Of Mind and Karma and Reincarnation

A concept I have struggled with for years is what is it that transfers from lifetime to lifetime? I became very confused by the terms Mind and Karma.

The endless knot symbolises the nature of reality where everything is interrelated and only exists as part of a web of karma and its effect. Initially, it also represented the confusion in my human mind.

Whatever you look at in the Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings, the predominant references are to the Mind. But what is it?

OM AH HUM are sometimes equated to Body Speech and Mind, represented physically as Third Eye, Throat and Heart. The Mind is often envisaged as being located at the Heart.

Then again, the Mind is depicted as being Self/Non-Self, incapable of being identified with any bodily location.

The understanding I have developed over time is that in the Buddhist context the Mind is also known as the Mind Stream or Mind Continuum. This is what transfers from physical embodiment to physical embodiment and carries with it the accumulation of karma from all the previous lifetimes.

Then I got confused by the practice of Lojong, literally Lo (Mind) jong (to Train) because it implies there is some THING to train, whereas Mind is ineffable. Then what is it we are supposed to be training?

As I understand it, we are training our thinking or conventional mind, as we experience it, to overcome the illusions and obscurations that create our suffering. The training leads to the development of loving kindness and compassion that eventually leads to enlightenment and the realisation of the ultimate Mind.

The human condition is determined by the five aggregates or skandas - form, feelings, perceptions, volition and consciousness. These are all interdependent and in combination represent what we experience in the conventional world and what experiences we have of suffering and (transient) happiness.

To me, the key element for understanding reincarnation is volition or action. What we perceive as happening to and driving us is a combination of our karma from previous lives and our actions in this life. It can be considered that the karma of previous lives is carried through in our mind stream/continuum.

Being a rational human being, I found these explanations lead me to be more comfortable with the concept of Mind and Reincarnation. I can now sit with this simplistic conceptualisation and get on with my practices. Hopefully this will lead me to a greater understanding in which the need to understand the process of reincarnation becomes irrelevant, anyway.

Just keep on training that Mind, whatever and wherever it is.

Thus ends this post. May whatever virtue or merit that derives from this posting be for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Yours until next time, Vajramate.

The Three Afflictions: Ignorance, Attachment, Aversion

One of the hardest question I get asked is "What is Buddhism about?" My own journey has been through personal development, some philosophy, psychotherapy and then into Buddhism. For me right now Buddhism is about finding a better way to live my life and come to grips with what doesn't work for me, at the same time finding ways I can be of service to other sentient beings. While we westerners might see it as taming the ego, Buddhists see it as a more active process called Mind Training.

Buddhist philosophy deals with the suffering created through our grasping at the concept of a separate and unique Self and the release from suffering in the ultimate reality of Non-Self. But that, like Emptiness, is a topic for further down the path.

The initial teachings deal with a whole bunch of issues we experience as human beings, many of which we are totally unaware or which totally consume us. The labels are familiar – anger, greed, craving, fear, avoidance, procrastination – on and on it goes.

If we choose to go down the Mahayana path, what we are choosing is to rediscover within ourselves a nature of loving kindness and compassion towards all sentient beings. It is through this we move towards the path of the bodhisattvas, working for the benefit of all sentient beings, and ultimately realising our own inherent Buddha nature.

In my initial years I was confused by the terminology. Were my problems the result of afflictions, poisons, obstructions or illusions? How many were there – 3? 5? 7? 84,000? How could I overcome them if I didn't know and understand what they were and how they applied to me? Then I came across teachings that talked about the 3, 5, 7, 10 or 84,000 antidotes to the afflictions. More confusion!

It came as a great relief to me one day to realise that I really only had to deal with three labels. Ignorance, Attachment and Aversion.

Ignorance can be summarised as "We don't know what we don't know!" The teachings are all aimed at gradually expanding our understanding of what is suffering, how we create our suffering and the paths available to us to address these conditions and move towards happiness. The fundamental Mahayana objective is the establishment of loving kindness and compassion as the basis of how we live our daily lives for the benefit of others. Dispelling ignorance is achieved by leading us to understand the afflictions or poisons of attachment and aversion.

I started to better understand attachment when I came to realise that there are many different ways we can experience it. Common labels are greed, craving, desire, selfishness. We may be attached to a desire for a variety of material things – cars, houses, objects. Then there are attachments to relationships or a desire to be admired or loved. Or we may become attached to an idea – "my religion is the only true religion" or "my race is the only worthy race". The suffering we experience manifests in many ways. When we don't have something, we suffer until we get it – and when we have it, we suffer in case we lose it. Resistance to change is a symptom of attachment. You can even have an attachment to having no attachments in that you may feel pride in your achievement and become attached to that pride.

By the way, there is a reason why you wouldn't get a Buddhist to vacuum your carpets – they don't vacuum in the corners because they have no attachments!

Likewise for aversion. Aversion manifests itself as anger, revulsion, hatred, dislike, fear and even indifference. Resistance to change is again a major indication that aversion may be playing a role in your life.

So – how can we apply the understanding that our suffering is generally about attachment or aversion? It is thought that in the process of getting through our busy days, 95% of the time we are in a neutral state, neither experiencing attachment or aversion. Seems to be somewhat a waste of time- or even a lifetime?

The first step is being open to awareness. If you are experiencing disturbing feelings, work out whether it is a form of attachment or aversion. If this is not clear, then sit with it, meditate on it, until it becomes clearer.

Once identified, you can then contemplate or meditate on what you have been taught on how to deal with it. For example, an antidote for greed is generosity. When you become aware that your current disquiet has an undercurrent of greed, contemplate or commit to an act of generosity. It may be a prayer for the happiness of all beings, a simple act of kindness or the giving of an offering of flowers or incense or a material gift. As you do this, observe what it is about that transformation from greed to generosity that makes you happier or eases the intensity of your suffering.

Repeated awareness of the nature of how you experience attachment and aversion and how you can transform those experiences to experiences of loving kindness and compassion will accumulate as training of the mind.

To use an expression I have heard, it is about habituation. We make a habit of practicing awareness and a habit of applying the antidote. Over time we habituate the practice of loving kindness and compassion. The afflictions of attachment and aversion are slowly shaken loose and we become more content in our circumstances as they are. The happiness we thus experience is real and lasting.

Keeping it simple should make it easier to focus on the awareness and practice, and not get caught up in trying to understand everything from the start.

What are Buddhist Teachings and Practices?

For the purposes of this Blog, the source of all teachings is Shakyamuni Buddha's 84,000 discourses, as relayed by Mahayana Buddhism.

In order for the teaching to have meaning and value, the practitioner needs to have faith in, or at least be open to, the possibilities that:

1. Reincarnation is a fact and there will be other lifetimes after this one; and

2. The teacher has the requisite training and lineage to be skilled in the authentic transmission of the teachings.

For newcomers to Buddhism, the teachings can be confusing and may appear contradictory. This comes from the fact that each of the Buddha's teachings was for a specific audience, ranging in comprehension from ignorant (having had very little or no education) to those on the path (from beginners to those who have been on the path for lifetimes) to the near-enlightened.

Individuals in the first two stages receive teachings in the conventional sense, being understood through their worldy experience. The pure view of those approaching enlightenment is largely incomprehensible and incapable of description and is known as the uncommon, ultimate or reality view. When teachings are given from this point of view they should be experienced on the basis that one day we may get close to experience the ultimate view, otherwise known as shunyata or emptiness.

Most teachers, from His Holiness the Dalai Lama downwards, also give public talks. These are not teachings in the context of this Blog - although there is magnificent learning to be had!

A formal teaching has three elements. The following description is based on the Sakya tradition's teaching of tantric or Vajrayana Buddhism. The process may vary from tradition to tradition, but the underlying teachings of the Buddha are the same in all traditions.

The Empowerment: Firstly, there is the ritual of connecting through the teacher to the entire lineage of the teacher's teachers and their teachers before them. This is called the empowerment and is in many ways a mystical process. It should be given by an authentic teacher, usually a recognised reincarnation of a lineage of teachers. This empowerment enables the practitioner to receive the subsequent teachings. The practitioner does not necessarily have to have taken Refuge (a later topic) to receive an empowerment, depending on the nature or subject of the empowerment.
The Sadhana (Spiritual practice): Secondly, the teacher will, at the same or a later time, give the teaching on how to practice the teaching. The practice is usually described in a sadhana, which is given out during the teaching.

The sadhana is in three parts. The initial part is the acknowledgement of the source of the practice and a commitment to undertake the practice for the benefit of all sentient beings.
It usually also includes a process of purification in preparation for the main part of the practice.

The main part of the practice is the visualisation of the entity upon which the practice is based, usually a buddha, bodhisattva or other deity form. Associated with this is a mantra. The visualisation of oneself as the entity and recitation of the mantra is the meditation. In Vajrayana practice, these multiple activities help stop the mind from wandering, as it can be brought back to the visualisation or mantra whenever it strays. More on the theory behind this later. On completion of the main part, the visualisation is dissolved and the meditation completed in a state of emptiness. This may last for seconds or minutes.

In the third and final part the practitioner dedicates any virtue and merit derived from the practice to the benefit of all sentient beings.

The practice is then usually completed by the recitation of long life prayers for the teachers and by the recitation of various prayers.

Having had the teaching on the sadhana, the third element of the overall teaching is for the practitioner to diligently undertake the practice, preferably on a daily basis. The teacher asks no more than that of the student. Subsequent learning occurs through discussions with the teacher as questions arise. It has been my experience that I learn most by taking every opportunity to receive a fresh empowerment from the next teacher who is in town. This is part of the buddhist philosophy of learning by constant repetition.

The full benefit of the teachings are realised by going on a 2 or 3 day, or a week long, retreat where the teaching is reinforced by formal practice sessions three times a day, lead by the teacher. The next step from there is a 4 to 6 week solitary, guided retreat, doing three long practice sessions a day. My photo in the initial posting was taken after 38 days locked in a room in a monastery in what was Eastern Tibet. The fire puja was the cleansing ceremony after the retreat.

Thus ends this post. May whatever virtue or merit that derives from this posting be for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Yours until next time, Vajramate.

Introduction to the Blog

Welcome all viewers with an interest in Buddhism.

This Blog is the start of building a resource that will make it easier for you to get to understand Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist teachings and the activities that take place around those teachings.
In my six or so years of gradually easing into becoming a Buddhist and extending my practices from there, I experienced many confusing and almost incomprehensible concepts and teachings. Within our small group in Sydney, Australia I have found myself spending more and more time answering the questions of people new to Buddhism. I have also seen many who attended teachings a few times and then gave up because they couldn't follow what was happening.
I have had the benefit of having a Tibetan Rinpoche resident with our group in Sydney. He is my spiritual guide (or Guru). Much of what I have learnt has been from him and his teachers, all from the Sakya tradition.
It is my intention to post a short article at least once a fortnight. Initially those articles will be sequenced in a structure similar to the general approach to teaching Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism.
These articles will not be about the teachings themselves - there are thousands of sources available to explore those and I will be referencing some of those.
To give a flavour of what is to come, in this post I have mentioned Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. What are they and what is the difference? They are both traditional aspects of Buddhism as taught by Buddha Shakyamuni 2,500 years ago, and represent what is known as the Middle Way. Both are based on the premise that all practice should be for the benefit of every sentient being ahead of our individual desires. Sentient beings are every life form that has a brain, including animals, fish and insects. The two approaches utilise meditation as the vehicle to contemplate the teachings. The main difference between them is that Vajrayana Buddhism uses esoteric or tantric practices as part of its practices, with emphasis on visualisations and mantras. This is considered to offer a faster path to enlightenment.

So next time, I guess I had better explain what is meant by "Teachings" and "Practices". It may sound simple, but I have been surprised at how many times I have been asked what these terms encompass.

Thank you for joining me in this adventure. I am learning and your responses and questions will help greatly to guide me as to where I take this.

I am facilitating ads on this blog in order to support my ability to spread the Dharma and assist people to assess what Buddhism has to offer them and how they might approach their exploration of it. I dedicate this post for the benefit of all sentient beings.