The Life o he Buddha and the Four Noble Trs B Vnb Knc
ng Rn p c c Lp
Budd Pubici Bud, Cd
Copyght ©200 by Thrangu poche. lht reerved part f thi bk either text r art my be reproduced reprod uced any form, eectronic or otherse, thout wtten persson pers son from Thrangu Thran gu Rinpoche Rinpo che or Namo Buddha Budd ha Pubicaons. Pubished by: Namo Buddha Pubicatons 390 Kaa Avenue Bouder, CO, 80304-83 USA Phone: (303) 4496608 Ema: cjohnson@.netcom.com Thrangu Rinpoche's website: w.npoche.com
Not The teachng on the Life of e Buddha and the Three Vehices came from Thranu Rinpoche's The Development Buddhism in India and the teacng on e Four Noble Tths came from Thrangu Rinpoche's book The Three Vehies Buddhist Practice. Technca terms have been itaiced the st tme they are used to aert the reader that they may be found the Gossar. Tibetan words are iven as they are pronounced, not speed Tibetan. We use e convention of B.C.E. efore Common Era) for B.C. and C.E. (Common Era) for A. D
The Buddha W t w k w kw w l p ' y "
A human being is pa the whole, caed us the Universe, a pa limited in time and ace. He exresses himse his thouhts and elins as somethin sate om te rest-a r est-a kin optical delusion his consciousness his delusion is a ind pn r us restctin us to our personal desires desires and ction r a w persons near us Our tas must be to free ourselves om this pson pso n widenin our cire concern to embce a livin eatures and the whole nature r its beau Albe Albe Einstein Einstein
{'lthough I have shown the means liberation, you must know that dends uponyou uponyou alone. " -- Th Thee Bud Buddh dhaa
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The Lie the Buddha The stor of how Buddhism deveoped n India bens of course th the stor of Buddha Shaamuni who is the de for a Buddhists. The Buddha was born n India and we shoud not make e istake of beieng that since the Buddha was bo in India he was a tica Indian and taught n a tpicay Indian ste. The Buddha was bo for a ver specia purpose. He came to is word in order to hep and teach the whoe of mannd and aso a other sentent beings the path that eads to happness. Exag the main reons of the word one w nd at a the great teachers whether Christan Mus or Buddhists were ver specia peope. They a had an extremey pure motivaton and the purest aspiraton to hep other beings. hen ey came to teach other bengs it wasn't in the way of a mtar conquest but raer in e form of a teachng at was ntended to hep bengs nd happiness. So most of hese great teachers gave teachngs hat hat remain even oday whie itar empres have come and gone by he hundreds. One may wonder why ose teachings spread so dey and why they are st around today. The reason is that these teachers had a ver pure movation to hep oers from e ve benng. They were true pure paths that coud ead to happness. The Buddha Shaamuni's teachngs have been practced for 2,500 years and considering the histor of peope who practiced Buddsm we nd that the teacngs generated itte suffeng and few probems or difcues. On the contra a great number of peope were abe to nd true happess rough e practce of e Buddhist pa and many found peace and iberation through ese teacngs. T V DS BDD There are ver many great deeds of the Buddha recorded but hese hese can be summaed nto the teve most mportant most famous
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deeds. The rst of these telve dees was when the Buddha was teachng in the paraise of Tushia which is in e god am2 ile the Buddha was teaching there, the sound of his previous motvaton remnded hm that it was necessar to take brth in our world and teach the dhaa He then considered ve ngs: the land where he ought to be born apila), the caste he should be born into (royal), e famly in wich he should be bo (e Shaka clan), who hs mother was to be ayadei), and the tme at was ght for h to be bo (when the ve degeneratons were were on the increa increase) se).. Aer hng made made these thes e determ determna natons, tons, he decided to leave the Tusta paradise and take birth in our world. This partcular deed of leang Tushita to be bo had a special snicance. It was intended to teach us that somebody who has acieved enightenment is no longer a slave of his own kaa and has control over an anythi ythin ng he or she s he does d oes . S o e Buddha chos chosee to take birth in our wod because the tme was ght and he wanted to show us that someone who is enghtened has control over anyth anythng ng he or o r she doe do e s . The second of the telve eat deeds of e Buddha was is birth into the womb of his moter, Mayade. So rst he entered the womb of his mother and was bo om his mother's womb. One may wonder why he took such a bth. If he had complete control over eeg, then why wasn't he born iraculously from a lots ower as was Padmasambhava or why done he smply descend from the s? But he had a special reason for being bo in the noal way. If he had been bo mraculously om a lots, for example, it would have been ver impressive and attracted many people. However, the Buddha was thnkng in the long term of his tre isciples who would feel that it was his tre dsciples who would be inspired because the Buddha who practced and acheved enight enightenm enment ent started out e ourselves ourselves . Had he been bo bo in a lots they wou would ld have thought no orar human beings beings could reach enightenment because they didn't have these same maculous powers. So the Buddha took birth in a womb to show that even ordna human beings can acheve the highest reaaton. He dd this to scocon and condence in his ture disciples. The tird special deed of the Buddha was his birth in the garden in Lumbn (n present day Nepal). Alough the Buddha took an ordnar human birth, there was stll someng very special n his birth. The Buddha came out of the body of his mother through her ght side. Some people might wonder how
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is was possible. They mght tnk, W, what exactly happened? Did e b cage crack?" One doesn't need to think n terms of anatomical problems because e Buddha was a maculous beng and he jus j ustt took brth brth through through his mother's right side. At the tme of e Buddha's birth, there were many ver special things happenng where he was bo. of a sudden, some crops started owng. Trees appeared all over the area of Lumbi and rare owers such as the Udbara ower that had never grown in this area started blooming everwhere. From that moment onwards he was ven e name Siddhartha in Sanskt, or Tune Dp n Tibetan, which means, the one at makes eveg possible." As a result of nterdependent orinaon, the presence of a gh being, especiay his or her birth, produces changes chang es in the enronm enronment ent such as the bloss blos s ong of lowers lowers.. A few years later when e Buddha had own up a ttle, he traned in arts and crafts and sciences and us became ver knowledgeable, knowledge able, very scho s cholarl larly, y, and a nd ve sk s kful. ful. This was wa s his fourth fourth deed and is may be a te surising, because e Buddha was already enightened or at least a great bodhisv residing in the ten bodhisv eve Skt. bhum)3 It should not have been necessar for to train train in world world sk s ks becaus be causee he should have known em natraly. However, there was aga a specic reason for dong is. It was to counteract various misconceptons we mht have had. One misunderstanding was to thnk at the Buddha was someone who was simply a meditator thout any academc education. Another was the idea that he aready possessed this knowledge so he didn't need to lea. Ts could ve rise to concerns that if we humans ted to lea sometg it would lead to no results. Or again people mght tnk hat the Buddha did not have any quaities and that he never had to train. So to overcome these misconceptons the Buddha worked at becomng a scholar and became ver sled n a different arts. It also shows that it is necessa to receive l educaon n the cultr cultree in which which we are bo. We must be ly at one wi various various positive aspects of our culre to be able to become a vehicle for transmittng the dharma. The fth deed of the Buddha was to marr, have a cd, and enjoy the company of s queen Yashodhara and consorts and al e pleasures of royalt. The Buddha did is so that his ture scipes wouldn't at e Buddha or an enightened person was unable to enjoy any pleasures or feel e need for enjoyment. The other othe r reason rea son for the Buddha ivi ivin ng such a s ensuous life ife was to
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show that even ough the Buddha had all the est pleasures, he wasn't sased sas ed by these these pleasures because bec ause he had understood understood at there was a igher for form m of o f happiness happines s to be b e sought The sixth deed of e Buddha was his renunciation The palace was enclosed with h wals and four gates facng each of the n o The Buddh wen for a wak ousde of he precincts of the palace, each me leang through one of the dfferent gates, and each tme he sw sometng at gave m a different lesson on lfe The rst me he went out through the easte gate of the palace and saw the suffering of an old man, discoveg for the rst tme tht a persons expeence the degeneraton of the body Anoer e he left the palace through e soue gte and saw a sick person and discovered the suffeg that all persons at one me or anoer suffer The next me he went out through the weste gate and saw a dead erson and discovered the pain of death which al persons must undergo This hit hm hard because he reaed that, no matter how ch you are, no matter how powerful you are, no matter how much pleasure and enjoyment you have, there is nothing you can do to rn away from the suffeng of old age, sickness, and death He reaed rea ed that there was no way to to avoid avoid these; these ; even a g could not buy his way out of this suffeng No one can away and ide om this suffeng No one can ght and defeat ese ree kinds of sufferng sufferng But then the Buddha reaed that maybe there is a way out: e practce of a spril path The Buddha understood this when he left e paace through e nore gate and saw a monk That moment he felt great wearness th the world and renounced the world at the age of29 Aer the Buddha had these visions, he gave up e gdom and left the life of a prince, which is his seventh deed He led a ife of austetes for six years by the banks of the Nilajana ver in India These austerites did not lead to his eightenment, but the years spent dong ascec pracces were no wasted because they had the specc purpose of shog tre disciples that e Buddha had ut a ver great amount of effort and perseverance n gene o ceg e goa of enghenmen Ths seven deed was also to show that as long as someone is attached to money, food, cloes, and e pleasures of life, life, dedicaton to sptual racce is impossible But if one ves up attachment, en the acievement of Buddhahood becomes a possibii So
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at is why e Buddha engaged in ts deed of six years of austetes by a verside. The eighth deed of the Buddha was hs ng up of the austerites, by accepng a bowl of yort and going to e bodhi tree and vong to stay under ts tree untl he reached nal awakeng. In contrast to the austetes, the Buddha ate s nutous food and gave s body a rest. He puts s clothes back on and went to the bodhi tree. The Buddha gave up the austeries to show his ture followers that the main object of Buddhst pracce is workng th one's mnd. We have to enate the negatit our mind and have to develop the posive quaies of knowledge and understanding. This is far more important than what goes on outside of us, so that austertes are not te pont n emselves. hat the Buddha wanted to show us is that the true pracce shod be n te mddle of e to extremes of practcg too many many austees aust ees and being being too indugen indugent.t. The st s t extreme is when you stare yourself or you don't allow yourself food and drink. These practces also nvolve placing yourself n extreme physical condons such as eg too hot or too cold. Ths is pointless beca bec ause us e it has n o true true sicance The other extrem extremee is where where you just follow any of your desires. Ths is endless because ere is a constant escalaton n your desres. If you have ten pleasures, you' want a hundred. If you have a hundred, you'l want a ousand; so you never nd any satsfacon and you also never be able to pracce the dhaa eier. So the Buddha wanted to show us at we have to avoid the extreme of too much austet and too much indulgence and that pracce es somewhere in the ddle. The nnth deed of the Buddha is caled e subdung of the mara Papiyan." Papiyan was the leader of e maras. This happened when the Buddha was sittng under the bodhi tree. Papiyan used disturbing emtins (sometmes caed forms related to the three disturbing kleshas of ignorance, dese, and aggression to to lure the Buddha away away from from s s pursut o f enightenment. enightenment. The rst decepon represenng ignorance was that the Buddha was asked to abandon hs medtaon and retrn ediately ediately to the kingdom becaus bec ausee hs faer g Shuddhodana Shuddh odana had died and the Devadatta had taken over e kngdom. This did not disturb the Buddha's meditation. Then Papiyan ted to create an obstacle using desire by showg his own beaul daughters who ted to deceive and seduce hen this did not dsb e Buddha's meditaton Mara then used hatred by comng .
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toward the Buddha uounded by mlion of hoby tenng waror who were throng weapon at the Buddha body But the Buddha want ditracted or fooed by thee tree poion He remained immered in compaion compaion and ong-kndne ong-kndne and erefore triumphed over th ipay of the three poion and wa abe to eventy achieve enightenment The tenth deed of the Buddha i hi enightenment which he reached reach ed whie meditatng medit atng under the bodhi tree Becaue the Buddha had deveoped a the quaie of meditaton to the utmot, he wa abe to reach enightenment He did thi to how u that we ao can reach enhtenment A a matter of fact, one of the main pont of e whoe Buddhit Buddhi t phoophy i to how u that Buddhahood i not omethg to be found outide of u, but ometing we can acieve by ooing nide oureve In the ame way a the Buddha Shaami reached enightenment, we ao can achieve enightenment And e quate that we attan th enghtenment w be no different from the one the Buddha attained Ao whatever negave emotion the Buddha managed to enate The eeven deed of the Buddha occurred when he ed the whee of the dharma three tme, which mean when he gave the ree great cyce of teacing4 \en the Buddha ived n India, e popuaon of India beieved that if one made offeng and prayed to a god, then that god woud be ated and happy and in trn that god woud rant iberaon and happne They ao beieved at if one didnt make offeng and pray to the god, he woud be ver an, rowing you down to the he and inictng other tate of ueng upon you Thi idea of a god int reay one of a pecia deit, it i ony the embodment of deire and age10n But in Buddhim, we do not expect our happine or our uffeng to come from the Buddha It i not beieved at if we peae the Buddha, he wi bng u happne and if we ipeae ipe ae e Buddha, he throw u into samsara or ome ower ream he poibit of happine or reachng beraton i entey up to u So if we pracce e path that ead to beraton, we attain Buddhahood But if we do not practce it, en we cant expect to reach enhtenment enhte nment The choice i enrey enre y our It in our hand whether we want to nd happine or uffeng But t there i ometg that come from e Buddha and thi i the path to iberaton To provide u th that mean for iberation, the Buddha turned the whee of the dharma
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The telfth deed of e Buddha is his passing away at the age of 83 n the town of Kushingara. Kushingara. He asked ask ed his students if ey had any nal uestions and then lng in the "lion's posure he passed away. His last words were, Bhikshus, never forget: Decay is nherent in al composite ns."
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The Litert Litertre re ism ism The Literature of Buddhism is enormous th the teachngs of the Buddha being about 30 mes longer than e Chsan Bible. The Buddha's teacngs differ om the Chstan, Moslem, or Hindu scptures n the Buddha never suggested that one should worship a god. Instead the Buddhist teachings are conceed leadng an eical ife, analyzing one's existence to develop some meanng to it, deveoping an inner peace rough meditaton, and developing boundless compassion and love for others. The Buddhist teachngs can be broadly categorized nto three different sets of veicles." Thrang inpoche's Three Vehcles of Buddhist Pracce is a comprehensi c omprehensive ve s ua of o f this this topic. After e Buddha passed away, his disciples got togeer and recited of hs teacngs and did so for about200 about 200 years when the teachings teachings were were taken to Ceylon (now called called S S Lanka) by Ashok A shoka's a's son Mahendra and wtten down in Pai, a language spoken by e Buddha. Through a great effort ese teacings have been translated into int o Engish Engish by the Pai Pa i Text Societ. S ociet. e iterae of the Mahayana vehcle was wtten mostly at e great Buddhist Universies in Sanskt in Northe Inda. This terate is associated th to important personsNagauna who, bey, wrote many ver scholarly treatses prong that eveg is empt and Asanga who brought e ve works of the Maitreya Buddha to humans. These works were commentaes on certain sutras and these commentaes are actay stdied extensively in Tibetan monasteries rather an the oginal sutras. These include the Uatantra which is a detailed treatse on Buddha-essence which all sentent being possess and this essence alows them to achieve enghtenment. Amost of is iteratre was lost in Inda, but was presered and translated into Tibetan and Chinese. Thran inpoche has wtten commentaries on four of tese tes e ve ve works o f Maitreya. Maitreya. inay tere is the teratre of e Varayana iterature which consists of the technues for rectly lookng at nd (the Mahamudra and e Dzogchen Practces) and e Deit or Yidam practces. npoche has s uazed e Mahamudra with his booklet Introduction to ahamudra Practice
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The Fur Nble Truths \hen e Buddha taught, he was not teachng as a great scholar who wanted to demonstrate a partcular philosophical pont of iew or to teach for its own sake. His desire was to present the ve essence of e deep and vast teachngs of Buddhism, and for at reason he gave teacngs which suted the varng abtes of is isciples. e teachngs he gave, some long and some short, were a rect and appropriate response to the development of e dsciples who came to sten to Of course, people have very iff ifferent capaci c apacites tes and diff different levels levels of understanng. They also als o have ve different shes and desires to learn and understand the dhaa. If the Buddha had taug taught ht only only the ve ess e ssence ence of his own understanding of those vast and far-reaching teachngs, then, apart om a sma number of disciples who had great inteigence and digence, few people would have ever understood the Buddhst teachngs. The Buddha taught whatever would enable a person to develop so he or she could progress gradualy towards the very deep and vast teacngs. \hen we analyze the Buddha's teachgs, we see that ey fal into ree man approaches or vehicles. The Buddha's teachngs helped each stdent a way appropate for his or her level. On the relave leve/4 each stdent received some benet om what the Buddha taught. On the absolute level, lev el, a of the Buddha's teachings have the same goal. \hen one analyzes the Buddha's teachings on the relatve level, one nds that there are ree levels. But, when one exanes them om e absolute level, one sees ere is only one level, or y ana, because all beings are rected towards the same goal. T H Of e three vehicles or yanas in Sanskrit, the rst is the Hinqana Hinayana literally means lesser veicle," but ths term should in no way be a reproach or be construed to any way sh the mportance of e teachngs. teachngs . In fact, fact, e teachngs of o f the Hnaya Hnayana na
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are ver important because they suit the capacies and development of a great number of students. If it weren't for these teachgs, which are parcularly appropate for those who have lited isdom or digence, many persons would never be able to travel the Mahqana path. Wiout the nayana teachings there wud be n wa fr practner t prre the dhara because they would have never entered the path. The pa is silar to a stacase: the lower step is the lower step. This doesn't mean mea n it is not no t portant or should be ignored, beca be cause use thout this this lower step one can never reach the top of the stas. One can never gain access to the upper stoes of a blng thout that lower step It is ver necessar. It should be ve clear at this te lesser" vehicle is in no way a pejorative term. It just puts the path into a reastic context. The ndamental teacngs of the nayana are the ma subject matter of the rst turng of the wheel dhaa These teacngs were given maly in India in the town of Varanasi, which is now caled Benares. The main subject matter of these t ths teacgs teacgs is i s the u noble tths T HS If the Buddha had taught is disciples pncipaly by using his maculous abities and vaous powers, it would not have been ve effectve in helping human beings on e path of beraon. The best way to show them at sdom and iberaon was to pont out the ver tth of thngs; to point out the way things reay are. So this is what he did: he showed the truth through the four noble truths and the to truths relatve and absolute truth). By seeing the way thgs really are, the stdents leaed how to elinate their mistakes and eir delusions. Elnatng one's mistakes and delusions automacaly destroys e causes of one's suffeng and hardships. Tis alows one to progressively reach the state of iberaton and eat sdom. That is why the four noble trus and the to truths are the essence of the rst teacngs of the Buddha. T IS H The st noble truth is the understanng of sufferng Of course, in an obous way, people are aware of suffeg, knowing when they have unpleasant sensatons of hunger, cold, or sickness,
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and recognize ese as thngs that they don't ke. But the rst noble truth includes awareness of al e raicaons of suffeng, because it encompasses the ve nature and essence o suffering. This includes nowledge of the sube and the obous aspects of suffering. The obvous aspect of suffering is ediate pain or ifcult in the moment. Sube suffeng is more difcult to understand, understa nd, because it beins happiness. But by its ver natre this happiness must change because it can't go on forever. Because it must change into suffering, sube suffering is the impermanence of pleasure. For example, when Thrangu inpoche went to Bhutan th His Honess Kapa, he was inted to e palace of the ing of Bhutan. en he arved there, e palace was magnicent, e g's chambers chambers were beauful, beauful, ere were many serants serants who showed complete respect and obedience. But he and Karmapa found that even ough ere was so much exteal beaut, the ing hmself was sufferng a great deal mentaly and had many difcultes. The kng self said that he was qute reieved that His Honess had come and emphasized how much the sit meant to him because of the various difcules th which he had been troubled. This is the sube aspect of sufferng. We tink at a parcar situation l ive us the most happiness we can ever imane, but actally, within the situation, ere is a tremendous amount of anguish. If we ink of those who are realy fortunateose gods or human beings th a ver ch and healy lifeit seems as though ey have nothing but happiness. It is hard to understand that the ve root, the ver ber of what is tag place is suffeng, because the situation is subect to change. \hat is happiness? By its ver nare it can often mean that ere be suffering later on. There is no worldly happiness that lasts for a ver long e. Worldly happness includes an element of change, of bult-in suerg. For that reason, the rst noble truth of the awareness of suffering refers not just to iediate suffering, but also to the sube elements of sufferng. The Buddha taught the tu of suffeng because eveg that takes pace on a worldly level is a fo of suffering. If we are suffering but are not aware of it, we l never have e motivation to einate this suffering and contnue to suffer. \hen we are aware of suffering, we are able to overcome it. With the more sube forms of suffeng, if we are happy and become aware that e happness automacay includes the seed of
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suffeng then we wbe much ess incined to become involved in an attachment to is happiness. We then think Oh ts seems to be happiness but it has bt-in suffering." Then we want wan t to dissociate from it. The r rst st truth tr uth is that one shoud sho ud be aware f suffeng an nce we have a ve clear picure of the na f sffng can ay b a sch sffng. Of course everone wants to avoid suffering and to emerge from suffeng but to accompish this we need to be absoutey clear about its nature. hen we become aware that the nature of day-to-day exisence is suffering we don't have to be miserabe th the ought that suffeng aways be present. Sueng desn't go on forever because the Buddha entered the word gave teachings and demonstrated ceary what suffeng is. He aso taught the means by which suffeng can be ended and descbed the state beyond suffeng wich is iberation. We do not have to endure suffering and can n fact be happy. Even hugh w cannt immediately emerge om suffering by praccing the Buddha's teachings we can raduay einate suffeng in this way and mve towars eventual iberaon. This fact in itself can make us happy even before we have actay completey emerged om suffeng. Applng the Buddha's teachings we can both be happy in the reative phase of our proess and then at the end we ga som and iberaon and be happy in the ulmate sense as we. The st nobe tru makes it cear that there is suffeng. Once ne knows what suffeng is one must enate that suffeng. t is not a question of eminating e suffeng itsef but of einating the causes of suffeng. Once one removes the causes of suffeng then automaticay the effect which is suffering is no longer present. This is why in order t einate this suffeng one becomes aware of e second nobe trth the trth of uniersal onation. T S N TU The trth f unersal oriination is an Engish translain f he name Buddha imsef gave to tis nobe truth. t means that which is the cause or in of absolutely everng." everng. " The tuth of universa onan indicates that the root cause of suffeng is negative karma and e keshas. Kaa is a Sanskrit word which means act" and klesha in Sanskrit means mental deement"
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r mental pisn." If ne des nt understand the Buddhas teacgs, ne wuld mst likely attibute all happiness and suffeng t sme exteal cause. One might tnk that happiness and suffeng cme frm the ennment, r m the gds, an at eveg that happens rinates in sme surce utside f nes cntrl. If ne beieves this, then it is extemely hard, if nt impssible impssible,, t enate enate suffeng suffeng an its causes. causes. On the ther han, when ne reaes that the expeence f sufferg is a prduct f what ne has dne, that is, a result f nes karma, elnatng suffeng becmes pssible. Once ne is aware f hw suffeg takes place, then ne can bein t remve the causes f suffeng. Frst, ne must realize that what ne experiences is nt dependent n external frces, but n what ne has dne preusly. Tis is the understandin f karma. Negatve karma prduces suffering and is driven by the delements. The term delement" refers manly t nes negative mvatn and negatve thughts, which prduce negatve actins. T T N TU The thrd nble tru is the cessatn f suffeg thrugh wich it is explained that the causes f karma and e delements can be remved. rem ved. We have cntrl cnt rl ver sufferng, because beca use karma karm a and the delements take place thin uswe create them, we expeence them. Fr at reasn we dnt need t depend n anyne else t ogination remve the cause f suffeng. suffen g. The truth f interdendent ogination means at if we d unrtuus actns, we are creatng suffeng. It als means if we abandn unrtuus actns, we remve the pssibilit f experiencng suffering in the ture. hat we experience is entrely n ur hands. Therefre, the Buddha has said that we shuld ive up the causes f negave kaa and the deements. rtuus actins result in the external state f happiness and untuus actns result in suffeg. This idea is nt particularly easy t asp, because ne cant see the whle prcess take place frm beg t end. There are three kinds f acns: mental, verbal, and physical. These are subdided int rtus and unvirtuus physical acns, virtuus and unrtus verbal actns, and rtuus and urtuus mental actins. If ne abandns these three tpes f unvtuus actins, then nes actns becme autmatically virtuus.
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There are three unvirtuous physical actions: the haing of life, sexual misconduct misconduct,, and stealing. stealing. The results of these three unvirtuous unvirtuo us acons can be obsered mediately. mediately . For example, when there is a virtuous relationship beteen a man and woman ey care about each other, protect each other, and have a eat dl of lov d ffco for ch or, so thy b happy because they look after each other. Their wealth usually crease, crease, and if thy have children, thei love and care bg mutual love th faly. n the ordary sense, happiess develops out of this deep comitment and bond they have proised to keep hereas, when there is an absence of comint, thr is also litl cr or love, nd sxual misconduct arises. This is not the ground out of wich love ases, or upon which a ice home can be built i which children can develop happiess. One can readily see that from the lack of commitment to sexual dit, may ds of difculties arise. One can also see e mediate consequences of other unrtuous physical actions. One can see at those who steal have difcules and suffer; those who dont steal expeence happiess and have a good state of md. Likewise, those who create many problems and unhappess ess for themslves while those who protect life are happy. The same applies to our speech although it is not so obvious. But on closer exaation, we ca also see how happess devlops out of vtuous speech and unhappiess om urtuous kds of speech. At rst yg may seem to be usel because we ht that one can decive others rough ies and ga some advantage. But Saky a Pandita said that this is not true. f we lie to our enemies or persons we dont get along th ver wel, because ey do not lke us they are not going to believe us anyay. t be ver hard to deceive them. f they are our friends, we might be able to deceive them at st by telling a lie. But after the st me, they wont trust us any more and may tnk that we have been a hypocte. So we see that ng doesnt realy work. Then if we look at the opposit, a person who takes pas to speak the th wl develop a reputaon of beg a truthl person who can b relied o. Out of ts tust, many ood ths mer. Once we have considered the consequences of lng, w can tnk of slar consequences relang to other ds of damang speech: slander and coarse, agessive, and usless speech. Except or immdit d t short-trm consucs ous
Te our oe Trut
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seech rouces hainess an unrtuous seech rouces sufferng. \hen we say useless seech we mean seech that is really useless not just conversational. If we want someone to relax an feel comfortable it is a ght to talk thout the conversation hag great meaning as long as our intentions are to benet that erson. However if we just chatter for not reason that is useless speech." Worse than that is chatter roote in e elements" when one is sayng ba things about other eole because of ise or jealousy of them or when one sets eole against each other. \hen one just gossis about the character of eole that is really useless seech. Besies being useless tis ve often causes trouble because it sets eole against each other an causes ba feelings. The same alies to harml seech." If ere is really a long an benecial reason for scoling for examle a chil when he is oing something angerous or not stng in school that is not harml seech because it is evoi of e elements. Rather it is a sll way of helng someone. If there is a genuine benecial attitue an love ben what one says it is not harml seech. But if speech is relate to the elements such as aggression or ealousy en it is harml seech an is someting to ve u. We can go on to exame the various states of min an see that a rtuous n prouces happiness an unrtuous states of mn create unhapines unhapiness. s. For instance instance strong agession agession wi cause us to lose our fens. Because of our aggressiveness aggressiv eness our enemies become even worse enemies an e situaon become nlame. If we are aggressive aggressi ve an hurt others an they have friens then eventually those friens also become our enees. On the other han if we sh to benet others gooness will come out of it through the ower of carg for our love ones an then trough wishing to hel em evelo gooness. Through this they become close an helful fens. Through the ower of our love an care our eneies an eole we on't get along th mprve ther behaor an thse enees may evenally become ens. If we have comanions an sh to benet others we can en u th ver goo fens an all the benets wich at bngs. this way we can see how cause an effect oerate how a virtuous m brgs about hainess an how a unrtuous mn bngs about suffeng an roblems.
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e e oote te u u te our oe o e rut rut
There are to main aspects of kaa one related to experience and one related to conditioing. The expeence of karma has aready been discussed. Through unrtuous physical actions, one wl experience problems and unhappiness. Likese, rough unrtuous speech such as lying, one experiences unhainss and srrw. Thrugh untus sas f mind, n also experiences unhappiness. This was demonstrated by the example of an agressive attide. of tis is related to the understanding understa nding that any unrtuous acvit produces unpleasantness unpleasan tness or unhappiness. The second aspect of karma relates to conditioing. By being ous h our body, speech, or mind we habituate urselves to a certain stle of behaor. nrtous physical or verbal behaors add to e habit of doing things. For example, each tme we we are condioned condi oned to l again. If we ie, tha increases increa ses the habi of lng. agessive mind conditions our state of ind so we become more agessive. agessive. In later ives, en, that conditiong conditiong emerge so at we be rebo wi a reat tendency to o ie, to engage in sexual misconduct, and so on. These are to aspects to karma. One is the dect consequence of an act and the other is the contioning at creaes a tendency to engage in behaor of that nd. Through these to aspects, kaa produces e happiness and the suffering in ife. ven though we may recoe that uous kaa ves se to suffering and rtous karma ives rise to happiness, it is hard for us to ive up unirtuous actins and pracce rtous actions because the delements exercise a powerful inluence on us. We reae hat suffering is caused caus ed by unrt u nrtuous uous karma, but we can't ive up he karma itself. We need to ive up the deements because ey are the root of unrtuous actions. To ive up the delements means to ive up unrtuous actions of body (such as g, g, steaing, and sexual misconduct), the unvituous actions of speech (such as lying, slander and harml and seless speech), and e unrtuous aspects of mind (such as agressive, covetous, or inorant mind). Just wanting to ive up the delements does not remove them. However, However, the Buddha in his great indness indness and sdm has n us a er slul way to nat the ver r of al e deements through the examation of the beef in the existence of self or ego. We cannot easily understand this beief in a self because it is very deep-rooted. Firs of a, we have to search for this self that we believe , and rough this search we can discover that the self
e our o oe e rut rut
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doe not exit. Then we be able aduay to elinate the beief in a elf. \hen thi i done, the delement are alo einated becaue wi an eination of the beief in elf, unvirtou karma i alo einated. Ti belief in a elf i a itaken erceon. It' an luion. For examle, if oe hd ower d ere to errote oe hundred eople about it, ey would all come to the ame concluion that it i indeed a ower. So one could be rett ure t it i a ower. But, if one aked a eron I i me?" he would wou ld ay, ay , No, N o, it' you." you ." A econd eron would wou ld ay, ay , It' It ' you." you. " One would end u th one hundred eron who ay thi a you" and only oneelf would conider it a me." So tatiticaly one' elf i on ve wobby ound. We alo tend to tnk of me" a one hin, a a unit. \hen we exane what we of a ourelve, we nd it i made u of many different different comonent: comonent: the variou variou art of the body, the different oran, and e different element. There are o many of em, yet we have thi feein of a nle thin, wich i me." \hen we examne any of thoe comonent and tr to nd ometin at i the eence of elf, the elf cannot be found in any of thee bit and iece. By contemlatn thi and worn rouh it ver thorouhly, we ben to ee how i I" i realy an incorrect erceon. erceon. Once we have enated thi wron way of tnn, the idea of an I" become eay to et rid o So, a of the dee rooted in thnn, "1 mut be made hay," ha y," can be enated ena ted a well all e averion rooted in the idea of thi dicult mut be eminated." Trouh the enation of the idea of I," we can annlate the delement. Once the deement are one, then unvou karma tat i rooted in e deement can o. Once the untuou karma i one, uffe no loner take lace. Ti i why Buddha y that the root of uffen need to be abandoned. To uare, once we recone what uffen realy i, then we ben by remon it caue. We to doin unrtou action that create uffen. To to thee unrtou acvie, we di out their roo, wich are the deement and the variou unhealthy attude. To eradicate the delement we need to remove the heart, which i e belief in a elf. If we do that, then we eventaly come to reae the dom of non-elf. Throuh undertann the abence of a elf, we no loner create the delement and neative action and thi brn an end to that
1
Te e of te udd d te our oe Trut
whol wholee process Tis Tis outcome is certain, thus thus this this is the the third Noble Truth of Cessation The ver essence and nature of cessaon is peace Sometmes people think of Buddhahood in tes of bant ant insights or something ver fantastic In fact, the peace one obtains from the cessaon of everthng unhealthy is the deepest happiness, bliss, and well being Its ver nature is lastng, in contast to worldly happiness, which is excitng for a me, but then changes In contast, the ulate iberaon and omniscience of cessaton is the most deeply mong peace Win that peace all e powers of liberaon and wisdom wisdom are developed It is a ver ver deitive release om bo suffeng and its result, and is a deve release from the delements, which are the cause of suffeng There are four main qualtes of this truth of cessaon First, it is the cessaon of suffeng Second, it is peace Tird, it is the deepest liberaon and sdom Fourth, it is a ver denitve release Cessaon is a product of practcing the path shown to us by the Most Perfect One, the Buddha The actual nature of that pa is the topic of the fourth noble trth, which is called the tth of the path, because it descbes the path that leads to liberaton
T FO NOBLE RU The tuth of the path is called the tuth of the pa" because a path leads one to the ultate goal One does this step by step, stage by stage, progressively completng ones ourney The main stages of Buddhism are called e ve paths" because by proessively proessively traversing traver sing em, one eventually eventua lly reaches ones destnaon whch is cessaton Ts pa of the Buddha can be analyzed through its ve main stages which are called the ve paths The names of the ve paths are the stage of accumulaton, the stage of uncton, the stage of nsight, the stage of culvaon, and the nal stage of no more learnng Properly speaing, the rst four of these are the path, th the fth one being the effect The st path is called the pa of accumulaton" because on this path we accumulate all the positive factors one to proess We to cultvate dgence, good quaites, and sdom which penetrates more deeply into the meaning of thngs We commit ourselves to accumulatng a the positive aspects of practce We gather the positve elements into our being wle at e same te workng on many different ways to remove all the unwanted elements from our life We also apply various techniques to
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enate the blockages and obstacles that are holdg us back. Ths s caled the stage of accumulaon because we engage n ths manfold actity and gaer all of these new tngs to our life. In ordinar fe we are caught up n worldness. Even ough we don't want to be, we are stl operang on a level of condtoned estence (Skt. samsara ) because we ae st st under the nuence nuence of e de@ements. They have a ver song habtual p on our estence. We need to get rd of these de@ements n order to nd our way out of samsara. Of course, we want to nd happness and peace and we now t s possble. But even th the strongest n the world, we cannot do t oveght. It s like tng to dye a age coth, n that one nees to brng many iffeent eements together to change the color. So, rst of al, n order to gan good quaties, we need to work on creating a the dfferent conditons whch make those qualities emerge. To develop the vaous nsghts of medtaon and real wsdom, we need to develop great fath and condence n the vadt and useness of that sdom. Once we are connced of ts value, we need to change our habts so that we have the gence to do al the thgs necessar to make nsght and wsdom emerge. Therefore, there are many factors and conditions we must generate thn our fe that bng about ou happness. To remove al the unwholesome factors bndng us n samsara, we must uproot beef n a self, enate the varous delements whch are neng us, and brng together the many different conditions that make ths tansformaton and purcaton possble. We tak about accumulaon because we are assembling a the fferent contons for s transformation. We won't be able to proess n a sgncant manner unl we have gathered all these causes and condtions n a proper and completely perfect way thn ourselves. or that reason, the purpose of ths stage of accumulaon s to complete al the necessar condons by gatherng em nto our estence. Eventally, because of the complete gatheng of favorable conons, we reach e rd stage whch s e path of nsght." nsght. " Ths s the stage dung wch nsght nto the way tngs actua ae s eveoped, beon the ve of deuson. ning the path of accumulation accumulati on and the stage of nsght s the second path of junction. Here our nne reaaon, e ve way we can perceve ngs, bens to nk up wth the truth of the actua nature of henomena, because beca use we are ae ae the faoabe crcumstances that wl evenuay ea us to e acta nsght tse
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e e o te udd nd te o ur o e e Trut
\hen we attain insight int the way things really are and this insight develps beynd the level f delusin and istaken ews, we reae that ere is n self Once there is n lnger a beef in self, there are n lnger any rt delements f attachment, agressin, r mental darness assciated e idea f self Once ere are n lnger any delements, ne des nthing rus an has n mre suffering Nw, t s true that nce we have that insight, a suffering is imeiately remved, but in anther way, that is nt true This is because the delusin f self is a habit which has been bult up fr such a lng te and is ver, ver hard t remve Fr example, when we beeve n the self an we hit ur nger th a haer, it hurts Even when we have reaed at an unchanng self is just a delusin fabcated by ur mnds, swhen we it ur nger th a haer it hurts We stl have the feeing, I am suffering," because there is an endurng blt-up assciatn f I" th the esh f ur bdy Remval f that lng estabshed cnditining f self is caed ut thrugh a lng prcess f accustmng neself t the tth f nn-self This is the furth stage f the cultivan f insght The furth stage is caed the pa f culvatn The wrd gom s usually tanslated as meditatin" but actuay means t get used t smething" r t accustm nesel"5 This is why it is tanslated here as the path f culvatn," whle er texts translate it as e path f meditatin" But this stage is the idea f getng used t the nsight int the nare f things Thrugh becming mre and mre famar wi the truth f ings,6 we can remve the ver ne traces f delements delements and subcnscius cndtiing that sl exist Thrugh radual wring n these, e gal f Buddhahd ll be attained Thruh the culvan f insght, we eventualy reach the gal f the fth path that is caled e path f n mre learning" Thrugh cvatin, we remve even e mst subtle causes f suffeng Once this is cmpleted we have reached the highest state and there are n mre new paths t g alng mang is e pa f n mre study" r the path f n mre learning"
Cp 3 T T Wheels of Dharma In the rst chapter the teve deeds of the Buddha were iscussed. The eeven deed of the Buddha was g the whee of dhaa. hat is the acta meang of s phrase? hen we speak of dharma, we usuay refer to the teachgs iven by the Buddha, but in fact dharma has to meanings one is e scripa dhrma that came down to us om the Buddha and the other is the dhaa of reaaton. Actay, the root of dhrma is reaaon meang that one understands underst ands the true nature of phenomena just as it is. To obtan such understanding, one has to deveop the good quaies of meditation th much dgence, effort, and perseverance. Through this work n meditaon, one comes to a pont where a ver specia understandng, nowedge, and insight never experienced before arses. At this e one reaches te uate on, true reaaton. This is what is meant by the dhaa of reaaon. But order to achieve is reaaton, we need a foundaon to work om. We need to wok om the scptra dhaa which is the dharma as a teacg iven us by the Buddha. Thee are to man casses of sctura dharma: e teachngs of the sutas and the teacgs of the tantras The sutas of the Buddha were ven in three ifferent waves or turgs of the wheel dhaa The rst turnng of e whee of dhaa were the Hinqana teachings. These teacngs were intended for individuas whose nd was not yet ver open and had a esser aspiaon to achieve enightenment. enightenment. The second wave of teachings caed the second g of te whee of dharma are the teachngs on emptiness and on e Prajnaparaita teacngs. These are teachngs of e Mahayana. inay, e d wve of teacngs were the bdge beteen the suas and the tanas. These were the teacings n wch the Buddha taught that absoutey everone has Buddha-nature or Buddha-essence.
Tee i T ie of te udda udda and a nd te o ur o o ble bl e Trut
T SU SU ow the rst trnn of teachns were iven n Varanasi which you can visit n India nowadays. The Buddha tauht n e deer park (which is now called Sarnath) which at the tme was a ver remote and ver sotar place. After the Buddha reached his enihtenment, he remained completely slent and didn't teach for seven weeks. The reason for ts was to show that the dharma is ver rare, ver special, ver valuable, valuable, and this is why the Buddha just remaned slent for some me and unl he was requested to 7 teach. The request was made by many ods ncludin Brahma. Han had the request to teach, the Buddha went to Varanasi and ave the teacns in the deer park. He ave e teacns to ve 8 men who were caled e ve ood folowers" who were connected by previous karma to the Buddha and who throuh this , were the rst ones to receive his teacn. The subject matter of this rst tn of the wheel of dharma was the teachn of the Four oble Trths. The Buddha expoundn these Four oble Trths to make it ver clear to al ose who were on to folow the Buddha's pa what the teach was, why one needed to practce it, and what knd of resuts resuts one could be expected from e practce. So to cla the path the Buddha laid it out in a ve clear form of the four truths. truths. He showed that if we don't practce the path of dharma, we l wander on and on in samsaa, but if we pracce the dhaa, we w ain e beraon of niana The Buddha st tauht that suffen is nheent to samsaa and that this is what we must realy overcome. Secondly, he tauht that the cause of is suffen are the distrbn emoons (or klshas and karma. To counteract samsara we must enae n e aspect of nana which aa has to parts. The thd noble t of cessaton or peace shows what we can achieve. iana is cessaon of suffern. suffern. And fourth the way to achieve tis is the truth of the path. Since samsara is by ae sffe, we ae o o beyod samsaa to enae samsara. Since nana is peace, ths is what we have to t to aceve. But achievin ana and enat samsaa can not be done automatcally. So it is done roh workin on the causes of ese that we can aceve our oal. This is why the Buddha expounded on the four truths in the form of causes and the effects. The causes of the suffen of samsara ae the disrbin
Te Tree Wee o Drm
2
emoons such as lust anger and gnorance and kaa which need o be overcome In the same wa he cause of eace and biss of nana is e ath which needs to be racced So this is how e Buddha gave the whole outne of his teaching in the fo of these four tuths Within each sec of ee i u l be ue and effect Ts series of teacngs which began in Varanasi were called the trning of the rst wheel of dharma Late the Buddha taught e second wheel of dharma at Vulture Peak in Rajaha India 9 The eole who were resent dung tis teaching were arhats and odhisattas in rat numers The teachng itsef was mos the exosition of the Prajnaarata This is when the Buddha gave the teachings on emtness and on the conduct of a bodhisatta rough the teacngs on e six paramitas In e rst turning of e whee of dhaa the Buddha showed that one had to abandon samsara to achieve nana But how is this ossible? Does it mean at we have o go on a long journe to where we have never been before to [d nana? Does i mean ha ha we have to cre create ate sometg nw caled cal ed na? In fact it doesn't mean that at al it means is that we have to understnd the actal nature of henomena10 tht we have to undersand that our resent view of reait is istaken istaken and we have to remove our utes And once we see thgs as the rea are tis is when we can achieve achieve Buddhahood The third g of the wheel of dharma is also caled the achigs ta gave comlee claicaon Tese teachings were iven in Shravasti and othe laces in Ina n the resence of al the great bodhisattas These teaching revealed that Buddha-nature is resent in the nd of beings We ma wonder wh this was taught last The eason is at in the second g the Buddha taught that evertg was emt of inherent natre This teching could lead to the belief that the goa of the Buddhis ath anais actal sml comlete emtiness or anlation To avoid this istake the Buddha gave this trd set of teachings shong a the mind is not just nothinness hen one achieves Buddhahood the orinal innsic lumnosit of the ind ecomes manifest his luminosit or clarit of the mind means that the nd is not a dark obscure ng b natre but it has its own inherent integent clat Once one has removed the vels the ick shroud of gnorance the inheren ca of the mind tis
4
The L ie of the the Budd B uddha ha and a nd the Fo ur No No ble bl e Truts
bance an ce of the ntegence ntegen ce of mnd, mnd, l l shne in its e s s On Once ce s clarit of the d has manifest, then one can understand al ings of nana and samsara ver clearly One has the understang of phenomena and this knowledge is accompanied by e eates eatestt of bss and p eace T T T The ree gs of the wheel of dharma at have just been described coespond to the sutras taught of the Buddha The Buddha also taught the tantras which are the teachngs of the Vajrayana The Buddha gave four tantras: the y a tants, the caa ants, e oa antras, and the anuarqo anuarqoa tants These teachings were ven many places Somees the Buddha gave these teachgs some of the god reams such as Tushita and some of the teacngs were ven physical places in India Those receing these teacings were bodhisattas and daas and dainis praccng te set mantas1 1 The sutras aeady proided ver deep and vast teachngs on the nature of phenomena But e Vajrayana, the Buddha was able to ive people the possibit to achieve the fruton of the Buddhst path ver quickly and thout major hardships The Vajrayana can do s by proing special sil!ul means such as the meditaton on the generation stage and e mpletion stage of a deit, and using meditaton techniques of looking at e nature of e mind direcy So the Buddha rned the wheel of dharma and gave al the vaous teacgs of the nayana, the Mahayana, and e Varayana 1 1 n different places wi fferent people and at al ifferent mes But also because he was teacing students of vastly different abites, at tes it seemed to em as if the Buddha was mainly spreading e nayana; at tmes it seemed to them as if he was teachng the Mahayana and somemes as if to e Vajrayana Of course, this was just a matter of the way in wch the people were perceing e teacngs of the Buddha; it seemed to some that the Buddha was givng completely nayana teachings and to others that he was ng completely Mahayana teahng The Buddha could also be somewhere else and rough his mraculous powers ing other teachngs to oers Because of this, some people started hang e mpression at the Buddha had only ven e nayana teachngs, and had not ven the Mahayana teachgs which were made up by someone else Others beeved that the Buddha had ven the
Te Tree Weel oDarma oDarma
Mahayana teachngs, but had not ven the Varayana teachngs and that ese Varayana teacngs had been fabrcated by hs folowers. The beef tat e Mahayana and the Varayana teacgs were created by someone else s based on e belef e Buddha was ust an ordnar man no etaordna qualtes of enlghtenment nstead of seeng a Buddha as beng a ver eceptonal eceptonal beng who came nto the world to help people out of hs great compasson and to lead them to beraon. Once one tnks of the Buddha as an ordnar Indan man, en net one wll have doubts as to whether he actally gave the varous teachngs attbuted to and one bens pckng and choosng beteen teachngs of the vaous vehcles. It s a mstake to den the Buddha as an ordnar person and to start g that maybe the Buddha ddn't have complete knowledge, or was not able to teach a complete range of teacngs or that the Buddha could have taught n ths place, but not n that place. It s not worth entertanng such doubts because the Buddha was not an ordnar person nor was he a god who f pleased wth you l send you to heaven and f dspleased thow you nto the hell reams. But at the same me, sang the Budda s not a god oesn't mean tat we sould tnk of e Budda as someone devod of any specal quates of knowledge, ntelgence, and understandng or out any specal drect ntton and nsght. He was ndeed a ver specal beng who gave the complete set of dhama teachngs whc were not n conadcton to each other. Each has ts own relevance. hoever pracces a teachng of any level or vehcle vehcle properly properly be be able to acheve acheve the respectve result result of at parcular pa. So ths was the eleventh deed to the Buddha, the trnng of e wheel of dharma. The telf deed of the Buddha was hs passng away. 13 The Buddha could have remaned n our world for thousands and ousands of years, and ths may have been qte benecal. On the oer hand, there would have been the danger that people would start thnkng that the Buddha was permanent whch could generate a knds of msconceptons. Instead by passng away, the Buddha showed at f he had to de, then, of course, everbody else would have to also de one day. So t was to make everone aware of the mpeanence of fe so at they could generate a sense of renuncaon, a sense of ugency n he practce, a sense of weaness ths world. It was also to nstll the feelng that dhama, the teachngs of e Buddha, s ver rare, ver precous,
6
e e o/ te udda udda ad te o ur o ole le ruts
and very valuale. So s s why the Buddha passed away Kusagar n Inda. Through hs telve deeds, e Buddha was ale to help engs n our world extensvely, parcularly rough the teachngs of dharma. y dd dd the Buddha Bu ddha come c ome nto our world world and act ac t through through these telve deeds? The reason was e ve exceptonal compasson of the Buddha wanng to help a bengs and to lead em onto the path that leads to real happness. e wanted to show ndvduals the pa to peace, e path to tre happness y teachg the four hs or the o rs that desce the tre nare of o f everg everg.. e showed us that we can c an have the choce to choose our own appness and travel on the path that leads to mate beraon and happess. So the Buddha because of hs ver eat love and compasson for al of us, dd not eep these teachg teachgss t o mself, mself, ut e e d he wheel wheel o f dhrma dhrma.. T IS CI After the Buddha passed away, hs teachngs were presered thout thout any alteraon alteraon or wthout wthout any loss los s y means of three three great councls. The Buddha ddnt spea from oos tat he had wtten and he dnt wrte nythg down. Instead people cme and ased m questons and voced ther douts and er uncertantes. The Buddha would answer these questons, so that e teacng of the Buddha were acualy answers to vaous peoples questons and douts. These questons would ecome the opportunty for expoundng the tru, for speag of the tre nare of eveg. We may as, l, f everthng was ust sad y the Buddha and notg was wrtten down, how come gs ddn't get lost or altered or moded as tme went on?" The reason ths dd not happen was that many of ose who were receng the Buddha's teachg were mons totay dedcated to e path of e Buddha. hen they stened to e teachng, they dd t all ther heart and mm mmed edate ately ly put e teachngs teachngs nto practce s o ey realed the ton of he path extremely qcly, allowng al the quates of ntegence to rapdly lossom n them. ong oer ngs, they acheved the power of perfect memor whch means means each word the Buddha sad was engraved very deeply n er memory so that ever ever word was ept ep t n n ther nds and notg was lost. lost . After hs passng away one of the Buddha's most mportant mons named Mahaashyapa gathered 500 arhats for a reat councl to eep l the teachgs tact The meetg too place n
e ree ee oDrm oDrm
27
the great Banyan cave whic whichh was on the bank of hot ho t spngs spng s which which are quite close to Vultre Peak near Rajaha. So these 500 arhats gathered there and e meetg meet g was presided pres ided over by three of them in partcular: Ananda, Mahakashyapa, and Up ai. They recited ever word of te Buddha tat tey had heard and each of these three expounded on parcular aspect of the teaching of the Buddha. So Upal expounded the Vinaya teacings, Ananda the Suas, and Mahakashyapa the Abhidharma. They would ben by sang, Thus have I heard. This is how e Buddha spoke" and then they would recite everng they had heard. this way, they estabished ver cleary and formaly what the Buddha's teachings were, so that from that point onwards al the teachings were classed class ed into into these ree groups and kept ver ver systematcaly systematcaly.. e purpose of is rst council was to make sure tat a the mmaculate words of the Buddha would be presered n ther put and wouldn't be lost. For nstance, if even one part of a suta had been lost, then the whole teaching of te Buddha would have lost some of its meaning. That is why they wanted to keep everthng in tact. But, of course, it is possible that some of us have doubts about this. We may feel that if there were no books to record the teachngs of e Buddha, then maybe the sutas are not complete or maybe some of em have een made up y is folowers so it is qte possible that the sutas are not pure teac teachn hngs gs at al. al. 1 6 We, we do not need to entertan at nd of doubt because e arhats were ver reat beings who respected he Buddha's teaching so deeply, that ey wanted to keep the teachngs ver pure, as they had been bee n deivered deivered ona onayy y the Buddha.
e e /te Budda and te Four ole ruts
A Brie Bri efBiography Biography of Thrangu hran gu Rinpoc Rin poche he
Thragu poche was bo i Kham 933. At e age of ve he was foally recoed by the Stee Kaapa ad the previous Sit poche as the caao of the reat Thra . Eteg Thragu moaser, om e ages of seve to sixtee he stdied readig, wrtg, grammar, poetr, ad astrolo, memoed tual texts, ad completed to prear reteats. At sixtee uder e directo of hepo Lodro Rabsel he bega the study of the the hree vehicles of Buddhism whle stay s tayi igg i i retreat. retr eat. At et-three he received ordao om the Karmapa. he he was et-seve ipoche le Tibet for Idia at the me of the Chese tar takeover. He was caled to Rumtek, Sm, m, where e Karmapa ha his seat i exle. At t-ve he took e geshe exaatio before 500 moks at Buxador moastc regee camp i Begal, ad was awarded the degree of Geshe Lharampa. O his ret to Rumtek he was amed Abbot of Rumtek moaster ad the Nalada stute for Higher Buddhist stdies at Rumtek. He has bee the persoal teacher of e fou pcipal Karma Kau tuus: Shamar poche, Sit ipoche ipoche,, Jamgo Kogtul Kogtul Rpoch Rpochee ad Gyal Gyalts tsab ab poche poc he.. Thragu poche has traveled extesively throughout Eope, the Far Eas ad the USA; he is the abbot of Gampo Abbey, ova Scoa, Caada, of Thagu House, xford, i e UK. I 984 he spet several moths i Tibet where he ordaed over 00 moks ad us ad sited several moastees. He has also fouded the moaster, Thrag Tashi og Bodha, a reteat ceer ad college at Namo Buddha, east of the Katmadu Valle Valley, y, ad has established establi shed a s chool i B o dha for the geeral educato of lay chldre ad youg moks. He but Tara Abbey Katmadu. I ctober of 999 he cos c osecrate ecrate the the College College at Saat which wl accept studets om the dfferet sects of Budhism a a w be avalab avalable le to wester stdets stdet s as wel. Thragu poche has give teachgs i over 25 coutes ad is especially kow for akig complex teachigs ad makg em accessible to Weste stdets. Thragu poche is a reco re coed ed master mas ter of Mahamuda Mahamuda meditato meditato.. More recetly, because of his vast kowledge of e dhaa, he was appoted by His Holiess the Dala Lama to be e persoal pers oal ttor for the recetly recetly es e s caped 7 Kaapa.
Not . There are several reas whih ordnary persons don't pereive.
As Thranu pohe has said Beause you an't see it that doesn't mean it doesn't exist." One of these reas is the sambhogakaya whih an be sited by only hhly realed Bodhisattas. In s rea the dharma is onnually taught. One sabhogakaya rea is Tushita whh is presided over by e next Buddha, the Maitreya Buddha. The Buddha dweled ere before omng to ear to ve dharma teahings. The Mahayana praoner is a bodhisatta who vows to not reah enhtenment untl al other bengs have also done so. There are ten staes whih a odhisatta oes throuh unt reah omplete enihtenment. 3. The Buddha's teahns an be dided nto three man steams aled e tug of the three wheels of dhaa. The rst is aed e nayana nayana wh whhh are the teahns o f e Four oble Truths Truths and meditaton and develop developin in an understann of o f the emptness of sel The seond is the Mahayana teahngs whih nvolve the study of emptness of phenomena and pratng e bodhsatta path. The d involves understandng at eve is not ompletely empt, but there is also Buddha-natre that perades al sentent eings. 4. The to truths are the relatve or onventional truth whih is the soid world that we as ordnar bens see around us and the ulmate truth whih one pereves upon reahn enhtenment. For more see note 0. 5. The word for meditaon in Tietan is sgom pronouned gom" and e word for gettng used to" or habituated" or ultivatng" is goms pronouned khom." One an see the words are ver sar. 6 The deer park n whih the Buddha ave his rst sermon whih he explaned e four noble truths is loated mode day Saath whh is loated four mles north of the it of Varanasi India. The deer park atay omes from a stor of e Buddha who was a Banyan deer de er in in a preous f fe . Thrang Thranguu npohe has bult a monaster overloong ths park. 7. Ths may seem to be a ontradion with the statement that Buddhist don't beieve n suppatn a od. Buddhist beeve that ere are ods n that there are deites whih were reated
30
e ie of te Budda and and te Four Four o o be b e ruts
by mind But unie theistic 1elons Buddhist do not beieve these deies eated the uve1se and at ese deites cannot affec affectt yo yo indi indidual dual aa by 1ewa1ding 1ewa1ding and punishing you 8. These ve we1e Kaundinya, Ashvajit, Baspa, Mahanaman, and Bhaia ia 9. Rajaha is located about sixt-to les sou east of the mode cit of Patna and sll is caled Rajaha and is a holy Buddhist site Vul1e Pea at Raj whe1e e Buddha st taught the teachngs on empness was the hea1t of the Magadha empe of e Buddhas tme Vultes Pea G1idauta) was a place that he Budha oen sited and can be sited even today The monaster of Jivaamavana that the Buddha visited has been 1eceny excavated At Rajagriha the1e a1e to nat1al caves where e Buddha lived 0. Buddhist believe that e world as we see it is not e te nate of phenomena, but rather e an illusion A Western example would be that we could go up to a red bc wal and hit it The wal would appear to be soid and made of a single mateal of ha1dened clay This would be its conventional appea1ance Howeve1, a physicist would tel us at actally the wall made of bions ions of atoms at are mong at inc1edible speeds and e spaces beteen ese atoms is so g1eat that e wa" is actuay 99.99% space It on appea1s 1ed because human eyes see the radiaon coming fm these mong atoms as being 1ed" So we can say the apparent nate of the wall is that it is soid and red while its true nate is m1e e bilions of silcon and oxygen atoms lying aund Buddhist about ,500 years ago examng phenomena explaned ts n tes of sang that all outside matter and nternal oughts shufata in that ey did not appea1 as they were emp" (St shufata 1ealy are Tangu npoche often gives the example of the reat meditator la1epa who completely 1eaed this emptiness and was then able to do such ings as put his hand ght through solid roc This feat, ncidentally, has been 1eplicated in the last ten years by the Seventeenth Karmapa who heas the au ineage . hen the Buddha taught, taught, his teachings teachings we1e we1e acc1ng to legend attended by non-humans as well as humans Daas are male and das a1e female sdom beings Many great meditat1s have 1eceived visits especiay from dais who transmit transmitted ted special s pecial knowle knowledge dge about p1acces p1ac ces to them
e Gary
1
2. An mportant part of Vajrayana pracce is sualng deites at represent aspects of e nd. For example, one would suae Avalokiteshvara, e deit of perfect compassion, to develop one's compassion. This is the generaton stage and en at the end of the pracce one would dissolve the deit nto oneself to show that tis enightened uait is actuay our mind ut preseny covered or obsce). . \hen the Buddha was sevent-ne years old he was accompanied by Ananda and sited several places includng Nalanda and stopped at a mango grove n Vaisa. He was taken and decided to die n exacy three months. He gradually went to Kushinigar and there he laid down in the lon's positon" and passed away at the age of eight. He had taught for for-ve years and his last words were, Decay is nherent nherent in all component bengs. bengs . Work out you own salvaton salvaton with dgence" Kusg Kusgar ar wher wheree the th e Buddha died can also al so be sited. The rns of Kushinagara are sitated near the town of Kasia tent-two iles north-east of Deoa in Uttar Pradesh in ndia Ths place has to large Buddhist monastees located where the Buddha passed away and was cremated. One stpa where the Buddha passed away has been excavated and restored res tored several several tmes tmes and contaned a number of reic reic s . There are also eight excavated monastees nearby. \here the Buddha was cremated is a stupa about ft feet high.
Goy absolute level There re to s or ews of retreltve
truth whch s seeng thngs s ordnr bengs do th the dulsm of I" nd other" nd bsolute truth, lso cled ulmte tth, whch s trnscendng dut nd seeng thgs s they re. anuttara-yo ga-tana There re four levels of the vjryn nd nnutr tntr s e hghest of these. It contns the Guhsmj, the Chkrsmvr, the Hevjr, nd e Klchkr tntrs. See tntrs, tes. arhat Accompshed hnyn prctoners who hve ented e dsturbng emotons. They re the ly reed nyn prctoners. bodhisattva An nddul who s comtted to the Mhyn pth of prctcng compsson nd the sx prmts n order to cheve Buddhhood nd ee bengs from smsr. More speccl, those wth movton to cheve beron om smsr nd re on one of the ten bodhstt levels tht cntes n n Buddhhoo Buddhhood. d. bodhisatta levels (Skt. bhum The levels or stges bodhstt goes through to rech enghtenment. These consst of ten levels n e sutr trdton nd teen n the tntr trdon. ornl l nture nture pres p resent ent n Buddha-nature (Skt. tathagata tathagatagarbha garbha The orn l bengs whch when reed leds le ds to enhtenment. It I t s lso cled the Buddh essence. caa-tantra One of the fou tntrs emphsng medton nd externl tuls. completion sta ge In e vjryn ere re to stges of medton: e development nd the compleon stge. The completon stge s method of trntc medtton n whch one ttns bss, clt, nd nonought b mens of e subtle chnnels nd eneres wn e body. Ths hs o m men mengs gs:: Any Any tth tth such suc h s the th e sky s dharma Ths blue nd secondly, s used n ths text, the techngs of the Buddh (lso cled buddhdhrm). emptiness (Skt. shuata shuata Also trnslted s vodness. The Buddh tught n the second g of he wheel of dhrm tht externl phenomen nd the nternl phenomen or concept of self or I" hve hve no rel exstence exst ence nd therefor thereforee re r e empt."
e o e
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ve ps Traditonaly a practoner goes through ve stages or paths to enhtenment. These are () The path of
accumulation which emphasizes puring one's obscurations and accumulatng merit. (2) The path of juncon or appcation in which the meditator develops profound understanng of the fou noble tuths and cuts the root to the desie ream. ( The path of insight or seeing in which the metator develops greater nsight and enters the st bodhisatta level. (4) The pa o meditaon meditaon n wich the meditator cul culvates vates nsight in the second rough tenth bodhisatta levels. 5) The path of ment ment whic whichh is the complete attanme attanment nt o o Buddhahood Buddhaho od.. Fou Noble Tuths The Buddha began teaching th a talk in Ina at Saath on the four noble trus. These are the t of suffering the truth of the cause of sufferng the cessaton of suffeng and the pa. These trs are the foundaton of Buddhism partcularly te Teravada path. genetion stge In the vajrayana there are to stages of meditaon: e development and the compleon stage. This is a method of tantc meditation that involves sualizaon and contemplatng deites for e puose of reazing the purit of al phenomena. In this stage suaation o the deit is established and mantained. god elm See Se e six realm realmss of samsara. Hinyn Literay the lesser vehicle." The term refers to the rst teachngs o the Buddha which emphasized the carel exanation of mnd and its confusion. Also known as the Theravada path. intedependent oiginon The prncpal that nothg exsts independeny but comes into existence only in dependence on vaous preous causes and conditons. There are telve succes succ essi sive ve phases phas es of this this proces proc esss that that be ignoranc ignorancee and end wi old age and death. iteral alyy action." action ." Kaa Ka a is a uversal uversal law law that when one km iter does a wholesome action one's circumstances ll mprove and when one does an unwholesome acton negatve results l eventally occu om e act. Karmapa Te e o seventeen successive incaatons o usum enpa wo has headed te Kaa Kau scool o Tibetan Buddhism. lesh See distubing emoons. kiy tnt ne of the four tantas wch emphaszes personal p.
34
he e of the Buddha and the our ole ruths
lion's posture The posture the Buddha took when he died. It is
ang on his right side ecause o how the body eneries work it woud be the et side or women) th the casped together together and in prayer prayer)) and an d paced under the th e head. head . Many Many ama seep n s posture each nght. lower realm These are the anma� the hung ghost, and e he reams. See six realms o samsara. Literay y,, the eat vec vece.e. " These Thes e are e e teachings teachings o Mahay ana Litera e second turnng o the wheel o dhaa, which emphase shunat shunata, a, comassion c omassion,, and un universa Buddha- nature. nature. mara icutes enountered y te practtoner. There are our ndsskandha-mara which is ncorrect iew o se, kesha mara which is beng overpowered by negave emotions, t-mara which is death and inteuts spiritua pracce, and devaputra-mara which is becomng stuck in the bss that comes rom meditaton. nirana Literay, extngshed" Individuas ive n samsara and th spiritua practce can attan a state o enghtenment in which a ase ideas and conictng emotions have been exgushed. This is caed nana. Padmasambhava ib. Gu Rnpoce He was inted to ibet e nnth cent C.E. and is known or pacig e nonBuddhist orces and oundng the Nngma neage. paramitas, six Sanskt or perectons" and te Tietan tera means gone to the oer side." Tese are te s pracces o e mahayana path: Transcendent generosit dana), transcendent discipne sha), transcendent paence shan), transcendent exerton exerton (a), transcendent transcenden t meditaon meditaon dhyana), and transcendent knowedge rana). The ten paramitas are these plus s means, aspiraonal prayer, power, and pure wisdom ib. yeshe). relative level ib. kunsop Thee are to truths: reave and absoute. Reave truth is the percepton o an orar (unenightened) person who sees the word wi a his or her proectons pro ectons bas b ased ed on the ase ase beie in se s e.. samsara Condoned exstene o orda e n wic sueng occurs because one spossesses attachment, agression, and ignorance. It is contrasted to nirana. Saka Pandita A hereditar head o the Saa neage. A reat schoar 8-25 C.E.) who was an outspoken opponent o e Kau Kau teachgs. He aso became head o the Tibet Tibetan an state under the auori auorit t o the Mongo emperors. emperor s.
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Thes e are the possibl pos siblee tpes o f rebirt rebirths hs for six reams reams o f s amsara amsara These
beings in samsara and are: the god realm in which gods have great pde the asura realm in which the jealous gods to mantain what they have e human realm which is the best realm because one has e possibilit of achieng ght h aa al haatd y supdt h hunry ghost realm characteed by great craving and the hell ream characteed by ages agession. sion. slll means On e mahayana level is is one of e ten paramitas paramitas and refers to dedicang the mets of o f all ones deeds to e benet of all sentient beings. On the vajrayana level it refers to pracces of the inteal yogas which mapulate e inteal eneres and channels. sutra These are the ayana and mahayana tets which are e words of the Buddha. These are often contrasted th the tantas which are e Buddhas Vajrayana teachings and e shas sh astas tas whic whichh are commentaes on the words words of the Buddha. tantra One can dide Tibetan Buddhism into the suta traditon and e tantra taditon. The suta tradion pmaily involves the acadeic study of the Mahayana sutras and the tantic pa pmaly involves practcing the Vajrayana pracces. The tantas are pmaly the tets of the Vajrayana Vajrayana practice practicess . This s one on e of o f the the heaven heaven lds of th Buddha. Tushita Tushita is Tushita This n the sambhogakaya and therefore is not located in any place or tme. wheel of dharma The Buddhas teacgs correspond to three levels: e ayana the Mahayana and e Vajrayana th each set bing one g of the wheel. yana Literally means vehicle but refers here to level of teaching. There are three main yanas (see Hinayana Mahayana and Vajrayana)
The Basic Teachings on Buddhism Series The ieraure in Buddhism is vas. Ofen he suden doesn' know know where where o sar s ar or how ho w o an a as aspp of he nder nderly lyn n prnciples of Buddism. series o ooes is deigned o rvide e reader an overew of e ndamenal opics of Buddism y Thranu noche, he foremos scholar of he Kau neage, wo as een eacng Buddism for e las or years and Weseers for he las o decades. We would ugges e ookles in rouly he folong order. SERIE A
Life of the Budd Bu ddha ha and the Fo Fo ur No No ble Truhs A The Lif
ef summa of he ife of he Buddha foowed by a eachin on e Four ole Truhs which was he rs eaching e Buddha ave which lays ou he foundaion of Buddism. 2. A Guide to Shamaha Meditaion. The ndamenal mediaion done y al ecs of Buddism is asic sin or shamaa mediaon. The okle conains pracical ands on infoaion infoaion for e mediaor. medi aor. The Ten Virtuous Actions. To make any proress on he Buddis a one mus acaly conduc oneself in a osiive manner is ooe desces s conduc and desces e condions for incung posiive and negaive kaa Interdep p end en de nt Originatio Originationn . The 4. The Tweve Links of Interde Budda said a ere was no od or gods creain or ecn he world, raer eve comes abou because of Inerdeenden Oinaion. This bookle on his opic has een een used in many darma darma clas clas s e s . 5 The Fou Dhamas of Gampopa. These four dharmas are a s uar o e wole Buddi a y e rea iean mediaon maser Gamoa. Tese four ines are died n Tie o aumen he Four ole Trhs.
