#khenpo

Dealing with Emotions

by Choje Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche

When you have identified your major problem, whatever the poison, whatever the problem is that is bothering you terribly, you should then sit there, relax, and call up this emotion in your meditation. Whether it is anger, jealousy, pride, envy, whatever, summon it here. Then introduce yourself to this being which has somehow caused so much chaos in your life for so long, and investigate this feeling of yours. How big is it? Is it oblong? Round? Black? White? What colour, what shape is it?

Look at the essence of this emotion that makes you suffer so much. You always think that the emotion is genuinely happening, but if that were the case, it should have a shape, a colour, a size. If you are bothered by something, there must be something there for you to be bothered by! How can anything bother you when you find nothing? If it were a solid entity, really existing in some part of your body, you could just remove it with an operation and thus solve all your problems. However, emotions have no such characteristics.

This is the time to do a really proper investigation through meditation. Hopefully you will come to the very strong conclusion that there isn’t anything to worry about, because there is nothing to be found. You then discover that you are responsible for creating emotions that do not really exist, and that you yourself transform them into solid realities.

That’s why our emotional states are so difficult to handle. Somehow we are able to build this solid image out of an emotion, and it bothers us all the time. It takes away our peace and destroys whatever we’re doing. If I were to tell you there is nothing to bother you, you would certainly reply, Oh, this Lama Yeshe is saying so, but my feelings really bother me. This is why I’m asking you to do this investigation here, now, in your own meditation. There is no other way. When you yourself come to the conclusion that there is actually nothing there to bother you, then you should be relieved. It should comfort you to know that somehow you have been enslaved by feelings that do not really exist.

Doing this again and again is like dismantling the imagery you have built up all your life. Through meditation, you can dismantle this feeling that there is something bothering you all the time. But unless you do proper research, you won’t be able to achieve it. You have to wholeheartedly involve and engage yourself in this investigation, so that you really find out for yourself. Whichever way you look, no matter how much time you invest, you find nothing at all, but if you still let your life be poisoned by this, you’re really wrong, aren’t you? If you can find nothing, then why should you be afraid?

For example, if you’re very afraid, look at the essence of what you are afraid of. Does this fear manifest like a monster? Does it have many horns, or teeth? What is it you are really afraid of? And if you can’t find anything, then think whether in childhood maybe someone frightened you. Maybe you built your own image on this and weren’t able to get rid of it afterwards, although there isn’t really anything to bother you now.

This type of meditation is called lhakthong in Tibetan, which means thorough investigation leading to insight. Learning to deal with our emotions, we gradually get used to the idea of the possibility of inner transformation. In the Tibetan tradition, we say that our mind is like a wild being. We have to tame this wild being. Usually, people think that everybody else is the problem and that they themselves are the perfect ones - that way they end up never finding any peace in their minds. The right approach is to tame our own wild being and then everything else falls nicely into place. This can only be achieved through meditation.

Entonces, ya estamos terminando con los Ocho Versos. Estos dos últimos los veremos juntos:

En forma resumida, directa o indirectamente, Ofreceré ayuda y felicidad a todas mis madres, Y tomaré en secreto Todo el sufrimiento.

Aprenderé a mantener todas estas prácticas, Inmaculadas por los ocho dharmas mundanos. ¡Qué pueda reconocer a los fenómenos como ilusiones Y sin apego pueda ganar la libertad de mi cautiverio!

Estos versos siguen esencialmente un patrón que se repite en el Mahayana y tienen múltiples motivos que podemos encontrar en otros lugares: los ocho dharmas, los seres como madres, el intercambiarse con otros. Dado que las líneas también tienen interrelación, iremos agrupándolas según el concepto usado.

En forma resumida, directa o indirectamente, Ofreceré ayuda y felicidad a todas mis madres,

Uno de los conceptos básicos del Budismo, quizás su concepto más definitorio, es la interdependencia. Puesto en términos simples: uno existe por un sinfín de causas y condiciones. Pero en general, la primer causa a la cuál debemos la vida son nuestras madres. Sí, por supuesto, hay infinidad de causas más: sin el oxígeno, la comida, etc. Nadie podría tener una madre si no existiera la gravedad. Pero en general, en la cultura indotibetana, la madre tiende a ser vista afectivamente como la principal causa. Es verdad que en Argentina a veces también pasa así, aunque individualmente las relaciones pueden ser mucho más ambigüas. Sin embargo, la idea de estas líneas es pensar, primero, en una madre idealizada ,como la gran madre de las Cosmicomedias de Calvino.

Una vez que uno puede pensar en esa situación, en el amor incondicional de una madre (de nuevo, probablemente idealizada) lo que Geshe Thangpa quiere marcar es que justamente, hay una interdependencia entre todos los seres, no solo con nuestra madre. Nuestra madre tuvo también su madre y así hasta el comienzo de la humanidad. Pero nosotros también dependemos de animales, de plantas, etc, etc.

Por lo tanto, la forma en que un Bodhisattva se relaciona con el cosmos es como si se relacionara con su amada e idealizada madre. Dado que en un punto, todos los seres son su madre; sin todos los seres, no existiría. Por eso, intenta directa e indirectamente ayudar a todas las madres cósmicas.

Y tomaré en secreto Todo el sufrimiento.

Este es otro de los motivos clásicos de la literatura de entrenamiento mental. Santideva lo llamaba “el secreto de todos los Budas: el intercambiarse con el otro”. La idea básica es ¿qué es lo que buscamos siempre, sino evitar el sufrimiento? Por supuesto, uno podría decir, el placer o el disfrute…pero este disfrute siempre está acompañado por la idea de no sufrir.

Y sin embargo…estamos como escribíamos antes, en un ciclo de interdependencia. La ropa que tenemos puede haber sido hecha con el sufrimiento de gente en talleres. Nuestra comida puede ser parte del sufrimiento animal o vegetal, el mismo hecho de que estemos vivos, aunque sintamos solamente placer, es causa de sufrimiento para algún ser. Esto es parte de la Primera Noble Verdad: la existencia es una serie de placer y dis-placer, sufrimiento. Buscamos el placer y le escapamos al displacer. Pero como todos queremos escaparle al displacer, terminamos generando mucho más displacer en la competencia.

El Bodhisattva hace lo opuesto: en silencio, sin decir nada, sin hacer de esto una bandera vá en contra de la corriente. Acepta las causas del sufrimiento, del displacer, como un hijo que en secreto ayuda a una madre anciana.

Aprenderé a mantener todas estas prácticas, Inmaculadas por los ocho dharmas mundanos.

Ya escribí sobre los Ocho Dharmas aquí: http://budaenlayerba.tumblr.com/post/18902378730/las-ocho-preocupaciones-mundanas Pero para resumirlos, son:

Buscar la ganancia material y rehuir la pobreza

Buscar la felicidad y rehuir el sufrimiento

Buscar los elogios y rehuir las críticas

Buscar la fama y rehuir la humillación

Si dejamos que esto sea un factor, no importa cuál sea la práctica, será contaminada. Podemos ser los mejores meditadores del mundo, pero si buscamos solo el elogio, no estamos maduros. Si queremos ayudar a todos los seres, pero nos gusta la riqueza y dejamos de hacer cosas porque nos arriesgamos a perderla, aún no estamos liberados.

¡Qué pueda reconocer a los fenómenos como ilusiones

En esta frase se resume la postura Madhyamaka: los fenómenos son, en última instancia, ilusorios, en el sentido de que no existen como nosotros pensamos que existen. Pero por otro lado, no significa que no existan: una ilusión tiene una existencia, simplemente, no es lo que aparenta ser. Esta es la naturaleza de los fenómenos.

Y sin apego pueda ganar la libertad de mi cautiverio!

Esta frase, la que cierra como aspiración los ocho versos, implica una cuestión compleja: debemos poder buscar la liberación sin apegarnos a la liberación. Es decir: el trabajo del Bodhisattva no es en pos de una recompensa, sino que es porque simplemente es. El buscar la liberación con demasiado apego (en el Mahayana) es una caída.

Espero que hayan disfrutado de este texto y voy a subir las imágenes del tríptico que hicimos para ocasión de la visita de Khenpo Pema Wangadak en Octubre 2018. 

The Eight Auspicious Signs Explained

by Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Probably many of us do not know how important these eight auspicious signs are and how they affect our lives. They can be used externally to help with one’s own success as well as with the FPMT organisation to be successful in benefiting others and working for the [dissemination of the] teachings of the Buddha. Putting these eight auspicious signs around everywhere, outside and also inside the rooms, makes things very auspicious. It is not necessary to put all eight together, and they don’t all need to be in the same place. They can be placed separately at different locations, but you should have all of them.

The eight auspicious signs are the umbrella, yellow fish, vase, lotus, white conch shell, glorious peu, banner and Dharma chakra.

Here is the meaning of these eight auspicious signs according to my root guru, His Holiness Trijang Dorje Chang’s explanation.

1. The precious umbrella saves us from all this life’s obstacles – such as sicknesses, contagious diseases, spirit possessions, interferers and so forth – and also from the next life’s obstacles – the sufferings of the three evil-gone-ones, 3 of the devas, human beings and so forth. It saves us completely from being tormented by the heat of both temporary and long-term sufferings. It has the dependent arising of giving the extended joy of a cooling shadow of peace and happiness.

2. The yellow fish. Fish swim as they like without fear in the ocean. Like that [the yellow fish] is a dependent arising for oneself and others to run and enjoy freely with no resistance from happiness to happiness without fear of drowning in the oceans of suffering.

3. The vase of great treasure is a dependent arising that brings unceasingly all desired things, the fortune of a glorious life, enjoyments and so forth in the three realms of existence (the desire, form and formless realms) and peace (liberation from samsara).

4. The lotus is a dependent arising that frees us from all the stains of mistakes – the non-virtues of body, speech and mind. The abundant blossoming of a hundred petals of white virtue brings an abundance of the good essence of honey – everlasting happiness, definite goodness (liberation and the state of omniscient mind).

5. The white conch shell swirling clockwise is a dependent arising announcing the sweet melody of the profound and extensive Dharma that fits the elements, level of mind and wishes of sentient beings who are the objects to be subdued. It awakens transmigratory beings from the ignorant sleep of unknowing and persuades them to accomplish works for the benefit and happiness of themselves and others.

6. The glorious peu is a dependent arising for Dharma and politics to utilise and support each other in one continuous connection. Like that, at the time of the path, method and wisdom connect by being unified with each other; emptiness and dependent arising are connected in one without contradiction. At the time of the resultant state of buddha, omniscience and compassion are unified.

7. The banner is a dependent arising for the activities of one’s own three doors and those of others not be stepped upon by obstacles or disharmonious conditions but to be victorious and for the precious teachings of the Buddha to be victorious in the war over the black side, the types of maras.

8. The golden Dharmachakra is a dependent arising for the precious wheel of the holy Dharma, the scriptures and realisations of the Victorious One, to turn unceasingly in the whole universe. In dependence upon that, all those who are reborn and degenerating (samsaric beings who are continually being reborn and dying under the control of karma and delusion) apply themselves to the most glorious virtue, total liberation.

If there is a way to become free from misery, one should use each moment to achieve it. Only the fool wants more pain: A melancholy scene, knowingly eating poison.