FromwhatIread (5)

The book’s name: The Many Ways to Nirvana
Writer / Editor: His Holiness Dalai Lama / Renuka Singh
Publisher: First published in Great Britain in 2004 by Hodder and Stroughton Ltd; a division of Hodder Headline PLC
Content:
1. The Four Seals in Buddhism
2. Overcoming Negative Emotions
3. Self-development through the Six Perfections
4. Cultivating Equanimity
5. The Four Noble Truths and the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation

(The followings are my short notes I took while I read the book; it might be useful for anyone who has no time to read the whole book or it might tempt you to read the book; anyway, the points I got here might not be the same if your read it by yourself…)

The Fifth Chapter: the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Verse of thought Transformation (cont')

The Eight Verses of Thought Transformation by Langri Tangpa explains the Paramitayana practice of method and wisdom: the first seven verses deal with method – loving kindness – and the eighth deals with wisdom.


(1) Determined to accomplish all success, I shall always practice holding dear all sentient beings, who are more precious than wish-fulfilling gems.

(2) Wherever I go and whomever I accompany, I shall practice seeing myself as the lowest of all and sincerely hold others dear and supreme.

(3) In all actions, I shall examine my mind, and the moment an unsubdued thought arises, endangering myself and others, I shall face and avert it.

(4) Whenever I see a being of wicked nature, who is overwhelmed by non-virtue and suffering, I shall hold him dear, as if I have discovered a precious treasure, difficult to find.

(5) When out of jealousy, others treat me badly with abuse, insult and the like, I shall practice accepting defeat and offering the victory to others.

(6) When someone I have benefited, and in whom I have great hopes, harms me immensely, I shall practice regarding him or her as my holy guru.

(7) In short, both directly and indirectly, I offer every benefit and happiness to all my mothers. Secretly, I shall practice taking upon myself all their harmful actions and sufferings.

(8) With all these (practices) undefiled by stains of the superstitions of the eight (worldly) dharmas, by perceiving all dharmas as illusory, I shall practice, without grasping, to release (all sentient beings) from bondage.

The 8th verse explains that the practices should be done without their being stained by the wrong conception of clinging to true existence – the superstition of the eight dharmas. How does one avoid staining one’s practice in this way? By recognizing all existence as illusory and not clinging to true exiatence. Thus one is liberated from the bondage of clinging.

FromwhatIread (4)

The book’s name: The Many Ways to Nirvana

Writer / Editor: His Holiness Dalai Lama / Renuka Singh

Publisher: First published in Great Britain in 2004 by Hodder and Stroughton Ltd; a division of Hodder Headline PLC

Content:

1.     The Four Seals in Buddhism

2.     Overcoming Negative Emotions

3.     Self-development through the Six Perfections

4.     Cultivating Equanimity

5.     The Four Noble Truths and the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation

(The followings are my short notes I took while I read the book; it might be useful for anyone who has no time to read the whole book or it might tempt you to read the book; anyway, the points I got here might not be the same if your read it by yourself…)

The Fifth Chapter: the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Verse of thought Transformation

5. The Four Noble Truths and the Eight Verse of Thought Transformation. Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths: the truth of suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the path to the cessation of suffering; 3 categories of suffering: the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change, and the all-pervasive suffering. The Buddha taught that the root of the three sufferings is the all-pervasive suffering; generally, the ultimate cause is the mind that is influenced by thoughts such as anger, attachment, and jealousy and is the main cause of birth and all other problems. The question arises whether or not these kinds of negative mind can be eliminated. We can do this by investigating how the things it perceives actually exist. Through investigation, we find no valid support for the grasping mind but the support of logical reasoning for the mind that realizes that the grasping mind is invalid. In battle, the mind supported by logic will always be victorious over the mind that is not. When we eliminate the disturbing negative minds (the cause of all suffering), we eliminate the sufferings as well. This is liberation or the cessation of suffering (the Third Noble Truth). To achieve this, we must find the method. This brings us to the Fourth Noble Truth.

When we speak of paths, we refer to the 37 factors that bring enlightenment. When we speak specifically of the paths of the bodhisattavas’ vehicle (Mahayana), we refer to the ten levels and the six transcendent perfections. The essence of the practice of the six transcendent perfections is the unification of method and wisdom so that the two enlightened bodies – rupakaya and dharmakaya – can be attained. Since they can be attained only simultaneously, their causes too must be cultivated simultaneously. Thus together we must build up a store of merit, as the cause of the rupakaya, the body of form, and the store of deep awareness or insight as the cause of the dharmakaya, the body of wisdom. In the Paramitayana, we practice the method grasped by wisdom, and wisdom grasped by method, but in the Vajarayana, we practice method and wisdom as one in nature.

The Eight Verses of Thought Transformation by Langri Tangpa explains the Paramitayana practice of method and wisdom: the first seven verses deal with method – loving kindness – and the eighth deals with wisdom. 

FromwhatIread (3)

The book’s name: The Many Ways to Nirvana

Writer / Editor: His Holiness Dalai Lama / Renuka Singh

Publisher: First published in Great Britain in 2004 by Hodder and Stroughton Ltd; a division of Hodder Headline PLC

Content:

1.     The Four Seals in Buddhism

2.     Overcoming Negative Emotions

3.     Self-development through the Six Perfections

4.     Cultivating Equanimity

5.     The Four Noble Truths and the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation

(The followings are my short notes I took while I read the book; it might be useful for anyone who has no time to read the whole book or it might tempt you to read the book; anyway, the points I got here might not be the same if your read it by yourself…)

The Fourth Chapter: Cultivating Equanimity

4. Cultivating Equanimity. Talking about equanimity in the sense of alleviating attachment and hatred. Practicing equanimity is the same with cultivation of positive qualities like love and compassion: they can be based on reasoning and understanding from a particular religious basis. An individual practitioner can develop loving kindness and compassion by thinking that through such practices, he or she will achieve enlightenment because the Buddha taught this path. On the other hand, a person could develop such qualities thinking that the development of love and compassion would bring mental peace, physical well-being, or harmony and peace within his or her family. This kind of reasoning is not based on any religious tradition.

A biased mental attitude or partiality is a big hindrance and an obstruction to comprehending reality. For example, the reality is that things are dependent on multifarious causes and factors: things are interconnected, interdependent and interrelated. When we are unable to see this reality, then problems arise because we tend to pick out just one factor – whether it is the experience of happiness or that of problems and difficulties – and try to use it to explain a complex situation. We tend to highlight just one factor out of the many and focus exclusively on that particular cause or factor. Because of this, we are unable to solve many issues confronting us. In fact instead of solving difficulties, we sometimes create additional ones. To deal effectively with a particular problem, it is important to prepare ourselves mentally to understand the reality of a situation and to be able to see facts objectively. You can see why practicing equanimity is very important.

When we confront complex situations and try to solve the problems inherent in them, it is important to have a holistic attitude rather than a narrow mind. In Buddhist practice, when we talk about developing equanimity, we refer to two levels. 1^st – develop a state of mental equilibrium, reaching a point where you do not have any special attachment to one group and hatred towards another; 2^nd – do not make distinctions among other sentient beings; develop a powerful mind, wishing to benefit everyone without differentiation.

By understanding the four Buddhist seals you can reach different stages of equanimity. For example, in understanding the 1st teaching that all conditional phenomena are impermanent, you realize that all things are caused and that they are all transitory and impermanent. The second teaching, which says that all contaminated things are suffering means that just as my mind is contaminated and polluted and suffering is part of my nature, the same applies to all other people. Then I must ask how can I hate or get attached to other beings when we are all the same. When we talk of Nirvana as peace or liberation as the state of total peace, we realize that everyone possesses a Buddha nature and can easily develop equanimity.

FromwhatIread (2)

The book’s name: The Many Ways to Nirvana

Writer / Editor: His Holiness Dalai Lama / Renuka Singh

Publisher: First published in Great Britain in 2004 by Hodder and Stroughton Ltd; a division of Hodder Headline PLC

Content:

1.     The Four Seals in Buddhism

2.     Overcoming Negative Emotions

3.     Self-development through the Six Perfections

4.     Cultivating Equanimity

5.     The Four Noble Truths and the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation

(The followings are my short notes I took while I read the book; it might be useful for anyone who has no time to read the whole book or it might tempt you to read the book; anyway, the points I got here might not be the same if your read it by yourself…)

The Second Chapter: Overcoming Negative Emotions

2. Overcoming Negative Emotions. Three levels on which to counteract negative emotions: 1^st level – follow the secular ethics and does not touch any religious belief; 2^nd level  - in this connection is taught by all major religions – they all carry the message of love, compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, contentment and discipline; 3^rd level – the Buddhist way. Finding for the 4 misconceptions and maintaining the four mindfulnesses. The more profound your understanding of the selflessness of the person and selflessness of the thought, the more you will be able to understand the other side of the coin – the inter-connectedness of everything. The first three understandings are antidotes that would repudiate their misconceptions. By understanding the fourth misconception, we would uproot the seed of the misconception of the self. The complete elimination of negative emotion is Nirvana. Training the mind is very essential.

The Buddhist way of practice begins with study by hearing, reading, just absorbing information; don’t just rely on Buddha’s quotations. Rely instead on your investigations and experiments. In order to overcome our negative emotions, we need to use our intelligence to analyze, develop positive emotion like strong faith and compassion; in this way, wisdom and positive emotions can grow side by side.

The Third Chapter: Self-development through the Six Perfections

3. Self-development through the Six Perfections. Buddhist way to transform our emotions works not through faith or prayer but through the maximum use of intelligence and reasoning. Questions are very important. Without questions, we cannot get a proper answer. Without skepticism, without doubt, without investigation, we have no satisfactory answers. Therefore in the Buddhist tradition, intelligence is used to its maximum extent and study is essential.

Perfections = going beyond; beyond = the place or path of enlightenment; the place where we normally exist, in our ordinary form. The first two of the Four Noble Truth, that is true suffering and true origin of suffering, are on this ordinary side, and the other two truths, true path and true cessation, are the paths beyond. Therefore, the word “beyond” refers to true types of enlightenment, having gone beyond the cycle of existence, the cycle of samsaric existence and, therefore, beyond here could refer to the total extinction of afflictive emotions and suffering and, thereby, the achievement of liberation.

In order to make your practice one of perfection, you should have the clear goal of enlightenment, along with the wish that your enlightenment goes beyond liberation just for yourself; you should be free from all types of elaborations and achieving the development of wisdom-realizing emptiness; 2 types of wisdom-realizing emptiness: 1.being unable to see emptiness directly but realizing through a kind of generic image; 2. perceived or discerned directly and does not depend on a medium or generic image; and develop infinite altruism through wisdom and intelligence.

When we talk about the practice of perfections, particularly the practice of the six perfections, we discover the practice of the four ways of gathering disciplines for maturing one’s mind. Practices like concentration and the development of wisdom-realizing emptiness = meditations and techniques to improve or enhance one’s wisdom and one’s realization. There are two kinds of wisdom: 1. wisdom realizing the conventional phenomena; 2. wisdom realizing the ultimate reality, ultimate truth.

Giving = a mental state in which you are always ready to give your body, wealth and pleasures when others need them. The practice of giving and generosity is meant to enhance one’s wish to give to others.

Practice of morality = there are 3 types of morality: 1. the morality refraining from engaging in negative deeds; 2. the morality collecting virtuous qualities; 3. the morality of fulfilling the purposes of sentient beings. These 3 kinds of morality are linked.

Practice of patience = 3 types: 1. patience of being able to bear hardships and sufferings; 2. patience of voluntarily welcoming sufferings and hardships; 3. patience of developing ascertainment toward Dharma practice, which refers to meditating on emptiness.

We categorize the six perfections into the practice of method and wisdom by putting the practices of concentration and wisdom under the collection of wisdom; and the practice of giving, the observance of morality and a part of the practice of patience under the collection of merit. With regard to the practice of effort one part of it is included in the accumulation of merit and the other in the accumulation of wisdom.

One should realize that in order to practice Bodhisattvayana, also called Mahayana, the foundation of the practice is based on the teaching of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. On that foundation, the Bodhisattava’s practice is built. In the absence of these fundamental practices, the higher level spiritual practices are impossible.

FromwhatIread(1)

The book’s name: The Many Ways to Nirvana

Writer / Editor: His Holiness Dalai Lama / Renuka Singh

Publisher: First published in Great Britain in 2004 by Hodder and Stroughton Ltd; a division of Hodder Headline PLC

Content:

-The Four Seals in Buddhism

-Overcoming Negative Emotions

-Self-development through the Six Perfections

-Cultivating Equanimity

-The Four Noble Truths and the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation

(The followings are my short notes I took while I read the book; it might be useful for anyone who has no time to read the whole book or it might tempt you to read the book; anyway, the points I got here might not be the same if your read it by yourself…)

The First Chapter: The Four Seals in Buddhism

1. The Four Buddhist Seals or axioms: (1) all conditioned phenomena are impermanent; (2) all contaminated phenomena are suffering; (3) all phenomena are selfless and empty; (4) Nirvana is peace.

(1) All conditioned phenomena are impermanent: Within the universe of mind, whether it is a positive or a negative mind / emotion, there are two main causes: the substantial cause which is responsible for the production of the entity of that very nature of the mind; and the cooperative cause which is a kind of circumstantial factor which gives a particular mind the opportunity to arise. All producing causes are always the result of their own causes; therefore the cause/effect relationship or law of causality is a continuous circle. Impermanent means the momentary disintegration of a particular object or / the non-existence of the first moment of impermanent phenomena during the second moment and / the very first moment of that impermanent phenomenon which is produced in such a way that it is the cause of the phenomenon’s disintegration.

(2) All contaminated phenomena are suffering: “Contamination” – refers to the afflictive emotions or negative emotions and the imprints or predispositions of these afflictive emotions. When say all contaminated things are suffering, mean those objects which are either produced by afflictive emotions or are dependent on them. Three levels of suffering: 1st there is the suffering of suffering; 2nd there is suffering of change; 3rd there is conditioned suffering. When talking about all contaminated phenomena as suffering refer to the third level of suffering: conditioned suffering. This acts as the foundation for the other two levels of suffering. The mere fact of depending on causes and conditions produces afflictive emotions. Those are by definition, in the nature of suffering.

(3) All phenomena are selfless and empty: The meaning of selflessness that is commonly accepted by all Buddhist schools of thought is the absence of a person that is independent and substantially existent. One might have a subtle understanding of the meaning of selflessness so that a person has no independent or substantial existence; both the subject (the mind) and the object have no inherent, absolute or objective existence. Using this kind of analysis and investigation, we are able to conclude that the meaning of selflessness or emptiness is much more profound. And when talking about the non-existence of a person which is substantially existence and independence, they conclude that there is no object that can be enjoyed by such a person. On the basis of this reasoning, they assert that all phenomena are selfless.

(4) Nirvana is peace: Nirvana is peace or “transcendence of suffering is peace” (Tibetan usage)

-Nirvana refers to the state of cessation of afflictive emotions. When the mind is totally purified of afflictive emotions, that state of the mind is called nirvana. (Nagarjuna)

-4 kinds of misconceptions: 1. we tend to see what is impermanent as permanent; 2. we tend to comprehend what is unclean as clean and as something with essence or meaning; 3. we are inclined to see those selfless as having self-existence; 4. we are likely to view what is in the nature of suffering as a source of happiness and peace.

-One needs to meditate on impermanence and suffering Nature of samsara. The very existence of this body, the existence of our life, is actually under the influence or control of our afflictive emotions. Once we realize that suffering is the very nature of existence, it helps to reduce our unreasonable desire for things.

-practicing compassion can indirectly reduce an afflictive emotion, but we cannot directly fight them. Instead, we can use the wisdom which understands ultimate reality: emptiness. Only this kind of understanding and feeling has an effect on these negative emotions. Of course, we can learn this only through our direct experience.

-The mental state, where all afflictive emotions are completely annihilated, is called nirvana.