Advanced Training Course
La Sapienza University - Rome
"Compassion: practices, applications and neuroscience".
Friday, September 28, 2018
COMPASSION IN TIBETAN BUDDHISM
Geshe Lharampa Lama Gedun Tharchin
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TIBETAN BUDDHISM
Good afternoon everyone, it is a great honor for me to be here with you to present some Buddhist concepts on today's topic, compassion in its connection to medicine and psychology.
The definition of Buddhism is uniquely Western, in Sanskrit and Pali it just says -the teaching or realization of the Buddha-, there is no codification that suggests a structured religion or ideological current.
The Buddha has not invented a new religion, but starting from the Indian culture has deepened, elaborated, renewed every aspect reaching an enrichment and an even clearer vision included in his thesis presentation of the "Four Noble Truths" of the philosophical concepts, Samsara Karma Nirvana and Dharma, already existing in the ancient Vedanta doctrine.
The term Buddhism should therefore be more correctly replaced with the three constituent concepts: "Buddha, Dharma, Sangha". Buddha is the enlightened one. Dharma is his teaching aimed to transform in the clear vision not only his own mind, but all the phenomena of the universe in which the single atom includes the whole and vice versa. These concepts have found confirmation today in quantum physics. In the Dharma we can therefore transform ourselves and the universe without separation, there is no division between the inner and outer worlds, in the end they are a single reality.
We should not think of the outer world as the things that appear to us concretely with the five senses, but it concerns every aspect, even the intangible, and it is what we perceive with wisdom, deep knowledge, inner transformation, so transforming our inner world, we automatically transform the outer reality.
In my doctoral thesis I have deepened the concepts of Abhidharmakośa, on the text of the great master Vasubhandu in which it deals with the analysis of all the phenomena of the universe, this fundamental text is divided into 75 chapters grouped into five parts. Vasubhandu's analytical knowledge was so great that in India he was considered the second Buddha. He described every phenomenon both material and intangible, both inner and outer.
I agreed on the structure of my thesis on the Abhidharmakośa with the Dalai Lama, who gave me the indication to deepen especially these topics: the first one was about karma, the second one was about Buddhist cosmology and the third one was about the mind and the mental factor, so my thesis was tripled compared to the initial project and, from the 200 pages planned, in the end it reached 600, but this work was really formative for me, a fundamental experience.
First of all I focused on karma in relation to the universe. Karma is an inner phenomenon and cosmology an outer phenomenon. So, as in the West the vision of the universe before Galileo Galilei was completely different, also in the Tibetan interpretation described in the Abhidharma there was the same conception and therefore the Dalai Lama suggested me to make a study in the light of current knowledge with the extrapolation of the essence of ancient cosmology to be interpreted in the correct vision of modern science.
To do this research I had to analyze in detail all the four schools of Buddhist philosophy, because it is a mistake to believe that Buddhism has a single point of observation of reality, each school highlights different aspects and it is therefore necessary to deepen and study carefully all the different philosophical currents, bearing in mind that there are important limits given by the different languages, in fact the first texts were in Sanskrit and then translated into Tibetan, and this inevitably leads to problems of translation and interpretation.
My first years in Rome at the University I studied the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas comparing the two texts, the Latin one with the English translation, and they were not really the same thing. This is what happens in the study of ancient texts because the majority of Tibetans know them only in this language, knowing nothing of Sanskrit or Pali, and this undoubtedly leads to differences.
Buddhism entered Tibet in the seventh century thanks to the marriage of King Songtsen Gampo with two Buddhist wives, a Nepalese princess and a Chinese princess. In this country he studied with the greatest masters in the university of Samye. But the complete diffusion took place at the beginning of the eleventh century with the arrival in Tibet of the great Indian master Atisha Dipamkara Shrijnana who revised and retranslated all the works, and Buddhism, so consolidated, spread in the country articulated in the four fundamental schools (Nyingmapa, Kagyupa, Sakyapa and Gelukpa) among them diversified in some interpretations as it happened in Christianity, in addition to the first Catholicism were formed more Protestant churches, while remaining always Christian.
The four major Buddhist philosophical schools are very important to understand the doctrine as a whole and are: Sarvāstivādin, Sotantrica, Yogācāra, and Mādhyamica. Sarvāstivādin is a more conventional and common current, Sotantrica is a little deeper, Yogācāra the mind-only school is very subtle and finally Mādhyamica is even more fleshing out, showing the mechanisms of illusion in relative knowledge, neither mind, nor I, nor anything, everything is in the emptiness.
These four schools represent the evolution of a single process, which began with the philosophical study, then descending to deeper and deeper levels of knowledge until Mādhyamica the school of pure vision founded by Nāgārjuna, a great mystic, whose main work is the Mūlamādhyamacakārikā, the foundation of the Middle Way.
For us it is essential in the approach to Buddhism to know Nāgārjuna's analysis of the Middle Way, collected in the text of Madhyamika Prasanghika, because it is the basis for being able to understand the real and deep concept of emptiness, and it is equally important to compare the study in all four schools.
COMPASSION
Today we must face together the theme of compassion that in the Buddhist conception cannot be limited to the description given by Western languages. In Sanskrit the original word is karunā, in Tibetan three words are used snyng-rje, tse-wa, champa. Snyng-rje amplifies the aspect of compassion, tse-wa that of love, and champa loving kindness, but all point to the inseparable whole.
In the texts, the classic definition of snyng-rje indicates participation in the pain of others with the intention of freeing these people from suffering. Champa, on the other hand, is addressed specifically to the absence in people of happiness, of joy, which induces us to desire to give them joy, to offer what is missing. These are two aspects of suffering and for this reason there are two different actions to put in place, the two ways of approach merge in tse-wa love, that's why you have to use three distinct words to define a single process.
Compassion can only exist in selflessness, shen phen gyi sem, the selfless mind that encompasses everything and can only be expressed in the fundamental realization of equanimity.
We come to the realization of compassion, loving kindness, and love only if these aspects are grounded in the basic ground of equanimity, which frees us from wanting to be too close, with attachment, and from being too distant, in indifference or aversion, and keeps us stable and balanced in the middle way. This inner freedom is given by equanimity, the essential first step, though still lacking in compassion, kindness, and love, but necessary for us to move forward.
The four aspects of compassion to be cultivated in order to develop the altruistic mind are called the four unlimited or immeasurable, the first being the mind of unlimited equanimity; the second the mind of unlimited compassion or benevolence; the third the mind of unlimited loving kindness; and the fourth unlimited sharing joy.
Let us begin to analyze how we can realize the first aspect, equanimity, by having to free the mind that wanders inexorably in the fog of attachment, aversion, ignorance, selfish indifference.
Question: What are the practices for cultivating equanimity?
Lama: According to the vision of Buddhism equanimity is the first step to be able to realize the ultimate goal which is the great compassion and to do this it is necessary to turn the concentration inward to find the true nature of one's own heart-mind and when you come to this authentic vision all attachment, aversion or ignorance automatically disappear because we are aware that we are all in the same condition, in the boat of samsāra. Recognizing the common suffering of samsāra makes us aware of being unity.
The main work of the great master Śāntideva, the "Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra" which literally means "The Entry into Bodhisattva Activity" or The Life of Boddhisattva, delves into the details of all aspects of compassion.
In the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra it says: "How can an impermanent person attach himself permanently to another equally impermanent person? How can an impermanent person permanently hate another impermanent person?" Impermanence is characteristic of all phenomena, so since I am impermanent how can I harbor attachment or aversion to who or what is equally impermanent? This awareness is the first step toward equanimity.
Attachment and hatred, friendship and enmity, war and peace are extremely volatile, impermanent conditions, so what is the point of wasting life so senselessly? Instead, we must proceed step by step in the middle way, be in the equanimity that is wisdom.
I remember a Tibetan scholar, Gedun Choephel who died in 1951, a man of great genius, an excellent poet, but unfortunately as a result of his imprisonment in Tibet his work was completely plundered. His story is comparable to that of Giordano Bruno. In one of his most beautiful songs he says: "Ants have no eyes, yet they run straight to seek happiness, worms have no legs, yet they run to seek happiness, the whole world runs to seek happiness as in a marathon". We are all involved in the same race, therefore it is wise to proceed in the middle way, helping each other, so it will be easier to live in harmony and joy.
It is wise to set the goal of doing a good deed every day and this mental attitude will automatically develop, day after day, altruism in a real condition of open heart and equanimity.
Therefore, equanimity is the first fundamental step, and the second step, immediately following, is compassion.
This compassion causes loving kindness to grow in the heart with a sincere desire to relieve others of their suffering and a willingness to exchange oneself with others, give them one's joy, one's well-being, and take their pain.
This nature of compassion is pure, real, shared joy in which we fully savor the meaning of existence, enjoy the beauty and joyful essence of life.
We are not always aware of this, but no one can live only for himself, the meaning of all existence is in the sharing and sharing of every moment of every action, in being harmoniously human community.
The natural attitude of the human being is compassionate, any work, individual action serves to others, is collaboration, but, clouded by ignorance, we can destroy this collective spirit, the spontaneous offering of what we know how to do and that is a shared service and equally receive the fruit of the work of others. This cooperation is what makes our days comfortable and meaningful. Instead we foolishly weigh the value of our work and monetize it and want to earn more money, indifferent, ignoring the true value of action and closing our hearts in a narrow selfishness that thwarts all joy, all deep meaning of rich human cooperation.
Society is naturally altruistic, it is bright and joyful, but in ignorance we turn it into a gray and desolate selfish desert.
It is important to understand this concept, compassion can never be individualistic, the very reason for our existence on this planet is the compassionate sharing of reality in the awareness that we all belong to one big human family.
Wisdom makes us aware of the compassion that is present and acts in every action, but without this wise knowledge of the natural altruism inherent in the human heart, we inevitably fall into the pit of dark ignorance that turns into selfishness that sees nothing, knows nothing and drowns in the misery of attachment and aversion.
LO JONG
Love is not something that is created out of nothing, it is already inherent in the human heart, it must simply be recognized, cultivated in equanimity. All this is dealt with extensively in the work of Śāntideva.
Then there is another very important text of Nāgārjuna the "Ratnāvalī" translated as "The Precious Garland" or "The Garland of Jewels".
Both texts of the two Indian masters, Śāntideva and Nāgārjuna, are fundamental in the practice of compassion and love and are the basis of further development of Tibetan masters who unified them into a single essential practice: Lo Jong.
A great impetus to the practice of Lo Jong was given by the Bengali master, son of a king, Atīśa Dīpankara Śrījñāna, who, having come to Tibet in the eleventh century at the request of the masters of this country, was one of the major proponents of the second spread of Buddhism in Tibet, thus giving impetus and renewal to the first spread that had become weakened in the confusion of excessive dispersion.
Atīśa was given the task of restoring Buddhism to its proper message, and so he devoted himself to revising all that had been previously written and said. Atīśa noticed that Tibetans were lazier and less intelligent than the Indians, and therefore it would have been more difficult for them to base their practice on the study of the sūtras, and consequently he elaborated a concrete, direct path, which left no possible loopholes: the Lo Jong, which is the heart of the Lam Rim, the gradual path leading to enlightenment, and which collects the entire teaching of the Buddha.
Atīśa made it clear that the four philosophical schools and traditions developed in Tibet were in no way in contradiction with each other, but, on the contrary, complemented each other perfectly, constituting the complementary nature of the complete gradual path from the beginning to enlightenment, the "Lam Rim". Within that path, the Lam Rim focuses on the heart of Buddhist practice, compassion, goes into detail about what compassion is and how to practice it in the teaching of "Lo Jong". "Lo" means mind and "Jong" means training, in the sense of exercising, directing, educating, training, purifying, transforming the mind, there are endless translations, but literally it is: training the mind.
Atīśa introduced the Lo Jong that gradually became the heart of Tibetan Buddhism, which all masters, of whatever school, still accept as their main practice, the practice of Bodhicitta. Atīśa had many disciples, but the main one was Dromtönpa, a layman, a nomad who founded the Kadampa school, "Ka" meaning Buddha's teaching and "dampa" instruction, in which every teaching, every act, flows into a single reality: all teachings based on compassion and totally selfless love.
The followers of this school addressed each other simply by calling themselves Geshe, that is, spiritual friend or virtuous friend. The Kadampa practiced the most authentic simplicity, like the Friars Minor of St. Francis, there was no need for any title, no special study, just purity of heart in the practice of compassion, day and night.
The title of Geshe took on different meanings in the following schools and is still today an indication of high level of studies and conferred only to doctors in monastic school philosophy, but the true meaning, the one that I accept because it is really authentic, is still today "spiritual friend", the one who practices Lo Jong.
THE SEVEN POINTS OF MENTAL TRAINING
Among the followers of the Kadampa school, Geshe Chekawa was very important. He wrote down the Lo Jong teachings in a single comprehensive text, "Training the Mind in Seven Points". There are many other documents on Lo Jong but this is the most important, nothing is missing, it is substantial.
The Tibetan texts, to purify the practice from any obstacle, all begin with paying homage to the Buddha, or to a particular Deity, or protector, this one begins instead with: "Homage to the Great Compassion". Every gesture of respect and devotion, lighting a candle, incense, bowing in greeting with joined hands, prostrating, all are great compassion, for all of us, indiscriminately, are manifestations of great compassion.
We are one family that is born in the root of great compassion, only we must become aware of it, be fully aware of it, every human relationship in society is union, solidarity, compassion. The essence of Lo Jong is therefore similar to the nectar that nourishes, transforms and makes the heart-mind grow.
In Tibet the fundamental instructions are traced back to the lineage of the master who developed them, and Lo Jong derives from the Serlingpa lineage, a master whom Atīśa, in his travels through many countries, met on the island of Sumatra and from whom he received mental training in the great compassion, Bodhicitta. On his return to India and then Tibet, Atīśa spread this precious teaching of Lo Jong widely, and it therefore had its first origin in Sumatra.
Earlier we mentioned four schools of Buddhist philosophy and Atīśa belonged to the Mādhyamika current, the highest level of education, while the Sumatran teacher, Serlingpa, belonged to the Sarvāstivādin school, less refined, basic, but this was no obstacle, because the center of both was Bodhicitta, the Great Compassion.
Atīśa, a great scholar, an abbot in his own university, was therefore much better educated than his master, but this was of no importance; he continued to travel and with genuine humility to seek and learn from masters in other countries. Atīśa received the fundamental instruction of Lo Jong from Master Serlingpa with a profoundly concentrated awareness of the gift he was being given.
Let us now see what the seven points of mental training are: First Point (First Practice the Preliminary Practices), indicates the necessity of practicing with awareness the four preliminary practices: a) Recognizing the preciousness and rarity of one's human existence; b) Recognizing impermanence; c) Recognizing karma, the law of cause and effect; d) Recognizing the limits of one's life and the world.
The second point analyzes the two Bodhicitta: 1) the ultimate or absolute Bodhicitta and
2), the conventional or relative Bodhicitta.
1) In the ultimate bodhicitta, Having obtained mental stability, one receives the secret teaching. Consider all phenomena as a dream. This does not mean that the phenomena are false, but simply that they are not concrete, not corresponding to what we perceive as real.
And then he analyzes the nature of the innate mind, it is the antidote itself that is liberated from itself in the vacuity of vacuity, it meditates on the fundamental nature of everything; the essence of the path. This is the conception expressed by the Cittamātra current, the school of "Mind only".
In the post meditative period he teaches to observe with awareness like the illusionist who observes what appears as if it were an illusionist's show.
He recognizes the Lo Jong instruction as a diamond of infinite potential, as the sun that illuminates all things, as the plant that cures all diseases, and, seeing the five degenerations [1) of vision, 2) of passions, 3) of times -kāliyuga-, 4) of the decline of life force, 5) of the increase of bodily defects in physical decay], he transforms them into the path of complete awakening through the uninterrupted development of compassion, love, equanimity, and joy.
2) The practice of conventional or relative Bodhicitta is explained in the following verses: It attributes the entire blame for problems to a single factor, which does not imply sin, individual responsibility, neither ours nor others', but indicates the very limit of human nature. The Tibetan word for expressing this stress-producing root is Rang chei zin. Ran means self - chei zin egocentric vision with very subtle attachment to oneself always putting oneself first mentally - We simply have to recognize this human condition and only in this way we can really transform it with joy, satisfaction, without unnecessary guilt, this is our task, what gives meaning to life, it is the philosophy of compassion, the philosophy of Dharma.
The most serious and strongest Tibetan practitioners are the ancient geshe Kadampa masters who silently and humbly practiced Lo Jong day and night.
Meditate on the great kindness of all beings. Conventional Bodhicitta meditates on the natural kindness of all beings and shows us the need to remain in a hidden way, never wanting to appear, in the attitude of great compassion. We often ask ourselves useless questions, we want to analyze the authenticity of our own or others' kindness and we get lost, the only thing to do then is to meditate on the ultimate Bodhicitta and consider all phenomena as a dream.
Now we come to the practice of Tong Len, the heart of Lo Jong, the practice of giving one's happiness to others and taking their suffering by using the alternation of breath, with inhalation we take the suffering of others and with exhalation we give our happiness.
Generally when we meditate with this breath movement we think that with each exhalation we throw out all our negativity, automatically becoming wise and better, while inhaling we take in all positivity, but in this way we only exponentially increase the ego.
Tong Len is the greatest practice of humanity, Jesus Christ is the most visible example. Taking upon oneself the cross, offering one's life, for the good of all beings.
But in our practice we must first learn to take upon ourselves our own suffering and, likewise, always give all goodness to ourselves. Only after learning to know ourselves and purified ourselves in this way, we can go into the depths of taking upon ourselves the suffering of others and give them every blessing, joy, serenity. In the end each breath becomes the practice of compassion.
Before proceeding we must be aware that in our relationships with others there are three objects, three poisons and three virtues. The three objects are friends, enemies, and those who appear neutral to us; the three poisons are attachment, aversion, and indifference; the three virtues are the transformation of attachment into love and compassion, of aversion into compassionate gratitude because these enemies towards whom we feel hatred are actually our best friends as they are authentic teachers who allow us to develop our qualities, and, likewise, our indifference towards those who are neutral to us becomes wisdom of compassion.
This is what transforms Lo Jong into the four immeasurable thoughts: unlimited equanimity, unlimited love or benevolence, unlimited compassion, and unlimited sharing joy. All of this is joy in living in the world regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, because it is what gives meaning to every moment of life.
Time has flown by, there would still be many things to say and we have only managed to deal with the first two points, but we can postpone to another occasion the explanation of the remaining five and more. As soon as it will be ready, you will find the transcript of this conversation in my blog so you can deepen what we said today.
Thanks for your attention, and have a good evening.
