A System of Practice at Bodhi Path

The Dharma Path

To be successful in your Dharma practice, you need to walk the path of Dharma. There are two types of paths: the common (ordinary) path and the extraordinary path. Without the support of the common path, you can never reach the extraordinary path. Ultimate enlightenment depends very much on the extraordinary path, which in turn depends on the common path. This means that you have to practice both together.

Whether or not you meet the extraordinary path depends on karma. If your karma is fully functioning well towards enlightenment then you will meet the extraordinary path. If your karma is all right and you have only a good foundation, then you will always connect with the common path. Eventually, you will likely meet up with the extraordinary path. Again, it all depends on your individual karma.

Refuge

With respect to the ordinary path, you need the Refuge and Bodhisattva vows. To take Refuge means to take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. This is a first and fundamental level of Dharma practice. It acts like a fertilizer. When you want something to grow, first you need some soil, and then the soil has to be fertilized. Similarly, Enlightenment depends on your mind. The path of Dharma has to develop from your mind and your mind has to be purified. Any ignorance of mind has to be cleared away. Therefore, taking Refuge affords you a very important foundation.

The Bodhisattva vow - Relative and Absolute Bodhicitta

The Bodhisattva vow is like a staircase. In a many-storied house, you cannot reach any higher levels without a staircase. The Bodhisattva vow has two aspects: relative Bodhicitta and absolute Bodhicitta. Relative Bodhicitta is like the root of a plant, and absolute Bodhicitta its main stem. You need to take the Bodhisattva vow. It will enable you to develop the special quality of Bodhicitta towards all sentient beings, an attitude of loving kindness and compassion towards all.

Absolute Bodhicitta is the wisdom of Bodhicitta mind, and is therefore non-dualistic. When the attitude of loving kindness and compassion is dualistic in nature, then it is relative Bodhicitta. This is connected to the emotional states of mind and does not carry much quality. Nevertheless, it is the base of absolute Bodhicitta or wisdom. In other words, you have to develop the absolute Bodhicitta mind from the ground of relative Bodhicitta.

Relative Bodhicitta is compassion and loving-kindness mind. Lacking the wisdom of absolute Bodhicitta, you will attach to things, and you will grasp. The effect is that a lot of emotions will be stirred up making your Bodhicitta not pure.

Bodhi means enlightenment. Bodhicitta means the heart of enlightenment. Bodhi Path means the path to enlightenment. While on the Bodhi Path, the heart should be detached from the emotions. So, the view of absolute Bodhicitta is called for on the Bodhi Path.

Relative and ultimate truths

In order to develop absolute Bodhicitta, a few steps have to come first. The first step is to hear the precise instructions about the nature of phenomena. The teachings of the Buddha explain precisely how phenomena are just illusions of your mind. On a relative level, everything is there as you see it. However, the absolute or ultimate nature of any phenomenon is that it does not truly exist.

Take the beams of this house, for example. They are supported by the pillars, and the pillars in turn stand on the ground. So we say that the beams depend on the pillars, which depend on the ground. And the roof of the house depends on the beams. Put all these interdependent parts together, and you have a house. This is the relative truth of the house –a collection of the many interdependent parts.

But, if you were to look for the absolute truth of the house itself, you would not find it in any of its parts. The ground is not the house. The pillars are not it and neither is it the roof nor the beams. In absolute/ultimate truth, the house does not exist. Ultimate, in this sense, means that which cannot be removed or altered.

Relatively, everything exists in an interdependent way. You are in a relative existence in samsara. If you wish to liberate yourself from samsara, then you will have to depend on the Dharma, as well as both relative and absolute Bodhicitta. They are all the parts that you need in order to build up your (house of) enlightenment. In other words, to reach the ultimate truth of enlightenment, you rely on the path of Dharma, which is the relative truth.

Enlightenment is when all the ignorance of your mind is cleared away. It is the final, ultimate truth. But you need a path to get there, a path that can clear away the ignorance. The path is relative so long as you need it to get to your destination, just like you need all the parts to build a house.

We could also think of using the relative path to ultimate truth as taking remedies for problems until there is a full recovery. The meaning of terms like remedy, or solution, is relevant in the face of a problem. Where there is no longer a problem, or a full recovery, there is no longer the need to talk of a remedy. The remedies are therefore relative and dependent on the problems. In the same way, the Path of Dharma containing all the remedies is therefore relative and dependent on all the problems of mind. We take the remedies until we are fully recovered. We walk the relative Path of Dharma until we have reached ultimate enlightenment.

Samsara has only relative existence, like a dream, and so it can be eliminated. If Samsara ultimately existed, then it could not be removed. If a dream truly existed, then it would not disappear even when you wake up. Because a dream itself has no real existence, it can disappear naturally upon waking. The dream has not gone off somewhere, nor could you put it away in some corner and walk off either. The dream itself does not exist, and therefore, it disappears when you wake up.

Samsara is like a dream that is made up of all the negative emotions and karma. Its basis is ignorance, which gives rise to negative emotions on a stage of karma displaying uninterruptedly the illusions of samsara. All these conditions depend and feed on each other. Together, they are experienced as samsara. Yet nothing truly exists. There is ultimate enlightenment. It is possible only because all of samsara's problems can be solved and removed since they are not ultimately real. Develop ultimate enlightenment and samsara will end!

The precious human life

This human life is precious. In the introduction to all Buddhist teachings, you can find this fact. A human life has the potential and the capacity to see enlightenment, to know all the paths leading to it, and to be able to go on such a path to get there. A human life has wisdom. It has potential, opportunity, and richness enough to absorb the path of enlightenment. We are quite capable of understanding the meaning of ultimate Bodhicitta – that all phenomena do not truly exist. Human mind can understand all of this.

The 3 steps of the path - listen, reflect, and meditate

Therefore, first you have to listen to the teachings of the Buddha. Listen to how he explained the ultimate nature of phenomena. You have to think about it over and over again to find the actual meaning. When you do, the path of meditation will become clear to you. Listen to the teachings, reflect on the teachings, and then meditate. These are then the steps of the Dharma path. Your capacity to absorb the most profound meaning of the Dharma depends on your reflecting on its teachings.

Once you have self-clinging, then you have many things to cling to. This is what I want. Thinking like this, you will cling to everything. All living beings are in this trap of clinging. And meditation has naturally come about to solve this chain of clinging, which is actually a mistake of your mind. The process of meditation clears up the chains of clinging. There are two types of clinging: clinging to the samsaric phenomena and a more advanced level of clinging – clinging to the path of Dharma. The latter is also a problem. Your precise understanding and view of absolute Bodhicitta, of Madhyamaka free from the four extremes, and together with the view of emptiness, can remove both types of clinging.

The Refuge vow comes first. Then later, the Bodhisattva vow may be taken. As I have explained already, there are two aspects to the Bodhisattva vow: relative Bodhisattva vow and ultimate Bodhisattva vow. The relative Bodhisattva vow is taken as a commitment. You commit to uphold the relative Bodhicitta mind of loving kindness and compassion. The ultimate Bodhisattva vow is more than a vow. You actually will have to develop the wisdom of Bodhicitta mind.

Shi'nay

After you have taken these two vows, the Bodhi Path program will give you teachings on Shi'nay (calm abiding meditation). Shi'nay practice consists of two stages: preliminary Shi'nay and advanced Shi'nay. You can follow the Bodhi Path program where you will be guided through the stages of Shi'nay. At the same time you will also do the prostrations to the 35 Buddhas, which is a practice to purify bad karmas. The practice text has now been translated into German as well as English. The Centre here will provide you with the instructions for this practice.

The purpose of Shi'nay is to train your mind to be free from the bad habit of constantly thinking, and constantly being busy and confused. Your mind has to be free from all its preoccupations. The first level of Shi'nay, or common Shi'nay, trains your mind to be stable. Of course, the stability of your Shi'nay depends on your own diligence. If you maintain your Shi'nay practice constantly, then you will achieve it as your nature. It actually becomes your nature, and not something that you bring into your mind. Common Shi'nay is a very smart way to train your mind to be free from bad habits. Later, the more advanced Shi'nay allows you to develop the unobstructed peace of mind, the open mind.

The realization of emptiness is the eye of meditation. The realization of the emptiness of self, and of phenomena, is the eye of meditation for enlightenment. To develop these two eyes, one has to have stability in the contemplation of mind. And the practice of Shi'nay develops this stability. When you have a very strong base in Shi'nay, it becomes the foundation that allows you to develop a realization of the emptiness of phenomena and of mind. These two eyes actually are the view. It is not a view that you learn from books. It is a view that you experience. With these two eyes in your experience, then you will be able to look at your mind, examine each of your negative emotions whereby you will clear up all the ignorance of your mind.

Shantideva said, "Through developing stable Shi'nay, you conquer the emotions by emptiness. Therefore, first you must practice Shi'nay." You can develop successfully this level of Shi'nay if you are not terribly attached to things, or to phenomena. It does not mean that you should not own a car. It does not mean not to enjoy your breakfast. It means not to be emotionally grasping at your breakfast.

This is what Tilopa taught Naropa. The chain is not what you see; the chain is what you are attached to. The chain which ties you, is not what you see. What you grasp turns into a chain that ties you up. This is why avoiding emotional grasping is a necessary condition to develop your Shi'nay. And once you have a good foundation of Shi'nay then you can develop the precise view of Lhakthong (Vipassana).

Prostration to the 35 Buddhas

While we will first teach Shi'nay to subdue your mind's confusion and its restlessness, there is yet another obscuration, another problem in your mind that has to be addressed. It is the problem of bad karma. Karmic problems can be totally purified by doing the practice of the prostrations to the 35 Buddhas. The practice is contained within the Four Foundations practised by Marpa. And all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism embrace this lineage of practice. We will teach it here.

Mandala offering

After prostrations comes the Mandala practice. The Mandala practice is for the accumulation of merit power. As long as you are on the path of Dharma you need merit. On the one hand, you purify your karma, on the other, you gather the support of merit.

To be a successful Bodhisattva for the benefit of sentient beings, you have to depend on the accumulation of merit, which depends on giving, on generosity. The practice of the Mandala offering allows you to practise generosity mentally. It is a kind of mental therapy. In the mind you visualize, or think of, all the things that you are attached to, then you release your clinging to them by offering them. You give away, give away, and give away all these things. In this way, you are accumulating the thoughts of giving them all away, and that is a very meritorious practice.

You don't have so many things to give to sentient beings now, right? Your capacity to give to others depends on your karma. So the first step is to give away everything mentally, and through that, you will accumulate the mind-merit of generosity. I don't mean that you are not lucky right now. Rather, by practising generosity and giving, you will perhaps become a very, very wealthy Bodhisattva able to give many things to sentient beings to benefit them.

Tonglen

While you are doing the 35 Buddhas prostrations and Mandala practice, you continue to practise Shi'nay. First, you do the common Shi'nay and then later, when you are well used to the common Shi'nay, the teacher will teach you Tonglen – the practice of giving and taking. Tonglen is also Shi'nay but a more advanced practice. It is a Bodhisattva practice where you give your happiness to sentient beings, and you take on their suffering. It is effective in accumulating very powerful merits.

You will do the Tonglen, the prostrations to the 35 Buddhas, and the Mandala practice, which would enhance your Shi'nay practice. You will definitely be able to achieve very good experiences of Shi'nay. This result is natural because the greater the purification of negative karma, the shinier and clearer your mind. Your Shi'nay will be very advanced, very familiar to you, and very tranquil. Your stability of mind will be much more mature.

Lhakthong

At the Centre, we will teach analytical meditation. This practice is connected to Lhakthong (higher seeing, or insight meditation, or vipassana). It is more of a preliminary level of Mahamudra. In the analytical practice, mind is divided into three parts: past mind, present mind and future mind. There is a way to analyze the mind as such. If you have a good level of Shi'nay, then you can do this practice very comfortably and it is very effective. So we will teach the analytical meditation, called analytically-examining-the-mind-meditation.

Vajrasattva

You will do the Tonglen meditation (giving and taking) combined with analytical meditation where you examine the mind. During that time we will give you the Vajrasattva empowerment. Then for some time, you will do the Vajrasattva practice.

Kyerim and Dzogrim, Chenrezig

After that we will teach the Kyerim practice (creation stage). A Vajrayana practice has two phases: Kyerim and Dzogrim (completion stage). Dzogrim is the Mahamudra meditation.

We will teach the Vajrayana view of Kyerim, what it is versus Dzogrim. We will give instructions on the philosophical view of Kyerim. There are three parts to the instructions. One part is on how one receives an empowerment. The second part is on the kinds of precepts, or samayas to protect the Vajrayana practice. And the third is on the reason for Kyerim practice.

After the teaching on Kyerim, we will give the Chenrezig empowerment as well as the teachings on how to practise it.

I have thus given you a general course or direction of the teachings offered at the Bodhi Path Buddhist Centre. The way is now laid out for you in order for you to achieve enlightenment within one lifetime. And the system of programs available to you at the Bodhi Path Centre will provide you with the necessary teachings and guidance.