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| Seven Years In
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PRACTISING
DHARMA & TAKING REFUGE
Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises:
"We
take refuge all the time. We take refuge when we sleep,
take shelter, seek friends, do business, and so many
things. People in the world try so many things to find
satisfaction, and all externally, but nothing
external can bring satisfaction. Those who are able
to succeed, to have external success, to become wealthy,
to enjoy comfort, usually also experience increasing
mental problems. The reason for this is that nothing gives
lasting satisfaction.
So life is filled with depression and
sadness.
For example the famous singer Elvis
Presley. Even though
he passed away quite a long time ago, people still miss
him and try to act like him. He had so many friends and
was so extensively known in the world, but when he was
singing his last song he had tears in his eyes. Why did
he cry ? No reason to feel sad if everybody loved him.
What I mean is, if that is the solution for happiness
then he shouldn't be upset. This example shows clearly
that worldly success doesn't necessarily lead to
happiness.
The food for the mind is the wisdom
understanding Dharma. That which brings inner peace,
because happiness and suffering do not come from
outside, they come from ones own mind. They come from
whichever label the mind makes up and believes in. An
example, one puts a set of labels onto something and
then anger arises, such as 'this persons way of
thinking talking and behaving towards me is bad. This
hurts me, so it is bad.' Because we put on all these
labels which were made up by the ego and attachment,
anger arises.
"Without Dharma there is no happiness.
No
temporary happiness, no ultimate happiness, Nothing
"
But why do we interpret, even though it hurts the ego
and attachment, that the person hurt ME? That is because
one is a friend of the ego and attachment, so it looks
like the person is hurting oneself. From this point of
view, one can see that the problem is created by the
mind. One can also see
that when ones mind does not follow the ego, it does not
disturb one, no matter what the other person does with
his body, speech and mind. Even if they criticize and
show dislike, one doesn't see it as
harmful.
That is why the person who is practicing pure
Dharma, who has cut the clinging to this life, never
reacts with an emotional mind. There is always tranquillity and peace in the
heart. Because there is no
attachment, that person never experiences ups and downs,
depression or loneliness. When ones own mind becomes
Dharma, Bodhicitta, the person who criticizes one is
never seen as harmful, he only becomes a cause to
develop more compassion. In the view of Bodhicitta, that
person becomes an object of help.
When ones mind becomes
Dharma, the wisdom realizing
emptiness, the subject, object and action are all seen
as merely labeled by the mind. Even though another person may hurt ones ego,
he does not hurt the mind. Just like a dream. In a
dream, someone may criticize one badly, but if one
recognizes the dream as a dream, one is not hurt. The
person who believes that this is reality becomes
emotional, what the other person does effects them and
anger can arise.
In the view of a mind that has
become Dharma, has become patience, the person who criticizes is seen
as most kind. Without
someone having anger towards oneself, one can never
practice patience, one can never develop the path
completely and one cannot achieve full Enlightenment and
lead numberless beings to that state. Just as one needs
friends in ones life for happiness, more crucial, one
needs people to have anger towards one for training
one's mind on the path. It is many billions of times more
important for someone to have anger towards oneself due
to the incredible benefit that one can get.
" Happiness and suffering don't come from outside,
they come from ones own mind"
Dharma practice is extremely important. A billion
times more important than job, money, food and so forth
which are regarded as important by common people in the
world.
Without Dharma there is no happiness.
No temporary happiness, no ultimate happiness,
nothing.
So there one can see the advantage of taking
refuge. By taking refuge in
the Dharma, the wisdom realizing emptiness, one is able
to cut the root of samsara. One is able to be completely liberated from the
entire suffering and its causes. By taking refuge in the Dharma,
in Bodhicitta, one is able to complete the two types of
merit and achieve Enlightenment.
By taking refuge in the
Dharma, one naturally
takes refuge in its founder, the Buddha. Then
there is the need of helpers on the way, the
Sangha. Just as a sick person has to rely on
doctors, medicine and nurses to get better. The doctor
understands the disease, the medicine is the actual
treatment and nurses help one to take the
medicine.
One takes refuge in the three
jewels in order to
completely cease the cause of suffering, and to never
give rise to it again. One takes refuge in order to
cease the cause of depression, relationship problems,
loneliness, AIDS, cancer etc. and to never experience
them again. All these problems come from the mind so one
has to cease that mind. For this to happen, one needs to
rely on the Buddha, Dharma and
Sangha.
According to the Lesser Vehicle
there are two causes of refuge. One is the
understanding fear, not ignorant fear, but the fear that
understands how samsara is in the nature of suffering.
The other is the belief that Buddha, Dharma and Sangha
have the power to liberate one from the entire samsara
and its cause. A mind being perfected with these two
causes is called taking refuge.
The Mahayana
way of taking refuge is similarly based on both fear
towards samsara and faith in the Triple Gem. On top of
that comes compassion. Wishing other sentient beings to
be free from the suffering of Samsara as well, due to
understanding that they are suffering just like oneself.
This is the Mahayana way of taking
refuge.
The above is an excerpt from a teaching
delivered Ven. Lama Zopa Rinpoche on 14th January 1995,
at Root Institute in the holy place of Bodhgaya, India.
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