The Gyalwang Karmapa’s
teachings on Nagarjuna’s Letter to a friend
December
20,
2009, Tergar Monastery, report by Jo Gibson, Michele Martin, photos taken by
Karma Lekcho, Karma Norbu
Sunday, 20th December, 2009
report by Jo Gibson
Setting the scene: early morning, Tergar Monastery
It’s approaching six thirty in the morning; mist
and smoke, from early morning fires in the fields and local
villages, drift through the gates and across the grounds of Tergar
Monastery. A few Westerners are already circumambulating in the
chilly pre-sunrise. Meanwhile, outside the registration booth,
a small group of weary foreigners huddles uncertainly. They are
hoping that they will still have the chance to register. All their
plans have gone awry and, having finally arrived in Bodhgaya a day
or more late, they have come directly to Tergar. One group,
travelling from Kathmandu, had been in a bus crash. Another’s bus
had broken down. Several had been delayed because of snowbound
airports in Euope. At just turned six thirty, the first of the
Teaching Team volunteers arrives, and by seven o’clock the
registration booth is open; these early-bird latecomers are issued
with badges and cards. In two hours’ time they will be sitting in
the assembly hall with 1,500 other people from more than fifty two
countries. All the worries and difficulties of the journey will be
forgotten.
The Gyalwang
Karmapa’s teachings to foreign students on Nagarjuna’s Letter to
a friend
Session One : Sunday
AM
The following
summary of the morning’s teachings is based on Ringu Trulku
Rinpoche’s translation from Tibetan into English, except where the
Gyalwang Karmapa spoke directly in English.
The teachings should have begun promptly at nine
o’clock. Gyalwang Karmapa was seated expectantly on his majestically
high, intricately carved and gilded throne. The sound crew was
confident. Hours of preparation had gone into setting up the sound
system: microphones, speakers, and the FM translation transmission
system. At the final dress rehearsal everything had worked
perfectly, but now suddenly, it took on alife of its own and began
emitting high-pitched squeals, squeaks and whines. The audience sat
patiently while the sound crew dashed back and forth, fretting over
banks of equipment, antennae, cables and microphones. His Holiness
smiled, pulled faces, and tentatively tapped his microphone. Finally
the problems were resolved, and the teachings were under way.
Having greeted everyone warmly, Gyalwang Karmapa
explained why he had chosen this particular text – Nagarjuna’s
Letter to a Friend – because, not only did it thoroughly
cover the philosophy of Madhyamika, but it was mainly an instruction
for householders on how to practice dharma. In ancient India
householders who held the five precepts would study the text. It was
His Holiness’ hope that this teaching would provide a new
perspective for laystudents on how to be a householder and practice
the dharma at the same time. A new edition of the text, containing
the original Tibetan and translations into Hindi, Chinese, Korean,
Spanish, English, French and German, had been published specially
for the occasion. He pointed out the illustration depicting
Nagarjuna on the front cover which he himself had drawn and wryly
commented that some people had complained, “The face doesn’t show
much character and the body looks like a rock.” He explained that,
although he hoped to be able to go through the whole text, there
would not be enough time to cover all the stanzas, so his objective
would be to convey the essential meaning, stopping to elaborate on
some points in detail but glossing over others.
Turning to the text, Gyalwang Karmapa then read
and began his commentary on the first three verses which form an
introduction to the teaching and more detailed instructions, and
request people to listen to the teachings.
Stanza One:
Listen now to these few
lines of noble song
That I’ve composed for
those with many virtues, fit for good,
To help them yearn for
merit springing from
The sacred words of He
Who’s Gone toBliss.
The Karmapa explained that its author, Nagarjuna,
was a great scholar who, it is said, lived during the 1st
or second century CE. The main exponent of the Madhyamika school
of Buddhist philosophy, he wrote Letter to a Friend, a text
focussing on the six paramitas, to his friend, a South Indian king
called Surabhibhadra. This is one of the many texts written by him
preserved in Tibetan literature, which include several commentaries
on sutra, and other important texts on tantra, demonstrating that
he himself was practising both. It was he who composed the
Mula-madhyamaka-karika which is the foundational text on Madhyamika.
It was he who brought the Perfection of Wisdom sutras to the
Mahayana tradition. There are two accounts of how this happened. One
tells how the King of the Nagas gave these books to Nagarjuna. The
other, found in a Chinese souce, is from a biography of Nagarjuna
written by the great Indian scolar, Kumarajiva, who travelled to
China and translated many Buddhist texts into Chinese. According
to Kumarajiva, Nagarjuna had a vision in which he entered a
jewelled palace where he met a great boddhistatva who showed him
many caskets, containing sutras which he had never seen before.
When he rose from this vision he wrote down what he had read —the
100,000 Stanza Perfection of Wisdom Sutra.
Although the letter was written specifically for
the king it also applies to others as well, including ourselves,
commented the Gyalwang Karmapa. In the first stanza Nagarjuna says
that all his instructions come from the sacred words of the Buddha
himself and from no other source, and their purpose is to generate
the yearning to do the positive.
Stanza Two:
The wise will always
honour and bow down
To Buddha statues, though
they’re made of wood;
So too, although these
lines of mine be poor,
Do not feel scorn, they
teach the Holy Way.
Even if a statue of Buddha
is not made of precious materials, wise people still honour the
image. Similarly, though these instructions were written by a simple
monk, the source is the Buddha, so it is worthwhile listening to
them.
Stanza Three;
While you have surely
learned and understood
The Mighty Buddha’s many
lovely words,
Is it not that something
made of chalk
By moonlight lit shines
glowing whiter still.
The text refers to the Great
Muni , the one of great capacity who can defeat the kleshas,
the afflictions, so Nagarjuna says that even though you may
already know the teachings of the Great Sage, it is worth heeding
these verses because a chalk or plastered building gleams clearly
and brightly in moonlight.
His Holiness explained that it is important to
know about what we don’t know, but even the things we know have to
be internalised. This is the threefold process of hearing or
studying, thinking, and meditating. Initially we have to study,
applying our wisdom and our intellect.
Stanza Four:
Six things there are the
Buddhas have explained,
And all their virtues you
must keep in mind:
The Buddha, Dharma,Sangha,
bounteous acts,
And moral laws and
gods-each one recall.
The fourth verse introduces
the actual instructions, which are organised into three main topics.
The first topic is the practice of positive virtues, the second is
understanding the nature of samsara and feeling renunciation, and
the third is seeing the benefits of liberation. The first general
instructions are common to householders and monastics: six things to
be mindful of the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha, ethical
behaviour, giving, and deities.
Gyalwang Karmapa stopped
momentarily and surveyed the assembly hall, then commented in
English on the fact that the traditional tea was not being provided
during the foreign teachings.
“No tea break, “ he observed, “I hope my words
become tea.”
He then began to discuss the meaning in the
Buddhist tradition of taking refuge in the three objects of refuge:
Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
There was a further exchange at this point
between the Gyalwang Karmapa and the audience because at the FM
transmission stopped working properly and members of the audience
were gesticulating anxiously that they couldn’t hear.
“Can you hear me?” asked the Karmapa, looking
down over the audience, who shook their heads. When he realised
that they couldn’t hear the translations, he quipped in
English,“Is it the FM not working or the mind not working?”
Everyone laughed. He then advised us to try to meditate on patience
while the sound crew worked to rectify the problem.
A few minutes later, the teaching resumed and
Gyalwang Karmapa continued his commentary on taking refuge. He
said that generally it can be difficult to differentiate between
Buddhists and non-Buddhists, but that refuge, if properly
understood, provides a demarcation line. Three things had to be
considered: the person who takes refuge, the objects of the refuge,
and the nature of the refuge. With reference to the first, those
who go for refuge can be categorised according to the three
capacities of beings. Those of small capacity take refuge with the
motivation that they do not want to suffer in the lower realms.
Those of medium capacity have understood the nature of samsara as
suffering or unsatisfactoriness and wish to liberate themselves.
Those of great capacity , because of their immense compassion, are
motivated by the wish to liberate all sentient beings from samsara.
Earlier, during the Gunchoe teachings His
Holiness had raised the question whether those who do not believe in
rebirth can be classified as Buddhists. He now returned to this
dilemma again, questioning whether it was possible or meaningful
for people who do not believe in rebirth and cyclic existence to
take refuge. He was unsure what its function could be for such
people. He also clarified the purpose of differentiating between
people of different capacities. It would be wrong to think in
terms of one being better than another, which might lead us to try
to do something beyond our capability. The categories were there to
help us. We needed to examine our own mindstate and decide which was
the most suitable starting point for us. Then we would be able to
make a natural progression, step-by-step, based on our aspirations
at that point in time. It would also be wrong to look down on others
because they had different aspirations.
Moving on to the objects of refuge, the Gyalwang
Karmapa first considered the historical Buddha. Born more than 2500
years ago, a prince who enjoyed a protected life of luxury, he
renounced samsara, underwent hardship during six years of
meditation, then finally achieved enlightenment. This, he explained,
is the biography of the Buddha as a human being, a bhikkshu who
then became a Buddha. The Tibetan word for Buddha – sangye –
has two parts: sang means to awaken from ignorance and gye
means vastness in the way that mind or wisdom becomes vast.
At this point Gyalwang Karmapa made a
Hindi/Sanskrit pun . In Hindi the word budhu means idiot,
but change the spelling slightly and the word becomes buddha
Thus we can all become Buddhas from budhus.
The supreme emanation Buddha revealed the Four
Noble Truths to his five disciples in Sarnath, and at this point
they experienced the true Dharma. The Dharma has two parts: true
cessation and true path which means the experience of liberation and
the path. Cessation occurs when all karma is exhausted and negative
emotions completely extinguished. His Holiness emphasised that
cessation was not to be understood in a nihilistic way, as a form of
annihilation, but rather as a completely joyful experience, similar
to the feeling of relief and well-being we experience on
becoming completely well after a long, painful illness. The true
path is the clear realisation that leads to freedom.
Finally, the third object of refuge, is the noble
sangha which means those who have experience of cessation and the
path.
As to the manner in which we take refuge, there
are three things to be considered: our motivation, the depth of our
refuge which depends on our motivation, and the level of our faith
and devotion.
When we understand and appreciate the suffering
of the three realms, the fear of this suffering propels us to seek
liberation from samsara and pursue enlightenment. It is important
to understand that ‘fear’ here refers not just to being frightened
but also includes realizing the disadvantages of samsara. Having
seen its negative side, we have the conviction that we must free
ourselves from cyclic existence. His Holiness warned that to be
ruled only by fear was the road to madness. It was also essential
to clearly understand that there should only be fear of samsara;
the objects of refuge should never become a source of fear. Indeed
they are the source of fearlessness. The question of fear also
applies to the samaya relationship between guru and student
in the Vajrayana tradition. The guru should be viewed as our best
friend who will always help us in whatever situation we find
ourselves, so, in one way, it is inappropriate to have fear of the
guru with regard to breaking samaya.
With regard to faith and devotion, His Holiness
observed that though foreign disciples usually go through a process
of examining the Buddhist teachings, becoming convinced and then
taking refuge, and consequently their faith is based on a clear
understanding, there is often a different process at work for
Tibetans and those who have been born into Buddhist families. Such
people may not have `gone through this thought process, but may have
developed great faith and devotion. However, when we consider faith
and devotion, it is crucial to have a correct understanding of how
the objects of refuge help us; if this is misundertoood, there may
be many problems. Faith can degenerate into blind faith and
superstition. His Holiness illustrated this point effectively and humourously,
giving three examples of blind faith in action. For Buddhists the
Buddha embodies compassion, loving kindness and blessing, but a
person of blind faith may suppose that the Buddha, out of his
great compassion, will take care of everything. Someone who
flings their dirty clothes into a corner, thinking the Buddha will
wash them, will end up with a pile of dirty laundry. When crowds of
mosquitoes are buzzing around, someone who believes that Buddha will
protect them from being bitten, will end up being badly bitten. A
school student who relies on blind faith in Buddha rather than
studying hard to pass their exam will get a zero. The Buddha taught
the way but then we have to practise it. The Buddha is in a
different world – the pure realm—and cannot transform us into
enlightened beings. We have to do the work ourselves. If you then
ask, why do we need the Three Jewels, the answer is that we need to
know the way and we need someone to instruct us. Buddha shows the
way, and we have to follow that path, work hard ourselves and then
there will definitely be a result. Once we have taken refuge, we
still have to work on ourselves.
Who then are the noble sangha? In the Hinayana
sutras it states that someone who upholds ethical discipline,
who has achieved a degree of meditative stabilisation, has
generated some wisdom and is contented, and has abandoned the
afflictions, can be called one of the noble sangha. They have
entered the path, and if they continue to practise the ten virtuous
actions they will attain enlightenment, without a doubt. Because of
their qualities, the ten virtuous actions will continue to grow and
increase.
In the end, the final result depends on us.
Session Two : Sunday
PM
report by
Michele Martin
After offering three
bows and prayers, His Holiness continued his teaching on Nagarjuna's
Letter to a Friend. in the afternoon of December 20, 2009.
There are benefits that
come from bringing to mind the gods who live in the higher realms.
In order to arrive at their high status, they needed to develop
their practice of peaceful abiding (shamatha), so remembering their
achievements can have the positive effect of our becoming more
mindful and aware. We can also recall that in order to arrive at a
rebirth in a higher realm, the gods had to engage in numerous
virtuous actions. So we should bring to mind how the gods attained
their rebirth. Being a powerful god is the result of positive
actions.
His Holiness then read
out the Verse Five:
With body, speech, and
mind always rely
On wholesome deeds, the
tenfold virtuous path.
Avoiding liquor at all
costs, thus find
True joy to lead a life
of virtuous deeds.
The ten wholesome, or
virtuous actions, are to avoid the ten unwholesome or unvirtuous
ones. We should understand why it is important to follow this
teaching, for it leads us away from what is not harmonious with
Dharma and turns us towards what is.
In the Vinaya, a
positive way of life is emphasized through respect for the rules of
conduct. There is a lot say about this, but not much time, so we
will focus more on the life of the householder, who develops respect
for the Dharma.
First let us look at
vows. Taking refuge in the three jewels is the basis for all other
vows. Any other kind of Buddhist vow we might take is based on
refuge. If we take refuge, we can become an upasaka (a lay holder
of vows).The initial promise we make when taking refuge is not to
harm living beings and refrain from violence. The first practice of
Buddhism is not to harm others. In particular, abstaining from
harming is the basis of the Foundational Vehicle.
Not harming can be
understood in terms of avoiding the ten unwholesome actions: the
three related to the body (killing, stealing, and sexual
misconduct); the four related to speech (lying, harsh words, gossip,
and divisive talk); and the three related to the mind (wishing to
harm others, envy, and wrong view). All of these actions injure
others. If we are able to purify our minds, then doing harm to
others along with its very basis is eliminated.
The mind is the basis
of the first seven unwholesome actions of body and speech, which
directly harm others. If the three negative mental actions are not
present, then the negative actions of body and speech will not
happen. If we eliminate negative actions and the afflictions (klesha)
from our mind, we will naturally have a mind that benefits others,
because the ten negative actions of the mind stem from the
afflictions of hatred, excessive desire, and ignorance. Therefore,
giving these up relates directly to not harming others.
Hinayana also speaks of
not harming others. Sometimes we may think that the Mahayana is the
only path of compassion, but that is not completely true. The
extent of the compassion may differ, as the Mahayana aspiration is
for all living beings, but in the Foundational vehicle there is a
very strong desire not to harm others. If we speak only of not
harming others, it is difficult to separate the Hinayana from the
Mahayana.
Motivation is extremely
important. In the beginning, we may have a good motivation, but if
we have not worked on eliminating our negativity, then we could harm
others later. Meditation helps us to work on our afflictions. We
can learn to subdue and control our anger, for example, and in
general, our minds will become more flexible. If we do not
meditate, we may start with intention to help others, but it is
possible that our negativity will return and subvert what we are
trying to do, so we could wind up harming others.
According to the
Abhidharmakosha, the first seven negative actions (the three of
the body and the four of speech), are karmic actions; the three of
mind are not karmic actions, but create the path through which
actions happen.
If we commit a negative
action, we can make a firm resolution not do it again. Then we can
purify the negativity in front of a Dharma support, such as a statue
or image of the Buddha. Our motivation should be so strong that
even at the risk of our lives, we would not do it again.
If we take as an
example, the negative action of killing, then we can see that it
starts with rejection or aversion. At this point, however, the
action is not complete, so we have time to stop it. There are many
different stages so we can tell ourselves why we should not kill and
change our intention. If you can catch it at this stage, then an
action is not complete. So our intention is the main thing and it
allows us to catch a negative action before it happens.
You might think that
the three negative actions related to mind happen so quickly that
there would be no time to change them. But it is possible. For
example, suppose you really wanted a certain computer. First you
think of computer—how critical it is to your life; how beautiful it
is, how useful, and so forth. You think of all the good things
connected with it and you convince yourself that you have to have
that very computer. Your life will go well. You’ll finally be
happy. If you don’t have it, you’ll be just miserable. Finally, you
think , “I must absolutely have that computer.” You mind narrows
down around this one thing and becomes stuck to it. So there is a
process here and there is time to interrupt it. First we have the
thought related to a negative emotion, then an object for it
appears, and finally we do something negative.
We must be mindful,
aware, and conscientious, because these patterns repeat themselves.
When problems arise, they provide an occasion for these afflictions
to surface. So we have to apply ourselves again and again to
identifying and halting negative thoughts.
Working with our minds
is especially important, because the mind is the source of our
physical and verbal actions. If we do not this, then our negative
actions become like thieves who steal away our merit and virtues.
If we are involved in any of the ten negative actions, we will
accumulate karma. So our intention to improve ourselves and change
is very important. If we do not have this positive motivation, then
transforming ourselves is very difficult. Mindfulness and awareness
are arising with every moment and we should try to maintain this
continuum and not waver from it because negative actions can be
halted by mindfulness.
The third negative
action related to the mind is wrong view. In the Abhidharmakosha,
it is said that for monastics, it is difficult to avoid wrong view
because they are dependent on others: They beg for food and rely on
other people for donations. This may led them to say something in
order to receive offerings; they could play the dancing monkey for
their sponsors.
For lay people it is
difficult to avoid wrong views due to the way that they use
divinations (Tibetan, mo). When they encounter difficulties,
lay people tend to ask for a mo. They also practice Dzambhala to
accumulate wealth or Tara if they are sick. This is not the right
way to apply the Dharma, because we are using it to gain worldly
benefits. These are the kinds of mistakes lay people make.
Actually, the Buddha
already made an excellent mo for us. He said that if we engage in
virtuous actions, the results will be virtuous; if we engage in
negative actions, the results will be negative. This is very
clear. The most effective mo is to practice virtue.
In working with
negative actions, it is also very helpful to take vows. They give
constancy to our actions and provide a counteracting force to our
negative tendencies. They also serve as a basis for awareness.
There are hundreds of ways to take vows. One way is related to
number of people. For example, first we meditate on not killing.
Then we can vow not to injure one person, a group of people, or no
one at all. In terms of time, we can take a vow for one day, one
month, one year, or until you die. You could also take a vow not to
kill or seal from the Karmapa (laughter).
If someone takes a vow
to give up any, some or all of the negative actions, we should
praise and encourage them, and also rejoice. We should all train in
avoiding the ten negative actions.
Another way of working
with the afflictions is to look into how they come about. We can
examine to see: Where did this negative action come from? Where does
it stay? Where does it go?
The last two lines of
Verse Five state:
Avoiding liquor at all
costs, thus find
True joy to lead a life
of virtuous deeds.
This applies to both
the lay and ordained sangha. For those with lay vows, there are
negative ways to earn a living, such as selling alcohol, selling
poisons, killing others, and selling meat. However, the main
negative actions are all contained with in the ten that we should
abandon. We should also practice the six perfections. These are
very important.
Question and answer:
Question: When
we are separated from our root teacher, sometimes we are moved to
tears from longing. Is this crazy?
Answer: Not
really. When we recall the positive qualities of our teacher and are
moved to tears, that is devotion. It is positive and strong. If
you’re oversupplied, perhaps you could pass some along to me
(laughter).
Question: How
should we understand the eight worldly dharmas or concerns?
Answer:
We can
understand the eight, (gain and loss, praise and blame, pleasure and
pain, fame and infamy), as belonging to three types: white, black,
and mixed. The black dharma is a concern only for this life; one
looks to benefit oneself and does not think of others. The white
dharma is concern for others. The mixed dharma is what most of us
have, black and white together. Genuine Dharma is not just for this
life, but for life after life.
