Mind Training, 2011, part 4

Today, there will be a slight change in schedule. We will meditate for a couple minutes. And then since we have completed three months teaching on the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, Rinpoche will ask you to ask two questions and only two good questions on the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, which he will answer. So please reflect on the questions you would like to ask. So we should now meditate for five minutes to generate the motivation, to listen to teachings of the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, is the very essence of the Mahāyāna, with the motivation of placing all sentient beings as measureless as space in a state of unexcelled happiness, is for enlightenment.

So, Rinpoche has taught for three months on the Wheel of Sharp Weapons and all he taught was how to practice. So, what have you been doing? Haven’t you been listening or what? So, Rinpoche did not teach for three months to satisfy your curiosity. He taught the key points of practice.

Then after that there are still questions about practice, what can one do? Ask you other questions. There’s time for two questions. So Rinpoche has taught for three months. He has put a lot of work.

Now time has come to examine you. What have you listened? What have you heard? What have you understood? That’s what Rinpoche wants to know.

What’s the next question? So Rinpoche did not teach on the basis of terminology or words. He tried to explain the meaning of the material. Then it is that meaning which we have to integrate and meditate upon. So how should one practice this?

Well, when for instance difficulties arise in this life, hardship at work for instance, then one should think this hardship arises to me because of things which I myself have done in past lives, which I myself have accumulated, through for instance harming others. Then it is in dependence on this that the Wheel of Sharp Weapons turns backwards and cuts me in turn. And then thinking about this, one must take the strong resolution, I will actually no longer do this in the future and meditate on this. And then reflecting on the fact that as the Buddha himself said, as you have done, such will be done unto you, one must abstain from harming Therefore, this is how one should practice stopping to engage in these actions. Frankly, Rinpoche says, if the meaning is still unclear to you, he doesn’t know what to add.

It is perhaps a sign of not listening carefully. What are your other questions? So, which he says that it is to remind you of what he said. The quote from Āryadeva reads, it is difficult to say whether or not cyclic existence has an end. This is in a way contradictory with Buddha’s statement that cyclic existence has an end.

Āryadeva is merely pointing out how difficult it is. It is difficult because for cyclic existence to have an end, beings must meet the Buddha, and in addition to meeting the Buddha, they must actually practice the Dharma which the Buddha taught. However, the Buddha comes only very rarely into this world of ours. Rinpoche compared it to the duration of a flash of lightning on a dark and cloudy night. It is a very, very short period of time during which the Buddha is in this world of ours, during huge expanses of time when there are no Buddhas and no teachings.

And in addition, during this very short period of time, beings must meet the Buddha, and for this they have to have the karma to do this, and they must in addition practice what he taught. Otherwise, it is not possible for them to gain full enlightenment. For this reason, Āryadeva says that it is extremely difficult. He does not say it is impossible because every being has within his or her continuum the Buddha nature or the Buddha type, which functions as the cause for the attainment of full enlightenment. But only if this cause has led to maturation.

Without practice, this Buddha nature simply goes to waste and is unused. So, He explained this very clear last time, but you have obviously not been listening. There is a famous passage which Rinpoche quoted. The Buddha says, I do not cleanse the sins of beings’ bodies with water, nor do I remove them with my hand, nor do I cleanse them through imparting my blessing, it is through teaching suchness that I benefit beings. In other words, the Buddha himself says that it is through teaching emptiness which is to be practiced that beings can be benefited.

Are there any other questions? You aren’t listening. Objection. You’re just sitting and not listening. Are the questions over?

Says, do you think this is practice? It’s sitting as Vajrapāni. Yes. So if there are no more questions about the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, Rinpoche would at present take questions about all he taught so far. The three principal paths, the bodhicitta generation, and so forth.

Yes? So the visualization to be performed is reflecting on the fact that when we think of the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, it is actually the thoughts which we have done unto others, which come back to us in the form of the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, the karmic Wheel of Sharp Weapons. Likewise, when we want to practice giving and taking, Tonglen in this way, first we think that beams of light emanate from our nostrils and that they go to others and they take all the hardship and suffering of others, and then they bring it back within ourselves, it enters us we take it upon ourselves freeing others of all suffering and hardship. And then once again we imagine beams of light emanating from our nostril and taking all of our joy and happiness and giving it to others and then returning to us. This is how one would practice it.

What is meant by this question? Yes, that you have a lot of work to do it from the standpoint of the field of sharp weapons. What does this mean? Talks of training in bodhicitta, in Tonglen, and in the view of emptiness. It says nothing about the affairs of this life.

If we have to work a lot in this life, it is just a matter of earning our daily bread. The Wheel of Sharp Weapons does not say you have to work, the Wheel of Sharp Weapons says you have to practice Dharma. And the Wheel of Sharp Weapons explains precisely how sufferings in this life are the result of deeds which we have committed in past lives. For instance, in the same way as if we have a stomach ache and we identify the food which has caused the stomach ache, we cease eating that food to put an end to the stomach ache, and in the same same way as if we have a headache based on the weapons, we know that the headache is caused through broken commitments from past lives, then we refrain from this action. In the same same way, we abstain from engaging in non-virtuous actions.

We put an end to that. And therefore, how to practice? First one identifies the sufferings which one is experiencing, and then based on the analysis in the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, one identifies their causes and wishing not to experience these sufferings again in the future, one at present puts an end to the causes which create them. In the same way as for instance, if one notices that water is dripping from the ceiling on one’s couch and risks to make one sick, the first thing to do is to identify where the water comes from. Having found the hole, one blocks it.

If one blocks that hole, then even when it rains heavily, the water will not drench one’s couch. Otherwise, is no way to do this. Likewise, the cause of rebirth in the lower realms is only the 10 non virtuous deeds. So if we put an end to the 10 non virtuous deeds, we automatically put an end to lower rebirths for ourselves. If we do not, we cannot put an end to them.

So if we reflect on this in the light of the four noble truths, Rinpoche says, we can see clearly that the second noble truth, the noble truth of origination, is the cause of the first noble truth, the noble truth of suffering. To put an end to the noble truth of suffering we have to put an end to our own noble truth of origination. And if we do this, we attain the third noble truth, which is the noble truth of cessation. Otherwise, there is no way to do this. So Rinpoche says, we should listen carefully to these teachings.

The questions tonight clearly show that we are not listening to the teaching. And people sit in the class and their knees hurt and this hurt and that hurts and they’re not listening as a result of that. Understood? So just showing up at the teachings and hanging out, not listening, and in turn, because one doesn’t listen, the Dharma is not penetrating into one’s mind is a very sad state of affairs. What is one going to do about that?

So today, Rinpoche wanted to check you out. We meditate for one minute and that will be it.