Living and Dying With Dignity

by Venerable Sheng Yen

How can we live and die with dignity? People usually cannot control their life situations or make things happen according to their wishes, and too often they feel they have no one to rely on, nowhere to find security, nowhere to turn in life. These are the feelings and situations in which most sentient beings find themselves. But it is possible to change this perception to one that contains a sense of beauty and love while affirming that life is meaningful. In this process, one can also grow and mature. This is the appropriate attitude toward life from the Buddhist point of view.

Having said that, I should point out that many Buddhists feel that life is basically suffering, a burden to bear, especially with regard to the body. What they fail to understand is that attaining enlightenment — that is, living a life based on wisdom — is possible only if one has a human form. Without a body to practice with it would be impossible to attain liberation and Buddhahood. There is a Buddhist saying that a human form is very difficult to attain, but having it is a great opportunity to hear the dharma. Therefore, attaining wisdom begins with having a human form. In this sense, Buddhists who hold a negative attitude toward life misconstrue the dharma. With an appropriate understanding of the dharma, one would treat life as something very, very valuable.

From another perspective, some Buddhists may think the best way to attain Buddhahood is to be reborn in the Pure Land, the Western Paradise of Amitabha Buddha. Though the Pure Land is a spiritual realm of bliss, one cannot attain Buddhahood if one remains there. One must acquire a human form to be able to generate the vows to practise the Bodhisattva path. So the whole process, from becoming an ordinary sentient being to entering the Bodhisattva path and eventually attaining Buddhahood, is accomplished in the human realm.

LIFE AND DEATH ARE NOT SEPARATE

If we can see that living and dying are interrelated processes, we can accept that the two are inseparable: if we are born, we will die; one is directly connected to the other. In this sense, being born may not be seen as a joyful thing, but it also need not be viewed as such a hazard. Likewise, death need not be seen as either sad or joyful. It all depends on one’s attitude. If you do not appreciate the beauty of life, then living can be viewed as pitiable. Some people find life joyful, but if there is no dignity, what is there to be happy about? If you do not know the true meaning of death, then it will be sad and depressing when it comes. But once you understand that life and death are innate parts of the process, you will be able to find dignity in life as well as in death.

How can we find dignity in our life? One way to answer this question is to look at life from three aspects: the meaning of life, the value of life, and the goal of life. If you can experience these, you will find dignity in your life. When I speak of the meaning of life, I refer to the reason why we continue living. From the Buddhist point of view, the significance of attaining life is that we have an opportunity to repay karmic debts from past lives.

Karma says that the things we do are causes that will create consequences. With this life, we can receive and accept appropriate karmic retribution from our actions in previous lives. In any present or future life, we must accept a certain amount of retribution from past karma. We can also use this life to fulfil the vows of practice that we have made in previous lifetimes. If we made certain promises and vows, this also becomes part of our karma. Then in this lifetime we have an obligation, as well as an opportunity, to fulfil those previous promises. So from the Buddhist perspective, the meaning o life is to receive karmic retribution as well as to fulfil our previous vows.

The value of your life is not assigned by someone who examines it and makes a judgement; it rests solely on your intentions and actions in fulfilling your responsibilities and offering yourself to sentient beings. It is the effort, within your limits of time and energy, to be of use to others. Whether they know of your dedication or understand it, the value of your life is simply in this effort to offer yourself. In society we play roles: for example, in order to be a mother, you accept the responsibilities of motherhood. It’s the same for any other role you play. Responsibility means doing your best in that role without expecting a reward. We can also offer ourselves the benefit of the natural environment. All these activities belong to the realm of benefiting oneself as well as others — in other words, practising the bodhisattva path.

Having goals means establishing a long-term direction for your life, including sharing it with sentient beings. It means continuing to make and fulfil vows. If we set these goals not just for this life but for future lives as well, whether our life is short or long, we live with dignity. As it is with value, the dignity that is conferred on you by others is not necessarily genuine. The only reliable dignity is that which you give yourself by the way you conduct your life.

It is useful to understand life and death as two sides of the same coin, as aspects of an unlimited process in space and time. Seeing it this way, there is no reason to be attached to life or afraid of death. Life and death are, on one hand, our right, and on the other hand, our responsibility. When alive, accept life and make good use of it; when dying, accept and welcome it. I have told people on their deathbed: “Do not just wait for death nor fear it. So long as you have one more minute, one more second, use that time to practice.” We should not be averse to life nor wish for death, but when it is time to go, clinging to life will not work. Of course, this is very difficult to do!

From a fairly early age, children should learn that just as there is life, there is death. It’s better to teach them to be aware of death than to shield them from that fact — not to frighten them but to help them understand that to all living things, death will eventually come. Knowing that life and death are part of the same process provides for a healthier, more wholesome view of life. To be mentally prepared for the eventual coming of death is beneficial for the growth of wisdom. Before he became enlightened, Siddhartha Gautama witnessed firsthand the processes of life: birth, old age, sickness, and death. That knowledge inspired him to devote his life to finding a way to help people relieve their suffering and attain liberation. So, the Buddhist path began with Shakyamuni Buddha facing the realities of birth, old age, sickness, and death. His life shows that if we treasure life as an opportunity to grow in wisdom and offer oneself to others, there is no need to fear death.

THE ORIGIN AND DESTINATION OF LIFE 

Religions and philosophies have views about where life comes from and where we go after death. Some people even try to use supernormal powers to look into previous and future lifetimes. While the desire to look into the past and future is typical human strivings, the results are not reliable. Confucius had a saying that life and death depend on fate, but he was not clear on what fate was. Though not a Buddhist, Master Laozi said that as soon as one is born, the causes for one’s death are already in motion. He also said, “Out of birth, into death.” As a philosophy, this is quite good. The idea that life was created by God and we die because God wants us to return to Him is also good in that one can feel that someone is taking care of the process. One difference is that most religions do not believe in past and future lives. As a Buddhist, however, I believe that the origin of my life extends back to my previous lives without limit, and my future lives will follow until I attain Buddhahood. That is the Buddhist view as to the origin and destination of life.

Buddhists believe that life comes from a past without beginning. So if we just look at this lifetime, the moment of our birth is not the beginning of the process and the moment of our death is not the end of this process — our current life is but one segment of an unbounded life process. Let’s use the analogy of a tourist. Today he is in New York; tomorrow he is not in New York because he has gone to Washington, D.C. The day after, he disappears from Washington because he has gone to Chicago. So, in any specific city (one lifetime in our analogy), that person appears for a period of time and then moves on. But if you look at his total itinerary, it is all one journey. So, what you may perceive as the end of this period of life actually signifies the eventual beginning of a different period of life — for me, for you, for everyone. When you see life as part of an unlimited and continuous process, there is no need to feel too disappointed in this one life, however, it turns out.

The phenomenon of life and death can be described in a more general way as the arising and perishing of causes and conditions. The Buddhist term for this process is “conditioned arising.” This refers to the fact that all phenomena consist of effects due to a myriad of changing causes and conditions acting together. The result of causes and conditions arising and perishing is all the phenomena we experience, including our own life. From the perspective of conditioned arising, we can speak of three kinds of birth and death.

The first kind of birth and death is the arising and perishing of the moment. In other words, in every instant of time, there are changes in our mental processes and changes in our bodily processes. Normally we do not take notice of such minute changes in us, and therefore we do not think of them as births and deaths. In this kind of arising and perishing, it is only the physical body that appears to be constant from instant to instant. But the cells of the body are also constantly undergoing these processes of arising and perishing — our cells continually generate and die. So, in the mind as well as in the body, in every instant, there are constant occasions of births (arising) and deaths (perishing).

The second kind of birth and death is more easily identifiable: the birth and death of one lifespan. In other words, the human lifespan arises at the moment of conception and perishes when we die. All living creatures experience the same arising and perishing of their lifespan, but we are talking here about the human context.

The third kind of birth and death consists of our lives in the three times of our past, present, and future. Our previous lives are countless; our future lives can also be countless until we attain Buddhahood. When we look at our lifespan this way, it is not just the moment we are born until the moment we die, but rather it extends over the three times. This gives us some hope and consolation in that, having attained life, we should continue to live because we have future lives to come.

What if one is unhappy and contemplates suicide, thinking the next life will be better? Is that a good thing? No, because when one commits suicide, it is being irresponsible to previous lifetimes, not doing justice to the present life, and creating karmic disturbances for their future life.

A single lifespan can be likened to the daily rise of the sun, and then its disappearance over the horizon in the evening. After the sun goes down you do not see it, but it is still there and will rise again in the morning. It does not come into being anew every morning. A lifespan is like that. When it ends, it eventually gives rise to another lifespan, like the sun rising again. But this observation only applies to the physical manifestation of a single lifespan, for there is pure Buddha-nature in every one of us that is ever-present throughout the three times. Like the sun, the physical body may go through the process of appearing and disappearing, but that has nothing to do with our pure Buddha-nature, which is there even when we don’t perceive it.

So, each lifespan can be thought of as a segment followed by another segment within the endless process of arising and perishing, but if one remains at this level, in the long run, one has not benefited from having all those precious lives. In order to elevate the quality and the meaning of life in the three times, we have to go beyond segmented birth and death and achieve transformational birth and death. That means practising buddha-dharma.

Transformational birth and death refer to the maturing of merit and virtue in a practitioner whose compassion and wisdom continue to grow life afterlife. Such a person can be called a sage, a bodhisattva, or an arhat. This process of transformation continues over the three times. At this level, a sage can still have a physical body or may have transcended the physical body and be basically using pure spiritual energy to cultivate the path. Buddhahood is the ultimate end of this process of transformation. It is the level at which one has transcended samsara — the cycle of birth and death — and has attained the great nirvana. Such a buddha can still appear in time and space to help sentient beings, as did Shakyamuni. While a buddha can manifest in human form and experience arising and perishing, for this buddha there is no attachment to birth and death and none of the vexations associated with birth and death.

Until we become sages or buddhas, how can we find dignity in living and dying? First, we should fully accept this rare and precious life that we now have. Then, when death is imminent we should accept it, if not with joy then at least with equanimity. Just as you should be grateful to the reality of life, you should also be grateful to the reality of death. We do not control when we will be born and most times we do control when we will die. From the perspective of Buddhist awareness, most people live without clarity, and when death is near, their mind becomes even more clouded. For such a person life is confusing and delusional. There is a Chinese saying that we live and die as if in a dream. At a higher level are those who accept life, make the best of it, and when death comes, they greet it with courage and without clinging. At the highest level is the enlightened practitioner who “cannot find either life or death,” meaning that for such a person there is really no such thing as life and death.

Until we die, we cannot know which of these categories we belong to, but as long as we are alive we should try to elevate the quality of our life and to clarify our mind. We should also be grateful that when death comes, we are released from the responsibilities attached to that life. Even better, after we die we can use the merit and virtue that we have accumulated to move forward to our next life, which should be full of joy and illumination.

MEETING DEATH WITH A CLEAR MIND 

If you can maintain a clear mind as death approaches, you can then very courageously accept it with joy. Whatever you have done during your life, virtuous or not, good karma or bad, be grateful for having received the gift of life. At the moment of your death, there should be no resentment, no regret, no anger, and no pride. Gone is gone. Think forward to a beautiful future. For this reason, the mental state of a dying person is most important. Some people as they are about to die think about the things they have done that they regret, and all the suffering they have caused. That kind of thinking is good for a living person, but not so good for a dying one. If, however, you approach death while holding no resentment, no regret, no anger, no pride, and just strive to accept a bright and illuminating future, it is more likely to happen. Whether you are reborn in the heavenly realms or in the human realm, you can again continue to practice, and that is a bright and illuminating future.

When a dying person’s condition is such that clarity of mind is not possible, or when they are unconscious or in a coma, friends and relatives can help the dying person with great devotion and concentration, chanting the Buddha’s name, reciting mantras, or meditating in a calming environment. Through such practices, we use the power of meditation and the power of faith to guide the dying person’s mind away from fear and toward assurance, to move toward illumination. This can definitely be helpful. So for those who on their deathbed cannot maintain clarity of mind, it is important that relatives and friends help in this way. And it is very useful. I myself have had a clear experience of this.

There are three factors that will determine what kind of rebirth you may have. The first is karma — the good as well as the bad karma that you have accumulated in your current and past lives. The better your karma, the better will be your chances of a good rebirth.

The second is the causes and conditions surrounding your current and past lives that are most ripe for maturing upon your next rebirth. You may have all kinds of karma but specific conditions can be closest to maturing at this point. If this is the case, they will be the conditions that will determine your next life.

The third factor is your mental state when you die: What thoughts are in your mind as you approach death? Do you accept your death with joy and gratitude? What aspirations do you have for a next life? Thoughts like these will influence what kind of rebirth you will have. For example, if throughout your life you have made vows, as you approach death you may repeat these vows. However, if you have never had such aspirations, it would be hard to have them on your deathbed. So practitioners should strive to have good aspirations on their mind as they approach death. If our future life was dependent on only karma and conditions, then we would be in a less reliable situation.

Look carefully at your experiences to recognise all the love you have received. Look carefully at your own actions and gestures to find ways to show love. Make room for that in your heart, and painful conflicts will lose their sting.

--17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje

略述十种善知识

文｜慎独

《华严经·离世间品》中讲述了普贤菩萨一次在入定之后，普慧菩萨向其请教善知识的问题。对于普慧菩萨的请问，普贤菩萨向其解说善知识共有十种。然后分别详细论述了这十种善知识的特征，下面本文对其略做论述。

一、令住菩提心善知识

我们想要成就无上正等正觉，首先要发菩提心，发了菩提心之后，我们才会有上求佛道，下化众生的信愿和实践。省庵大师在《劝发菩提心文》 中说：“尝闻入道要门，发心为首；修行急务，立愿居先。愿立则众生可度，心发则佛道堪成。苟不发广大心，立坚固愿，则纵经尘劫，依然还在轮回；虽有修行，总是徒劳辛苦。”

如果不发菩提心想成就道业，则无从成就。《华严经》云：“忘失菩提心，修诸善法，是名魔业。”但很多时候，有的学佛者发了菩提心，却不能够坚持去修学。这样的发心，不过是蒸沙作饭，纵经千年也无法成就圆满菩提之果。所以，发了菩提心之后，更重要的是努力圆满菩提。但一般的众生在修学过程中很难令心安住于菩提心中，因而能使自己安住于菩提心中的善知识显得尤为重要。佛陀和诸菩萨常以慈悲心令弟子安住于菩提心中，而佛世之后的历代高僧大德也是引导众生安住于菩提心的善知识。

二、令生善根善知识

善根是佛教重要的术语，又称为善本、德本， 即产生诸善法的根本。指身、口、意三业之善法而 言。在身口意三业中，无贪、无嗔、无痴三者为善根之体，合称为三善根。不善根则为贪、嗔、痴 等，即称三不善根，或称三毒。

对于众生来说，应当做到未生的善根，令其生起；已经生起的善根，令其增长。如《大智度论》 中说：“善有二种，一未生善，谓戒定慧等诸善之法，未曾修习，是名未生善。善若未生当勤修习，令其得生也；二者已生善，谓戒定慧等诸善之法，已曾修习，名已生善，善若已生，当勤修习，令其增长也。”

但是，有的人善根并不容易生起，需要在善知识的指导下生起善根。这种能令众生生起善根的善知识，对培养一个学佛者的基本品格非常重要，甚至直接决定着一个人的修学是否能取得成就。

三、令行诸波罗蜜善知识

波罗蜜，汉语意思是“度”，即到彼岸的意思。佛教通常称六度为六波罗蜜。在我们现实人生中，有很多人一直处于痛苦、烦恼、沮丧此岸，只有通过修六波罗蜜，才能到达快乐、涅的彼岸， 从而达到圆满成就。

六波罗蜜中的布施可以培养我们的奉献精神； 持戒能使我们树立正念、正行；忍辱可以培养宽容的品格，并影响他人的言行；精进则可培养一个惹人坚韧不拔的吃苦精神；禅定可使人妄念消除，心态平和；智慧则可洞察宇宙、人生的真谛。

很多修道者都知道行诸波罗蜜的益处。但有的人能够做到短时间去修诸种波罗蜜，却无法做到持之以恒。这时，若有善知识的督促和教化，就会使修诸波罗蜜信心不太坚定的人更加充满信心。由于有了这种善知识的鼓励，修学者就能成就自利利他 的善行。

四、令解说一切法善知识

佛教俗语说“诸供养中，法供养最”。以法作供养是各种供养中功德最大的供养。佛陀在各种经典中都反复强调为人讲说经典的无量功德。如《金刚经》云：

“若复有人，闻此经典，信心不逆，其福胜彼，何况书写受持读诵，为人解说。⋯⋯若有人能受持读诵，广为人说，如来悉知是人，悉见是人，皆得成就不可量，不可称，无有边，不可思议功德。”

为令众生明了经教的深意，消除弟子在修学中遇到的疑惑，佛陀终其一生，说法四十九年，谈经三百余会，度化弟子不计其数。佛陀在讲经给人听的同时，也使弟子学会解释经典，因而佛陀即为众生令解说一切法善知识。

末法时代的修学者，应当发心讲说经典，以便接引更多的人，使他们破迷开悟。暂时不具备讲经能力的人，也应当在善知识的指导下学会讲经说法。

五、令成熟一切众生善知识

佛陀在菩提树下悟道之后说：“奇哉！奇哉！ 一切大地众生皆有如来智慧德相，只因妄想执著不能证得。若离妄想执著，则一切智，自然智则会现前。”佛陀认为，一切众生都有与佛一样的智慧。只是众生因为贪嗔痴等妄想遮蔽了自己的清净佛性。如果众生能够脱离妄想执著，就可以明心见性了。古往今来，有很多高僧大德，为了令弟子悟道，他们常常采用言语引导、暗示、动作、棒喝等各种不同的方式来启发弟子。禅宗史上著名的禅门四大宗风“德山棒、临济喝、赵州茶、云门饼”等公案，都是禅宗祖师令弟子成熟佛果而采取的“截断众流”教化方式。

禅宗六祖慧能大师听人读诵《金刚经》有悟， 后到黄梅亲近五祖弘忍。弘忍知道其根性锐利，为避免弟子的嫉妒与加害，就令他从事破柴、舂米之类的劳作。等到因缘成熟，弘忍亲自为这位弟子印证，并密室传法给他。弘忍大师就是成就慧能为一代宗师的大善知识。

六、令得决定辩才善知识

佛教说“深入经藏，智慧如海”，历代很有多精通教典，解行并重的高僧。他们在与弟子讲法，或者在与外道辩论时，常常能够抓住要点，令对方无从辩驳。高僧的这种无碍辩才，都是其学修涵养的长期积累而来。高僧的辩才需要有口才的基础，但更多的是他们对教理教义的通达。民间俗语说：“腹有诗书气自华”，说的就是学识渊博的人，不仅气质与众不同，而且他们还有超越常人的无碍辩才。

在中国佛教史上，有很多高僧如慧远大师、玄奘大师等都能够以无碍辩才折服外道，教化弟子。他们的辩才得到弟子的认可和赞叹。有很多高僧，在自己拥有深厚学养，超人的辩才之后。他们并不是独守明珠，而是及时培养后继僧才，以便绍隆佛种，续佛慧命。诸如当代佛光山的开山之祖星云大师，以讲经说法广度众生。他幽默诙谐的谈吐，收摄人心的无碍辩才，给世界各地的佛子留下了深刻的印象。他说培养的弟子，也个个能讲会说，显示出佛教后继有人的新气象。

七、令不着一切世间善知识

佛门有句格言说：“世情看淡一份，道念增长一分”。格言告诉我们，对一个修道者来说，只有看破世间一切名闻利养，放下世人难以割舍的亲情友情，才能够安心修道，最终取得道业的成就。佛陀当初出家之前，受到来自父王的各种阻力。父王为了让佛陀打消出家念头，为他选了很多美女相伴，并为他早早娶了妻子。但俗世中的一切声色娱乐都不能动其心志，佛陀终于在一个月明星稀的夜晚，告别亲爱的妻子离家修道了。此后，佛陀经过六年苦行终于悟道。

对一个出家人来说，若不能放下世情的牵挂， 就无法安心修道，也不能取得修行的成果。净土文中说往生净土的修行者在临终前应当“身无病苦，心不贪恋，意不颠倒，如入禅定⋯⋯”心不贪恋就是在往生前，要放下世人难以舍弃的财产、名利、亲人。若有贪恋，则因神识所牵，不能往生净土。因而，放下一切世间的贪着、留恋，是对一个修道者的基本要求。

八、令于一切劫修行无厌倦善知识

修道者是舍弃世间享受，坚持行苦行的人。与世无争的生活方式，青灯古佛的苦行生活，是对出家人生活的真实写照。佛陀曾教育弟子，修行是一项清苦的世情，应当做到“难舍能舍，难行能行”。只有持之以恒的坚持修学，才有希望取得理 想的成绩。若是三天打鱼，两天晒网，或者一曝十 寒，便会一事无成，浪费了人生。

《四十二章经》中记述了佛陀有一个弟子， 每天精进诵经，从不知道休息。后来他因修行过度用功产生了厌倦而退失道心，佛陀于是问他在家时做什么工作。这个弟子说：“做调琴师？” 佛问：“弦太紧时如何？”弟子说：“弦太紧就会断了。”佛又问：“弦太松时如何？”弟子说：“弦太松则弹不出声音。”佛问：“弦不紧不松时如何？”弟子说：“声调悦耳动听。”佛陀借机开示弟子说：“修道和弹琴一样，太紧容易断；太松则弹不出声音；只有不紧不松才能弹奏出美妙的乐章。”

佛陀对弟子的这种开示就是令其于一切劫修行无厌倦。在我们周围，给我们修学以鼓励的人，帮助我们对修学产生兴趣的人，都是我们的善知识。

九、令安住普贤行善知识

普贤菩萨以大行著称，十大愿王是普贤菩萨在因地修行时所发的大愿。普贤行基本上代表了他的十种大愿。这十种大愿分别为：礼敬诸佛、称赞如来、广修供养、忏悔业障、随喜功德、请转法轮、请佛住世、常随佛学、恒顺众生和普皆回向。普贤菩萨的十大愿王不仅表达了普贤菩萨的行愿，也给一般的修学者指明了方面。礼敬诸佛、称赞如来和广修供养表达了对诸佛的恭敬供养；忏悔业障则可诸业清净；随喜功德是求取福报的方式；请转法轮、请佛住世和常随佛学表达了普贤菩萨希望正法久住的愿望；恒顺众生则是菩萨度化众生的方便，体现了“众生欢喜即诸佛欢喜”的理念。普皆回向表达普贤菩萨将修学功德普遍回向法界众生的博爱之情。

在现实修学过程中，我们应当以普贤菩萨的大愿为学习榜样，如理思惟，实践大愿。同时，我们若能以普贤大愿开示于人，令人安住于普贤行愿，从而以教奉行，则我们就是善知识。

十、令入一切佛智所入善知识

佛陀成道之后，初度乔陈如等五比丘，三转四谛法轮，其目的无非是令众生能够入佛知见，开佛智慧。在《法华经·方便品》中佛陀说自己讲说此经的目的，是为了令众生开示悟入佛之知见。为了令众生达到与佛同等的智慧，佛陀便以种种善巧方便、譬喻言辞为众生说法，令众生都能得到度化， 永脱轮回。

对众生来说，佛陀就是令众生入佛智慧的最大善知识。但是在佛世之后，历代有修有证的高僧，常以禅语、禅机接引学徒，令弟子能够去除妄想杂念，在言语道断，心行处灭的绝境中猝然悟道。如沩仰宗的创始人灵祐禅师开示慧寂禅师，旨在令其入一切佛智。这些指导弟子掌握正确修学方法，以成等正觉的高僧，都是学徒的善知识。以上十种善知识，能够从不同方面开示教化佛 弟子。通过不同善知识的教化，佛子则可在修行上少走弯路，从而更为方便地开佛知见。对于学佛者来说，我们也应当在修学时发大愿成为能够普渡群生的善知识。

People with a heart filled with arrogance always feel that they are wiser than others and that their talents are superior. But if we observe carefully, we would find that these are not at all worthy of consideration.

Perhaps temporarily, or in a limited way, your talents and appearance may supersede those of others. However, do not forget that there are still innumerable others who may surpass you a hundred or a thousand times over.

Even if your merits are unmatched by ordinary beings, it is certain that within noble beings there will be others who are superior to you. Moreover, your so-called good qualities will not last forever. They are just the products of specific causes and effects. They are absolutely impermanent.

-- His Holiness Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche

Loving-Kindness: May All Beings Be Happy

by Melvin Escobar

Precarious times like these call for us to be quiet and listen to our hearts. According to its etymology, the word “precarious” derives from the Latin prefix prec, which means “prayer.”

An especially potent form of prayer for times of crisis like these is metta. Metta is a Pali word that has been translated as loving-kindness, universal goodwill, or loving-friendliness. My favourite translation, which I learned from Vipassana teacher Anushka Fernandopulle, is “unstoppable friendliness.”

Tradition tells us that, like the sun, metta is always present and doesn’t discriminate. Metta is the heart of what are known as the four divine abodes, which include compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity. As a prayer, metta offers an authentic experience of our interconnectedness.

Metta is a concentration practice to cultivate unconditional goodwill for all. It is practised by reciting and contemplating a series of aspirations or prayers that express your goodwill and unstoppable friendliness toward yourself and others. With each recitation, you expand the scope of your loving-kindness — from yourself to those close to you, to those for whom you feel antipathy, and finally to all sentient beings.

For guidance on metta practice, let’s look at some quotes from the Karaniya Metta Sutta, known in English as The Discourse on Loving-Kindness, in which the Buddha teaches metta as a simple and direct way to meet the moment as it is.

Wishing: In gladness and in safety,

May all beings be at ease.

A phrase such as, “May I/you/all be free from inner and outer harm,” when repeated with genuine goodwill, cultivates a sense of calm acceptance of things as they are. When the mind is determined to reject what it cannot change, it can become caught up in forms of inner harm such as shaming, blaming, complaining, and explaining. In wishing for safety and ease for ourselves or others, we are more able to hold the reality of impermanence, and the first noble truth that there is no place where one can entirely escape suffering or harm.

Whatever living beings there may be…omitting none….

A common question that arises is: how do I practice with the most difficult person I can think of? Consider an analogy to weight lifting. It’s obvious that it would be unwise and possibly unsafe to start out lifting the heaviest weights. We must practice with lighter ones first. Likewise, we can harm ourselves by trying to practice metta with a very difficult person, if we haven’t developed the capacity to work with the aversion and despair that may arise. We must build capacity incrementally, starting with ourselves, a dear mentor, or any beloved being (a pet, a tree, a deity).

Let none deceive another,

Or despise any being in any state.

Most people agree that we should not lie to others or hate them. Metta practice can help us see how we lie to and feel hatred toward ourselves. Sharon Salzberg, meditation teacher and author of the seminal book, Loving kindness, asked the Dalai Lama, “What do you think about self-hatred?” Confounded by her question, he replied, “Self-hatred? What is that?”

The self-hatred experienced by many in the West is actually a product of internalised oppression. The systems of oppression that bell hooks has called “imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy” teach us that we are never enough, that we must constantly strive to be worthy of happiness. Phrases like, “May I love myself as I am” and “May I be happy and know the true causes of happiness” help us see through the deception.

Let none through anger or ill will

wish harm upon another.

The Dhammapada teaches us: “Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world; by non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is an eternal law.” Although anger can indicate that there is injustice or harm happening, it’s easy to slip into ill will toward the targets of our anger. It can be momentarily satisfying to wish harm on another, but the harm rebounds on ourselves. It’s the proverbial drinking of the poison and hoping the other person gets sick. A phrase like “May you be happy and healthy,” directed to the source of our anger, can help purify us of this poison.

Meditation

Here is a typical series of metta contemplations you can practice, reciting them three times as you change the subject of your prayer from “I” to “you” to “all.” But feel free to create your own or adapt these to resonate with your own experience.

May (I/you/all beings) be safe and

protected, free from inner and

outer harm.

May (I/you/all) be happy.

May (my/your/everyone’s) body support the practice of loving awareness.

May (I/you/all) be free from ill-will, affliction, and anxiety.

May (I/you/everyone) love (myself/yourself/themselves) as (I am/you are/they are).

May (I/you/all) be happy and free

from suffering.

May (I/you/all) find peace in an

uncertain world.

May (I/you/all) find ease on the

middle path between attachment and apathy.

When you lose concentration, simply and kindly return to your phrases. Try not to judge the judgements that inevitably arise. Meet each moment with unstoppable friendliness. May you be inspired by the transformative potential of this practice.

As from a heap of flowers, many a garland is made, even so, many good deeds should be done by one born a mortal.

-- The Buddha

学会从奉献中获得法喜

如瑞法师

论语里面说：“智者不惑，仁者不忧，勇者不惧。”我们天天学佛的教法，就是要把自己培养得有智慧。虽然不能一下子变为一个大智者，但是学一点用一点，每天进步一点点，一天天智慧在增长，这是可以的。

所以每一位修学佛法的人，凡遇到事要有智慧地观察，佛怎么说的，我们身为佛弟子应该怎么做。如果能从佛法当中学得智慧，在实际的生活修道当中来应用这份智慧，那就没有什么可以困惑自己的。

“仁者不忧。”一个仁慈的人，慈悲的人，就是一个能护念他人的人。住在一个班里，如果是十个人就要想到，除了自己我应该护念那九位。老法师在世的时候为什么常常说大家不要觉得一出家就学了《威仪门》，要好好地去思惟？就是教给我们在大众当中怎样去护念别人。

修慈心观怎么样来修？当然你得到慈心定固然好，但在和人相处的时候若没有一颗慈心去对待别人，你想想最终会获得什么？如果一个人有仁慈的心，他会去护念别人。

世间人常说，独乐不为乐，众乐才为乐的。我们身处于大众当中，以大众的利益为自己的利益，以众人的心为己心，那我们还忧虑什么？

如果再提高一点说，我们培养自己的慈悲心和佛的心相应，在学会去关照别人的同时，就可以练习忘我。如果能慢慢地忘我，那我们想想，执着于自我就会少，执着自己越少的人快乐就会越多。

一位出家人要学会有骨气、有勇气、有志气，但要练习没脾气。如果是一位勇者，就像我们常说的：“勇士交战死如归，丈夫向道有何辞？”当你真能发心我今天出家没有家，我就是来为大家的，我愿意为法护法住持正法来奉献自我，那就没有什么畏惧的！因为依经典里所说：“不为自己求安乐，但愿众生得离苦。”

什么是志向？我们成佛就是要能够勇敢地奉献自我利益众生，从奉献当中获得那份法喜。以前也说过，当一个乞丐伸手跟人要东西的时候，他是在索取。当我们能够奉献的时候，索取和奉献就是在接纳和给予之间，我们会庆幸自己有福报，有这份因缘来为众生奉献。

当你穷到没有什么能奉献的时候，当然这是相对来说，那是自己没有那份福报和因缘。当我们有这份福报和因缘的时候，真的应该好好地珍惜。而且每个人在僧团当中修学，就是一个锻炼自我、改变自我的过程。它需要也许一年、两年，甚至十年、二十年地放下自我来练习。

When we train in loving-kindness, we expand outward into the experience of those around us. Our tightness loosens, our compassion grows. We feel the joys and sufferings of others more deeply, and we are moved to help them. We take delight in the successes of our friends. Our equanimity becomes rooted in an indestructibly pure intention, in which distance and closeness of relation are no longer relevant. This is why the Buddha said we can become unshakeable like Mount Meru. We become warm and unmovable.

-- Kyabgon Phakchok Rinpoche

Tonglen the Practice of Giving and Taking

by Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo

Tonglen is a very interesting practice! In most spiritual traditions, including New Age ones, there are meditations which involve breathing in light, love, and bliss. We visualise these qualities coming into the heart and transforming the body. Then we breathe out all our negativities. This seems like a very logical practice to do. But tonglen practise flips our mind and our preconceptions upside down because it does the exact opposite. We actually breathe in all the negativities and the darkness and breathe out all the love, purity, and light. This idea can be alarming for some people when they first encounter it. The negativities come into us as dark light and are absorbed into a small dark pearl at the centre of our chest. This pearl is our self-cherishing concept. It is the thing which says, "I am so important. Other people may be important, too, but they're much less important than I am. I am basically the centre around which the rest of the universe revolves."

When we do this practice, we are chipping away at that little black pearl, which cringes with every blow, because it absolutely does not want other people's suffering, misery, and sickness. But the little pearl takes all this negativity in and it disappears into the emptiness of the Dharmadhatu, or ultimate reality. Then we breathe out all the joy, goodness, and light we have accumulated over aeons. We give this out to take the place of the suffering endured by all sentient beings. This reverses our usual concept of how things should be. People say, "I already have more than enough suffering. I don't want other people's suffering as well."

In brief, the usual Tonglen practice is to visualise another person's sickness or suffering in the form of dark light being drawn into oneself along with the inhalation. This dark light strikes back at the black pearl-like seed of self-cherishing at our heart centre. This pearl instantly radiates out, along with the exhalation, the bright light of all our good qualities and merits. This radiance then absorbs into the suffering person to help them.

Sometimes instead of a black pearl, it is taught that we can visualise a crystal vajra which represents our innate Dharmakaya mind. The dark light absorbs into this and is instantly transformed into radiance since no darkness exists within the pristine nature of the mind.

I'm going to tell you a true story. When I was about nine years old, I caught on fire. I was wearing a nylon dress at the time, and I went near an electric fire which was not turned on but was plugged in. My dress brushed against the fire and it burst into flames because it was nylon. Fortunately for me, at that time my mother was very sick in bed with kidney trouble, so she hadn't gone out to work in our shop. I ran screaming up the stairs and crossed the landing to her bedroom. She later told me that she heard me screaming while she was in bed. The next moment, the door crashed open, and I burst into her room, engulfed in sheets of flames. She quickly wrapped me in a blanket, put the flames out and then rubbed me with penicillin and wrapped me in a clean sheet. Apparently, my whole back was just one big blister. The entire skin of my back was burned right off along with part of my face. And at that time, I remember being in extraordinary pain. You can imagine.

Then I had an out-of-body experience. I was up above, looking down on my body, surrounded by all these beings of light who were saying to me, "Come with us. Come with us." You know, the usual thing. And I thought to myself, "Oh good, now I'm going to die. That will be interesting." I actually did not want to go back into that body. I was looking down at that body which was all burnt, and I didn't want anything more to do with it. It was like looking down the wrong end of the telescope. The appearances of this world began to recede as I travelled further and further upwards towards the light. Great! Then suddenly the neighbours started coming in because they'd heard my screams, and I was brought down into this body again.

I remember that they took me to the hospital, and I remember lying on a trolley. The doctor said to me, "You're a very brave little girl. You must be in tremendous pain." And I said, "No, there's no pain." And there was no pain. When I came back down into my body, I felt no pain at all, despite the fact that my whole back was burned. No problem! I stayed in the hospital for about two months. I had a great time. At no time did I experience any pain. Although I had to lie in bed, I wasn't sick. I was too young to understand that I might be scarred, so I wasn't worried. As it turned out, I wasn't scarred at all. Some years later I talked about this with my mother. She told me that when I was lying there, I lost consciousness and she thought I was going to die. She was a spiritualist, so she prayed to the spirit guides, "Please don't let her die. And please don't let her suffer. She's too young to bear that sort of pain. Give all her pain to me. Let me have her pain." Now she was already in agony with kidney trouble, but if she could have taken on my pain as well, she would have done so gladly. And I'm quite sure it was because of her prayer that when I came back into the body again I had no pain. What other explanation could there be?

Fortunately, she didn't get my pain, either. But the point is, not only did she pray from her heart to take my pain away, but she would have been overjoyed to have my pain transferred to her if that would spare me. This is the kind of love we're talking about in tonglen practice, the kind of intense love which unselfconsciously places more importance on healing the other person than on our own well-being. Now, this was relatively easy for my mother. Not easy, exactly, except that it is in the nature of a mother to love her child like that. What the Dharma asks is that we treasure all beings without exception in the same way. As the Buddha himself said, just as a mother loves her only child, so must we extend love to all beings.

One of the advantages of being a mother is that you learn from real life what this means. You can use this experience as a basis to extend this kind of love outwards to all beings. This is what we are called upon to do in the tonglen practice. Some people say, "Oh, tonglen is very easy." I can only gasp at their level of bodhisattva attainment. I don't think it's at all easy to sit and absorb the pain and suffering of others. It's very interesting to watch the mind and the levels of deception we can clothe ourselves in. Because of our enormous capacity for self-deception, we must try to be as honest as possible with ourselves. Only by fearless honesty can we identify and peel away the levels of resistance to opening up the heart.

A lot of practices can be done by rote. If we just do tonglen practice automatically, it's very easy to sit and think of all sentient beings as this kind of blurry mass outside and send out light and love to them and absorb all this darkness. We can even come away feeling very expansive and bodhisattva like. But when we get to actual individuals, when we are faced with someone who is genuinely sick or depressed, are we still prepared to take on their suffering and give out our well-being in return? This is a mind-transforming practice, so the only way we can know whether we are making progress or not is by observing our reactions in everyday situations. When we meet people in everyday life who are suffering, how do we relate to them? Is our heart genuinely open to them? Are we kind? Are we getting progressively kinder?

Let us think about the way the practice works. All this negativity comes into us and attacks the self-cherishing concept. What does this actually mean? Sometimes it's easier for us just to get caught up in the mechanics of the visualisation and forget what it is all about. You know, we have this dark little thing in the heart and then the dark lights start hitting it, and it all transforms into bright light. It's a very nice visualisation if we get into it. But as we practice, we must really remember what this is all about. We must ask ourselves if this were really happening, what kind of resistance would the ego put up. If somebody came here right now and said, "You can have all the sickness and misery from that person over there, and I can promise you I will free him from it. In exchange, he will have all your good health. How's that?" Would you really say, "Okay, I'll do it"? Maybe so, if it was somebody you loved — your husband, your child, or even a parent or a beloved teacher — but just a man on the street?

These are not easy practices. They are not for the foolhardy nor are they for the timid. They are intended for bodhisattvas. On no account should we take these practices lightly. We should understand what we are doing and what this training is all about. At least this is how it seems to me. Whenever I read the tonglen practices, I am astounded at what they're actually asking of us. Other people don't seem to be struck like that and I don't know why. This seems to me to be the utmost frontal attack on our ego-clinging. Doesn't it seem like that to you? And it's very interesting to try to be vividly alive and to bring specific situations into our mind while we are practising. These can be real or hypothetical cases. How does the mind react?

Finally, of course, we dissolve everything into primordial space. This is very important. We don't keep the negativities sitting in our heart. We have to dissolve the negativities into this ego-clinging, ego-cherishing entity which thinks, "I am so important and others are naturally much less important than I," which we all have. We dissolve that and everything else into open space. Then we really feel light and joy going out to all beings. Not just in our visualisations, but also in our everyday life, we should be able to give something to beings we meet who are suffering. Even by just being kind and friendly.

If we remain just as closed off from other beings as ever, still preoccupied with our own pleasure, happiness, and comfort, and still seeing other people as separate, remaining unaffected by their happiness or their sorrow, then, even if we have been doing tonglen for twelve years, it hasn't worked! It doesn't matter how long we do it. The important thing is to break this separation between ourselves and others. We all have this separation, and it is our primary delusion. It's a very radical practice, and if we do it from our heart, it transforms us. So I think we should do it now. I don't think there's anything more to be said about it.

Knowledge is learning something every day. Wisdom is letting go of something every day.

-- Zen Proverb

深呼吸，然后把自己的安乐送给他

希阿荣博堪布

悲心，是勇气

无论生活际遇如何，我们都要发愿活得快乐，而悲心是在此基础上，更要有勇气，愿意去经验痛苦，不仅为自己，还要为他人。与慈心相比，悲心需要更多的温柔和坚强。肯去感受痛苦不是因为嗜苦成癖，而是痛苦让我们放下骄傲，看到自己脆弱的一面，并透过它，体念到其他人的恐惧、伤痛和烦忧。人们常常因为感觉到自己的脆弱而变得充满攻击性，试图以生硬和残忍来保护自己。

悲心的训练却是反其道而行，因悲悯自己而悲悯他人。对自己最好的保护不是让别人痛苦，也不是让自己免受痛苦，这两者都只能使我们更加冷漠和孤立。如果意识不到这一点，我们就会一直伤害他人，伤害自己。学着以开放的心胸去经历痛苦，我们将不再会疏离地看待其他众生的苦，而且对苦的根源会有更深刻的认识。这时，“愿诸众生远离痛苦及痛苦因”的愿文在我们心里就有了更真诚而具体的含义。

悲心，是体谅

我总记得少年时期跟随老堪布赤诚嘉参外出传法。无论是灌顶还是讲经，每念到与众生痛苦相关的内容，堪布都会落泪。有时很大的法会，下面坐满信众，他照样涕泪交流。我那时年纪小，不懂事，觉得堂堂一个堪布竟在法座上哭得稀里哗啦的，很令人难堪，因此私下提醒他不要那样。我们亲如祖孙，无话不谈。老堪布很抱歉地跟我解释说，他想到众生的痛苦，心里实在难受，眼泪忍也忍不住就流了出来。等我长到能理解老堪布的悲心的年纪，他老人家已经圆寂了。

悲心的训练与慈心一样，也是从自己或任何一个最能激起你悲悯之情的人或动物开始，逐步扩展到亲人、朋友、认识却不相干的人、陌生人、憎恶的人、及至所有众生。自己在经历痛苦时，努力保持住觉察，看到情绪的变化，看到自己的反应，看到脆弱、怨恨和惊慌，同时尽量把心敞开。这时你能了解报纸上、电视里、书本中那些遭遇不幸的人心里的感受了。他们无论做什么，你都不会诧异，你都能体谅。谦卑、宽容、感恩这些词汇背后的深义，此时你方开始理解。

悲心，是设身处地

当我们看到苦难的景象，不要马上把头扭开，在自己能承受的范围内，去体验其中的痛苦，并尽己所能地伸出援手。这是我们学习如何生活的重要课程。寂天菩萨在《入菩萨行论》中详细讲述了自他相换的修法，把痛苦、烦忧吸进自己心里，把喜乐、轻松释放出来。自他相换又称为施受法，施与和接受。日常工作、生活中随时随地各种具体的情境下，都可以通过观想，为自己和其他众生修这个法。

比如，自己感觉到压抑、疲惫时，先安静片刻专注于内心的感受，看到那个在压力下疲惫不堪的自己，然后深深地吸气，把压抑、疲倦等等不适感吸进来，呼气时把轻松和旺盛的精力送出去给自己和其他人。吸气和呼气过程中的观想可以非常具体。如果你的朋友不小心把手割破了，你可以尽量去观想他的伤口，去感受他的疼痛，然后通过绵长的吸气把那种痛感吸进来，呼气时观想给他送去止血贴、创伤药和止痛片。如果你知道对方最需要什么，或者什么东西最能令对方欢喜、放松，你就可以在呼气时观想送给他什么，一杯清茶，一段音乐，都可以。如果你不知道该送出什么，则设身处地想象一下自己在同样情境中会需要什么，然后把它送出去。

悲心 ，是平等的沟通

悲心的基础是平等。有上下之分、人我之分，便无法完全体悟万物同源的那份亲情。不要以高高在上的姿态去可怜那些境况不佳的人，那样我们非但不能体验、分担他们的痛苦，反而会给他们造成新的伤害。被人怜悯的滋味是不好受的。人在困境中比其他任何时候都更需要平等的沟通，所以我们发悲心时要有沟通的强烈愿望。我们做的不是施与，而是分享。

In the garbage, I see a rose.

In the rose, I see the garbage.

Everything is in transformation.

Even permanence is impermanent.

-- Thich Nhat Hanh

The Ultimate Self-Help

by Melvin McLeod

Here is a heresy: Buddhism is not only self-help, it’s the ultimate self-help.

Many people would consider this a heresy because it appears to violate one of Buddhism’s central principles — nonself. If there’s no self, how can there be self-help?

But nonself doesn’t mean there’s no self. We exist, obviously. What nonself really means is non mistaken self. The “mistaken self” — sometimes called “ego” — is a single, separate, unchanging entity. It doesn’t exist. But because we believe it does, we generate anger, greed, and indifference to protect it, and cause ourselves and others endless suffering.

That’s why the truth of nonself is the best self-help of all. It stops the suffering we cause because of our belief in the mistaken self and helps us discover our true self, the ultimate cause of happiness and joy.

What is this true self? Some Buddhist traditions won’t even talk about it, because we might just solidify it into another form of ego. That’s also why many Buddhists criticise self-help: in trying to ease our suffering, it can solidify the very ego that causes the suffering.

Mahayana Buddhist traditions go so far as to give our true self a name, like buddhanature, and describe some of its characteristics, such as wisdom, compassion, and openness. But these are just signposts for our journey and shouldn’t be taken too concretely. All we can say with certainty is that true self is free of every attribute of mistaken self.

This is all summarised in the Buddha’s four noble truths: 1. We suffer. 2. Why? Because of our mistaken understanding of who we are and what we experience. 3. So we can find happiness by awakening to the true nature of things. 4. How? By following a path of meditation, wisdom, and ethical living.

This is the world’s first and greatest self-help formula. In our cover story for this issue, we see its profundity, as well as its effectiveness.

On the surface, we’re just addressing the suffering of negative thoughts and feelings about ourselves that so many of us are burdened by. But when we apply Buddhist analysis to it, we see that the cause of our self-negativity goes deep, and so the remedy must too. In fact, the three Buddhist meditations taught in this issue pretty much summarise the whole Buddhist path, with all its profound insights and powerful techniques.

The practice of mindfulness helps us see the transient and insubstantial nature of our thoughts and feelings, and to question who or what is really experiencing them. These realisations, which Buddhism calls the three marks of existence, are deeply healing. They are a big first step toward ending suffering.

Next, we give ourselves the love and caring we deserve. Compassion for all beings is the essence of the Mahayana path, and it starts with love for ourselves. Something we may think of as purely personal, even a bit selfish, in fact leads to a great awakening of the heart.

Finally, we can stop struggling altogether and just be who we really are. Which, to our amazement, is awake, loving, and wise. That’s called our buddhanature. It’s our true, unchangeable nature and we can experience it right now.

And all that negative stuff, both real and imagined? It’s just the by-product of our endless, pointless wandering in search of what we already have. It turns out the reason we’re imperfect is that we don’t realise we’re perfect.

So we start out looking for self-help, and to our surprise discover the path to enlightenment. Because it’s the best self-help of all. Maybe the only one that really works.

Leave your front door and your back door open. 

Allow your thoughts to come and go.

Just don't serve them tea.

-- Shunryu Suzuki

应当用这种心，才能远离一切魔障

梦参老和尚

【十方如来。同一道故。出离生死。皆以直心。心言直故。如是乃至。终始地位。中间永无诸委曲相。】

直心是什么样子？直心是道场，没有一点虚伪的。佛跟阿难说：十方诸佛都是从直心而入道的，同一道出离生死。心跟言、言跟心一定是一致相。

但是我们回顾一下，我们所有的言行都是不一致的，这一点我很有体会。我们所有的道友、所有见我的，跟我说的话全都是假话。不论出家的、在家的，都想见见老和尚，问老和尚这个，问老和尚那个，全是假的，不是真的，真话不能跟老和尚说。所以用这样的心又怎么能入道呢？

直心是道场，佛为什么要说这些话？要用如来的直心来回答他，不能拐弯抹角的。你心里是怎么想的，口里就要怎么说。你看跟你说话的那个人，你看他的眼睛在一边转，他眼睛转的时候是在打主意该怎么说，多数都是假的。

佛对一切众生如是地嘱咐，说十方如来同一道。同一什么道？直心是道场。你要有出离心，出离就是直心，心中所想的，口里就所说，“心言直故”。这样子从你开始到终，这个中间一点弯曲相都没有，这就是十方如来同一道。

我们讲《大乘起信论》，《起信论》教导我们直心是指“正念真如”。《大乘起信论》讲三心——直心、正念、真如。你口里说话是表的声音，但是你心里头跟这个声音两个的性是一致的，心言直，这叫直因。以这个直因所感的果是真正的果，叫因果相应，因跟果符合。

这样从你开始发心到你成佛，中间是没有虚假的、没有“委曲”，没有这些相，这就叫直心。

再进一步说深心，那就是要修一切善法，深心乐集一切善，诸善行广大含义。

第三个就是大悲心，大悲心是发菩提心，要救一切众生的痛苦。三心即是一心。所以佛嘱咐阿难：你不是想要求无上菩提吗？现在你发了想研求无上菩提的心，你就真实回答我的问话。要真实，不能搞虚假的，直心是道场。

咱们无论发心出家，即使出了家学了道，不管你十年、二十年，或者三十年、五十年，或者七十年，我现在七十多年了，直心的时候是很少的。

大悲心，平常经常说要发大悲心，我们发的是一般的怜悯心，观自在菩萨的大悲心我们都还没有发起来，还不理解真正的含义。不要说发了，还没有研究明白。所以佛跟阿难说：你要想求无上道，你要发明你本来具有的佛性。怎么样才能得到？那你就直心酬答我所问话。

佛为什么这样一再地嘱咐阿难？因为他在佛的身边，佛就知道他不是直心。所以这次是一再地嘱咐他：你一定要直心，我问你的话，你要直心地回答，不要虚假。

所以我们一切众生发心想成佛，那你就应当直心。心要正直，所说的话要相符你的心，这就告诉你不要起分别，这样才能远离一切魔障。一有分别心就有魔障，不能直至菩提。直心是道场。

Consciousness arises as the appearance of referents, sentient beings, a self, and cognisance, [but] it does not have an [external] referent. Since that does not exist, it does not exist either. 

-- Maitreya

The Heart of the Buddhist View

by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche

Rinpoche asks everyone to engender the enlightened attitude, the wish and effort to attain the perfect state of Buddhahood in order to benefit beings in numbers vast as space. Toward that end one resolves to listen to, reflect upon, and meditate on the teachings energetically. One who has realised selflessness and perfected love and compassion for others is a Buddha. The reason it is possible for everyone to attain Buddhahood is that within the minds of all sentient beings is potentially present the Buddhanature which is the seed of enlightenment. This Buddhanature is the union of clarity and emptiness. The difference between a Buddha and a sentient being is that in a sentient being, the Buddhanature is obscured by accidental stains, while in a Buddha the accidental stains have been purified or removed. The purpose of Dharma practise is to purify these stains so that the Buddhanature will manifest and one will attain enlightenment.

There are three aspects of the Buddhanature: basis, path and fruition. The basis aspect is the presence of the Buddhanature in the minds of all sentient beings, which is comparable to gold present in ore, butter potentially present in milk, or sesame oil potentially present in the seed. If the gold ore is not refined one will not obtain the pure gold, if the milk is not churned one will not obtain butter, and if the sesame seed is not pounded one will not produce sesame oil. In the same way, even though the Buddhanature is present in the minds of all beings, if the accidental stains are not removed, Buddhahood will not be attained. Therefore one should make an effort to purify the accidental stains. Since we all possess the Buddhanature, there is no need to doubt that one can attain Buddhahood.

The path aspect of the Buddhanature is the situation in which one has removed gross obscurations and is gradually refining one's realisation and purifying more subtle stains. The moment one directly realises the Buddhanature, the basis aspect turns into the path. This is comparable to the process of refining the ore, churning the milk, or pounding the sesame seed. The fruition aspect of the Buddhanature is the situation in which all accidental stains along with predispositions have been removed. This corresponds to having obtained the pure gold, the butter, and the sesame oil.

There are signs that the Buddhanature is potentially present within the minds of all. Maitreya, in a text called The Changeless Nature (Skt. Uttaratantra. Tib; Gyu Lama) has said that the fact that we become wearied with conditioned existence and desire to liberate ourselves from suffering is an indication that the Buddhanature is potentially present within us. This very desire arises because of the Buddhanature. Everyone should make a personal investigation and obtain a personal conviction about this statement.

Within Buddhism, there are three main approaches, one in which knowledge or wisdom is emphasised, another in which devotion is emphasised, and a third in which both are practised together. The Mahayana tradition emphasised the development of wisdom. A follower of this tradition should gain a personal knowledge of the teachings given by the Buddha and by great followers of the Buddha, great scholars, and then should arrive at a personal understanding through analysis and investigation. A wise person wishing to buy either gold or diamonds would first examine their quality and test whether they are real. In the same way, someone desiring to follow the Buddha's teachings should investigate the teachings and follow them based upon personal conviction and knowledge.

In Buddhism, it is taught that reality has two levels, a conventional and an absolute level. The absolute level is the true nature of things. The conventional level refers to the way in which the world or phenomena manifest. Confused sentient beings conceive of phenomena as truly existent. By virtue of such conceptualisation, they are prevented from experiencing the true nature of these manifestations. This is comparable to the dream state. Whatever one dreams about, whether it is attractive or repulsive, as long as one does not recognise that one is dreaming, one believes in it and experiences it as real, and the true state of affairs is obscured by this process of conceptualisation. Likewise, the true nature of existence is not realised because we conceive of the world as real. In order to understand the conventional and the absolute levels, it is necessary to investigate. Still, we cannot realise the two levels by means of our personal knowledge alone, but we must rely on the teachings of the Buddha who realised them directly. Some of the methods for investigating the two levels are similar to scientific research, but analysis of the true nature of mind is something particular to the Buddhist tradition.

In the second approach, in which devotion is emphasised, the student exclusively follows the instructions of his or her teacher, without analysing. This mainly applies to an individual who had meditated extensively in former lives, and therefore can very easily apply himself or herself with devotion, has very few doubts about the teachings given, and does not need to investigate. An example is the close disciples of Milarepa, who were prophesied by Dorje Palmo. There are many great Kagyu Siddhas of the past who followed this devotional approach, which is particularly important at the Vajrayana level.

But ultimately the approaches of knowledge and devotion must be unified. A follower of the approach of knowledge will gain through investigation a very firm conviction regarding the conventional and absolute levels and will see that the teachings of the Buddha are correct and valid, and then faith and devotion will naturally arise. The great Indian scholar Dharmakirti put forth various reasons why the Buddha is a perfect being in a text dealing with valid cognition. He began by establishing that the teachings of the Buddha act as a remedy for disturbing emotions and suffering, and for that reason, the one who gave those teachings, namely the Buddha, must be a perfect teacher. Then a follower of the devotional approach, because of great devotion toward the Buddha and his teachings, can easily practice meditation, and therefore realisation will arise, leading naturally to wisdom. So on a temporary level, we have persons following the approach of either knowledge or devotion, but ultimately the two must be unified, in order to realise the true nature of the mind and attain Buddhahood.

A person wishing to follow the Buddhist tradition, in Rinpoche's opinion, should begin with the approach of knowledge, then proceed to the approach of devotion, and finally unify the two. Following the approach of wisdom, one should first gain knowledge of the Buddhist view, then develop a firm conviction of the validity of this view, after which one practices meditation. Through the practice of meditation one comes to realise the true nature of mind.

Another quality needed in the practice of Dharma is skilful means. If one possesses skilful means, then whatever one does, one is able to apply meditation to the activity, and therefore will have no difficulties in one's practice. Milarepa said in one of his songs that any activity is meditation — eating, sleeping, walking around, and so forth. The ability to apply meditation in any activity depends on developing knowledge.

Regarding the ultimate level of existence, there are different philosophical tenets, the main ones being the Mind Only school and the Madhyamaka or Middle Way school. The Buddha stated when teaching the view of the Mind Only (or Cittamatra) school, addressing his students the Bodhisattvas, that the three world spheres are only a projection of the mind. These three spheres are the realm of desire, of form, and of no form. The Buddha then said that there is no external creator of these realms, and they have not arisen from no cause at all, and he thus refuted two misconceptions about phenomena. The three realms constitute samsara or conditioned existence, and since they themselves are only projections of the mind, the suffering experienced in samsara is also nothing but a mental projection. Because of our attaching great importance to these sufferings, or our believing them to be real and solid, the suffering itself increases. For example, if we dream that we are in a vast forest full of poisonous snakes, by not being aware that we are only dreaming, the suffering from this event would greatly increase because we believe that what we dream of is real and solid. There is a gradual increase of the suffering as one concept after another is developed. First, there is only the visual perception of the snakes, then one creates the concept, "Oh, there is a poisonous snake in front of me, " then one develops fear of being bitten, and on top of this, one is in a deep forest and can see no way to escape. This everyone can relate to personally.

In the waking state, just as in the dream, one's suffering increases owing to the tendency to conceptualise what is experienced. In the dream there are no truly existent external conditions that can cause the suffering one experiences; it is exclusively produced by one's mind. The same applies to the waking state. There are no truly existent external causes and conditions that can induce suffering, it is induced only by our minds.

Suffering is nothing but a feeling, a conceptual creation, void of inherent existence, not true or real. Concepts, when their true nature is experienced, are nothing but an open, relaxed, and spacious state of mind. The true nature of mind being inseparable from emptiness and clarity, feeling or concepts such as suffering do not apply. It is because of conceptual clinging that we experience suffering in the dream as well as in the waking state. Various types of sufferings have been described in the Buddhist tradition, such as the hell realms, the hungry ghost realms, and so forth. All these types of suffering are nothing but deceptive appearances created by a confused mind.

In Buddhism, the usual process is to introduce a beginner to the idea that conditioned existence is suffering in order to help that person develop the desire to free himself or herself from conditioned existence. At that level of the teachings, suffering is taught as though truly existent. Once the student has developed the desire to free himself or herself from samsara, the view is presented that suffering is nothing but a mental creation.

In the second school, the Madhyamaka tradition, it is taught that mind itself is not truly existent; it is empty or void. The two main subdivisions of the Madhyamaka tradition are called rang-tong, and shen-tong, which are translated as "void of self" and "void of other." In the void-of self or rang-tong approach, the main teaching is that all internal and external phenomena are void of an essence of a self-entity, and thus it is called void of self. In the void of-other or shen-tong tradition, it is taught that the true nature of mind is synonymous with the Buddhanature, and is empty of accidental stains only; it is not empty of enlightening qualities, so it is empty of something foreign to or other than itself. The tenets of these two schools are extensive, and much debate had gone on between the scholars of these two schools.

Then in the Vajrayana tradition suffering itself is said to be bliss. The reason for this statement is that in this tradition the true nature of mind, spoken of as the union of bliss and emptiness so that when the true nature of mind has been realised, suffering will be experienced as bliss. The great Tibetan yogi Milarepa expressed this in a song to his students which he gave in a place called Yolmo Kangra in Nepal, saying, "I am happy and at ease since I experienced suffering as bliss."

We can relate these different explanations of suffering to the example of the dream state. If we dream that we are bitten by a poisonous snake, then not recognising that it is only a dream, we experience great suffering. If one recognises that one is dreaming, at that point one realises that what is taking place is nothing but a mental creation. If one is able to apply analysis in the dream when being bitten by the snake, then one analyses the nature of oneself, the snake, and the event, and realises that all three elements lack inherent existence, are void or empty of reality, and as a result one will realise emptiness as presented in the Madhyamaka school. Then in Vajrayana, a yogi or yogini skilled in dream yoga is able to transform the appearance of his or her body in the dream into the form of a meditational deity, and as a result, suffering will be transformed into bliss.

We have begun with the Sutrayana and then proceeded to the Tantrayana, and in Rinpoche's opinion, this approach facilitates a proper development. This concludes the teaching in which Rinpoche has explained the Buddhanature, then the three approaches (of knowledge, of devotion, and the two together), and then the different ways of viewing suffering. We will now meditate a little together. You should think about the meaning of the teaching given. By means of such analytical meditation, as one reflects upon the different enumerations given, one gradually develops wisdom. In addition, one develops samadhi as one concentrates on the different parts of the teaching.

Transient is this world, like phantoms and dreams, substance it has none. 

-- Tilopa

行持善法的功德标准

普巴扎西仁波切

想知道当前我们所行持的善法功德如何，只需要观待一下自己的内心：自己的烦恼是否减少，信心和慈悲心是否增上。我们自己的内心可以欺骗所有人，但是永远不会欺骗自己，因此现前自己具有多少功德，在自己的内心中是永远不会有所隐藏的。

我们天天都在传讲，调伏内心乃至行持一切善法的功德并不仅仅在于外表之上，也不在于往昔所行持善法的数量之中。如《功德藏》之中曰：“只顺善恶意差别，不顺善恶相大小。”所以，即便我们所从事的善法数量有多么多，但若没有调伏自己的内心，就如同达摩祖师和梁武帝的公案所讲解般，我们也只能说你行持的善法没有功德。因为行持善法的标志就在于自己内心的贪嗔痴烦恼有所减少，信心和慈悲心有所增长。

回顾一下，我们现前行持善法的时间可一点都不短。比如，从你初次开始进入佛门直到现在，无论你是从净土开始还是从禅宗开始，我们所成办的善事应该算是不少了。但现前要知道自己行持善法有没有功德，就观待一下自己的内心：烦恼有没有减少，信心和慈悲心有没有增上。若要是具备这两个特点，那就说明往生西方极乐世界近在眼前。若以前已经从事过很多善法，但是从内心的烦恼调伏乃至个人的性格改变之上，仍旧与往昔没有多大区别，那即便平常行持善法的过程中，身语之上有多么殊胜的感觉，你自己觉得有多么满足，距离往生西方极乐世界还是极其遥远。

禅宗第六祖惠能大师曰：“心地但无不善，西方去此不遥；若怀不善之心，念佛往生难到。”(意为一心向善者，西方极乐世界即在眼前；一心向恶者，西方极乐世界远在天边)。这里所说的一心向善，就是内心与一切善法相应的时候，此时西方极乐世界并不在遥远的地方而近在眼前。若要是内心被贪嗔痴烦恼束缚的时候，即便你从事过多少善法，西方极乐世界还是在十万八千里外，离你非常遥远。

因此我们要知道行持善法有没有功德的判断标准，并常常反观自己的内心，调伏自己的内心，让自己越来越趋近真正的善法。

All negative disharmonious conditions are sublime siddhis, since negative conditions intensify the yogin’s experience, since one understands the true state of negative conditions without avoiding them, train in them, maintain that, and practise until coming to the conclusion of experience and realisation, just as a good horse is encouraged by a quirt. 

-- Mahasiddha Virupa

No Beginning, No End

by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

How does one arrive at the conviction that our consciousness has no beginning or end?

Generally speaking, there are two ways of coming to such a conclusion. One is through logical reasoning and the other is from seeing that if consciousness did have a beginning and an ending, a lot of contradictions and mysteries could not be explained. So, since the latter viewpoint has many inconsistencies, we can arrive at the conclusion that it must be the other way around i.e. that consciousness is without beginning or end.

On this question I think it is also important to understand that there are three types of phenomena — one is phenomena which can be directly observed, the obvious phenomena, the second is the slightly concealed phenomena which could be realised through the reasoning process, and the third is the very concealed phenomena.

I think it is also important to understand that there are different ways of observing these phenomena. Buddha spoke of the law of nature which includes such factors as consciousness, or mind, being the nature of luminosity and knowing. Why is consciousness in nature? There is no reason. In the same way, why are our physical bodies composed of certain atoms and chemical particles and so on? Again, there is no reason; it is simply its nature; it is simply the way it is. Then Buddha spoke of the law of dependence. This refers to phenomena that we normally posit in relation to something else, like parts and the whole, right and wrong, etc. And then there is the functional law — cause and effect. The function produces effects, and effects have the tendency to follow after their related causes.

All of this is quite close to scientific views; the subatomic physics theories come very near to explaining the natural law. It is also close to the Kalachakra Tantra explanation that space particles are the source, or origin, of all matter in the universe. And this natural law, on the subatomic level, is further expanded when there is interaction with different types of particles and so on. Then there is this second law — dependent law. And then, as a result of the interaction between various types of particles, different properties come into being; so this is quite similar to the third category — the functional law. By taking these three types of phenomena as the basis of analysis and logical examination, we use logical reasoning.

If we were to maintain that there must be a beginning at some point somewhere to consciousness, a big question mark would arise for us — how did that first moment of consciousness come about? Where did it come from? The only choice would be to accept that consciousness does not come from a cause at all. Another alternative, of course, would be to adhere to a belief in a creator.

As far as logic is concerned, therefore, one would conclude that consciousness is beginningless because consciousness requires an earlier moment of consciousness as its cause, and that moment of consciousness would, in turn, require an earlier instant of consciousness. Therefore, it is infinite and beginningless. This kind of explanation may not be a hundred percent satisfactory, but, still, it has less contradictions and inconsistencies within it than any other.

It is better to end this on a doubt!