BUDDHISM > TEACHINGS: How to be happy by RIBUR RINPOCHE

Tushita Meditation Centre, 11 May 1992

This is a Buddhist centre that was founded by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe, and I think this place is very good because it provides an opportunity for those people who have faith and conviction in the BuddhaDharma, who want to learn more and listen to teachings with a pure motivation, to come here and listen to teachings given by different teachers. Also, people come up who simply have an interest and want to know more about what’s happening in Buddhadharma. And I think this is a very good service.
 They say Dharamsala and Mcleod Ganj used to be very empty and quiet, there was not much going on here at all. And then His Holiness the Dalai Lama came, and through his influence it has become some kind of big village. And although there are no great facilities here for people, it has become very famous in the world, and through that many people come to see this place and get together,  and I think also that is very good. Since His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been in residence here, it has served to bring many people here to see him and do pilgrimage. But actually this place doesn’t have much, just big hills where you have to keep walking up and down, and no real facilities, so it’s not that there is some kind of attraction here. 

Many of you are Westerners and you come from countries where you are happy, but for some reason you want to travel and see other things. So you come here, and you see this very poor land of India, and you get the chance to see other conditions. While you are here you can examine and enjoy what’s here, and when you go back to your own countries you can remember and compare your country to what you have experienced, and you can see how you could be happy in your own countries. It’s helpful to the mind to go to places where the life is very poor and there are great hardships, so that when you go back to your own countries where you have better facilities, you can see that those are very fortunate places. Also it’s very good and helpful for those who have a sincere interest in learning about the Buddhadharma or in trying to practise some form of spirituality, that you have a chance to meet this tradition. 

There is a quote that expresses the following: “Because of our confusion we often mistake what is rare and precious for that which is common and worthless.” We may have wealth and material resources, but these are not reliable because they may be lost or stolen. But if we have the jewel of the mind, the inner resource of our experience, we can easily carry it anywhere, whether we walk up and down mountains or visit other countries, because it’s not heavy like the luggage or material resources that weigh us down. If we have this inner jewel, it’s always with us, it’s truly precious, and doesn’t bring us any hardship. I’m telling you this from my own experience.

When I was in Tibet, the Chinese put me in prison for many years. When you enter the prison, they search you for any money or special clothes or watches or any other goods, and if you have any wealth it is lost as soon as you enter the prison. Once you’re inside you have no material goods, but only yourself to worry about. But as the quote makes clear, actually the best situation is when you simply have no material goods to worry about or to protect. In that sense, in my experience, I found that when I had nothing I also had no anxiety about losing anything. At that time I had nothing but myself. 

So for beginners, they should concentrate on developing the ‘uncommon feeling’ for the three points, namely: the wish definitely to emerge from samsara and its suffering; secondly, to generate the mind of great compassion, or bodhicitta; and thirdly, to understand the correct view of reality. These three points constitute the foundation, and one should think about them again and again and cultivate a genuine feeling for them until they become almost one with your mind. Then, with that as the foundation, one can climb the staircase to tantra and beyond.

During the 11th  Century, when the great Indian master Atisha came to Tibet, there was a famous king in a region of Tibet called Ngari, whose name was Jangchub O. He requested Atisha: “Please, please do not teach me anything that is too deep or profound! Just show me how to practise in relation to Karmic cause and effect, the law of actions and their results.” So Atisha responded by composing a text called, The Lamp Illuminating The Path To Enlightenment, which serves as the source for all other Lam Rim texts which have come down to us in the present. Thus, the sign of a good student is one who understands what is appropriate to request from the teacher because he knows what level he is at. If this king, Jangchub O, had asked Atisha: “Please give me initiations! Please give me permissions for tantric rituals!” Then we would not now refer to him as The Noble Disciple, which is his title according to historical tradition.

Here at Tushita, the policy is that they ask lamas and teachers to come here and teach Lam Rim, the fundamental stages on the path to enlightenment. This is very appropriate and very good. When one is a beginner, the most important thing is to practise bringing about a fundamental transformation of your mind, and the best tool for this is Lam Rim. Of course, for those who want to receive initiations and tantric permission rituals, and so on, if your mind is prepared then that’s fine and one can put imprints of meditational deities into your mind. But if you can practise Lam Rim and really bring about a fundamental change in your mind, then that is best for beginners. What is this fundamental change? It means transforming ignorant minds into knowledgeable ones. Thus, the essence of the teaching of the Buddha is to bring about a change in our deluded minds and convert them into a state of knowing. If we can bring about this change, then this is the cause of happiness and peace. The essential teachings of the Buddha in this regard seem to me to be unique, and I don’t know if this essential advice can be found in any other tradition.  All human beings are equal in that everyone wants happiness and no-one desires suffering. We are all trying to achieve happy states of mind and avoid disturbing ones. How can we achieve this? Each individual must use the power of his or her thoughts to bring about a change in the quality of those thoughts. This is the only means to bring about happiness. No one can give you peace as they might give you a present, and laws and regulations can’t make you happy or force you to be content. So whether you’re a man or a woman, ordained or a lay-person, young or old, rich or poor, whether you have a high or a low position in society, or whether you’re a Dharma practitioner or have no interest in religion, whoever you are you want to find happiness, and whether or not you succeed will depend entirely upon the quality of your thoughts and the states of consciousness you experience. Happy states of mind bring joy. Unhappy ones bring suffering. So regardless of whether you have beautiful clothes and ornaments, or delicious food, or even if you go to a beautiful meadow with lots of flowers amidst beautiful scenery, with plenty of friends and servants and so on, if your mind is not happy then you won’t be able to enjoy any of them. On the other hand, as I found in prison, even if you have nothing, no beautiful clothes, no delicious food, and nowhere nice to go walking, still, if your mind is happy inside, then you are happy and you experience joy. So the cause of our happiness is the quality of our thoughts  and our states of mind. The ultimate cause of unhappiness is not understanding the way that things really exist. If people can practise the Dharma to bring about happy states of mind then that is best. If you keep your mind peaceful and happy then this will continuously reinforce your experience of peace and joy.  Regardless of future lives and what happens in the future, just in relation to this life we want happiness, and this depends on replacing the ignorance in our minds with awareness, in the context of relaxed, happy states of mind. 

However, not all beings are the same, so it’s the responsibility of each of us to examine our own states of mind, qualities and attributes. Once you understand your own nature then you can see how to develop happy states of mind. For instance, the influence of greed and attachment, lust for one another’s bodies, or houses, or other material things, brings about disturbances in the mind that destroy our happiness. Also, people under the influence of anger or hatred and spite completely destroy their own inner peace. For others it’s jealousy, or resentment, or miserliness, not wanting to share what you have. So each person must look to see what particular quality they have to work on. For example, people without much power, money or status suffer from thinking they must get some, and those who already have some are always yearning for more and more and more. For people like this, the most important thing is to learn the meaning of what it is to be satisfied or content. 

When we were born from our mother’s womb we were naked and helpless without possessing anything at all, weren’t we? So remember this, and consider that all positive things we’ve gained since then, all the things we have, all the kindness we’ve met with, have arisen due to the Three Jewels, the qualities of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, as well as due to our specific positive actions in past lives. This is the result we are experiencing. If we think like this then we should be content with what we have. If we want a future life with even better conditions, both physical and mental, then we should try to gain spiritual momentum now by engaging in virtuous activity. But that’s for the future. With regard to what we have now, we should simply feel content. Simply being content brings about peace. Isn’t it like that? Isn’t it? Western friends, it seems to me that you are a little poor in this matter of developing peaceful states of mind. 

Last year I went to Italy where I met many people and made a lot of friends. When I was there I visited the home of one family that I was told was neither very rich nor very poor, but just in the middle. And when I saw their house, and the kitchen and the bathroom and so on, I was amazed at how clean and beautiful everything was! The wealth and standard of living of those people seemed incredible, even though by Italian standards these people were just average. So I thought how lucky Western people are that their external circumstances are so good. But then the more time I spent in the West, and the more friends I made there, I started to realise that internally the people there had lots of problems. In fact, every time someone came to see me, he or she always had some problem or some unhappy story to tell. I think that if you can combine a beautiful external environment with internal states of peace and happiness, then that would be best.  Now in the West there’s an incredible state of material development, while in the East, except for in Japan and one or two other places, it’s still fairly poor, for instance in India or China or Nepal. 

In Tibet, at the time of the 33rd king, Songtsen Gampo, in the 7th or 8th Century, laws were instituted forbidding people to engage in the ten non-virtuous actions, and since then, thanks to the teachings of the Lam Rim and many lamas, the Tibetan people have continuously had Dharma teachings poured into their ears. So due to this the Tibetan people have developed peaceful states of mind, even though externally there has been virtually no material development in Tibet over the last 1,000 years. Still, internally the people have received great benefit. (Of course, it’s got worse recently due to the Chinese occupation, but otherwise in all that time Tibet has been a peaceful place).

When I was in Italy I visited Venice, which was built 700 years ago on a lagoon. It is an amazingly beautiful city. Then I thought: “What have the Tibetans done over the last 700 years? Externally nothing! But we did invite Atisha to Tibet from India and then Dromtonpa carried on his lineage, and then we had the great enlightened translator Marpa, who many times visited India to retrieve precious texts and practices of spiritual traditions, and then we had Milarepa, and many other spiritual beings. Through their kindness we’ve developed the practices in Tibet to bring about internal development and maintained them. This is what  we’ve done over the last 700 years. So whilst the Venetians were creating this beautiful masterpiece of a city resting on the water, we, at the same time had the great Tibetan yogi, Milarepa, who, through the power of his spiritual practice, was able to fly through the air!” That is how it is! 

Q. Can Rinpoche recommend any text on thought transformation?

A. Yes. The text that has been taught here over the past ten days, called the Seven Point Training on Thought Transformation by Geshe Chekawa. That’s a very good text. It’s very brief but it contains all the major points. It is translated into English and can be found in Advice To A Spiritual Friend by Geshe Rabten. The first few lines deal with the nature of reality, or emptiness, and if you find this too difficult to comprehend don’t just completely discard it, but put it aside till later.

Q. We’ve been doing quite a lot of meditation on such topics as ‘Death is definite’, ‘the Time of death is uncertain’, ‘Unfortunate rebirth’ and so on, how can we maintain a relaxed state of mind in the face of those kinds of teachings?

A. First of all, don’t worry! Beginners often experience strange thoughts arising in their minds and some anxiety, but it’s nothing to worry about. If you think about it, you have to die anyway. That’s definite. Whether you analyse it or not, you still have to die. Secondly, when you’re going to die is uncertain. It could be when you’re old like me, or when you’re young, or in between. This is clear without analysis too. It’s only if you think about past and future lives that you begin to wonder, where will I be reborn? Then you can start thinking about the death process. 

In the Buddha’s teachings the time of death is very important. So that if you keep practising this thought transformation, when the time comes to die, just as you’ve been doing it your whole life, you just keep doing it right through the death process. Also, if you cultivate these practises now, then at the time of death you will experience no regret and no anxiety. There’s a saying that, “Going to your death is like returning to your parents’ home.” It’s nothing but joy, going home to see your parents. It’s like going back home, back to your original state.

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