Cuando se acaba el chocolate

7/25/2019 Cuando se acaba el chocolate

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INSTITUT VAJRA YOGINILAVAUR

NOVEMBER 17, 2013

WITH VEN ROBINA COURTIN


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Contents

1.The Path to Enlightenment,From AZ 5

2. Unravelling Attachment andThe Other Delusions 17

3.How We Create Karma and Howto Purify It 25

4.The Ten Non-virtues andTheir Results 41

5.Dedicating Ourselves to Others 436.When We Stop Clinging to the I

There is No Longer a Basis for

Attachment 497.Purification: the Practice of Vajrasattva

in the Context of the Four Opponent

Powers 59


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Produced for use by the students ofFPMTs Institut Vajra Yogini during aretreat with Ven Robina Courtin,November 17, 2013.

institutvajrayogini.fr

Gratitude to Wisdom Publications for ThePath to Enlightenment; and to LamaYeshe Wisdom Archive for DedicatingOurselves to Others and When We StopClinging to the I, There is No Longer aBasis for Attachment.

lamayeshe.comwisdompubs.org

Cover This is Lama Yeshes Altar CarriedAlways With Him: a photo by Ven RobinaCourtin of a framed picture of LordBuddha, with writing by Lama ZopaRinpoche, from the altar in the HayagrivaRoom at Tushita Retreat Centre,Dharamsala, India.


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1. The Stages of the Path toEnlightenment

Before we practice Lord BuddhasTantrayana teachings, we need to haveprepared our minds by studying andpracticing the various stages of the path,lam-rim a packaging of Buddhasteachings, unique to Tibet, based upon theelucidations of the eleventh-century Indianmaster Atisha.

In the lam-rim the essential points of

Buddhas extensive explanations ofpsychology and philosophy are extractedand presented from A to Z in such a waythat they can be internalized, experiencedas something relevant to ones life whichis the point of all the teachings. As LamaTsongkhapa, the fourteenth-centuryfounder of the Gelug tradition, says in oneof his poetic texts on the lam-rim, Songs ofExperience, All the teachings are to betaken as sound advice as there is nocontradiction between scripture andpractice.

It is easy to be captivated intellectuallyby Buddhas ideas about reality but toforget to taste them, as Lama Yeshe wouldput it. Its also easy to not know how totaste them. The type of meditation that oneuses to internalize these ideas, advocated

by Lama Tsongkhapa, is called analyticalmeditation.

Simply, analytical meditation is amethod for familiarizing oneself themeaning of the Tibetan word formeditation, gom, is to familiarize againand again with the various approachestaught by the Buddha, bringing them fromthe head to the heart, until they are onesown experience and no longer merelyintellectual.

In other words, by sitting still andthinking about Buddhas views again and

again and from many angles in a clear andintelligent way with a finely focused mind in other words, by analyzing them weare compelled to reassess at ever deeperlevels the fundamental assumptions that

we hold as truths and that Buddha hasshown to be completely untrue.Eventually, we undergo a paradigm shiftin the way we perceive ourselves and theworld. Buddha says that the extent towhich these assumptions are out of syncwith how things actually are is the extentto which we suffer and the extent to which,therefore, we harm others. Thus, aconsequence of practice is the ending ofsuffering, nirvana a psychological state,not some place like heaven. The lam-rim ispresented according to three levels ofpractice. The first two scopes, as they arecalled, are practices shared by theHinayana teachings of Lord Buddha, andthe third scope is the presentation of theMahayana components of the path toenlightenment.

According to Mahayana Buddhism, justas a bird needs two wings to fly, we need

both the wing of wisdom and the wing ofcompassion. In order to develop thewisdom wing mainly accomplished inthe first two scopes we work on our ownminds; the main beneficiary is oneself, butindirectly others also benefit. In order todevelop the compassion wing accomplished in the third scope wecontinue to work on our minds, but themain beneficiary is others.

THE PRELIMINARYCONTEMPLATIONS1. NATURE OF MINDThe first point to become familiar with using the approach of Lama ZopaRinpoche is the beginninglessness of themind. And especially for Westerners, thisdemands that we understand the nature ofmind in a conventional sense. Theworkshop is in the mind, as Rinpoche

puts it, and as long as were not clear about


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exactly what the mind is and what it is not,we wont make much progress in ourpractice.

According to Buddha, mind refers tothe entire spectrum of our internal

experiences: thoughts, feelings, emotions,tendencies, personality characteristics,unconscious, subconscious, intuition,spirit; all of this is known as mind, orconsciousness. It is not the brain, its notphysical. It does not come from anyoneelse, neither ones parents nor a superior

being.The only other option is that it comes

from previous moments of itself, that it hasits own continuity, and thus is

beginningless. This present moment ofmind has to have come from a previousmoment, which itself has come from aprevious moment, and so forth. Like thechicken and the egg, we cannot find a firstmoment. No matter how far back we tracethe continuity of our mental moments,whichever moment we get to, that momentcant simply have begun on its own, out ofnowhere; it must necessarily have come

from a previous moment of that verycontinuity of mind. Thus, we can neverfind a first moment. (And its the samewith physical energy, the universe itself.As His Holiness the Dalai Lama said indiscussion with scientists: Big bang? Noproblem. Just not the first big bang, thatsall.)

As a starting point for practice, its alsocrucial to understand the ultimate natureof this mind of ours. According to

Mahayana Buddhism, every living beingpossesses innately the potential forperfection, for Buddha hood. The term inTibetan for sentient being is sem-chen,literally, mind possessor; and according toBuddha there is not an atom of spacewhere there are not sentient beings.

Each of these beings is actually apotential Buddha (in Sanskrit, fullyawake) in the sense that an acorn is a

potential oak tree. That is the acorns

nature, what it really is. We have no choicebut to give it the appropriate conditions toenable it to become what it really is, an oaktree. And so with sentient beings: we haveno choice but to develop our innate

potential for perfection.That is to say, we can develop all our

good qualities such as love, compassion,generosity, wisdom, and so forth to astate of perfection beyond which we cantdevelop them further. This state ofperfection, Buddha says, is our naturalstate.

2. THE VIRTUOUS FRIENDRecognizing that we have this innatepotential, we need to find someone toshow us how to develop it. Theres nothingwe know that we havent learned fromothers, so it goes without saying that todevelop our perfection in the way thatBuddha describes it, we need to find aqualified teacher.

Having found the teacher, we need todevote ourselves appropriately in order toget the maximum benefit from the

relationship. In short, the heart of thispractice is to see the guru as the Buddha.

It is said that the real benefit that comesfrom a teaching is not so much from theteachers knowledge but more from ourown confidence, our faith, that the teacheris the Buddha. And we will have thisconfidence only if we have thoroughly andintelligently checked the teacher beforecommitting ourselves. If were half-hearted, or overly sentimental, there will

be no stability in the relationship, and wewont be convinced that the instructionsare valid. We are moving into unchartedwaters, so we need great confidence. Theresponsibility is ours.

3. THIS PRECIOUS HUMAN REBIRTHHaving found a teacher, we need toenergize ourselves to want to develop ourinnate potential; the desire to do so doesnt

come naturally. Lama Atisha, the eleventh-


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century Indian master who wrote the textLamp for the Path to Enlightenment uponwhich Lama Tsongkhapas lam-rimteachings are based, recommends that wecontemplate how fortunate we are that as

human beings we have such excellentconditions: an intelligent mind, a healthy

body, access to valid spiritual paths andteachers, and so forth; and that we are freeof the appalling conditions that the vastmajority of sentient beings experience.

This human life is a rare thing to have.According to Buddha, human beingsrepresent only the tiniest percentage of allliving beings. In The Tibetan Art ofParenting, one Tibetan lama was quoted assaying that whenever any human male andfemale are in sexual union, billions ofconsciousnesses that have recently passedaway (from all realms of existence) arehovering around, desperate to get a humanrebirth.

If we were to realize how hard we musthave worked in our past lives to haveobtained this good-quality, one-in-a-billionhuman body and mind and this collection

of conducive conditions, we would beextremely humbled and would find itunbearable to waste even a single momentof this precious opportunity.

To waste this life is to use it foranything less than the practice of morality and the minimum level of morality is torefrain from harming others. To use thislife even more skillfully, we could removefrom our minds the most deeply heldwrong assumptions about how things

exist; and, even more skillfully still, wecould fulfill our innate potential forperfection by attaining Buddha hood, andthen be able to work unceasingly for the

benefit of others.

THE LOWEST SCOPE OF PRACTICE4. DEATH AND IMPERMANENCEHaving primed ourselves for practice, wenow contemplate how this precious and

rare human life is extremely fragile and

can end at any moment. The assumption ofpermanence is deep within us. The ideathat our friend who has cancer is dyingand we are not is absurd. As Lama ZopaRinpoche points out, Living people die

before dying people every day.By contemplating that our death is

definite, that our time of death is uncertain,and that the only thing of any use to us atdeath is the accumulation of virtue withinour minds, we will radically increase ourwish not to waste this life.

5. THE SUFFERING OF THE LOWERREALMSGiven that we could die at any moment Best to think that I will die today, saysRinpoche and given that there arecountless imprints of negativity, thepotential causes of future rebirths, on our

beginningless minds, it is not unlikely thatour next rebirth will be a suffering one. Bycontemplating the sufferings of such

beings as animals, hungry ghosts, and hellbeings, we can develop a healthy revulsionfor those types of rebirth.

All living beings are experiencing theresults of their own past actions. As LamaYeshe says, Its not as if someone in a placecalled Hell built that iron house, lit the

blazing fire, and thought, Aha! I amwaiting for Thubten Yeshe. Soon he willdie and come here. Im ready for him! It isnot like that. Hell does not exist in thatway. The reality is that at the time of death,the powerful energy of the previousnegative actions of that being, existing as

imprints on its mind, is awakened, oractivated, and creates that beingsexperience of intense suffering, which wecall Hell. Hell does not exist from its ownside; the negative mind makes it up.

6. REFUGE IN BUDDHA, DHARMA,AND SANGHAWhom can I turn to give me the methodsto prevent such a suffering situation? We

can have great appreciation for an excellent


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doctor, but if were not suffering, we wontgo out of our way to consult him. Butwhen we discover that were sick, we willeagerly turn to him and his medicine.

Recognizing that were suffering, we

contemplate the qualities of Buddha, hismedicine, and his practitioners, and, basedon our wish to get rid of suffering, we turnto them for support. Especially we turn tothe Dharma, Buddhas medicine, themethods he taught that we will apply. TheDharma is the real refuge.

7. KARMANow we actually begin to practice: weapply Buddhas instructions on how toavoid suffering. We learn to know what topractice and what to avoid. According toBuddha, everything we say, do, and thinkis a karma, an action, that will necessarily

bring a reaction, a result, in the future.Every thought, word, and deed plantsseeds in our minds that will necessarilyripen as fruit: negative actions ripen assuffering, positive actions ripen ashappiness. There is nothing that living

beings experience that isnt the result ofwhat theyve done before. With karma,there is no one sitting in judgment,punishing or rewarding us. Actions bringtheir own results; it just naturally happens,according to Buddha.

Given the simple logic that we wanthappiness and dont want suffering, welearn to abide by the laws of karma natural laws, not created by anyone. Whatwe are now is the result of what we have

done, said, and thought before, and whatwe will be in the future is thus in our ownhands. We are the boss. One might say thatfor the Buddha, karma is the creationprinciple. It is not enough, however,merely to refrain from creating negativekarma; we need to take care of the karmicseeds already in our minds, planted theresince beginningless time. Thus, we begin tohave great respect and esteem for the four

opponent powers, which can fully purify

us of having to experience the results ofour negative karma in the future, as LamaTsongkhapa says in his Songs ofExperience.

Given that weve had countless lives in

the past and that many of the karmic seedsin our minds from those past lives arelikely to be negative, and given thatsuffering comes from negative karma andthat we dont want suffering, it followsthat we would want to remove thenegative karmic seeds from our minds

before they ripen.Purification is a psychological process.

We created negativity with our minds,says Lama Yeshe, and we purify it bycreating positivity. The four opponentpowers are regret, reliance, the antidote,and the promise.

First, we need to regret the harm wevedone in the past to others, because we donot want any more suffering in the future;were fed up with suffering. Second, weneed to rely upon the Buddha and hismethods; we also rely upon the sentient

beings whom we have harmed by

developing compassion for them, aspiringto become a Buddha as quickly as possible,since only then can we really know how to

benefit them. Third, we apply the antidotein the form of a purification practice. Thisis like taking the medicine for our karmicillness and Buddhism has a medicinecabinet full of medicines. Finally, we makethe promise, the determination not tocreate these negative actions, not to doharm, again.

We can mold our minds into anyshape we like, Lama Zopa Rinpoche says and that we are insane, not to do thispractice every day.

Having a strong appreciation for thelogic of karma, based on thinking aboutdeath and impermanence and the lowerrealms and on going for refuge in theBuddha, his Dharma, and Sangha all

based on the preliminary three

contemplations we can be assured that,


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at the very least, when we die ourconsciousness will continue to experiencean environment conducive to happiness.

Psychologically, this is the basic butnevertheless amazing level of practice. A

person of this level of capability is amature human being possessing a healthyself-respect, who recognizes that theiractions bring consequences to themselves,and who thus wants to avoid committingany negative actions. At this level ofpractice, there is not yet any talk ofcompassion for others that belongs to thethird scope. First, we need to developcompassion for ourselves.

This is the beginning of renunciation,the first principal aspect of the path toenlightenment.

THE MIDDLE SCOPE OF PRACTICE8. SUFFERING: THE FOUR NOBLETRUTHS

At this point, we are now subdued enough,and aware enough, to delve more deeplyinto the way our mind works; tounderstand in a more sophisticated way

Lord Buddhas model of the mind. Wenow truly become our own therapists, asLama Yeshe would say. By familiarizingourselves with the four noble truths, forexample, we can fully developrenunciation.

The third noble truthis Buddhasassertion that it is possible to be free ofsuffering. This is another way of stating,according to the Mahayana Buddhistapproach, that we all possess the innate

potential for buddhahood. So, if its truethat its possible to be free of suffering and Buddha is not talking the way mostreligions talk, that this can only beachieved after weve died, in heaven withGod; hes talking psychologically thenwe need to discover precisely whatsuffering is (the first noble truth), we needto discover precisely what the causes ofsuffering are (the second), and then we

need to know the way to stop suffering

and its causes (the fourth). Its extremelypractical.

This needs a lot of inner investigation:the clarity, precision, and depth of analysisthat we use in scientific discovery is what

Buddha demands we use to discover thenature of our minds, karma, emptiness,and the rest.

There are three kinds of suffering: thesuffering of suffering ordinary, everydaysuffering and pain; the suffering of change what we usually think of as happiness;and all-pervasive suffering the conditionof being propelled into this universe, withthis body and mind, all of which areproducts of desire and the other delusions,and thus are in the nature of suffering.

The causes of sufferingare two: karma,our past actions that set us up to meet thissuffering situation, and the delusions, ourpresent neurotic responses to our situation.The punch in the nose, for example which is what we normally think of as thecause of our suffering actually plays onlya secondary role, according to Buddha. Mypast harmful actions are the main reason

Im being punched now, and my angryresponse to the punch is the main reason Iwill suffer in the future. Thus, the ballkeeps rolling. However, once we establishthe actual causes of the problem, we willknow how to solve it.

We need, then, to become very familiarwith the way our mind works. We start bylearning to distinguish between sensoryconsciousnesses and the mentalconsciousness. Then, within mental

consciousness our thoughts, feelings, andemotions we need to distinguish betweenthe positivestates of mind and thenegative. And then, crucially, we need tounderstand how all our emotions areconceptually based. Anger, attachment,

jealousy, and the rest are elaborateconceptual constructions. Theyre storiesmade up by our minds.

The root cause of our sufferingis the

state of mind called ignorance (often


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known as self-grasping when its related tooneself).

Effectively, however, attachment is themain source of our problems in day-to-daylife. Its the default mode of the mind. Yet,

when we hear Buddha say that we cant behappy unless we give up attachment, wepanic and think, as Lama Zopa Rinpocheputs it, You mean, I have to give up myheart, my happiness? This is because weconfuse attachment with love, happiness,pleasure, and so forth.

The main cause of the second kind ofsuffering, the suffering of change, isattachment. The experience of pleasure Iget when I eat chocolate cake is, in fact,nothing other than suffering. Why?

First, the pleasure doesnt last:Attachment is completely convinced that itwill, but the pleasure inexorably turns intosuffering the more cake I eat, the moredisgusting it becomes.

Second, the pleasure I experience isnothing other than suffering because itsadulterated, not pure. The pleasure isdependent upon delusions: I need to get

something in order to be happy. And third,the pleasure is actually suffering because,as our mothers told us, The more you get,the more you want. I dont actually getsatisfaction when I eat the cake, which iswhat my attachment expects. In fact, I getdissatisfaction instead, as my yearning toeat cake is even greater next time.

Attachment goes to extremely subtlelevels. Its insidious. As Lama Yeshe says,he could tell us about attachment for one

whole year, but well never begin tounderstand it until weve looked deeplyand carefully into our own minds anddiscovered the intricacies of it forourselves. Attachment is a honey-coveredrazor blade: we are convinced its theprelude to pleasure, but in fact, it leads tonothing other than pain.

The pleasure we get by followingattachment is the pleasure of the junkie: it

doesnt last, it is contaminated, and it leads

only to more craving. In our culture, itsthe junkie who is said to have a problemwith attachment while the rest of us arenormal. According to Buddhas model ofthe mind, attachment and addiction are

synonymous. Due to our attachment, inother words, were all addicts it is simplya question of degree.

Buddha says that real pleasure, orhappiness, is the state of our minds onceweve given up attachment. Its our naturalstate (attachment, anger, jealousy, and therest are thoroughly unnatural, according toBuddha), it lasts, and it isnt dependentupon something outside of ourselves. Whowouldnt want that?

Contemplating the four noble truthsagain and again will eventually bring us toa genuine renunciation of suffering and itscauses. As Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, wewill have achieved renunciation when justthe thought of another moment ofattachment is so disgusting, its like beingin a septic tank.

The person at this level of capability isan extremely wise, joyful, loving person,

and utterly content, regardless of whateverhappens in their life. This renunciation, thefirst of the three principal aspects of thepath, is the culmination of practice of thefirst two scopes.

THE GREAT SCOPE OF PRACTICEThe accomplishment of renunciation is thesound basis for the development of love,compassion, and eventually, bodhichitta,the second principal aspect of the path.

Without being fed up with my ownsuffering (renunciation), based on theunderstanding of why Im suffering (mypast karma and present delusions), Icannot develop empathy for the sufferingof others (compassion) based on theunderstanding of why theyre suffering(their past karma and present delusions).

The culmination of this scope of practiceis bodhichitta: the spontaneous and

heartfelt wish to become a Buddha as


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quickly as possible because the suffering ofothers is unbearable, knowing that only asa Buddha can one be effective ineliminating the suffering of others.

Bodhichitta comes from the

development of great compassion: not onlyis the suffering of others unbearable, butone feels the responsibility to remove it,

just as a mother knows that it is her job torelieve the suffering of her child. HisHoliness the Dalai Lama calls this greatcompassion universal responsibility.

Great compassion comes fromcompassion: the finding of the suffering ofothers unbearable.

Compassion is developed after love,which is the wish that others be happy.(Khensur Rinpoche Jampa Tegchog haspointed out that, depending on the person,sometimes compassion is developed beforelove.)

The foundation of all these isequanimity, the awareness that friend,enemy, and stranger are actually equal,from the point of view of their eachwanting to be happy.

Of the various meditation techniquesused to develop these amazing states ofmind, the series known as exchanging selfwith others is considered to be the mostpowerful. Lama Atisha received theseinstructions of exchanging self with othersfrom his guru Serlingpa in Indonesia. AsPabongkha Rinpoche points out inLiberation in the Palm of Your Hand, afterLama Atisha received these teachings, theywere kept secret, as they were considered

to be so far beyond the capability of mostordinary people.

Another way of developing bodhichitta,which comes from Lama Tsongkhapa,combines the techniques taught inexchanging self with others with those ofthe sevenfold cause and effect instruction,eleven altogether.9. EQUANIMITYFriend, enemy, and stranger are labels

invented by the ego. A friend is necessarily

a person who helps me not my next doorneighbor, me. An enemy is someone whoharms me, and a stranger is a person whoneither harms nor helps me. Consequently,we feel attachment for the friend, aversion

for the enemy, and indifference toward thestranger. We are blinded by these views.

Until we can go beyond these deludedinterpretations and come to see ourenemies, friends, and strangers as equal,our hearts cant grow genuine love andcompassion. As Lama Zopa Rinpoche says,the love we feel now (for our friends) isindeed love, but its unstable because of

being based on attachment. There arestrings attached: as long as you help me, ofcourse I will love you, that is to say, wantyou to be happy.

We need to argue with our egos views,gradually seeing the illogic of them,discovering that in actual fact our friends,enemies, and strangers, from their point ofview, are completely equal in wanting to

be happy.This equanimity is the stable foundation

on which to build genuine love,

compassion, great compassion, andbodhichitta.

We now meditate on the eleventechniques for developing bodhichitta.

10. ALL SENTIENT BEINGS HAVEBEEN MY MOTHERRecognizing that our mind is

beginningless, it follows that weve hadcountless previous lives in which we have

been connected to all beings countless

times. Its a matter of numbers. Thiscontemplation is a practical way to expandour mind to encompass all others. In orderto open my heart to these countless faceless

beings, it helps to think about how theyveall been my mother in the past. In the West,we might think this is meant to make usmiserable, as we tend to think that ourmothers are a main cause of our suffering.Its helpful, then, to contemplate the many

ways in which our mother has been kind.


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11a. CONTEMPLATING THEKINDNESS OF THE MOTHERAt the moment, with our deeply heldwrong assumptions that I didnt ask toget born, that who I am has nothing to do

with me, that my mother and father mademe, and so forth it seems reasonable to

blame our parents for our problems. Also,even our view of kindness is mistaken: wethink of someone as kind only if they dowhat we want. However, if we understandthat a person is kind when they make theeffort to help us, then its clear our motherhas been kind in a myriad of ways. Even ifshe gave me away at birth, her kindness innot aborting me is extraordinary.

If all beings have been my mother, thenthey have all been kind to me in a vastnumber of ways.

11b. CONTEMPLATING THEKINDNESS OF ALL BEINGS

An even more profound way to expandour hearts to encompass others is tocontemplate the ways in which all beingsare kind to me. Theres nothing that Ive

used in my life that hasnt come from thework of countless living beings. I cant findthe beginning of the number of beingsinvolved in the making of this book Imholding: the trees the paper came from, thepeople who cut down the trees, thecreatures who died, the people whoshipped the trees, the driver of the truck,the people who made the truck; those whomade the paper, who cut the paper,wrapped it, those who made the wrapping;

those who built the store where I boughtthe bookIf it were not for every one ofthem, I would not have a book, clothes,food, even a body.

12. REPAYING THEIR KINDNESSI have no choice, then, but to try to repaythe endless kindness of these countlessmother sentient beings, but for whom Iwould have nothing. I would not even

exist.

13. SEEING OTHERS AND MYSELF ASEQUALBecause of my delusions, instinctively I seemy views, my needs, as more importantthan the views and needs of others. But

there is no logic to this at all. In reality,there is not a fraction of difference betweenme and others, in just the same way asthere is no difference between friend,enemy, and stranger. Everyone else wantsto be happy and doesnt want to suffer, justlike me. Just ask them; this fact is not hardto prove. Even if I have low self-esteem, Idont really see others as more importantthan me; actually, I resent them. Always,Im full of an overriding sense of self.

14. THE DISADVANTAGES OFCHERISHING MYSELF MORE THANOTHERSFrom the point of view of the wisdomwing, the main cause of our suffering isself-grasping, the instinctive clinging to aninherent sense of self. From the point ofview of the compassion wing, theinstinctive wish to take care of myself more

than others the attitude of self-cherishing is the problem.

All my problems with others, in mypersonal relationships or at work, are

because of putting myself first. Even in arelationship with another person in 12Becoming the Compassion Buddha which Ifeel like the victim, this too is due to mypast negative karma toward that person,which I created out of self-cherishing.

15. THE ADVANTAGES OFCHERISHING OTHERS MORE THANMYSELFEverything good in my life comes fromhaving put others first in the past: I havemoney because of my past generosity,people like me because Ive been kind inthe past, they trust me because Ive spokenthe truth. Putting others first is why I feelgood right now.


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If putting others first is what will makeme happy, then how illogical of me not todo so. As His Holiness the Dalai Lama hassaid, If you are going to be selfish, bewisely selfish: cherish others.

16. TAKING UPON MYSELF THE

SUFFERING OF OTHERS:DEVELOPING COMPASSIONUsing the meditation technique called tong-len(giving and taking), we visualize asuffering person or group of people infront of us. This technique can be doneconjoined with the breath: when we

breathe in, we imagine taking intoourselves the sufferings of others.

Pabongkha Rinpoche recommends thatwe start in the morning: after we rise, wevisualize taking upon ourselves our ownafternoon headache. Then we move on totaking on the sufferings of our dearestfriends, then those of our enemies.Eventually, we take on the sufferings of allliving beings in the various realms. Weimagine that this suffering comes into usand smashes the rock of self-cherishing at

our heart; as a result, we imagine that allothers are now free of their suffering.

17. GIVING MY HAPPINESS ANDGOOD QUALITIES TO OTHERS:DEVELOPING LOVEWhen we breathe out, we imagine givingour happiness, wealth, health, goodqualities, and merits to our friends, then toour enemies, and then to all living beings.How marvelous that they are now happy!

18. GREAT COMPASSIONOn the basis of these meditations, wegradually become convinced that its our

job actually to take away the suffering ofothers. If not me, then who will do this?Contemplating in this way will eventuallylead to the profound attitude of

bodhichitta.

19. BODHICHITTABodhichitta is the spontaneous andheartfelt wish to become a Buddha asquickly as possible because only when weare enlightened will we be qualified to do

the job of perfectly guiding others awayfrom their suffering and to the perfectionof their own buddhahood. One who hascompletely accomplished this sublime stateof mind is a bodhisattva. One of theindications of having accomplished

bodhichitta, of having become abodhisattva, is that the thought of I nolonger arises in the mind; thus, one existsonly for the sake of others. It is said thateven the breath of a bodhisattva is for thesake of others. With this realization of

bodhichitta, we will have accomplished thesecond of the three principal aspects of thepath.

We now practice the six perfections ofthe bodhisattva: generosity, morality,patience, enthusiastic perseverance,meditation, and wisdom. The first four areaccomplished in relation to sentient beings,the last two in ones meditation.

20. GENEROSITYWe practice this by giving things to thosewho need them, even as small as amouthful of food to a dog; giving advice tohelp peoples minds; giving what is calledfearlessness by rescuing creatures fromimminent death, for example, or byliberating people from prison, as PabongkaRinpoche suggests.

Sometimes its easier to give advice than

to give money to a homeless person, forexample. We should learn to give whatsdifficult to give and perhaps we couldgive five dollars, not fifty cents.

A sign of having perfected generosity is,for example, the ability to effortlessly giveour body to a starving animal (assuming,of course, that theres no other supply offood available - bodhisattvas arent tryingto prove anything). In one of his previous

lives, Lord Buddha happily gave his body


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to a starving mother tiger who was aboutto eat her babies. Right now, were noteven capable of giving, as Lama ZopaRinpoche has said, one tiny, tiny drop of

blood to a mosquito.

21. MORALITY

In our practice of the wisdom wing (thefirst and second scopes), we focus on themorality of refraining from harmingothers. In the practice of the third scope,the compassion wing, we focus on actively

benefiting others as well: we work to helpthe homeless, the suffering, the sick, thepoor, the dying whoever crosses our pathneeding help.

22. PATIENCEPatience is not merely gritting our teethand waiting for unwanted things to goaway. Patience is a courageous state ofmind that happily welcomes the difficulty.

There are three types of patience. First,theres the patience of accepting the harmthat people do to us. The main reason weget so upset is because of our deeply held

wrong assumptions that it is unfair forothers to harm me, that I dont deserve it,that it has nothing to do with me, and soforth Lama Yeshe calls ego the self-pityme. Buddha says it has everything to dowith me: I created the cause to experienceit, so I have no choice but to accept it. Bythinking in this way, I purify my negativekarma as well as develop a brave andhappy mind.

There is also the patience of accepting

sickness, problems, and so forth that cometo us, for the same reasons as above. LamaZopa Rinpoche says that the thought ofliking problems should arise naturally, likethe thought of liking ice cream.

And finally, there is the patience ofgaining assurance in the Dharma, asPabongkha Rinpoche calls it.

23. ENTHUSIASTIC PERSEVERANCE,OR JOYFUL EFFORTWithout enthusiasm, we cant succeed atanything in our lives, especially

buddhahood. The main obstacles are the

three kinds of laziness.The first is the ordinary laziness of

being too tired. We assume sleep is anecessity, but there are countless greatpractitioners who have gone beyond theneed for it.

The second kind of laziness is what weusually call being too busy: putting offdoing what we need to do. It feels like avirtue, but is, in fact, one of our biggestobstacles to success.

The third kind of laziness is the deeplyheld belief that Im not capable. It, too,feels like a virtue; it seems as if we are

being humble. But as long as we think thatwe cant achieve our potential, we willremain stuck in our comfort zone, nevermoving forward. In any case, its simplynot true: we all possess the potential to be aBuddha. Its our nature.

24. MEDITATIONCalm abiding, or mental quiescence, is thestate of mind of a person who has achievedsingle-pointed concentration in meditation.There are two kinds of meditation, and thisis the accomplishment of the first kind:concentration meditation.

Single-pointed concentration is a subtlelevel of conscious awareness, during whichthe grosser levels of conceptual andsensory awareness have necessarily ceased.

It is a state of mind not even recognized inWestern models of the mind, but one thatBuddha says we can all access.

The main obstacles to our achievingcalm abiding are the two extreme states ofmind that we gravitate between duringmeditation: over-excitement and dullness.The person who has accomplished calmabiding has gone beyond even the subtlestlevels of these two states. The mind when

its single-pointedly concentrated is


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extremely refined, very sharp and clear,and utterly still. Sensory awareness andgross conceptuality have completelyceased. The meditator can effortlesslyaccess and stay in that state of mind as

often and as long as they like. Theexperience of mental quiescence is also anextremely joyful one far more blissful,according to Lord Buddha, than the bestsensory pleasure weve ever had.

25. WISDOMThe essence of the perfection of wisdom isthe development of special insight intoemptiness. With the subtler level ofconscious awareness gained in calmabiding meditation, we can identify andcounteract the primordial misconception,the wrong assumption held deep in the

bones of our being, about the way weourselves and the world around us exist.This misconception is called ignorance,and keeps us locked into the cycle ofsuffering.

This ignorance is not merelyunawareness of whats actually happening

but a state of mind that actively makes upits own fantasies. It is impossible to seethrough the elaborate projections ofignorance with our usual gross conceptuallevel of mind; we need to access themicroscope of our mind to do that, usingthe techniques of calm abiding.

As mentioned above, the extent towhich we are not in touch with the waythings are is the extent to which we sufferand, in turn, the extent to which we harm

others. Ignorance, ego-grasping, is the rootneurosis, the primordial root cause of thissuffering. Its main function is to cling to aseparate, limited, and fearful sense of self,and its voices are attachment, jealousy,anger, pride, depression, and the rest. Aslong as we follow these, we are actingcompletely against our nature, Buddhasays; we will always suffer, and we willcause suffering to others.

First, we need to comprehend theBuddhas explanations about the wayignorance and the other deluded emotionsfunction and about the way the self andother things actually exist. Then, using the

microscope of our mind, accessed in single-pointed meditation, we probe and analyzeagain and again in the second mode ofmeditation, called insight meditation, howthis ignorance is a liar and a cheat: that its

been hallucinating the fantasy self allalong. In the subtlety of concentratedmeditation we deconstruct ignorancesfantasies, eventually discovering,experientially and irreversibly, the absenceof the fantasy self. As His Holiness theDalai Lama has said, its not as if we findthe ego and then throw it out it wasnever there in the first place. What we findis its absence. The discovery of this absenceis the experience of emptiness.

With this, we will have accomplished thethird principal aspect of the path, the viewof emptiness.

So unbearable is the suffering of others,

we will now happily embark upon theskillful practices of the Tantrayana, whichwill enable us to very quickly become ourreal self a Buddha.

By Ven Robina Courtin; the EditorsIntroduction from Lama Yeshes Becomingthe Compassion Buddha, WisdomPublications.


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2. Unravelling Our Delusions

The Buddhist view is that weve all gotextraordinary potential to cultivate ourminds, our consciousness. Its not somespecial gift that only some people have; itsinnate within all of us.

But potential for what? Not somethingholy, like heaven in the sky, or next life,

but potential to eliminate entirely fear,depression, anxiety, neediness, low self-esteem and to fully develop love,

contentment, compassion, clarity, courageand the other qualities we want so badly.Thats the meaning of nirvana.

It is something very earthy, so tasty, notsomething vague and mystical.

This potential exists, simply, in ourminds, our consciousness. Therefore weneed to learn how to access our own mind.Sounds simple enough, but its not a jobwere educated to do. It is not our habit tolook inside, much less know deeply and

well whats going on there.

WHAT IS THE MIND?From the Buddhist point of view, the wordmind covers the entire spectrum of ourinner experiences: thoughts, feelings andemotions, unconscious, sub-conscious,intuition, instinct, even what some mightcall soul all of this is our consciousness.And this, as Lama Zopa Rinpoche puts it,is where the workshop is. This is what wehave to become deeply familiar with inorder to cultivate our marvelous potential.

Mainly what were familiar with, whatwe run to in order to understand our lives,is the outside world, the past the peopleand events and objects which wereconvinced are the main cause of ourhappiness and suffering.

This is okay, and necessary, but notenough. Our parents, our genes, the

boyfriend, the boss, the external

environment they are merely catalysts forour experiences, not the main event. Themain thing is our own mind, our ownemotions, characteristics, personality traits,tendencies: our own very being itself.

Investigating, unravelling, andtransforming this is the Buddhist approachto psychological work.

BEING OUR OWN THERAPISTAccording to this model of the mind,psychological states fall into threecategories: positive, negative, and neutral.Leaving aside the neutral, the positivestates, which are at the core of our being,are necessarily the cause of own wellbeingand happiness, and the basis of ourcapacity to benefit others. The negative,which are not at the core of our being andthus can be removed, are necessarily thecause of our unhappiness and the basis ofour harming others.

The key job, then, is to develop the skillto look inside, to be introspective, in a clearand disciplined way, so that were thenqualified to do the actual job of changing

our emotions, of distinguishing betweenthe positive and negative. To become ourown therapist, in other words, as LamaYeshe puts it.

Not an easy job. First of all, were noteducated to look into our minds. Second,we only notice were angry, for example,when the words vomit out of the mouth; orthat were depressed when we cant get outof bed one morning. Third, even if we dolook at our feelings, often we cant tell the

difference between the positive and thenegative: theyre mixed together in a bigsoup of emotions and a pured soup at.

And one of the biggest obstacles is thatwe dont think we can change them:theyre so concrete, so real: Im born thisway, what can I do about it? We sofiercely identify with the neuroses,

believing that theyre the real me. We eventhink theyre physical. And anyway, who

wantsto look into their mind? Its not my


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fault, is it? I didnt ask to get born! This ishow we all are! What am Isupposed to doabout it?

Everything conspires against our doingthis job.

NEGATIVITY IS NOT INNATE

To give ourselves the confidence to evenstart, we need to think about how thenegative states of mind are not at the coreof our being, they do not define us, theyare not innate, and thus can be removed.This flies in the face of our deeply heldassumption one thats reinforced by allcontemporary models of the mind thatthe positive and negative have equalstatus; that theyre natural; they just arewho we are. If you ask your therapist formethods to get rid of all anger, jealousy,attachment and the rest, theyll thinkyoure insane!

We can be forgiven for thinking thenegative, neurotic, unhappy emotions areat the core of our being: they certainly feellike it! We identify totally with them,follow them perfectly, truly believing this

is who I really am. This is the irony of ego.

NEGATIVE STATES OF MIND AREDISTURBING AND DELUSIONALSo, if the negative, neurotic emotions arethe source of our pain and the positiveones the cause of our happiness, then wed

better learn to distinguish them. This is thevery essence of the job our being our owntherapist.

What are negative states of mind? They

have two main characteristics (which thepositive ones necessarily lack) and theseare indicated by two commonly usedsynonyms: disturbing emotions anddelusions.

Disturbing Even though we can see thatanger is disturbing to oneself just look atan angry person: theyre out of their mind! we fiercely live in denial of it; or wedeflect it, so determined are we to believe

that the external catalyst is the main

problem. My friends on death row inKentucky told me that they receive visitsfrom an old Catholic man who, after thirtyyears of grief and rage after his daughterwas murdered, finally realized that the

mainreason for his suffering was his rage,his anger.

Delusional The other characteristic thatthese unhappy states of mind possess isthat theyre delusional. Wed be offended ifsomeone accused of that, but thats exactlywhat Buddha is saying. The extent towhich our minds are caught up inattachment, anger and the rest is the extentto which we are not in touch with reality.Hes saying that were all delusional, its

just a question of degree.In other words, anger, attachment and

the rest are concepts, wrong concepts. Itseems like a joke to say that these powerfulemotions are based in thoughts, but thats

because we only notice them when theyroar up to the surface as emotion.

Perhaps we can see the disturbingaspect of them, but rarely the delusional.

They are distorted assessments of the

person or the event that we are attached toor angry with; theyre elaborations,exaggerated stories, lies, misconceptions,fantasies, conceptual constructions,superstitions. As Rinpoche puts it, theydecorate on top of what is already therelayers upon layers of characteristics thatare simply not there. Bad enough that wesee things this way; the worst part is thatwe believe that these stories are true. This iswhat keeps us locked inside our own

personal insane asylum.Understanding this is the key to

understanding our negative states of mindand, therefore, how to get rid of them.

ATTACHMENT AND ANGER COMETOGETHERThe delusion that runs our lives isattachment. Its a profound dissatisfaction,neediness; a primordial sense that

something is missing, of being bereft,


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lonely, cut off. Its just there, all the time, inthe bones of our being.

And this is where aversion, anger, theexact opposite of attachment, comes intoplay. The split second that attachment is

thwarted, doesnt get what it wants andthats a thousand times a day aversionarises. Then this is expressed externally asanger or internally as despair anddepression. Attachment and aversion areutterly linked. Being a fantasy, attachmentis not sustainable; the bubble has to burst,and it has nowhere to go but aversion (orignorance, which manifests as boredom,indifference, uncaring).

In our never-ending efforts to keep thepanic at bay, we hungrily seek the rightsounds, smells, tastes, feelings, thoughts,words, but the split second we dont getthem, aversion arises, exploding outwardsas anger or imploding inwards asdepression, guilt, hopelessness, self-hate.

DELUSIONS ARE LIARSAt the root of this, as Buddha calls it, isignorance: marigpa in Tibetan:

unawareness: a fundamental unawarenessof how we actually exist. The function ofthis ego-grasping, as its called, is toisolate and concretize this universe-bigsense of self, a deluded sense of I, atotally fabricated sense of I, whose natureis fear: paranoid, dark, cut off, separate,alienated, and overwshelming.

This instinctive, pervasive sense of anindependent, self-existent, real, solid,definite me-ness, totally pervades

everything there is not an instant when itis not there. Its at the deepest level ofassumption, beneath everything. It isalways there, informing everything wethink and feel and say and do andexperience.

And the main voice of this I is I want.Why? The vivid sense of a separate, lonelyI manifests as a deep sense of missingsomething, not being enough, not having

enough. And that is the irony of ego we

actually feel empty, bereft. And so thatneediness, that bottomless pit of yearning,that hunger: thats attachment. And its themain voice of ego, it is constantly there,moment by moment; not just occasionally

there, but constantly there.This attachment, this desire, being a

misconception, makes the mistake ofbelieving, a million percent, that thatdelicious person, that gorgeous taste, thatlovely smell, that nice feeling, that idea that when I get that, when I have it insideme, then Ill feel full, then Ill be content.That is what desire thinks.

This is so hard to see how desire isdeluded. And it is not meant to be amoralistic issue. As soon as we hear thesewords we feel a bit resentful, What doyou mean Im not allowed to havepleasure? Thats how we feel. But asLama Yeshe has pointed out: were eithercompletely hedonistic, and grasping andshoving everything in, or were completelypuritanical. And the irony is that they are

both coming from a misunderstanding ofdesire; they both come from ego.

Buddha is not being moralistic. He isnot saying we should not have pleasure the reality is he is saying we shouldhavemasses of pleasure, joy, happiness, butnaturally and appropriately, and,incredibly, without relying upon anythingexternal. This is our natural state whenweve depolluted our minds of theneruoses, in fact.

Right now, because of themisconception that desire has, we have got

the wrong end of the stick. Desire thinksthat the delicious chocolate cake, thatgorgeous thing is out there, vibratingdeliciousness, demanding that I eat it nothing coming from my side at all. Wedont think out mind plays any role at all.We think that its all happening from thecakes side, all the energy is coming fromthe cake.


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OUR MIND MAKES IT UPAnd the thing is that we dont see thisprocess! The fact is we are making up thecake attachment has written a huge storyabout cake and what it will do for us. It is a

complex conceptual construction, aninvention, an elaborate view, aninterpretation, an opinion.

Were like a child, as one lama said,who draws a lion, and then becomes afraidof it. We invent everything in our reality,and then we have all the fears and theparanoia and the depression and thegrasping. Were too much!

But we make up that cake, we make upthe enemy we made them up ourselves.This sounds pretty cosmic, but it is literallytrue. This doesnt mean there is no cakethere there is. And it doesnt mean thatFred didnt punch you he did. We needto distinguish between the facts and thefiction: thats the tricky part.

It is hard to see this, but this is the waydelusions function. And basically they areliars. What attachment is seeing is simplynot true. What attachment is seeing simply

does not exist.There isa cake there, but what we think

is cake and what cake actually is arehugely different. This is interesting. And

because this is hard to understandindicates how ancient it is within us.

What were seeing or experiencing,what we are grasping at delicious cakefrom its own side that will make me happy is a total lie. It doesnt exist like that at all.There isa cake there, it isbrown, it is

square: thats valid. And this is whatshard to distinguish the correctness, andthe incorrectness. What is actually thereand what is not there. That is the job weneed to do in knowing the way delusionswork and therefore how to get rid of them.

ATTACHMENT IS THE VOICE OF THEVICTIMAnother characteristic of attachment is that

it is the voice of the victim. We truly feel

we have no control cake is this incrediblepowerful thing, and I just have to have it.What choice do I have? That is attachmenttalking. Attachment gives all the power tothe outside object. Which is why we feel

like a baby. Thats the victim mentality.And victim mentality, the one ofhopelessness, the one of no control, thatsthe voice of attachment. Literally. Thatsexactly how attachment functions.Attachment is giving all the power to thatobject. It sees this truly delicious divinething, which in reality our mind has madeup, and then we believe it and then blameit.

ATTACHMENT IS NOT A FUNCTIONOF THE SENSESWe make the body the boss, as LamaYeshe would tell us. We totally followwhat the senses feel. We assume thedelicious cake is an object of the senses ofcourse, it is; but what we think we see isntwhats there. What appears to the sense ofsight, for example, is not a delicious cake

but simply the shape and colour of the

thing. Delicious cake is a story made upby the mental consciousness, specificallyattachment. This is a crucial point.

Lets analyze. What is beingexperienced in relation to that cake? Whatare the states of mind? One of them is thesenses indeed we smell it in the kitchen,so theres our nose sense. Then theres thetouch, the sight, we see the shape and colorwhen it comes to the table; then we touchit, the hand feels it, then theres the taste

consciousness, the one were wanting themost. So four of the five senses areinvolved in the experience of that cake.

The senses are like dumb animals. Ourtongue doesnt experience the hunger forthe cake, it doesnt leap out of our face andgrab the cake desperately; even our handdoesnt, although it looks like it. The handgoes out to the cake, but not from its ownside. So what does? Its propelled by the

neurotic need to get the cake in the mouth.


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The mental consciousness, in other words.The thought. It is the story about what ischocolate cake, and I need chocolate cake,all the stuff about chocolate cake that ischattering away in the mind. That is where

the delusions exist. Attachment is not afunction of the taste. It is simply notpossible. How can it be? Our tonguedoesnt feel neurotic. Our tongue doesntfeel grasping, our tongue doesnt feel, Iwant to have more cake, it is just adoorway through which this bunch ofthoughts, these concepts, this sense of Igrasps at the experience, isnt it? That is all.So the senses do not experienceattachment. It is a logical fact.

WE ARE JUNKIESSo of course for aeons we have had themistaken assumption that satisfying thesenses is the way to get happiness. So rightnow, we are totally dependent on sensoryobjects. We are all junkies, its just aquestion of degree. We cant imaginehaving pleasure unless we get that fix. Thatfix is any one of the objects of the five

senses. Which makes it sound quite brutal.But unless we can start to look into this

and cut through this whole way ofworking, we will never break free ofsuffering, well never becomes content,satisfied, fulfilled. Ever. Which is why, the

basis of practice, the foundation of allrealizations, is morality. Discipline. Itmeans literally practicing control over thesenses. And it is not a moralistic issue; Itsa practical one. The aim is to get as happy

as possible. This is the aim.

NOTHING WRONG WITH PLEASURE!This happiness, this pleasure, is notdeluded. If pleasure were deluded, wemight as well give up now. Pleasure,happiness, joy are totally appropriate.

So wheres the problem? Why do wesuffer? Why are we frantic and anxiousand desperate, fantasing about the cake

before its even there, then shoving two

pieces in when it comes, and then beingdepressed when we eat too much? Why allthis rubbish? Because we have thesedelusions. Suffering doesnt come frompleasure, it doesnt come from the senses.

It comes from neuroses in the mentalconsciousness. But right now its virtuallyimpossible for us to have pleasure withoutattachment.

ATTACHMENT TO A PERSONIts the same with people. Lets look at theperson we are attached to, the person weare in love with even more dramatic.Again, this soup of emotions, which wenever analyze, never deconstruct.

I can say, I love you. That means Iwish them to be happy. Totallyappropriate. Unbelievable, virtuous. Themore of this the better. We will only gethappiness if we keep thinking that. I wantyou not to suffer, thats calledcompassion. Generosity, maybe youd liketo give the person something. Generosity,in its nature is a virtue, necessarily thecause of happiness.

So, love doesnt cause suffering,compassion doesnt cause suffering, thesenses dont directly cause suffering,happiness cant possibly cause suffering so what does? The cause of suffering is theattachment, first of all, the neurotic senseof an I, a hungry I that sees thisperson, grossly exaggerates their value tome, gives too much power, puts the powerout there in that person, just like thecake, which implies that we are devaluing

the power of ourself. Were giving all thepower to this person, like its all out there,this person, vibrating, so delicious, sogorgeous, this is exactly how it feels. Soattachment is hungry and empty and bereftand lonely. And is completely convincedthat having that person is going to makeme happy.

What attachment does is exaggerate thebeautiful qualities of the person, it is

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that person, because attachment thinks thatif I dont get that person then I am nothappy; because we dont believe we can behappy inside, we have to have an object.Sttachment then starts to manipulate this

person, expects massively that this personwill give me happiness.

Its the same with the person we loathe.We really believe that that person, fromout there, from their own side,independently, definitely, is an awfulperson, as if ugliness is coursing in theirveins along with their blood. We hear theirname, it appears awful, we see their face, itappears awful. The discomfort in our mindis huge. We think the discomfort, theunhappiness, the hurt, the anger, the pain,we actually think and believe they aredoing it to us.

But its a lie. Its our own anger thatcauses the person to look awful, the angerthat makes us so miserable.

GOING BEYOND ENEMY, FRIEND,STRANGERUsually the only person we wish to be

happy thats the meaning of love is theperson we are attached to. And the onlyperson we are attached to is the person welove. So we assume because they cometogether, theyre the same thing. It is justnot accurate. We need to start going

beyond those limits, which is so scary.When we start practicing equanimity, weanalyze: enemy, friend, and stranger wetry to cut through this narrow self-centredview of attachment, ignorance and

aversion.Right now we assume it is normal that

when a person is mean to me, I dont likethem. So we call them enemies. And weassume it is normal that when a person isnice to me, we call them friend. And whena person is doing neither, they are calledstranger. Thats the reality of the entireuniverse, isnt it? We need to go beyondthis one.

WHAT IS ANGER AND WHAT ISANGER NOT?A perfect question. And the perfectanswer, which I heard from a lama, is:Anger is the response when attachment

doesnt get what it wants. But what is itnot?

Anger is not physical.Anger is part ofour mind, and our mind is not physical. Itexists in dependence upon the brain, thegenes, the chemical reactions, but is notthese things.

When angers strong, it triggers hugephysical symptoms: the blood boils, theheart beats fast, the spit comes out themouth, the eyes open wide in panic, thevoice shouts. Or if we experience aversionas depression, the body feels like a leadweight; theres no energy, a terrible inertia.And then, when we boost our seratonin,the body feels good again.

But these are just gross expressions ofwhat, finally, is purely thought: a storymade up by our conceptual mind thatexaggerates the ugly aspects of the personor event or oneself.

Recent findings prove what is explainedin Tibetan Medicine: that what goes on inthe mind affects the body.

Anger is not someone elses fault.Thisdoesnt mean that the person didnt punchme; sure they did. And it doesnt mean thatpunching me is not bad; sure it is. But theperson didnt make me angry. The punchis merely the catalyst for my anger, atendency in my mind. If there were noanger, all Id get is a broken nose.

Anger does not come from our parents.We love to blame our parents! Actually, ifBuddha is wrong in his assertion that ourmind comes from previous lives and ispropelled by the force of our own pastactions into our mothers womb; and if thematerialists are right in asserting that ourparents created us, then we shouldblamethem. How dare they create me, likeFrankenstein and his monster, giving me

anger and jealousy and the rest! But they


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didnt, Buddha says. (Nor did a superiorbeing but we dare not blame him!). Theygave us a body; the rest is ours (includingour good qualities).

Anger isnt only the shouting.Just

because a person doesnt shout and yelldoesnt mean theyre not angry. When weunderstand that anger is based on thethought called aversion, then we can seewe are all angry. Of course, if we neverlook inside, we wont notice the aversion;thats why people who dont express angerexperience it as depression or guilt.

Anger is not necessary forcompassionate action.His Holiness theDalai Lama responded to an interviewerwho suggested that anger seems to act as amotivator for action, I know what youmean. But with anger, your wish to helpdoesnt last. With compassion, you nevergive up.

We need to discriminate between goodand bad, but Buddha says that we shouldcriticize the action, not the person. AsMartin Luther King said, its okay to findfault but then we should think, What

can I do about it?Its exactly the same with seeing our

own faults, but instead of feeling guilty weshould think, What can I do about it?Then we can change. Anger and guilt areparalyzed, impotent, useless.

Anger is not natural.Often we think weneed anger in order to be a reasonablehuman being; that its unnatural not tohave it; that it gives perspective to life. Itsa bit like thinking that in order to

appreciate pleasure we need to know pain.But thats obviously ridiculous: for me toappreciate your kindness, you first need topunch me in the nose?

Anger is not at the core of our being.Being a delusional state of mind, a lie, amisconception, its logical that anger can beeliminated. If I think there are two cups onmy table, whereas there is only one, thatsa misconception. What to do with the

thought there are two cups on my table?

Remove it from my mind! Recognize thatthere is one cup and stop believing the lie.Simple.

Of course, the lies that believe that Imself-existent, that delicious objects make

me happy, that ugly ones make me suffer,that my mind is my brain, that someoneelse created me these lies have been in mymind since beginningless time. But themethod for getting rid of them is the same.

Whats left when weve removed thelies, the delusions, is the truth of our owninnate goodness, fully perfected. That iswhats natural.

PRACTICE IS PAINFULReal practice is painful real practice.Until it is painful, it is not practice, were

just playing safe. Were just keeping ournice comfort zone. Practice has to threatensomething it has to feel painful. Just likewhen we are overweight, we decide we aregoing to get thin and beautiful, and westart doing push-ups. It has to be painful atfirst. We know that if the second we startfeeling pain from doing pushups we stop,

we will never benefit from doing them. Wecan always pretend Oh I did my pushupsthis morning, but if the second theystarted being painful, we stopped, weknow that if our muscles dont hurt, theywill never get strong it is logic. Giving upattachment is like that it has to bepainful.

Until then, we are just being in ourcomfort zone were playing safe, thinkingthat being spiritual means smiling and

being holy and having a pleasant manner.It is just not so. Until we stretch, until wego beyond our limits, we wont get betterat doing anything. We really get our bodystrong when we go beyond our limitsevery day. How do we become anaccomplished pianist or anything? Wehave to go beyond our limits. Thats whatspiritual practice is we have to stretchour limits.

This means we have to be facing ourattachment every day, feeling the pain of it,


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seeing it. And then, the second we start todo that, somehow we become fulfilled,satisfied. That is what is interesting. Whenwe start to give up being a junkie, we startto become happy. We begin to taste our

own potential. As long as we continue tofollow attachment, which is so deep, wewill never be happy.

PRACTICE STARTS WITHMOTIVATIONSo how to begin? It all comes frommotivation. We can start the day bydeciding we will begin, be verycourageous. It starts from the thought. Wetend in the West to dismiss thoughts. Wesay, Its only in the mind, we give no

value to the mind, even though we arecaught in it. We give no value to justthought.

The point is, that if we reallyunderstand this fundamental, and easilyprovable, truth that every thoughtprograms us into what we will become, wewould be so happy to have positivethoughts, and be content with them.Because of two things; first, everything thatwe do comes from the thought that we

think. If I am going to get up and walk outthe door, what is the first thing that has tohappen? My legs dont just jump up andwalk out, my mind has to say I want towalk out that door. So what does thatmean? How do we walk out a door? Thefirst thing is to think I want to walk outthat door.

So every day, youre saying I want tobe compassionate, I want to be beneficial.Youre aspiring, and then youll act. It is nomystery. Thats how we become pianists,

footballers, a cook or a happy, beneficialperson. It starts with the thought, themotivation, the aspiration.

So we just start our practice withpowerful sincere motivations. We aresincere, after all; we do want to be thesethings, loving, compassionate, etc.Genuinely wanting, seeing thereasonableness of having a compassionatethought, seeing the reasonableness ofturning around a negative thought. Not

thinking that thought doesnt matter. What

we are is the product of our thoughts. It issimply a fact. This is what karma is saying.No one else made us into anything, wemade yourself. As Lama Zopa says, we canmould our mind into any shape we wish.

Practice is, in the beginning, every day,is motivation, motivation, motivation. Iwant to do this, I am aspiring to that.When we start every day, we wish May I

be useful, may I not shoot my mouth off totoo many people, etc. Even this is soprofound. We have to value the thought,value the mind, it is so powerful. Like theDalai Lama says, we are then on the righttrack for the rest of the day. Dontunderestimate that. If we really got that,we would be so content, knowing we were

sowing the seeds for future crops ofhappiness. It is like we had a big openfield, and we are sowing seeds for thefuture. Thats practice. Thats how we start.

We shouldnt fret, Im hopeless, Imuseless. We are too concrete in ourthinking. So we start with the motivation,start with the thoughts, and we go into theday, and bring that awareness with us.Watch our mind, be careful of the rubbish,try not to shoot our mouth off too much,

try to be a bit useful, rejoice in the goodstuff. At the end of the day, we look back,we regret our mistakes and rejoice in ourefforts, and then go to bed with a happymind. Thats one day of practice. One dayat a time. It is organic, and its humble. Westart one day at a time, and slowly,something develops.

From teachings by Ven Robina Courtin.


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3. How We Create Karmaand How to Purify It

CAUSES AND EFFECTThe fundamental law that Buddha saysruns the universe is known as karma: thelaw of cause and effect. No-one created it,its a natural law, like botany, it just works.Like gravity, it just works.

Minds create karma, which, strictlyspeaking, means intention. Minds function,minds act, minds, body and speech do

things, leave imprints on the mind, whichripen as future experiences; thats themeaning of karma.

So things that minds do based uponneuroses, based upon ignorance, basedupon delusions, leave imprints in the mindthat distort and harm that mind and willripen in the future as suffering for thatmind. This is found from Buddhasexperience. And the positive things thatminds do, based upon the virtuous stateswithin it are what make that mind contentand pleased and happy and will ripen inthe future as the happiness in that mind.This is a natural law like you put roseseeds in the ground, youre going to get arose bush guess what? You put a weedseed in the ground, youre going to get aweed. So, you put negative seeds in yourmind, itll manifest as suffering. You putpositive seeds in your mind, itll manifest

as happiness. Given that we all wanthappiness and dont want suffering, thenthis is our main concern. We better learnthe laws of botany, learn the laws ofkarma. Its very simple. Its very down-to-earth. Its very grounded. Its not mystical,and nothing to be afraid of, you know.

Because its a doable, reasonable thing,then you can predict the results, and this isthe part thats a big surprise to us. Weknow perfectly well, if you get the laws of

botany down, you know very well weknow the very nature of a law, once its

been established and youve proven it,then you know its predictable. You knowyou do it every time, youre going to get

the same thing every time. If you knowhow to make a cup of tea, youre notsurprised when you get a cup of tea everytime. Its not like, Wow, another cup oftea cameIm amazed! It worked. Onceyou know laws, you can relax. Its howcome we have such a brilliant universe. Itshow come we get computers and gardens

because we know the laws. Its somethingwe really understand, you know.

WE CREATE OURSELVESBut when it comes to religion, we lose ourcommon sense. We think its all to do withmystique, and this, and faith, and crossyour fingers and hope for the best, and no-one knows and then we live in total fear.We live in superstition. Its so shocking tohear what Buddhas saying; its so unusualfor us, because the only religion weveknown, and Im not criticizing now, is the

religion of creators: if God created theuniverse then my job is to do what Godsays itd be rude to stick your nose inGods job. Do what God says. Thats thecreator religion, but thats not the Buddhistone. Buddhas not demanding we do whathe says. Hes simply pointing out from hisown experience what works, and if youhave any interest in this, you check up onwhat he says and give it a go. Thats theapproach, I tell you. Its up to us; were the

boss, not Buddha. Its so important toremember this. We thank him; hes a usefulguide, you know.

And so what hes saying is, we can learnthe laws of the universe. Not just a fewphilosophers can learn it every one of usneeds to, because thats what practice is, isapplying those laws; and the fundamentallaw that runs everything is called karma.Its called cause and effect. We understand

it, like I said, when it comes to the physical


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world we get this. We know, once youknow the law of botany, we know you canpredict the results its very reasonable,no-ones surprised. So, the same withkarma. And this is a shock to us, because

we assume its unknowable, a mystery. Nowonder we live in fear!

What karma is is knowing the laws ofwhat seeds to plant in your mind so that inthe future youll get happiness and whatseeds not to plant in your mind so that youavoid suffering. So, logically, we dontwant suffering and we do want happiness,we better learn the laws of botany, its verysimple so simple its a joke, you know. Inthe beginning, of course, weve got to havesome confidence in it, based on onesresearch on Buddha, research of the lamas,the teachers, who embody Buddhasteachings, but eventually from your ownexperience you start to find it out and haveconfidence in it.

PLANT THE RIGHT SEEDS AND DOTHE WEEDINGSo, its really do-able and practical.

Nothing mysterious. Therefore fear wouldbe alleviated. You know, if you go and doyour garden, if you know botany, youdont live in fear and panic of whether ornot a rose will come; you know you put theseed in the ground, its a rose seed, yougive it the nourishment, you wait for atime, you put a bit of sunshine on it andyou know a rose will come its notsurprising. You dont get a big shock, youknow. You predict it; and you know how

long itll take, so you just relax. Karmaslike this, surprisingly. Were so used to

believing no-one knows whats going tohappen, we think thats scientific. Oh,well, no-one knows, well say as ascientific truth. Buddha disagrees and saysyou can work it all out, you know. Okay, ittakes time the laws are quite complex;

but its all there in the teachings for us tocheck if we want.

So, okay, as Lama Yeshe says, Wecreate negativity with our mind, so we canpurify it by creating positivity with ourmind. They call it purification whichsounds a bit abstract; it just means, you

know, doing your weeding, thatsallgot to do the weeding and grow theflowers. Thats it.

THE FOUR WAYS IN WHICH KARMARIPENS1. THE TYPE OF REBIRTH, IN OURCASE HUMANThere are four ways in which our karmaripens. If we look at our life now, we candivide it into four different results. One isthe very human life that we have thatsthe result of what they call the main or thethrowing karma. In fact, in our case beinghuman we can deduce it was a very, verypowerful practice of morality. Andmorality, bare-bones morality, is the firstlevel of practice, which is the mererefraining from harming others, etc., butespecially not killing.

But not only that; its not enough, as

Lama Zopa says, just being a good person.The times are so degenerate, theres justnot enough oomph in those karmic seeds,so he says its most likely that wevepracticed that morality in the context of aspiritual path and, not only that, but in thecontext of keeping vows of morality which we can discuss in our past life.

So, we built up a lot of habit in themind. We programmed our mind withmorality. And then we died peacefully,

such that the karmic seed that ripened atthe time of our death was a very potentmorality karmic seed nourished by all theother virtue that then programmed ourmind, which was on autopilot when it leftthe body to run not more than a few weekslater to our own present mothers humanwomb.

This is the first way our karma ripened.We got a human life. And really that

should blow our minds, if we think about


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it from the Buddhist point of view. Becausewe have this grasping at self, this deeplyingrained misconception called ignorance,that clings absolutely without question toself and everything being self-existent, and

then since because we only live at the grosslevel of our mind and we dont have anymemory, and then we get born to theseparents and were told that our parentsmade us or that God made us, so we just

believe it all; we never question this wemaybe question the one about God, but wecertainly dont question the fact that ourparents made us; thats an absolute truthfor everybody in the world. Even if youreBuddhist, you still blame your parents ifyoure depressed or things go wrong: Ididnt ask to get born, its not my fault,you know. Its really too much! TheBuddha would say its got nothing to dowith your parents your depressionsyours. Your angers yours. Your love andcompassion and being good at football,too, are yours. You cant blame Hitlerslittle old Austrian housewife mummy forcreating a maniac. Dont be ridiculous its

Hitlers own past stuff. Our parents do notcreate us. They give us a body how kind!The rest is ours.

2. OUR TENDENCIESSo this is the second way our karma ripens.You get the human life the result of yourhard work. I mean, if we stopped takingthis life for granted, and started to analyzeBuddhas teachings and look into karma,and reminded ourselves of this, it would

blow our minds. But we take our lives forgranted. This is what believing in self-existence causes. Were like as thick as apost, you know. We just accept the statusquo, without question. We sink into kindof this sleep mode, taking things forgranted.

So, this second way the karma ripens isall the tendencies inside your mind.Theyre yours, too; theyre just a bunch of

habits, basically. Very simple. Whether

youre good at music or good at killing, orgood at lying or good at generosity or orgood at maths its just a bunch of habits;its your habits from your past practice ofthose very things. We come fully

programmed with all our habits from thefirst second of conception. Theyre ours,not our parents. You might share somewith your parents; youve both got them

because of past habit, and then you cametogether. But theyre your habits, baby.

3. OUR EXPERIENCESThe third one is all the stuff that happens tous; all our experiences, how people see us.If they dont believe our word its becauseof our past lying. If they think were very

beautiful, its because of our past patience.If they pay their bills to you, its because ofour past not stealing. If theyre generous tous, its because of our past generosity. Ifpeople harm us, its because we harmedthem before. If people are kind to us, its

because we were kind to them before.Everything, as Lama Zopa puts it, is ourown karmic appearance. Everything.

Without exception. Everything. Karmadoesnt just happen sometimes. Its notlike as if botany applies in gardens justsometimes. By definition, a garden is theproduct of the law of cause and effectcalled botany; by definition a life is theproduct of the law of cause and effectcalled karma. Everything in your life isyour garden: if its there, you planted it, allthe flowers and all the weeds.

4. OUR ENVIRONMENTAnd the fourth one is called environmentalkarma. Even the way the externalenvironment impacts upon us whether itharms us or helps us, nourishes us ordamages us, whether we live in adisgusting smelly place or a lovely, sweetplace; if you have volcanoes, if you havepleasant weather, harmful weather,whatever environmental karma.


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WERE THE BOSSAll the way we experience the physicalworld; all the way we experience sentient

beings and how they treat us and see usand love us and hate us; all our own

tendencies and even our humanness mygoodness, this is the result of our pastwork; its like were our own creators. Notkidding. This is Buddhas view. Its kind oftasty. Its kind of powerful. Its kind ofoutrageous. Its kind of radical.

So, whats the experiential implicationof this? Were the boss. We did it. Were incharge. No one else to blame. You did it.You are the responsible for all the goodthings that happen to you, for all yourgoodness, and your morality, and thepeople who are good to you in your lifeand your kindness and the good thingsthat happen. You did it. When we can ownthe good stuff, its easy to own the badstuff. Makes you courageous.

So, you take stock of this garden youlook at your life, and you see the crummythings that happen. You see the peoplewho lie to you. You see the people who

harm you. You see the people who dontpay their bills to you. You see the badthings that happen to you, and you go, DoI like this? and you go, No, I dont. Andthen you go, I wonder what caused it?and then you go, Well, it must have beenmy past actions similar to this. Oh, drat. Sowhat can I do about it? And then you go,Well, Id better stop doing it, hadnt I, if Idont want it in the future. And Id betterclean up the seeds Ive already planted that

havent yet ripened.Its so practical. Its a half a dozen

thoughts, but instead look at the dramaswe experience when things go wrong shouting and yelling and depressed andangry and blaming people and cursing andfear and all the drama. Were kicking andscreaming like crazy children, refusing toaccept the simple reality that This is mylife, I did it, what can I do to change it?

All the fuss and bother we go through.Were ridiculous.

Of course, easy to say, but very hard tosee this, mainly because were addicted tothe samsaric way of interpreting life.

PURIFICATION IS A

PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSSo, like all this work in Buddhism, thisprocess of purification is practical, itspsychological. So a really easy way toremember is and I like this one is to callit the Four Rs. Theres different orders,you know, but I like this particular order.The first one is Regret, the second one isReliance, the third one the Remedy, thefourth one, Resolve, the determination tomake changes.

1. FIRST OPPONENT POWER: REGRETSo the first one is acknowledging, youvegot to acknowledge, you know, if youvegot a sickness, youve got to recognizewhat it is, dont you? As long as you live indenial of the sickness, theres nothing youcan do; you cant go further. Youve got to

first acknowledge theres a problem. Andyouve got to be sick of it, fed up with it.And then youve got to want to change it.And then you use the practice as amedicine to try and prevent it, to try andpurify it and heal it; and then you have tomake a determination not to do it again,

because you dont want the same sickness.Its pretty reasonable. Youve first got to

acknowledge youve got cancer, and regretall that smoking. Im sick of this suffering.

This is crazy, I dont want this. Then youdo something, you know, to purify it. Thenyou determine never to do it again. This isreasonable; its practical, its commonsense.

So, the good analogy to use here ishaving taken poison. Trouble is, but whenit comes to our moral stuff, we get wemake this other whole set of rules and weget all guilty and ashamed and neurotic

and all this thing, you know; were


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ridiculous. Completely ridiculous. Werelike children. But the same things applyand thats why its a good analogy thelamas use and I like to use this one: this isthe analogy of having taken poison.

So we know perfectly well, if youannounce, you know, Robina! Therespoison in your dinner! your instantaneousresponse, you know, would be, Oh! Whata fool! Then well instantly say, Quick!Wheres the doctor?

BLAME, GUILT, DENIALNow, we dont do that. Were dumb, whenit comes to doing things like getting angryand killing and lying and stealing andgetting depressed and harming others andall the rest of the rubbish we do. Not tomention the torturing and everything, ifwere a torturer. What we do instead isequivalent to saying, Who put poison inmy dinner? Im going to try and find theperson to blame, and then you go and tryto work out who to sue, because they putpoison in your dinner. Meanwhile, youredying. But all your thoughts are for

blaming. How dumb can you get? Imhappy to blame a person, but meanwhile,take care of yourself first, please So

blame is pretty useless, which is our typicalmode.

Another typical mode is guilt Oh, Iate poison. Oh, Im such a bad person. I atepoison. Every day, youre getting sickerand sickerOh, Im such a bad person, Iate poison. We love to live in this one.Completely useless. Complete waste of

time. Totally impotent. Its the same asblame, but youre the person youreblaming. One is anger, one is self-blame.Theyre the same problem. Totally useless.

The third one, even more ridiculous and we love this one Robina! Therespoison in your dinner! There is not! Wecall it living in denial.

ACCOUNTABILITYSo weve got to be accountable. And so,this whole process is based upon theunderstanding of karma. Its basedcompletely on the recognition that you

dont want suffering. This first step is allabout yourself.

So, we have guilt, now, which beatsourselves up. Im just a bad person. Andthat is just the natural one that we run to.Blame or guilt, we run to thesespontaneously because they are a naturalresponse to having ego-grasping, of havingthis ignorance that clings to the self-existent me. Its this dualistic state of mindthat naturally blames others, or naturally

blames yourself. And we have to reallyconquer that. We have to argue with thatwrong view. And this is the view ofaccountability. This is the view of karma cause and effect.

Thats why its an excellent way to thinkabout in order to loosen the grip of ego-grasping. In other words, its one of thefirst examples of dependent arising.Karma. The first example, remember, of

dependent arising is cause and effect thatthings exist in dependence upon causesand conditions. Well, karma is a perfectexample of that, the first level ofdependent arising. Which is a perfect wayto think about in order to realizeemptiness. It loosens the grip of thisfrozen, concrete, set-in-stone me. Eitherpoor me, its usually the poor me that badthings happen to; or Im a bad person. Soweve got to really argue with that

instinctive feeling, which is very mistaken.And thats why His Holiness so

sweetly, when he was asked one time whats the difference between guilt andregret. It was such a sweet answer, butquite profound. He said: Guilt you lookin the past and you go, I did this and I didthat and I did this, and then you go, andIm a bad person. Thats the response.They come together for our mind right

now and we dont see them as separate.


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We assume that if Ive done bad things, Imust be a bad person. Thats how wethink. That second thought is the view ofego, the view of ego-grasping, that over-exaggerates the badness, and paints the

entirety of myself with that brush.The same with blame. You are a bad

person. You did this and you did this andyou did this and youre a bad person.This is what all delusions do; theyexaggerate. And its just not accurate.Forget being not morally right its justnot accurate. Its an exaggeration. It isntaccurate to conclude because youve killedand lied and stolen, that youre a badperson. Youre not. Thats mistaken. Youractionsare bad, no problem with that.Thats clear. Thats more precise.

Meanwhile, anyway, simply speaking,as His Holiness says, Regret you say thesame thing. You say, I did this in the past,and I did this, and I did this but yoursecond thought and we have to cultivatethis consciously, it doesnt come naturally the second thought is different. Soinstead of saying, and Im a bad

person, you then say instead: What can Ido about it? You change the thought. Wehave to cultivate that view.

So, the added part about what regret is,therefore, is actually its like the simplestway to put it in our words its likecompassion for yourself. Like the poison the reason you say, Oh my God, what anidiot! Quick, wheres the doctor? itsobvious. You dont have to state it. Youknow that poison will cause you suffering,

and you know you dont want suffering.Therefore you go, Oh, what an idiot!Wheres the doctor? Not, Oh, arent I

bad, I ate poison, and you stay stuck in it.Its just pl

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