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.