Chandrakirtis entrance to the middle way (27)

good The dense state of mind, in fact, does not really exist in the first place, so there is nothing to get rid of; its nature is purity The pure nature of mind beyond the intellect, beyond all of these ordinary mental operations and activities, is not affected in the slightest by a dense state of mind So there is nothing to abandon; its nature is purity What if somebody thinks that the root or base of sickness is concepts, thoughts, that our thinking all the time makes us sick Addressing this notion, Götsangpa sings: Habitual patterns’ imprints, printed throughout beginningless time, Are the myriad doors illusion comes marching through If you not take them as true, don’t meditate on them as empty Don’t shun your thoughts; they’re basically good in themselves From beginningless time we have been accumulating habitual tendencies of confused perception These tendencies are stored in the form of imprints in the mind, as a result of which, illusion comes marching through in the form of illusory projections These projections are appearance-emptiness manifest in a variety of ways as a result of these habitual tendencies of confused perception in our mind-stream But since they are just appearance-emptiness like an illusion, then we not need to meditate on them as being empty; we not need to impose emptiness on to them All we have to is free ourselves from thinking that they are real, let the clinging to them— these appearing yet empty appearances—as being real just dissolve When we can that, then there is no need to get rid of thoughts; they are self-liberated Their nature is good Again one might ask, “If sickness has no base and no roots, then why we have to die? Why does death happen?” Götsangpa answers that concern in the next verse: The state of coemergence has no birth and knows no death, Knows nothing of arising or ceasing or staying somewhere It’s infinity; it’s the vast expanse of the unconditioned state Don’t shun your death; it’s basically good in itself The state of coemergence refers to the basic nature of reality, which never arises and never ceases It is not born It does not die It does not arise in the beginning, abide anywhere in the middle, or cease at the end Beyond all of these concepts, in its nature it is the unconditioned state, meaning it is not something created due to the coming together of causes and conditions That is the basic nature of reality It is not a composite entity; it is uncreated It is the vast expanse The expanse here means infinity beyond all conceptual fabrications Therefore, we not need to shun death, because death is basically good Death does not really exist either; its nature is purity There is nothing to get rid of; it is basically good In the next verse, Göstangpa sings: All eight of these things that are not to be shunned, since they’re basically good in themselves, Need a meditation which turns them into equal taste They are the thought that comes from the heart of the uncle and nephew lord They are the hammer that hammers down the host of maras Reverse meditation means to reverse our normal way of seeing things 136 SHENPEN ÖSEL This is the song that describes these eight different things that we experience that in fact not need to be shunned because they are basically good What we need to be able to apply in this practice is, first, what is called reverse meditation Reverse meditation means to reverse our normal way of seeing things Ordinarily, we want happiness and we want to avoid suffering, and it is out of these two motivations that every single ordinary sentient being in the universe acts In order to reverse our confusion we need to take all the suffering of all sentient beings onto ourselves and give them our happiness That is reverse meditation Secondly, we need to practice equal taste, which means to see the basic equality of happiness and suffering, and not to favor one over the other This way of practicing was taught to Götsangpa by his two main teachers, who were related to each other as uncle and nephew His main teacher was Drogon Tsangpa Gyaray and Tsangpa Gyaray’s nephew was Sangye Ön Both of them had as their intention this type of practice, which he calls the hammer that defeats the maras, that defeats the [psychological] demons Götsangpa continues: They are the practice that’s put into practice by beggars like you and me These are the tools that keep us in natural retreat They are the bliss supreme that performs the two forms of benefit You’ve mastered this from the beginning, old friend, but you better put it into practice These two meditations—reverse meditation and the practice of equal taste—are put into practice, he sings, by beggars like you and me Here Götsangpa is mainly singing about himself, calling himself a beggar He says, “This is my practice, this is what keeps me in natural retreat.” In order to be able to stay in the mountains or in an isolated place and practice, one needs to be able to practice like this This practice is what enables a practitioner to meditate in isolated places They are the bliss supreme that performs the two forms of benefit To practice with this motivation is of direct benefit to others and, as a result, will also naturally benefit oneself When we are of benefit to others, then automatically we benefit ourselves “You’ve mastered this from the beginning, old friend, but you better put it into practice.” This last line needs no commentary [Students sing the song together.] Does anyone have any questions? Question: Rinpoche seems to make a connection between the practice of tonglen and the practice of one taste I was wondering if he could please elaborate on that connection Does tonglen develop naturally into equal taste? Or is there already a connection between them? Rinpoche: Equal taste means to practice viewing happiness and suffering as one would view them if one were dreaming and knew that one were dreaming We have to recognize that the nature of happiness and the nature of suffering are equally beyond all conceptual fabrication In both cases they are pure, and equally so, from the outset, from the very beginning That is the practice of equal taste With regard to reverse meditation, there is a teaching by Patrul Rinpoche in which he states, “I not like to be happy and healthy; I like to be sick When I am happy and healthy, I get distracted and arrogant; when I am sick, my weariness with samsara increases and I long to practice the dharma.” If you get happy and healthy, then you can just get distracted and arrogant, but if you get sick, then you really yearn to practice the dharma, and you renounce samsara much more easily That is why, though ordinarily all sentient beings would prefer to be happy and healthy to being sick, Patrul Rinpoche thinks about it the other way around When you are practicing tonglen, then if you are sick, you take all sentient beings’ sickness on top of your own sickness You visualize that happening.* And when you are well and when you are happy, then you send out your well-being and *Editor’s note: One visualizes one’s sickness in the form of black light and visualizes the sickness of all other sentient beings also as black light, and then, thinking that one’s own sickness embodies the sickness of all beings, one draws the sickness of others into one’s own sickness, and then the two together into oneself and down to the very root of one’s being, where it dissolves in emptiness At that time one thinks that sentient beings are entirely liberated from suffering and from the lower realms Then one sends out all of one’s well-being, happiness, virtue, merit, and all of one’s potential for all good qualities, in the form of white light or moonlight, which strikes sentient beings and establishes them in states of happiness and liberation And then one meditates on joy at being able to make this exchange For more on the practice of tonglen, see Shenpen Ösel, Vol 5, No 1, pages 62-70.) SHENPEN ÖSEL 137 happiness to all sentient beings [in the form of moonlight] In order to practice tonglen, you need to practice reverse meditation and equal taste Question: Rinpoche, it seems that one can gradually in small ways learn to be open to the aggression of others But what is frightening is to be open to one’s own aggression Rinpoche: When we recognize that we are getting angry, we need to imagine taking all sentient beings’ anger into ourselves, and giving all of our virtue that is free of anger to everyone else We need to take the anger and use it as a basis for taking and sending practice In the Seven Points of Mind Training there is a line which reads, “Three objects, three poisons, three roots of virtue.” The three objects are objects that we find pleasing, displeasing, and neutral The three poisons are to have attachment to the objects we find pleasing, to have aversion towards the ones we not like, and to have a feeling of dull indifference or stupidity towards the ones towards which we are neutral or apathetic, about which we not care That is what happens normally, but through our practice, our interaction with these three objects, and the three poisons that arise as a result of that interaction, can become three roots of virtue How? First we apply the practice of ultimate bodhicitta by examining the nature of these three objects, thereby ascertaining that they have no inherent existence, that they are empty Then, in the same way, we examine the three mental afflictions that arise as a result of these three objects If the objects themselves not exist in the first place, then any feelings that arise within us with regard to them cannot be real either Determining that, meditating on that, cultivating the certainty of that, is virtue with regard to the generation and improvement of our practice of ultimate bodhicitta We can also use these three objects and three poisons to practice relative bodhicitta by generating within ourselves love and compassion for others When we identify these three poisons arising within us, we imagine that the kleshas of all sentient beings are arising within us as well, thereby freeing sentient beings from them For example, when we feel attached to something, we can imagine that all the attachments of all sentient beings are ripening within us, and that sentient beings are thereby being completely freed from attachment We think, “Let it not happen to them; let it happen to me instead.” We the same visualization with respect to anger and with respect to stupidity.* In that way, the arising of these three poisons becomes the roots of virtue with regard to the cultivation of both ultimate and relative bodhicitta Moreover, if we actually say, for example, “I feel one of the three poisons arising towards one of these three kinds of objects; may all of the poisons that all sentient beings experience ripen on me May they be endowed with virtue that is completely free of these three poisons, and may they be completely free of the poisons themselves and only act in positive ways free of these three poisons.” If we actually say that at the time that a klesha arises, then we also accumulate virtue and merit with our speech Moreover, even if we have done something negative or wrong, if we take that action as an object and think, “May all sentient beings’ negativity dissolve into this negative action that I have performed, and may all sentient beings be When we identify these three poisons arising within us, we imagine that the kleshas of all sentient beings are arising within us as well, thereby freeing sentient beings from them 138 SHENPEN ÖSEL *Editor’s note: These three poisons or kleshas are regarded as the root of the 84,000 different emotional afflictions that the Buddha described, so the visualization is to be applied with respect to all of them free from negative actions once and for all,” then we have transformed our negative action into an accumulation of merit, into something positive, just by those thoughts The root of being able to practice sending and taking is compassion Therefore, we have to concentrate on cultivating it The [combined] practice of emptiness and compassion is extremely important in the mahayana In fact, you could say that all mahayana practices are included within it Question: Can you tell me the exact distinction between reverse meditation and tonglen? Is reverse meditation simply reversing the way you think about something? That is to say, if illness is usually thought to be bad, then thinking therefore that illness is good, and so forth Rinpoche: Yes, that is right To practice tonglen means that part of the practice that involves placing others ahead of ourselves, considering others to be more important than ourselves The practice of reverse meditation is reversing the way we think about things: Whereas in the past we thought, “If I am healthy and happy, I like that; if I am going to be sick and suffer, I not like that.” We have to reverse that by saying, “I like to be sick, because when I am sick, I really focus on dharma practice, whereas, when I am healthy, it is very easy for me to get distracted Because I not want to be distracted from dharma practice, I would prefer to be sick.” So that is the way we have to think it be practiced in conjunction with dharma? Is it counter-productive to dharma? Is it sometimes applicable and other times not, depending on one’s life conditions, etc.? Rinpoche: Even if you die, if you believe in past and future lives, then you have lots of future lifetimes in which to practice dharma and to take your dharma practice to perfection Whether or not we so depends upon whether or not we make aspiration prayers to that And so there are supplications that we can recite that are called supplications that free us from hope and fear In these supplications we pray, “If it is better that I be sick, then may I be sick If it is better for me to be healthy, then may I be healthy If it is better for me to live, then may I live If it is better for me to die, then may I die.” For some people it is better to be sick and to go through that purification For other people it is better to be healthy and things that you can when you are healthy So we can say, “Whichever one is better for me, let it happen.” The same is true with living or dying For some people it is better to live, because, if they remain alive, they will practice the dharma For other people it is better to die, because, if they continued to live, they would some negative action that would just result in more suffering So we can say, “Whichever category I fall into, may the better thing happen.” In that way we will be free from hope and fear Along these lines Patrul Rinpoche wrote, “If I die right now, I will not have any regrets, because this body is just a samsaric entity; its nature is to decay So, what is the point of regretting that? That is just the way that it is Even if I live to be a hundred, I would not be happy; my youth would be long gone I might live to be one hundred years old, but what is so good about that? I would just be completely old and There are supplications that free us from hope and fear In these supplications we pray, ‘If it is better that I be sick, then may I be sick’ Question: I have two questions If we are to take that logic all the way, one could end up saying, “I like to be dead,” and then we could not practice dharma at all The second question is, what is Rinpoche’s attitude towards conventional medicine, either Eastern or Western? Can SHENPEN ÖSEL 139 decrepit at that point My youth would be over.” That way of thinking is a way that abandons hope and fear with regard to life and death We also have to make sure that our way of thinking is consistent in this regard If we want to live a long life, then we have to be free of the fear or the distaste of aging If you live a long life but are afraid of getting old, then that is a contradictory way of thinking Sakya Pandita composed a verse about this, saying, “To be afraid of getting old but to be very attached to living a long life is the way dummies think This is the wrong view of dummies.” We have to be free of the fear of getting old, free of the fear of dying Birth and death themselves, in the true nature of reality, transcend all conceptual fabrications about what they might be, and in their appearances in relative reality they are just like appearances in a dream In The Heart of Wisdom Sutra,* it says, “There is no aging or death nor any ending of aging or death.” Since aging and death not really exist in the first place, since they are just like a dream, then there is really no getting rid of them either There is no real ending of aging or death, because they not really exist in the first place The way that we can become fearless with regards to birth and death is to examine their true nature When we that, we find that they cannot really exist, because one cannot exist before the other There is no way in which one can inherently exist before the other If birth existed before death, then you would have the fault of there being arising before there was any ceasing of anything, and that is impossible.** And if death really occurred before birth, then you would have the ceasing of something with out any prior arising Since neither way is possible, then neither birth nor death can really [truly or inherently] exist; they can exist only in mutual dependence upon each other Just like birth and death in a dream, birth and death that appear to us [in “real” life] have never really existed; that is their basic nature In order to purify ourselves of the thought that birth and death are real, we have to remember again and again that they not really exist Death in “real” life is just like dying in a dream; in fact, there really is no death at all The only thing that creates our suffering is the thought that death is real So if we are going to understand this with logical reasoning, then we must examine in order to try to determine which one comes first, birth or death But since neither one of them can exist without the other, neither of them truly exists This is why the protector Nagarjuna said, In order to purify ourselves of the thought that birth and death are real, we have to remember again and again that they not really exist *Editor’s note: Also known as The Sutra of the Heart of Transcendent Knowledge 140 SHENPEN ÖSEL Like a dream, like an illusion, Like a city of gandharvas, That’s how birth, and that’s how living, That’s how dying are taught to be It is like that Question: May I be sure that I have this exactly right, because I am not talking just for myself? If a group of students has a very precious teacher, considering all the teachings that you have given us just now, Rinpoche, how far should the stu**Editor’s note: By conventional logic, for the birth of a human to occur, there must first be an act of sexual intercourse leading to conception, which then gives rise to an embryo that gestates within a pregnant woman, who then must experience labor All of these causes and conditions must, in fact, cease before there can be said to be any birth If one accepts the logic of cyclical existence, consisting of an endless succession of lifetimes, and the Buddhist notion of conception, then for birth to occur there must also be the existence of a bardo consciousness in between death and rebirth to be conceived, which bardo consciousness must cease before there can be said to be any conception And for that bardo consciousness to have existed in the first place, by conventional Buddhist logic, there would have had to occur the death of a human being Therefore, birth cannot be said to exist before death, nor arising before ceasing  ... and then, thinking that one’s own sickness embodies the sickness of all beings, one draws the sickness of others into one’s own sickness, and then the two together into oneself and down to the. .. attachment to the objects we find pleasing, to have aversion towards the ones we not like, and to have a feeling of dull indifference or stupidity towards the ones towards which we are neutral or apathetic,... not happen to them; let it happen to me instead.” We the same visualization with respect to anger and with respect to stupidity.* In that way, the arising of these three poisons becomes the roots