Receiving Teachings

by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche

Whenever you receive Dharma teachings, you should conduct yourself in a humble way and generate the proper motivation: to liberate all beings from suffering. In the texts it says that you should remain like someone who is very humble and peaceful. You should be like a yak without horns — when a yak has horns, it’s very proud and wants to fight everyone, but once its horns are cut or broken, it becomes very humble.

You should be free of the three defects of a pot: not listening, like an upside-down pot; not being able to retain what you hear, like a pot with a hole in it; and mixing negative emotions with what you hear, like a pot that contains poison. You should also avoid the six stains: pride, lack of faith, lack of effort, outward distraction, inward tension, and discouragement.

These six stains are due to thinking that you are better than the teacher who is explaining the Dharma; not trusting the teacher or the teachings; failing to apply yourself to the Dharma; getting distracted by external events; focusing your five senses too intently inward; and being discouraged, for instance, if the teaching is too long.

In addition, you should avoid the five wrong ways of remembering: remembering the words but not the meaning, remembering the meaning but forgetting the words, remembering both but with no understanding, remembering them out of order, and remembering them incorrectly.

When receiving teachings, it is also important to engage in the six perfections: make excellent offerings, such as preparing the teacher’s seat, arranging a flower offering, incense, and so forth, which is the practice of generosity; clean the place, put it in order, control your behaviour, and listen with the proper motivation, which is the practice of discipline; do not harm even the smallest insect and bear heat, cold, pain, and other difficulties, which is the practice of patience; discard any wrong views concerning the teacher and the teachings and listen joyfully with genuine faith, which is the practice of diligence; listen to the teacher’s instructions without distraction, which is concentration; and ask questions to clear up doubts and uncertainties, which is the practice of wisdom. Embraced by the six perfections, such conduct accumulates a vast amount of merit.

You should also generate the four types of faith, which are vivid, eager, confident, and irreversible faith. Among these, confident faith and irreversible faith are the most important. Vivid faith arises upon meeting a great master or visiting a temple with representations of the Buddha’s body, speech, and mind. Eager faith is the eagerness to be free of the sufferings of the lower realms and engage in positive actions. Confident faith is the faith in the Three Jewels that arises from the bottom of one’s heart. And irreversible faith is having such confidence that no matter what happens, your faith remains unshakeable.

Lastly, you should consider the teacher as a skillful doctor, the teachings as medicine, yourself as the patient, and diligent practice as the treatment to recover from your illness.

It is extremely important that your mind be steadfast and your intention pure; without that, even your worldly activities cannot be successful. In one of his previous lives, Buddha Shakyamuni was a cowherd during the time of the third Buddha of this era, Kashyapa. When Buddha Kashyapa came to his area, the cowherd boy felt fervent devotion and offered seven peas, which fell into Buddha Kashyapa’s begging bowl. Due to the merit of that act, in his next life he became a universal king, and his seat was on the same level as Indra, king of the gods. This was due to his pure motivation and intention, not to the size of the offering.