A Discourse on Buddhism

A Talk on Buddhism by Lama Uzed Losang Phende of Gyumed Monastery
Hunsur Rabgyalling Tibetan Settlement
15th and 16th August 2014

Lama Uzed of Gyumed Monastery gave a teaching on Buddhism to a group of pilgrims at Gyumed Monastery in Hunsur Rabgyaling Tibetan Settlement in Karnataka States in South India. Lama Uzed was very lively and the teaching came spontaneously. He taught from the 11th century scripture which the Atisha taught to Lhalama Jangchub Od before his departure from Ngari region of Western Tibet. ཇོ་བོ་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོས་ལྷ་བྱང་ཆུབ་འོད་ལ་ཞལ་གདམས་སུ་སྩལ་བ་ཐར་འདོད་དཔའ་བོའི་སྙིང་ནོར་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ།  Heart Treasure of the Courageous One Seeking Enlightenment; Instruction by Jowoje to Lhalama Jangchub Od.

Lhalama Yeshe Od, Western lineage of early Tibetan King gave up his kingdom and became monk. The situation of Buddhism was not in a good shape around that time; both the Sutra and Tantra practitioners abhorred each other and competed for supremacy. Some tantric practitioners' conducts were not in conformity with the Buddhist teaching of Vinaya. Yeshi Od raised funds in gold to invite the great India Pandit Atisha Dipankarajana of Vikramshila monastery in India to Tibet. In the process he himself was imprisoned by the Garlok king and his dream to invite Atisha was carried by his nephew Jangchub Od. Nagtso Lotsawa was assigned the task of bringing Atisha from India to Tibet. After much persuasion, the abbot of the Monastery, Silakara allowed Atisha to leave with a promise that Atisha should come back after three years in Tibet. Atisha arrived in Tibet in 1042, and seeing the situation in Tibet, he wrote "Jangchub Lamgyi Dronme" The Lamp to illuminate the path to enlightenment. Atisha taught extensively and restored Buddhism in the land. This scripture was sent to India, the abbot and the pandits in India were very impressed. They said Atisha is doing very well in propagating Buddhism in Tibet, so he can continue staying there. But they requested explanation and commentary on "Jangchub Lamgyi Dronme" scripture. After three years, when Atisha set to leave Ngari region, Jangchub Od requested for final instruction and this Heart Treasure was the teaching that Atisha gave.   

Physical matters could be produced just as things are produced in factories. But mental and spiritual matters are different, they need to be practiced and get used to. It is said that there are 84,000 mental afflictions [nyonmon; ཉོན་མོང་།]. It is very important to follow the vinaya or moral discipline in order to reborn as human being. Short tempered and easily provoked people are reborn in a very difficult and inconvenient places. We should refrain from jealousy toward the higher ups, looking down upon the lower, and competing with the equals. These are not easy, but we must train and guard our mind. [རང་གི་སེམས་ལ་བྱ་ར་བྱེད།] Arya Deva [Phagpa Lha] has said, "the higher suffers mentally, the lowers physically." མཆོག་ལ་སེམས་ཀྱི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དང་དམན་ལ་ལུས་ཀྱི་སྡུག་བསྔལ།  What ever you have learnt, you need to practice it. Teaching without practicing is not helpful to the students even. Once in Tibet, there was a Kadampa Geshe called Potowa, and then there was another Geshe, who is very learned. People used to say that the brief teaching of Potowa was more effective than the elaborate teaching of the learned Geshe. The reason is Geshe Potowa practices what he preached.

We need to look into our self. Pride, arrogance and self cantered attitude are not helpful. It is said in Tibetan - Blessing cannot settle on a ball of arrogance. ང་རྒྱལ་གྱི་གོང་བུ་ལ་བྱིན་རླབས་འཇུག་མི་ཡོང་། Pride and arrogance can come from wealth and knowledge. མཆོད་པ་དང་བྱིན་པའི་ནོར་དེ་གཏེར་དུ་སྦས་པ་དང་གཅིག་མཚུངས་ཡིན།  བུ་རམ་དེ་ག་ནས་བལྡག་ཀྱང་མངར་མོ་ཡིན། ཆོས་ཀྱང་དེ་ལྟར་གཅིག་མཚུངས་ཡིན། བླ་མའི་སྐུ་གཟུགས་གངས་རི་ལ།  མོས་གུས་ཀྱི་ཉི་མ་མ་ཤར་ན།  བྱིན་རླབས་དང་ཆོས་ཐོབ་མི་སྲིད།  མེད་པ་དེ་ལ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བྱེད་མི་རུང་།  ང་རང་ཚོར་ཡོད་པ་དེ་ལ་དགའ་པོ་བྱེད་དགོས། Wealth should be distributed in offerings and in alms, this is analogue to saving it. Knowledge should be like a brown sugar, which is sweet from all parts. Lama's body is like a snow mountain, if there is no sun like faith and devotion, the blessing and teachings in the form of mountain spring will not be there. Let us not worry with what we don't have, let us be happy with what we have.  

In the next session, Lama Uzed talked about the Refuge and sufferings. Intention behind the refuge is different in Mahayana and Theravada. In Mahayana, you take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. Intention for refuge should come from two aspects: Jigpa and Dedpa, fear and belief. Fear because of the suffering of Samsara and belief that refuge in the Three Jewels will rescue you. Both happiness and suffering are impermanent. As we don't want suffering, we need to see what is suffering and its cause and remedy. Study of "Eight Verses of Mind Training" by Geshe Langri Thangpa is very good. We should look at the suffering as a precious treasure. Because it is the result of the Karma we have accumulated. Bad cause has bad result, and good cause has good result. I am suffering because of my bad Karma, with this my bad Karma will go. So it is good. This way of thinking is also good for merit accumulation.

དེ་ལས་རྒྱ་ཆེ་བ་བསམ་བློ་བཏང་ཐུབ་ན།  ད་ལྟ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་སྤྲད་མཁན་མི་དེ་ལའང་སྙིང་རྗེ་བསྐྱེས་ཏེ་ཁོ་ལ་སྡིག་པ་ཡོང་གི་ཡོད་པ་དེའང་ངའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱིས་སེལ་བར་ཤོག་བསམ་དགོས།  ལས་ངན་བསག་མཁན་གྱི་དགྲ་དེ་ཡི་སྡིག་པ་དེ་དག་ངས་སྡུག་བསྔལ་འདིས་དགས་པ་ཡོང་བ་ཤོག་བསམ་དགོས།  དགྲ་ལ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བྱུང་ན་དགའ་པོ་བྱེད་རྒྱུ་མེད།  དེ་སྡིག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཡིན་པ་སྤྱོད་འཇུག་ནང་གསུངས་ཡོད།  ཡོན་ཏན་ཅན་ལ་སྐྱོན་དང་ཕྲག་དོག་མ་བྱེད།  གཞན་སྐྱོན་མ་བརྟག་རང་སྐྱོན་བརྟག  གཞན་རྒྱུད་མ་བཏུལ་སྔོན་ལ་རང་རྒྱུད་ཐུལ།  བསག་པའི་ནོར་དེ་བཞག་ནས་འགྲོ་དགོས།  དེའི་ཆེད་དུ་སྡིག་པ་མ་བསག  ནོར་དེ་བཞག་ནས་སྡིག་པ་འཁྱེར་ནས་འགྲོ་དགོས།  ཁེངས་དྲེག་མ་བྱེད་ཁེངས་སྐྱུང་བྱེད།  ཡོན་ཏན་ཆེ་ཡང་ང་རྒྱལ་དང་ཁེངས་པ་སྐྱུང་དགོས།  ན་ཚ་དང་བར་ཆད་དང་འཕྲད་པ་དང་།  དེ་ངའི་ལས་གཙང་མ་བཟོ་མཁན་ཡིན་བསམ་ནས་དྭང་ལེན་བྱེད་དགོས།  ངའི་སྔུག་ངལ་འདི་དག་གིས་སེམས་ཅན་ཀུན་གྱི་སྡུག་ངལ་སེལ་བར་ཤོག་ཅེས་བསམ་དགོས།  བཟང་པོ་མཐའ་ལ་ཕྱིན་པ་བྱང་སེམས་ཡིན།  སྟོང་ཉིད་རྟོགས་པ་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཐོབ་པ་ཡིན་ན།  རང་གི་ཤ་བཅད་ཀྱང་ཚོར་བ་མེད་ཟེར།   

If you go a stage higher, this is how you should look at suffering. Somebody has done wrong to you and you are suffering. You need to think that you are suffering because of the fruition of your bad Karma, that somebody is only a medium. You should feel "may my bad Karma be cleansed through this suffering."  You should feel compassion to that somebody who has brought suffering to you, because he will accumulate bad Karma. Your attitude should be "May his sin or bad Karma be also cleansed through my suffering." You should not be happy if your enemy suffers, this is a great sin according to Bodhisattvas way of life. Don't be jealous and abuse learned person. Don't judge other's mistake, judge your own mistake. Leaving the accumulated wealth behind, you have to leave. Don't accumulate bad Karma for this wealth. Leaving the wealth behind, you have to go with your sin. Be humble not arrogant. Even if you are learned, shun pride and arrogance. When you com across sickness and suffering, embrace it thinking that this will cleanse and purify my sin. Think - with this suffering may the suffering of all beings be alleviated. The goodness gone to the extreme is Boddhicitta. If you realize emptiness and attain Boddhicitta mind, it is said even if you cut your flesh, you will not feel it.

བྱང་ཆུབ།  བོདྷི།  སྤང་བྱའི་དྲི་མ་མཐའ་དག་བྱང་ཞིང་།  རྟོགས་བྱའི་ཡོན་ཏན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཁོང་དུ་ཆུབ་པ་སྟེ་མི་སློབ་ལམ་ལ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཅེས་བྱའོ།  Cleansed and purified of all mental stains and affliction, attained all the needed wisdom and knowledge - the one who has reached the path of no more learning.

Above is a note taken by the writer, error or omission cannot be ruled out. Serious students are requested to consult and confirm from authentic teachers