MEDITATION RETREAT 5-6TH JAN 2013, PUNE

SUCCESSFUL RETREAT!

Group for the Outreach of Omniscient Dharma (G.O.O.D) Ref: MTTS-2/MED RET


Dear Friend, In November 2012, G.O.O.D started the “Mind Transformation Master Series" with the intent of bringing Nalanda wisdom,

traditions and practice into our work/life. In continuation, we now invite you to the 2-day Meditation Retreat led by Khenpo Sonam Tsewang.


It is indeed a very rare opportunity to learn and practice Tibetan Buddhist meditation methods with someone like Khenpo Sonam (in pic), a highly learned and accomplished Professor of Buddhism. “The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yourself in this life. It transcends the dogma of all religions yet is the essence of religions” - Sogyal Rinpoche.


If you would like to attend, please email for details on Lamagirish@gmail.com. There are limited places (30seats), so you are requested to confirm as soon as possible. The retreat will be held in Aundh.


PROGRAM BRIEF: Timings: The session timings will be as under:- 5th Jan: 10am to 12.30pm (1st session) and 2pm to 5pm (2nd session) 6th Jan: 10am to 1pm (one session) Donation: Suggested donation is Rs. 400/- per participant. Includes complimentary ‘khata’ (silk scarf) offering for Khenpo. (Topics: Logic of Compasssion, Bodhichitta & Nature of Negative Emotions. Alongwith teachings we will practice 'Shamatha' or Calm Abiding meditation.)
Venue: Sakal Charity Trust Hall, Sakal Nagar, Baner Rd., AUNDH.


Prior registration is a must for participation! NO WALK IN'S PLEASE. Be good. Team G.O.O.D.

Birthday Celebration– To Do Or Not To Do Is The Question

A few days have passed since it’s been fifty years of my existence in this life. Prior to the D-day, my family was quite excited, which seemed normal, as some kind of significance is usually attached to this number. And so plans were offered and i was made to choose guest list and stuff like that. It was when i flatly refused any kind of celebration, that hell broke loose. Almost everyone at home came for my jugular! All sorts of ‘kind’ words were chucked at me – most of them not quite polite to reproduce here - but i endured through it all, until their storms passed. And then i was asked to explain my stand. “Ah! How i wish this option was given before brewing up the storm”, i thought to myself silently.


And this is what i had to offer to them. It is for you, dear reader, to contemplate upon and make a choice for yourself. This is the view of good Dharma practitioners. Beginning with the process of birth, we must indeed be grateful to our parents to have this precious human life bestowed upon us. It gives us great opportunity to whip up a spiritual trajectory unknown to any other life form. However, if we contemplate upon the process of child birth itself and the great suffering the child and mother have to undergo, we will realize that celebrating the day of birth would be like celebrating intense suffering. And this is the first of the four noble truths that Siddhartha realized. The suffering of birth. While Siddhartha examined the Four Truths in the context of ultimate liberation we are attempting to understand it here in the relative context of this life.


Moving into our growing years, all of us have accumulated all kinds of karma on account of our actions of body, speech, thoughts and emotions driven by various intensities of aversion and attraction . These include some good and virtuous ones and others bad and non-virtuous ones. Knowingly or unknowingly we have done it and even if we don’t remember each one of them, the fact that we have done them cannot be denied. The good deeds, if they were not contaminated by ambition, pride or competition would certainly accrue to the credit side of our ‘balance sheet’ if the merit accumulated from them were dedicated to others and not retained with us. The bad deeds will surely rest in the debit side and we must simply endure them unless we can find a way to purify, heal and transform them through certain practices to somewhat lessen their effect. So, it would be wise in attempting to understand this. If we have been engaged in realizing this and actually doing something about it, that’s fine otherwise celebrating our birthday would be like celebrating accumulation of years of misdeeds on others and ourselves and the misery they will bring on us in this life and rebirths ahead.


Some may argue that by celebrating our birthday we celebrate completion of another year of our life. This is right but if we think further and thin slice the year and our good fortune of being alive, we could bring in down to one day or just one breath. So we can really celebrate every day or every breath of ours! There is a saying in Tibetan Buddhist teachings which goes like this: “Our next day or our next life which will come first we can never say.”


For a real practitioner s/he is always trying to be free of every kind of desire or attachment. So, is there really much wisdom in staying attached to the day or year of our birth which occurred so many years ago and from which we are moving away with every passing day? If we think so, the question then beckons us is ‘Are we really succeeding in our practice?’


Lastly, for any person, whether or not a practitioner, realization at the time of death is most powerful. It is in these final moments of life that the true nature of our mind is revealed to us. What we really are and what we have instead been all our life comes across to us in stark clarity. This is unavoidable and no matter how we meet our end these images flash across our mind before the perfectly pristine nature of mind is revealed to us. It is the difference in practice that enables us to recognize it or miss it, thereby determining the quality of our re-birth. By that comparison, there is no realization in the infant at birth. It is precisely for this reason passing away (parinirvana) of realized masters is celebrated with prayers, donations and offerings rather than their date of birth.


Therefore, we can easily see the futility of celebrating our birthday a manner in which it is celebrated conventionally. And what i find most amusing of such celebrations is the western concept of blowing out candles! Transcending all religions, paths and traditions, it is widely accepted that lighting a candle is symbolic of dispelling darkness of ignorance in our minds and ushering in the light of wisdom. It may also be to invoke the element of fire which represents the mind's quality of clarity, fire is that element which supports the thermal system of our body and is that element also which controls the sense of sight. But, what can the blowing out of candles be symbolic of?


However, if we want to celebrate our birthday meaningfully, it would be wise to do so by doing community work, donating some money, food or clothes or any act of generosity towards those who are deprived of it and not as fortunate as we have been; and then sealing the action by dedicating the merit so accumulated for the wellness of the recipients of our generous gesture or our near and dear ones or to all sentient beings. The amount we donate is really irrelevant but what is extremely relevant is the heart’s pure intent and uncontaminated motivation of the mind behind it.


Have a happy and meaningful birthday!

SAMATHA AND VIPASANNA: Progressing with Caution

Speaking Tree, Sun, 09.12.2012


In my journey as life coach using Siddhartha’s Way of Awakening, students often ask me such questions: ‘how does one meditate?’ and ‘what is vipasanna meditation?’ While this column is not dedicated to describing methods of meditation, it is to bring out fundamental differences in the two most commonly used approaches to meditation and the wise manner in which we need to use them in order to derive benefit from them.


Shamatha and Vipasanna.


The Tibetan word for Shamatha, is ‘shyine’ or calm abiding. Essentially this practice begins with turning the mind inward and trying to understand what really is going on inside it. Recognizing the mind’s tendency to distraction; that the mind is prone to getting disturbed and unsettled with arising thoughts and emotions; that there is some kind of mental chatter is indeed the first step to meditation. As the practitioner perseveres further, thoughts settle down and the mind becomes calm with distractions reducing to some extent. Initially it is important to consciously keep the mind alert without grasping at arising thoughts yet not drift into a dull, dark and slothful state. We slowly begin to sense the mind resting in alert and spacious calm. Some kind of aware and quiet collectedness envelopes us. The mind rests in calm abiding or shamatha. Shamatha meditation is used as an antidote to distraction. Once the mind reaches this state, self-grasping and self-clinging dissolve. Now the mind is ready to explore further without taking the support of the spacious calmness it has reached. It is said that Shamatha is the calm ocean of the mind in which the investigative fish of Vipasanna swims.


In Tibetan the word ‘lhaktong’ is used to describe Vipasanna. It simply means insight or investigative meditation, the outcome of which is wisdom generation. Only when a practitioner is fully skilled in resting her/his mind in calm abiding is it possible for her/him to begin probing deeper through investigation. Just as trying to swim in rough waters is not easy, so also attempting to undertake enquiry when the mind is in a distracted state will yield unsatisfactory results. Naturally questions that arise are: How does one undertake investigation? What should one investigate on? Tibetan Buddhist masters have described three methods one can rely on to generate wisdom. Widely known as the Three Wisdom Tools, they are: Hearing and listening (or reading) to the teachings, contemplating on these teachings to understand their logic (which includes mentally debating them) and finally meditating upon them, in order to make the realization achieved through contemplation into one’s continuous mind stream. One can investigate on a number of issues some of which are: causes and effects of our actions and emotions on us and surroundings, ever presence of impermanence (anicha), non-self (anatta) and suffering (dukkha), inter-dependent nature of all life forms and all phenomena, advantages and responsibilities of our human life over other life forms, logic of compassion, harmful effects of limitless desire and insatiable ego, antidotes to negative emotions and their benefit and so on. Infact, the pristine state of alert and spacious calm can be used at times to investigate and find solutions to problems at work and home too!


Using these two techniques of meditation, a practitioner can progress well in understanding his/her mind better and in the process gain wisdom. Both approaches bring immense benefit when used appropriately.


It is very important to note therefore that every practitioner should first begin with Shamatha meditation and upon stabilizing it, progress towards Vipasanna can be made. Such an approach will result in bringing about enduring and lasting benefit.
 

A G.O.O.D Feeling!

Last three days saw Khenpo Sonam Tsewang of Namdroling Monastery visit Pune and share the light of Buddha's teachings with few interested Punekars. It was an amazing experience to have an enlightened Tibetan Buddhist Master stay with us and give tips to the family on day to day life and living and how we can effortlessly improve the 'peace quotient' of our private life. Some press/media links here.
http://www.punemirror.in/article/2/201211082012110808272990024f9c971/In-pursuit-of-happiness.html http://www.indianexpress.com/news/a-spiritual-sojourn/1028023/1


G.O.O.D, which stands for Group for the Outreach of Omniscient Dharma, as some of you may know is a group that has been convened by yours truly, solely for the purpose of bringing the wisdom of Siddhartha and great Nalanda masters to Puneites on a sustainable yet 'no profit all benefit' format with the purest and most uncontaminated intention and motivation. This is not a business venture! :) We are hoping to keep the Master Teaching Series sustainable through corporate an individual donors/sponsors.


A full time Dharma teaching centre is the objective, given the rising interest amongst Punekars over the past two years, in the relevance and logic of Buddhism in our approach to and better understanding of life & living, death & dying.


That's all for now. Greetings for the festive season. Lv, cheers and prayers to you and your lovely families, May all of us continue to create causes for peace.

MIND TRANSFORMATION MASTER SERIES

A few of us in Pune have come together to form a group to hold a series of teachings based on Buddhist science and philosophy. Buddhist Masters will be invited from renowned monasteries and institutes across India to impart teachings by sharing the light of Sakyamuni's Dharma.


The group calls itself Group for the Outreach of Omniscient Dharma (G.O.O.D). NOV 6-7 is the first of this series by Khenpo Sonam Tsewang of Namdroling Monastery, Bylakuppe, S.India.


ALL ARE INVITED. Invitation with details appended. Please do attend. Convenors: Girish Deshpande & Ashwini Khare Dasgupta

PEACE V/S HAPPINESS

The other day a friend of mine and i were contemplating the larger meaning of life and living. He also wanted to know more of the solitary cave retreat in the Himalayas i was just back from. As the conversation was coming to an end, he said to me “So basically under any given circumstances we have to know how to be happy, isn’t it?” As i began to see a steady stream of customers entering his coffee shop, i could have just nodded in the affirmative, made him feel happy about it and melted away. But something inside me stirred and i went on to explain it thus to him.


It is commonly projected in spiritual teachings that the objective in this life is to be happy and keep other beings around us happy. Well, in Buddhist teachings the approach is a bit different.


Take any two situations in your own life. One that has been a pleasant one and the other which has caused you pain and unpleasantness. The reactions to both these situations by a siddha (accomplished one) and an ordinary being will be different.


While the ordinary being will sway between the extremities of being happy in one situation and sad in the other one that has been unpleasant, the accomplished one will be at peace in both the situations. Herein lies the fundamental difference. While peace is a constant state of being, having almost no contrasting opposite, happiness is subjected to a contrasting dual state viz. sadness. While the nature of peace is unchanging, the nature of happiness is subject to forces prone to change hence making it a temporary or transient state. Happiness also has the great possibility of being contaminated by desire, not so is the case with peace. To understand the difference better, let us take an example of a mother who has just lost her child. It would be foolhardy to expect the traumatized mother to be ‘happy’ in a heart—rending moment such as this, however accomplished a yogin she may be! However, if the same woman had even the basic understanding of the teachings on impermanence, she would certainly be at ‘peace’ with the given extreme situation. And this approach can be applied in several circumstances with us in day to day situations.


Sakyamuni’s intent was never to be happy himself nor did he lead people towards the false assurance of keeping them happy. His path does not lead to happiness either. It leads to nirvana, which is peace. A state free from the duality of being ‘happy’ and/or ‘unhappy’. This state is never ever to be confused with indifference. It is to be in total awareness of the situation and being at peace with it. This is very important to understand. Indifference can lead to a whole set of negative karma by itself and therefore must be abandoned sooner than later.


In an accomplished practitioner the very bedrock of being is peace, irrespective of the situation. There is no doubt that delusions of afflicted emotions arise in siddha’s just as in ordinary beings. However, the difference is how each of them reacts to them. While an ordinary being will immediately have a ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ reaction resulting in the corresponding negative karma arising from attachment or aversion; a siddha sees everything arising in its natural state without grasping entering his/her perception.


With relentless practice when these subtleties are realized, a deep sense of contentment arises within us. The mind becomes clear, vast and pure as it has been from the very beginning. It recognizes the alternating and unending dance enacted by samsara and nirvana. It becomes quite sky-like; not disappointed with the clouds nor excited over a rainbow.


Therefore, the words of ‘peace’ and ‘happiness’ cannot and should not be used loosely like synonyms as people – including few spiritual teachers of some faiths - are generally prone to using them. They must be used after their meaning is fully and deeply understood through the dedicated practices of contemplation and meditation. Let us therefore continue to create causes for peace...and happiness. :)

My Solitary Cave Retreat, Sikkim

October 2012 saw me retreat to the Himalayas for a fortnight of quiet contemplative and meditative break. I believe such solitary breaks to be very crucial for every one to take, irrespective of whether one is a practitioner or not. While for lay people such a break helps in 'seeing' the mental chatter arising from urban distractions and attractions, and quietening them down to some extent so as to understand the reasons better and perhaps develop antidotes to them; to a practitioner a break of this kind helps in the transformation of teachings into a continual mind stream through the undisturbed process of reading/listening, contemplating and meditating, better known as the Three Wisdom Tools.


As Lama Longchenpa once said: "Worldly pre-occupations never end; they end when we die or when we drop them. Such is their nature."


Go ahead, put in that leave application and go! The world will go on, anyway! :) May all beings benefit,

PATIENCE- Antidote to Anger

Speaking Tree, TOI, 23.09.2012 PRACTICE OF PATIENCE –


One of the Six Perfections in Buddhist Teachings. One of my students, a young girl then awaiting her medical entrance results, mailed to me. Her question was simple. Her mother asked her to be patient and the girl wanted to know the real meaning of the word.


This is what I wrote back to her.


The Oxford dictionary defines patience (noun) as: "the ability to stay calm and accept a delay or something annoying without complaining." Maybe this fits quite perfectly into the expectations most mothers have of their children!


In the Buddhist teachings, however, the explanation is a bit more deeper. It is something like this:


As we know afflicted emotions (pride, wrong views, greed, jealousy, anger, desire) originate in our untrained mind, play havoc with us and lead us into all kinds of suffering. Infact they are the root cause of our suffering. They are the very reason why we continue to wander in samsara for many many lifetimes. And now that we have this precious human rebirth, there is a way in which we can train our minds to rid ourselves of these causes of suffering, purify our minds of them, generate antidotes for these afflicted emotions and try and abandon these afflictions totally.


Each of these five poisons have the capacity to push us into lower rebirths where suffering is far far greater than we have in this human realm. In particular, anger, is such that is pushes us into the lower most realm of rebirth called the hell realm. Unimaginable suffering awaits us there.


So obviously, it would be unwise to conduct ourselves in a way that will land us down there. So the wisest thing to do is to control our anger. But how do we do it? Just as when a person is bitten by a snake, the doctor administers an antidote to fight the poison, so also in the case of afflicted emotions. Each of these emotions have an antidote given elaborately in the teachings. In order to overcome the poison of anger we develop, through practice, an antidote.


This antidote is Patience.


 A great Indian Buddhist master of 16-17th century C.E., Shantideva, says:


All the good work gathered in a thousand ages,
Such as deeds of generosity,
And offerings to the blissful ones,
A single flash of anger shatters them.
And further advices us by saying:
No evil is there similar to anger,
No austerity to be compared with patience
Steep yourself, therefore, in patience, I
n various ways, insistently.


And how do we develop the antidote of patience? There are several ways suggested in the teachings depending on the students' capability. One of the easiest ways is by watching our mind when anger arises. When we 'see' it arising we immediately turn our focus towards our breath. Controlling our breathing when anger arises helps in settling anger to some extent. Developing compassion, release of expecting things to always go our way are other ways we can train ourselves in. This antidote can also be applied to various minor afflictions such as irritability, anxiety, over-excitement, undue hurry etc. Other skillful methods based on identifying the base nature of mind and treating all arisings to be sport of the mind are also mentioned in the teachings. However, such techniques require years of training under the guidance of accomplished masters.


Go on then. Get yourself to live a life without anger. It is an assured step towards nirvana!


(The girl referred to in the article, Axxxx (name withheld), hails from Bihar and used to follow my blog and Speaking Tree pieces. She wrote to me one day pouring out all her personal problems. I responded over email to try and sort them out for her. There was lull for many months thereafter and i thought all was well. Until one day an email landed in my inbox. She said she was on the verge of taking her life following a failed love affair and failed medical entrance test. Although keen to pursue medical studies, Axxxx did not wish her parents to cough up huge money towards a donation seat although they were willing to. An email in the nick of time (just one night before she would have taken that disastrous step), followed by several more, guiding her thru a traumatic life seems to have worked. Axxxx got over this phase and has since begun living a far more peaceful and confident life, ready to face the world boldly with all its vagaries. This year she cracked the exam and now studies medicine at Manipal University as a merit student.)

RAKSHA BANDHAN - Reflecting on Protection

SPEAKING TREE, TOI, 05.08.2012


A young boy of a middle class family, all of 5yrs, is sitting on a chair in the drawing room of his parents’ modest apartment. He’s wearing a crisp and well fitting pyjama-kurta bought specially for the occasion of Raksha Bandhan. In the pocket of his kurta he safeguards an envelope with some content of cash. Proudly sporting a ‘tilak’ on his forehead, just under the Anna cap, he waits impatiently for his mother and elder sister, aged 12yrs, to get the pooja thali ready. After all today is the day his sister and he had been waiting for.


This perhaps is quite a familiar situation that we can visualize in millions of households across socio-economic sections of India. Perhaps among NRI’s too. Chances are that we may have even gone through these situations in our growing years, whether or not we had a sibling; cousins and neighbours’ ‘bhaiyya’ or ‘didi’ happily filling in.


The pooja thali arrives. The older sister goes through the rituals of lighting the lamp, moving the thali clockwise around the innocent face of her brother and showering him with coloured rice. The boy places the envelope on the pooja thali, as a gift for his sister, which she eyes expectantly. The ritual ends with the sister tying a rakhi or sacred thread of protection around her brother’s right wrist, signifying the assurance of protection the brother heaps upon his sister as commitment.


Wait a minute. It’s not over yet.


The boy innocently asks his sister “Akka, every morning when we walk to the bus-stop to go to school, it is you who holds my hand while crossing the road.”
“Yes, so?” enquires the sister with a tinge of irritation.
“It is you who takes care to ensure whether i’ve eaten my dabba or not, right?”
“Yes, baba! So what?” the girl looks at her mother with a quiz on her face.
“And it is you, who ensures that i have got everything back from school”.
“And continues sheepishly “it is also you who speaks to the supervisor in my defence when i’m pulled up for mischief!”
“Yes, yes...now you better tell me what you’re getting at else i’m going. I don’t have time for such kid stuff”, the sister sounds an ultimatum.
“If all the time it is you who are protecting me, then why should i also not tie a rakhi to you?”


The household is stunned into silence.


Each looks at the other with no real answers. The parents’ eyes turn moist. The sister laughs it off as some childish gibberish and chides him “Stupid, it is meant to be so. Now go.”


In walks grandma. “Wait a minute, Akka. Putta has raised a question for all of us to reflect upon.”


Her wisdom tumbles out. And everybody listens in rapt attention.


Grandma continues: “It was okay in yesteryears when it was just men who had to earn and provide for the family. It was they who had to fight wars and battles and so it was their duty to protect the family. Women largely stayed at home, seldom ventured out and engaged mostly in household chores. Even i did it. So by that logic it was fine that sisters tied the thread of protection and took a vow from the brother to protect her from all harm. But now, times have changed and so should traditions that have outlived their time. The ‘wars’ to be fought are those of self and social responsibility, of economic and emotional challenges, those of equality and self-respect. Gone are the days of physical wars and masculine domination and male one-upmanship. Today, as parents you are educating your daughter as passionately so that she grows up to be self-sufficient and independent. You are empowering her into emancipation so that she will look after herself and her family - where she gets married into - with compassion, self-dignity and as much responsibility as her husband would. While the brother is certainly expected to come to his sister’s aid, it could well be that in times of difficulty for Putta, it would be Akka who will come to his rescue. It would be a situation of mutual protection. Then what is wrong in what Putta has asked? He should certainly be allowed to tie the rakhi – the thread of everlasting protection – on Akka’s wrist too!”


Friends, give this a good and honest thought. On Raksha Bandhan day this year, i have decided to also tie rakhi to my sister. And you?

WHAT ABOUT PURGINGS OF THE MIND?

SPEAKING TREE, TOI, PICK OF THE WEEK!


Recently i was watching a popular cinema star anchoring a show wherein the suffering and humiliation of night soil carriers and sewage cleaners were depicted. It was really heart rending to see that. Surely, the nation cringed at the visuals they saw of those workers doing that wretched kind of work; of having to clear up the mess other people have left behind. Some may have also directed their disappointment and anger at the government for not being able to bring an end to such miserable work after sixty years of attaining sovereign status. We thought: Why should others do the dirty job of clearing the mess we leave behind?


It got me thinking.


Although the body is important to us, acting as the support for our mind, it is the lowest form of our being if we were to consider the body, intellect and mind combination of existence. This can be understood by considering this fact. The world has so many different kinds of cuisines. Almost each one of them has its own charm in terms of aromatic flavours, visual appeal, touch and ofcourse taste. But when the food gets digested, it is expelled out in such an impure, foul smelling and repulsive looking form. Even the insides of our body, when we see it under an X-ray is full of blood, bones and flesh in one mass of something that is not really appealing. And we cannot improve this condition whatever we may try to do. On the other hand, we can develop our intelligence and train our minds to the best possible level we want. We expel impurities from our body day after day. We tend to accept this condition and situation and seem to get on with life, considering it to be a matter of fact situation.


But what about the purgings of our mind?


Quite ironical, i thought. On one hand we dont want others to clear the ‘visible’ mess we have created, yet we have no shame, no remorse when we it came to more intense sort of things we easily inflict upon people day in and out! For the latter, however, we urge our buddha or god to clear the mess. This seemed so hypocritical. Every day, almost all the time we are generating all kinds of garbage from our mind in the form of negative emotions, impure thoughts, destructive habits and non-virtuous actions. Unmindfully we expel these negativities and heap them upon others in the form of body, speech and mind actions. And most of the times we donot seem to have any remorse for these actions. We also try and justify them! I have even witnessed on many occasions people who are publicly corrupt, most uncivilized and insensitive going to a place of worship an beseeching their gods to rid them of their negativities! If it were to end here, it would be fine. But the same person would step out of the place of worship and the very next moment indulge in all his/her old ways.


While in the case of the night soil carriers, atleast an external mechanism like a government or laws and regulations that can be put in place to end the practice. But who can we turn to to rid ourselves of the horrendous things we excrete through our mind? Things which are far more harmful to the wellness of society. Things which are far more dangerous to our own selves than to others for the baggage of karma they create for us. Things which will certainly come back to haunt us in this or next lives, depending on the ripening of causes and conditions.


We can at best only take support of the teachings of our faith and our diligent practice to rid ourselves of these negativities. We can only wish for the blessings of our guru and god to rid us of these delusions. However, all the work for actually getting rid of the poisons such as anger, greed, envy, wrong views, desire and ego - the very basis of our wandering in samsara for many lifetimes - we have to work upon them ourselves. No buddha or god is going to do it for us. We have to endeavour hard at overcoming them ourselves. In effect, we have to clear up our own mess. We have to lift our own load.


So, one one had it is really very fine to feel sorry for the headload carriers and work for their benefit too, but it would do us and all those around us more good if we began by feeling sorry for ourselves and aimed at improving our own condition. As HH Dalai Lama says “Let us be wisely selfish."

AN INSULATED COOKER, A NON-STICK PAN AND NIRVANA!

(The Speaking Tree, 17.06.2012, ToI)


Just the other day i was invited to the launch of restaurant by an old B-School friend. The concept was new, a micro beer brewery cum resto-bar. The brunch spread was indeed elaborate. But what particularly caught my attention was that the food warmers were a departure from the conventional and a series of induction cookers with compatible pots and pans were used instead. Finding the idea novel, i chose to contemplate on the merits of their use.


Besides the fact that heat load from induction heating devices over conventional food warmers would reduce the need for additional air-conditioning in the restaurant, saving precious energy bills, what occurred to me actually corroborated with the process we undertake to discover nirvana!


Nirvana in Buddhism is defined as release of suffering. Gyatrul Rinpoche’s commentary describes it more precisely as like this: ‘Nir’ means suffering and ‘vana’ is beyond. So nirvana means to go beyond suffering of samsara or cyclic existence. All teachings and practices in various religions and in particular Buddhist tradition are aimed in training the mind towards this singular objective.


So, what’s this got to do with an induction cooker? Two specific and very important approaches towards discovering what practitioners set out to do. Release from the grasping nature of our ordinary mind and insulating the mind. Please note that words such as ‘attaining’ or ‘achieving’ are not used as there is nothing really of this kind to do, but merely to unearth or re-discover what has always been within us. The seed of buddhahood or ‘tathagathagarbha’ in Sanskrit.


The root cause of our continuing to remain in cyclic existence is the ability of the mind to get distracted easily. Now, this is not some simple distraction that we’re talking of but something that gives rise to causes and conditions for more severe impact. This is the grasper and the grasped; the subject-object dual imposters that have been responsible for our endless misery and endless re-birth in samsara. Grasping does not mean attachment to things which we like. It is to do with the very concept of judging an arising thought, emotion or phenomenon with the intent of categorizing it in terms of attraction or aversion, like or dislike and so on. As practitioners develop awareness through meditative practices, both these gradually get reduced. Repeatedly and single-pointedly observing the arising thoughts and emotions not just during meditation but all the time – with special treatment to the non-virtuous and destructive ones - their tendency to stick reduces. This happens not because the nature of afflictive thoughts and emotions reduce in stickiness but because of the ‘non-stickiness’ that we come to develop in our mind from practices. Much like the same non-stick pan in which food was being heated.


How often we have blamed circumstances, people, situations and everything external to us for our misery. It is utterly foolish to even think, much less believe, that something external can cause us to be in a situation that is bad or good. If we were for even a moment think in this way, we have no idea of karma and its forces. All these situations have been totally self-created. This is the very basis of the law of karma. So then, if this is so, what do we insulate ourselves from? Clearly we need to insulate ourselves from creating those causes and conditions that will come around and bear upon us harmful effects including unpleasant situations ahead in this life or even poor quality of re-birth and greater suffering therein. These are elaborated in Buddhism as the ten negative actions, five poisons and five aggregates. There are thousands of external influences and internal arisings that compel us into negative actions and it is hardly possible to stop them from coming on to us. However, what is definitely possible is to insulate our minds from their sinister plans taking shape. As the Buddha said “If you want to walk the earth without getting your feet dirty there are two ways of doing it. Either you can cover the whole earth with cloth or you can wear a pair of sandals”. Insulating our minds is like wearing a pair of sandals. Very much the same as the well-insulated induction cooker which was safe even with kids around the restaurant.


By generating awareness through simply watching one’s mind in meditation it is possible to release our minds from grasping and insulating it from influences. And this is really what nirvana is all about!


It is really amazing how simple situations around us can provide us with profound teachings that lead us to nirvana. Only if we cared to contemplate!

RECOGNIZE THAT MOMENT!

Speaking Tree, Sunday, 20.01.2013


A group of monks were going about their daily chores at the outskirts of Rajgir, where Siddhartha had camped. Some brahmanas were passing by of which one of them sneered “All that these monks ever do is sit and meditate. There is nothing worthwhile they do”. One of the monks heard it and said “No, we don’t even do that”. Taken aback the brahmana retorted “Oh, so you useless one’s don’t even do that?” “No”, replied the monk, “what is there to get distracted about?"


Have you ever observed a flea? It does not stay still even for a few moments. It is constantly moving around in a random path hopping from one point to the other. Or have you ever sensed the wind? It is constantly shifting and drifting. So also is the case with our mind. It does not seem to stay still. Our inability to really understand the true nature of our mind or even if we do understand it and get glimpses of it in our meditative practices, its ability to get easily distracted is the very basis of our suffering.



Even in meditative practices, given the tiniest distraction our mind sometimes deserts us. At one moment we might be resting peacefully in abiding calmness and in the next moment just as a thought casually arises, we tend to chase it and soon we find ourselves playing a football match or in romantic conversation with our heart throb! And then we sheepishly realize this drifting and try and ‘come back’. This cycle continues and is really amazingly as it tends to frustrate our efforts. But yet we must endure this slimy creature called mind and device means by which it remains faithful to us at all times.



In our meditative session this sort of desertion may not give rise to immediate harm, but imagine if this were to happen in our daily routine! At one moment we are all fine and in peaceful conversation and just as someone distracts us with a rude remark or a desireable person walks up to us, our mind just leaves us. Before we realize it, we’ve reacted and have landed ourselves into a position of guilt, embarrassment by having said, thought or done something stupid.



The sessions of meditation are our laboratory. Our mind is what we are trying to tinker with. What we experience and realize in these sessions, however insignificant it might be, is what we must integrate into our day to day living.


Here’s one way that might offer some assistance whilst ‘working’ in our laboratory in preventin our minds from slipping away.



Sitting still, when we try to focus inward into our mind and bring it to some stillness or calmness, we come to a point wherein we are resting in our base mind. This is also called resting in the nature of our ordinary mind. Thoughts and emotions seem to go through a slow motion of naturally arising and fading. Soon they settle down too. Although we may be mindful of our breathing – breath as we know is the prana ("lung" in Tibetan)on which mind rides - and we are aware of this mindfulness, there occurs a particular moment. A thought arises and like a juvenile in love, our mind chases after it.



Recognize this moment! It is this moment which is the reason of our endless torment.

This is the moment that must be identified and dealt with. Dealing with it means just being able to identify it. Pin-pointedly identify the very moment our mind strays. With sustained practice this ‘moment of desertion’ needs to be routinely caught, recognized as the harbinger of suffering and eventually purged. Yes, it is true that initially it might require dedicated and perhaps an artificially generated effort in creating this identification tool. However, as we become more and more used to it in our meditative sessions – in our laboratory - catching the moment goes on to become as natural as swallowing or smiling. Soon we arrive at a point where our mind becomes a vajra (diamond) and nothing really distracts it. Much like the monks in the story.



Remember, the highest Lamas or the most accomplished of gurus are just like us. They have same arisings of emotions and thoughts. They have similar perceptions, mental constructions and formations like you and me. The only difference is that as they do not allow any grasping to enter any of these arisings, there is no internal grasping of them nor any external manifestation of it in terms of body, speech nor mental actions.



And we can quite easily be the same only if we are dedicated in our laboratory work! You wouldn’t want a life with self-created and self-inflicted suffering, would you?


Enlightenment be yours.

FOUR THOUGHTS: TURNING THE MIND INWARDS

SAKAAL TIMES (ENGLISH), 29.07.2012


How often have we ever wondered if we had any specific advantages over other beings with a human birth? Or whether, we and everything around us, is subject to transitioning by the very nature of being impermanent? Or that situations within and around us are constantly subject to causes and conditions that come to fruition sooner or later? And how do we look at the existence of all kinds of suffering in this world and handle it? While the Four Thoughts may sound coming from Buddhist philosophy, the fact is that they are not confined to any particular religion or tradition but are the very nature of the reality we live and work in. It may just be that Buddhists have had a better recognition of it, have organized its component aspects and have perfected means and ways to actualize these four thoughts. And have found a definitive path to liberate themselves and others from it.


The human birth as we can see is possible and possessible. That everything around us is not permanent has enough evidence through death, destruction and falling apart (including the cosmos where stars explode and recreate themselves all the time). To a person with average intelligence the law of karma (cause and effect) is not difficult to understand either; if we sow wheat, it will be wheat we will reap given the favourable conditions. And the sufferings of sickness, old age and death are prevalent in all life forms.


The above are termed as ‘Four Thoughts’, also referred as outer practices or common preliminaries taught under the profound Nam Choe (meaning Space Dharma or Mind Treasures) tradition of Vajrayana as ‘Ngondro’ teachings (Ngondro means ‘moving forward’). It has been comprehensively established that these teachings came from the Buddha of Infinite Compassion, Avalokiteshvara’s own mind and mouth. So, to follow them, the purest motivation, faith, confidence and intention is required from the teacher and student alike.


Here, briefly we will explore the Four Thoughts.


1. Precious Human Re-birth: Whether we like it or not, whether we believe in it or not, whether we accept it or not the fact is that we all have re-births. The causes for all kinds of forms we may take depends on ripening of the causes and conditions. Therefore, it is clear that since we in our past lifetime created virtuous causes and conditions of morality, we have been bestowed upon a human life. However again, we are also very fortunate that not only do we have the human form but we are born with our sense faculties in place, born in an era and place where Buddha’s teachings are easily accessible and imparted by compassionate teachers and can generate faith and intention to receive the teaching. All these fortunate occurances are classified as five individual advantages, five circumstantial advantages and eight ‘free’ states, giving us the status of precious human rebirth. It has been adequately established that rebirth as human being is not possible unless we have created causes of morality in our previous lifetimes. Using metaphors, the Buddha said to his brother Nanda: ‘It is very difficult to balance sesame seeds on the tip of a needle. It is very difficult for peas to stick to a wall when they are being thrown at it. In the same way, obtaining human birth is very difficult’. Therefore, without squandering away these advantages, without exhausting the good done over previous lives, it would be wise, bold and sensible of us to practice the dharma, to be able to discover enlightenment in one life and one body.


2. Impermanence of this life: However rich we may be, however good-looking or gifted we may be the fact is that we will die someday. The fact is that we are born from causes and conditions, called ‘conditioned phenomena’, and that by very nature conditioned phenomena are impermanent. Every day we move closer to death. The options before us therefore are: whether we meet death totally unprepared and uncertain of what will happen to us at that moment or try and understand the prospect of death through dharma and be reasonably assured of it when it comes. In either case, we cannot avoid it nor can we say when death will befall upon us. The dharma teachings specify 404 causes of death, 80000 types of forces that harm our life and the body that consists of 36 different types of impurities that cause us to die. Therefore the need to contemplate on this is very important and there is no time to waste. An old Tibetan saying goes ‘our next day or next life, which comes first we never know’. And the masters say, if there is one thing to meditate upon for enlightenment, it would be to meditate on impermanence.


3. The law of cause and effect: The law of karma is central to Buddhist teachings. That we have created causes to get human rebirth should be very satisfying for us. But, what we do in and with this life will determine what rebirth we will take ahead. The Buddha says ‘what we are is what we have done and what we will be is what we do today’. So it is evident that we need to create virtuous conditions in this life to enable a better rebirth. The fact, with enough examples to back it as proof, is that our consciousness doesn’t just fade away like a burnt out candle but is carried forward. At rebirth it is our past karma that propels this consciousness into next rebirth. Anger causes rebirth in hot and cold hell realm, greed and avarice is responsible for rebirth in hungry and thirsty spirit realm. Ignorance and delusion are causes for rebirth in animal realm. Rebirth in jealous gods realm is a result of envy and likewise longlife gods are born due to extreme pride. It is important to mention here that even rebirth in god realm means suffering of age and rebirth is lower realm subsequently. Unfortunately, as human beings we are born in the desire realm, whose predominant tendency is to produce non-virtuous karma! So in order to find an anti-dote to this, to counter this situation we need to practice dharma.


4. Defects of cyclic existence (samsara): The defects mentioned here refer to the sufferings beings have to undergo in the realm they are born in. There are three fundamental types of suffering. Suffering of change, suffering upon suffering and all pervasive suffering. While the commentary on suffering of change is one the human, demi god and god realms wherein all beings born in these realms experience suffering. Humans experience the sufferings of birth, old age, sickness and death. Demi gods suffer from constant fights and quarrels and gods suffer from fall (from their present situation) and change (rebirth in lower realm). Suffering upon suffering refers to those of beings in the three lower realms. Beings born in hell reals suffer from intense heat and cold, those born in hungry spirit realm are constantly tormented by hunger and thirst, while the animal reals suffer from stupidity, being killed, being forced into excessive work etc. All pervasive suffering is this body consisting of five aggregates ( form, feeling, mental formation, perception and consciousness) with which we experience suffering. Such suffering is not easily recognized by ordinary beings but by exalted ones, much the same way as one does not feel the pain of a strand of hair on a palm of our hand but the same strand of hair in our eye makes us feel the discomfort and suffering.


While this ends the teachings on the outer preliminaries, there are four extra-ordinary or inner practices of taking Refuge (in the Three Supreme Jewels of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha) & arousing our Bodhichitta that transforms every virtuous action to the path of enlightenment, Mandala offerings for swift accomplishments of merit & wisdom, Vajrasattva practice to purify all our accumulated bad karma and obscurations and finally the Guru Yoga practice to receive blessings. Choed (Body offering thru visualizations) and Phowa (Transfer of consciousness), also covered in Ngondro teachings, are branch practices. However, these require detailed commentary and extensive descriptions of visualizations to dedicated practitioners and hence are not covered here.


This year, during the month i attended and received the profound Ngondro teachings and empowerments under the most enlightened and purest masters of the tradition (called Khenpo’s or learned professors of Buddhism, on par with Rinpoche’s). It also coincided with the third Mahaparinirvana anniversary (22-24th March) of HH Padma Norbu Rinpoche (Penor Rinpoche as he is fondly called), not only a great master of the Nyingma Tradition but also the founder of Namdroling Monastery and Ngagyur Nyingma Institute for teaching and practice near Mysore. Followers in the form of practitioners, sponsors and laity arrived from countries such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore amongst others over the three days of extensive and elaborate prayer sessions conducted by high lamas (or heart essences) of the tradition and attended by thousands of monks and nuns for the swift re-birth of His Holiness.


Ngondro teachings and practices alongwith advanced practices of Tsalung (understanding body channels and winds) and Dzogchen (Great Perfection) teachings are held over four weeks at Ngagyur Nyingma Institute, Namdroling Monastery, South India every year. Sessions are well structured and extensive often stretching 14hrs each day, 7days a week and include: chanting, studying, praying, meditating, practicing, receiving teachings, transmission and empowerments . All three sessions begin simultaneously on the eighteenth day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar and are open to monks and lay people alike. Teachings are imparted in Tibetan and English. Although no fees are expected, one needs to make own arrangements for accommodation and food. Willful donations are welcome.