Go Forward with No Fear

Okay, it has been months since I wrote here. There are many reasons: in February, there was an illness. It took a long time to get over this illness. And there was a little bit of laziness thrown in too. And then I began to wonder what I was doing – having taken Refuge only a year ago. You might say I lost confidence – not in the words and work of the Buddha and not in the words of others, just in my own ability to say something. And then there are the excuses too – the grandchildren out of school, the garden to contend with, the house, and on and on…

When His Holiness was in Washington, one of the teachings he gave was on confidence. And there was the winter spent on reading – one of the subjects being the Bardo Todol, for a long time, lying in the bed of illness and watching the shadows work across the ceiling, the only thought was ‘I will go forward without fear.” (Possibly the best way to face changes without fear, whether the changes are the great ones like death and re-birth, or the small everyday changes that we all face.) It became like a mantra, “I will go forward without fear.” So here I am again, following a part of the old Star Trek beginning – “To boldly go …” (Of course, on this path, many have boldly gone before…)

I’ve also been reading a book all winter (since February) that really causes me to work on the important –no, the most important, aspect of all this (and this happens to be the title of the book) The Way of Awakening. In this case, it is the awakening to becoming Bodhichitti – the book is a commentary on Shantideva’s work about Bodhicharyavatara.
(If you are interested, this book is by Geshe Yeshe Tobden.) In the foreword of the book, it is noted that “The major emphasis of the book is on nurturing a mind wishing to benefit other sentient beings.” Or in other words, putting into practice the ideals of love, compassion, generosity, and patience which will benefit not only ourselves but all that we come into contact with: when these ideals become a part of our daily practice I think we give birth to harmony in all spheres, including the environment, the conditions of the world around us and the betterment of others that we do not even know.

At any rate, I have been reading this work over and over these long months – and I am still not done. In some ways, it is like the old fortune telling method of flipping a book open and finding something in the words on pages revealed: there is always something relevant when opening the pages.

It is a morning when the sun is slanting in the window and even though the temperature is warm (and expected to be warmer) there is also a touch of fall in the way that the light comes in – an awareness of the mortality (and yet the immortality) of the season. I leave with this thought: “If we desire better conditions for ourselves in the present, we need to refrain from harming others and try to benefit them, If we do not think of ourselves as spiritual, and nevertheless help others and refrain from harming them, we are in fact spiritual people, because the essence of the spiritual path is is nothing more than trying to help others and not create suffering.”

I go forward without fear.

Lama Zopa on How to Observe Tsongkhapa Day

Je Tsongkhapa (1357-1419) is one of the most significant Tibetan Buddhist masters, whose studies and meditations in all the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism resulted in the founding of the Gelugpa lineage. Buddhists all over the world honor his birthday on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, which this year falls on November 29. Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises the following practice to be performed on that day. As preparation, set up 1,000 offerings to Lama Tsongkhapa (1,000 sets of seven or eight offerings, including water, lights, flowers, incense, and food). If one is not able to do all these offerings, then set up as many hundreds of offering bowls as possible. Perform the puja of 1,000 offerings to Lama Tsongkhapa. This practice is based on the version of the puja of 1,000 offerings to Maitreya Buddha, first used in Bodhgaya in 1993. You should recite the actual offering verse 1,000 times. If you cannot do the practice of 1,000 offerings to Lama Tsongkhapa, then do Lama Chöpa. Once again, set up as many offerings as possible. Perform an extensive offering practice, offering as much as possible at the offerings section of Lama Chöpa. You can use the Extensive light offering practice, which I wrote. As you do this practice, you should substitute ‘water,’ or ‘offering,’ for the word ‘light.’ After either of these extensive pujas, then recite the following:
• The Praise to Lama Tsongkhapa
• Palden Su Suma. This is a very special prayer of the glorified one of the three realms; it was highly
regarded by Song Rinpoche.
• The Songs of the Mystic Experiences of Je Rinpoche
• The praise containing the line “My life has been meaningful.” This praise is by Lama Tsongkhapa himself, in which he says, “I studied this and my life has been made meaningful…” (Name of prayer in Tibetan: Dog chu du lä ma)
After each stanza that describes Lama Tsongkhapa’s attainments, we should rejoice. Rejoice at the qualities of holy deeds of Lama Tsongkhapa, by thinking how wonderful it is. Think, “May I also be like you.” Also, we should pray that we too can achieve the same realizations and become like Lama Tsongkhapa, that we can become as vastly beneficial as the sky, just as Lama Tsongkhapa did. In addition to the other offerings, it is best to offer as many light offerings as you can. It is very common to offer lights on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, even in Solu Khumbu, which is mostly Nyingma. Although the villagers and townspeople don’t really know about Lama Tsongkhapa, somehow on that day and night they still do lots of light offerings.

• Just as many people often use lots of lights during Christmas and at marriages, we too should use lots of lights on Lama Tsongkhapa day and on special days of Buddha and other auspicious days, especially if we are not able to offer them every day. By offering lights, we create the cause of enlightenment, of liberation from samsara, and of the happiness of future lives. Also, success will happen in this life. Even if you hate [the idea of] happiness in this life, it will still come by the way. This is what you get from offering every single candle or Christmas light to the Guru-Triple Gem. We should create the causes of enlightenment by offering lights to Lama Tsongkhapa, the merit fields, and so forth. Therefore, use as many Christmas lights and candles as possible, as long as you don’t burn down the gompa or yourself! But you can burn the ego away. When we offer lights for marriages, New Year parties, and so forth, the entire expense incurred for the party is all wasted. It actually becomes negative karma because it is done with the attachment that clings to this life alone - unless the lights are offered with the sincere wish for other sentient beings to be happy, and without attachment to this life. After completing the Lama Tsongkhapa Day practices, dedicate all the merit collected, beginning with the practice of refuge and Bodichitti, the seven-limb prayer, the various offering practices (outer, inner, and secret), any merit collected, skies and skies of merit collected.
• To recite the Lam-Rim Chenmo or Middle Lam-Rim or Condensed Lam-Rim would be a very good way to repay the great kindness of Lama Tsongkhapa’s extensive beneficial works for the teachings of Buddha and for sentient beings

Je Tsongkhapa

After I pass away
And my pure doctrine is absent,
You will appear as an ordinary being,
Performing the deeds of a Buddha
And establishing the Joyful Land, the great Protector,
In the Land of the Snows.

The words of the Shakymuni Buddha, predicting Guru arrival of ‘The Man from the Valley of Onions,’ Je Tsongkhapa…  Here is an explanation, courtesy of Guhyasamaja Center Blog

“What is now referrred to as “Tsongkhapa Day” is actually the celebration of the ‘parinirvana’ or the enlightenment of the great Lama Tsongkhapa (1357 – 1419) whose birth and enlightent activity was prophesized by the Buddha himself.

From the spiritual practice point of view, Tsongkhapa Day is extremely significant. Since Guru Yoga practice is the heart and soul of path towards enlightenment, the celebration acts as a reminder for all of us to engage in Guru devotion and seek the blessings of all the direct and lineage masters. On this day devotees (both lay people and monks) make expensive offerings and engage in Guru puja practices. The fundmental reason is that there are no holier objects of worship and offering than the Guru/Gurus when it comes to accumulation of merit!”

I’m far too much of a novice to discuss the accomplishments of Tsongkhapa.  What I can point out is that Tsongkhapa is considered the founder of the Geluk school and wrote the excellent treatise ‘The Great Exposition of the Stages of the Path’ which is a lam rim text.  Tsongkhapa was a great scholar and a student as well as a teacher.  It is said that he heard teachings and received lineages from all the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.  Of Tsongkhapa, it is also said: “This was a golden age in Tibet, and thousands of Tibetans were inspired by Je Tsongkhapa’s immaculate example of pure moral discipline, compassionate way of life, and profound, liberating wisdom.”

In establishing the tradition of the Geluk school, Tsongkhapa emphasized the union of the Sutras (the teachings of the Shakymuni Buddha) and Tantras (Lam a Yeshe – “each one of us is a union of all universal energy. Everything that we need in order to be complete is within us right at this very moment. It is simply a matter of being able to recognize it. This is the tantric approach.”)

The other great emphasis was placed on Vinaya (the moral code of discipline).

A short biography of Je Tsongkhapa can be found in the Berzin Archives (http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/approaching_buddhism/teachers/lineage_masters/short_biography_lama_tsongkhapa.html) which goes further into the importance of Je Tsongkhapa’s teachings.  (I particularly liked the fact that an analogy is drawn to baking a cake! Read the brief page and the import will be evident…)

The point of all this is that this week contains the celebration of Tsongkhapa on November 30^th.  So what can the ordinary householder do?  The novice Buddhist?  I think that if you do not have access to a ceremony, one can observe this day by being compassionate and offering acts of kindness where ever and whenever possible.  By observing this day with vegetarian meals (another act of compassion) and by offering prayers …

Open to suggestions ...

If you think

Meditating on Meditating?

In meditation class, the beginning is a concentration of the stabilizing (breath) meditation, followed by the analytical.  Often the analytical meditation is much harder: for example the meditation in which we are asked to visualize several people and analyze how we designate with labels like “friend” or “enemy.”  So why is this type of meditation, the analytical, important to our spiritual journey, our learning?  I think the answer is in the quote below …

From His Holiness, the Dalai Lama’s book, My Spiritual Journey…

“To free ourselves from suffering, we must understand what happens before suffering.  For nothing appears without causes or conditions.  It’s up to us recognize the causes that increase suffering or diminish it.  That is part of the analysis of the mind, an indispensable preliminary to spiritual practice.

The mind is subject ot circumstantial pressures; it fluctuates with them and reacts to the impact of sensations.  Material progress and a higher standard of living improve comfort and health but do not lead to a transformation of the mind, the only thing capable of providing lasting peace.  Profound happiness, unlike fleeting pleasures, is spiritual by nature.  It depends on the happiness of others, and is based on love and tenderness.  We would be wrong to think that being happy consists of grasping the best at others’ expense.  The lack of altruism, which causes family discord and disturbance, causes solitude.  We should take care not to be excessively concerned with the external world, realizing that grasping and owning material goods reinforce self-centeredness. 

The key to happiness lies in strength of mind, inner serenity, and a quality like steadfastness.  We can approach this by developing tenderness and love, which correspond to the profound nature of every human being.  The mother-child relationship is probably the best example of the non-ordinary love of loving someone else more than yourself.  The first word that each of us has uttered is “mama,” and in just about every language, this word contains the syllable “ma.”  Another monosyllabic word in most languages of the world, with the exception of Japanese, designates the self “me” (or mine) indicates the extreme attachment we have for out own person.  It is an attachment we must fight in order to spread altruistic qualities. 

Of course, one can cultivate human qualities without having a religion.  But as a general rule, religion allows us to increase these qualities more effectively.”

Repentance and Being Self Centered

For all the evil deeds I have done in the past,

Created by my body, speech and mind,

From Beginningless greed, hatred and delusion,

I now know shame and repent them all.

Traditional Repentance Verse from "The Practices & Vows of Samantabadra Bodhisattva" (Avatamsaka Sutra, Chapter 40)

The more that I read and study, the more questions arise: where does introspection cross the line from reviewing one’s past in order to go forward and when and where does the self-introspection of past deeds become simply another form of self-centeredness?

In looking back, it is hard not to be stymied by guilt, hijacked into self-centeredness in going over and over past events. The words that helped (aside from the Repentance Verse) were these words from Ven. Thubten Chodron, from one of her books, Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga Method of Chenrezig: " Guilt and shame are obstacles to overcome on the path, because they keep us trapped in our self-centered melodrama entitled "How Bad I Am." Regret, on the other hand, realizes that we erred, leads us to purify, and motivates us to refrain from acting like that in the future.
How do we counteract guilt and shame? One way is to recognize that the person who did that action no longer exists. You are different now. Is the person who did that action five years ago the same person you are now? If she were exactly the same person, you would still be doing the same action. The present "you" exists in a continuum from that person, but is not exactly the same as her. Look back at the person you were with compassion. You can understand the suffering and confusion she was experiencing that made her act in that way."

I know I am not the same person, in fact sometimes I feel as if there are at least 10 versions of the person that inhabits this space, this body. Looking back at the past in meditation presents some aspects of this being that it are hard to recognize. The thought that the person who did the action no longer exists is a the beginning of knowing that one can have compassion for themselves as one has compassion for all other beings.

Lhabab Duchen

Friday, October 29 is Lhabab Duchen – one of four yearly Great Wheel Days.

These days commemorate important events in the life of the Buddha. Lhabab Duchen is the day the Buddha descended from the heavens where he was teaching to the gods and his mother – bringing her to liberation. On Great Wheel days the effects of positive and negative actions are multiplied 10 million times. It is customary for practitioners to engage in virtuous activities such as prayer and meditation on these days.

Outer (Actions):-

 -Do not eat meat

- Feed and save the lives of animals

- Do not tell lies

- Do not steal

- Do not indulge in any intoxicants

Inner (Thoughts):

- Put aside angry thoughts; practice patience

- Put aside jealous thoughts; practice joy

- Put aside thoughts of hatred; practice love


As the Buddha taught: “Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.”

Pests

The TV was on this morning (it is sometimes like another ‘monkey mind’ in the background as emails are read) and there was this commercial. The commercial was for a new mouse trap which looks like an A frame house – “Look,” the young attractive housewife says to her hubby, “No fuss, no muss, just pull the lever and dispose of the trap in the garbage. You never have to touch the mouse or get your hands dirty!’

You never have to see or become aware of the suffering of another sentient being.

Like an execution

Like abandoning a child

Like swatting flies

This, I think, is the opposite of mindfulness. We do not need to dirty out minds with thinking about another being, no matter how small or inconsequential or no matter how abhorrent that other being is to us.

And I am as guilty as anyone else: how many wasp traps have I hung over the years? Or moth traps have I placed in the cabinets? Are these pests’ not sentient beings also?

Does not all life have a purpose?

So these are my questions on this morning.


And from the ‘Path to Enlightenment by H.H.:
The nature of samsaric evolution is not such that death is followed by nothingness, nor that humans are always reborn as humans and insects as insects. On the contrary, we all carry within us the karmic potencies of all realms of cyclic existence. Many beings transmigrate from higher to lower realms, others from lower to higher. The selection of a place of rebirth is not directly in our own hands but is conditioned by our karma and delusions. They who possess spiritual understanding can control their destiny at the time of death, but for ordinary beings the process is very much an automatic chain reaction of karmic seeds and habitual psychic response patterns....
Our repeated experience of frustration, dissatisfaction and misery does not have external conditions as its root cause. The problem is mainly our lack of spiritual development. As a result of this handicap, the mind is controlled principally by afflicted emotions and illusions. Attachment, aversion and ignorance rather than a free spirit, love and wisdom are the guiding forces. Recognizing this simple truth is the beginning of the spiritual path.
The Path to Enlightenment

Peace...Peace ...Peace