Chapter1 - Introduction

Desire

To solve our human problems and enable us to find everlasting  peace  and  happiness,  Buddha  gave  the  most  pro- found  teachings  for  us  to  use  as  practical  advice.  His teachings  are  known  as  ‘Dharma’,  which  means  supreme protection from suffering. Dharma is the actual method to solve  our  human  problems.  To  understand  this,  first  we should consider what is the real nature of our problems and what are their main causes.

Our  problems  do  not  exist  outside  our  mind.  The  real nature  of  our  problems  is  our  unpleasant  feelings,  which are part of our mind. When our car, for example, has a problem, we often say, ‘I have a problem’, but in reality it is not our problem but the car ’s problem. Our problems develop only  when  we  experience  unpleasant  feelings.  The  car ’s problems exist outside the mind, whereas our problems are inside  our  mind.  By  differentiating  between  animate  and inanimate  problems  like  this,  we  can  understand  that  the real nature of our problems is our own feelings, which are part of our mind.

All our problems – our unpleasant feelings – come from our  delusions  of attachment  and  self-grasping  ignorance, therefore these delusions are the main causes of our prob- lems.  We  have  strong  attachment  to  the  fulfilment  of  our own wishes and for this aim we work very hard throughout our   life,   experiencing   many difficulties   and   problems. When our wishes are not fulfilled we experience unhappiness  and  depression,  which  often  causes  us  to  become angry, creating more problems for both ourself and others. We  can  understand  this  clearly  through  our  own  experience.  When  we  lose  our  friends,  job,  status,  or  reputation and so forth, we experience pain and many difficulties. This is  because  of  our  strong  attachment  to  these  things.  If  we had no such attachment, there would be no basis for experiencing suffering and problems at their loss.

Due to strong attachment to our own views, we immediately  experience  the  inner  problem  of  unpleasant  feelings when  someone  opposes  them.  This  causes  us  to  become angry, which leads to arguments and conflicts with others, and this in turn gives rise to further problems. Most political problems experienced throughout the world are caused by people with strong attachment to their own views. Many problems  are  also  caused  by  people’s  attachment  to  their religious views.

In previous lives, because of our attachment to fulfilling our own wishes we performed many different actions that harmed other living beings. As a result of these actions, we now experience many different problems and sufferings in our life.

If we look in the mirror of Dharma, we can see how our attachment,  anger,  and  especially  our  self-grasping  ignorance are the causes of all our problems and sufferings. We shall  definitely  realize  that  unless  we  control  these  delu- sions  there  is  no  other  method  to  solve  our  human  problems. Dharma is the only method to control our delusions of attachment, anger, and self-grasping ignorance. This is why we  can  say  that  Buddha’s  teachings,  Dharma,  is  the  only method  to  solve  our  human  problems.  Ancient  Kadampa practitioners  and  many practitioners  of  today  understand this through their own experience; they are witnesses to this truth.   Buddha’s   teachings   are   the   supreme   scientific method  to  solve  human  problems.  If  we  sincerely  put  his teachings into practice, we shall definitely solve our human problems and find the real meaning of our life.

Suffering

In Sutra of the Four Noble Truths, Buddha says:

    You should know sufferings.

    You should abandon origins.

    You should attain cessations.

    You should practise the path.

These  instructions  are  known  as  the  ‘four  noble  truths’. They are called ‘noble truths’ because they are superior and non-deceptive instructions.

In  general,  everyone  who  has  physical  or  mental  pain, even  animals,  understands  their  own  suffering.  But  when Buddha says, ‘You should know sufferings’, he means that we should know the sufferings of our future lives. Through knowing these, we shall develop a strong wish to liberate ourself  from  them.  This  practical  advice  is  important  for everybody because, if we have the wish to liberate ourself from the sufferings of future lives, we shall definitely use our  present  human  life  for  the  freedom  and happiness  of our countless future lives. There is no greater meaning than this.

If we do not have this wish, we shall waste our precious human life only for the freedom and happiness of this one short life. This would be foolish because our intention and actions would be no different from the intention and actions of animals who are only concerned with this life alone. The Great  Yogi  Milarepa  once  said  to  a  hunter  called  Gonpo Dorje:

    Your body is human but your mind is that of an animal.
    You, a human being, who possess an animal’s mind, please listen to my song.

Normally we believe that solving the problems and sufferings of our present life is most important, and we dedi- cate our whole life for this purpose. In reality, the duration of the problems and sufferings of this life is very short; if we die tomorrow, they will end tomorrow. However, since the duration  of  the  problems  and  sufferings  of  future  lives  is endless,  the  freedom  and  happiness  of  our  future  lives  is vastly more important than the freedom and happiness of this  one  short  life.  With  the  first  noble  truth,  Buddha encourages us to use our present human life to prepare for the  freedom  and  happiness  of  our  countless  future  lives. Those who do this are truly wise.

A detailed explanation to help us understand future lives can be found in Appendices I and II.

Origins

    ‘You should abandon origins.’

This is also very practical advice. ‘Origins’ refers mainly to our delusions of attachment, anger, and self-grasping ignor- ance. Normally we have a sincere wish to avoid suffering permanently, but we never think to abandon our delusions. However,  without  controlling  and  abandoning  our  delu- sions,  it  is  impossible  to  attain  permanent  liberation  from suffering and problems. Therefore, we should follow Buddha’s advice  and,  through  our  concentration  on  the  profound meaning  of  Dharma  and  the  force  of  our  determination, emphasize  controlling  our  attachment,  anger,  and  other delusions.

Delusions are called ‘origins’ because they are the source of all sufferings and the main cause of all our problems. We have already seen how attachment is one of the main causes of our problems, and the problems caused by anger will be explained in Part Two. The following brief explanation will show how our self-grasping is the principal cause of all our problems.

First   we   should   recognize   our   self–grasping,   which always abides at our heart destroying our inner peace. Its nature   is   a   wrong   awareness   that   mistakenly   believes ourself and others to be truly, or inherently, existent. This is an  ignorant  mind  because  in  reality  things  do  not  exist inherently  –  they  exist  as  mere  imputations.  Because  the foolish  mind  of  self-grasping  believes  or  grasps  at  ‘I’,
‘mine’,  and  all  other  phenomena  as  truly  existent,  we develop attachment to those things we like and hatred for those we do not like. We then perform various actions that harm other living beings and, as a result, we experience var- ious sufferings and problems throughout this life and in life after life; this is the fundamental reason why we experience so  many  problems.  Because  our  sense  of  truly  existent  ‘I’ and  ‘mine’  is  so  strong,  our  self-grasping  also  acts  as  the basis of all our daily problems.

Self-grasping  can  be  likened  to  a  poisonous  tree,  other delusions to its branches, and all our sufferings to its fruits;
it is the fundamental source of all other delusions and all our sufferings and problems. Understanding this, we should apply great effort to recognize, reduce, and finally abandon this ignorance completely.

Cessations

    ‘You should attain cessations.’

This means that we should attain the permanent cessation of   suffering.   Generally,   from   time   to   time,   everybody experiences a temporary cessation of particular sufferings. For  instance  those  who  are  physically  healthy  are  experi- encing a temporary cessation of sickness. However, this is not  enough  because  it  is  only  temporary.  Later  they  will have  to  experience  the  suffering  of  sickness  again  and again, in this life and in countless future lives. Every living being without exception has to experience the cycle of the sufferings  of  sickness,  ageing,  death,  and  rebirth,  in  life after   life,   endlessly.   Following   Buddha’s   example,   we should develop strong renunciation for this endless cycle. When he was living in the palace with his family, Buddha saw how his people were constantly experiencing these suf- ferings  and  he  made  the  strong  determination  to  attain enlightenment, the permanent cessation of suffering, and to lead every living being to this state.

Buddha did not encourage us to abandon daily activities that provide necessary conditions for living, or that prevent poverty, environmental problems, particular diseases, and so forth. However, no matter how successful we are in these activities,  we  shall  never  achieve  permanent  cessation  of such problems. We shall still have to experience them in our countless  future  lives  and,  even  in  this  life,  although  we work very hard to prevent these problems, the sufferings of poverty, environmental pollution, and disease are increas- ing  throughout  the  world.  Furthermore,  because  of  the power  of  modern  technology  there  are  now  many  great dangers  developing  in  the  world  that  have  never  been experienced  before.  Therefore,  we  should  not  be  satisfied with just temporary freedom from particular sufferings, but apply  great  effort  to  attain  permanent  freedom  while  we have this opportunity.

We should consider the preciousness of our human life. Because  of  their  previous  deluded  views  that  denied  the value of spiritual practice, those who have taken rebirth as animals,  for  example,  have  no  opportunity  to  engage  in spiritual practice that alone gives rise to a meaningful life. Since it is impossible for them to listen to, understand, con- template, and meditate on spiritual instructions, their pres- ent animal rebirth itself is an obstacle. Only human beings are free from such obstacles and have all the necessary con- ditions for engaging in spiritual paths, which alone lead to everlasting peace and happiness. This combination of free- dom and possession of necessary conditions is the special characteristic that makes our human life so precious.

The Path

    ‘You should practise the path.’

In this context, ‘path’ does not mean an external path that leads from one place to another, but an inner path, a spirit- ual  path  that  leads  us  to  the  pure  happiness  of  liberation and enlightenment. A detailed explanation of the stages of the  path  to  liberation  and  enlightenment  can  be  found  in Transform Your Life, The New Meditation Handbook, and Joyful Path of Good Fortune.

The practice of the stages of the path to liberation can be condensed within the three trainings of higher moral disci- pline,  higher  concentration,  and  higher  wisdom.  These trainings are called ‘higher ’ because they are motivated by renunciation, a sincere wish to attain permanent liberation from  the  sufferings  of  this  life  and  future  lives.  They  are therefore  the  actual  path  to  liberation  that  we  need  to practise.

The nature of moral discipline is abandoning inappropri- ate  actions,  maintaining  pure  behaviour,  and  performing every  action  correctly  with  a  virtuous  motivation.  Moral discipline is most important for everybody in order to pre- vent future problems for oneself and for others. It makes us pure because it makes our actions pure. We need to be clean and pure ourself; just having a clean body is not enough, since our body is not our self. Moral discipline is like a great earth that supports and nurtures the crops of spiritual real- izations. Without practising moral discipline, it is very diffi- cult  to  make  progress  in  spiritual  trainings.  Training  in higher  moral  discipline  is  learning  to  be  deeply  familiar with   the   practice   of   moral   discipline,   motivated   by renunciation.

The second higher training is training in higher concen- tration.  The  nature  of  concentration  is  preventing  distrac- tions  and  concentrating  on  virtuous  objects.  It  is  very important to train in concentration, as with distractions we cannot accomplish anything. Training in higher concentra- tion is learning to be deeply familiar with the ability to stop distractions and concentrate on virtuous objects, motivated by renunciation. With regard to any Dharma practice, if our concentration  is  clear  and  strong,  it  is  very  easy  to  make progress.  Normally  our  main  problem  is  distractions.  The practice of moral discipline prevents gross distractions, and concentration  prevents  subtle  distractions;  together  they give rise to quick results in our Dharma practice.

The  third  higher  training  is  training  in  higher  wisdom. The nature of wisdom is a virtuous intelligent mind whose functions  are  to  dispel  confusion and to  understand  pro- found objects thoroughly. Many people are very intelligent in   destroying   their   enemies,   caring   for   their   families, finding  what  they  want,  and  so  forth,  but  this  is  not  wisdom. Even animals have such intelligence. Worldly intelli- gence is deceptive, whereas wisdom will never deceive us.

It is our inner Spiritual Guide who leads us to correct paths, and is the divine eye through which we can see past and future lives and the special connection between our actions and  our  experiences,  known  as  ‘karma’.  The  subject  of karma is very extensive and subtle, and we can understand it  only  through  wisdom.  Training  in  higher  wisdom  is meditating  on  wisdom  realizing  emptiness,  motivated  by renunciation.   This   wisdom   is   extremely   profound.   Its object, emptiness, is not nothingness but is the real nature of all phenomena. A detailed explanation of emptiness can be found in Transform Your Life.

The three higher trainings are the actual method to attain the permanent cessation of the sufferings of this life and of countless  future  lives.  This  can  be  understood  by  the  fol- lowing analogy. When we cut a tree using a saw, the saw alone  cannot  cut  the  tree  without  the  use  of  our  hands, which in turn depends upon our body. Training in higher moral discipline is like our body, training in higher concen- tration is like our hands, and training in higher wisdom is like the saw. By using these three together, we can cut the poisonous tree of our self-grasping ignorance, and automat- ically all other delusions – its branches – and all our suffer- ings and problems – its fruits – will cease completely. Then we shall have attained the permanent cessation of suffering in this life and future lives – the supreme permanent inner peace  known  as  ‘nirvana’,  or  liberation.  We  shall  have solved all our human problems and accomplished the real meaning of our life.

The four noble truths can be understood and practised on many  different  levels.  Directly  or  indirectly,  all  Dharma practices are included within the practice of the four noble truths. Through the above instructions we can understand in general how to practise them. We should also understand how to practise them with regard to particular sufferings, origins, cessations, and paths; for example, the suffering of anger, its origin (which is anger itself), its cessation (the true cessation of the suffering of anger), and the path that is the practice of patience. This will be explained in Part Two.