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Her Eminence Mindrolling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

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Her Eminence Mindrolling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche JETSÜN KHANDRO RINPOCHE MINDROLLING INTERNATIONAL The Profound Essence of Spiritual Practice This public talk, given on 20 October 1998 at the New York City Shambhala Center within the first few years of Rinpoche's travels to the US, presents teachings on the profound essence of spiritual practice, learning what needs to be abandoned and what needs to be cultivated, the Four Noble Truths, and emptiness nature. A question and answer period follows the talk. Iʹm very happy to have this opportunity to return to New York, after three or four years. I believe many of you here are practitioners, meditators, either from this particular Shambhala Center or from other buddhist centers. This is very nice to see. In seeing some of the dharma centers around the world today, we can really begin to feel the growth of Buddhist meditation and philosophy. It’s always nice to see that the profound teachings are spreading and flourishing, and that a growing number of people are practicing. And I feel that we need to really appreciate the hard work of so many students, so many practitioners, for the teachings and [dharma] materials that are available to the western world today. And–while the modern world can be harmful in many ways–we also need to appreciate how much the media and modern technologies have truly helped in transferring the teachings [to the West]. It took so many hundreds of years for Buddhism to travel from India to Tibet; today, the same amount of work has been accomplished in the westernization of Buddhism in, roughly, forty years. So, a great deal of appreciation and encouragement and confidence arises seeing practitioners practice very sincerely and well. There is also [however] one concern among all of us. Something as profound as the philosophy and teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha needs to be completely ©1998‐2011 Mindrolling International www.mindrollinginternational.org understood as an inner growth practice; with individual responsibility to practice [in order] to truly understand the meaning and main motivation, or main intention, behind such a practice. As I said before, media and modern technology can be harmful in some ways because of how things become popular. Because of popularity, when a person chooses a spiritual path–even as profound or pure a path as the buddhist tradition–we find that certain faults, or difficulties, arise. And so anyone who chooses to be on a spiritual path [and to] actually pursue and study buddhadharma, must do so realizing what its true meaning is. If your spiritual practice is only for some kind of temporary benefit or temporary relief, it’s far better to waste your time somewhere else. (Laughter.) Spiritual Practice So spiritual practice must be completely understood. And perhaps many people do understand it properly, nevertheless this is not only for beginners. Buddhist practitioners who have spent many years in meditation and study talk constantly about absolute truth and the emptiness nature of inner and outer phenomena; yet we find they are still not able to ʺbeʺ that person, that genuine person, who should arise out of any spiritual path–especially if one’s claiming to be a buddhist meditator. The entire philosophy of Buddhism rests in, first of all, being able to truly realize the responsibility of being a human being. Then, through understanding the interdependence of all sentient beings, we’re able to develop some sanity in life, some common sense. Using our brains, or common sense, and perfecting that [understanding], we can live our lives fully and have sensible lives, lives that are a little different. If we’re going to call ourselves the most intelligent of all species, then [we should] show some example that that’s so. (Laughter.) So the spiritual path needs to be understood as something very simple, rather than making it as complicated or complex as we want it to be–and not recognizing the true meaning, or true nature, of what’s being taught. 2 ©1998‐2011 Mindrolling International www.mindrollinginternational.org Learning What Needs to Be Abandoned and What Needs to Be Cultivated Now most of you who have studied buddhist texts – especially those who have read The Words of My Perfect Teacher by Patrul Rinpoche – realize that the essence of all the teachings is something that points out certain faults. Most of this text seems to very strongly criticize or find faults in practitioners–and I think rightly so. Atisha’s instructions within this text talk about the kindness of one who is truly able to point out our hidden faults, [and how] that enables us to truly learn what needs to be abandoned and what needs to be cultivated. This text–and the general buddhist point of view–begin most instructions with the intention of developing [more] openness and mindfulness within ourselves. If we sit down and think about it carefully, we human beings live our entire lives indulging in activities that do not really make that much sense or are that useful. When I examine my own self, I say ʺthirty years of my life, and what has this life attained that is really beneficial or useful?ʺ There is nothing to show, nothing much that actually says ʺthis is the true essence of having lived so many years.ʺ So, with our pride and our egos and mainly our mental assumptions that we have done something, we tend to fabricate that examination. And out of that fabrication, or pretense, we may assume that we’ve lived full lives, that we’ve touched people’s lives, that we’ve said this and done that. But this is mainly a kind of condolence we give ourselves to satisfy ourselves. When I open my own diaries, I say, ʺOh, in 1996 things were done, almost all the pages are full.ʺ And we take great pride in that. And nowadays most of us buddhist teachers–who are said to be renunciates–talk about ʺwhat are we going to do...,ʺ and ʺwill we have time in July...,ʺ and things like that. In this way we are said to be practicing. Nevertheless, if you truly examine this, there’s a real hollowness in terms of seeing a human life and its true meaning. Apart from some kind of thought or mental assumption [about] essence, or true depth of meaning, not many of us are really able to do [it]. Therefore, [let’s] examine and see how we’re ending up as human beings. We’re doing things from early morning until we crash into our beds [at night]. With our bodies we try to accumulate, to do, various physical actions; our speech is always very busy; and our thoughts are always very busy with some form of activity or other. Nevertheless, if at this moment anyone of us were to die, sit down and 3 ©1998‐2011 Mindrolling International www.mindrollinginternational.org examine what truly remains. About what could you say ʺthis is the essence,ʺ ʺthis is what I’ve achieved,ʺ or ʺthis is what I can give to somebody elseʺ? Whether you’ve lived thirty or sixty or seventy years, if it’s condensed down to the one happiness, or one valuable opportunity, or one really helpful thing that you leave behind for another sentient being–other than a lot of mental assumptions of having done this or that–in reality, we don’t end up accumulating anything. That is one way to look at it: examining [our lives], we find ʺunnecessary‐ness.ʺ There isn’t much meaning, or essence, which is nyingpo in Tibetan; in terms of ʺessence,ʺ there isn’t much of value. And so, it’s very necessary to understand that when we talk philosophically about ʺillusory‐like existence,ʺ [we are talking about] this way of living where so many of our activities have no truly meaningful essence. Yet we end up being busy our entire lives and having no time. We hear this all the time: ʺI have no time, I have no time.ʺ If we ask Buddhist meditators if they meditate, they say ʺI have no time.ʺ If we ask parents, they say ʺI have no time for the children,ʺ and children have no time for their parents. Friends have no time for one another, we have no time on the job, and we have no time at home. (Laughter.) So in running from one place to another, it seems, an entire life passes away. In the middle of all that, we find that nothing actually stops. The movement of life continues, the movement of time continues, and so with time and our lives, some kind of action is being accumulated. When we talk about this from a buddhist contemplative point of view, we talk about four main thoughts, or reminders. The Four Reminders In The Words of My Perfect Teacher, Patrul Rinpoche talks about four main thoughts that should precede every meditation, every moment of contemplation: first, the preciousness of human existence; second, impermanence; third, the suffering of samsara; and fourth, karma, or cause and effect. These four reminders are said to be the main foundation of contemplation. Contemplating them, the meditator is truly able to remain without fabrication, or fabricated beliefs about his or her own spiritual path and spiritual motivation. They should truly enable practitioners to be completely honest with themselves. 4 ©1998‐2011 Mindrolling International www.mindrollinginternational.org In spiritual practices, we sometimes talk about benefiting sentient beings, or making life more meaningful, or being able to truly do something that is good. In the beginning, our motivation may be very clear, but very soon our habitual patterns return.
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