Teachings in Glasgow
On the 5th of September, Drupon Rinpoche was invited to Glasgow Samye Dzong where he taught about the prerequisites for Dharma practice.
When it comes to practising Dharma, our motivation is pivotal. If our motivation is wholesome, anything we do will be wholesome. If our motivation is flawed, any resultant activity will be poor.
What is our aim, why are we doing it? Knowing that, we can correct our motivation into wanting to benefit others and protect them from samsara. This should be the foundation for our listening to Dharma.
Rinpoche continued to describe the main prerequisites for practising Dharma. There are many different angles from which this subject can be approached, but Rinpoche narrowed it down for us into two main prerequisites.
The first prerequisite is: not holding one’s own view to be supreme.
A stubborn mind sticks rigidly to its own view. We have to abandon our own view. Without doing so, we can’t see the truth nor the faults in another’s view, and therefore we can’t learn from it or be benefitted by it.
An honest mind acknowledges another’s view. This means that when another view is explained one can actually listen to it. Doing so, one can analyse and investigate it, come to see its faults and qualities. This in turn increases our knowledge and intelligence and therefore we have been benefitted from it.
Without this intelligence, our mind is more likely to get this hardened view. Through lack of study, there isn’t the same level of understanding and thus one gets stuck in one’s own view. Benefit arises when there is open-mindedness and through intelligence one analyses: is this view valid or not, what is wrong or right with it? Using logical reasoning one can come to an intelligent decision. Knowing the reasons for accepting or rejecting another’s view is the way of open-mindedness. This engaged, examining mind is very important. When one does it correctly, progress is possible, our study improves and so does our view. It leads to a peaceful mind.
Don’t disregard, examine!
The second prerequisite is: not harming others.
This view is fundamental. It is a vast topic. What is meant by ‘other’ and by ‘harm’? We need to identify these two. The Buddhist vows of no killing, stealing etc, are all there for this purpose of not harming others. For example, business could be considered harmful if it is geared towards taking the cherished wealth of another through dishonest means. Things can be harmful in a direct or indirect way. The pollution of the environment for example is of direct harm to insects and of indirect harm to humans.
Some people have a natural disposition of not wanting to cause harm, others gradually transform their minds towards this outlook. Either of these two needs to be present. There is no Dharma practice without it.
Rinpoche also offered wonderful advice about how to deal with mental and physical suffering.
He taught how worry only increases suffering as it increases the fear of suffering. An acceptance towards the suffering which one is already experiencing – the attitude of ‘whatever will be, will be’ – can decrease the amount one suffers dramatically.
It is the way the mind relates to the illness for example, that increases or decreases the suffering experienced. An operation should be a cause for great suffering due to your body being cut open and poked, but this isn’t necessarily the case. Very few people go crazy through having an operation but many go crazy through worrying too much. Sometimes people take each other to court over a minor issue or amount. At the end of it all, suffering has increased exponentially just because at the start, one couldn’t just let it go, through a lack of acceptance of suffering. There is great wisdom in acceptance and letting go.
He also stressed how a lot of trouble comes from dissatisfaction, from feeling it’s never enough. When there is contentment and we feel: ‘I’m fine now, it’s enough’ , then happiness will come. We need to train ourselves in this mindset to the point when we feel, ‘If I suffer it’s okay, if I’m happy it’s okay’. At that time, we can be genuinely happy.
At the end, Rinpoche answered some questions.
Having enriched us all with beautiful advice, Rinpoche made the aspiration that we all take his advice on study to heart and that we’d meet again.
The teachings were translated by Kunga.