Archive for January, 2008

I’ve being tagged by Danny Fisher and so he are my answers to the following questionnaire.

I will tag…
Vincent Horn
C4Chaos
Hokai
Danzan
William Harryman

I haven’t answered all the questions as some of them are silly.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Well being a Buddhist monk my understanding of happiness is not based on experiences of bliss generated from physical stimuli. Besides the bliss that is a by product of meditation is far far far greater than most people can even imagine.

However to answer the question…the happiness from being generous.

What is your greatest fear?
I’m not afraid of anything. But, if I had to pick something it would be dying before I have finished my life’s work. I know that sounds corny but its true. 

Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Identity…hmmm…that is a tricky word…if it means relate to or feel close to, then that would be Lama Tsong Khapa the head of my school of Buddhism, the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism.
He was a great meditation yogi that strove to articulate what he saw in meditation.

Which living person do you most admire?
No brainer here! His Holiness the Dalai Lama and my root Lama Geshe Acharya Thubten Loden

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Deplore is a strong word, lets just say I’d rather not be so ‘A’ type.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
From within the context of love and compassion with a genuine wish to help all living beings.
This would be anger, attachment, pride (in the sense of arrogance), doubt, wrong-view and ignorance.

What is your greatest extravagance?
Too many books. I seem to collect them. Even though I keep telling myself I have enough!

What is your favorite journey?
The path to being a prefect being of course…what other journey is there!

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
While I don’t want to take away the fun of this post. I have to say that if it is a virtue
it is pervaded by being a functional mind and by definition not overratedable.

On what occasion do you lie?
If it is beneficial to others. That is, if through lying I can help protect other living beings, then it is my obligation to lie. Although I was once debating (in the Tibetan monastic sense) with my teacher about this, and it turns out that from a debating pointing of view. This would not constitute lying as lying is necessarily negative and protecting others is positive.

What do you dislike most about your appearance?
I’m quite happy being a middle aged, balding, with a bit of a tummy Buddhist monk. I’m quite happy with the skin I’m in. I find it funny that these question comes from a magazine called VanityFair.

Which living person do you most despise?
All being want happiness and do not want suffering just like me. If you really understand these words fully it is impossible to hate or despise anyone….yes I mean anyone! This doesn’t mean Buddhists are a passive lot!
It is permissible to defend and even in some cases prevent problems from others by using force. But NEVER with hatred. 

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
My father would say I use the ‘umm’ word too much.

What is your greatest regret?
Not seeing Geshe Jampa Gyatso again before he passed away.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?
The Buddhist path and helping others.

Which talent would you most like to have?
The ability to articulate dharma well.

What is your current state of mind?
very happy, thanks for asking

If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?
I’d like to see all mother sentient beings find real happiness.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I haven’t achieved anything…yet!

If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
This is clearly a non-Buddhist question but, anyway to play along. I’d say I don’t care as long as it is a human person in a country where I can practice without fear of being persecuted for doing so.

If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be?
as above…this is getting silly!

What is your most treasured possession?
My vows

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Pride is the worse. Because someone with pride suffers from not being liked by others. They cant see their own mistakes and therefore have problem changing. All other forms of mental suffering can be removed more easily over time. Pride on the other hand is difficult to remove. A person with pride won’t listen to advise. They think they are correct even in  the face of many people saying they are not. It is the illusion of knowledge. I find that I can help most people with mental suffering but, people with pride are the most difficult.

Where would you like to live?
I like living where I am, if I didn’t I’d move

What is your favorite occupation?
Anything that can make a contribution.

What is your most marked characteristic?
This is not something I don’t think about much. Not because I don’t like to. Just because it relative.
What I might see as a quality, if compared to other is not. It doesn’t really help me develop my mind and so I don’t.

What is the quality you most like in a man?
I will answer the next 3 question here by saying the quality that I admire in all beings, regardless of their gender is compassion, loving-kindness, spirit of enlightenment, the spirit of enquiry, open-mindedness (in the sense of not being judgmental)

Who are your favorite writers?
The Buddha, Lama Tsong Khapa, HHDL, Geshe Loden.

Who is your favorite hero/heroine of fiction?
don’t read fiction…sorry

Who are your heroines/heroes in real life?
The Buddha, Lama Tsong Khapa, HHDL, Geshe Loden and all those beings who have realized the path regardless of age, race or gender!

What are your favorite names?
???

What is it that you most dislike?
Silly question!

How would you like to die?
With a clear mind, slowly and without pain.

What is your motto?
There is a verse from Shantideva that HHDL likes that would be nice here.

For as long as space endures,
For as long as sentient beings remain.
May I too remain to remove the suffering of the world.

The Buddha said more than two and a half millennia ago, all beings want happiness and wish to avoid suffering. At first glance, this may seem like a simplistic observation however, a closer examination will reveal an extraordinary implication.

Everyone has this innate wish, the wish for greater happiness, it is not a selfish wish, however, we often use erroneous methods in our endeavors to find it. Many people believing that happiness can be found through physical stimuli or financial security, spend their entire lives chasing after money, power and fame only to be exhausted by their efforts. Buddhism asserts that although external conditions, such as, money or a nice car do play a role in a good life, they are not the real causes of happiness. You don’t need to look too far to find people who are materially well off, yet experience unhappiness, which if left unchecked can lead to depression. This does not mean we should not have material things or work towards providing for our families. Owning a nice car, a big house or having a highly paid career is not the issue. The issue is how we relate to these things. The real source of life’s problems and their resolutions can be found within our mind.
What I find most compelling about the Buddha’s statement is he hints at our fundamental capacity to expand and develop our experiences of happiness. Not the kind of happiness that is generated by forcing yourself to laugh or the kind of happiness that is sometimes jokingly described as happy happy joy joy. The happiness that is referred to here, is a genuine feeling of joy that naturally arises due to the cultivation of functional states of mind. It is a feeling of contentment with yourself, your life and the things and events that you encounter. It is not a passive experience. It makes you want to embrace life and the people you encounter through it. So his statement, all beings want happiness and want to avoid suffering, is not merely an observation but rather a supremely optimistic statement.

This statement of the Buddha also hints at our current situation. Like it or not, most people experience unwanted problems. Be they big or small, they are problems nonetheless and they are unwanted! No one wakes up in the morning and thinks, today I hope nothing but problems come my way. In fact the opposite is often the case. We wake up thinking about all the good things that might happen. We plan our day, thinking of the things we need to get done. Yet unexpected problems do arise. We can find ourselves experiencing the tension of a strained relationship, the stress of deadlines, or even the boredom of work. The Buddha points this out as a means of motivating us to begin our journey. Don’t live in denial. Face up to the fact that we do, even if just occasionally, experience these problems but, understand there is something you can do about this situation. You have the power to change your life, no one else can do it for you. In this regard the Buddha once said,

You are your own protector,
who else will be this protector?

This is great news, you can change your life and it is not that difficult. However, it is a journey, and like all good journeys, it starts with making the decision to go. To sum up then, the basic framework of the Buddha’s message is. All of us want happiness, yet what happiness we currently experience is fleeting at best. However, it is possible to experience real and lasting happiness that transcends any experience of happiness or bliss that is generated from physical stimuli, and that the methods which enable this can be found within our own mind.
This is where meditation comes in. Meditation is the tool used in the Enlightenment Project. It is both a diagnostic and therapeutic tool in this endeavor. Meditation introduces you to the world of your mind. A world that for many has remained hidden. Meditation brings the world of your mind to the forefront of life. Making it work for you rather than letting it enslave you. Many people are unaware of the potential of their mind or the role it plays in your life. Many unaware of this go through life acting out in habitual ways, reacting with events habitual tendencies, many of which lead to the problems describe earlier. The removal of dysfunctional states of mind, such as anger, jealousy or pride and the development of functional minds such as the minds of loving-kindness, compassion and wisdom constitutes the Enlightenment Project.

I have left this poll up longer than I had expected. In the end there was only 23 votes.
I’m not sure if that means only 23 of you meditate or that many of you didn’t know the poll was there to participate in. Either way here are the results.

Less than 1 = 15%
1-5              = 42%
10-20          = 15%
20+             = 8%

The next poll is up, and can be located on the right hand side of the blog , about half way down.
The question for this poll is how many hours per week do you spend reading or studying Buddhism?

I received an email from a reader asking a biography on the 98th Ganden Tripa HE Jampel Shenpen the head of the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism. Does anyone have any information or links? I have Googled but didn’t find make. In fact I was surprised to see that there is no wikipedia entry for him. If we find anything perhaps we should create a wikipedia page for it?

Hoping someone can help

The next Mandala magazine features a tribute one of my teachers, the late Geshe Achraya Jampa Gyatso.

Here are some short quotes form Ven Joan’s well written tribute.

Geshe-la taught us not to misuse our own or others’ belongings, to not waste or throw out what could still be used, to not go running after the latest gadget, whether a cell phone or a car. He showed us how to laugh at ourselves, our silly habits, our shortcomings, our weaknesses. He taught us to accept ourselves for what we are, while striving to become the buddha that is everyone’s potential. He taught us with endless patience, repeating time and again how to develop equanimity, love, compassion, patience, concentration, and wisdom. He told us his favorite stories over and over again, checking our memory by always adding a slight variation from the time before. He delighted us with his acting out of the sufferings of aging (often pointing out the fact that we would have a heart attack if we were suddenly to wake up old with a wrinkled face, gray hair, no teeth, loose skin), as well as the torment of attachment and the way we say “I love you,” while meaning “I am attached to you.” He shocked us with his outspoken opinions about politics and politicians (both Western and Tibetan). He surprised us with his lack of etiquette, tranquilly cleaning the wax out of his ears, taking out his false teeth to clean them, or scratching his legs or back while we talked to him. He charmed us with his imitations of people, his knowledge of our world, his insight into our lives and problems. He forced us to work on ourselves, on our minds, on our mistaken way of viewing ourselves and our world. He made us be truthful and honest with him and with ourselves. In short, he never put up with any of our usual garbage.

I remember during a teaching one time looking up at Geshe-la and he had placed his mala on his head wearing it like a head-band…inside I was rolling on the floor laughing…he just sat there with a slight smile on his face. Please come back soon Geshe-la
You can read more here about Geshe-la here

I received a series of questions on a post about finding a Lama, what meditating to practice etc. I decided it was be easily and quicker to do it via video.

I hope this is useful?

I have just finished watching the DVD’s of teaching His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave on Dependent Origination, a key Buddhist concept.

The teaching were organized by Gyuto Vajrayana Center in San Francisco. The texts HHDL uses for these teachings are Nagarjuna’s and Lama Tsong Khapa’s spiritual songs of devotion to the Buddha. This teachings are outstandingly translated by Thubten Jinpa. I only hope we see Jinpa-la in Sydney this June for the Dalai Lama’s teaching in Australia 2008.

Anyways if you have a spare $30.00 or 40.00 I’d go and purchase the DVD’s or at least download the free mp3’s from here

Recently a got an iMac. The iMac has video recording and editing software capabilities and so I thought I’d give it a try by responding to a comment by Anwesh on the benefits of understanding Buddhist Epistemology and Psychology.

If you are reading this from RSS you may need to watch the video from the blog.

This is the first post of a series on Buddhist epistemology entitled Awareness and Knowledge. An introductory post for this series can be found here the benefits of understanding Buddhist epistemology and psychology. If you haven’t read this post as yet, do so before reading further.

As I post each new section I will link to it from here. This will enable people to bookmark this page for future reference and make it easier for new readers to follow the progress of the series.

Don’t forget you can subscribe to the blog either via RSS or email and receive updates as they are posted.

Part One: Objects
(1) Appearing objects.
(2) Determined objects.
(3) Objects of engagement

Part Two: Subjects
I. Persons

II. Awarenesses
   (1) Valid cognizers
      (A) Direct perceivers
         (1) Sense direct perceivers
         (2) Mental direct perceivers
         (3) Self-knowing direct perceivers
         (4) Yogic direct perceivers
      (B) Direct valid cognizers
         (1) Self-knowing direct valid cognizers
         (2) Sense direct valid cognizers
         (3) Mental direct valid cognizers
         (4) Yogic direct valid cognizers
      (C) Facsimiles of a direct perceiver
         (1-6) Conceptual facsimiles of a direct perceiver
         (7) Non-conceptual facsimiles of a direct perceiver
      (D) Inferential valid cognizers
      (E) Terminological divisions of valid cognizers
         (1) Inference for oneself and for another
         (2) Ancillarily, minds apprehending a sign
         (3) Valid cognizers that induce ascertainment by themselves and valid cognizers when ascertainment is induced by another
         (4) Valid cognizers that are persons, speech, and consciousnesses
      (F) Definite enumeration of valid cognizers 
   (2) Non-valid consciousnesses
      (A) Subsequent cognizers
         (1) Directly perceiving subsequent cognizers
         (2) Conceptual subsequent cognizers
      (B) Correctly assuming consciousnesses
      (C) Awarenesses to which the object appears without being ascertained
      (D) Doubting consciousnesses
      (E) Wrong consciousnesses
   (3) Threefold division of awarenesses and knowers
      (A) Conceptual consciousnesses that take a meaning generality as their apprehended object
      (B) Non-conceptual non-mistaken consciousnesses that take a specifically characterized phenomenon as their apprehended object
      (C) Non-conceptual mistaken consciousnesses that take a clear appearance of a nonexistent as their apprehended object
   (4) Twofold division of awarenesses
   (5) Another twofold division of awarenesses and knowers
      (A) Minds
      (B) Mental factors
         (i) Five omnipresent factors
            (1) Feeling
            (2) Discrimination
            (3) Intention
            (4) Contact
            (5) Attention
         (ii) Five object determining mental factors
            (1) Aspiration
            (2) Belief
            (3) Mindfulness
            (4) Meditative stabilization
            (5) Wisdom
         (iii) Eleven virtuous mental factors
            (1) Faith
            (2) Shame
            (3) Embarrassment
            (4) Non-attachment
            (5) Non-hatred
            (6) Non-ignorance
            (7) Effort
            (8) Pliancy
            (9) Conscientiousness
            (10) Equanimity
            (11) Non-harmfulness
         (iv) Six root afflictions
               (1) Attachment
               (2) Anger
               (3) Pride
               (4) Ignorance
               (5) Doubt
               (6) Afflicted views
                  (a) View of the transitory collection
                  (b) View holding to an extreme
                  (c) Conception of a afflicted view as supreme
                  (d) Conception of afflicted ethics as supreme
                  (e) Wrong view
         (v) Twenty secondary afflictions
               (1) Belligerence
               (2) Resentment
               (3) Concealment
               (4) Spite
               (5) Jealousy
               (6) Miserliness
               (7) Deceit
               (8) Dissimulation
               (9) Haughtiness
               (10) Harmfulness
               (11) Non-shame
               (12) Non-embarrassment
               (13) Lethargy
               (14) Excitement
               (15) Non-faith
               (16) Laziness
               (17) Non-conscientiousness
               (18) Forgetfulness
               (19) Non-introspection
               (20) Distraction
         (vi) Four changeable mental factors
               (1) Sleep
               (2) Regret
               (3) Investigation 
               (4) Analysis
   (6) Ancillarily, the mode of asserting tenets

III. Expressive Sounds
(1) Names
(2) Phrases
(3) Letters

Yesterday I read with interest, Daniel Goleman’s blog post on the unexplained gamma increases in highly trained Tibetan Lamas. This morning I had an idea that might shed some insight into the reason why some meditators, with roughly the same amount of training as others, can have massively different gamma readings.

The idea is based on how these monks engage their object of meditation. Daniel did state that all the participants were meditating on compassion, however his findings assumes that all participants engaged in this meditation on compassion are of the same type of compassion. According to Mahayana Buddhism there is more than one type of compassion.

Candrakirti a 7th CE Buddhist scholar-yogi, abbot of the famous Nalanda monastic university, and author of many famous Buddhist treatises enumerates in his treatise of Madhyamaka philosophy entitled Engaging in the Middle Way (Madhyamakavatara) three types of compassion.

Three Types of Compassion

1. Compassion observing mere sentient beings.
2. Compassion observing impermanent sentient beings.
3. Compassion observing dependently-related sentient beings.

This theory says that all three compassions have as their observed object sentient beings, with a subjective aspect of wishing them to be free from suffering and wanting to protect them from suffering but, their engaged object or conceived object are (1) real sentient beings, in the sense of being substantially existent; (2) Impermanent sentient beings and; (3) Sentient beings that do not inherently exist. Candrakirti states that the three compassions increase in depth, scope and power from the first through to the third. I would add, a meditator who possesses this third type of compassion has fewer dysfunctional states of mind compared with one who only has the first or second type. This perhaps is a way of explaining the different degrees of gamma in the participants. Although a person with the 3rd type of compassion may look simpler in appearance to another monk or Lama, their mind would be far from simpler.

I believe that in order to get to the bottom of this conundrum, scientists need to starting asking questions of meditators. Get them to describe their meditational objects, rather than assume they are all meditating on the same objects. Currently scientists are reluctant to do this or at least reluctant to speak about it in public. Yet, this is the area that will show in my opinion how dualistic thought processes are the root cause of suffering. I believe science can play a role in this endeavor but, only after they get over their fixation with the materialistic notion of consciousness.