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4 Dharmas of Gampopa Teaching En

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4 Dharmas of Gampopa Teaching En THE FOUR DHARMAS OF GAMPOPA This text is based on a transcription of a teaching given by Lama Lhündrub, April 1997 at Kündröl Ling, Le Bost, France Introduction As always at the beginning of a teaching, we develop the aspiration that the teaching may help us towards enlightenment and to become able to help all sentient beings on this path. The teaching is based on: - the Four-themed Precious Garland (chos bzhi rin-chen phreng-ba) by Longchenpa, translated by Alexander Berzin with explanations by H.H. Dudjom R. (chapter III) and by Beru Khyentse Rinpoche (chapter IV) - Die Vier Dharmas des Gampopa , teaching by Urgyen Tulku Rinpoche, Dharmanektar 1+3/89 - teaching by Kalu Rinpoche , German edition pp. 56–67 - Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche Remarks on the Tradition of Mindfulness , Garuda IV - Gampopa's Precious Ornament of Liberation and Precious Rosary . All other teaching is based on explanations that we received from Gendün Rinpoche, who embodies their understanding, and who used the verses of the four dharmas every time he blessed students. The four dharmas present us with an outline of the path, right from the beginning up to the end, buddhahood. An Overview The four dharmas—dvags-po chos bzhi: i) Turning the mind towards the dharma—blo chos su 'gro-ba ii) Following the dharma as a path—chos lam du 'gro-ba iii) The path clarifying confusion—lam 'khrul-pa sel-ba iv) Confusion arising as primordial awareness—'khrul-pa ye-shes su 'char-ba i) The first dharma is ‘Turning the mind to the dharma’. This means that the discursive mind, ‘ blo’ , turns towards the dharma. It forms the basis for all that follows. In the beginning our mind has not yet turned towards the dharma but is turned towards self interest: fulfilling our desires and avoiding whatever we are averse to or afraid of. The basic point here is to become interested in the dharma because of our life experience. We turn our mind towards the dharma through a proper analysis of our situation in life until the interest in dharma becomes very strong, like calling for a doctor when severely injured or ill. The intention becomes as strong as wanting to extinguish the fire when our house is in flames. This is the common ground of all levels of practice. In the Hinayana we turn towards the dharma because we feel uncomfortable ourselves, and in the Mahayana we turn towards the dharma because all beings feel uncomfortable, because all beings are 1 suffering. In the beginning our attitude is usually predominantly Hinayana: to save ourselves. With this intention we develop renunciation and start to practise, but often there is already a little compassion in this initial turning to the dharma. We do not do it only for ourselves. ii) As our mind turns towards the dharma we take refuge and develop bodhicitta. These are the next steps. We do practices like tonglen, the six paramitas and so on. This is called ‘Following or taking the dharma as a path’. At this point the dharma really begins to fill out all our existence, it becomes the one thing of primal importance in our life. Here also, this can be on the level of Hinayana, dharma becoming the sole important thing in our life in order to gain personal liberation, or we can tune in to the Mahayana motivation and the welfare of others becomes the most important thing in our life. At this point we also begin to get some idea of Vajrayana practice. We start to practise the preliminaries, we get into contact with Vajrayana teachers and begin to listen to the first teachings. But we are not yet fully into samaya relationships, into deep commitments with our teachers. This only begins at this stage and will become more important later on. On the second level, for a Mahayana practitioner renunciation begins to combine in our practice with compassion. As we begin to work with the mahamudra preliminaries or Tchenrezi practice, we begin to also slowly develop more devotion, and the link between us and the teacher becomes stronger. iii) The third dharma of Gampopa is called ‘The path clarifying confusion’. It can be practised on all three levels, Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana. From the Hinayana point of view we are really working on transforming the emotions at this point; from the Mahayana point of view we are completely entering bodhicitta; and from the Vajrayana point of view we are really entering the pure vision of tantric practice. This is the point of intensive practice, the time when we go into retreat and completely apply ourselves to the dharma without any distraction. iv) As we reach the fruit of practice, ‘Confusion arises as pristine awareness’, there is no more need to transform confusion, since it is by nature primordial wisdom and there is no need to change anything about it when it is perceived in its true essence. This is the step just before buddhahood, and for a buddha there is not even any confusion that arises as primordial wisdom, there is only primordial wisdom arising. There is no more experience of something first being confusion and then being recognised as primordial awareness. Summary For travelling through these four dharmas all three qualities are needed: renunciation, which is the main aspect of the Hinayana; compassion which is the main aspect of the Mahayana; and devotion plus pure vision which are the main aspects of Vajrayana. As Longchenpa points out, and also Beru Khyentse in his commentary to the fourth dharma, the difference of realisation obtained in the three yanas is not one of quality—it is just the speed of how fast one reaches this understanding. If you want to reach it quickly, the Mahayana and Vajrayana offer methods, which enhance the speed of development. Why is there no difference in the attainment? The reason is that since time without beginning all appearances are primordial awareness, and there is nothing, which has to be done for that. As soon as the mind opens and relaxes enough to be free of hope and fear there is nothing to change in appearances in order for them to become primordial awareness. Their being of the nature of awareness, empty of any reality, does not depend on any method. The question is only 2 how fast one arrives at the point of being able to leave appearances as they are in their true nature without clinging to them; this is the important point. Recently (in 2002) I have found the Tibetan text where Gampopa himself explains the four dharmas, but it will need time to study it. He seems to have pronounced them first in the form of an aspiration prayer, which is recited in the Milarepa guru yoga: Please grant your blessings that my mind as well as the mind of all sentient beings turns towards the dharma. Please grant your blessings that we follow the dharma as a path. Please grant your blessings that the path clarifies confusion. Please grant your blessings that confusion arises as pristine pure awareness. The First Dharma How do we turn our mind towards the dharma? This is something we have to do every day, every session. As we sit down on our seat, we sometimes wonder: How can I start the session, where will I find the motivation? Right there is the need to apply the first dharma to ourselves: ‘How do I turn my mind towards the dharma, if I have lost the track?’ The important point is to find the motivation. The whole first dharma is about developing the deep motivation to change our live and to get out of this ‘ocean of suffering’ in order to reach ‘the other shore’ of true happiness, liberation and enlightened activity. There are two aspects to developing this motivation: we examine what is and contemplate what could be . A. The Four Fundamental Thoughts First we examine closely our present situation by reflecting on the four fundamental thoughts. These are called ‘The four thoughts which turn the mind towards the dharma’. Often practitioners cannot fully relate to how these four thoughts are presented in the dharma teachings. The teaching about the precious human body, about the fact that one should be very happy about not being born as a hell-being, not being born as a hungry ghost, or in the god realms and so on, does not really make sense to people who come new into the dharma, since it is not part of our culture to believe in these realms. We are not sure, if it is really like this—it needs a lot of confidence and trust in the Buddha's teaching to believe in it. For those who lack this confidence, this cannot be the starting-point before having taken refuge. That is why these four thoughts will now be presented from a slightly different angle. The precious human existence The contemplation of the precious human body starts with the preciousness of the situation right now . For this we will at first only use what we know ourselves, what we can see, touch, hear and experience ourselves. In order to appreciate the preciousness of our present situation we will let ourselves be guided by the question: ‘What factors were necessary and had to come together for this present situation to occur? What made this situation possible? How did it become possible that I can practise the dharma right now?’ This is a contemplation, which everyone can do, and some may easily spend an hour on it. First, we contemplate the conditions which have to do with us personally: ‘ In order for me to be here today, I had to wake up this morning and fortunately enough my body is healthy enough to 3 move; I have enough food; I have enough free time; I have the clothes to be able to walk around unhindered, and the contact that we established previously made it possible that we join as students and teachers.’ I also contemplate how during the last years different situations, wishes, decisions, acts of mine made it possible that the present situation arises.
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