When we call
ourselves Buddhists, we mean we are the followers of Buddha. The
most important aspect of being a Buddhist is that we should follow
the path of Buddha and always reflect as Buddhists. Buddha is a
Sanskrit word. It refers to one who has awakened from the ignorant
mind and who has accomplished knowledge and wisdom. The Tibetan
word for this is 'Sangye'.
Every
Buddhist has ambitions and goals to attain the state of Buddhahood.
The attainment of Buddhahood is the achievement and development of
one's potential to liberate all sentient beings from
suffering.
Those who
have not yet achieved Buddhahood, have conflicting emotions such as
desire, hatred, jealousy, ignorance and countless types of
defilements. All these defilements come from ignorance; that is,
being without wisdom and not knowing the true nature of mind. This
ignorance causes all kinds of complications and confusion in the
samsara. But ignorance is not permanent. It can be removed by
applying wisdom. By turning ignorance to wisdom, one will be able
to understand the truth. This will gradually lead one to the state
of the enlightenment. Therefore, as a Buddhist, the most important
goal is to develop wisdom and understand the basic teachings of
Buddha dharma, such as the Four Noble Truths, the Eight Fold Paths;
and then the practice of Bodhisattva paths and Vajrayana methods.
An understanding of these will help us to develop
wisdom.
Besides
absorbing the knowledge of dharma,application of the teachings is
also important. Whatever knowledge of the dharma we have absorbed
into our mind streams, we must apply. For example, we all know that
we should be generous. The knowledge of this is insufficient. We
must implement that knowledge and practise generosity at all
times.
Similarly,
morality is equally important and we should implement and practise
it. It is only through applying the teachings that we will reach
the stage of enlightenment.
The more we
understand the dharma, the more we will know when and where to
apply it. Every moment in any situation of our daily lives is an
opportunity for us to practise in order to develop ourselves
spiritually. The more unfavourable circumstances we experience, the
greater our chances of success in our dharma practice.
For example,
you may have an enemy who causes you alot of discomfort through
hatred and curses. Generally, this is perceived as a bad situation
as nobody wants to be hated or cursed as it causes discomfort and
misery to oneself. However, from a spiritual-practice point of
view, it is a good moment of challenge as it gives us the
opportunity to develop and strengthen the positive attitude towards
dharma. Patience is the important teaching in dharma and we can
apply it in all circumstances. Especially when facing our enemies,
we have to be tolerant and patient. If we can apply these
principles, we will succeed in our practice.
Suffering is
the path to happiness. Basically, the more difficulties we
experience, the better are the results we gain; just as we must
work hard in order to achieve good results. Though we may
experience alot of difficulties, obstacles and hindrances, this is
the passage to success. Dharma is very precious, as it helps us to
overcome all kinds of difficulties, regardless of whether they are
emotional or physical in nature. Dharma is actually the only
treasure that leads us to success in our practice.
Thus, being a
good Buddhist does not mean always appearing in the temple.
In fact, a
good Buddhist can be in anywhere, such as a business place, the
street or a restaurant. In other words, as long as one can apply
and practise dharma at all times, one is considered a good
Buddhist. To use every moment of our experiences to develop one's
practice is to be a pure Buddhist. One who does not apply dharma
effectively but who always appears in the temple is called a
physical Buddhist or an outlook Buddhist. One who practices and
applies dharma regularly and correctly and, at the same time,
always visit the temple is a very good Buddhist and a
practitioner.
When any
defilement arises, the practitioner can recognise it instantly.
After recognising that the defilement, one should implement
mindfulness and awareness to apply the antidote and be free from
that particular defilement. Hence, whatever emotion and defilement
arises, one must take it as a challenge and overcome it and that is
the correct method for us to follow.
However,
application is not as easy as we may think.It can be very tough and
difficult to recognise our defilement. Even we recognise it, it may
be difficult to recall or apply the antidote effectively. As the
force of defilement is very strong in comparison to the weakness of
an antidote, we may not be able to remove the defilement so
quickly. Actually, we all want to purify our numerous defilements
but the defilements are too much to be overcome all at
once.Constant effort and hard work will help us to succeed in
overcoming our defilements. Eventually, our effort will become
positive habits and we will be able to succeed one day.
Once there
was a Tibetan merchant named Norbu Zangpo, who lost all his money
in his business. Due to his failure in the business, he felt very
upset and disappointed and wanted to quit. Feeling so depressed, he
lay down on the ground and he noticed that an ant was trying to
climb a blade of grass. Halfway up, it fell down. It tried again
and again many times and the merchant counted 79 times of the ant
falling. At last on the 80th time, it managed to climb on to the
tip of the grass. Suddenly, the merchant realised that without
constant effort, one cannot succeed in anything. From then on, he
put a lot of effort and hard work into his business and he
succeeded. He became the richest and most successful businessman in
Tibet. The tiny insect Ant gave that inspiration to him.
The story
reminds us to exert effort constantly and not to be afraid of
failure. In the process, even one does not succeed initially, one
needs to practice until one succeeds. We all lack mindfulness and
constant effort. We expect immediate results without exerting much
effort. This is not possible. Dharma is mental training and cannot
be bought or transferred. It is very simple if we know how to apply
dharma to act as an antidote to purify defilement. If dharma
becomes supplementary to one's pride or defilement, that will
develop a negative effect against oneself. If dharma is practised
through proper application, it will become the antidote to
defilement. That is to say, with right implementation, one can
reduce one's defilements like hatred, ignorance, desire, and all
other kinds of confusions.
Basically,
through all these processes we are able to distinguish whether a
person is a true Buddhist or not. A true Buddhist is one who does
not only just understand the teachings of dharma, but who
implements them and experiences the results. Not being a true
Buddhist means that we do not implement the teachings of dharma and
never change our attitude towards the spiritual path. Instead, we
show off our pride of knowing dharma and look down on others and
this increases further our negative thoughts.
Listening to
dharma teachings with contemplation and meditation covers the whole
practice. We must try to understand the meaning of Buddha's
teachings, then contemplate and investigate the dharma. After
investigating the logic of truth, then we must implement and apply
whatever we have learnt and meditate on it. With these methods, our
practice of dharma can be effective and we will be able to achieve
enlightenment.
Meditation
does not mean only sitting down and placing our palms together.
Meditation can be practised in many different ways such as
development of generosity, patience, and morality. In fact, all
these practices are related to meditation, which requires awareness
and mindfulness. For instance, if a person is cooking and he says
that he is meditating, you will not believe him because you do not
expect meditation to be like this. How can he be meditating while
he is cooking? However, if he applies the qualities of mindfulness
and awareness to the process of cooking, then he is indeed
meditating.
In Vajrayana,
we have lots of chanting, musical instruments playing and many
different hand mudras etc. All these are also part of the
meditation. Through these meditation and actions we are able to
realise the nature of mind more effectively.
Finally, a
true Buddhist is one who applies the teachings of Buddha to his
mind-steam and every day life. By doing that, one is mindful
towards every thought and action. Once you have that quality, you
will not make any mistake and you will continue increasing your
positive thoughts as well as merits or wisdom. When you have those
qualities, the inner bliss will arise and then you will be fully
satisfied and find the purpose of life.
By Venerable
Shangpa Rinpoche