Thaye Dorje, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, shares the following message concerning tragic events over the weekend:
Dear dharma friends
This weekend, we witnessed unimaginable suffering.
More than 70 people were killed in a suspected chemical attack in Syria. In Canada, a crash involving a junior ice hockey team killed at least 14 people.
Young lives, innocent lives, have been taken from us in the most tragic of circumstances.
Let us pray for all those who have lost their lives. Let us pray for the parents, the families, and all those who mourn at this time. And let us pray for the end of violence, the end of suffering; and let us pray for peace for all sentient beings.
In life, it is often our greatest challenges that lead to the deepest devotion. The tragic death of the great master Gampopa’s wife and children, and his devotion to the Buddha dharma, are indivisible. Just as the loss of the great master Milarepa’s family and home, and his spirituality, are also intertwined.
Peace and chaos are inseparable. Many of us who live in relative comfort may never experience the deep bond that is so often seen in stories of resilience and survival. So while we pray for the end of suffering and its causes, we do not label suffering as ‘bad’ or ‘good’ for we can see that those who suffer may have insights that we cannot experience, and that even in the midst of tragedy and heartbreak, the seed of limitless love can be sown.
To really sit down and tell ourselves things, such as, ‘I am inherently pure and decent,’ can be difficult – although we can relate to these truths during unemotional moments. If we have a hard time accepting these truths, when we are in crisis and have doubt in ourselves, then this is a clear sign that we do need someone to guide us; someone to show us; someone to teach us.
If you look at a clock and ask it to stop, or ‘hang on for a minute’, it will just keep ticking from one millisecond to another. Whatever you ask of the clock, it will not stop, not even for a moment. Time is unstoppable, it is inevitable. And so it is with impermanence. In the end, the more we choose to somehow push this fact aside – the reality of change – the more we will experience the pressure of a deadline, the pressure of time being taken from us without the power to do anything about it. As a result, anxiety, confusion and dukkha arises.
I think that is how Buddha basically saw or experienced the way in which the so-called samsaric life functions. The samsaric aspect of our lives starts to occur from the moment we push aside this inevitable truth. We try all sorts of things to somehow forget the fact of impermanence. #Karmapa (Photo/Tokpa Korlo)
Liberation is not really gaining something, but instead realising something: having a very strong sense of realisation that there is nothing to lose at all.
The reason why we orient or introduce the idea of liberation as if it is something to gain is because of our inhibitions around losing something. Therefore, we have this idea of having more and more – more enlightenment, more merit, more good karma and so on.
Deep down, we have to realise that this aiming for liberation, this yearning that we have, has to somehow flow in a way that we sort of let go, of whatever we can, one by one.
That’s why we’re taking refuge – refuge meaning that we basically let go. And the more we are able to let go, then the more a sense of peace, a sense of completion is there.
When we say someone has completely awoken, completely awakened, it means that individual has finally reached a stage where there is nothing to lose, that they have nothing to abandon any more.
The rising of the sun is very interesting to all of us, very inspiring, while the setting is often a somewhat melancholic thing. But actually, we are the ones (meaning our thoughts) that make a sunset melancholic, whereas the sun itself has no emotion at all about setting – and not because it is going to rise tomorrow, and for every day after that. There is no real emotion present like ours, let’s say. I don’t mean to say that we have to become completely emotionally dull and numb. But observing that kind of cycle helps us relate to change, impermanence and death. Then, if we slowly reflect on our own being, we can probably relate a little better to these subjects. The point is that by doing so, we will be able to relate better to what is so difficult to relate to: enlightenment.
It is my heartfelt wish to see peace in our world. As a Buddhist student and a teacher, I see peace as a state of consciousness – complete awareness.
As challenging as it may seem at times, peace is achievable in our time. Peace is possible. The question is how.
I believe that we can achieve peace by investing in our Inner Wealth, our innate values of wisdom and compassion. We all have these values, whether we are Buddhists or non-Buddhists, young or old – all of us have this limitless pool of quality, of Inner Wealth inside us.
So it is through education and literacy, supporting our young people, and promoting non-material values like non-violence that we can tap into this pool and bring this quality into our world. Of course, for the benefit of all sentient beings.
What we have to really be clear about, is that when we practice the Buddha dharma, the way of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas, we are not trying to achieve something that does not exist. We are not trying to achieve something that is not there. It is just the opposite, in a way. We are trying to achieve something that is logical, that is possible.
Buddhist teachings are extremely difficult to preserve, mainly, as Buddha said, due to our emotions. Of course, the karma factor comes into play. Karma is a very strong force, a very powerful force that drives us to various limits. But by trying to understand the challenges of karma and the afflictive emotions that we face every day, we actually come to understand how beneficial this practice of compassion and wisdom is. Compassion and wisdom is the antidote to the karma and afflictive emotions we face.
We are all deeply connected. Every choice we make leaves an indelible mark on our world. And so let us choose the path of nonviolence. Let us choose the path of loving kindness. Let us choose the path of compassion, and let us be heroes in each other’s lives.
In the midst of turbulence, may we all find a place of stillness, clarity and peace. This place of stillness, this state of mind, lies within all of us. Our compassion and wisdom, our Inner Wealth, is unaffected by even the most extreme external conditions. No rain can dampen our inner peace. No wind can move our minds.
Compounded, conditioned phenomena can be explained on the basis of the five skandhas, a topic that is presented in detail in the Abhidharma. Compoundedness means that a phenomenon comes into being through causes and conditions; this forming, this arising in itself is change.
While seeming to remain for a while, it actually constantly changes even while remaining, and its un-forming or dissolving is change as well. This is what holds true for the five skandhas that make up and shape our experience, in other words our life, our samsaric existence: form, sensations, perceptions, formations, and the various aspects of consciousness.
Aspirations are very powerful, because they go to the depths of our consciousness. Though we all wish and aspire for many things, it is not common for us to do so with full awareness.
In fact, most of us are not really aware of the power of aspirations, or how we to utilise them effectively. If we are able to utilise this tool properly, we will be able to accomplish our daily needs and wishes, and contribute to peace and good conditions for ourselves and all other beings. More than that, aspirations will eventually help us to understand our own nature better, and to recognise our kind and loving nature.
We are all deeply connected. Every choice we make leaves an indelible mark on our world. And so let us choose the path of nonviolence. Let us choose the path of loving kindness. Let us choose the path of compassion, and let us be heroes in each other’s lives.
In the midst of turbulence, may we all find a place of stillness, clarity and peace. This place of stillness, this state of mind, lies within all of us. Our compassion and wisdom, our Inner Wealth, is unaffected by even the most extreme external conditions. No rain can dampen our inner peace. No wind can move our minds.
Compassion can be understood best as understanding.
Understanding in as much detail as possible what the other individual is going through; putting oneself in the other individual’s place; being in that place; and then having some kind of understanding of their experience. That’s compassion.
In Tibetan aspiration is known as ‘monlam’ and dedication is known as ‘sngo ba.’ These two go hand in hand. Aspiration is the one that initiates our accumulation, and dedication is the one that completes our accumulation of merit and wisdom.
Your true friend is none other than the Buddha dharma. There is no better friend than the Buddha dharma. If you lose the Buddha dharma, then that’s it, you have lost everything. So please, please, please don’t lose the Buddha dharma, because impermanence is just around the corner.
Please make a lot of pure aspirations, as much as possible, to be able to meet with great teachers – not just in one lifetime, but in lifetime after lifetime. With your effort, I am sure you will be able to do it. Make aspirations, like the king of the aspirations, Shantideva’s aspirations, or Maitreya’s aspirations, continuously – then all of your wishes will come true.
In general, when we practice, we do so basically to develop great experience. Experience not in terms of developing too many sensations, but experience in terms of understanding, in order to go through challenges. We practice to gain experience so that, should we come across similar or greater challenges, we have accumulated experience and know how to go about facing them. I think this is the main goal of practice.
It is normal that we expect, because we are living in a conditioned world, and there are components that make us a conditioned being. So it is only normal, and if we just have expectations from time to time genuinely, without excessive emotion, I think it is okay.
Similarly, we also have doubts. And the same principle applies: if we have continuous, excessive doubting, of course it is unhealthy for the mind and then eventually for the whole system. So when we don’t know things, it is normal that we have doubts, and we can simply clarify things. When we gain experience, by learning and absorbing knowledge, we see clearly that we have nothing to doubt.
Therefore, when we first accept that we have expectations and doubts, a lot of challenges are naturally overcome. And then the next step will be to negotiate all of the emotions that come along with expectations and doubts. Then it becomes much simpler.
How to keep a pure view and open heart in daily life?
#Karmapa:
Try your very best to follow the Ten Virtues as much as possible, every day. And then you don’t have to use the word ‘refrain’ but to somehow distance yourself from the opposite of the Ten Virtues, the Ten Non-Virtues. ———-
In order to liberate ourselves from karma, kleshas and habitual patterns, to begin with we are required to generate or depend on the three different types of vows: the Pratimoksha Vows, the Bodhisattva Vows, and the tantric vows. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have shown in the past over and over again, through various activities, that by utilizing these vows we can truly enhance our inherent qualities.
We have to really rejoice and appreciate that due to our merit, due to our own sweat, due to our own strength and courage from our past lives, we have all these opportunities here now. We also have to appreciate the timeless aspirations made by all the Buddhas, all the bodhisattvas of the past, as well as the present, because it is really due to their wishes, due to their aspirations that our efforts have a result. So these two wonderful conditions have come together. This is our result, this is why all of us are here.
‘We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make strong progress towards it.’
Some might say that it is easier said than done. But when we realise how closely related thinking, saying and doing are, it is better to speak a word of peace, than to say nothing at all.
