Nagarjuna. The crown of snakes symbolises the incredible capacity of his mind.
Here is the update I promised on the two days of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's teachings on Awakening the Mind in Sydney, to an audience of 5,000.
Once again, I am totally amazed at the physical impact he has on people, even in such a large gathering. All of the people in my group experienced short bursts of intensely deep sleep when he was talking in Tibetan. We believe he was doing a transmission as he was talking. We would then wake up when his interpreter took over. He would talk in bursts of 10 to 15 minutes at a time – amazing. The teachings were 4 sessions of 2 hours each over the 2 days.
The stage setting was enhanced by the presence of the Jade Buddha, which was consecrated by HH the Dalai Lama at this event. The Buddha is carved from a single rock, weighing 18 tonnes and found in Canada. In its finished form it is 2.7 metres tall and weighs 4 tonnes. This Buddha will eventually be housed at the Great Stupa for Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, a project of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Details are at http://www.jadebuddha.org.au/
The text His Holiness used was the 112 verses of Nagarjuna's Bodhicittavivarana, available at http://www.bodhicitta.net/ . Look for Bodhichitta Teachings, then Nagarjuna Bodhicittavivarana.
This text is quite intense. One of my friends, Lama Tsekyab, who is a learned monk and Puja Master, said at the end of Day 1 "Peter, this was a very hard day!" Lama Phuntsok told me he had studied Nagarjuna for 4 years, and he found the day was hard work. Loppon Ngawang, a highly trained teacher, also said the teaching was not easy. All we could do was be there, hear and feel the transmission and rejoice at being blessed to spend time with His Holiness. I will now try to distil the message we got and pass on the advice His Holiness gave us. In the photo, left to right, are Lama Tsekyab, Loppon Ngawang and Lama Phuntsok. All three of them now have long term visas in Australia, while they have family at Jyekundo, the Kyegu Monastery town in what was Eastern Tibet, where they were all born.
The main message that came through was that to achieve an Awakened Mind (Bodhicitta) it is necessary to achieve an understanding of Emptiness as defined in Mahayana Buddhism. Without moving towards an understanding of Emptiness, our Mind will always be suffering from the afflictions of ignorance, attachment and aversion. In this state, while we may be able to aspire to compassion and altruism, we will always become diverted from effectively achieving it. But the Buddhist teaching is that only through achieving loving kindness and compassion that we can attain happiness. Personally, I like to think of happiness as being in a state of contentment with whatever circumstances I may find myself in at any time.
As Westerners, indeed for all humans, our early life training conditions us to continually strive for and defend our own unique Selfhood. But Emptiness is only achieved through realisation of the non-existence of a Self i.e. selflessness. Achieving this realisation is necessary to achieve happiness. Understanding (Inter)Dependent Origination (or Arising) and the Five Skandhas/Aggregates is an essential part of the journey. So how to get there?
His Holiness the Dalai Lama was very explicit about the study program to undertake.
The Bodhicittavivarana text was the basis for the two days of teaching. The prime text is Arya Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika, also referred to as the Madhyamika – The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way. I have a translation and commentary by Jay L Garfield, published by Oxford University Press. It contains both the 27 Chapters of text and then 27 Chapters of commentary, with embedded text. Garfield is a Professor of Philosophy at Hampshire College and Director of an Indian Philosophy Program with Tibetan Universities in Exile (Remembering Nagarjuna was an Indian philosopher from about the second century). For those of a philosophical study background, Garfield's commentary quite often analyses Nagarjuna by reference to Western philosophy, enhancing our understanding.
His Holiness nominated 4 Chapters in particular to study, in this order:
Ch 26 – Examination of the 12 Links
(of (Inter)Dependent Arising, the basis of the argument for Emptiness)
Ch 18 – Examination of Self and Entities
Ch 24 – Examination of the Four Noble Truths
Ch 22 – Examination of the Tathagata
Describing himself as a "lazy scholar", His Holiness said he did not undertake serious study of Nagarjuna until his late teens. Then he used Candrakirti's 7th century commentary Prasannapada (Clear Words), which he recommends as essential and the best commentary on the Middle Way. He referred to Chapter 9 as being of immense help to him personally. The only translation I have been able to find is "Lucid Exposition of the Middle Way: Essential Chapters from the Prasannapada", available as used on Amazon at about $85. The reviews are quite good.
To round out the study program, His Holiness recommended Gyel-tsap's commentary on Aryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas. The translation I use is by Ruth Sonam, with the Aryadeva commentary and a chapter by chapter commentary on the commentary by Geshe Sonam Rinchen, entitled Yogic Deeds of Bodhisattvas and published by Snow Lion. Aryadeva was a 2nd century disciple of Nagarjuna and Gyel-tsap was the successor to Tsong-kha-pa, the founder of the Gelugpa lineage, in the early 15th century.
If this seems a bit too daunting as a study program right now, I suggest you consider "the Heart of Buddha's Teachings" by Thich Nhat Hahn as a lesser treatise on philosophy.
At the end of the teaching, the Dalai Lama empowered us with the Bodhicitta Prayer, to be used as a daily motivator. It is only three verses and only needs to be read three times. It is also available at http://www.bodhicitta.net/ . Look for Bodhichitta Teachings, then Bodhicitta Prayer.
To wrap up, again a most beautiful experience with His Holiness, and hopefully it will bring immense benefit to world peace.
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.
