The Heart of Dharma – Samye Dzong Edinburgh

On the 30th of October, Rinpoche gave a talk at the Edinburgh Samye Dzong on the topic “The heart of Dharma”.

Since it is a branch of Samye Ling, Rinpoche took a moment to talk about the great loss experienced by all, due to the passing of Akong Rinpoche.

He focussed on 2 particularly special qualities he felt Akong Rinpoche embodied to a very high degree: a vast mind that could accommodate everything and a natural great care for others – stronger than parents have for their child. Drupon Rinpoche explained that now Akong Rinpoche has passed into parinirvana, the students need to try and accomplish his activity, intent, view and conduct. He made the heartfelt request that we would cultivate this vast mind that is impartial to good or bad, and that great care for others within ourselves.

After this wonderful advice he came to the topic of the evening. What is the heart of Dharma? We all want to get rid of suffering and to accomplish that, we need prajna or wisdom. Without wisdom we won’t know how to free ourselves from suffering, we won’t be able to identify the methods that eradicate suffering. Therefore, Rinpoche said, it is safe to call this wisdom the essence of Buddhism.

There are two kinds of wisdom, an innate wisdom and one that has been acquired through training. The first kind is extremely rare to come by in people. Most of us, human beings, need to apply ourselves to the second category. We need to study the words of the Buddha, the methods on how to eradicate suffering. Trust and faith alone is not enough, we can’t gain the wisdom through blind faith. For the development of wisdom, study is essential. This means that one needs to find a good lama, stay with the lama for a long time and learn from them the way to relate to the Dharma. Learning these methods will give rise to wisdom.

For that to happen, it is essential that, from the very beginning, you study with a lama who has the experience and is learned in the Dharma. When you are studying the Dharma, you are learning an experience of mind. It can’t be shown on the outside. Therefore, if the one we are learning from doesn’t have that experience, it is impossible for them to help us gain that experience for ourselves. This puts us at great risk of becoming jaded.

“When we start to study in order to increase our wisdom, we come to know what the causes and conditions are of suffering and happiness. Gaining insight in this, the eradication of suffering and acquiring happiness becomes easier”, Rinpoche assured us.

He pointed out how he sees that people in towns and cities have this attitude that no one is allowed to mind our business and that we don’t like to bother other people. This view causes us many problems. It makes us small minded. It prevents us from being able to forbear things, which causes anger to easily arise. In the Dharma it says we have to be able to withstand things and be patient. There is no place we can go where we don’t see forms, hear sounds and so on. In brief, without forbearance, there will always be something to bother us. This specific view makes our mind weak and less durable. Through that, suffering comes easily and intensely. This is why there are so many mental health problems in cities since this view fosters mistrust.

Rinpoche invited us to look at our own mind state. How easily troubled is our mind? How easily does suffering arise within us?

What are the methods that make our minds more expansive and accommodating and therefore experiencing less suffering? This is what we need to look at. Feeling you can handle any situation is a great quality.

Before allowing time for questions and answers, he summarised the key points of his talk:

If you are keen to practice the Dharma, study well and learn from a lama with experience. Then you will know what you need to do and this wisdom will develop.

We don’t like suffering. The best methods for taking away our suffering is having an expansive mind that can accommodate everything.

If we can do that, we are on a good path to finding happiness, contentment.

Summary by Inge Derijck.