Geshe la began his teaching today with an extended commentary on one of the lines from the preliminary recitation that we do every week: "I prostrate to Dharma which is peace." All of us have read versions of this line throughout Buddhist literature, and it's the second line, of course, of the refuge prayer. But how often do we pass through that recitation without the right mindfulness, without the proper awareness of its utter profundity? Geshe la's teaching was designed to make us more mindful of even the simplest words of the simplest prayers.
Daniel Cozort and Craig Preston have written in Buddhist Philosophy that "systematic philosophy is a Tibetan obsession," and we saw ample evidence of that today. Commenting on the logical progression that gave rise to the line in question, Geshe la mentioned that the "peace" mentioned in the line arises from an accurate perception of reality. Because this accurate perception of reality involves realizing impermanence--the way in which after the first grain of sand in the mandal is thrown, for example, its destruction has been set in motion--it also forces us to realize that attachment to these things is futile and illogical. Once we realize that this attachment is both powerful and illogical, we can begin to take steps to dislodge it from our mental orientation to the world and to our emotions. And if we are successful in doing this, even to the smallest degree, we will begin to see that fear, anger, and hatred--the offspring of attachment--begin to disappear as well. This Geshe la called "the big release." Once these emotions begin to disappear, once we release our misconeptions about the nature of permanence, peace begins to arise as fear, anger, and hatred diminish. Hence, we "prostrate to Dharma which is peace." Dharma, then, comprises the techniques and strategies that allow us to work gradually toward that peace.
Geshe la then began to delve into the ways that we enter into unproductive action, and he outlined the
three classic causes for such action. The first one was "ignorance," which is self-explanatory: wrong actions done out of lack of knowledge that they are, in fact, wrong. Second was "carelessness," and this is the worst of the three because it stems largely from laziness: we know better, but don't have the will power or desire to avoid the wrongful action. And third was "habituation," and this involves the deeply ingrained habits that have been part of our karmic imprint for eons--the habits of thought and action that are so difficult to break.
The problem is that these observations and insights are only that, observations and insights, a fine place to begin, but of little practical use to us if we can't develop the fundamental techniques of calm abiding meditation that will allow us to incorporate these principles into our daily lives, to move them, in effect, from our heads, where they are understood as logical and necessary, to our hearts, where they begin to direct and change our lives. We know that the Tibetan word for meditation, "gom," means "familiarity," and thus, meditation in the Tibetan tradition involves familiarizing ourselves with these concepts until they become, in effect, intuitive.
Geshe la then paused and spoke about what he called the "living experential transmission" that is the conrnerstone of the Buddha's teaching and that Geshe la received from his own teachers (and that we in our limited capacities are capable of receiving from Geshe la). It is one of the most profound aspects of Buddhist philosophy and, for me, one of the most profound teachings that we have received from Geshe la since he arrived in Fayetteville. He introduced us to the core of this teaching by reminding us that we reach the highest level of insight and awareness through the path of our own experience in the world--this is one of Buddha's central teachings. Geshe la was insistent about the importance of this idea because it transforms every aspect of our lives into fodder for progress on the path and ultimately for complete omniscience and enlightenment. Geshe gratefully acknowedged that Buddha had given us this "incredible method" that not only opens up our lives for meaningful analysis, but that this method includes everyone of us, regardless of our station in the world, in the project of enlightenment. It is a deeply democratic and egalitarian philosophy.
It was clear from Geshe la's brief and moving autobiographical story about growing up in Bhutan and being a young monk in south India that this inclusiveness had meant a great deal to him, and that of course, it should mean a great deal to us. Buddha's teachings had convinced Geshe la that even a thin, half-starving refugee from Tibet could master one of the world's most demanding philosophical traditions and make progress on the path. And help others to make progress on the path as well. The real point of this story concerned our motivation: when we are less than enthusiastic about our practice, when we are falling into habits of meditation that lead us to dullness and the torpor of habituation, we can remind ourselves of the extraordinary gift that Buddha left all of us who are concerned enough to learn what we can and practice what we will--Buddha showed us through logic and reason that all of us are capable of achieving his own insights and that, most radically, it is precisely the hindrances, obscurations, and difficulties of our individual lives that will enable us to do so. Buddha, in effect, discovered enlightenment where it could never be lost again: within our own intellectual and mental capacity for enlightenment.
That in a nutshell was what Geshe la told us today, and if we never had another teaching, this one should sustain us for a very long time.
Sidney Burris
