DECEMBER 1, 1997

MEDITATING ON THE LAMRIM BRINGS PEACE

Hello! I heard that you’ve been doing very well and that this year’s course is better than last year’s! You’re doing extremely well, everything is peaceful, and there is very good discipline and very good meditation. I am extremely happy to hear that. Because of that, I went for a rest! I went to a beach in Taiwan and to a Singapore beach. It was a very old beach. Anyway, hearing about how you were doing meant I had no worries at all. I was very happy to hear it. So, I would like to thank everyone very much, from the bottom of my heart. I’m trying to say that everyone’s been trying very hard—of course, including Venerable Neil!

Since we all want happiness and we do not want suffering, because both happiness and suffering come from the mind, because the cause of these is not outside but within our mind, there is no other way to stop suffering and attain happiness except through the mind. There is no external means. Only our own mind can stop creating suffering and create only happiness. Therefore we have to eliminate the types of thoughts that produce suffering, and that can only be done by the mind itself. 

Only with the mind can we cease the cause of suffering, those thoughts we see that produce the suffering of rebirth, old age, sicknesses and so forth. To cease all suffering—all the oceans of human beings’ suffering, the oceans of hell beings’ suffering, the oceans of hungry ghosts’ suffering, the oceans of animal beings’ suffering, the oceans of sura beings’ suffering, the oceans of asura beings’ suffering—to completely stop all that and never experience it again, we need to cease the mind that causes it all. This has to be done by our own mind, by following positive thoughts, by following the Dharma, the Buddha’s teachings, the paths of method and wisdom, which are within our own mind. 

We can see the proof of how the Dharma can benefit us. For example, some of you who were new to the meditation course here, whose minds weren’t familiar with the teachings of the Buddha, as soon as you started to meditate, as soon as the mind was in meditation, the emotional thoughts were gone. There were no emotional thoughts during that time. 

In the West you might even think of positive thoughts as emotional thoughts, but by emotional thoughts, I mean disturbing thoughts, emotional thoughts such as anger or attachment, disturbing thoughts that are by their nature unpeaceful, disturbing our own mental continuum, our life. 

However, when we meditate, there is a peace, a calmness, a tranquility. There is peace from those disturbing emotional thoughts that cause agitation, that cause depression, that cause loneliness, that cause worldly fear and so many other things. These are the thoughts that cause unhappiness, disturbing the mind, making not only the mind but even the body unhealthy. But as soon as the mind is brought into meditation, there is peace, because during that time the mind is protected from those disturbing thoughts, those delusions. 

By training the mind in meditation, when we are not sitting in meditation but even in the break times, it is easier to experience more calmness, more openness. Our heart is more open and we have more peace.

This is the proof. Here, we are not talking about realizations, just bringing the mind into meditation, just keeping the mind in meditation. Anyway, the conclusion is this. (Normally when I talk there are so many conclusions!) Anyway, what I am going to say is that except for a life practicing the Dharma, every other different style of life leads us to suffering; it is all suffering. That’s the conclusion. Whatever lifestyle we lead—except for a life living in the Dharma—is all suffering.

So, you have been meditating for more than two weeks, starting from the perfect human rebirth, the per-fect human rebirth. (I’m trying to pronounce it better, but I’m getting worse!) The perfect human body, I think even just that meditation is so precious, just the meditation on the perfect human body; this very first lamrim meditation, the awareness of how our human body is so precious. What an unbelievable opportunity this awareness gives us to achieve every happiness. 

What people in the West hear about and try to learn is just the happiness of this life. The only knowledge they acquire is how to achieve the happiness of just this one life, which lasts a very short time. Even if we can achieve it, it’s only for a very short time. That’s all; there’s nothing else. Every other kind of happiness, such as the happiness of all the coming future lives, is completely unknown. 

Now there has been more and more education in the West about reincarnation. In recent years, because people have been talking more about reincarnation and other unknown phenomena, their minds are more open. In recent years, people in the West want to learn about death, whereas in the past they didn’t want to think or talk about death. Even if they put something on somebody’s grave, they would say that person is “in sleep.” “In sleep,” is that right? [Rinpoche asks students] I think that means the person worked so hard during his life and now they can take a nice rest in the graveyard! Anyway, I’m joking. 

But in recent years people’s minds have become more and more open, and they are becoming more and more interested in reincarnation. They want to learn about death, about their own death and also how to help other people when they are dying. There has been so much interest in hospices. I think that people wanting to learn about it is an extremely good change of attitude. It not only gives us the opportunity to learn about unknown phenomena, that which was unknown in the past, but it is also extremely beneficial, extremely needed. It’s not just learning about something that the people of our culture are unaware of; it also opens our mind so we can come to know the path that has the ability to completely cease all suffering

As I mentioned before, [suffering comes from] the mind itself, from the negative imprints that project the hallucinations, the imprints that produce the delusions and motivate karma. Suffering comes from there; problems come from there, from the negative imprints and then disturbing thoughts that are within the mind itself. When we learn about the path that ceases the whole of suffering and its causes, we are learning about the main suffering, the fundamental suffering that we should be free from. 

You have already gone through what I am talking about. You have already meditated on the three types of suffering of samsara: the suffering of pain, the suffering of change and pervasive compounding suffering. The suffering of pain is what people normally talk about, the problems common people in the world can recognize. They are only aware of that one type of suffering, the suffering of pain, such as depression, loneliness and relationship problems, but they are completely unaware of the other types of suffering. Many people are able to see that no matter how much wealth or how many friends they have, there is still no satisfaction in the heart. But they still don’t really see that temporary samsaric pleasures are suffering; they don’t understand about the suffering of change. They don’t have that education, that realization. And they have no idea about pervasive compounding suffering, the fundamental suffering we all have to overcome in order to achieve real liberation, everlasting happiness. 

We not only have to understand the suffering of pain, but also recognize that the suffering of change, temporary samsaric pleasures, are also a sort of suffering that we need to be liberated from. And not just that, we need to be liberated from pervasive compounding suffering, and the cause of suffering, karma and delusions, as you went through when you studied the lamrim outline, the evolution of suffering. I lost my thought! What was I saying? 

What I was talking about was how common people in the world, especially in the West, are unaware of some subjects, that there are some things unknown to them. So, it is very good that in recent years so many people have taken an interest in reincarnation, searching to learn new things, things that are beneficial in life. And more than trying to understand unknown phenomena, they are looking for the everlasting happiness of liberation from samsara and especially full enlightenment. Such a state of mind is free from all defilements and has all the qualities, having completed all the realizations. With that mind we can do perfect service for numberless living beings, freeing them from all sufferings and their causes and, not only that, bring them to peerless happiness, to full enlightenment.

So now I’m going back. This precious human body gives us the opportunity to reach all these levels of happiness, not just the happiness of this life but all the way up to enlightenment, which is complete happiness. Then working for happiness is finished, it’s completed. With this precious human body we can help the numberless other living beings, who all want happiness and who do not want suffering, to achieve every level of happiness: this life’s happiness, the happiness of future lives, liberation from samsara and full enlightenment. We can cause every sentient being to have all this happiness. 

So, what I was saying before, just this one lamrim meditation from the beginning of the path becomes very precious medicine to heal the mind, to heal the problems of mind, to heal the sicknesses of the mind: the emotional minds of dissatisfaction, anger, attachment, jealousy, all these minds. There’s physical pain and there’s mental pain. This very first meditation can relieve all this mental pain: depression, loneliness, hopelessness, thinking there is no meaning in life—instead of looking at things in a positive way, looking at everything as negative. This is due to lack of Dharma education, lack of practice, lack of meditation practice. 

What I am saying is that even this very first meditation, coming to know all these eight freedoms and ten richnesses that we have, brings us light. It is extremely rare to achieve each one and we have them all. Each one of the eight is so precious, more precious than diamonds or gold the size of the earth or as many dollars as there are atoms of the earth. This is without talking about the wish-granting jewels that are mentioned in the texts, the most precious of all the external substantial material possessions. Each freedom and each richness we have is unbelievably more precious than those examples of external phenomena. But here we are talking about having all eight freedoms and all ten richnesses. And this is just one meditation from the lamrim that brings light to our mind, to our life. Instead of darkness, it brings light, joyfulness, happiness, Dharma happiness. 

Maybe I’ll stop here. I thought to go on and on and on! I thought to go on and on until tomorrow, three o’clock, but maybe I’d better not do that. Therefore we should rejoice all the time; we should feel great happiness by remembering all this, especially when we begin the day. We should start every day of our everyday life with that awareness, with that joyfulness in our heart. 

Then, we should not just stop there. We should make the determination to not waste our time but to do whatever is beneficial in our daily life, especially for that most crucial, critical time, the time of death. The only beneficial thing to do for that time is to practice Dharma, nothing else, and not only for that crucial death time but also for the next life and all future lives. The only thing we can enjoy in our future lives is the Dharma, nothing else. 

As I mentioned before, concerning not only our own welfare but especially the welfare of all sentient beings, the best way, the only way to benefit others is through the Dharma. Now, what is that Dharma? It’s having a positive attitude, but there are many positive attitudes, many positive thoughts. So, what is the most beneficial attitude we should have to all the numberless other living beings? It is bodhicitta, the thought of benefiting other living beings, the thought of cherishing other living beings. It is allowing ourselves to be used by others, to be beneficial for others, to be used for their happiness. Making ourselves useful for other living beings with bodhicitta—this is the best Dharma practice. I’ll stop here.