Landscape of Dharma:
An Overview of Buddhism and
An Appreciation of Our Tradition
By Lama Surya Das
(Bag3)
Root of the Bodhi Tree: The Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path
Despite the incredible variety of scriptures, practices, languages, cultures, and approaches, we find at the core of all the traditions of Buddhism the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. As the Dalai Lama said, �There is no Buddhism without the Four Noble Truths. If you want to know Buddhism, you must know the Four Noble Truths.� These are the basic teachings of Buddhism, the
Buddha�s own teachings, which comprise the fundamentals of all the schools. If you keep them in mind, you can begin to understand the essence of the various forms of Buddhism found in different countries-- Tibetan, Japanese, Burmese, Thai, and so on. Wherever you go, and whatever you study, you�ll find these vital teachings and principles as the backbone of Buddhist training, no matter how different the forms and approaches. This is laid out in the Table of Contents of my book Awakening the Buddha Within.
The Four Noble Truths are the facts of life from a Buddhist perspective. The first truth is called dukkha or dissatisfactoriness: it states that unenlightened life is difficult, unsatisfying, and fraught with struggle and anxiety. The second truth states the cause of dukkha, which is craving-attachment, stemming from ignorance into the nature of reality. These first two
are known collectively in Tibetan Buddhism as the �Truths to be known;� the third and fourth truths are known collectively as the Truths to be practiced, experienced, and realized. The third truth is that the cessation of dukkha is possible, and this end is liberation, nirvana or enlightenment--bliss and inner freedom. Finally, the fourth truth is the path to the cessation of dukkha--the Noble Eightfold Path, which forms the backbone of the entire way of awakening.
The Eightfold Path is to be practiced though the Three Trainings of ethics training (sila); meditation and mindfulness training, (samadhi); and wisdom and love training (prajna). These three trainings are the tripod-like base that supports all the Buddhist practices on the path of enlightened living.
Ethics training, or sila (literally:
�cooling�) includes self-discipline, morality, virtue, unselfishness, service, and so on. Mindfulness training includes the intentional cultivation of self-observation and awareness, training the attention and concentration, presence of mind, and meditation training. The third training, prajna, means wisdom, discrimination, and discernment. I like to say wisdom (truth) and love, for completeness� sake, since truth and love, or wisdom and compassion, are inseparable. So sila, samadhi and prajna are the three fundamental ways we train and develop ourselves on the spiritual path. The Three Trainings are actually put into practice through the Eightfold Path.
Wisdom Training is broken out into the first and second practices of the Eightfold Path: (1)Wise View: seeing things as they are, not as they ain�t, and (2)Wise Intentions, including unselfishness and the like. Ethics Training
consists of the next three: (3)Wise Speech, (4)Wise Action, and (5)Wise Livelihood or wise vocation-making a life, not just a living. Meditation Training is broken out into the practices of (6)Wise Effort, which means appropriate and balanced effort rather than compulsive drive, workaholism or spiritual materialism; (7)Wise Attention, or mindfulness and presence of mind; and (8)Wise Concentration, or focus. This is the entire Eightfold Path, laid out for practice and training. This is the path to enlightenment, according to Buddhism.
Different Emphases, Many Practices
The Buddhist traditions have developed different emphases and means to practice these most fundamental teachings. The Theravada relies upon the original sutras, in which we find ways of cultivating our spiritual nature and purifying
and transforming ourselves and our lives. The emphasis is mostly on renouncing samsara, realizing the defects and the limits of unenlightened worldly life-that it is unsatisfying and unfulfilling in the long run. The teaching is practicing the path that leads us from here, in samsara, to there, nirvana. It�s a dualistic, developmental path, leading over the course of many lifetimes from here in samsara to the so-called �other shore� of nirvana. The path is seen as like a bridge across troubled waters, to a nirvanic paradise, like a raft that can carry us across the dangerous, boiling ocean of samsara to the tranquil, safe, and serene continent of nirvana.
Practices center on renunciation and simplicity, quieting and concentrating the mind, and cultivating virtue and contentment. One practice is that of the Four Immeasurables or Four Boundless (�Brahma Viharas�), which is a
way of contemplatively cultivating lovingkindness and compassion, love, joy, forgiveness, and detachment, and opening up our good heart and nobility of mind. In terms of self-discipline, we find the Five Training Precepts or basic lay vows (refraining from killing, lying, stealing, sexual misconduct and intoxication); the Eight Precepts; the Thirty-five Precepts for novice monastics, and the 253 vows for fully ordained monks and 364 vows for fully ordained nuns.
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The core of the Mahayana approach is the Bodhisattva vow, the wish for universal liberation, and the cultivation of Bodhicitta, the awakened Buddhist heart, which my own master Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche always called �the luminous heart of the Dharma.� The emphasis is very much on compassion and service, helping others while awakening ourselves through the practice of
the Six Perfections or Six Transcendental Virtues (Paramitas). The Mahayana teaches the inseparability of samsara and nirvana-or S and N, as I like to call it just to keep things light. This implies that nirvana is found within samsara--that peace and freedom, or enlightenment, is available and accessible here and now, not just elsewhere or in another lifetime. This was a radical development of Buddhist thought and practice, which arose several centuries after the Buddha�s time.
Mahayana spiritual life is based on the Three Trainings of the Eightfold Path, and further developed through the Six Perfections, the living principles practiced by the Bodhisattva, the awakening spiritual being. These Six Perfections are six transcendental virtues: generosity (dana paramita); ethics (sila paramita); patience and forbearance (kshanti paramita); effort, diligence, and courage (virya
paramita); meditation and mindfulness (dhyana paramita); and wisdom and discernment (prajna paramita). These are the main practice of the Bodhisattvas, the code of the awakening spiritual seeker.
The Mahayana preserves and upholds the monastic and lay vows, but the main emphasis is on the Bodhisattva vows. There are eighteen Bodhisattva vows, the main vow being selflessness or unselfishness, including the aspirational vow to awaken oneself in order ultimately to effect the awakening of all.
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Vajrayana is the path of skillful means, which is why it is called the �Sangak Dorje Tekpa� or �Secret Mantra Vajrayana.� Vajrayana is the resultant vehicle, which reveals that Buddha nature (tathagatagarbha) is innate and can be heard from and
utilized through practices of purification and invocation and evocation. Central practices include ngondro (foundational practices); guru yoga; empowerment, transmission, and pith instructions; kye-rim and dzog-rim visualization; the Six Yogas; Mahamudra; and many more. Vajrayana utilizes many powerful means for dismantling delusion, and it is considered both risky and extraordinarily effective and fast. It�s much less risky to be a virtuous monk avoiding the seamier sides of life and practicing mindfulness than it is to be a non-dual Tantric practitioner risking passionate practices that might propel us to enlightenment yet also might distract us while we�re trying to integrate everything into the path. This is one reason a teacher is considered important in the Vajrayana: to help guide us through the risks and facilitate swift spiritual progress.
In the Theravada, enlightenment is seen as
a process over many lifetimes, through the Four Stages of Awakening, stream-enterer and so on, up to Arhat. Likewise in the Mahayana, where the practitioner progresses through the Ten Bhumis (Levels) of the Bodhisattva to reach full Buddhahood. In the Vajrayana, the promise is to reach siddhi-spiritual power and ability far beyond that of mortal men and women-in one lifetime. That�s the promise of the Vajrayana: Enlightenment in one lifetime. Tantrayana or Vajrayana is said by Tibetans to be like a rocket ship, not just an ordinary earthly conveyance. One can use the intense energies of tantric practice like rocket fuel propellant, which can drive one�s spiritual development if skillfully utilized, or can burn us up if mistakenly applied. Another image of tantra likens it to alchemy, in which poison can be used as medicine, as in inoculation-an extremely effective but tricky business.
The vows in the Vajrayana are the tantric samaya bonds. Tantric bonds and commitments bind us to reality, to truth, to the natural state� things just as they are. These do not lead us to the other shore, so that we might get there one day, or in the next life, in the Pure Lands, the Buddha-fields, or the heavens. The efficacy of the path depends upon a radical dissembling of our illusions and projections, which is accomplished through the force of tantric samaya, especially that which binds together guru and disciple through many lifetimes.
Tantric samaya bind us to pure vision, to sacred vision, seeing the Buddha in everyone and everything right now. Sacred outlook or sacramental vision, which entirely transforms our perception of things, is one of the main practices of the Vajrayana. It swiftly helps us to perceive everything as part of the radiant, luminous
mandala (holograph) of completeness, wholeness, oneness. Keeping your samaya is extraordinarily profound, powerful, and efficacious. This is where initiations, guru yoga, pure vision, and faith and devotion come into play as skillful means.
Tantric samaya is not well understood among Western Buddhists, I feel, although it is one of the cornerstones of Tibetan Buddhism and plays a significant role in Vajrayana practice. It is traditionally taught that in order to be able to undertake tantric practices one needs the transmission of �wang�, �lhung� and �trid�-empowerment, oral transmission, and instructions; and furthermore, one needs the transmission of �gyud�, �lhung� and �mengak�-tantra, authorization/energy transmission, and oral pith-instructions. When people participate in an initiation or empowerment ceremony with a lama, they are committing themselves to
certain tantric samaya, such as practicing the sadhana (tantric meditation) daily, reciting the mantra a certain number of times, committing themselves to that lama as a teacher, and so forth.
These commitments vary depending on the lama and particular empowerment, and they should not be undertaken lightly. My late teacher Urgyen Tulku Rinpoche used to joke that people today are receiving so many empowerments with blessed ritual objects being placed upon their heads that their heads were getting flat!
Tantric samaya include many subtle levels of commitment, including practicing pure perception and sacred outlook, which involves learning to see everything and everyone as like deities in mandalas or Buddhas in perfect Buddhiverses, not in the ordinary way we usually perceive people and things in our quotidian world.
This is an advanced Vajrayana practice, which includes seeing your guru and vajra master as a perfect Buddha, as well as seeing our spiritual brothers and sisters in a similar light. This helps transform our experience of both the world and ourselves. We learn to look into the mirror of emptiness, and see Buddha there.
Other tantric samaya include practicing non-discrimination and non-judging. One way in which these principles are expressed is in the vow not to look down on and disparage other religions. Another samaya is not to look down on women, which is remarkable since this precept dates back to ancient times, not just to the last hundred years and the arising of the Women�s Movement.
The holy siddha Tilopa, the crazed Bengali riverbank yogi of old, sang, �He who keeps tantric vows, yet discriminates,
betrays the spirit of samaya vow.� So if you think there�s clean and unclean, as many of us do, then that betrays the spirit of samaya, of non-discrimination, of pure perception/sacred outlook. (Bersambung)
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