LIGHTNESS OF BEING—SOGYAL RINPOCHE
By Ajay Ahuja
The auditorium at the Hungarian Cultural Center in Delhi is packed to capacity by a select audience assembled on an evening to receive what is described as a ”teaching” from the renowned Tibetan Buddhist master, Sogyal Rinpoche.
”What is the mind?” someone asks.
”Something that knows,” replies Rinpoche. ”But unfortunately we misuse it for grasping. Its goal is to let go of grasping, and realize its true potential.”
The Buddha’s teaching, he says, is both vast-comprising 108 Tibetan volumes-and profound. ”Vast is the approach of the pundit and the learned.” The lamas and monks sometimes devote 13 years to studying it. ”Profound is the path of the yogi.” Yet the teaching can be summed up in three lines:
• Commit not a single unwholesome action.
• Cultivate a wealth of virtue.
• And tame this mind of ours.
He lists the Ten Unwholesome Actions. They are of body (stealing, killing and sexual misbehavior), speech (lying, harsh words, slander and gossip) and mind (malice, avarice and wrong view).
”Who decides what is unwholesome?” someone wants to know.
”Your mind,” he responds. ”They are considered unwholesome because they are the cause of suffering, dukka, of oneself and others.” To abandon unwholesome acts, and adopt the wholesome ones is, then, dhamma.
Born and brought up in Tibet, Rinpoche was taught by some of the great masters and lamas of the Buddhist tradition. With the Chinese occupation, he went into exile. In 1971, he went to Cambridge University to study comparative religion. Since he began teaching, he has become increasingly popular among seekers in Europe, USA, Australia and Asia.
”Samsara is the mind projected outwardly, lost in its projection. Nirvana is the mind turned inwardly, recognizing its true nature.”
Water, if you don’t stir it, becomes clear, says a Tibetan proverb. Similarly, the mind, if you don’t stir it, finds peace. ”The trouble is, we stir it,” he says, amidst laughter. If you leave the mind in its true natural state, it’ll find peace or bliss. Settling the mind is called kshamta; removing the dirt is called vipassana, or meditation. Allow the mind to settle, then in that quiet you can experience goodness, which is our true nature.
As the mind settles, gradually all fragmented aspects of the mind become whole, all inner conflict ceases, the ego and grasping dissolve, hope and fear dissolve, and the mind settles in peace. In that space, you discover your true nature and peace.
Sometimes, he says, we have to go through suffering, attachment, to realize that it’s all completely worthless. Suppose you are bewitched, fall in love with somebody, lose your dignity and go through all that. Then one day you meet the same person and say to yourself: ”why did I fall in love with this person?”
With a puckish sense of humor, he says then: ”I’m really impressed by you all-especially by those of you who did not speak.” There is laughter, and he adds: ”I’m just teasing, sometimes we have to tease each other.”
Let me spell it out, he continues. First, just be spacious. Teaching is important, it removes ignorance. Then create the right environment of the mind-incense, music, lighting, if possible, proximity to nature. Then you practice, it’s not really meditation, but creating the right environment for it.
Sometimes, dying is difficult if you’re attached to life. Often, we associate dying with losing, which can create pain. But the truth of life is that we cannot hold on to anything. “You cannot wash your hands in the same river twice,” goes a Tibetan saying. Sometimes letting go is kind, enjoyable; it brings a different kind of appreciation, not of attachment but of letting go.
Sometimes, in the presence of your masters or during practice, you become aware of the mind beyond your mind, and in that moment you feel, “even if I die now in this state, I’ll be happy.” And in that state there is letting go. But the problem is, it doesn’t last. So keep having these little glimpses. And in that practice there is letting go, like losing the cloud but gaining the sky.
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