Courageous Effort On The Path Of Meditation

By Sayadaw U Pandita

This teachings is extracted from "In This Very Life" by U Pandita and details the development of seven positive meditation factors (controlling faculties) in the Theravada tradition, one of which is "courageous effort".


The seventh way of developing the controlling faculties (positive meditation factors) is to practice with courageous effort so much so that you are willing to sacrifice your body and life in order to continue the practice uninterrupted. This means giving rather less consideration toward the body than we tend to be accustomed to give to it. Rather than spending time beautifying ourselves or catering to our wishes for greater comfort, we devote as much energy as possible to going forward in meditation.
Although it may feel very youthful right now, our body becomes completely useless when we die. What use can one make of a corpse? The body is like a very fragile container which can be used as long as it is intact, but the moment it drops on the floor, it is of no further help to us.
While we are alive and in reasonably good health, we have the good fortune to be able to practice. Let us try to extract the precious essence from our bodies before it is too late, before our bodies become useless corpses! Of course, it is not our aim to hasten this event. We should also try to be sensible, and to maintain this body’s health, if only for our practice to continue.

You might ask what essence one can extract from the body. A scientific study was once made to determine the market value of the substances composing the human body: iron, calcium and so on. I believe it came to less than one American dollar, and the cost of extracting all those components was many times greater than this total value. Without such a process of extraction, a corpse is valueless, beyond providing compost for the soil. If a dead person’s organs can be used for transplants into living bodies, this is good; but in this case, progress toward becoming an entirely lifeless and valueless corpse has only been delayed.

The body can be looked at as a rubbish dump, disgusting and full of impurities. Uncreative people have no use for things they might find in such a dump, but an innovative person understands the value of recycling. He or she may take a dirty, smelly thing off the rubbish heap and clean it and be able to use it again. There are many stories of people who have made millions from the recycling business.
From this rubbish heap we call our body, we can nonetheless extract gold through the practice of the Dhamma. One form of gold is sīla, purity of conduct, the ability to tame and civilize one’s actions. After further extraction, the body yields up the controlling faculties of faith, mindfulness, effort, concentration and wisdom. These are priceless jewels which can be extracted from the body through meditation.

When the controlling faculties are well-developed, the mind resists domination by greed, hatred and delusion. A person whose mind is free of these painful oppressive qualities experiences an exquisite happiness and peace that cannot be bought with money. His or her presence becomes calm and sweet so that others feel uplifted. This inner freedom is independent of all circumstances and conditions, and it is only available as a result of ardent meditation practice.

Anyone can understand that painful mental states do not vanish just because we wish them to do so. Who has not wrestled with a desire they knew would hurt someone if they indulged it? Is there anyone who has never been in an irritable, grumpy mood and wished they were feeling happy and contented instead? Has anyone failed to experience the pain of being confused? It is possible to uproot the tendencies which create pain and dissatisfaction in our lives, but for most of us it is not easy. Spiritual work is as demanding as it is rewarding. Yet we should not be discouraged. The goal and result of vipassanā meditation is to be free from all kinds, all shades and all levels of mental and physical suffering. If you desire this kind of freedom, you should rejoice that you have an opportunity to strive to achieve it.

The best time to strive is right now. If you are young, you should appreciate your good situation, for young people have the most energy to carry out the meditation practice. If you are older you may have less physical energy, but perhaps you have seen enough of life to have gained wise consideration, such as a personal understanding of life’s fleetingness and unpredictability

                                      

The Venerable Sayadaw U Pandita (born 29 July 1921) is one of the foremost living masters of Vipassana meditation. He trained in the Burmese Theravada Buddhist tradition. A successor to the late Mahāsi Sayādaw, he has taught many of the Western teachers and students of the Mahāsi style of Vipassana meditation. He is the abbot of Paṇḍitārāma Meditation Center in Yangon, Myanmar.
For more information visit: www.saddhamma.org

The Benefits of Working for Others

By Lama Zopa Rinpoche


In May 1982, towards the end of the Enlightened Experience Celebration in India, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a talk to the remaining retreaters at Tushita in Dharamsala. He talked about the kindness of the guru. Rinpoche referred constantly to the kindness of his own guru, Lama Yeshe, and how it is through his tireless work that so much benefit has come to others. He used as an example the Dharma centers that have been established around the world as a result of Lama Yeshe’s energy and inspiration. And Rinpoche talked about the people who work at the centers; for fortunate they are to be able to help others in this way. We publish here a short extract from the three-hour discourse.

Think of the benefit to others brought by Dharma centers. Since starting the centers, how many people have come? How many people have had the seed of omniscience planted in their minds? How many people have been saved from the lower realms by coming to the centers, by understanding Dharma, by understanding refuge?

Just to think about this should make you feel so happy, should bring you incredible joy. To think that by working at Dharma centers we have been able to help others find a refuge object that is reliable, that does not betray or misguide. Forget about actually practicing lam-rim or training the mind in bodhichitta or tantra; just to meet a reliable refuge object, that alone is unbelievable.

And because of the first centers, many more have been started and from these many sentient beings have received peace and benefit. So many people have been able to create the cause for happiness in future lives. So many have opened the eye of wisdom that sees the cause of happiness and the cause of suffering.

Dedicating your life to the work that brings this kind of benefit to others is truly an incredible accomplishment and makes your life worthwhile.

Also, the suffering is worthwhile. In order to accomplish this much you have had to bear much hardship. Perhaps you have had a hard time with the lama: you do something this way and Lama says do it that way. You do it that way and Lama says do something else again. So difficult to please even though work so hard! And for so many years you have had to put up with criticism from people, complaining about you for doing this or that; complaints from the Eastern side, from the Western side, from all the ten directions (but perhaps not from the buddhas!). It’s like living in thorns.

But all this hardship, this criticism has been worthwhile, because by working for sentient beings you have brought them benefit, both temporal and ultimate. We should think of the advantages: how sentient beings have benefited, what sentient beings have received, what we have been able to offer them. Then, instead of being discouraged, instead of the mind becoming smaller, we shall develop an even stronger will to work for others, to work continuously.

I don’t mean that you should feel pride: “Oh, I have done this and that, I am so great.” No, that doesn’t benefit others or yourself. What I mean is that it’s very important to rejoice again and again in the work you do for others; especially if you work for the Dharma centers.

What is so fortunate is that you are already able to be of benefit to others even before you become enlightened, even before you generate any lam-rim realizations. It’s not easy, it’s dependent on many things, so if you can benefit in this way you are a very fortunate person and you should rejoice.

Working in this way you are repaying Lama’s incredible kindness and fulfilling his wishes – and his wishes are the happiness of ourselves and of others. It is by the kindness of Lama that we have been able to offer such great benefit to others.

To fulfill Lama’s wishes, that itself is the path. For example, Lama Atisha was able to do great work for the Dharma in India and Tibet because he had 153 gurus and because nothing that he did was against the wishes of any of them.

In the Kalachakra teachings it says, “Even if you make offering for three eons to all the buddhas guiding the millions of lives of millions of creatures, you will not become enlightened in this life. But if with faith you fulfill the wishes of the guru, then you will definitely achieve realizations in this life.”

So, you should check what is the best way you can benefit sentient beings in your life. Think about what brings the most benefit, then give up the actions that bring only small benefit and start doing those that bring great benefit.

                                              
Lama Thubten Zöpa Rinpoche (born 1946) is a lama from Thami, a village in the Khumbu region of Nepal. Early in life, he was recognized as the reincarnation of the Lawudo Lama, from the same region (hence the title "Rinpoche"). He took his monastic vows at Dungkar Monastery in Tibet where he travelled in 1957, but he had to flee due to severe treatment on monks inflicted by the Chinese army after the 1959 Tibetan uprising. Instead of continuing in Tibet, his spiritual teacher, Geshe Rabten, entrusted him to the care of Lama Thubten Yeshe. Lama Zöpa is most noteworthy as the co-founder, with Lama Yeshe, of Kopan Monastery and the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). Since the 1984 death of Lama Yeshe, Rinpoche has served as the FPMT's spiritual director.
Lama Zöpa's books are published by Wisdom Publications. Free transcripts of some of his teachings are available from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. There is an extensive biography of him in the book The Lawudo Lama by Jamyang Wangmo.

The Qualities Of Patience

  Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche

A pithy Patience commentary; excerpts on The 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva

What is patience? The genuine definition of patience is the mental ability to remain unperturbed by negative conditions. Applied to the Dharma, it means forbearance in the face of difficulty. Practitioners should be able to withstand whatever obstacles arise when they practice the Dharma. For example, extremes of heat or cold should not influence their commitment to practice.

The Mahayanasutralankara describes patience as having four qualities. The first is that it pacifies anger. Anger and patience are direct opposites. If you are angry, you are not being patient. And if you are not being patient, you are not behaving like a Bodhisattva.

(note: please refer to the book "The 37 Pratices of a Bodhisattva by Ngulchu Thogme, Commentary by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamsto Rinpoche" for the complete discussion on the qualities of patience.)

The third quality of patience is that one comes to like all sentient beings. This is not a matter of saying, "Oh, I like everybody!" A Bodhisattva who has complete patience with everything hurtful or harmful bears affection towards everyone and can bring happiness everywhere. This ability to bestow happiness on all sentient beings is a sign that the paramita of patience has been perfected.

In the Sutralankara, Maitreya describes the four qualities of patience:
    Patience decreases all opposite sides.
    One possesses nonconceptual primordial wisdom.
    One can perfectly fulfill all wishes.
    And one ripens all sentient beings along the three vehicles.

Notice that the first two qualities concern ourselves, and the second two concern others-even our enemies, whom we bring to the Dharma and whose practice we help mature.

As a Mahayana practioner, always remember that anyone who hurts you shows you a great kindness, and that whatever brings you harm bestows a precious treasure. It is like a poor person digging in the earth who finds oil, gold, or silver and suddenly becomes very rich. From the Mahayana perspective, whoever or whatever harms us provides the same opportunity for wealth.

Why? To obtain a wealth of virtue requires a harmful opponent. Without a foe, how can we practice patience? The Bodhisattva wishes to develop virtue, merit, and such. The prerequisite for these qualities, our most precious treasure, is an enemy.

                         

Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche is a prominent scholar yogi in the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He teaches widely in the West, often through dohas (songs of realisation) composed by Milarepa (to whom he is often compared) and other masters of the past. "Tsultrim Gyamtso" translates to English as "Ocean of Ethical Conduct". Rinpoche is the author of numerous books, most recently; "Stars of Wisdom: Analytical Meditation, Songs of Yogic Joy, and Prayers of Aspiration"

For more information visit: www.ktgrinpoche.org