Devotion, etc. (Part II)

The White Gompa is where Rangjung Yeshe Institute for Language and Buddhist studies is located and the following is interpreted from a talk Chokyi Nyima gave there on June 26^th. I decided to post the highlights of this talk as a matter of potential interest for those of you curious about or affiliated with the Buddhist community.

The talk referenced the work of Atisha (982-1054), a legendary philosopher of Northern India who traveled across Asia and wrote numerous treatises on Buddhist practice. Atisha was the abbot of Vikramashila Monastic College and is considered significantly responsible for initiating the Buddhist revival of Tibet in the eleventh century. Atisha wrote eight points on the fundamentals of the Buddha’s teaching and the following is a brief explanation of those points as taught by Chokyi Nyima.

A Buddhist, by Rinpoche's definition, is a person who first, contemplates unceasingly the impermanence of all relative existence and the inevitability of death. Secondly he or she, “Continually looks at their own mind with the desire to become more giving, calm, loving, compassionate, and wise. That is a practitioner.” Atisha/Nyima summarizes the fundamental points to be considered by such a practitioner as follows:

1) The pinnacle of learning is the realization of selflessness. This is a foundational Buddhist teaching, the absence of any inherent self-existence to any and all phenomena, from the smallest atom to the most complicated multi-cellular organism. Sentient beings are said to traverse the realms of samsara (perpetual birth, decay, and death) eternally, due to a basic ignorance of this reality. Consequently all are bound to an un-satisfactory state of being, characterized by the afflictive emotions anger, craving, and ignorance. These mask the enlightened nature. Seeing through these afflictions and realizing the selflessness of all arisen things is what Atisha calls the pinnacle of learning.

2) The Buddha taught that one should be disciplined in matters of action, speech, and thought. Yet the highest form of discipline is the taming of the mind. Shantideva compares the nature of mind to an enraged elephant that careens here and there, completely beyond control. Taming of the mind then is likened to tethering the elephant, bringing it under control so that one speaks and acts with cognizance.

3) There are three personal qualities. First, the intrinsic qualities or the “trainings of the past.” These are individual, natural gifts that are said to be resultant from positive developments from past lives. The second is “training,” which includes intensive studies and beneficial habits developed over the course of one’s current existence. The third quality is “training in meditation” that also applies to one’s present life but is specific to spiritual developments. However, above and beyond all these qualities, the most prized is the genuine desire to benefit all living beings. This pertains to the Bodhisattva vow in which one vows to place the welfare of all other sentient beings before one’s own.

4) “The body is the retreat hut and the mind is the retreatant.” Practice is not so much a matter of where one is but how one engages the mind. As such, the supreme oral instruction is one that always directs one to looking inward, toward uncovering the true reality of mind.

5) The Buddha’s teachings are often referred to as medicine. Atisha therefore speaks of the ultimate remedy, which, echoing his first point states: Nothing whatever has any inherent existence. Such realization is believed to be a cure for the kleshas, “disruptive emotions.”

6) The supreme form of conduct for Atisha is to act in discord with worldly beings. Buddhism characterizes humans as bound by the eight worldly dharmas: desire for praise, gain, renown, and pleasure; desire to avoid blame, loss, disrepute, and pain. As such Buddhist practitioners should remain aloof to such concerns, should pay attention without distraction, and should not be lazy or careless. In excellent, slightly broken English, Chokyi Nyigma described television, entertainment, and alcohol as forms of distraction. Speaking of alcohol, “People don’t care about taste,” he said, “people want drunk!” He laughed, “I not understand.”

7) The supreme siddhi, “power,” is the lessening of negative emotions. There are many magical powers spoken of in Hindu and Buddhist Tantra, such as the ability to levitate, cover immense distances in seconds, manifest physical objects and otherwise control the natural world. It is my person view that Buddhism developed such concepts as a response to popular trends in religion and in order to survive as a religious institution. There is still a self consciousness of this in the fact that the supreme siddhi has nothing to do with magic but is control of one’s own consciousness, a remarkable feat in and of itself.

8) Atisha’s eighth and final point is that the highest sign of accomplishment the dissolution of desire. This again refers to the eight worldly dharmas but is intended to encompass all experience up to and including the desire for higher states of meditative concentration. The sign of accomplishment as a practitioner is effectively to have genuinely renounced all desires. As to what that looks at I will judiciously (or more accurately due to personal ignorance) refrain from comment.