitude that we don’t need to change; we don’t need to
stop or give up any of our negative ways because we are already
perfect. We need to avoid both these extremes -- feeling we’re bad or
feeling we’re perfect. Basically, we need to take responsibility
for ourselves. That’s the main key for integrating the Dharma in our
daily lives. We take responsibility for ourselves, to do something about
the quality of our lives.
While working on ourselves, we can gain inspiration from spiritual teachers,
as well as from the community of other people who are practicing with
us. However, for most people, fantastic stories about masters many
centuries ago being able to fly through the air is not a stable source
of inspiration from teachers. That’s because such things are really
difficult to relate to and they tend to lead us into the whole magic
trip. Best are living examples whom we actually have some contact with,
even if that contact is minimal.
Buddhas or truly qualified
teachers are not trying to impress us, nor are they trying to inspire
us. The example is that they are like the sun. The sun doesn’t try to
warm people; just the way the sun is naturally warms others. The same
thing is true with great spiritual teachers. They inspire us
spontaneously and naturally from the way that they are in life, their
character, and their ways of dealing with things. It’s not the magic
tricks. What’s the most inspiring is more realistic and down to earth.
I remember Dudjom Rinpoche. He died many years ago. He was the head of the Nyingma
lineage and was one of my teachers. He had terrible asthma. I have
asthma too and so I know what it’s like to have difficulty breathing. I
know how difficult it is to teach when you can’t breathe normally,
because all your energy has to be directed inwards to get enough air.
It’s very difficult for your energy to go out in that situation. Yet, I
would see Dudjom Rinpoche having terrible asthma and still going up on
stage and teaching. He wasn’t the slightest bit disturbed by the asthma
and dealt with it in an incredible way while giving amazing teachings.
This was unbelievably inspiring, very down to earth, no big magic trick.
It’s dealing with real life situations and that’s inspiring.
As
we go along the spiritual path and make progress, we can also get
inspiration from ourselves. This, too, is an important source of
inspiration. We gain inspiration from our own progress. But, we have to
be very delicate in doing this. Most people can’t handle this factor
emotionally, because the tendency is to get arrogant and proud if we
make some progress. So, we have to define carefully what we mean by
progress.
First
of all, we have to realize that progress is never linear; it goes up
and down and up and down. This is one of the main characteristics of samsara,
and it’s not just talking about higher and lower rebirths. Going up and
down also refers to everyday life. Now I feel happy; now I feel
unhappy. Our moods go up and down. Now, I feel like practicing, now I
don’t feel like practicing -- that goes up and down all the time, so
don’t be surprised. In fact, it’s going to continue like that until we
become an arhat,
a liberated being, free from samsara. Up until that point, which is
unbelievably advanced, samsara is going to continue going up and down.
So don’t get discouraged when, after having been practicing a very long
time, all of sudden we get into difficulty in a personal romantic
relationship. Suddenly, we’re emotionally upset -- this happens! It
doesn’t mean that we’ve been a terrible practitioner. It’s just natural,
given the reality of our samsaric condition.
Miracles
don’t usually happen in Dharma practice. If we want to apply Dharma to
daily life, don’t expect miracles, especially not in our progress. How
do we measure progress realistically? His Holiness the Dalai Lama says,
don’t just look in terms of a year or two of Dharma practice. Look in
terms of five or ten years of practice to check, “Am I a calmer person
than I was five or ten years ago? Am I able to handle more difficult
situations and not get so upset or thrown by them?” If we are, we’ve
made some progress and that’s inspiring. We still have problems, but
this gives us strength to go on. We don’t get so upset in difficult
situations when things go badly. We’re able to recover more quickly.
When
we talk about ourselves as a source of inspiration, the main point is
that this inspiration gives us the strength to continue on the path.
This is because we’re convinced that we’re going in the right direction.
And we are only convinced that we’re going in the right direction if
we have a realistic idea of what it means to go in that direction --
namely that, while going in that general direction, we’ll continually be
going up and down.
These are some general ideas of how to integrate the practice of Dharma into daily life. I hope they are helpful. Thank you.
Source: berzinarchives.com