Shangpa Rinpoche
When we call ourselves
Buddhists, we mean we are the followers of Buddha. The most important aspect
of being a Buddhist is that we should follow the path of Buddha and always reflect
as Buddhists. Buddha is a Sanskrit word. It refers to one who has awakened from
the ignorant mind and who has accomplished knowledge and wisdom. The Tibetan
word for this is 'Sangye'.
Every Buddhist has ambitions and goals to attain the state of Buddhahood. The
attainment of Buddhahood is the achievement and development of one's potential
to liberate all sentient beings from suffering.
Those who have not yet achieved Buddhahood, have conflicting emotions such as
desire, hatred, jealousy, ignorance and countless types of defilements. All
these defilements come from ignorance; that is, being without wisdom and not
knowing the true nature of mind. This ignorance causes all kinds of complications
and confusion in the samsara. But ignorance is not permanent. It can be removed
by applying wisdom. By turning ignorance to wisdom, one will be able to understand
the truth. This will gradually lead one to the state of the enlightenment. Therefore,
as a Buddhist, the most important goal is to develop wisdom and understand the
basic teachings of Buddha dharma, such as the Four Noble Truths, the Eight Fold
Paths; and then the practice of Bodhisattva paths and Vajrayana methods. An
understanding of these will help us to develop wisdom.
Besides absorbing the knowledge of dharma,application of the teachings is also
important. Whatever knowledge of the dharma we have absorbed into our mind streams,
we must apply. For example, we all know that we should be generous. The knowledge
of this is insufficient. We must implement that knowledge and practise generosity
at all times.
Similarly, morality is equally important and we should implement and practise
it. It is only through applying the teachings that we will reach the stage of
enlightenment.
The more we understand the dharma, the more we will know when and where to apply
it. Every moment in any situation of our daily lives is an opportunity for us
to practise in order to develop ourselves spiritually. The more unfavourable
circumstances we experience, the greater our chances of success in our dharma
practice. For example, you may have an enemy who causes you alot of discomfort
through hatred and curses. Generally, this is perceived as a bad situation as
nobody wants to be hated or cursed as it causes discomfort and misery to oneself.
However, from a spiritual-practice point of view, it is a good moment of challenge
as it gives us the opportunity to develop and strengthen the positive attitude
towards dharma. Patience is the important teaching in dharma and we can apply
it in all circumstances. Especially when facing our enemies, we have to be tolerant
and patient. If we can apply these principles, we will succeed in our practice.
Suffering is the path to happiness. Basically, the more difficulties we experience,
the better are the results we gain; just as we must work hard in order to achieve
good results. Though we may experience alot of difficulties, obstacles and hindrances,
this is the passage to success. Dharma is very precious, as it helps us to overcome
all kinds of difficulties, regardless of whether they are emotional or physical
in nature. Dharma is actually the only treasure that leads us to success in
our practice.
Thus, being a good Buddhist does not mean always appearing in the temple. In
fact, a good Buddhist can be in anywhere, such as a business place, the street
or a restaurant. In other words, as long as one can apply and practise dharma
at all times, one is considered a good Buddhist. To use every moment of our
experiences to develop one's practice is to be a pure Buddhist. One who does
not apply dharma effectively but who always appears in the temple is called
a physical Buddhist or an outlook Buddhist. One who practices and applies dharma
regularly and correctly and, at the same time, always visit the temple is a
very good Buddhist and a practitioner.
When any defilement arises, the practitioner can recognise it instantly. After
recognising that the defilement, one should implement mindfulness and awareness
to apply the antidote and be free from that particular defilement. Hence, whatever
emotion and defilement arises, one must take it as a challenge and overcome
it and that is the correct method for us to follow.
However, application is not as easy as we may think.It can be very tough and
difficult to recognise our defilement. Even we recognise it, it may be difficult
to recall or apply the antidote effectively. As the force of defilement is very
strong in comparison to the weakness of an antidote, we may not be able to remove
the defilement so quickly. Actually, we all want to purify our numerous defilements
but the defilements are too much to be overcome all at once.Constant effort
and hard work will help us to succeed in overcoming our defilements. Eventually,
our effort will become positive habits and we will be able to succeed one day.
Once there was a Tibetan merchant named Norbu Zangpo, who lost all his money
in his business. Due to his failure in the business, he felt very upset and
disappointed and wanted to quit. Feeling so depressed, he lay down on the ground
and he noticed that an ant was trying to climb a blade of grass. Halfway up,
it fell down. It tried again and again many times and the merchant counted 79
times of the ant falling. At last on the 80th time,it managed to climb on to
the tip of the grass. Suddenly, the merchant realised thatwithout constant effort,
one cannot succeed in anything. From then on, he put a lot of effort and hard
work into his business and he succeeded. He became the richest and most successful
businessman in Tibet. The tiny insect Ant gave that inspiration to him.
The story reminds us to exert effort constantly and not to be afraid of failure.
In the process, even one does not succeed initially, one needs to practice until
one succeeds. We all lack mindfulness and constant effort. We expect immediate
results without exerting much effort. This is not possible. Dharma is mental
training and cannot be bought or transferred. It is very simple if we know how
to apply dharma to act as an antidote to purify defilement. If dharma becomes
supplementary to one's pride or defilement, that will develop a negative effect
against oneself. If dharma is practised through proper application, it will
become the antidote to defilement. That is to say, with right implementation,
one can reduce one's defilements like hatred, ignorance, desire, and all other
kinds of confusions.
Basically, through all these processes we are able to distinguish whether a
person is a true Buddhist or not. A true Buddhist is one who does not only just
understand the teachings of dharma, but who implements them and experiences
the results. Not being a true Buddhist means that we do not implement the teachings
of dharma and never change our attitude towards the spiritual path. Instead,
we show off our pride of knowing dharma and look down on others and this increases
further our negative thoughts.
Listening to dharma teachings with contemplation and meditation covers the whole
practice. We must try to understand the meaning of Buddha's teachings, then
contemplate and investigate the dharma. After investigating the logic of truth,
then we must implement and apply whatever we have learnt and meditate on it.
With these methods, our practice of dharma can be effective and we will be able
to achieve enlightenment.
Meditation does not mean only sitting down and placing our palms together. Meditation
can be practised in many different ways such as development of generosity, patience,
and morality. In fact, all these practices are related to meditation, which
requires awareness and mindfulness. For instance, if a person is cooking and
he says that he is meditating, you will not believe him because you do not expect
meditation to be like this. How can he be meditating while he is cooking? However,
if he applies the qualities of mindfulness and awareness to the process of cooking,
then he is indeed meditating.
In Vajrayana, we have lots of chanting, musical instruments playing and many
different hand mudras etc. All these are also part of the meditation. Through
these meditation and actions we are able to realise the nature of mind more
effectively.
Finally, a true Buddhist is one who applies the teachings of Buddha to his mind-steam
and every day life. By doing that, one is mindful towards every thought and
action. Once you have that quality, you will not make any mistake and you will
continue increasing your positive thoughts as well as merits or wisdom. When
you have those qualities, the inner bliss will arise and then you will be fully
satisfied and find the purpose of life.