Tag Archives: Intention

It is All in Our Hands – 37 Practices – Session 14

Wishing everyone onsite at KC16 and online on Zoom a good morning, Acharya Lhakpa Tshering resumed guiding our practice and continued his commentary on The 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva as taught by Ngulchu Tokmé. Looking at verse 18 and 19, the question to ask ourselves is: How to take loss and gain onto the heroic path of compassion?

The Heroic Intention of a Bodhisattva

Part of our śamatha practice is to always connect with the intention to seek enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings–bodhicitta. At the beginning of our session, our resident teacher stressed the heroic quality and the importance of this intention. It is heroic since we open our hearts to all sentient beings. We do so with a sense of gratitude since they have supported us in one way or another in the world of samsara, from beginningless time. The importance can be seen in the eighteenth verse: 

“Even when I am made destitute, people constantly berate me,
And grave illness and evil spirits strike me,
To take on still the suffering and misdeeds of all beings for myself Without losing heart is the practice of a bodhisattva.”
Quoted from: A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, translated by Christopher Stagg.

“Without losing heart,” Acharya pointed out, refers to bodhicitta or heart of awakening. Why is this important? “If the intention of benefiting others is not present from the very outset, we will not be able to take hardships and suffering onto the path,” he said. 

“Why me?” is Not the Question

Usually, when we face difficult situations like those pointed out in this verse, we think: “Why me? Why is this always happening to me?” Furthermore, we then typically blame others or are upset with the outside world. However, as a dharma practitioner, we should ask ourselves: “Is this going to contribute to the cause of enlightenment for myself and others?” Counter to our habits, we seek to make good use of adverse situations. The main point, therefore, is how to take suffering, hardships, and whatever discomfort in our lives, onto the path. How do we make use of them in our practice? 

The Manure for Enlightenment

In the Mahāyāna sūtras, the Buddha illustrated the notion of taking any situation onto the path with cow dung. Like farmers use this to enrich their fields, bodhisattvas use all conditions, no matter what difficulty they encounter, as a way to further their practice and use it to attain the state of omniscience–buddhahood. 

What if others are free from such difficulties? Rather than thinking about why they have what we are lacking, we should remember that we are engaging in the practice for their sake. We wish them to be free from any kind of hardship and discomfort. Seeking to free them from suffering, we take everything onto the path, not only our own difficulties but the difficulties of others as well. We do so “without losing heart.” 

While this is surely not an easy practice, Acharya emphasized that we can always start with small steps. Slowly we will be able to take the challenges we encounter onto the path and exchange our happiness with the suffering of others. 

Appreciating Wealth and Renown with Mindfulness and Mental Alertness

While the eighteenth verse speaks about taking loss onto the path, the next verse, nineteen, teaches about gain. In A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, translated by Christopher Stagg, it reads: 

“Even if I become renowned and everyone pays me respect,
Or should I obtain wealth like that of Vaishravana,
To see the wealth of samsara as having no essence
And not have pride is the practice of a bodhisattva.” 

The verse points to Vashravana, the god of wealth, according to traditional buddhist teachings. However, Acharya shared that we can simply think of rich people in our present-day world. Regardless of who we think of, and however wealthy that person may be, the same message expressed in this verse applies: It is impermanent. 

The impermanent nature of things applies equally to material wealth as to other things that Ngulchu Tokmé is pointing to with this verse: being renowned, respected, and so forth. This is not difficult to understand. We can find countless examples of people who gained a lot at some point in their lives and later on lost everything again. This does not mean that such things are inherently bad. It means that they simply have no essence. 

What does this mean for us as a dharma practitioner? If we gain some kind of renown and wealth, we can appreciate that. However, through the qualities of mindfulness and being mentally alert, we can remain aware of their impermanent nature and develop contentment. 

Blowing Up the Balloon of Pride

The benefits of mindfulness and mental alertness, or introspection, is that it will prevent pride to arise in our mind-stream. Acharya Lhakpa taught that pride can be compared to a balloon. “The more we blow up the balloon of pride, the farther away we will be from attaining the qualities of nirvāṇa and the state of buddhahood.” 

Pride contaminates, Acharya explained, the vessel or container which holds the qualities of enlightenment. Therefore, no matter whether we have a lot of wealth, are renowned, and so forth, or not, we always need mindfulness and introspection. Seeing that phenomena are impermanent, changing every second, will reduce our pride. If, he said, “we will contaminate the container of enlightenment of pride, that will neither benefit ourselves nor others.” 

Does It Make Any Sense to You?

The main practice of the Mahāyāna, for all who tread the heroic path of compassion, is to always consider how to take happiness and suffering, comfort and discomfort, onto the path. More particularly, bodhisattvas take the mental afflictions like attachment, aversion, and ignorance–the three poisons–onto the path. Therefore, Acharya Lhakpa said: “We don’t have to get rid of the mental afflictions. Rather, we make use of them to move farther along the path.” 

As a way to conclude our session, Acharya reminded us of something he mentioned before: Sometimes we may look at a verse and think, ‘How is this possible? It does not make any sense!’ However, instead of immediately responding in that way, we should carefully investigate and contemplate these verses, wondering: What is the point here? What does make sense to me? “If,” our resident teacher said, “you find one verse that makes sense to you, that helps you to transform your mental afflictions into path, that’s it. That’s your practice.” 

Thanking everyone onsite and online for joining our practice, we dedicated the merit.

Karmapa Khyenno!

Taking a Step Back – 37 Practices – Session 12

With snow falling at Karmapa Center 16, Acharya Lhakpa Tshering, guided meditation from our shrine room and we discussed the fifteenth verse from Ngulchu Tokmé’s 37 practices of a Bodhisattva. How can we take denigration or criticism to the path? Especially in this twenty-first century, our resident teacher said we need to learn to take a step back and slow down before we react. 

Breathing In, Breathing Out

Before starting our usual śamatha practice, our resident teacher offered some instructions about the posture of our body (straight yet comfortable and relaxed) and the importance of generating the wish for our meditation session to become the causes & conditions for all sentient beings to attain enlightenment (bodhicitta). He highlighted how we can use our breath as a vocal object: 

“Just be aware of breathing in, and breathing out. The air flowing through your nostrils. Just simply be aware of your breath. Whenever you find you are distracted, simply bring your mind back to that awareness.” 

While sitting, Acharya Lhakpa said, we can repeat this again and again. 

Great Aspiration Means Fewer Difficulties

Turning to Ngulchu Tokmé’s text, Acharya Lhakpa first made some general remarks about the path of the Mahayana. When a person makes a commitment to attain enlightenment for all sentient beings means that such a practitioner has a bold or great aspiration. As a consequence, any kind of difficulty will become less important. Therefore, “on the Mahayana path, no matter what difficulties you face, we take or use them as a path to attain enlightenment,” Acharya said. 

Verse fifteen points to taking criticism or denigration to the path: 

“Even if several people in the midst of a crowd
Should reveal my hidden faults and speak harsh words,
To hold them to be my spiritual friends
And bow to them with respect is the practice of a bodhisattva.” 
(Quoted from A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, translated by Christopher Stagg) 

Embracing Criticism as a Spiritual Friend

If someone criticizes you or reveals your hidden faults, Acharya Lhakpa commented, we should consider this person a spiritual friend. Even if we don’t have any hidden faults at the moment, we could think as follows: “Right now, I am not involved in any nonvirtuous actions like telling lies or killing. But I risk doing such things in the future. Therefore, this person is actually helping me to be more mindful and conscientious.” 

Another way of thinking about this is to consider that the person who is criticizing me is under the influence of negative emotions. These make the person blind in the sense of not seeing reality and, thus, not having the wisdom to see clearly. 

Either way, what this verse teaches here is that “instead of reacting to any kind of action right away, we should take a moment to observe and contemplate. We should give ourselves time to step back and look at the situation clearly instead of reacting immediately.” 

Slowing Down

Acharya Lhakpa shared various examples from his own life to illustrate how in this twenty-first century we indulge in instant gratification and little patience. Driven by social media, instant messaging, and so forth, we react instantaneously, especially with emotions like anger. 

The things we say, the emails we write, and any kind of action we engage in, our immediate emotionally-driven responses lead only to further trouble and regret. Therefore, instead of retaliating, we should not react. In fact, we should not only consider a person who denigrates us as a spiritual friend but take all such conditions onto the path. 

If we are not able to do this at the beginning, Acharya Lhakpa pointed out what we could do first: “Even if you fall into that kind of situation. Once you cool down, you should reflect on the situation. How did I respond? Is my practice working? Am I able to transform negative emotions and take them onto the path?” Our resident teacher continued saying that “if we are able to control ourselves from the very beginning, this might not only help ourselves, this will also help the person who criticizes you.” 

Seeing our Faults

Spiritual friends are not always nice. Nor do they always praise us. In fact, if teachers would only say good things to us, it would lead to a stronger ego and a growing sense of pride. This would kill the seeds of enlightenment, so to speak. Therefore, be it our teacher or someone else who reveals our faults or shortcomings, we should “bow to them with respect.” 

This does not mean, Acharya clarified, that we need to go, find this person, and literally bow to them. We can just bow mentally with a sense of appreciation (for this) to those who have pointed out our faults. 

Inner Journey as Our Practice

This fifteenth verse is not very difficult to understand. Ngulchu Tokmé has explained the practice of the bodhisattva in a very simple manner. The difficult part is to internalize and take this into practice. What this means is that we should be disciplining ourselves. While telling someone what to do or not to do can sometimes be helpful, the first and foremost thing, Acharya explained, “is how to discipline yourself and take things onto the path. The practice of the Mahayana is an inner journey to improve your own practice, and working with your own mind.” 

During a short question-and-answer session, Acharya stressed again how disciplining ourselves is very difficult because of our very deep habitual tendencies. These are not easily overcome. Yet, he said, 

“If we work diligently, if we work mindfully, with awareness, then we might be able to overcome our habitual tendencies. Then, we may not need to accumulate wisdom and merit for three countless eons and attain enlightenment in this lifetime.” 

In response to one of the questions, Acharya Lhakpa emphasized that the most important thing in practice is our intention. Even if the immediate situation might not seem to improve, we do not need to be discouraged. Instead, we should be appreciative of our intention and diligent efforts to move closer to enlightenment. “We keep the candle lit and are still going strong. That is something to appreciate.” 

KC16 About to Start Groundwork

Acharya Lhakpa concluded our session with a few remarks about developments at KC16. He mentioned that we are planning to start the groundwork very soon and get things ready to build a temple and parinirvana stupa to commemorate His Holiness the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, and expand our activities further to study, contemplate, and put the teachings of the Mahayana, especially those of the lineage of the Karmapas, into practice. 

Dedicating our merit, may this and all our practices be of benefit! 

Karmapa Khyenno!