The Workshop is in the Mind

Something To Think About Series #230

Thought of the day from Venerable Robina Courtin

Something To Think About Series #229

Thought of the day from Venerable Robina Courtin

All sentient beings are caught in the trap of suffering in the realms of existence. Bodhichitta is a mind that wishes to free beings from suffering and bring them to the state of enlightenment. A bodhisattva is a person who has that bodhichitta mind, is a practitioner of the enlightenment thought which is the aspiration to achieve complete enlightenment as a perfect Buddha for the benefit of oneself and all other sentient beings. Love and compassion are the forces that motivate all activities of Bodhisattvas. Love is a strong wish that aspires to attain happiness for all sentient beings and compassion is the state of mind that wishes each being to be freed from all sufferings or sorrows, great compassion is the root wisdom.

These next three weeks we're going to be talking about compassion. We've got the wisdom wing and the compassion wing. It's a wonderful analogy, it works brilliantly, it covers all the Buddha's teachings, and it's also very personal. The point of the entire path is to become this Buddha.

So what is a Buddha? Buddha is a person who has completely rid their mind of all the rubbish, all the fears, all the dramas, all the suffering, which we all have got so much of. And they've only got what's left, which is this incredible wisdom, clarity, power, confidence, compassion and empathy.

The Buddha's whole point, from the big picture point of view, is that's the nature, the potential of every one of us. It's quite an outrageous idea really! It sounds mystical. But this is one of the things that can really help us when we're having problems and dramas, when we're overwhelmed by the negativity, just to try and remember that we've got this marvellous potential. This negativity is true, it's right now, but it's not intrinsic to us. This is something that can be very powerful for our mind.

The compassion wing, of this bird that needs two wings, is this enormous empathy with others, this connection with others, the seeing of others suffering, and this wish that they be happy which is love, and the wish they don't suffer and that's compassion. But that's contingent upon the wisdom wing. If you're overwhelmed by your own pain and suffering, you can't think of anybody else. It's not possible, your own suffering is so enormous. This is why we should have compassion for ourselves for a start. But certainly have compassion for others.

It's obvious that to prepare yourself to be able to benefit others, you've got to know how to benefit yourself. It's really logical. We have enormously big hearts, we think what can I do to help, but we don't actually have methods to know that first I've got to put myself together. If you want to help other people with their problems, you can have incredible compassion for them, but what good is that compassion if you don't know how to help them. That's the wisdom wing. If you want to help other people with their problems, you've got to know your own. You've got to help yourself first, and that qualifies you to then help others. That's the logic of the whole path.

So what's this wisdom? Learning about your own mind, and the way your mind works, the way the delusions work, the way we create karma. This qualifies us to help put ourselves together, then it qualifies us to go - oh my god, look at all this, everybody is in the same boat. We're all suffering.

Questions include - how can we know that everybody wants to be happy, understanding that others want to be happy but some people don't deserve to be happy, is pity a low form of compassion or is it a sophisticated way of self cherishing, how to deal with bullying, how to transform aggression towards ourself and others into compassion, how can we overcome feeling overwhelmed by seeing all the suffering around, and only with shamatha and vipasana meditation can we find answers to all the questions?

Centrul Budist White Mahakala, Romania, 1st September 2021.

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Something To Think About Series #228

Thought of the day from Venerable Robina Courtin

Something To Think About Series #227

Thought of the day from Venerable Robina Courtin

Something To Think About Series #226

Thought of the day from Venerable Robina Courtin

Start the day with your mind pointed in positive direction.

Something To Think About Series #225

Thought of the day from Venerable Robina Courtin

Something To Think About Series #224

Thought of the day from Venerable Robina Courtin

Venerable Robina gives a teaching on Attachment & Emptiness during the Lawudo Trek in Nepal.

One way of presenting these levels of practice which are expressed in this packaging of Tsongkhapa's called the Lamrim, this gradual path, this course, that you graduate from as a Buddha, is in terms of understanding attachment. This is massive for the Buddha, way bigger than we can think because it's assuming even the way the world is, how we're born, the kind of bodies we have, it's got a much bigger framework than we can think of.

So effectively the actual delusion that's the source of all suffering is this thing called ego grasping that the realisation of emptiness cuts, and all the teachings lead to that. But effectively in daily life we can say attachment is the main problem. This bottomless pit of dissatisfaction, the neediness, that causes the anger and aversion then causes all the other things, which cause us to harm others, which causes suffering rebirths, and so on.

When we understand attachment is the main problem, then junior school is learning to control the servants of the attachment, which is the body and speech obviously. We're so caught up in our own world, in the modern world I'm this body, we so utterly identify with the body, "we make the body the boss" as Lama Yeshe says, totally completely absorbed in the body. This is me!

If we do say words about my mind, we point to the brain. We learned that, we haven't experienced the truth of it, we've never studied the brain, most of us, we just believe what we're told. We think we're so intelligent, that we're scientific, it's just nonsense. Most of us haven't really studied math, science, botany, all the things some people have, we just say it's true because we believe it. We think we're scientific, no we haven't studied it.

We totally identify with this body, the body is massive, the senses run the show and they're the servants of attachment, that's it. So obviously the first job, because attachment is so primordial, you've got to start controlling the servants of the attachment, which is the body and speech, which is our behaviour. Do what your grandma says - behave nicely, don't harm others. This is fundamental.

By controlling the body and speech, the servants of attachment, you're naturally subduing attachment, it's very evident. Now you're really qualified to go to high school and get to the root of the problem, and begin to understand and unpack all the delusions, in particular attachment. You become your own therapist, this genius person, who can unpack and unravel the mind to this unbelievable degree, including getting this incredible concentration, inconceivable, unheard of in our modern psychology. It's just seen as religion, we throw it away as some kind of rubbish. We have no idea how astonishing it is, how sophisticated, how brilliant, and anyone if they worked hard could do it.

It's all there, coming from these amazing Hindus thousands of years ago before the Buddha, these geniuses who mapped the mind internally. It's so mind-blowing. By this point you've got renunciation, you're incredible, which means two parts - one you know what suffering is and you're sick of it, and two bullseye you know the causes, karma and delusions, as Lama Zopa says "you've got renunciation when just the thought of another moment of attachment is so disgusting, it's like being in a septic tank". That's way to go, that's pretty profound. How would you be so far - radiant, joyful, content, fulfilled, happy, you'd be an incredible human being by now.

Lawudo Trek, Nepal, 31st March 2019.

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