VKR Teachings Online
Public Talk:
New York City Shambhala Center
October 20, 1998
Page 5: Questions & Answers
On Working with Form/Emptiness
Q. (inaudible...) Is it possible to be a good buddhist by cleaning your room? (Laughter.) I ask that in all seriousness. I’m trying to help somebody learn how to clean their room; and if it’s all an illusion, if it doesn’t really matter, would you say... ?
A. No, no, no, no. I think to be a good buddhist, you have to know how to clean your room. (Laughter)
Q. So I can tell my friend that... (inaudible).
A. I think so. [Then] the mind can rest in the absolute, true nature of emptiness, in the absolute true quality innately within each sentient being. [We] get stuck in relative existence for such a long time, believing in it for so many lifetimes–and for those who only see as far as one lifetime, even in this one lifetime we’re so very stuck in our own fixations, on what seems so real. Although the innate quality of emptiness is there, we haven’t realized it, so we’re still stuck with form. And as long as we’re stuck with form, talking about emptiness does not at all mean that we’ve realized it. Until then, our responsibility–even to clean up clutter–is necessary.
Q. So, sometimes in order to shatter illusion, you have to do some work.
A. Look at this shrine room, look at the forms we have, look at where I am sitting. (Laughter.) As long as this is real then, yes, we have to clean the shrine room, and make sure that there’s always someone sitting on these brocades–although it looks a little bit odd in some cases.
Q. Is it real to you?
A. It shouldn’t be; that’s my practice.
Q. It shouldn’t be?
A. It shouldn’t be; but as long as it’s necessary, then it’s necessary.
Q. (inaudible) When we talk about dealing with depression, we [may] realize that everything around us is an illusion, that it’s all complete nonsense, it doesn’t exist, it’s all mind. But what if you have a certain type of karma that you have to deal with every day, like a disability? And you’re told not to be depressed about it, not to get really sad or anything, and you realize that you actually create it yourself. But you still get depressed. What do you do in that situation?
A. It’s a good question, in the sense that that’s why form becomes necessary, as I said in relation to the first question. But we cannot say "this form is good," or "that form is not good." Often we try to cut through one fixed, or rigid, form, thinking "[that’s] not the right thing to do" or "I should be more flexible," [and we] develop another path. But over the ages that path, again, becomes one more form. So many forms arise out of trying to cut through existing forms.
In the same way, Buddhism has been formulated as a philosophy and path of practice: different yanas, different levels, different do’s and don’ts, and levels of practice, things that some can see and some cannot, some can do and some cannot. And then there has to be someone sitting to judge whether this person is qualified to do this or not qualified to do that. In the beginning, none of those rigid forms arose as a necessity at all. They were never talked about.
Through time, human beings handle even something as profound as buddhist philosophy [this way]. We begin to use our own interpretations and our own minds to give rise to certain ideas, thinking they’re really beneficial. We say, "truly, because it worked for me, it will work for you." And sometimes it does, but sometimes we just get stuck with another system. In trying to overcome one system, or form, we create another.
Students of a particular teacher become teachers themselves and, for them, their teacher is the most excellent teacher. They assume that what worked for them should work for everyone. And it’s a good thought; but out of it, again, come two [warring] factions, saying, "my lineage is better than your lineage," "my school is better than your school." And again we have form.
Looking at it in terms of meditation, illusion needs to be understood to lessen our grasping and attachment; but on the other hand, [we must] always appreciate relative existence.
When talking about emptiness, always remember that suffering is part of it. The Buddhist teachings do not begin with "everything is emptiness"; they begin with "everything is by nature suffering." [They] acknowledge relativity, first, and then emptiness nature as the core essence of relative experience. The life of a human being need not be stuck in relativity; and that relativity need not be so bad or concrete. When we realize its core essence of emptiness, we balance relativity and emptiness, rather than rejecting one [or the other]. If we reject the relative and remain stuck in emptiness, we can never be ordinary, compassionate human beings; if we forget emptiness and remain stuck in relativity, then we end up as selfish human beings.
On Letting Go
Q. (inaudible: re feeling an emotion and letting it go).... If something very painful happened to somebody early on, and they experience a numbness growing up regarding that type of experience, do they not have to feel what happened in order to release it?
A. I think a person is very lucky [to have] only experienced one kind of difficult experience in life. (Laughter.) To relive [it] so that one can recognize how painful it was and then get over it, sounds quite logical and practical. But life [continues to be] full of difficulties–even though we think we’ve only experienced one major suffering. And I don’t think it’s necessary to relive or re-experience it, or to try and go back into it again. In a few exceptional cases, people are not able to deal with a major crisis. They’re in some kind of denial, not able to even acknowledge it, and bottling up their emotions. On the other hand, some people work hard at generating a problem–which is unnecessary.
Every individual’s difficulties and problems are different. It would be very unfair to generalize emotional distress or difficult experiences. People experience difficulties that you can’t even dream of, and you must appreciate what happens to people. On the other hand, it’s best, as much as possible, not to make it harder on yourself by making it more real, or letting it overcome [you] again and again and again. This is really not necessary.
Within the levels of meditative teachings and instructions, we first spend a fair amount of time recognizing and examining what anger is (or desire, or ignorance, or hatred, or jealousy). On the hinayana path, we simply look at it as something entirely negative, destructive–and abandon it completely. From a mahayana perspective, we talk about transforming it into something beneficial by applying an antidote: whenever anger comes up, we immediately try to counteract that angry emotion by generating tolerance or peacefulness; or if some kind of desire or attachment comes up, we develop generosity or apply another antidote. [Then] vajrayana Buddhism talks about transcending, [transforming] it into its pure essence by recognizing its true nature. As soon as anger comes up, we’re able to say "what is the nature of anger?" Then we dissolve it–not as an illusion but rather by seeing that, other than our own grasping mind, there is no anger by its own sel f. Nothing says "I am Mr. Anger, I will go into her mouth or mind and generate anger." (Laughter.) There’s no such thing. So transcending talks about it in that way.
If we see the three [levels] together, however, they’re all talking about the same thing. Because people have different potential, different causes and conditions, different aptitudes and likes, [they] feel attracted to the paths that seems most skillful [to them]. For some, transcending works very well; for some, transformation works very well; and for some, abandoning works very well. Ultimately it’s the anger that has to go, isn’t it? (Laughter.)
So, you can sit and visualize your teacher in front [of you] radiating light into your heart center and dispelling all anger. That’s one effective method. But, ultimately, you learn there’s neither teacher, nor you, nor your anger–therefore it was an unnecessary thing to do. (Laughter.) From a hinayana point of view, when anger comes up, you might simply abandon it, drop it. That’s it! It’s a way of seeing that all the unfortunate emotions or difficulties we experience in our lives will remain as long as we make them [do so]. This does not in any way mean that we don’t appreciate the difficulties that people experience. But the wise person is one who’s able to let go and not drag it on too long, because it’s not beneficial to oneself or anyone else. So making this story very long is also your own choice (laughter), and being able to end it is also up to you. The logical way of looking at it is the more beneficial way of doing it.
On Personal Investigation
Q. (inaudible)
When we try to gain conviction based on somebody else’s hard work, it doesn’t work very well. Because our conviction is not based on our own examination, it’s very weak. So [as soon as] something more solid comes up, our weak conviction is actually subdued by whatever is more apparent. When relativity is more apparent, [when] anger is more apparent, you forget what Khandro Rinpoche said about thoughts being empty by nature.
Nothing is more effective than spending time in personal investigation and examination, taking the time to truly examine things such as impermanence or suffering. You can spend considerable time saying "that strikes me as being true," but when you examine it [yourself], you’re completely convinced. In Buddhism, we talk about the importance of devotion, but faith and devotion are not merely agreeing with what somebody else says. The Buddha taught, in the first place, that [everything] has to be based on your personal investigation. It’s very much like the analogy of tasting honey: [when you taste] honey, you know it’s sweet. If somebody comes along and says, "I’m going to kill you if you do not say honey is salty," you may say that it’s salty–but deep down, you can’t do much about the mind that says it is sweet anyway. (Laughter.)
Similarly, [when you] spend time in personal investigative meditation, analyzing and examining whether something is true or not, then you experience [it] for yourself. Looking at something from all ten directions, you see that it’s truly baseless and, therefore, useless to hold onto. Whether you call it "devotion," "faith," or whatever, it’s very much the same thing. The strength of that allows us to cut through whatever habitual tendencies need to be cut through.
Guidelines for Basic Meditation
Q. (re Concentrative Meditation)
A. I think the best concentrative meditation is always shamatha, [which has] different levels of guidelines.
If you find that concentration is really difficult in the beginning, and your thoughts are very scattered, it’s important to use some outer or inner support for meditation. If you have a meditation instructor, you can talk about this. If you don’t, an outer support is usually any external object you take as a focus. If you’re spiritually oriented, [you can] take an image of the Buddha, a seed syllable, or something [like that] as the focus. If you’re not spiritually inclined, you can take a pencil, a mug, a vase, a flower, or whatever you want as your focus. Then, not thinking about anything in particular, simply look at it, and let all your six senses gather into one alignment. With some amount of focus on the object, remain there completely. The idea is to become more focused, with all six senses coming together completely, complementing one another, and [becoming] one. This is very much the basic meditation.
Gradually, it’s essential [for the meditation to become] more formless, while still having a focus. [Then] you can take your breathing as a focus. Breathing is the essential quality within you, the life force: [it’s] the first activity you do when you are born, and the last activity you do as a live person. It’s also said that the breath is the generator, that everything rides the breath. So as you breathe in and out–two very simple activities–focus on that as you would focus on an outer object. Gather all your concentration into breathing gently in and gently out, making sure that inhaling and exhaling are of the same time span. You can begin by [saying to yourself] "one, two, three" as you’re breathe in, and "one, two, three" as you breathe out; or, more spiritually, "Om, Ah, Hum," "Om, Ah, Hum."
Once you become used to this, stop counting and simply remain [with your] breathing. Breathe gently in and out, without concentrating very much on anything other than your breath; and then gradually lose your sense of breathing in, and just concentrate on breathing out. Then let the mind rest. These are very effective methods for getting the mind to focus on oneness, rather than being scattered in various kinds of distracted thoughts.
On Mutual Appreciation
Q. (inaudible)... [I]n the midst of meditating and finding something true for myself, I’ve come into a lot of resistance from people I love ...
A. I think practitioners, especially buddhist practitioners, must remember that to talk about something, it has to be given a certain name. [For example] what began with Shakyamuni Buddha was then taught in a certain way, emphasizing certain qualities and so forth, and so we talk about "being buddhist" or "Buddhism." Other than that necessity, it is not really important to call oneself "buddhist"–as long as the practices are being done and we’re really able to work with them.
It is not important to try so hard to convince people that what you’re doing is better or different or whatever. Every good thing can be explained without [making] it religious or philosophical, if it is able to be practiced completely and sincerely. It’s really not necessary to call it "Buddhism" or say "Buddha said" or "Buddhistically speaking." (Laughter.) So, if you really feel that you’re a practitioner, a meditator, [you can] work skillfully in this way and keep your practices to yourself–without any intention of changing or transforming another person where it’s not necessary.
Explaining these things in a very simple way might be much more effective and helpful to others. We always feel it would be good if all our family members appreciated the same things that we do. That’s a nice thing, if it happens. If it doesn’t happen, it’s far more important for a buddhist to accommodate [others] and not to use buddhist terminology where it’s not necessary–and not to actually expect another person to change [while] you remain the same. That’s not important at all. Being skillful so that the things that are [mutually] appreciated can be talked about, without making them formal or a kind of system, is OK.
On Positive and Negative Karma
Q. [Are you talking] about getting beyond karma, in a way? Because I’ve read about purifying negative karma and getting good karma, but then you end up in the god realm. (inaudible...) So I guess I’m just a little confused about what it means to "get beyond karma"–if, in fact, that’s what you’re saying.
A. Essentially, yes. And going beyond karma includes good karma too, because everything is an illusion. This form we give to Buddhism is also an illusion. But some things are necessary as tools; and some tools, or causes, are [closer] to absolute truth and realization. Positive karma, for example, is much easier to work with than negative karma, [which] creates more distance between us and [the] cutting through [of] illusion. That’s the greater obstacle. Negative karma–such as killing or other negative actions–creates a very big obstacle, or barrier, in our path of understanding and even to the possibility of a human life. Whereas positive karma–which is also difficult, nevertheless–creates more of a balance of something good. With more goodness and whiteness, more openness and spaciousness, it’s much easier for something good and less distracting to happen.
As long as we’re dependent on existing in a relative world, then creating something good, something spacious in the foundation is more sensible than creating something negative. That’s why accumulating positive karma and abandoning negative karma is an important part of practice. Ultimately, [however], when we talk about letting go of grasping, we’re talking about grasping to any kind of illusion–both positive as well as negative karma.
I think we can stop here. Thank you all very, very much. I would especially like to thank all the people who have worked hard in the New York Shambhala Center for a long, long time, as well as all the senior practitioners who’ve stayed together to really make it possible for people to have a good place of practice. Deep appreciation. Thank you very much.