明白了就去做

证严法师

最真实、最奥妙的法，往往不是用言语可以解说明白的，反而用譬喻更能够显理，这叫做以事显理;所以有很多故事看起来很简单，但含意却是非常微妙。因此我们不要轻视简单的事物，若能有所体会，真正奥妙的道理就在其中。

很深的道理，用很简单的事相来譬喻，这就是菩萨法门最微妙的方法教育，因此不论聪明才智的高低都能有所体会，最重要的是身体力行去感受，也就是佛家所谓的证果。

譬如，几年前我在台中，有位先生来告诉我：“我很不甘愿，被我的兄弟占了便宜。”

我听他细述家中兄弟间多年来的纠纷;之后，我就告诉他：“难得一世为兄弟，这分缘是千金也买不到的。钱被占了，我们还可以再赚;感情失去了，这分缘就永远回不来了。兄弟之间，如果有个人傻一点，家族就会很圆满。”

我就说了个譬喻：傻人有傻福，就像井水一样，不论怎样舀，永远都是八分满，舀再多的水也不会少，不舀也不会比较多。

就像你有多少福是注定的，说不定你把这些东西给了他们，后面还有更多等着你去拿;如果双手一直不放，即使有更好的东西也拿不到了。既然他们喜欢，不如赶紧给他们，这样他们也会很感激你的。

他听了觉得很有道理，就马上去告诉他兄弟：“那块土地随便你们怎么处理，我都没有意见，你们要多少都拿去，剩下的再给我，没有也没关系。”几年的纠纷，简单的一番话就解开了。

后来，他热心投入公益慈善工作，他说：“师父，我真的证实到‘汲井水’的道理。”

因为以前他和兄弟计较家产时，一天到晚只会烦恼这些事，别人要告诉他发展生意的机会，他也听不进去，白白丧失了许多机会。自从放下之后，他专心做生意，这几年来发展得很好。

后来，他也懂得欢喜布施的道理，每次他把钱捐出来时，就说：“师父，我的‘井水’又有多余的了，我觉得我这几年多出很多。”

对!这不但是他体会到的真理，也是他证悟到的结果。他能真正体会到，否则“汲井水”的道理，大家听了也会觉得：师父说的有道理。但是有道理归有道理，如果没有亲自去提水，就感受不到什么是“多余的”。

道理明白后，倘若还是放不下，就无法体会。总而言之，真正体会真理之后，就会很欢喜地去做，这就是证果，证得欢喜的果报，心无烦恼、很自在，就是彻底觉悟的欢喜心。

Love is the only cause of happiness. Its nature is all-pervasive like space. Love is the sunlight of the mind.

-- Garchen Rinpoche

Bodhichitta

by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

BODHICHITTA is the unfailing method for attaining enlightenment. It has two aspects, relative and absolute. Relative Bodhichitta is practised using ordinary mental processes and is comparatively easy to develop. Nevertheless, the benefits that flow from it are immeasurable, for a mind in which the precious Bodhichitta has been born will never again fall into the lower realms of samsara. Finally, all the qualities of the Mahayana Path, as teeming and vast as the ocean, are distilled and essentialised in  Bodhichitta, the mind of enlightenment.

We must prepare ourselves for this practice by following the instructions in the sadhana of Chenrezig, 'Take refuge in the Three jewels and meditate on Bodhichitta. Consider that all your virtuous acts of body, speech and mind are for the whole multitude of beings, numerous as the sky is vast.'

It is said in the teachings that, 'Since beings are countless, the benefit of wishing them well is unlimited.' And how many beings there are! Just imagine, in this very lawn there might be millions and millions of  them! If we wish to establish them all in the enlightened state of Buddhahood, it is said that the benefit of such an aspiration is as vast as the number of beings is great. Therefore we should not restrict our Bodhichitta to a limited number of beings. Wherever there is space, beings exist, and all  of them live in suffering. Why make distinctions between them, welcoming some as loving friends and excluding others as hostile enemies?

Throughout the stream of our lives, from time without beginning until the present, we have all been wandering in samsara,  accumulating evil. When we die, where else is there for us to go to but the lower realms? But if the wish and thought occur to us that we must bring all beings to the enlightened state of Buddhahood, we have generated what is  known as Bodhichitta in intention. We should then pray to the teacher and  the yidam deities that the practice of the precious Bodhichitta might take  root in our hearts. We should recite the seven branch prayer from the Prayer of Perfect Action, and, sitting upright, count our breaths twenty-one times without getting mixed up or missing any, and without being distracted by anything. If we are able to count our breaths concentratedly for a whole mala, discursive thoughts will diminish and the practice of relative Bodhichitta will be much easier. This is how to become a suitable  vessel for meditation.

ABSOLUTE BODHICHITTA 

Consider all phenomena as a dream.

If we have enemies, we tend to think of them as permanently hostile. Perhaps we have the feeling that they have been the enemies of our ancestors in the past, that they are against us now and that they will hate our children in the future. Maybe this is what we think, but the reality is actually quite different. In fact, we do not know where or what we  were in our previous existences, and so there is no certainty that the aggressive people we now have to contend with were not our parents in former lives! When we die, we have no idea where we will be reborn and so there is no knowing that these enemies of ours might not become our mothers or fathers. At present, we might have every confidence in our  parents who are so dear to us, but when they go from this life, who is to say that they will not be reborn among our enemies? Because our past and future lives are unknown to us, we have the impression that the enemies we have now are fixed in their hostility, or that our present friends will always be  friendly. This only goes to show that we have never given any real thought to this question.

If we consider this carefully, we might picture a situation where  many people are at work on some elaborate project. At one moment, they are all friends together, feeling close, trusting and doing each other good  turns. But then something happens and they become enemies, perhaps hurting or even killing one other. Such things do happen, and changes like  this can occur several times in the course of a single lifetime-for no other reason than that all composite things or situations are impermanent.

This precious human body, supreme instrument though it is for the attainment of enlightenment, is itself a transient phenomenon. No one knows when, or how, death will come. Bubbles form on the surface of the water, but the next instant they are gone, they do not stay. It is just the same with this precious human body we have managed to find. We take all the time in the world before engaging in the practice, but who  knows when this life of ours will simply cease to be? And once our precious human body is lost, our mind stream, continuing its existence, will take birth perhaps among the animals, or in one of the hells or god realms where  spiritual development is impossible. Even life in a heavenly state, where all is ease and comfort, is a situation unsuitable for practice, on account of the constant dissipation and distraction that are a feature of the gods'  existence. 

At present, the outer universe-earth, stones, mountains, rocks and cliffs seems to the perception of our senses to be permanent and stable, like the house built of reinforced concrete which we think will last for generations. In fact, there is nothing solid to it at all; it is nothing but a city of  dreams. 

In the past, when the Buddha was alive surrounded by multitudes  of Arhats and when the teachings prospered, what buildings must their benefactors have built for them! It was all impermanent; there is nothing left to see now but an empty plain. In the same way, at the universities of Vikramashila and Nalanda, thousands of panditas spent their time instructing enormous monastic assemblies. All impermanent!  Now, not even a single monk or volume of Buddha's teachings are to be  found there. 

Take another example from the more recent past. Before the arrival of the Chinese Communists, how many monasteries were there in what used to be called Tibet, the Land of Snow? How many temples and monasteries were there, like those in Lhasa,' at Samye and Trandruk? How many precious objects were there, representations of the Buddha's Body, Speech and Mind? Now not even a statue remains. All that is left of Samye is something the size of this tent, hardly bigger than a stupa. Everything was either looted, broken or scattered, and all the great images were destroyed. These things have happened and this demonstrates  impermanence.

Think of all the lamas who came and lived in India, such as  Gyalwa Karmapa, Lama Kalu Rinpoche and Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche; think of all the teachings they gave, and how they contributed to the  preservation of the Buddha's doctrine. All of them have passed away. We can no longer see them and they remain only as objects of prayer and devotion. All  this is because of impermanence. In the same way we should try to  think of our fathers, mothers, children and friends... When the Tibetans escaped to India, the physical conditions were too much for many of them and they died. Among my acquaintances alone, there were three or four  deaths every day. That is impermanence. There is not one thing in  existence that is stable and lasts.

If we have an understanding of impermanence, we will be able to practise the sacred teachings. But if we continue to think that  everything will remain as it is, then we will be just like rich people still discussing their business projects on their deathbeds! Such people never talk about the next life, do they? It goes to show that an appreciation of the certainty of death has never touched their hearts. That is their mistake, their  delusion.

What is delusion? How shall we define it? It is just as when a  madman runs outside on a cold winter's day and jumps into the water to wash himself, too deranged to realise that his body is being frozen. We think that such a man is insane, but in exactly the same way, when a Bodhisattva, clear-minded and undeceived, looks at us, our activities seem to him as demented as those of the lunatic! We should be quite convinced that we are thoroughly deluded and that when things appear to us the way they do, separate from our minds, they do not possess the slightest  degree of reality in themselves.

But what is it that creates this illusion? It is the mind, and it does so when it takes as real that which is illusory and non-existent.  Nevertheless, we should clearly understand that such delusion is actually quite distinct from the mind in itself, the Buddha-nature or Sugatagarbha; it is  not something, therefore, which it is impossible for us to remove.

But what about the mind, this creator of illusion? Can even the mind itself be said to exist? To understand this, we must

Analyse the unborn nature of awareness.

When anger arises in what we think of as our minds, we become oblivious even to the dangers that might threaten us. Our faces  flushed with rage, we seize our weapons and could even kill a lot of  people. But this anger is an illusion; it is not at all some great force that comes rushing into us. It achieves one thing only and that is to send us to hell, and  yet it is nothing but thought, insubstantial thought. It is only thought, and yet... Take another example, that of a wealthy person. He is rich and happy and is deeply pleased with himself, thinking, 'I am rich.' But then if all his property is confiscated by an official or some such person, his happiness evaporates and he falls into depression and misery. That joy is  mind. That sadness is mind. And that mind is thought.

What shall we say about these so-called thoughts? At this  moment, while I am teaching Dharma, let us consider the mental experience, or thought, which you have, of listening carefully to me. Does this have a form or colour? Is it to be found in the upper or lower part of the body, in  the eyes or the ears? What we call the mind is not really there at all. If it is truly something, it must have characteristics, such as colour. It must be white, yellow, etc. Or it must have shape like a pillar or a vase. It must be big or small, old or young, and so on. You can find out whether the mind exists or not by just turning inwards and reflecting carefully. You will see  that the mind does not begin, or end, or stay, anywhere; that it has no  colour or form and is to be found neither inside nor outside the body. And when you see that it does not exist as any thing, you should stay in that  experience without an attempt to label or define it.

When you have truly attained the realisation of this emptiness, you will be like the venerable Milarepa or Guru Rinpoche, who were unaffected by the heat of summer or the cold of winter, and who could not be burned by fire or drowned in water. In emptiness there is neither pain nor suffering. We, on the other hand, have not understood the empty nature of the mind and so, when bitten by even a small insect, we think, 'Ouch! I've  been bitten. It hurts!'; or when someone says something unkind, we get angry. That is the sign that we have not realised the mind's empty  nature. All the same, even granted that we are convinced that our body  and mind are by nature empty, when this very conviction, which is normally called the antidote, arises in our minds, it is said, nevertheless,  that: 

The antidote will vanish of itself.

People who ask for Dharma teachings do so because they are  afraid of what might happen to them after death. They decide that they must take refuge, request the lama for instruction and concentrate unwaveringly on the practice: a hundred thousand prostrations, a hundred thousand mandala offerings, recitations of the refuge formula and so on. These, of course, are positive thoughts, but thoughts, being without substantial nature, do not stay for very long. When the teacher is no longer present and there is no one to show what should and should not be done, then for most practitioners it is as the saying goes: Old yogis getting rich; old teachers getting married. This only goes to show that thoughts are impermanent, and we should therefore bear in mind that any thought or antidote even the thought of emptiness is itself by nature empty without substantial existence.

The nature of the path rests in the alaya.

But how are we to rest in emptiness, free from all mental activity?  Let us begin by saying that the state of mind of thinking 'I'-has no reality whatever. Be that as it may, we do have the feeling of something real and solid which we call 'I,' and which is supported by a body with its five sense powers and eight consciousnesses. These are technical terms and are not very easy to understand. But, for example, when the eye apprehends a form, sight occurs by virtue of the eye-consciousness. If the form is something pleasant we think, 'This is good, I like it.' If we see something frightening, a ghost, for instance, or someone with a gun ready to  shoot us, we think that we are going to be killed and react with horror. The truth is, however, that those outer events apparently happening 'over  there' are in fact occurring 'here,' 'within;' they are fabricated by our minds.

As to where our minds are now situated, we may say that they are linked to our bodies and that it is thanks to this combination that we have the faculty of speech. A tent, pulled by ropes from the sides, and with a pole in the middle, becomes a place where we can stay. In the same way, our body, speech and mind are temporarily together. But when we die, and our minds enter the bardo, our bodies will be left behind and our speech will completely cease to exist. Our minds, moreover, will not be accompanied by the wealth we have gathered during our lives, nor by our fathers or mothers, nor by our relatives or friends. We will be alone,  saddled with whatever good and evil we have done, and which we cannot shake off any more than we can get rid of our own shadows.

The body left behind at death is called a corpse. Whether it is the  body of our parents or the relics of our teacher, it is just a corpse. Now, though corpses have eyes, they cannot see; they cannot hear with theirs  ears or speak with their mouths. We may treat them with respect, dressing them in brocade robes and putting them on thrones; or we may treat them roughly, burning them in the fire or throwing them into water. It is all the  same to the corpses. They are mindless and like stones, neither happy nor sad. 

When the mind is positive, body and speech, the servants of the mind, will of course be positive also. But how are we to make the mind positive? At the moment we cling to the notion that our minds are real entities.

When someone helps us, we think, 'That person has been so good to me. I must be kind to him in return and make him my friend for lives and lives to come.' This only goes to show that we do not know about the empty nature of the mind. As for our enemies, we think of how to harm  them as much as possible, at best killing them or at least robbing them of all their belongings. We think like that simply because we think our anger is a true and permanent reality-while in fact it is nothing at all. We should therefore rest in the empty nature of the mind beyond all mental elaborations, in that state which is free from clinging, a clarity which is beyond all  concepts.

To bring this description of absolute Bodhichitta to a conclusion,  the root text says:

In post-meditation, consider phenomena as illusory.

It is said that when one arises from meditation, all phenomena, oneself and others, the universe and its inhabitants, appear in the manner  of an illusion. This however should be properly understood.

When great Bodhisattvas come into the world to accomplish the benefit of beings by establishing them on the path to liberation, it is not through the power of their karma or defiled emotions that they do so. As we read in the stories of his previous lives, Lord Buddha, while still a Bodhisattva, took birth among the birds and deer and so forth, in order to teach and set them on the path of virtue. He was born too as a universal ruler who practised great generosity, and later in his quest for the Dharma, for the sake of hearing only a few lines of teaching, he would burn his body, or jump into fire or water, unconcerned for his life. Because he had realised emptiness, he experienced no suffering at all. Until we achieve the same degree of realisation, however, and for as long as we hold onto the idea that everything is permanent and stable, that will not be the case for us. This is something we should bear in mind as we go about our daily lives.

RELATIVE BODHICHITTA 

We will consider the practice of relative Bodhichitta first as  meditation, then in terms of day to day living.

With regard to meditation, it is said in the root verses that we should 

Train to give and take alternately;

This refers to an extremely important practice. As the great  master Shantideva said,

Whoever wishes quickly  to become

A refuge for himself and others,

Should undertake this sacred mystery:

To take place of others, giving them his own.

We attach great importance to what we conceive of as I, myself,  and therefore to such thoughts as my body, my mind, my father, my  mother, my brother, my sister, my friend. But the concept of others we  neglect and ignore. We may indeed be generous to beggars and give food to  those who need it, but it is a fact that we do not care for them as much as  we care for ourselves. This however is precisely what we should do; and  conversely, just as we are now able to ignore others, we should be able to  ignore ourselves. This is how Bodhichitta begins to grow; this is the extraordinary secret pith instruction of the Bodhisattvas. At the moment, this  Bodhichitta has not yet awakened in myself and so it is extremely fortunate for me that I can explain it on the basis of this text.

If through listening to this explanation of the Seven Point Mind Training we come to recognise how important Bodhichitta is, this will be an infallible cause of our enlightenment. Of all the eighty four thousand different sections of the doctrine, the precious Bodhichitta is the very  essence. By hearing the words of such a teaching, it is impossible even for demons, whose nature it is to kill and to do harm, not to have positive  thoughts! Kham, a region in East Tibet, was haunted in the past by many  ghosts and evil spirits, and this was one of the reasons why Patrul  Rinpoche used to explain the Bodhicharyavatara continually to his disciples.  Before long, there were no more ghosts-or at least, no one came to any more harm. Such is the hidden power of Bodhichitta!

If I do not give away

My happiness for others' pain,

Buddhahood will never be attained

And even in samsara joy will fly from me.

Enlightenment will be ours when we are able to care for others as  much as we now care for ourselves, and ignore ourselves to the same  extent that we now ignore others. Even if we had to remain in samsara, we should be free from sorrow. For as I have said, when the great Bodhisattvas gave away their heads and limbs, they felt no sadness at the loss of  them.

Once, in one of his previous lifetimes, the Buddha was a universal monarch whose custom it was to give away his wealth without  regret. He refused nothing to those who came to beg from him and his fame  spread far and wide. One day, a wicked Brahmin" beggar came before the king and addressed him saying,'Great king, I am ugly to look upon, while you are very handsome; please give me your head.' And the king agreed. Now his queens and ministers had been afraid that he might do this, and making hundreds of heads out of gold, silver and precious stones, they offered them to the beggar.

'Take these heads,' they pleaded, 'do not ask the king for his.'

'Heads made of jewels are of no use to me,' the beggar replied, 'I  want a human head.' And he refused to take them.

Eventually they could no longer deter him from seeing the king.

The king said to him, 'I have sons and daughters, queens and a kingdom, but no attachment do I have for any of them. I will give you my head at the foot of the tsambaka tree in the garden. If I can give you my head today, I shall have completed the Bodhisattva act of giving my head for the thousandth time.'

And so, at the foot of the tree, the king took off his clothes, tied  his hair to a branch and cut off his head. At that moment, darkness covered the earth and from the sky came the sound of the gods weeping and  lamenting, so loudly that even human beings could hear them. The queens, princes and ministers, all fell speechless to the ground. Then Indra, the lord of the gods, appeared and said, '0 king, you are a Bodhisattva and have even given away your head, but here I have the life-restoring ambrosia of the gods. Let me anoint you with it and bring you back to life.'

Now the king was indeed a Bodhisattva and, even though his  head had been cut off and sent away, his mind was still present and he  replied that he had no need of Indra's life-restoring ambrosia, for he could  replace his head simply by the force of his own prayers.

Indra begged him to do so and the king said: 'If in all those  thousand acts of giving my head away beneath the tsambaka tree there was nothing but the aim of benefiting others, unstained by any trace of self  seeking-if I was without resentment or regret, then may my head be once again restored. But if regrets there were, or evil thoughts, or intentions not purely for the sake of others, then may my head remain cut off.' No sooner had the king said this than there appeared on his shoulders a new head identical to the first, which had been taken by the Brahmin. Then all the queens, princes and ministers rejoiced and administered the kingdom in  accordance with the Dharma.

For those who can practise generosity like this, there is no suffering at all. Enlightened teachers, Bodhisattvas, come into the world to accomplish the welfare of beings, and even when they are ignored by people in the grip of desire, anger and ignorance, who stir up obstacles and  difficulties, the thought of giving up never occurs to them and they are totally  without anger or resentment. As it is said:

To free yourself from harm

And others from their sufferings, 

Give away yourself for others,

Guard others as you would protect yourself.

Now, when training in giving away your happiness to others, it is  unwise to try to give to all beings right from the start. For beings are countless and your meditation will not be stable, with the result that you will derive no benefit from the practice. Therefore, visualise in front of you a specific person, someone whom you love, your mother for example. Reflect that when you were very little, she suffered while she carried you in her womb; she was unable to work or eat comfortably, unable even to stand up and sit down without difficulty. Yet all the time she loved and cared for you. When you were born from her womb, were it not for the fact that you were actually breathing, you could scarcely have been called a living thing at all. You were not even strong enough to raise your head. Nevertheless your mother took you, this little thing which did not even know her, upon her lap to wash, clean and bring up lovingly. Later she put up with loss and disgrace on account of your misbehaviour, her only preoccupation being how to keep you alive. If your parents were practitioners they introduced you, when you were old enough, to the Dharma and to the lamas  from whom you received instruction.

In fact, it is thanks to your mother that your precious human life  exists at all. If she had not been there, who knows whether you would  have attained it? Therefore you should be very grateful to her. Thinking  in terms not only of this but of countless lives, understand that all beings have been your mothers and have cared for you just as your present mother  has done. When your mother looks at you, she does not frown, but  looks at you with loving eyes. Calling you her dear child, she has brought you up, protecting you from heat and cold and all the rest. In every way  she has tried to bring about your happiness. Even if she could give you the kingdom of a universal ruler, she would still not be satisfied and would never think that she had given you enough. Your mother, therefore, is someone to whom you should have an endless gratitude.

If, on growing up, someone abandons his aged and sick parents  instead of caring for them, people think of him as shamelessly ungrateful,  and rightly so. But even if we are not like that, it is absurd to say that  we respect our parents, while caring only for ourselves. On the other hand, if we do look after them, but supply them only with material things: food, clothing, even the wealth of a whole country, they would be benefited only for a time. If, by contrast, we introduce them to the Dharma, so that  they come to understand the painful reality of samsara and go on to  practise, for example, the meditation on Chenrezig, we will have succeeded in  helping them for their future lives as well. Again and again, we must work for the benefit of our parent sentient beings. Wanting happiness for themselves alas, they wander in the different states of samsara. We are  wandering in samsara like them and for the same reason. Therefore now, at  this very moment, we should make a strong resolution to repay their  kindness and work to dispel their suffering.

Beings are tormented by suffering. There is the extreme heat and  cold of the hells and hunger and thirst in the realms of famished spirits. Animals suffer from being enslaved, while human beings are tortured by  birth, disease, old age and death. The demigods are constantly fighting, and the gods themselves suffer when they must leave their heavenly  abodes. 

All suffering is the result of evil actions, while virtuous deeds are  the cause of happiness and pleasure. The seeds of negativities left in the alaya are like promissory notes made out to a rich person when money  is borrowed from him. When this person shows the promissory  note, even after many years, there is no way that the debtor can avoid having to repay the loan. It is the same when we accumulate positive and negative actions: the results may not appear immediately, as when we have been cut by a knife; nevertheless, the effects of every one of our actions must  be exhausted, either through purifying and confessing them or  through the experience of their consequences. They do not simply disappear  with the passage of time. This is what is meant by the two Truths of  Suffering and the Origin of Suffering. 'Suffering' is the harm we actually  experience: the heat and cold of the hells, the hunger and thirst of the realms of  famished spirits, and so on. 'Origin' is the seed of suffering-the promissory  note to the banker-which will afflict us in the future, not right away.

We should decide to take upon ourselves the suffering and the  causes of suffering of all sentient beings (who have all in previous  existences been our mothers), and at the same time to give away to them  whatever causes of happiness that we have. And if it happens that, as we meditate  upon their sufferings entering our hearts, we begin to suffer ourselves, we  should think with joy that this is all for our mothers' sake. Giving away  our own happiness and positive deeds for their benefit, we should ignore  our own welfare for their sake, to the extent that we are ready to give up  even our lives for them. We must try to provide a situation in which our  mother sentient beings might have happiness here and now, and  circumstances suitable for them to practise the Dharma. We should pray for  them to be enlightened swiftly and take delight in whatever progress they  might make. 

If we think continually in this way about our own parents, we will eventually be able to care for them more than for ourselves and  likewise with regard to our brothers, sisters, friends and lovers. Then we  should enlarge our outlook to include everyone in our city, then in the  whole country. When we get used to that, we can try to encompass all  beings. If we do this gradually, our attitude will increase in scope, our  feelings will grow stable and constant, and our love become ever more  intense. Starting thus with our mother and father, we should finally focus on all  sentient beings, who for countless lives have cared for us just like our  present parents. We should feel a deep gratitude towards them. Knowing that all these parent beings endure every kind of suffering in samsara, we  should nourish one thought with fierce compassion: 'If only I could free  them from this pain.'

To recapitulate: with an attitude of strong compassion, we  imagine that the suffering of all beings dissolves into us, and in return we give  our body, wealth and positive actions of the past, present and future. And if we see that beings are happy and their positive actions multiply, we  should rejoice again and again.

The thought of exchanging happiness and suffering will come  easily to us if we follow the pith instruction in the following root verse:

Mount them both upon your breath.

Visualise in front of you the person you dislike most. As you  exhale, all your happiness, positive actions and wealth leave you like mist  pushed by the wind. They dissolve into your enemy, who is thereby freed  from suffering and filled with joy, becoming as happy as if he had been born in the Pure Land of Dewachen. As you inhale, all his sufferings,  negative actions and obscurations sink into you like dust on wind.  Imagining that his sufferings actually fall upon you, feel their weight as though you were carrying a load. This will become easier with practice. By meditating in this way for a long time, over months and years, you will grow  accustomed to it and your experience will develop as it should.

In the past one of Khenchen Tashi Oser's disciples lived as a  hermit in the mountains. When a servant of his family died, he prayed for him, and one night dreamt that the servant had been reborn in one of the hot hells. When he awoke, the hermit went straight to Khenchen Tashi Oser to whom he recounted the dream, requesting him to think of the deceased  servant and to pray for him.

Khenchen Tashi Oser replied, 'I will think of him, but you should also practise the visualisation of sending happiness and taking  suffering. If you do it again and again, the person whom you have told me about  will be liberated from the hell realms.'

So the ascetic returned to his cave and practised the visualisation persistently. After seven days he found that he was covered with  blisters. Thinking it was a sign, he went back to see Khenchen Tashi Oser. 

'You told me to do the practice of giving and taking,' he said to his Teacher, 'and now it is as if my body has been burned by fire. I  am covered with blisters.'

'It is just a sign,' said Khenchen Tashi Oser. 'Your former servant is now liberated from hell, and it shows also that you are able to give happiness and take suffering.'

If we are to get real benefit from this practice, we should continue until signs like these arise.

When the disciples of Adzom Drugpa practised giving and  taking, or tonglen, as it is called in Tibetan, they would do so thinking  especially of people who had committed many heavy, negative actions. And it  often happened that if they had previously gained some experience in meditation, their understanding would become clouded and they would feel that their obscurations had increased. Should signs like this occur, however, they are not to be taken as indications that future  suffering is in store for us. Throughout his life, Geshe Karak Gomchung  prayed, 'May I be reborn in hell in place of those who have accumulated sinful  actions.' He would repeat this prayer day and night. But just before he passed  away he said: 'My prayers have not been fulfilled! For it seems that I am  going to Dewachen; wherever I look, I see gardens full of flowers and a  rain of blossom. Though I have prayed that all beings might go to  Dewachen and that I myself might go to hell instead of them, in fact it seems that I am not going.' Such are the results of tonglen.

RELATIVE BODHICHITTA IN POST-MEDITATION

Three objects, three poisons and three roots of virtue.

For objects that please us and for people that we love, for example our parents and relatives, we experience attachment. But when confronted by uncomfortable situations, when for example we see enemies or people we dislike, we experience aversion. When we see people who are  neither close friends nor enemies, we feel indifferent. In pleasant situations, we feel attachment; in unpleasant situations, anger; in indifferent situations, ignorance.

Many people, like myself, are infected by the three poisons! Therefore we should pray, 'May the obscurations of all beings, arising through these three poisons, come upon me as a load to bear. May all beings  live virtuously, performing positive actions, and be free from the three poisons of attachment, anger and ignorance.' We will be greatly benefited  if we constantly train ourselves in thinking like this.

In all your actions, train yourself with maxims.

An example of these maxims would be: 'May the evil deeds of others ripen as my suffering; may all my virtuous acts bear fruit as others' happiness.' This is what the Kadampa masters always used to recite. It is good to repeat such verses in the post-meditation period. Moreover, praying like this will be even more beneficial before a precious object like the Jowo Rinpochels in Lhasa or in the presence of the Lama. If we do so, Bodhichitta is sure to grow in us and therefore we should devote much time and energy to this practice.

Begin the training sequence with yourself.

We should think like this: 'May all the torments destined for me in the future, the heat and cold of the hells and the hunger and thirst of  the famished spirits, come to me now. And may all the karma, obscuration and defilement causing beings to fall into an infernal destiny sink into my heart so that I myself might go to hell instead of them. May the suffering of others, the fruit, as the teachings say, of their desire and  ignorance, come to me.' We should train ourselves like this again and again until we  have such signs as that of Maitriyogin, who was wounded in the place where  the stone had hit the dog.

Bodhichitta, the mind of enlightenment, is the heart of all the  practices of the Sutra and Mantrayana, and it is easy to implement. If one has it, everything is complete, and nothing is complete without it. At this  present time, you are receiving many teachings on mind-training from different teachers. Keep them in your hearts! When they are translated, I hope that you will understand and remember them. For this is indeed the  Dharma.

Simply put - by cultivating diligence in building mindfulness, mindfulness will free you from becoming a cause of suffering to others.

-- Khandro Rinpoche

緣起的面面觀序

仁俊長老

學佛法，簡括說，就是學緣起。因爲佛法的全貌與總根，全都在緣起中該攝無遺。所以，惟有體緊、思切、用熟、悟明了緣起，面對身心與境界，乃至古往今來一切的內容與現象的來龍去脈，才理解得絲毫不謬、的准無疑。諸佛圓證菩提與衆生徹得解脫的最究極的准則——緣起（因緣），這是佛法與外道及有所得小乘不相共的特質，擇定、體印得不混不動，學的經曆與修的進程，才會一起整貫遍通得不遺不了，做成能瞻諸佛能爲衆生的健全人。

人，最值得慶幸處：能聞緣起正法，從緣起正法中，將（染淨）緣起擇辨得清晰、確准。不帶絲毫含糊、倒雜，直從性空緣起上截斷「性」與「我」的戀留、盼顧，人生觀與人生行則展得開看得透，走的不再是一般老路，做的也不墮世間俗套，佛法中健全的人生就從此開端的。與緣起相應的觀行的精義：相待中直透二邊——觀，絕待中淨契實相——行；這麽種深難度的觀與行，一般的心思口議，契投不著的。但是，只須從正方便（精進）中體握著佛法命脈：戒（善）與（福）慧；戒慧堅化、廣化、深化、淨化得不離緣起，「性」與「我」的陰影則被蕩廓得沒交道、不憶念，佛法的德音與光力，我們的眼根、耳根與意根，則漸漸看到、聽到也多少領悟得著。緣起成爲念頭之鏡，現前之（開）示，佛與法明現得親切的准，我們的六根從（聞）熏（察）照中依止得「善欲」熱烈、盛旺而懇誠，忘卻疲昧，抛絕逸荒，就開始有番初步「轉依」。佛法，就這麽從內在「現行」得活絡綿密，從外在現形得活脫畢真（不诳不賺，能爲能當）；也就這麽于理安順得恬淡甯谧，于事忍化得融通洽和。菩薩的風貌與心腸，就這麽不經意地流露出來；由此而流露不已，整體性的佛陀身心也就漸漸地有幾分相似印現。學緣起，務須把握的意趣：今生修成永不失落的端正的人形象，有了端正的人形象，才會聽聞到佛所說的「緣起大法」，將「性」與「我」遣治得遠離身心，從緣起法中開得透眼，發得足心，剖得出自家心肝，足足實實地供養諸佛與衆生！

緣起的內涵最極深邃，緣起的範圍極其寬廣，寬廣到世間與出世，諸佛與衆生，無一能出乎緣起之外。因此，要探究一切佛、一切人、一切法之所以然，離開了「無性」的緣起，則怎也握不著要領。釋尊所證的是緣起，所诠的也是緣起；所證的無量無比的甚深法性——「無上寂滅」，是斷盡一切惑習的圓妙佛果；所诠的該攝著有漏與有爲；釋尊說法的目的，將有漏凡俗導向無漏無爲——「究竟涅盤」。前者概括世間一切差別事相，後者遍通出世一味寂然實相。悟入佛法實相的一切聖者——聲聞與佛陀，其所悟入的共同法門：「苦集滅道」。從四谛與緣起的關聯說，四谛直從現實的生命「苦」果上，谛確地點出感致苦果之因——「集」；能「滅」此集最有力的方法——「道」。所以，四谛法門是最簡明而如實的具體示導。十二緣起的「無明緣行，行緣識」等，則從甚深極甚深的覺照、透達中，點出三世流轉的主因——「癡」與「愛」；這樣的流轉觀，破絕了外道以（神）「我」爲流轉主體的邪見，而代之以「識」爲三世流轉的正觀。在修學曆程中，如能深觀（阿含）本教中的「識如幻」，不讓自我覆心遮念，則能觀苦破我，觀緣破性，穩穩當當地直趣解脫。佛法的宗趣——解脫第一，從大乘佛法的解脫觀說：活潑潑通透透地勘破了性與我的執取，從（正）法與（淨）緣的創悟中，念念不忘諸佛，處處不負衆生，以諸佛之法濟衆生之苦，（深）愍衆生之苦（廣）攝諸佛之法，法悟（持）得忘了我，緣創（回）得盡爲衆，就這樣，法之喜樂與緣之發揮，充滿著身心也奉獻得身心，戀與厭的兩極性，就不再在心目中打戰了。從此所念所見的，只有諸佛與衆生，這樣，盡管不急求解脫，實際上也沒什麽縛著自己，身心則開濟得兩頭覺導——不忘諸佛，不負衆生。

從這二不中，廓絕了一切情見，身心完全化融于正法淨緣中，正得于有爲中不執實有，淨得于無爲中不住真空，將真空中體悟得的實相，從有爲中印決、了達得正正明明，智觀的「無得」與慈行的「無量」，與菩提心就貫聯、化合得不脫不失。菩薩弘誓堅願的「不畏惡道，不求樂故」，就這麽自勘、自驗、自發、自致得不屈不悔，能進能荷得永恒不已的。修學中最應提運的訣門：緣起性空，從緣起中汰除世智（一切情見滋衍薮），從性空中察照實相，眼面前看到的不離實相，心底觸會的也不離實相；實相遍一切時空，緣起也遍于一切時空，緣起與實相構成不可分的關聯；因此，理解到緣起無性，就必然地了悟諸法實相。從差別的見地看：「一切有爲法，亦名因緣」，衆生的生死流轉，不離「此有故彼有，此生故彼生」的理則，釋尊對一般衆生，總是先說「法住智」，其故在此。「佛告比丘：我不作十二因緣，亦非余人作，有佛無佛諸法如、法相、法位常有」（『大智度論』卷第三二）。緣起的「定義」，不外乎「此故彼」，所以，「此有故彼有，此生故彼生」，構成了流轉的定律；「此無故彼無，此滅故彼滅」，構成了還滅的定律。這樣的定律，乃是「法住智」與「涅盤智」的綜合诠演。因此就知道：生死從因緣生，涅盤亦從因緣生，由于因緣涵蓋一切，所以釋尊說：「我說緣起」。佛法的特質——有因無自性；修學佛法的著眼處——以淨因治染因；淨因的引生處——「淨心」，心淨得不著「我」與「法」（我所），心智就會體悟到彼此息息相通的關聯性，所以說「共生因者，一切有爲法，各有共生因；以共生故，更相佐助。譬如兄弟同生故，互相成濟」（卷同上）。理解到人與人的因緣相關性，從因緣中體行得崇敬而感激一切人，才會以菩提心等觀諸佛與衆生。

聲聞行者對緣起存著最迫切的厭怖感，形成了「三界如火宅」般的出離心，盡快地入滅的「自利行」；菩薩行者卻于緣起中繁興悲願，練培出以「人間」爲行化的「普賢行」。菩薩道的超特性：「自以智慧眼，觀知諸法實（相畢竟空），種種法門中，皆以等觀入」；深學而深行「等觀」的菩薩：「不以諸結使爲惡，不以功德爲妙；是故于結不瞋，功德不愛」。「法忍」與智覺的功能深厚了的菩薩，大都對「生死與涅盤」作一相（無相）觀。以故，「菩薩雖厭老病死，能觀諸法實相，究盡深入十二因緣，通達法空入無量法性……」（卷三一）。緣起的廣義——「空諸行」，凡是念頭上觸會或觀達到的：漏與無漏，爲與無爲，概而言之，都可稱爲「行」，也都是各各不離于空。從空寂中面對緣起，在緣起中不離、不沈于空，「無所得的智光」照徹了一切，也就通達而活轉了一切，菩薩就這麽從淨脫脫明足足中而圓成佛道。

龍樹菩薩說：「離有爲則無無爲，所以者何？有爲法實相即是無爲；無爲相者，則非有爲，但爲衆生顛倒，故分別說……」。「無爲相者，則非有爲」，這兩句話，從最純正的佛法說，重要極了！因爲一切法的普遍實相——畢竟空，從無自性的畢竟空中遍觀一切，森羅萬象到（一相）一味涅盤，毫厘許的自性也不可得。因此，諸佛所證覺的空，乃是徹頭徹尾的本性空。本性空——是不生（不滅）的，所以說「則非有爲」。這與「真空生妙有」的思想，迥不相同，從遣執上說，緣起性空，是最徹底的反妙有論者；一般所唱演的妙有，乃是倒見中「常樂我淨」的産物；以緣起（自）性空爲修學准則的吾人，對此等倒見産物，亟應致力導勸而舍離之。

超定法師以性空緣起爲修學宗趣，近幾年爲「正覺之音」所寫的數十篇文章，其內容都從阿含的「空諸行」及初期大乘經的「法法本性空」著筆，具有正知淨行的啓導性，我誠懇地向諸位讀者推薦。藉此因緣，我想與超法師訂一誓約：生生世世倡踐緣起正法、性空實相，遮絕「真空生妙有」的世俗（執）見！

Do not blame your past karma; instead, be someone who purely and flawlessly practises the Dharma. Do not blame temporary negative circumstances; instead, be someone who remains steadfast in the face of whatever circumstances may arise.

-- His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche

Three Vehicles, Four Noble Truths

by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

I would like to welcome everybody who has come from many parts of the country to listen to the teachings, tashi deleg to you all. Tonight there is going to be a general introduction to Dharma. Generally speaking, in Tibetan, when you talk about a practitioner, sanje nampa means a person who is studying something inner. We have inner and outer aspects and the inner aspect means learning about one’s mind, which is within. So that is what it means to be a Buddhist.

Our mind is very important and all our experiences of happiness and unhappiness arise in the mind. So if we can train our minds then happiness will arise naturally. This happiness is real lasting peace which you will have in the external environment as well as in your inner mind.

What are the main teachings of the Buddha? The teaching is that one should pacify one’s mind. So one should generate inner peace in one’s mind. Buddha taught three different gradual paths to help us realise inner peace within our minds. They are Hinayana, Mahayana and the Secret Vajrayana. This is all the different of Buddhist teachings brought into three special points.

So why is it necessary that the Buddha taught in three different ways or three different paths? He presented the teaching in such a way because sentient beings of the world have different types of mind, different characteristics. Some people have very open, vast minds, some people have a very closed type mind. For that reason the Buddha taught varying techniques, not just one. However if one reaches the very end of any of the three paths, the result is the same, the final result is complete enlightenment.

You can have an example of this. We arrived from London today. How did I arrive? I came in a car. I came along one particular path or road. It is possible for another person to have taken a plane and come from London and arrive at Samye Ling. The airport is a little bit further away. It is also possible that a man might come from London to Samye Ling by walking. Who would arrive first? The person who came in the airplane would be the one you would think would arrive first. The slowest approach to Samye Ling from London would be by walking and the medium would be in a motorcar. But the quickest and swiftest way to arrive in Samye Ling would be by plane.

But whichever of the three methods you choose to come from London to Samye Ling, you always end up in the same place; the final destination will be Samye Ling. Some people prefer to go in a plane. Some people don’t like flying, so they prefer to go in a car. Some people are frightened of flying, they think the plane is going to crash and they can’t drive either, because they become extremely carsick. So they have no alternative but to walk. Eventually they’ll get here. Likewise we as human beings want to reach the level of enlightenment. So whether we have followed the path of Hinayana, Mahayana or Secret Mantra Vajrayana, that’s up to our own feeling of connection, how our mind is with these particular paths. Whichever we follow, we get to the same final destination. That was the general explanation of the three types of vehicles, three paths.

The teachings that the Buddha manifested when he turned the Wheel of Dharma can be condensed into Four Noble Truths. All the entire teachings of Hinayana, Mahayana and the Secret Mantra Vajrayana are contained in these Four Noble Truths. What are the Four Noble Truths? The first one is the Truth of Suffering and the second one is the Truth of Origination. The third one is the Truth of Cessation and the fourth noble truth is the Truth of the Path. There we have the four.

If a being wants to reach the level of complete enlightenment, they need to understand these Four Noble Truths. What is the reason for that? The Buddha has given an example. The first truth is like sickness and the second is the cause of sickness. The third one is how to live happily and in prosperity and the fourth is a medicine. If you put all these together, do you think you will be free of illness? If you don’t have illness in the first place, then you can’t become free of illness. You can’t become better, can you, if there is no illness in the first instance? If we say: “becoming better” or “getting over a sickness”, it means that we have to have somebody who is sick in the first place. To be free of sickness, how do we achieve that? We need to understand the cause of sickness. If we manage to understand the cause of sickness and we can pacify it, what happens to us? We will be able to live in happiness and prosperity.

How do we obtain the ability to live happily and in a prosperous state? By taking various medicines. You could also have a few operations! What I really mean is that whatever the doctor says, you listen to him. The doctor might say, “Don’t eat sweet things because they will be harmful to your body.”

If you rely on these three points:1. the type of activity one performs, 2. the type of food one consumes 3. the type of medicine one takes, then one will definitely free oneself from sickness. To free ourselves of sickness we combine the four examples just mentioned.

There is a connection between this and the teachings of the Buddha. The first example of sickness is like the first Truth of Suffering. The cause of sickness, which is the second example, is related to the Truth of Origination. The ability to live happily and in a prosperous state is connected with the Truth of Cessation. The ability to live happily and prosperously is due to a cause. What is that cause? It is the fourth example, which is medicine, which is related to the Truth of Path. This is an explanation of the Four Truths presented by the Buddha.

How can we understand how to practise with these Four Truths? We need to know about the truth of suffering. What do we need to know about suffering? The Truth of Origination means that we have to know what is it we need to abandon. The Truth of Cessation means we have to know what we need to obtain. The Truth of the Path means we have to know what we can depend on. If you can understand these four aspects, realise the meaning properly, then you will understand the general meaning of all of the Buddhadharma which is taught.

How do we understand this Truth of Suffering? How do we remove suffering? Suffering has to remove itself. How do we accomplish that? First of all, we have to understand about suffering. Normally in our minds we have misconceptions, thinking that things are permanent and also we are ignorant of the nature of suffering. As much as you have in your mind a fixed idea that things are permanent; as much as you are ignorant of the nature of things and have great grasping; that is how much you will suffer.

Some people think that they shouldn’t think about suffering at all, and even back away from the word. The person who has this idea does not suffer less. In fact their suffering can become greater. But the majority of suffering that we tend to experience is illusory, not real. If one observes suffering, the suffering will disappear. and we will naturally understand the nature of suffering. If one naturally understands the nature of suffering, it will naturally disappear. So then recognising or understanding the nature of suffering is very important. I will give you an example.

This example is to do with a man who is very scared of snakes. He was constantly thinking: “I don’t want to meet snakes, snakes are very bad for me.” Even if he heard the word “snake” he became scared. But he had a bad friend. So the man who feared snakes was in his house. The light wasn’t good inside, and outside it was dark. The man was at his home quite happily but then the door opened all of a sudden, and his bad friend was there. He had a thin rope in his hand, and he rushed to the man throwing the rope over his head. As the rope fell over the man, who was sitting down on the floor, the bad guy said, “Oh dear, there is a snake on your head!.” When the rope fell on the ground the man who had the fear of snakes thought he had seen a snake, and the rope seemed to move from side to side. “There is a real snake!” He thought he was in great danger and suffered greatly. He couldn’t move and his hair stood on end. “What am I going to do?”

Of course what he had seen was not a snake at all, it was just a thin rope, but the man did not recognise it. Because of that misunderstanding, the non-recognition of the fact that it was a piece of rope, he had a lot of suffering. In reality it was a piece of rope, but his skin was crawling and he was unable to walk – this was all meaningless suffering, wasn’t it? At that moment, what kind of method could he use? The method would be to recognise the thin piece of rope to be just that: a thin piece of rope.

Another friend came. This was a good friend and he said, “That’s not a snake on the floor, look, it’s just a piece of a thin rope.” What a release! Wonderful! All the suffering he had a moment ago had completely gone. He could go where he wanted to and also he picked up the rope. Yet at the beginning he wasn’t able even to look at the rope, because he thought it was a snake.

The first Truth of Suffering means to be aware of and really recognise suffering: what suffering is and how to remove it. This is related to the Truth of Suffering. If we understand the real nature of suffering and how it is, then this is related to relative truth. One will naturally understand relative truth. If one has understanding of this natural state of relative truth, that will give one the power to dispel many types of unnecessary suffering, which one normally goes through. We have many types of meaningless suffering.

I’m travelling around the world, going to many countries and seeing many types of people. And many different kinds of people have conversations with me. There are many people who have all kinds of meaningless problems, meaningless suffering. Most of them are in the West. I’m not talking just about England or Scotland. So, one person came up to speak to me. He said: “Normally I like to drive my car. I am very happy driving, but I have one problem. I can’t drive a car with this problem.” “What’s the problem?” My particular problem is that when I drive and come to traffic lights, I am afraid the traffic lights are going to fall over and hit me on the head. That prevents me from driving, because I’m so frightened of the traffic lights. I’m driving along looking out, in case I meet a traffic light and I can’t drive very well because I’m waiting to see the traffic light.”

That kind of suffering is completely without reason or meaning. There are many problems like that, many sufferings. But if one knew the natural state of the relative truth, that kind of suffering would be dispelled. If one understands the natural state of relative truth and also the nature of emptiness, then all of this meaningless suffering will diminish. Also one’s grasping will diminish.

Now I have a question. I am not asking you, I’m asking myself. You don’t have to worry! So then, we had a thin piece of rope on the table and we thought that was a snake. The good friend came along and said it was a piece of rope, so therefore the suffering was removed. What would have happened if the bad friend had got the rope, which I thought was a snake, and tied it around my neck? At that moment when I knew it was a rope, it would not have been any use for the bad friend to tie it around my neck. What kind of method do we have there? This is the first stage of wisdom. So it’s not enough for you to understand this, we have to go into it in a deeper way.

So, just understanding that a rope is a rope is not enough, but we should understand that the rope is a rope, and there is no point in tying it around the neck. The way we progress or go deeper into understanding of wisdom is understanding emptiness. The understanding of the nature of emptiness is connected with the third truth, the Truth of Cessation. If one really understood completely the nature of emptiness, one would not be able to have the rope tied around one’s neck. Taking an example of Milarepa, the great saint of Tibet, he couldn’t be burned by fire, he could walk through walls or rocks unobstructedly, and no harm could come to him. What’s the reason for that? His body is emptiness and the fire is emptiness, how can the fire of emptiness burn the body of emptiness? If one understands completely the nature of emptiness, this kind of result will happen. If the bad friend tied the rope around one’s neck, there wouldn’t be anybody to have the rope tied around.

Even though we have had a brief explanation of emptiness, it’s not complete, so it wouldn’t be any good for you to jump into fire, you would be burned. That’s just a general explanation of suffering.

Then we’ll talk about the second truth, which is the truth of origination. Related to that are the conflicting emotions in the mind, and karma. The real source of suffering is conflicting emotions in the mind, anger, pride, jealousy etc. and along with that, great grasping. Grasping, along with the five mind poisons, causes us to experience a lot of suffering and problems. If a person has a lot of anger within them, they never gain a state of peace. When they see other people, they think that these people are looking at them with harmful intent. So they just sit there and look at other people thinking: that man is staring me strangely. If one has this great anger within oneself, these experiences will arise. If I put on yellow tinted spectacles, when I look at a house which was painted white I won’t perceive it as white, I shall perceive it as yellow. If I put blue lenses on, I will perceive everything to be blue. If I put green lenses on, I will perceive everything to be green.

So, if we have any of these five mind poisons to a great degree, then we will never be able to obtain a state of peace. Along with these mind poisons we perform activities of negative karma, and the joint result of these is experiencing lot of suffering. If we can clear away the conflicting emotions, then we won’t generate karma; that will be cut off, obstructed. If we don’t generate karma then we don’t generate the cause to experience the fruition, which is suffering, and that will be removing the Truth of Suffering. Finally the karma itself and the suffering will both be eliminated. Then if you want to jump in the fire, it’s okay. If you can dispel all your suffering, then all illusions will also be liberated.

In general, if anyone of us experiences illness, to get rid of the illness, what kind of method can we use? If we can remove or stop the cause of the illness, then the illness will be dispelled. Now I’m going to ask you a question. It’s not difficult.

There is a tall house and on the roof there is a small hole. Through the hole the rain comes drip by drip. It falls down to the floorboards which become rotten over time and all the carpets get soaked. What can we do at that point?

Answer: Sell the house.

Rinpoche. That’s one method. But it’s not the first solution.

Answer: Block the hole. Get a bucket. Stop the rain.

Rinpoche: How can you stop the rain actually?

Answer: That’s why I’m here!

Rinpoche: I’m going to tell you what I think is the best method is to block the hole. If you don’t block the hole, the rain is going to continue to drop down. If you put a bucket or any container there, eventually it will be filled up and spill over. You can also wipe up every drop as it drops down. It never ends, because you haven’t addressed the real problem which is the cause of the rain drops. If you recognise straight away, “There are rain drops falling through the ceiling”, you go up, see the hole, fix it and all is fine. You don’t need to get tired out by cleaning up.

If you can remove the cause of suffering or illness, the suffering or illness will not arise again. If we don’t succeed in really removing all the causes of the illness, it will arise again at some point in the future. You might take one type of medicine and it temporarily cures it, but again it will arise. So it’s not completely removed. It will go on like this, until one really addresses the point, which is removing the whole of the cause. That was the explanation of the second truth, Truth of Origination.

The third truth is the Truth of Cessation. Related to the Truth of Cessation is recognising emptiness and the nature of one’s mind. Emptiness and the nature of one’s mind, which is Buddha nature or Buddha essence are not different, they are actually inseparable. What is the nature of this natural state of the mind, this Buddha nature? It has complete happiness and joy; it doesn’t have any suffering or illness. It’s like that all the time. That is what we call resting in happiness. That is related to the example of living happily and in prosperity. The Buddha has told us that all sentient beings who possess mind all have Buddha nature. Every single being has that. Buddhists and non Buddhists alike have that. Whether you are a religious person or not religious at all, you have that. It’s the same. Also with human beings and animals it’s the same. All beings of the six realms of existence possess Buddha nature. Also the Buddha has Buddha nature. The Buddha nature that the Buddha possesses and the Buddha nature that I possess or each of us possess, is exactly the same, there is no difference. You don’t say that the difference between us and the Buddha is that the Buddha is excellent and I’m bad, the Buddha is excellent and we are also excellent. But because we don’t know that, we are wandering in samsara. It is ignorance about our Buddha nature that makes us wander in samsara. I shall give an example.

There is a man with a big lump of gold. He is driving along in a car and the big lump of gold falls out of the window into mud. He goes up and down but he can’t find the gold. He gives up and drives off. After one thousand years the gold is still in the mud. One day someone comes cleaning the road. If he cleaned it with a machine, he wouldn’t know anything about the gold, but he is cleaning it by hand. While cleaning up the dirt he finds this big lump of gold. He cleans all impurities, mud and stains from it. It becomes very bright and shiny and he puts it on top of his shrine. Now I’m going to ask a question: the gold which was hidden in the mud for a thousand years and the gold which is put on the shrine, which one is the most precious?

Answer: They are the same.

Rinpoche: Yes, they have got the same essence. The absolute truth is like that. The essence of the gold is the same. That is the example given by the Buddha. So the essence of the Buddha and our essence is identical. So then, if the gold is in the mud or the gold is clean on the shrine it’s the same. We are rather like the piece of gold which is covered by mud. The illusions are obscuring us, covering us up. There is the illusion of our impure body, the illusions of the various phenomena that appear to us, different appearances, this is the illusion. And also we have the illusions of birth and death and sickness. But if we understand completely the nature of emptiness of phenomena and our natural state, which is nature of mind, Buddha nature, then gradually over time we will completely purify all the illusions. At that point we will really be able to live happily and in prosperity and we will be like the Buddha, the same. That’s the explanation of the Truth of Cessation.

The fourth truth is the Truth of the Path. The Buddha has taught us the Path in a gradual way. There are two aspects to the path. There is the preliminary practice and the main practice. Within the preliminary practice, divide that into two points, the ordinary preliminaries and the extraordinary preliminaries. Also there are two further divisions in the main practice: shine and lhaktong. This is all related to the Truth of Path.

We depend on or rely on the Truth of the Path. If we practise and depend upon the idea of the Truth of the Path, we will gain a glimpse of our Buddha nature. Slowly, slowly it will become clearer, and eventually the final result will be that we achieve complete enlightenment. That is the explanation of the fourth truth, the Truth of the Path. If you have questions, please ask.

Question: Is all suffering meaningless?

Rinpoche: The answer will be given in a form of an example. So, we have the rope, which we had before. Seeing the rope as a snake, the misperception of a rope to be a snake, that’s meaningless suffering. But then, if you think of the perception of a rope being a rope, that’s related to conventional truth, relative truth and at that point it’s true. It’s true because of the experience of relative truth. But ultimately the rope doesn’t exist even as a rope. So then if one understands the nature of emptiness of phenomena and the natural state of one’s mind as Buddha nature, then the grasping at the idea of a rope being a rope is dispelled. If you want to put this in a brief answer: yes, all suffering is meaningless.

Q: Why does ignorance happen?

R: It is because we don’t recognise Buddha nature, our essence, and therefore we engender suffering. We don’t understand the emptiness of phenomena.

Q: How does ignorance come about?

R: There is no beginning. You can’t say that there is a point when I didn’t have ignorance. Up until now I have had it. The whole of space is beginningless, endless. There is no beginning and no end. Some people have come up with the big bang theory, that space becomes shortened, compressed. They call that space. But the Buddha has stated that that is not space, he doesn’t describe space like that. The Buddha has said that space is unobstructed and permeates everywhere. If you want to persist with the big bang theory, the big bang has to happen within something, it has to have some kind of parameters to big bang in. If there aren’t parameters, how can you big bang? Sentient beings are said to be like endless space, limitless.

Q: If there is no beginning, how can we hope for the end of suffering?

R: You can have no beginning and yet experience ending. For example, if you have a seed and you burn it, it won’t give rise to a shoot. So, there is an end of samsara. There is no end to the nature of one’s mind. If we eliminate impure perceptions or illusions, there is no need for us to travel around in samsara anymore. If you burn a seed, the ashes will not produce a shoot.

Q: Will there be a time when all sentient beings have gained enlightenment?

R: It is actually difficult, because sentient beings are limitless.

Q: How in everyday life can you see the purest self?

R: The best method is to understand the nature of emptiness of phenomena and to realise the nature of one’s mind, the Buddha nature. I’m going to show you an example. Please look. Now I’m rolling the paper into a tube. First of all we train in realising or understanding the nature of emptiness of phenomena. After that gradually we start to understand the nature of the mind. When one is practising the understanding of emptiness and the nature of mind, first one has little understanding of it. Then gradually one repeats the training again and again and then one’s experience or understanding will become greater and greater.

This is an example of illusion. From beginningless time samsara has been evolving round and round like this: illusion, rebirth, samsara (the paper is rolled tightly). Holding into everything, grasping. Now we understand emptiness – it becomes a little bit looser (Rinpoche lets go of his grip from the roll which opens a little). Again one practises and one’s realisation becomes greater. (He pulls the roll into a plain sheet. When he lets go of his grip the paper rolls back into a roll.) When you go outside you lose it! Again you think: “Everything is emptiness.” Then it becomes very vast. (He pulls the paper back into a sheet.) Then you drink a cup of tea. (Rinpoche lets go of his grip and the paper rolls up again.) Again you lose it. Every time you realise about emptiness it’s a little bit better than before. (The paper starts to stay flat.) Again and again you practise until you reach enlightenment, complete Buddhahood. Then one completely pacifies all the illusions.

Every being inherits such a buddha-nature and qualities. But our nature and qualities have temporarily been covered by our own nightmare-like transitory delusions rooted in the tightness of the grip of grasping of our own dualistic minds. Such dualistic concepts have produced chains of afflicting emotions, stirred up turbulent karmic conflicts, and forced us to endure reckless seesaws of misery. Thereby, most of us have lost even the clue of having this utmost peaceful, joyful, and enlightened nature of ours. But the darkness-like confusions and miseries caused by grasping at mental objects with the force of emotional flames are impermanent and transitory. They will never last and will vanish at the touch of the sunrays-like light of wisdom.

-- Tulku Thondup Rinpoche

略说三聚净戒

文｜明华

三聚净戒，又作菩萨三聚戒、三聚清净戒、三聚圆戒。简称三聚戒、三聚。聚是集摄之义、净是清净之义，此三种清净戒，集聚总括一切大乘戒，故名三聚净戒。又由于三聚之戒法，无垢清净，含摄大乘诸戒，圆融无碍，故又称三聚圆戒。《菩萨戒义疏》云：“三聚戒：聚集也，戒、禁戒。此三种戒，能摄一切大乘诸戒，故名三聚戒。”《庄严论》云：“初律仪戒，以禁防为体，后摄善摄生二戒，以勤勇为体。”三聚净戒分为摄律仪戒、摄善法戒和摄众生戒等三种。《法门名义集》云：“一切恶无不断，是摄律仪戒；一切善无不修，是摄善法戒；一切众生无不度，是摄众生戒。此三聚戒者菩萨道。”三聚净戒的前两戒是自利，后一戒则是利他。

一、摄律仪戒

摄律仪戒，又作自性戒、一切菩萨戒。指救济众生的菩萨所从事的修行实践中，已摄具十戒、二百五十戒等的小乘戒及十重、四十八轻戒等的大乘戒等一切戒律。摄律仪戒是七众所受的戒，七众就是比丘、比丘尼、式叉摩那、沙弥、沙弥尼、优婆塞、优婆夷。摄律仪戒是舍断一切诸恶，含摄诸律仪的止恶门。摄律仪戒根据在家、出家的不同分别有五戒、八戒、十戒、具足戒等戒条。其中五戒、八戒为在家戒；十戒、二百五十戒为出家戒。摄律仪戒可分为别解脱戒、定共戒、道共戒三种。又此戒为法身之因，以法身本自清净，由于恶覆，故不得显；今离断诸恶，则功成德现。

摄律仪戒的要点有四， 如《法苑珠林》云：“摄律仪者，要惟有四：一者不得为利养故自赞毁他；二者不得故悭不施前人；三者不得嗔心打骂众生；四者不得谤大乘经典。持此四法，无恶不离，故名摄律仪戒。”摄律仪戒要求修道之人，不能为了获得更多的供养赞扬自己，诋毁他人。若自赞毁他，就是造口恶业——不仅说妄语，还犯了恶口戒条。修道之人还不得悭吝不舍，不布施他人。菩萨广修六度，布施为首。修布施之人，不仅符合佛之言教，而且将来还会得富贵之报。

修道之人，不得以嗔恨心大骂众生。在贪嗔痴三毒中，嗔心是障道的重要因缘。佛门俗语云：“一念嗔心起，火烧功德林。”佛教偈语云：“向前三步思一思，退后三步想一想。嗔心起时要思量，熄下怒火最吉祥。”修行人当遇到令人愤怒之事时，要以慈悲心来对待，修忍辱行来化解。如果遇到令人愤怒之事，破口骂人，就会种下恶因，遭致后来的痛苦。曾有人骂佛，佛陀先是默然不语。等到这个人骂完了，佛陀说：“你送礼物给人，如果别人不接受，礼物是谁的？”这个人回答：“当然是我的！”佛陀说：“你现在骂我，我也不接受，你就要承受这种罪过了。”这个人羞愧不已，从此改过修善了。

修道之人，不得诽谤大乘经典。大乘经典是佛法僧三宝中的法宝，也是我们学佛修行的理论指南。谤法之人，将会堕落无间地狱中受苦，长劫沉沦，不得解脱。佛教各种经典中，都讲到诽谤大乘经典的无量罪过。比如，修净土的人虽然能够带业往生西方极乐世界，但佛在《无量寿经》中谈到犯五逆之罪和诽谤正法之人不得往生西方净土。

二、摄善法戒

摄善法戒，又作受善法戒、摄持一切菩提道戒，是指修习一切善法。摄善法戒是菩萨所受的律仪戒，即上修菩提的一切身口意的善法，及闻思修三慧，布施等六度之法，无不聚摄，故名摄善法戒。菩萨以修身、口、意之善回向无上菩提，如常勤精进，供养三宝，心不放逸，守摄根门及行六波罗蜜等，若犯过，则如法忏除，长养诸善法。此即报身之因，以其止恶修善，故成报佛之缘。

对于摄善法戒， 《瑜伽师地论》卷四十云：“摄善法戒者，谓诸菩萨受律仪戒后，所有一切为大菩提，由身语意积集诸善，总说名为摄善法戒。”该论中还说，菩萨安住于戒，从闻思修入于定境，于闲静处，精进修学。菩萨能时时在诸尊长跟前，精进修学合掌、起迎、问讯、礼拜等恭敬礼节。菩萨在尊长前勤修敬事。对于疾病之人，菩萨常以悲悯殷重之心，瞻事供给。对于诸种妙说，欢喜赞叹。对于十方法界一切有情一切福业，常以胜意乐、生起净信心，随喜赞叹。菩萨常发起种种正愿，以各种上妙供具，供养佛法僧三宝。菩萨经常勇猛精进修行各种善业。对于身语意三业，从不放逸。亲近善士，依止善友。对于自己罪过所犯之戒，自省审察，深见过失。由于菩萨常自省察，对于自己未犯的，常能专意护持；对于自己已经犯的，会在佛菩萨所至心发露忏悔。如此种种能够引摄护持增长诸善法戒，就是菩萨摄善法戒。

三、摄众生戒

摄众生戒，又称饶益有情戒、作众生益戒，即以慈心摄受利益一切众生。摄受众生之行，就是慈、悲、喜、舍。慈名爱念，就是能给予众生欢乐；悲名怜愍，能救拔众生的痛苦；喜名庆喜，庆一切众生离苦得乐；舍名无憎无爱，常念众生同得无憎无爱。以慈悲喜舍摄受众生，利益众生，是为摄众生戒的真实含义。

摄众生戒，又称饶益有情戒。对此，《无性释》卷七云：“饶益有情戒，能助有情如法所作，平等分布无罪作业，成熟有情。”又云：“饶益有情戒者，谓不顾自乐，随所堪能，令入三乘，舍生死苦，证涅乐。”

在《瑜伽师地论》卷十云：“云何菩萨饶益有情戒？当知此戒略有十一相。”接着本论中对饶益有情戒的十一种戒相逐一作了解说：第一种为众生所作的各种利益他人之事，菩萨为作助伴。第二种为对于众生生病等痛苦，瞻侍病人，菩萨为作助伴；第三种为菩萨依世出世间种种义利，能为有情众生宣说法要。先是方便说，如理说，然后令众生获得智慧。第四种为菩萨对于有恩自己的有情众生，善守知恩，随其所应，现前酬报。第五种为菩萨对于那些堕入虎狼、狮子、鬼魅、王贼、水火等险境的有情众生，都能救护。若有丧失亲属财物诸难，能为开解令离忧恼。第六种为菩萨见到众生贫穷困乏，悉能给予所需之物。第七种为菩萨随顺道理，正受依止，如法畜众。第八种为先语安慰，随时往返，给施饮食，说世善语。进止非己，去来随物。第九种为菩萨对实有德之人，称扬欢悦，令有情众生欢颜进学。第十种为对有过恶者，慈心呵责，折伏罚黜，令其悔改，为欲令其出不善处，安置善处。第十一种为菩萨以神通力，方便示现恶道，令有情众生厌离不善，引领众生入佛圣教，奉修佛法，欢喜信乐，生希有心，勤修正行。

唐代天台学者明旷将三聚净戒与四弘誓愿以及三身结合起来，指出一切戒大体上不出四弘三聚。摄律仪戒在于断除烦恼，属于“烦恼无尽誓愿断”；摄善法戒在于成就佛道和修学法门，属于“佛道无上誓愿成”和“法门无量誓愿学”；摄众生戒主旨在度众生，属于“众生无边誓愿度”。又摄律仪戒，如持不杀，止恶不生，离诸染污，此为法身之因；摄善法戒在行诸善，深究法门而证佛道，是为报身之因；摄众生戒在以慈悲利益众生，是为应身之因。由此可见，明旷的主张是在四弘誓愿的基础上通过三聚净戒的实践而成就未来法身、报应、应身等三身的。

I always tell people, especially intellectuals with knowledge of modern science, that they can refuse to believe everything if they want; but they should keep an inquisitive mind so that it would drive them to seek for answers. But they cannot refuse to believe in the law of cause and effect because this is the law of Science, no doubts about that. The law of karma which Buddha has taught us is most profound and enlightening; not for fortune telling or forecasting misfortune. If one is to dwell on such to explain the law of karma, then one has gone to the wrong path of Fatalism. Sadly, most people start to doubt the law of cause and effect when faced with adversity in life, this is not just being short-sighted but also ignorance.

-- Venerable Yen Pei

Generosity’s Perfection

by Sharon Salzberg

The cultivation of generosity is the beginning of spiritual awakening. Generosity has tremendous force because it arises from an inner quality of letting go. Being able to let go, to give up, to renounce, and to give generously all spring from the same source, and when we practice generosity, dana, we open up these qualities within ourselves. Letting go gives us profound freedom and many loving ways to express that freedom. Generosity is the beginning of the path. When the Buddha taught, he always began with generosity.

I recall a Thai forest master who visited the West being puzzled by the sequence of teachings we seemed to be following here. In Asia, he said, the teachings proceed from generosity to morality, and then to meditation or insight. But here we appeared to begin with meditation, then say something about morality, and only after some time, as a kind of appendix, teach about generosity. He asked, “What’s going on?”

He was right to ask. We like the idea of a transformative, transcendental meditative state, and we are willing to put our effort into that. However, the springboard for genuine meditative states is the cultivation of generosity and morality. That’s what allows insight to occur most gracefully and easily.

The Buddha said that a true spiritual life is not possible without a generous heart. Generosity is the very first parami, or quality of an awakened mind. The path begins there because of the joy that arises from a generous heart. Pure unhindered delight flows freely when we practice generosity. We experience joy in forming the intention to give, in the actual act of giving, and in recollecting the fact that we’ve given.

If we practice joyful giving, we experience confidence. We grow in self-esteem, self-respect and well-being because we continually test our limits. Our attachments say, “I will give this much and no more,” or “I will give this article or object if I am appreciated enough for this act of giving.” In the practice of generosity, we learn to see through our attachments. We see they are transparent, that they have no solidity. They don’t need to hold us back, so we can go beyond them.

Therefore, the practice of generosity is about creating space. We see our limits and we extend them continuously, which creates an expansiveness and spaciousness of mind that’s deeply composed. This happiness, self-respect and spaciousness is the appropriate ground in which meditation practice can flourish. It is the ideal place from which to undertake deep investigation, because with this kind of inner happiness and spaciousness, we have the strength and flexibility to look at absolutely everything that arises in our experience.

Think about what it’s like when the opposite is happening, when the mind feels brittle, narrow, confined and dark. At that point, you feel on edge, uneasy, and you don’t like yourself very much. With all that going on, how easy is it to accept calmly a painful or difficult experience? How easy is it to be with the experience without judging it — to accept it as it is, to allow it to be there? It’s not very easy because of the narrowness of the mind that is receiving it. By contrast, a vast and spacious mind doesn’t feel so bound, contracted and self-denigrating.

Conversely, when a pleasant experience arises, we don’t lunge at it with desperation, because we don’t really need it. We don’t have that sense of needing it to feel good about ourselves. When an unpleasant experience arises, we don’t fear that it’s going to diminish us in some way, that we’re going to be a lesser being because of it. We are whole and we are happy. What better way to be able to look at the vast array of experiences that come and go than with a spacious, generous heart?

The aim of dana is twofold, or else it’s an incomplete experience. The first aim of dana is to free our minds from the conditioned forces that bind and limit us. Craving, clinging and attachment bring confinement and lack of self-esteem. If we’re always looking for some person or thing to complete us, we miss the degree to which we are complete in every moment. It’s a bit like leaning on a mirage only to find that it can’t hold us; there’s nothing there.

When we are continually moved by looking for the next experience and the next pleasure, it’s like going from one mirage to another. We have no security. Nothing is holding us up. We practice generosity to free the mind from that delusion, to weaken the forces of craving and clinging so we can find essential happiness.

We also practice generosity to free others, to extend welfare and happiness to all beings, to somehow, as much as each one of us can, lessen the suffering in this world. When our practice of generosity is genuine, when it’s complete, we realise inner spaciousness and peace, and we also learn to extend boundless caring to all living beings.

The movement of the heart in practising generosity mirrors the movement of the heart that lets go inside. So the external training of giving deeply influences the internal feeling-tone of the meditation practice, and vice versa. If we cultivate a generous heart, then more and more we can unconditionally allow things to be the way they are. We can accept the truth of the present moment, rather than continually impose conditions on what’s going on: it must be this way or that way or you can’t be happy. Your sitting must be perfect or you won’t be happy. You must have no restlessness or you won’t feel good about yourself. Reality moves along outside of our control, and yet we impose all of these conditions on it. Generosity allows that whole project to start to fall away.

The strength of our generosity is a primary factor in our ability to accept change. In any single act of giving, fear and attachment are diminished. Fear and attachment make us hold on to a pleasant experience when it comes. We like to have a pleasant sight or sound, a nice sensation in the body, or a sweet and lovely mental state. Because we think we need them to be happy, we don’t simply enjoy them. We want to hold on to them; we want to make them stay forever. But nothing stays forever. Nevertheless, we try to hold on, to make our experiences last as long as we can.

I have a friend who said that from the time she was a child and first started to talk, her favourite phrase was, “I need it, I want it, I have to have it.” She’d say this over and over again to her poor parents. I thought that was a perfect description of who we are. You can just feel that headlong rush to grasp, to cling, to mould things as we want them and keep them that way. This is our normal conditioning. But as we learn how to give at the most obvious level — giving material objects to others — in that giving, we develop the ability to let go, to let things be as they are. We begin to see that compulsive attachment really doesn’t bring us any happiness, whereas the benefits of learning to let go, learning to relinquish, being able to give fully with a pure intention, are innumerable.

The Buddha talked about many worldly benefits that come from being able to give. When people are generous, other beings love them quite a lot. Such love occurs without a sense of contrivance or expectation: we don’t give so we can become popular. Being loved is not part of the motivation for the act of giving. It’s just a law of the universe: as we give, we receive. So there is an openness that beings feel toward us and a great deal of love. If you think about somebody you know who’s very generous, even if they haven’t given to you directly, what does it feel like if you call this person to mind? There is so much warmth and such delight. That’s how we regard people who are generous.

The Buddha taught that if a person is generous they can enter any group without fear. Once again, such courage is without contrivance; it’s not thought out or planned. It’s just the natural consequence of opening one’s heart. A certain brightness grows within us as we learn to give, and people are drawn to us. Trust develops toward those who are generous.

These types of worldly happiness are all types of spiritual happiness as well. There’s value in a single act of giving that goes beyond what we would normally conceive. The Buddha said that when we offer someone food, we’re not just giving that person something to eat; we’re giving far more. We’re giving them strength, health, beauty and clarity of mind, even life itself, because none of those things is possible without food. We’re offering the stuff of life itself.

That single moment of offering someone food represents a tremendous proportion of the entire spiritual path. All four of the qualities that we talk about as the Brahma Viharas, or Divine Abodes, are found in that single moment.

Love, or metta, is there because we feel goodwill in that moment toward the person who is receiving; we feel a sense of oneness with them, rather than alienation. We feel friendship, which is the meaning of metta. We want them to be happy.

We feel compassion in that moment because we wish that being to be free from pain or suffering, to be happy. There’s tenderness, that trembling of the heart that’s responds to a being and wants them to be happy.

We also experience the third Brahma Vihara, sympathetic joy. That means we rejoice in the happiness of someone else rather than feeling what we can so easily feel—envy, jealousy and wanting them to be just a little bit less happy so we can feel a little more happy about our own state. In an act of giving, we want another being’s happiness to increase, and so we feel sympathetic joy for them.

The last of the Brahma Viharas is equanimity. That’s also found in the act of giving because we have an object of craving that we’re willing to let go of — to be without it ourselves and let it belong to others, to everybody.

All four of these qualities are found in that one moment. In that moment of giving, we’re abandoning desire and grasping. We’re abandoning ill will and aversion. Aversion creates separateness and withdrawal, a sense of not being at one with the other. Giving is an act of moving forward, of yielding, of coming forth, of coming closer. And we’re abandoning delusion as well, because when we perform a wholesome or skillful action we understand that what we do in our life — the choices we make, the values we hold — matters.

It’s not just happenstance that we don’t live in some kind of crazy, haphazard universe. There are natural laws, laws of nature such as karma, that deeply affect how we are in this world. It matters what we care about and commit to, and to understand this is very important. The most powerful aspect of ignorance is the feeling that it just doesn’t matter what we do, when in fact it matters so very much. We have so much power to create the life we want.

In an act of giving we’re aligning ourselves with certain values. We develop love, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. We let go of grasping, aversion and delusion in a single act of giving. That’s why the Buddha said that if we knew as he did the power of giving, we wouldn’t let a single meal pass without sharing something. You can even do it mentally if you don’t actually hand something over to the person sitting next to you, which might not be very wise. To create spaciousness all of the time, over and over again, is what giving is all about.

If we give a gift with this kind of motivation, without attachment to a certain result, without expectation of what will come back to us, it’s like a celebration. It’s celebrating freedom within ourselves as a giver and also freedom within the receiver. In that moment, we’re not relating to each other in terms of roles or differences. There’s no hierarchy. In a moment of pure giving, we become one. We’re not thinking, “Well, this person has a lot more than I do materially, and so what difference does it make if I give them something?” We’re not thinking, “Maybe they don’t like me. Here I am about to offer them something, and I feel really foolish.” All of those thought patterns that might go on in a single interaction in our lives fall away in one moment of true giving.

In 1984, I was on retreat at the Insight Meditation Society and because I knew everybody on staff and had a lot of friends in the community, people kept giving me things. I’d go back to my room and something would be outside my door. I began to feel bad for the people who were sitting the retreat who didn’t know anybody and weren’t getting all of these extra things. So I started giving them away. I chose someone who would see my door frequently and had seen most of what I had gotten. I felt the worst about this one person, so I gave her something. I left it outside her door, and somehow from that point on in the retreat, she started receiving packages from home. Then she kept giving them to me, and I had to give them away to other people. An intense wellspring of affluence suddenly appeared. In that moment it felt as if we really were one; it didn’t matter where the things had come from. They just arose from our interest in taking care of each another, being good to one another.

When we cut through all of our role differentiations, we see that our most basic drive — for every single one of us — is a longing for happiness. This is what every single, living, breathing being shares, no matter how we behave, no matter who we are. We all want to be happy. When we give something, this is what we’re acknowledging. We acknowledge our oneness. We all want to be happy; this is what we essentially share. The ability to do this, to practice dana, both arises from and cultivates further an internal sense of abundance, the conviction that we have enough to share. What’s interesting is that there’s no objective standard for this. There are very poor people who have a strong sense of inner abundance. They have enough to share and keep giving, even though from the outside it looks like they have nothing to give. But they don’t feel that; they give what they can. And there are some wealthy people in this world who have a tremendous sense of inner poverty, and it’s very difficult for them to let go of clinging to their possessions. It’s very painful; it’s very hard for them to give.

There’s a quotation from the Tao Te Ching that says, “One who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.” It’s an inner sense. One of the great joys that comes from generosity is the understanding that no matter how much or how little we have by the world’s standards, if we know we have enough, we can always give something. Then we can share, we can open, we can express loving-kindness. Our conditioning does not emphasise this. The dominant emphasis in our conditioning is wanting, getting and holding on. It doesn’t emphasise the opposite qualities of yielding, letting go and relinquishing.

The world we live in, in the Buddhist context, is called samsara, a world of birth and death, of arising and passing away, where nothing happens unless conditions come together to bring it about. This is our life. One of the amazing attributes of samsara is that no matter what we have, somewhere out there we know there’s always more. The potential for dissatisfaction is infinite because in this world of change, the possibility of comparing and looking for the next moment is infinite.

I have a friend who recently went to India. I talked with him the day before he was going to fly. It turned out he was flying with another friend who had made all of the travel arrangements, and this person didn’t realise that for just a little more money they could have flown business class instead of economy class, which would have been far more comfortable on such a long flight. We were talking about whether they could manage to change their tickets, and if there’d be a penalty and how much nicer it would be to go business class and to arrive rested instead of tortured and unhappy, and right in the middle of this conversation, my friend said, “I wonder how much it would cost to go first class?”

I know that state of mind so well. As soon as you get into business class, you start thinking about first class. This is how we are; this is samsara. There’s always something else to want because the variety of opportunity and circumstance is infinite. We get into that mind state of looking for the next upgrade; it’s endless. That’s why practice is about turning around, deconditioning, getting out of that mind-state and discovering a radically different kind of happiness that is not so vulnerable, that does not lead to endless dissatisfaction. We need to loosen our grasping and our clinging, and we need to have the courage to defy our conditioning.

The primary question in the practice, and something I’ve held as a guiding principle throughout all my years of practice, is, “What do I really need right now, in this moment, to be happy?” The world offers us many answers to that question: “I need a new this and a new that.” But do we really? “What do I lack right now? Does anything need to change in order for me to be happy? What do I really need?” Those are powerful questions.

When we practice in Burma (or in other Asian countries, but most of my experience in this regard has been in Burma), there is no charge for staying at the monasteries or the retreat centres, and all of the food is donated. Often it’s donated by village people or families who come to the centre to make these offerings. I’m sure that each of these groups of people offer the best that they can, but each day what is offered can differ quite a lot depending on the circumstances of those who are offering. Sometimes it’s a lavish, bountiful feast. Sometimes it’s awful. In Burma we practised the eight precepts strictly, which means no solid food is taken after noon, and lunch is served at ten o’clock in the morning. It’s over at ten thirty, and there’s nothing else until five o’clock the next morning. Lunch feels very important.

There was a Buddha image in the dining room, and it was customary to bow to the Buddha. Sometimes I would go in, bow three times, and I’d feel a wealth of gratitude and joy in just looking at the image and bowing. And then I’d look at the table and the food, and sometimes it looked like there was just nothing there to eat. I would feel all of the fear and misery and dread, and then I would look at the faces of the people who had made the offering. They come to watch you eat. They would be radiant, so happy that they’d had this opportunity to feed you, to offer something, and that you were going to be meditating and exploring the truth and purifying your mind and heart on the strength of their offering. They were so happy. I’d go through amazing changes. I’d look at the Buddha, I’d look at the food, and then I’d look at them. In that moment, when they were so genuinely grateful for the chance to give, I would ask myself, “What do I really need right now in order to be happy?” I realised that in a powerful way I was getting fed a lot more by their joy and delight than I was by the food. It was more important, more nourishing.

The benefits of generosity have the power to change us. If we cultivate generosity, the mind will stop sticking to things. It’s as if we’ve made a tight fist that is slowly opening, and we experience the relief of that. When the mind becomes suffused with the feeling of generosity, it moves out of rigid confinement into a less bounded space. Our world opens up because we can let go.

We can give in so many ways. We can give materially in terms of goods and money. We can give time and service. We can give care. In a retreat situation, even to give space is a kind of giving, to allow someone to be the way they are. If somebody’s rushing ahead of you in the lunch line, you can let it go and be happy. We have enough — we don’t have to fight or compete with one another.

To be able to let go and be generous with one another is a relief. If we practice this quality again and again, it will grow very strong. If we can do it externally toward others, we can do it internally as well. We will develop a generosity of spirit so when painful states arise within us, like depression or anger or desire or jealousy, we can let them go. We are happier with their passing, so we allow them to follow their natural path of coming and going. We are not served or made happier by their staying.

The question as always is, “What do I really need right now to be happy?” If we hold this question as a guiding light, we’ll experience many different things: delight, surprise, chagrin, shock, all kinds of feelings. But what we come to is that only something as vast and deep as the truth will really make us happy. That can be the truth of this very moment, to see it as it actually is, to be able to let go.

The Buddha talked about cultivating the spirit of generosity, and he also talked about reflecting on the good things we’ve done and taking delight in them. We recall acts of generosity, not to bolster ego, but rather to acknowledge that — in this world that offers so many choices and possibilities — we cared enough about ourselves and others to choose to give rather than hold on. This recollection will help us immeasurably in our practice. It’s so easy for us to dwell constantly on all of the awful things we’ve done or said. If I were to ask you to think for the next few minutes about what you’ve really done well, when you’ve really been generous, and to appreciate yourself for having done that, it might be hard for you. It’s kind of embarrassing to sit and think about that. It’s so much easier to think about the time I almost gave something, but then I decided not to, and it’s still in the attic.

To understand that the wish to be happy is appropriate and beneficial will motivate us towards skillful action. To rejoice in our ability to make choices, to cultivate the good, to let go of that which harms us and causes suffering for us, will give us the confidence and joy to keep practicing, to do things that are difficult and unfamiliar to us. As we keep rejoicing in generosity, we will keep on purifying.

No one of us can do these things perfectly; it is a practice. We practice generosity with others and with ourselves, over and over again, and the power of it begins to grow until it becomes almost like a waterfall, a flow. This is who we become, this is what is natural, and this is how we continually are able to touch on and deepen a true and genuine happiness.