4. The Truth of the Path

The Four Noble Truths: The Truth of the Path to the Cessation of Suffering

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, Australia, Sydney, 15th July 2000, Tape 3 and 4.

The fourth Noble Truth is the way leading to the cessation of suffering. This is called the Noble Eightfold Path. The Noble Eightfold Path is very interesting because it includes everything needed for the journey. Although the source of our suffering and the release from our suffering is in the mind, this path to get to that level doesn’t just deal with mind training—it also deals with our physical actions and with our livelihood, it deals with everything. 

The categories all start with the word samyak in Sanskrit. Samyak is a difficult word to translate into English, because if you say it means “right”, that has a sort of judgemental feel to it. It means something which is spot on, right in that sense, something which is complete in itself. So sometimes scholars translate it as “correct” or some say ”perfect”. There’s no exact English equivalent of samyak. I will use “correct” or sometimes use “right”, but it means something which is very balanced and complete. The first one, Right View or Correct View is samyak drishti. So, we start with these Correct Views, and then there is Right Thought or Intention, then Right Action, Right Speech, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration or Meditation.   

It is very interesting, I think, that we start with Right View. Because our outlook on life, our fundamental viewpoint influences everything which we do. If we are a very materialistic sort of person and think acquisitions, name and fame and lots of money are the most important things in life, and that these things are what we should really be aiming for since they will give us satisfaction and happiness, then we will have a very different lifestyle and different ambitions and priorities from someone for whom personal success and money are of very secondary importance and who think that serving others and giving one’s time for alleviating suffering or for working for the environment is more important. Or someone who thinks that the inner life and transforming their own mind is the best way to really help society.   

Our fundamental viewpoint is most important since it’s going to affect everything: it’s going to influence everything we think, everything we say and everything we do. So, the Buddha put it at the beginning because if we don’t have a correct viewpoint, if we don’t see things clearly, then our subsequent thoughts, words and deeds are going to be distorted. So, it is very important from a Buddhist point of view that we see things as they really are and not the way we interpret them to ourselves, through our biases and judgements, our predispositions and patternings. So, we have to have a very clear view. If we have a microscope or binoculars or even a camera which is out of focus, we won’t see clearly and then because the vision is all blurred, we make the wrong judgements, we come to the wrong decisions. What we need is to adjust the focus until everything comes into sharp perspective where we see things clearly, where we see things as they really are.   

There are certain viewpoints which, from a Dharmic point of view, are important, and there are many levels to this. First of all, I think the most important thing which we should really understand is that fundamentally, our inherent nature is good; that fundamentally, we all possess Buddha Nature and that underneath all this turmoil and delusion and poisons and problems and conflicts and ignorance, underneath it all, we have this incredible potential for enlightenment. All of us are already perfect, we have the fullness of wisdom and compassion and purity within us. We just can’t see it, but it’s there. It’s like the sky which is clear and crystalline blue. It’s covered with clouds, so we see the clouds, we identify with the clouds. But however thick the clouds, however black the clouds, behind those the sky is just there. It is never contaminated by the clouds. When the clouds part, there it is. It doesn’t matter how long the clouds have been there, it doesn’t matter how black and thick the clouds are. They can never tarnish the essential purity and vastness of the sky.   

So, it doesn’t matter how deep our ignorance, how thick our poisons, how convoluted and messed up our life may seem to be; behind it all there is the essential innate awareness. Without it, we could not exist. We can only know, we can only hear and see and think and feel because of this awareness, just as we couldn’t have chairs and tables and people in this room if it were not for the space. It is the space which allows us to fill things up. Without the space, we couldn’t exist; without this inherent natural awareness, we couldn’t think or feel or know. So all the time, through all our delusions, through all our stupidities, this awareness is shining continually. That is who we really are.    

This is a very important view because then this whole question of “I am an unworthy person”, “I am stupid, I am always a failure”, “I am too bad-tempered”, or “I am too lazy” or “I am too this or that” is irrelevant. In the West, people suffer so much from low self-esteem because they identify with the negative and they don’t realise that this is just temporary, this will pass. Underlying all that is the innate perfection which we all have. It doesn’t matter who we are. That is the view. The view is that since the very beginning, we are enlightened, it’s just that we haven’t woken up and realised that yet. So, we are dreaming the dream of samsara. But it’s just a dream. We have to wake up, and we can wake up.

The second component of the Eightfold Path is called samyak samkalpa. Samkalpa sort of means thoughts, but it also means our intentions. This is very important because in ordinary everyday life, what motivates us creates our ongoing karma. The Buddha said that karma is intention. What this means is that everything which we think and say and do with intention and with some motivation is planting seeds which will germinate in the future, either in this lifetime or in future lifetimes—that is karma. Therefore, if we are motivated by negative seeds—seeds such that if we act, think, or speak with an underlying intention which is combined with ignorance or with ill will or with greed in any of its manifestations, then that is basically a bad seed, we could say. So, we are planting for ourselves a not very good harvest. If we are acting, thinking and speaking with the underlying intention of non-delusion (that means with understanding, with some kind of intelligent wisdom) and with non-ill will, (that means with loving kindness and a good heart) and with non-greed (that means either with contentment and renunciation or with generosity, anything which counteracts that greed)—if our actions of body speech and mind are motivated by those good things, then we are planting good seeds.

So, it is not what we do or say that is so important. What is important is the underlying intention, but that is not always so easy to see because we lie to ourselves. We justify ourselves wonderfully. A while back, I saw an interview with Pol Pot, who personally caused the death of four million Cambodians, and he said, “But I didn’t do anything wrong. Why do people not love me?” He had totally justified everything he did even though he was the one who boasted that within five years he had destroyed two thousand years of Cambodian culture! So, we can justify ourselves totally. I’m sure Hitler justified himself. How can we live with ourselves if we don’t justify? So, it is not what we are telling ourselves, but the underlying genuine motivation and intention which is so important here when we really look into our minds with honesty. Because that influences everything which is going to be happening. How we act and the results depend so much on the underlying intentions.  So, we have to have great clarity to really see what we are doing. Karma works so that what happens to us now is mostly due to causes and conditions which we created in the past. But the point is not so much what is happening to us, but how we respond to what is happening to us. The events that are happening are mostly due to causes from the past, but what we do have control over is how we respond. We have choice—do we respond skilfully or unskilfully? It is up to us. And if we act skilfully, then that is creating a good harvest for the future. If we act in an unskilful manner, then that is creating further problems for us. We are continually making our own future by our skilful or unskilful actions of body, speech and mind in this moment.   

So, it is very important to know what is the underlying motivation behind what we are doing, thinking and speaking and to be very clear about that. Because as I say, it is not the overt actions, the speech or the actions themselves which are going to give the genuine result, it’s what is behind that, it is the real motivation that sets the moral tone. And it is the moral tone which we receive back, not the overt action. This is a very important point, and I think it is why the Buddha put it at the beginning. When one has the correct view then one begins to really check out one’s actions. Not just physical actions, but mental and verbal actions. We begin to become more and more conscious of what’s really going on underneath it all. We begin to bring our actions into alignment so that we don’t create more inner problems and so that we begin to make our life more genuinely in accord with a spiritual path, and in accord with being able to really benefit not just ourselves but others. Because negative thoughts and emotions harm us. They harm us and then they harm those around us. So they are counter-productive.   

Therefore, the next factor is Right Action. Right Action means our physical actions. Basically, the most important point is the whole idea of non-harming, so that our being in the world does not harm anyone—not just humans, but animals, insects, anything. As much as possible in this impure world, we must try to lead a life which is basically harmless. And that includes the precepts. These five precepts are just that – precepts. They are not commandments. There’s no thunderbolt from heaven going to come down and strike us if we break them, but of course these precepts are rules of training. They are precepts which were laid down so that our conduct may be in conformity with the conduct of an enlightened being. A truly enlightened being will naturally, spontaneously, never take life, never take that which is not given, never knowingly tell an untruth, never engage in sexual misconduct or partake of alcohol or intoxicants of any form because they wish to be in control of their mind. These precepts were not just relevant 2,500 years ago in northern India but have no meaning nowadays in the modern world. They have meaning anytime, any place. They are basically dealing with using our actions in a way which does not cause any harm.   

The first one is not taking life, because the most precious thing to any being is its own life. We all hold our own life as most dear, nobody wants something from outside to come along and destroy us. Who wants it? Some extraterrestrial comes along and says, “What funny looking pink things!” —squish! We would resent that. Animals and insects resent it too. They don’t want us to take their life. Who wants it? What right have we to do so? To each being, their own life is most dear, and if they think they are going to be harmed, if they think they are going to be killed, they are terrified, they are petrified with fear, just as we would be. And we should respect that so that every being, even a little insect, if it comes into our range will know it has nothing to fear from us; that it is safe with us and that we would never knowingly harm it.   

A while back, I saw a television program in India on the National Geographic channel. It was about a team of zoologists who went to an island which had many animals and a whole pack of bears, lots and lots of big brown bears. This island had never been visited by humans before, so these bears had no idea what these funny-looking beings were. Their reaction was to be very curious—they came round the camp and they looked through everything and they looked at the people. When they saw that these strange-looking beings were friendly, they settled down—they moved into the camp basically. They slept with the humans, they went swimming together, they played together. There was no aggression, there was no fear. They just took the zoologists as being funny-looking bears!   

And how sad it is that in this world, when animals in the wild come across humans, they run the other way. How very, very sad. How did they learn that? It’s our fault, it’s not their fault. We are not the most popular beings on this planet let me assure you. So, this quality of non-harming—of respecting others and their right to their lives. 

Then, respecting the property of others, not taking from others, so that people know their property is safe with us; that we will never try to take things from them, and that we will never try to steal.  This also includes of course borrowing; when we lend things, we should give it back, including books, including videos, including all those things that once they’ve gone seem to leave forever.     Respecting others’ property, so that when we lend things, we know we are going to get them back in a good state. When we borrow things, we should be very scrupulous with others’ property, taking more care of it than we would of our own, so that we give it back in at least as good a condition as when we borrowed it. Just respecting other people’s rights and thinking of others, and not always of ourselves.   

Sexual misconduct means any kind of conduct which will cause any harm or suffering to anybody—oneself, others, now and in the future. Taking responsibility for one’s sexual conduct—we are so irresponsible and we are so childish in our sexual relationships. Nowadays, we are so programmed to think of instant gratification that we don’t consider the consequences of our actions.  It is not being like that, it’s becoming more adult, really growing up, really seeing the long-term consequences of what we are doing and using our sexual natures for something meaningful. Our relationships should be based on love, on trust, on caring, of thinking of the other, not merely thinking of our own pleasures, desires and lusts; and realising that in the wake of our lustful natures, our sense of reason and intelligence goes down drastically. Knowing that, learning how to be in control instead of being controlled by a nature which we share with the animals. I mean, let’s be honest—that’s the animal side of our nature. If we want to transform it into something really meaningful and human, we have to work at it.

Lying… we will go into this more when we deal with right speech, but it means speech which is not only truthful but which is kind and which is helpful. We harm people so much through our speech.    

The fifth one is about intoxicants. Look, you in Australia have this country which is so beautiful—the land is beautiful, the people are really lovely, they have planned things nicely, they have built things up. In many ways, this is like a realm of the gods—not many people, clean beaches, clean oceans, clean rivers, clean air. A celestial realm. So, what’s wrong with it? There are of course, as in any society, many things wrong with it, but the major things which are wrong with society here are of course the incredible substance abuse: the level of alcoholism, the level of drug intake. These are serious social problems—probably 90% of the crimes which are committed in your country are under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or related to that in some way. This is not just a minor thing; this is a very serious social problem. The level of alcoholism is terrifying, being somewhat under its influence, being drunk and drunken driving. The fact is that alcohol in itself opens up the way to all the other negative emotions. People do things under the influence of drink that they would never do in their ordinary sober minds. And it doesn’t even make us feel good; the next day, we feel horrible, it poisons the body and it’s expensive. The only people in the end who are gaining are the liquor companies. They are getting richer and richer and so they promote alcohol as being sophisticated or macho or something that grown-up, cool sort of people do. We are such fools if we fall for that propaganda. They just want us to buy their liquor. So, they plug into our ego and all we are like sheep, we go for it. That way we are controlled completely, because we become slaves.  Human beings are very perverse. Have you noticed?

I’m sure many people here don’t drink, or only drink in great moderation. I think if one is a parent, one has to think about the question of being an example. If children are in a household where parents are drinking alcohol, even if just a little bit, they get the message that alcohol drinking is okay. Maybe they won’t be able to use moderation. I think in a household where the children know that the parents don’t drink, then even if they do, still they know their parents don’t, that example is there. Many people I know who don’t drink come from families where their relations didn’t drink, and so it wasn’t part of their social identity. But even if one cannot abstain completely, it makes sense to be really careful and to reduce the intake. Being drunk is not attractive; it is not attractive, it’s not sophisticated – it’s just very pathetic. I’m sure any of you who have seen drunken people could never envy that state of mind. The Buddhist path is a way of growing clarity, of gaining control over the mind and eradicating the poisons from the mind, and it is therefore a path of growing sobriety in every sense. So, to imbibe alcohol or drugs or any kind of intoxicants is totally counter-productive. The kind of experiences which drugs create are just another delusion of the mind. We have to produce genuine spiritual experiences from within ourselves; we don’t need to have drugs to help us on the way. Okay, end of sermon!   

The next factor on the Noble Eightfold Path is the question of Right Speech, because speech is very crucial. We are a people who communicate, so we must be very careful with our speech. The proverb about sticks and stones breaking my bones but words never hurting me is so untrue. The Tibetans have a saying which is basically: “Sticks and stones can only break my bones but harsh words can tear a man’s heart to pieces.” That’s the truth of the matter. We say things in anger or we say things thoughtlessly and maybe we forget them, but the person to whom we say these words remembers them and keeps them in their heart and is pained. There are a number of things here. First of all, our speech should be truthful. That means that people know they can rely on what we say and that we are not trying to deceive them, we are not trying to cheat them. But truthful speech should also be kind speech, of course. It shouldn’t be speech which, although truthful, is hurtful.  Some people pride themselves on being very truthful and honest but really if we look at it, what they’re saying which is so truthful is usually something very negative and unkind. Being truthful is just a conduit for their negativity, their ill will or their envy. That’s not what we are talking about because words should also be helpful and kind.   

We can help people so much with just a kind word. It doesn’t take any time. If someone looks nice, tell them they look nice. If they look awful, we don’t have to mention it or we can say, “That’s an interesting outfit!” Speech should not only be truthful it should also not be slanderous. That means we shouldn’t say bad things about others, we shouldn’t say things which are negative. Why do we enjoy saying something negative? People enjoy it so much. In the media we see it—they love pulling people down and the higher the people are, the more they delight to pull them down. It’s like we can’t bear anyone to be better than us so we have to bring them down and cover them with mud and then we feel justified that we’re all muddy. That is very sad. When we talk about people, we should talk about them and think of their good points and not think of all their bad points and spread that around to other people; we shouldn’t slander them. Slander is one of the limbs of wrong speech. 

Our speech should not be divisive—that means we shouldn’t speak bad things about somebody else to other people to cause them to cease being friends. Speaking to one or the other in a way which will turn them against each other. Saying, even if it’s true, “You know, they said this and that about you,” if it’s something which is negative and that makes us feel awkward in the presence of that other person so we start to doubt their real good will or friendship. That kind of talk which divides people and puts people against other people is very negative. We should try to have speech which brings people together and which creates harmony.

And then gossip. Meaningless chatter. That cuts out practically everything we say, doesn’t it?! Our words should have some point, they should have some meaning, they should be useful and helpful and if possible, directed to something which is of benefit, not just chatter, chatter, chatter… When we listen to people, the things they talk about – it is mostly irrelevant, especially the kind of meaningless gossip which is just sitting around saying nasty things about mutual friends or other people that they know about. Very negative. Our speech should be something which uplifts people, which makes people feel better, or which is informative, helpful and interesting but which doesn’t create any kind of harm. We should be especially careful in our family, in relationships with our partners, with our children, with our parents and with our siblings. We should be conscious of our speech and look at our speech patterns and where they’re negative and create conflict, really try to work out how to re-pattern our communications. With people we work with, people we come into contact with on a daily basis we should really stand back and listen to ourselves.    

We use our speech so often, not just speaking, but in communication: telephone calls, letters, emails. That’s also communication, that can come under speech. All this communication between one person and another. So, to be really careful and not waste people’s time, especially on e-mails!  Have you noticed? All these e-mails flying backwards and forwards. Many of them are completely useless, just another way of wasting time for the other person. Pages and pages which could have been said in just a short time. Why do we waste other people’s time?

So, we must learn to become conscious of our speech, making our speech helpful, truthful, kind, to the point, not creating more disharmony, not creating more problems, not creating pain in people’s hearts, listening to people—all this comes under right speech. 

The next factor is interesting because it seems to have been covered already in Right Action. It is called Right Livelihood. Now, the Buddha put Right Livelihood in the Eightfold Path—how we earn our living. There are certain livelihoods which are prohibited to someone who is serious about the spiritual path. These are very obvious, such as being a butcher, because in Asia, the butcher also kills the animals and dealing with the slaughter or the sale of dead animals would not be a good kind of livelihood, as it is against the whole precept of non-harming. So therefore, also being a fisherman or something like this. Any kind of livelihood which takes the life of other beings—and that also includes trafficking in human beings—so you can’t be a pimp, for example. You cannot start selling prostitutes or things like this, that’s wrong livelihood. Also, I think to be a prostitute would probably often be wrong livelihood too because that’s dealing with the whole question of sexual misconduct.

Having said that, let it be understood that one of the Buddha’s foremost female disciples was a famous courtesan called Ambapali. The Buddha was very fond of Ambapali and he often accepted invitations to lunch from her and she eventually offered the Buddha her pleasure grove and then she gave up her occupation as the town’s favourite courtesan and became a nun, and then she realised Nirvana in this lifetime and became an Arhati. So, there’s hope for us all.   

Any occupation which causes harm to others is not right livelihood. Our occupation should be honest; we shouldn’t be cheating anyone. Buying and selling is perfectly okay, but it should be honest, it shouldn’t be at the expense of others—promoting a product which we know is defective while pretending it’s something that is perfect and wonderful. For instance if you were a second-hand car dealer or something like that—there’s nothing wrong with being a second-hand car dealer, but when you have your cars, you should try to make them as good and serviceable as possible and if there are faults, you should be honest about it. The question is to have a livelihood which doesn’t harm, which doesn’t cheat, which is above board and honest. Why? Because we spend so much of our day at it; we spend so much of our time at our profession and so many people are involved in their work. If our work is the kind where we are always trying to gain the upper hand on someone else and score off of somebody else to that person’s disadvantage, that would be considered wrong livelihood, because we are not supposed to make our livelihood at the expense of others. We are supposed to have employment, a job which not only brings us in a fair income, but also is something which at least doesn’t harm others in any way, including our competitors, and is something which may even be helpful for other beings. We spend so much time at our occupation, we put so much effort into it, our work takes over so much of our mind that it is very important to have a way of earning that doesn’t give us a bad conscience especially as our awareness becomes more clear.   

In whatever work we do we should do it to the best of our abilities; we should not try to be always cutting corners, trying to do the least we can for the most we can get out of it. We should do it sincerely, even if it is work which doesn’t particularly interest us, which we find boring. Then we can bring in mindfulness and all sorts of qualities of being aware, of being present, so we can transform the work. Anyway, we should do an honest day’s work for an honest wage. If we are dealing with the public, then we can incorporate so many qualities into that—Right Speech, Right Livelihood, Right Intentions, being pleasant to people, being friendly, being helpful and so forth.  With our colleagues, we can be friendly and on good terms, willing to help if they are in difficulty, not being over-competitive, and being fair. This quality of our work, which takes up so much of our time, is very important. If we are at home and we are housewives, then that is also our work. Taking care of children, as we said before, is a wonderful way of developing all these qualities of generosity, kindness, patience and understanding.

The point is that we have to incorporate our job and our work into our spiritual practice. We have to use our work as our practice to develop these qualities of awareness, generosity, of a good heart, of loving kindness, of patience, of good speech which is truthful, kind and pleasant. Our work—whatever kind of work we are doing—can really be a very deep source of spiritual endeavour if we undertake it in the right way.

For those of us on the Vajrayana path, we can keep a mantra going all day in our hearts which will centre our mind so that we do not become distracted. The knowing quality of the mind becomes strengthened and calm so that we can deal with whatever happens in a centred and aware manner…  Wherever we find ourselves, we can utilise it. Everything is utilised on the path. This is a path, so we’re supposed to be walking it and taking all these elements along with us to transform our lives into something meaningful. It’s not just boring moral injunctions, it’s what we are supposed to be doing to help our lives to become more light, more meaningful and more pleasant. So, we stop grumbling and just get on with it. The problem isn’t out there, the problem is within and we have to transform from in here.   

The sixth component of the Noble Eightfold Path is Right Effort. Obviously, we can attain nothing worthwhile without effort. Sometimes people read that the true spiritual path is effortless and so they think, “Oh, great” and they just settle back into bed again. But we have to make enormous amounts of effort in order to become effortless. It is rather like being a musician or a great artist, it requires great mastery of technique before we can be spontaneous and not just make a mess. Anybody can dab paint all over the canvas and say they are being creative and spontaneous, but a genuine artist has previously trained for many, many years in mastering the materials and technique before being able to be creative in a really meaningful way. Likewise, on the spiritual path, we need to make a lot of effort before we can connect with a level of consciousness where we are truly, genuinely spontaneous and not merely impulsive. 

In the context of this correct or right effort, it actually has to do with what are called the Four Right Efforts. That is the effort to avoid further negative states, the effort to overcome those negative states which have already arisen, the effort to develop positive states and to maintain those positive states which have already arisen. That’s what the effort is all about.  The effort is in seeing the negative states of our mind. Seeing our basic confusion and delusion; seeing our hatred, anger, frustration that is based on a sense of ill will, however it manifests. Aggression and depression also often come from ill will. Then seeing our greed, desire, lust, longing, grasping. These are negative states of mind and we have to recognise them as they come up and we have to try to get rid of those that have already come into the mind by various methods.

If we have a negative frame of mind, the first thing we have to do is recognise it. Say we are feeling angry with somebody. It’s no good pretending we’re not angry, averting our gaze because we are nice people and we don’t get angry. We have to recognise this is anger, this is ill will here. So, the first step is to know it. The second thing is to accept it – that is what it is. We’re not going to justify it, we’re not going to deny it, we’re not going to flagellate ourselves about it, whip ourselves, get ourselves angry with ourselves because we are angry.  That just perpetuates the cycle. We’re not going to feel guilty, we’re just going to accept that that’s the state of mind we are in. And when we have recognised it, when we have accepted that, then there is the possibility to just let it go. 

We think we cannot let it go, but we can. If we see the emotion very clearly, we accept it’s there, then we can open our hands and just drop it. And then we make the effort that in the future these negative states of mind should not arise. The quickest way to get rid of these states of mind is really honestly to recognise them as they turn up. As I say it is not a matter of suppressing them, repression doesn’t get us anywhere – the feelings just fester underneath. We should accept that these emotions are there but then we shouldn’t cling to them. We don’t need to obsess about these things. We don’t need to get our minds tied up into a tangle. We complicate things for ourselves tremendously and unbelievably; we get into all these mental conflicts and arguments and pros and cons and we tie ourselves up into tight little knots about the simplest things. Goodness me!  

We don’t need to do that and the next two stages on the path are a way to get our minds more simple, more clear. This is the quality of mindfulness and then of course meditation—being able to see these thoughts and feelings as they come up, as being merely thoughts and feelings. So, we make efforts to prevent thoughts which are unproductive from arising. We prevent them by seeing in ourselves that these are unproductive thoughts. We have had thoughts like this before, they didn’t lead anywhere, they just got us into more problems, they’re pretty useless—let them go, why multiply them and follow them? Because if we follow them it just gets more and more negative, more and more heavy, what’s the point?  No point. We have to learn how to be skilful with our minds and not create more and more inner confusion. So, we have to make effort, effort to recognise a negative thought as a negative thought and say “Hello! Goodbye!” and let it go, not obsess about it.

Then, there is also the quality of encouraging good thoughts. You know, the Western mind is very interesting because it so obsesses over all the negative things in the mind that we get to the point where we are totally in conflict with ourselves. We think of our anger, we think of our greed and clinging, we think of our delusions and our envy and our ambitions and all these things. So then we think we are horrible people, we are bad people, we are worthless people. Often our self-image is so low even while we are outwardly promoting this glossy front to fool people. But inside, we’re cringing. It is as if we have one of those ropes with thongs and iron bits that were used as an instrument of purgation during medieval times and we are flagellating ourselves and we end up all bloody. What for? It’s so interesting how the Western mind obsesses over painful memories and has a very low painful image of itself.  And then we hold on to those painful images and we don’t let them go. We don’t realise that in this moment nothing horrible is happening to us, that at this moment we are just sitting here quietly. Why can we not be in this moment? Why do we have to identify with something really painful which happened in our past. Why can’t we let it go?

In the Buddhadharma there is a ritual for the revelation or the confession of all the wrong we have done in our lives and in past lives and we are sorry about that. We feel genuine regret, like if we swallowed poison, we would definitely not want to do that again—we are really sorry we swallowed poison because now we have gotten sick. So, there is a genuine remorse for the wrongdoing that we have done. But right after that comes the next verse which is rejoicing in all the good we have done; rejoicing in all the good of oneself and the good of others. Because otherwise what happens is that we zero in on all our faults, on all the things which are wrong in ourselves but we forget that there are good things in us too.   All right, so I have a foul temper, but I’m generous. All right, so I am a bit mean spirited, but basically I am patient. I’m kind to dogs… whatever. We’ve all done good things, we all have some good qualities. If we don’t recognise those good qualities and encourage them, then they grow kind of spindly. So, the second part of effort is not only to overcome and avoid what is negative within us, but also to develop and encourage what is good. We don’t just recognise negative thought patterns, we also recognise positive thought patterns. And we encourage those skilful thought patterns; what is good in our mind, we encourage that.  

It is said that at the time of death, we should regret the wrong we’ve done, but then we should really think about the good we have done in this life and rejoice in that, so we die in a positive state of mind. That is not pride and it shouldn’t be; it’s not that we sit around thinking, “Wow, I am such a great person” and feeling sorry that people don’t appreciate how wonderful we are. It’s not that, it’s a genuine encouragement to ourselves. Because if we always think that we are horrible, that we are sinners, that we are bad, that we’re useless, then we are undercutting ourselves the whole time. We need to encourage ourselves. It’s just like if we have a child, and we are always pointing out to that child all his faults, we are always complaining, we are always telling him about the bad things but we never mention anything when he does something good. He would end up a very mean-spirited child, a child which had no courage, no self esteem, no feeling that he could accomplish anything because he just feels so bad. So if one is a skilful parent, one points out to the child not just the wrong he has done but we encourage him when he does something good: “That was wonderful, that was really good, oh that’s a lovely thing you have done.” Then the child is encouraged to develop more and more.

We are like little children, we need our own encouragement. We have to support ourselves, we can’t be always flagellating ourselves. We have to build up a sense of confidence, a sense of self worth. Because if we have that inner confidence, then we can go forth and things don’t get us down because we have that inner belief that we can accomplish. It’s really true that we have to believe in ourselves, we have to encourage ourselves. One of the ways of doing this is by recognising the goodness within ourselves, so that when good thoughts arise, we recognise this is a good positive thought and encourage more of these. This is Right Effort, the effort not only to eradicate what is wrong in us, but to also encourage the positive qualities within us. People don’t talk about that enough. But we can’t just keep pulling out the weeds; we have to fertilise and water the good plants if we want them to grow. If we ignore the plants that we want to grow and we don’t give them enough water, fertiliser and sunshine and we keep them always in the shade, then they’re not going to grow very strong, even if they’re from good seeds. Even good seeds have to be taken care of and given them words of encouragement, “Come on, plants, nice plants, come on grow more and more. You can do even better.” We have to be there for ourselves. This is also based on the whole quality of loving kindness and loving kindness starts with ourselves.   We have to love and respect ourselves in the true sense of the word, we have to be friends with ourselves. If we are not friends with ourselves, we cannot truly, from our heart, be friends with others. So much of our judgemental attitude comes about because we are not at peace within ourselves, and we can never be at peace or friends with ourselves when we are always zeroing in on what’s wrong and never being open to what’s right. What kind of friend only criticises and never encourages?

So, these efforts are based on really seeing clearly what’s going on in our minds and trying to encourage ourselves that whatever has been attained in the past, we also can attain it.  Why not? We all have this human life. We are all intelligent, we have all had an education, we all fundamentally have Buddha Nature. Nothing is stopping us but ourselves. We are standing in our own light, literally. Nothing is accomplished without trying. Think about all those Olympic athletes—how hard they work, how hard those athletes train. They change their sleeping patterns, their eating patterns, even their relationships; they don’t go out to late night parties, they stop drinking, they stop smoking, they’re training for hours and hours a day. Their whole focus is on their particular sport. Everyone who gets as far as the Olympics has dedicated their life to their sport. For what? So much one-pointed, single-minded dedication in the hopes of getting a medal! And here we are talking about gaining enlightenment which will last for ever and will put us in a position where we can truly benefit all beings forever and always. 

How much effort have we put into our Dharma practice today? Yesterday? Tomorrow? Even getting up early is too difficult. Suggest early rising to do an hour’s meditation and listen to the groans and excuses! We don’t want to give anything up, we don’t want to make any effort, but we do want to be enlightened. Oh, yes. We all take Bodhisattva Vows concerned with saving infinite beings. Anyway…

The seventh constituent of the path is an extremely important one, which is Right Mindfulness. Mindfulness, as the Buddha said, is like salt in all the curries. It is something which is useful in every area of our life. It is an extremely important factor of the Buddhist path, of whatever school. Recently, two lamas from our monastery went to the Vatican for an inter-religious conference which was under the aegis of His Holiness the Pope. These two lamas from Tashi Jong went there to represent His Holiness the Dalai Lama. When they came back, they said that they had been approached by so many of the high Catholic prelates who attended the conference to talk about mindfulness. They said nowadays mindfulness is the new buzzword in the Catholic world who had decided that the Buddhists  were experts, so that’s why they came to approach our lamas. 

So, what is mindfulness? Mindfulness, like many things, has many levels. But basically, it is being aware, being present, knowing in the moment. The Buddha, in order to make this easy for us, divided this into four parts of increasing subtlety. There is mindfulness of the body, of the feelings, of the mind and then in the fourth one of the dharmas which in the Mahayana path is interpreted as the environment or the external phenomena as it impinges on the sense organs. 

The first factor is mindfulness of the body. In its most simple form, it means when we are walking, we know we are walking; when we are sitting, we know we are sitting; when we are lying down, we know we are lying down; when we are standing, we know we are standing. These four – walking, sitting, standing, and lying down – are considered the Four Bodily Postures. The idea is we know what we are doing when we are doing it. Normally, when we do any action, we’re not really very conscious of doing the action, we’re thinking about something else. While we’re sitting, our minds are somewhere else; we’re very rarely conscious when we’re sitting that we are sitting, or even conscious of how the body feels when we are sitting. We are not aware because our mind is thinking of so many other things at the same time. Whether we are lying down or whether we are walking, we’re walking and we’re talking or we’re thinking a dozen other things. The actual mechanics of walking we’re not conscious of. And that goes for everything which we do. This is something which is quite a serious thing because when we are doing any action, we are normally not even conscious of doing that action, we are thinking of something else. Therefore, that moment, which is the only moment we actually have, is lost; it’s lost in the churning of our thinking about something else.  

The actual meaning of the word, which we translate as mindfulness, in Pali it’s sati, in Sanskrit it’s smriti, in Tibetan it’s drenpa, and they all mean to “remember”. Therefore, its direct opponent, its enemy, is to forget. And we do forget. We forget where we are and what we’re doing; we’re caught up in all other thoughts. It’s very akin to the Christian idea of recollection which means to remember and of Gurdjieff’s teaching on self-remembrance which is the same as mindfulness. These all have the idea of being here and now. It counts very much in Zen training—the tea ceremony, flower arrangements, sweeping the courtyard in a Zen temple, are all based on this quality of being completely present, being with what we are doing in the moment. Because this is the only moment we have and everything else is just a memory or anticipation. All we have is this moment which is continually flowing.   But usually we’re not here and because we’re not here, because we’re caught up in all sorts of thoughts which are everywhere else except where we are, our lives seem boring, our lives seem stale, our lives seem dull and routine. It’s because we’re living in our minds which are dull and stale and routine. We’re not living in the only thing which is living, which is this moment. So everything seems dead.

One of the very skilful ways of connecting with the present is to be one with the breathing in and the breathing out. Because if we are really conscious of our breathing, we can only breathe in and out now. We cannot breathe in the past or breathe in the future. The only time we can breathe is right in this moment. If we are one with the breathing – breathing in, breathing out – we are present. So this is a quite easy way to hook the mind back here.

I always bring this one up, but it is important to understand. It is this teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh on dishes, because this explains very clearly what we are talking about. Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Zen Master, and he points out that there are two ways to go about washing dishes – washing dishes of course is just an example of any daily task we have. Either we can wash dishes to get clean dishes, or we can wash dishes to wash dishes.  

Normally, we approach anything from the first point of view. All right, we’ve got these dirty dishes and we want clean dishes. So, our aim is to get the clean dishes and the mechanics of doing it are unimportant. While we are washing the dishes, the dishes are irrelevant, the act of washing is irrelevant. We’re thinking about what somebody said to us at breakfast or what somebody said to us last week or something which happened last year or we’re thinking about what we’re going to do next or we’re thinking about what we’re going to do in the evening or we’re thinking about some movie we saw or we’re caught up in some fantasy dream world… or who knows what we’re thinking! But the one thing we’re not thinking about is the dishes, for sure. Okay, so now we’ve got clean dishes.  

Then we go on and we have a cup of tea or coffee and the first sip we’re conscious of that, sort of whether we like it or we don’t like it, whether it’s too strong or it’s too weak or whether we should change the brand. Then the second sip, well, sort of vaguely there, by the third sip we’re away again. Back to yesterday and the past, or forward to the future or locked up in our dreams and stale thoughts and opinions and ideals and why did she say that and what did she really mean by this and I wonder what so and so is doing at this moment and all that stuff. So, coffee forgotten. We’re sipping away but it’s not there any more. Even if we are doing something nice, such as eating a piece of chocolate cake – yummy or yuck depending on how you like your chocolate cake! But by the second mouthful we’re already forgetting the chocolate cake or we’re comparing it with something we had last week or thinking what was that recipe about chocolate cakes, maybe we should try that one. Then off we go. We’re eating and we’re eating but we’re not experiencing it any more. And so it goes on and on and on. Our whole life is lived like this. Nice experiences, nasty experiences, we hardly know them. That’s why our lives seem so difficult, problematic and boring. Because our minds are boring and we’re living in our minds. 

So, there’s another way. We can wash dishes to wash dishes. That means when we wash the dishes, at the time of washing the dishes, that is the most important thing we could possibly be doing. As Thich Nhat Hanh says, it’s almost like a ritual, something we take as a sacrament. Why? Why is this action so important? Because it is the thing we are actually doing in this moment. It’s what we are doing, therefore it is the most important thing in the world, because it is the only thing which is actually happening. If we miss it, we’ve lost it. So, if we wash dishes to wash dishes, we are with what we’re doing. Our mind is present; we experience the water, we experience the soapsuds, we experience the dishes, we are one with our breathing in and breathing out. We know how the body is feeling as it stands there, we know what is happening in this very moment and we’re completely with it in a quite wordless way. It’s not that we’re commentating, it’s not that we’re judging, it’s not that we’re obsessing: we are knowing. And if we are in that quiet knowing state, just experiencing what is happening in that moment, at the end we not only get clean dishes, we get a clean mind. Our mind feels all washed, relaxed, clean and sparkling. 

Our lives are boring because we live only up in our head and our head is full of stale thoughts. But the present moment is unique and new, each moment is completely pristine and fresh. If we are in that moment, then every moment arises like the first moment. Then it is infinitely interesting, nothing boring there. To bring that quality of knowing, of being present into our lives is the challenge. 

The founder of the Goenka Vipassana method was a very high Burmese official called U Ba Khin. Apart from running his insight meditation centre in Rangoon, he also held a high position in the Burmese Government. He supervised the insight meditation centre but his main job was working for the Government and when he died, they needed three people to take over his position! His mind was in the present, it was so efficient that whatever was before him he was there with it. So, don’t think that a mind which is completely present is unable to function in the world. Far from it. 

In Tashi Jong, my Lama, Khamtrul Rinpoche, was the head of the community. He not only started it; he was the president. I was his secretary and saw for myself the enormous amount of varied work that he just got through because he was conscious. Nothing was a strain on his mind which was well oiled so it just flowed, moment to moment to moment. He made instant decisions here and there, do this, do that. It just flowed because his mind wasn’t caught up in all this mental chatter and distraction. Rinpoche was absolutely present with what he was doing in the moment and then when it passed, he let it go. 

Don’t think this being conscious, being aware makes us less efficient. Being muddled up, being caught up in past memories and future hopes and anticipations and all this inner garbage which we are constantly re-churning in our mind, makes us inefficient, wears us down; that makes all the stress and pressure, not the actual work. We stress out ourselves because our minds are so inefficient. We need to really practise becoming aware. This is indeed the heart of Buddhist practice; knowing how to be present, how to be in the moment and how to really know what is going on with one’s body, with one’s feelings, with one’s thoughts. To really know what is happening at the moment. To develop this inner witnessing, this inner knowing, is the heart of Buddhist practice. So, how do we start?

We can join a 10-day Vipassana course, that would help. But in the meantime, if we can’t manage that, at least one can, for example, take very simple actions, like dish washing or cleaning our teeth, shaving, washing our face, sitting on the toilet, smoking a cigarette, drinking tea, drinking coffee, doing whatever. Just make a commitment to take one or two very simple actions that we do every day, usually quite mindlessly, and be present. Know it, experience it, not commenting on it. What usually happens is I say to myself, “Okay, now I’m going to mindfully drink this,” and then I drink it and for a moment I really know I’m drinking it and then I’m thinking, “This is really quite easy. Look, I’m being so mindful, I know exactly that I’m drinking.” Of course, at that point one is no longer mindful, one’s just thinking of being mindful. Genuine mindfulness has no conceptual thinking. It’s just a knowing, but it’s a wordless knowing. As soon as we start thinking about how now we’re wordlessly knowing, we are no longer wordlessly knowing. It is a little tricky: like everything, it takes a little bit of practice. 

In Malaysia, they have this t-shirt which shows big waves and on top of the waves is a surfboard and on top of the surfboard is a figure sitting in meditation. The slogan says, “Riding the waves of life, be mindful, be happy.” Exactly that. We could have sold lots of those here, couldn’t we? Mindfulness is like we’re riding the waves, we are not submerged in the waves. Normally we’re right in the middle of all our thoughts and feelings. It’s like we’re tossed up and down inside the ocean. Now we’re up, now we’re down, now we’re being churned around. So, this mindfulness, this being able to stand back and just know and observe is like having a surfboard. We are no longer submerged, there’s an opening. Inside the mind there is a space, and there is just this knowing quality of the mind which we all have, but usually we don’t make any use of it. With this knowing mind which stands back and observes the thoughts as just thoughts, what happens is it gives an inner space inside to see the thoughts as just thoughts without being submerged. Then we have that quality of being present in the moment and that sense of inner equanimity and genuine awareness.   Normally, we are so unaware. This is a way to wake up. We can only wake up in the present. If we’re not in the present then we’re asleep. 

In traditional Buddhist settings, people use walking meditations, walking very slowly, experiencing the feeling of walking. Normally, we just walk along, we’re not conscious.   So, in a set environment, practitioners slow down, they slow down so they can observe.   First there’s the intention, we always have an intention before the movement, but usually we move so quickly we miss the intention part. So, it is seeing that there is that spark of willingness first, and then noticing how we move towards our object.

Nonetheless, even within the confines of our everyday life, we can become more conscious, more aware. As we begin to learn how to become present in this moment, then we can bring the attention also to our thinking. What are we thinking in this moment? Not judging it, not thinking “Oh, I shouldn’t be thinking this” or “I should be thinking that,” but just knowing it. Throughout the day, whenever we have to stop for something or if we’re waiting for some changeover—and there are so many opportunities even in the busiest life—we can use these moments to become centred again. Because this is about centring ourselves; usually we are so scattered and this is about bringing us back. There are so many times during the day where we have these moments when we can just be with ourselves. I have said before that in Delhi there are red stoplights which have big white letters which read “Relax”. So, when we come to a stoplight, instead of thinking, “Grrrrhhh…” think, “Oh, good, time to centre. Oh, lucky me – another red light, whoopee!” Time to centre, time to be with breathing in, breathing out, just watching what is going on: how the body is sitting, being present, getting centred. Throughout the day, when our computer is changing programs or when we’re listening to the answering machine that’s going, “Please wait until you hear the beep… beep, beep, beep”—time to be present, time to listen to this interminable message and wait for the beep. Breathing in, breathing out, breathing in, breathing out. This quality of being mindful is really very important. There are books on it, there are some excellent books which explain this practice in greater detail, but we don’t have time here. But to learn how to be present in the moment is a great gift and will transform all our lives no matter where we are or what situation we are in. 

The last quality which we have on the Eightfold Path is called samyak samadhi and it has to do with meditation. Basically, Buddhist meditation is divided into two streams. The first is called Shamatha and it has to do with making the mind more settled, peaceful and one-pointed; with making the mind calm and clear and concentrated. Once the mind has become calm and clear and concentrated, then we apply that now more subtle mind to looking inside and gaining insight into the nature of the mind itself. 

So, we need to get the mind to quieten down. When the mind is very quiet, peaceful but poised and one-pointed, then first of all, it means that since the surface of the mind has become quiet, the mind itself becomes clear and we can see accurately. We begin to observe things as they are without all the various veils of our interpretations, our likes, our dislikes, our biases and our judgements. We just see things truly. At the same time when we look into the mind, because the mind is now quiet, we can see below the surface consciousness, we begin to see into increasing subtle levels of the psyche. That’s why it helps a lot to start by developing a mind which is very peaceful and quiet but at the same time very alert. Often when people go into meditation, they can get very peaceful, quiet and blissed-out. But at the same time that quality of awareness sinks and so we get into almost a half dream state, ever so lovely and peaceful and blissful but a total waste of time. This is called sinking and it is a real challenge in meditation, not to allow the mind to sink, even subtly. If our meditation is going well, then our mind should feel very open and clear and spacious, but completely alert, very wide awake, not a nice peaceful, drowsy sort of feeling, not dull. Extremely clear and bright, very bright. 

So, if the mind feels peaceful and calm, but dull, then that’s sinking and one should do what one can to waken the mind up. Then we have this mind which is peaceful and clear. But then what? We can think that with all this bliss and spacious clarity that we are enlightened.  This is not enlightenment. This is what happens when we merely do a meditation which makes us feel calm and blissful. It is a very deceptive state of mind because it can happen that we then think we are liberated. Yet all the basic problems, our underlying ill will and greed and deluded ignorance are still there. They’re covered over by a kind of hazy, like if we’re up in an airplane and we look down on the cloud level. We don’t see what’s going on underneath and all we see is the clear blue sky. But underneath there’s this cloud bank with everything still there below. It hasn’t been addressed.  

There are stories of meditators who have been meditating for so long and then when they’re disturbed from their meditations, their passions come up even stronger because they’ve been lying dormant. So it can become quite dangerous and it can happen that people who start out looking like saints can end up being even worse than ordinary people. Because once that level of feeling of bliss dissipates, then all the negative poisonous emotions start coming up and they’re even stronger because now the mind is more powerful. 

We have to deal with this. We have to pull out the weeds. That is done through the second type of meditation which is called insight or Vipashyana. Vipashyana means seeing clearly.   In the Tibetan system, what is seen clearly is the mind itself. Imagine that the mind is quiet, it’s kind of flowing along, it’s no longer a waterfall tumbling, it’s now like a peaceful river just going along. We are not in the river. We are sitting on the banks just watching the river flowing past. In the beginning, in order to get the mind quietened down, we just sit and we watch. But after a while it’s as if we get a big question mark in the mind. We say, “I think this, I feel that, in my opinion this and that, I think such and such. Sometimes my thoughts are happy, sometimes my thoughts are miserable.” But do we ask what is a thought? What does it look like? What does it feel like? Where does it come from? Where does it stay? Where does it go? I feel angry, I feel depressed, I feel happy, I feel excited. What is a feeling? What is a feeling? Where is it? Then of course the ultimate question: “I think this, I feel this”, but who am I? Who is this “I” that thinks and feels and wants and hopes and fears? Where is the I? What does it look like? Where does it live? Have we seen it?

As we are looking at the thoughts, it is as if the mind divides. There is the stream of thoughts and feelings and there is the observer of the thoughts and feelings sometimes called the witness or the knower. There are thoughts and as the awareness, as the knower gets stronger, sometimes the thoughts get less and less until they stop and there are no thoughts, there is just the knowing. 

Is the time when we have the flow of thoughts the same as when there are no thoughts? Or is it different? And the knower, the observer, the witness, is that the same as the thoughts or different? Or the same as when there are no thoughts, or different? Who knows the knower? I’m not going to give you the answers. 

In this way we use the mind to look at the mind and to go back and back. You will be happy to hear that it is not actually a process of infinite regress. In fact, at a certain point, the whole mechanism falls apart and one can begin to access to a very different level of consciousness. You see, this knower, the knower that sees the thoughts is still within the realm of subject and object, it is not ultimate reality. It’s like at the doorway. It’s a subtle consciousness but it’s not the very subtle consciousness. 

That’s what meditation is about, in brief. It’s not just about feeling good. It’s not just about being peaceful and calm and happy, though one can be peaceful and happy. But sometimes when one is meditating, all sorts of difficult things come up and one is not at all peaceful and happy. But it is an inward journey of discovery. It’s an inward journey through all the chasms, passed all the dragons and wild beasts and dark jungles and through the deserts and up on to the mountaintop. This inward journey is really the only journey that is genuinely worthwhile. Some people get to the mountaintop, many people stop at base camp, many people are stuck in the bazaar buying the equipment and never start the journey. They are looking through all the travel books to decide which way they will go. People approach the mountain from many different faces, from the south face, or the north face. So on the journey they often experience different things and if they don’t get to the very top of the mountain where they have a 360 degree view—if they haven’t reached the top and they’ve only gone part way up the mountain—then when they come back down again, they would describe what they saw from the side which they were climbing up.

So sometimes accounts of spiritual paths in different traditions around the world sound a little different, because they’re describing what they saw. But I think it’s the same mountain—it has to be, because we’re getting back into our inner centre. That’s the same journey for us all. This path laid out by the Buddha is one of the paths; there are many.   What it has to recommend it is that it’s been going for 2,500 years, it’s very clearly signposted and there are still very reliable guides available. It’s not a fantasy. It’s not something which people did centuries ago but we can’t do today. It works. But we have to do it. No one can do it for us; no one can climb the mountain on our behalf. Each one of us has to undertake the journey for ourselves. And whether we reach the heights or whether we stay down on the lowlands depends each one for ourselves. We all have this precious human birth. As I said, we all have intelligence, we all have some aspiration, we all have the equipment needed. Everything we need is actually here, but whether or not we make use of it or not is absolutely up to us. Nobody can do it for us. If we make some meaning to our lives or not is absolutely for each one to decide.

So, it’s up to you. But in the end, when we think of how many millions of lifetimes we’ve wasted, isn’t it time we got our act together or are we going to waste a few million more lifetimes? And for what? At this time, there are spiritual masters and a spiritual path in the world. Who knows in the future what there will be? We don’t know. The world is changing very fast; people’s values are changing very fast. Who knows if we’re even going to be here in a few generations at the rate we’re going? Who knows with all the genetic engineering, what the beings of the future will be like? At least now, we have our own minds. Who knows in the future once we get designer fashion minds?  

So now is our time. And I wish all of you bon voyage.

    

Questions

Q: I’d like to know if we have a soul, and if not, what’s left when we die?

JTP: It depends on what you mean by the word soul. If you mean some component of one’s being which is totally individual, absolutely eternal and unchangeable, then I think that we can say the Buddha definitely said that we didn’t have one. What he did say we have were these two things: one is this mindstream which is changing from moment to moment. It is upon this mindstream that we implant all the good and bad seeds of karma, the negative and the positive qualities. When we take vows, it is there the seeds are implanted. This mindstream goes on through lifetime after lifetime.   

Beyond that is the innate awareness, the very subtle consciousness which is behind the coming and going of all our thoughts and feelings. It is non-conceptual, beyond thought and is unconditioned: it is not mere mind. As I said, it is like space, so this higher consciousness is what connects us with all beings rather than that dualistic consciousness which divides us from beings. It is as if we are like little bubbles, but once the bubble breaks, then there is only space.    

So, conventionally speaking, we’re streams of mind moments but beyond that is something which is inconceivable, literally inconceivable to a relative ordinary mind which is caught up in conditions and conceptions. But it’s not “me” and it’s not “mine”—that’s the important thing. On the other hand, when we are within that state of total knowing, of innate knowing, it is as if for the first time we are awake and we see how totally asleep we have been up till that moment.

Q: I have been selling a lot of your tapes and there have been many, many requests, both at the public talk and at this weekend teaching for a guided meditation tape. Could you make a comment about that?   

JTP: I don’t like to do guided meditation tapes, that’s my main comment. Personally, I don’t like to guide meditations. First of all, I am not a teacher; please understand, I am not a meditation teacher. My function here is to cover the ground fairly superficially and throw out seeds which I hope may germinate in some hearts and which will give the impulse to seek genuine teachers of meditation.    

My fear is that if I start doing things like guided meditations and so forth, people will be mistaken and think that I am a meditation teacher; that I know what I am talking about. And that would be a sad delusion on their part, and hubris on my side. So for that reason, there are no guided meditation tapes.   

Q: I’m wondering if you could talk a little about when one should change one’s practice from Shamatha to Vipashyana and is that a sequential thing or does one have to completely attain the dhyanas before you actually do Vipashyana practice?   

JTP: That is a good question. From my own personal experience, I started by doing Shamatha practice. At a certain point, my mind had sort of calmed down somewhat. It wasn’t that I was staying in any deep states of Samadhi or anything. The first dhyana still has some conceptual thinking, but the mind has quietened down. At that point my meditation teacher who was an old Tibetan yogi said, “That’s enough of that; we don’t have time to waste on going into deeper Samadhi states. Now turn your attention to practising Vipashyana.”   

Then he told me a story of his disciple who had been very attached to doing these kinds of dhyana meditation states and had during a trip to China wandered off and gone into a state of meditation which lasted for about a year, and how that had been such a waste of time.    

Normally, once our mind has gotten fairly calm and our concentration is pretty one-pointed, Tibetan teachers nowadays say that’s enough and they take that aware state of mind and turn it back onto itself. Because the feeling is that we don’t have time. In the old days when practitioners went into 20-year retreats and so forth, that was one thing, but nowadays people don’t really have time. The important thing is to know the Nature of the Mind, and for that we don’t need such deep states of concentration.   

Q: I’ve got a bit of a God problem, which is a bit weird since I grew up as an atheist. About twelve years ago, some big changes happened in my life and I started to find a great deal of comfort in spirituality. I didn’t know anything about Buddhism but was immensely comforted by the thought that I wasn’t actually the centre of the universe; that there was something greater than me that I could pray to and talk to. But my problem now is that I don’t actually feel the need to believe in (and I call this thing “God”) a creator God—that doesn’t worry me at all—but what I would really like to believe in is some omnipotent being who knows me personally and who is listening to me and possibly answering my prayers.

I’ve now been a Buddhist for six years, so this is a bit of a problem for me. People have told me that yes, of course Buddhists pray to Tara and other beings in the Buddhist pantheon, but I’m a bit bereft about this. I can’t quite find an answer to this problem of what it is I’m praying to if I say prayers in Buddhism.   

JTP: Well, it’s true that in Mahayana Buddhism the belief is that the whole universe is filled with intelligent and compassionate energy. That energy is not pulling the strings behind the scenes; it’s not judging us. It is completely open, accepting, compassionate energy. So, it’s not like God in the normal way that God is thought of—in that the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas did not create the universe; they are not responsible in any way for the things which are happening in the world. That is due to the karma of the beings inhabiting it. But on the other hand, they’re totally on our side. They’re not judging us in any way. So, whatever our state of being is, they have total, unconditional love and compassion. And they have the wisdom, of course, to understand what would be right for us in any particular situation.   

On the other hand, we are also creatures of our own karma, so although the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are willing to help as much as possible, it has to be within the bounds of our own karma; they cannot override our karma for us. We have to take responsibility for our own actions. Even God, this omnipotent God: what does he do? We pray, well maybe he answers our prayers, maybe he doesn’t. And then it’s considered, well it might be good for us, or not good for us. How do we know? The point is that we are responsible for what happens to us; we created the causes, we have to reap the results. We have to accept our responsibility for that and the fact that how we respond to this is creating our future. No one is creating our future for us, we are doing it for ourselves, moment by moment. We have to accept that.   

On the other hand, there are these intelligences within the universe which are there to help us within certain perimeters and they can help us, especially in our spiritual path. On our spiritual path, they are there to help us and to benefit us as much as is possible. But in the end the real refuge is within our own heart because that’s where the divine really abides.   What’s all this looking up in the sky? It’s here in the centre of our being that’s the problem, and the solution. Ultimately.   

Q: My question is one on the importance of ordination. For most of my adult life, I guess my ambition and my dedication is to walk the spiritual path. What relevance would actually being ordained play in that? Is it in a sense more challenging to be in the everyday world?

JTP: To be perfectly honest, what did the Buddha do as soon as he became enlightened, after he met his five disciples? He ordained them all and he started the Sangha. He gave most of his energy to the organisation and the passing on of his wisdom to the monks and nuns. This order of monks and nuns established by the Lord Buddha himself has continued in an unbroken lineage, in a continuous stream, up to the present day. I don’t think we can just dismiss it.   

I don’t know the reason—but one of the reasons must have been that the leading of a perfectly pure spiritual life within the household is more challenging, it is also much more difficult. King Milinda was a Graeco-Buddhist king of around the 1st century, and he asked this question of his teacher: “If both householders and monks can attain the goal, what’s the difference? Why be a monk?” His teacher said, “Well it’s like if you’re throwing a javelin—if you put lots of ribbons and adornments and all sorts of embellishments on the javelin, then when you throw it, it’s likely not to go very far; it will go slower and is likely to come down rather quickly. If it has no adornments on it, then when you throw it, it will go much quicker and straight to the goal.

That’s the difference between the household life which is weighted down by family, by work, by social obligations, by the whole weight of society and someone who has left the world, who has renounced the world out of faith and therefore has the time and the leisure to devote themselves to study and practice. One cannot deny that. Of course, in the lay life we can attain realisations, but it is that much harder. Why make the journey harder for ourselves if we have the opportunity to make it somewhat easier?

The problem for a Western person to take ordination—at least within the Tibetan school—is that on the whole, there is very little support, either financial or psychological, and there is very little actual training. This is something which in 2,500 years of Buddhism never happened before. Normally, when someone gets ordained in a traditional Buddhist country, they are absorbed into a monastery or a nunnery and they are automatically trained and taken care of. But certainly in the Tibetan tradition nowadays, there are very few places for monks and nuns of Western origin to go.

So how to get training, how to get support, living in a society which does not value monasticism? If you live in the East there are problems, if you live in the West there are problems: so this is the problem! It’s a social problem rather than a spiritual one for which reason one has to think it over carefully.   

In the Theravada tradition, it is probably easier. There is more support for the monastic Sangha there because even the western monastic Sangha is very well respected.   

Q: My question is regarding devotion: the part it plays on both the spiritual path and in meditation seems to be very important and yet not often spoken of. The type of devotion that is so important, say with a Rinpoche or to Lord Buddha or one of the others.   

JTP: It is true, I don’t touch on it because it isn’t specifically mentioned as a separate factor on our lists of qualities. But of course, devotion – which is an opening of the heart to something higher than oneself, to the symbol of what we are seeking – is a very important emotion. In any form of Buddhism, there is always a devotional side to it, which is a very important way to purify the emotions. I have even read books which say, through meditation we may or may not attain the goal, but through perfect devotion, we certainly will. But of course, in Buddhism blind faith is never encouraged. Someone one time said to a Lama I knew, “Well when I see so and so, I feel incredible, overwhelming devotion, so what should I do”? And the Lama replied, “Watch your mind.” So yes, we have to have devotion, but we shouldn’t get lost in it. We should also have that awareness, even in the middle of the devotion.   

One of the reasons I don’t talk about devotion is that most Westerners don’t know what to have devotion to, especially if they don’t have a personal teacher. Then if we talk too much about devotion, everyone gets frustrated, because they would like to be devoted, but what to? This is a problem because most Westerners don’t have heart-stopping devotion to the Buddha or even to Tara or Chenrezig in the way that they would in Asia where they have been brought up with these figures and where these figures are very meaningful to them. For that reason, I don’t over-emphasise it, but yes, traditionally, in the training and as one goes on, that sense of opening up the heart and surrendering is a very important emotion, and it acts as a spur on the path.   

Q: How can yogas like hatha yoga and kundalini yoga help on the spiritual path?

JTP: Hatha yoga helps in that it is designed not merely to make the body strong and flexible, but also to control the prana through pranayama—to bring the inner energies under control.  In a way, the intention of hatha yoga was to get the body and the energies ready so that when we sit to practise, we can really meditate because everything on the physical plane is fine-tuned already. The mind and the body are very interconnected. As we all know, when we sit down to meditate, this part aches, that bit aches—the body doesn’t feel quite right. Many people spend half their time wriggling around trying to get comfortable. If one has done a lot of yoga, we just sit and the body is forgotten. At the same time, all the prana and the nadi in the body are perfectly balanced. When the body is perfectly balanced and the airs in the body are perfectly balanced, then the mind is also perfectly balanced.  

So therefore, with a minimum of problems, one can get the mind into a state of deep meditation. Kundalini yoga or the Tibetan variation of that means using the subtle centres and energies of the body in order to bring about very deep levels of inner realisation. It is using everything we’ve got—not just the mind, but the body, inner energies and the breath for the one goal of breaking through and seeing ultimate reality face to face.   

Q: The searching is my whole life but I don’t have a cave in the Himalayas; I have a cave in my flat, my flat is my cave, in Kings Cross which will amuse people who know Sydney.  Several times in the past, I’ve met some person or group and dived in and it just doesn’t feel right to do that now. Is it possible to come to meditation and support groups and participate without actually taking refuge?

JTP: I think so. When I was in Italy—I lived there for several years—I attended a number of Buddhist/Catholic conferences. So many of the monks there—the Catholic monks: the Benedictines and Jesuits and Trappists—were all doing Buddhist meditation. I met a Jesuit priest who had practised in Japan for 12 years under Japanese masters. These monks themselves were masters of meditation, but they were still Catholics. They didn’t see any problem there at all.   

I think one of the joys of Buddhist meditation is that it is a science of the mind and doesn’t require any particular belief system. It is a way of learning about the mind and stripping away the layers of our false identifications to come to the ultimate source of who and what we are. That doesn’t belong to any religion; the path is just there. As far as meditation is concerned, it can be practised by anyone. All it needs is an understanding of what to do and then the commitment to go ahead and do it.   

Q: I come from a culture where everyone places a great deal of importance in being born a male. All my female friends and my mother all aspire if they are born again, to be born as a male. I don’t have that aspiration; I don’t know what it is to be born a male. If I have an aspiration, it would be to be born a female. Am I deluded, and what did Lord Buddha say about females?   

JTP: Well, when Ananda, the Buddha’s cousin and attendant asked the Buddha if women could become liberated, he said, “Well of course they can be liberated!” And they were liberated. There were many Arhati—many female beings who had attained Nirvana at the time of the Buddha. The reason why down the ages, it was considered inferior to be born as a woman was from the point of view of society; because up until very recently, even in the West, women didn’t have the freedom and they didn’t have the education which was traditionally given to the males. Normally, they also would be very much under the dominance of their fathers, their husbands and then their sons; they had very little independence, so it made sense to come back in a male body.  

One time I asked my Lama, “Why is it that there are so few female incarnate lamas, tulkus, in Tibet?” He said, “Well, you know, when my sister was born, she had more signs at the time of her birth than I did.” In Tibet, when a great lama is being reborn, there are special signs like rainbows in the air or the water in the offering bowls turning to milk or flowers falling from the sky. He said she had more signs than he did, and everybody got very excited thinking someone really special was coming. But then when it was a girl, they just said, “Oh, a mistake!” If she had been a boy, they would have taken care of him, they would have seen he got into a good monastery; they would have looked around to try to find out who he was. But because it was a girl, they didn’t do anything. She wasn’t educated, she wasn’t taken care of; when the time came at a young age, she was married off.    

So, my Lama said it often happened that very exceptional women were born, but society was so indifferent to them that even if they had the potential, they weren’t able to be trained and so their ability to benefit others, as well as themselves, was very limited. So that’s the reason why they usually chose to come back in the male body.

Nowadays, this is not so true and of course, with our nunnery we are also trying to make it completely not true; we are trying to give equal opportunities to nuns. Certainly in the West, it is no longer such a problem. Women now are equally educated—they have freedom to do more or less what they want to do. The teachings are there for everybody.

Now I think is a time to definitely come back in a female birth and encourage the women. Because if we all give up and turn into men, then what? So now the men will decide: “We are too harassed and the women have become too strong” so then all the men will aspire for a female birth!   

Q: Could you say something about the connection between ego and self-esteem?

JTP: There are two things here. For a start, there is the idea of the ego in the sense of pride.  Pride in itself is a poison—it’s when we do everything for me and mine. That sense of, “What’s in it for me?” Even in relationships: we meet somebody so then how will that person make me happy? Everything is from the point of view of me. How is this going to benefit me? That sense of seeing everything from the point of view of one’s own benefit, from the point of view of me and mine; this is the ego. This is where we come into a lot of trouble. On the other hand, a sense of inner confidence, a sense of inner worth—that is something different because it acts as an incentive to progress on the path.

Another point is about these two kinds of meditations—Shamatha and Vipashyana—which should be mentioned. When we are doing Shamatha meditation, calm abiding, what this type of meditation does is to help bring balance to our psyche. It balances our inner mental faculties and the ego becomes quite well-rounded. The sense of ego becomes quiet but balanced, quite strong and buoyant. So, when we do Vipashyana, or insight, and we’re peeling off the layers of the ego, the ego can stand it because it is quiet, balanced and strong. If we do Vipashyana without first having practised Shamatha it can be dangerous, especially in the West, where people go into the practice with a vulnerable ego. Outwardly it looks like we’re very strong and self-confident, but inside our ego is very out of balance and very fragile. That’s why if somebody says something bad to us, we feel awful for the rest of the day because although we look very successful, inside we’re all shrivelled and frightened—if we take that very vulnerable, brittle ego and start stripping it, then we just end up with a bloody mess! Sometimes people freak out during these Vipashyana courses because they cannot take it. We are so out of balance already that when we try stripping and taking the ego to pieces, people fall apart. Do you understand?

So, ironically a healthy ego is the first step—that sense of inner worth and confidence. That’s why I say to be friends with ourselves. That sense of inner centredness of the ego which is in balance—when we have the sense of feeling at home with ourselves, when we feel friendly with ourselves and have that inner confidence, then we can start dismantling the whole thing.

Q: Could you say a little more on the idea of giving but being empty and not knowing that and therefore creating disease rather than giving from being full? The only way I understand that you can be full is by meditating and by clearing the garbage, but there might be more.

JTP: Take as an example the sisters of Mother Theresa. People think of the sisters of Mother Theresa as always running around on the streets of Calcutta picking up the dead and the dying. But actually, they spend more than half their day in prayer and contemplation. Because they are refilling themselves, they are able to continually give out. If we’re just giving out, giving out, giving out and not refilling, we are going to end up dried out. We are going to end up empty, burned out. There has to be the breathing in as well as the breathing out. This is extremely important.   

Q: Can you say something about Loving Kindness Meditation?

JTP: Loving Kindness Meditation again has to be directed first, as the Lord Buddha himself indicated, to ourselves. There are many ways of doing a Loving Kindness Meditation but at first, we have to start with ourselves: may I be well and happy, may I be at peace, may I be at ease. Because until we are friends with ourselves—the sentient being for whom we have the most responsibility—we cannot really honestly give loving kindness out to others. We have to have it inside first, then we can share it with others. Once we feel at home with ourselves—we have forgiven ourselves, we accept ourselves as we are and we feel that friendship toward ourselves—then we can give out loving kindness, first of all to those that we care about, towards those we love, who are close to us, our family, our friends. Then, towards those to whom we are somewhat indifferent—people we know at work, or people we meet in the street or in shops. Then we give out this feeling of warmth to people we don’t like, people with whom we have problems, people who especially push our buttons.

It’s very important to have this sense of well-being towards all beings everywhere and to then practise it, not just in our meditations but with everybody that we meet. Everybody we meet wants to be happy, however they define that happiness. So, to recognise that in everyone. Our first impulse is, “May you be well and happy”   

So, we end it here by dedicating merit. We think of all the virtue, the merit, the goodness which has been accumulated by us being here today—each one of us has brought this merit into the hall but it is increased by our rejoicing in the fact that so many of us have come here together. So we keep increasing it and increasing it by rejoicing and rejoicing.  

Merit is not like a piece of cake which we can only cut into so many little pieces. Merit is vast, it just keeps increasing and increasing the more joy and delight we feel in it and the more we rejoice in each other’s merit.

So, we take all of that, vast amounts, bubbling over everywhere and we dedicate it; we dedicate it to all the humans on this planet. Not just the ones we like, but all humans: the ones we like and the ones we don’t like, everywhere, in all continents, rich, poor, high, low, male, female, old, young, whatever.   

All beings and all animals—animals in the ground, animals on the ground, animals in the sky, animals in the seas and the rivers; all animals everywhere. All insects, wherever those insects may live. And all beings unseen, all the beings in all the various realms which we cannot perceive with our physical eyes; the higher realms, lower realms, wherever beings exist. And all the plants on this planet without whom we could not exist: the trees and the flowers, the grasses, the crops, the fruit, the vegetables, the weeds; all the plants. And all the beings throughout the universe, everywhere. Every single being. Through this merit, may they all be well and happy, may they be free from pain and suffering, may they, each one, quickly realise their spiritual potential.

So just think like that for one minute.

I wish all of you every happiness and success on your spiritual journey. May your life be filled with deep inner fulfilment, understanding and realisations, so that you can live your lives to really benefit so many beings throughout time and space. And when you come back again and again and again, it will be in order to teach and help so many other beings everywhere. Good luck to all of you.   

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May All Beings Benefit
Sarva Mangalam