(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!
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!
