05. Week 1 - Teaching 3

At this point we can first think about enlightenment, what it is, how we can achieve it, and why we need to achieve it. Through gaining this basic knowledge we will understand the importance of relying upon the SG. Otherwise if we just tell people to rely upon a SG without this understanding it may be difficult for them to accept.

What is enlightenment? Enlightenment is not external light. It is inner light. The nature of omniscient wisdom.

Our ignorance is an inner darkness that obscures our understanding of the ultimate truth of phenomena or reality. Because this inner darkness is so powerful, where we live, our enjoyments, food, drink, clothes, friends, and all other objects and necessary conditions as well as our bodies and minds are polluted by this inner darkness. Because of this inner darkness of ignorance, all our environments, enjoyments, body, and mind are contaminated phenomena and their nature is impurity and suffering. If we engage in spiritual paths such as those mentioned Lamrim teachings, such as in the New Meditation Handbook, we can destroy this inner darkness of ignorance. The New Meditation Handbook lists 21 very practical meditations. The 21 realisations of these meditations are the spiritual paths to enlightenment. By engaging in these spiritual paths we will gain a good heart such as great compassion and bodhichitta and we will definitely gain the wisdom that realises ultimate truth directly. By further improving these 2 - the good heart or bodhichitta and wisdom realising emptiness eventually our inner darkness will completely disappear together with its imprints.

Nothing will be left except the inner light of omniscient wisdom. Our mind and body will become inner light, the nature of omniscient wisdom and great bliss. Our environment, enjoyments and everything we perceive will become inner light, the nature of omniscient wisdom and great bliss. We will experience only wisdom and bliss. This is enlightenment. This is our ultimate happiness. When we attain enlightenment we will experience wisdom and bliss in life after life without ceasing. When by completely developing great compassion and wisdom realising emptiness we destroy the inner darkness of ignorance together with its imprints, all contaminated environments, enjoyments, bodies and minds will also disappear like a candle flame being extinguished. What is left is only the inner wisdom light of bliss. Everything is bliss. When we experience this life after life, this is enlightenment. This is our ultimate happiness.

How is it possible to achieve such an attainment? This is very easy to understand. Generally every living being including animals and even the tiniest insect have the seed of enlightenment which is called Buddha nature.

As human beings we have an ability to attain enlightenment because we have the opportunity to understand, contemplate, and meditate upon and practise the SOTPTE. By progressing successfully on the spiritual path we can achieve the highest goal, the ultimate happiness of full enlightenment. Just like Gyalwa Ensapa and many of JT’s disciples did. Many thousands of JT’s disciples attained the illusory body by practising JT’s Tantric teachings. If we attain the illusory body now, then definitely we will achieve enlightenment in this life. If many thousands of JT’s disciples attained full enlightenment, why can we not also attain it?

Why do we need to attain enlightenment? Many people think, ‘I don’t need enlightenment, I just need more money, good friends, a good job…if I have these things I will be OK.’ This is very common. In reality even if we have money we will still suffer, experience continual dissatisfaction. If we have a good friend we will still suffer. If we have a good job our suffering will never cease and finally we will be left with nothing. Therefore from our own point of view we need to attain enlightenment because within samsara we will never find true happiness but only suffering. All of us have the wish to improve ourself and become a higher being. We have no wish to remain an ordinary being. If someone praises us and says we’re higher, we are happy. If someone says we’re a lower being we become unhappy. Why? Because in our hearts we want to be a higher being. But in reality in samsara we will never find higher beings. Everything and everyone is ordinary. In samsara there are only suffering sentient beings so from the point of view of benefiting ourselves we need to attain enlightenment because we want to free ourself from suffering and problems. We also need to attain enlightenment from the point of view of benefiting others. Because so many mother living beings are continuously experiencing suffering in the prison of samsara. They have no opportunity to even hear the sound of Dharma and of course have no opportunity to practise Dharma. How sad. We need to help them. We need to develop a strong determination and intention is to help all living beings. The best way is to attain great enlightenment. When we do we will have the ability to help all living beings without exception. How? By blessing them, emanating in different forms, and giving teachings, advice, and so forth. When we attain enlightenment we can manifest countless emanations. Emanations is anything that is necessary to help living beings. We therefore need to attain enlightenment.

Animals and even beings in the god realms have no opportunity to achieve enlightenment. Only human beings can do this. This is our specific good fortune. Finding friends, good food etc is not the essence of human life as even animals can do this. The principal and actual meaning of human life is not to remain an ignorant being by advancing beyond this. Ignorance is an inner poison that we must try to remove from our minds. As long as this inner poison remains in our mind there will be nothing good inside and no possibility to experience true happiness.

Through making progress on the spiritual path we have the opportunity to remove this from our mind. When our mind is completely purified of this inner poison its nature becomes enlightenment. When we attain enlightenment there will be no impurities in our body and mind, because ignorance, the root of impurities will be removed. There will be no suffering, ageing, sickness, or death, and no mental faults. All will have been purified, and we will become a completely pure being, the highest of all beings - an enlightened being. Fortunately we now have the opportunity to understand the teachings and technical methods of Mahayana Buddhism by studying books and receiving teachings. We are also learning, not just learning and trying to understand intellectually. Therefore we can understand how important enlightenment through our own experience. How wonderful.

I cannot guarantee that you will achieve this immediately but if you try without stopping with faith, you will definitely gain experience. You can then continually carry this experience into future lives as other practitioners have done previously. By controlling their death and rebirth they were in a better position in their next life. Even if you cannot achieve enlightenment in this life, you can improve your position in this life and make it higher in every life. Otherwise you will lose this opportunity and go lower and lower. Having understood how necessary it is to achieve enlightenment, we should follow Atisha’s advice on how to achieve enlightenment.

"Friends, until you attain enlightenment, the Spiritual Teacher is indispensable; therefore rely upon the holy Spiritual Guide."

This is important throughout our practice - at the beginning, throughout, and at the end of our practice. By relying upon a qualified spiritual teacher, he or she will lead us on the correct spiritual path and we will attain perfect Dharma knowledge and understanding. Through reading alone we may be able to understand some parts of the Dharma, but our understanding will not be perfect and we will misunderstand many things. Without relying upon our SG we will never gain perfect Dharma knowledge and realisations. Also our understanding will not work very well because we will lack blessings from holy beings. When we study Dharma we need blessings. Studying Dharma is like sowing seeds, blessings are like water, and perfect understanding and experience of Dharma are like crops. If we lack the blessings of holy beings, even if we sow the seeds of Dharma in our mind they will never grow. Our understanding of Dharma will be like dry seeds from which good results will not grow. Our understanding will remain only intellectual and may cause pride, anger, and other delusions to arise. Sometimes intellectual understanding by itself cause more difficulties.

How do we receive blessings? We cannot receive them directly from Buddhas and Bodhisattvas because we cannot communicate with them. We need someone in between to work for us. This is our spiritual teacher. We receive blessings from holy beings through our spiritual teacher.

When we develop strong faith in our SG then all the Buddhas from the 10 directions enter into our SG’s body and we receive their blessings and power through out SG.

We need to rely upon our SG and receive blessings until we achieve enlightenment. This is because we improve our realisations only through meditation together with receiving blessings.

Atisha is giving very good advice. When we have attained advanced spiritual realisations we still need to receive the blessing of our SG because we need to attain enlightenment and it’s only by receiving blessings from our SG and practising continually that we can make progress until we attain the final goal - enlightenment.

Because we have no opportunity to see directly enlightened beings, our SG is acting exactly as the same function as enlightened beings, Buddhas. So Atisha advises, “Therefore listen to the instructions of the SG.” Until our understanding of emptiness, ultimate truth, emptiness of persons and all phenomena. Normally in texts it says selflessness of persons and selflessness of phenomena. This means emptiness of persons - ourself and living beings, and the emptiness of phenomena - means the emptiness of other phenomena. Until our understanding of ultimate truth is qualified we need principally to listen to, read, and contemplate the instructions of our SG.

This instruction is not only for the instruction on emptiness, it is for any kind of pure Dharma. This will prevent us from becoming extreme. To prevent the faults of extremes, we need to read, listen to, or contemplate the instructions of our SG.

For example, if through a superficial understanding that all the things we normally see do not exist we believe that everything is nothingness and deny all existent things we are falling into extreme - the extreme of non-existence, so everything does not exist. On the other hand if we see existent things with our eyes we believe that the things we normally see are actually existent we will fall into the extreme of existence. Because teachers in books say that the things we normally see do not exist then we believe that everything is nothingness. There is no body, there is no I, there is nothing. We deny everything. There is no virtue, there is no non-virtue. There is no liberation, there is no samsara. We deny all these things so we fall into the extreme of non-existence. We are exaggerating. In reality we are negating things that we normally see but we negate everything so it is nothingness. This is extreme. On the other hand we see things with our eyes, e.g. car - because of this we think that car that we normally see exists. This again is extreme - the extreme of existence.

To be free from these 2 extremes we can listen to teachings, read authentic books, and contemplate the instructions of our spiritual teachers, so we will be free from extremes.

So you need a lot of contemplation and to think carefully. It is not easy to understand. If through seeing things with our eyes we believe the things we normally see are actually existent (this is everyone) we will fall into the extreme of existence. So it seems that normally everyone has this extreme. Because we see directly. Of course things exist. Of course. We have to say things exist - house, car, you, I exist. Of course. But our way of seeing is not correct.

When our understanding of emptiness is qualified through seeing things with our eyes we will simultaneously remember that the things we normally see do not actually exist. If our understanding of emptiness is not qualified, then we have this extreme problem.

If we understand emptiness correctly, seeing things will our eyes will help us to remember that the things we normally see do not exist. This is like when we poke our eye we see 2 moons in the sky. When seeing 2 moons we simultaneously remember there are not 2 moons. It helps. Seeing 2 moons helps us to remember that there are not 2 moons. Because we already know that there are not 2 moons.

This means our understanding of emptiness is qualified. We understand dependent-related things correctly. We see things as mere name, as mere imputation, but we understand things we normally see do not exist. Also when through realising that the things we normally see do not exist, we will simultaneously remember things actually exist as mere name. When we see things actually exist as mere name, then we understand dependent-related things correctly. Then our understanding of emptiness is qualified. When we develop and maintain such wisdom we have completed our analysis of emptiness.

“This is the real meaning of you meeting Geshe Kelsang”.