"The_Dalai_Lama_-_An_Open_Heart_-_Practicing_Compassion_in_Everyday_Life" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lama Dalai)

What is wrong with this belief? How can such an unchanging, eternal, and unitary self that is independent of
mind and body be denied? Buddhist philosophers hold that a self can be understood only in direct relation to the mind-body complex. They explain that if an atman or "self" were to exist, either it would have to be separate from the impermanent parts that constitute it, the mind and body, or it would have to be one with its parts. However, if it were separate from the mind and body, it would have no relevance, as it would be totally unrelated to them. And to suggest that a permanent indivisible self could be one with the impermanent parts that make up mind and body is ludicrous. Why? Because the self is single and indivisible, while the parts are numerous. How can a partless entity have parts?
So, just what is the nature of this self we are so familiar with? Some Buddhist philosophers point to the collection of the parts of mind and body and consider the sum of them alone to be the self. Others hold that the continuum of our mental consciousness must be the self. There is also the belief that some separate mental faculty, a "mind basis of all," is the self. All such notions are attempts to accommodate our innate belief in a core self, while acknowledging the untenability of the solidity and permanence we naturally ascribe to it.
SELF AND AFFLICTIONS
If we examine our emotions, our experiences of powerful attachment or hostility, we find that at their root is an intense clinging to a concept of self. Such a self we assume to be independent and self-sufficient, with a solid reality. As our belief in this kind of self intensifies, so does our wish to satisfy and protect it.
Let me give you an example. When you see a beautiful watch in a shop, you are naturally attracted to it. If the salesperson were to drop the watch, you would think, "Oh dear, the watch has fallen." The impact this would have on you would not be very great. If, however, you bought the watch and have come to think of it as "my watch," then, were you to drop it, the impact would be devastating. You would feel as if your heart were jumping out of you. Where does this powerful feeling come from? Possessiveness arises out of our sense of self. The stronger our sense of "me," the stronger is our sense of "mine." This is why it is so important that we work at undercutting our belief in an independent, self-sufficient self. Once we are able to question
and dissolve the existence of such a concept of self, the emotions derived from it are also diminished.
SELFLESSNESS OF ALL PHENOMENA
It is not just sentient beings who lack a core self. All phenomena do. If we analyze or dissect a flower, looking for the flower among its parts, we shall not find it. This suggests that the flower doesn't actually possess an intrinsic reality. The same is true of a car, a table, or a chair. And even tastes and smells can be taken apart either scientifically or analytically to the point where we can no longer point to a taste or a smell.
And yet, we cannot deny the existence of flowers and of their sweet scent. How do they then exist? Some Buddhist philosophers have explained that the flower you perceive is an outer aspect of your perception of it. It exists only in that it is perceived. Pursuing this interpretation, if there were a flower on the table between us, the one I see would be the same entity as my perception of it, but the one you see would be an aspect of your perception of it. The flowers scent that you smell would similarly be one with your sense
of smell experiencing its fragrance. The flower I perceive would be a different flower from the one you perceive. Though this "mind only" view, as it is called, greatly diminishes our sense of objective truth, it attributes great importance to our consciousness. In fact, even the mind is not in and of itself real. Being made up of different experiences, stimulated by different phenomena, it is ultimately as unfindable as anything else.
EMPTINESS AND DEPENDENT ORIGINATION
So what is emptiness? It is simply this unfindability. When we look for the flower among its parts, we are confronted with the absence of such a flower. That absence we are confronted with is the flower's emptiness. But then, is there no flower? Of course there is. To seek for the core of any phenomenon is ultimately to arrive at a more subtle appreciation of its emptiness, its unfindability. However, we mustn't think of the emptiness of a flower simply as the unfindability we encounter when searching among its parts. Rather, it is the dependent nature of the flower, or whatever object you care to name, that defines its emptiness. This is called dependent origination.
The notion of dependent origination is explained in various ways by different Buddhist philosophers. Some define it merely in relation to the laws of causation. They explain that since a thing such as a flower is the product of causes and conditions, it arises dependently. Others interpret dependence more subtly. For them a phenomenon is dependent when it depends on its parts the way our flower depends upon its petals, stamen, and pistil.
There is an even more subtle interpretation of dependent origination. Within the context of a single phenomenon like the flower, its parts Ч the petals, stamen, and pistil Ч and our thought recognizing or naming the flower are mutually dependent. One cannot exist without the other. They are also mutually exclusive, separate phenomena. Therefore, when analyzing or searching for a flower among its parts, you will not find it. And yet the perception of a flower exists only in relation to the parts that make it up. From this understanding of dependent origination ensues a rejection of any idea of intrinsic or inherent existence.
MEDITATING ON EMPTINESS
Understanding emptiness is not easy. Years are devoted to its study in Tibetan monastic universities. Monks memorize relevant sutras and commentaries by renowned Indian and Tibetan masters. They study with learned scholars and spend many hours a day debating the topic. To develop our understanding of emptiness, we must study and contemplate this subject as well. It is important to do so under the guidance of a qualified teacher, one whose understanding of emptiness is without flaw.
As with the other subjects in this book, wisdom must be cultivated with analytical meditation as well as settled meditation. However, in this case, in order to deepen your realization of emptiness, you do not alternate between these two techniques but actually join them. You focus your mind on your analysis of emptiness by means of your recently acquired single-pointed concentration. This is called the union of calm abiding and special insight. By constantly meditating in this way, your insight evolves into an actual realization of emptiness. At this point you have attained the Path of Preparation.
Your realization is conceptual, as your cognition of emptiness has been derived through logical inference. However, this prepares a meditator for the profound experience of realizing emptiness nonconceptually.
A meditator now continually cultivates and deepens his or her inferential realization of emptiness. This leads to the attainment of the Path of Seeing. The meditator now sees emptiness directly, as clearly as he or she does the lines on the palms of his or her hands.
By continually meditating on emptiness, one progresses to the Path of Meditation. There are no new aspects of the journey that need to be cultivated. One now constantly develops and enhances the experiences of emptiness already gained.
THE BODHISATTVA LEVELS
A Mahayana practitioner begins his or her evolution through the stages leading to Buddhahood at the point of generating bodhicitta. As practitioners we should develop all the various qualities explored throughout this book. Having acknowledged the workings of karma, we must desist from actions by which we harm ourselves and others.
We must recognize that life is suffering. We must have a profound desire to transcend it. However, we must also have the compassionate ambition to relieve the all-pervasive suffering of others, all those trapped in the mire of cyclic existence. We must have loving-kindness, the wish to provide everyone with supreme happiness. We must feel the responsibility to attain supreme enlightenment.
At this point one has reached the Path of Accumulation. With the motivation of bodhicitta, one conjoins calm abiding and special insight, thereby experiencing the inferential realization of emptiness described above. One has now attained the Path of Preparation. During the Path of Accumulation and the Path of Preparation, a bodhisattva goes through the first of three incalculable eons of practice, whereby one accumulates vast amounts of merit and deepens one's wisdom.
When one's realization of emptiness is no longer inferential, and one attains the Path of Seeing, one has reached the first of ten bodhisattva levels leading to Buddhahood. Through continuously meditating on emptiness, one reaches the second bodhisattva level and simultaneously attains the Path of Meditation. As one progresses through the first
seven bodhisattva levels, one devotes oneself to a second incalculable eon of accumulating merit and wisdom.
Over the remaining three bodhisattva levels, one concludes the third incalculable eon of accumulating merit and wisdom, and thus attains the Path of No More Learning.
One is now a fully enlightened Buddha.
The many eons of practice that lie ahead should not disillusion us. We must persevere. We must proceed one step at a time, cultivating each aspect of our practice. еe must help others to the degree that we can, and restrain ourselves from harming them. As our selfish ways diminish and our altruism grows, we become happier, as do those around us. This is how we accumulate the virtuous merit we need to attain Buddhahood.
CHAPTER 14
BUDDHAHOOD
To GENUINELY TAKE refuge in the Three Jewels, with the profound desire to attain highest enlightenment in order to benefit all sentient beings, we need to understand the nature of enlightenment. We must, of course, recognize that the nature of worldly life is that it is filled with suffering. We know the futility of indulging in cyclic existence, as tempting as it may seem. We are concerned for the suffering that others are constantly experiencing, and we desire to help them move beyond their suffering. When our practice is motivated by this aspiration, leading us toward attaining the ultimate enlightenment of Buddha-hood, we are on the path of the Mahayana.
The term Mahayana has often been associated with the forms of Buddhism that migrated to Tibet, China, and Japan. This term is also sometimes applied to different
Buddhist philosophical schools. However, here I am using the term Mahayana in the sense of an individual practitioner's inner aspirations. The highest motivation we can have is to provide all sentient beings with happiness, and the greatest endeavor we can engage in is helping all sentient beings attain that happiness.
Mahayana practitioners devote themselves to attaining the state of a Buddha. They work at removing the ignorant, afflictive, selfishly motivated thought patterns that keep them from attaining the fully enlightened, omniscient state that allows them to truly benefit others. Practitioners devote themselves to refining virtuous qualities such as generosity, ethics, and patience to the point where they would give of themselves in any way necessary and would accept all difficulty and injustice in order to serve others. Most important, they develop their wisdom: their realization of emptiness. They work at making this realization of the emptiness of inherent existence more and more profound. They must refine this insight and must intensify the subtlety of their mind in order to do so. It is, of course, difficult to describe the process of reaching the ultimate attainment of Buddha-hood. Suffice it to say that as one's realization of the emptiness of inherent existence becomes even deeper, all vestiges
of selfishness are removed and one approaches the fully enlightened state of Buddhahood. Until we ourselves begin to actually approach such realizations, however, our understanding remains theoretical.
When the last remnants of ignorant misconceptions and their predispositions have been removed from a practitioner's mind, that purified mind is the mind of a Buddha. The practitioner has attained enlightenment. Enlightenment, however, has a number of other qualities, referred to in Buddhist literature as bodies. Some of these bodies take physical form, others do not. Those that do not take physical form include the truth body. This is what the purified mind is known as. The omniscient quality of the enlightened mind, its ability to constantly perceive all phenomena as well as their nature of being empty of inherent existence, is known as a Buddha's wisdom body. And the empty nature of this omniscient mind is referred to as a Buddha's nature body. Neither of these bodies (considered to be aspects of the truth body) has physical form. These particular bodies are all achieved through the "wisdom" aspect of the path.
Then there are the physical manifestations of enlightenment. Here we enter a realm that is very hard for most of us
to grasp. These manifestations are called Buddha's form bodies. The Buddha's enjoyment body is a manifestation that has physical form but is invisible to nearly all of us. The enjoyment body can be perceived only by very highly realized beings, bodhisattvas whose profound experience of the ultimate truth is motivated by their intense desire to attain Buddhahood for the sake of all.
From this enjoyment body infinite emanation bodies spontaneously issue forth. Unlike the enjoyment body, these manifestations of the fully enlightened attainment of Buddhahood are visible and accessible to common beings, beings like us. It is by means of emanation bodies that a Buddha is able to assist us. In other words, these manifestations are embodiments of the enlightened being. They are assumed exclusively and purely for our benefit. They come into being at the time when a practitioner attains full enlightenment, as a result of his or her compassionate aspiration to help others. It is by means of these physical emanations that a Buddha teaches others the method by which he himself attained his state of freedom from suffering.
How does the Buddha assist us through emanation bodies? The main medium through which a Buddha performs
his enlightened activity is this teaching. Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha who attained enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree 2,500 years ago, was an emanation body.
Such an explanation of the different aspects of the enlightened state of Buddhahood may sound a little like science fiction, especially if we explore the possibilities of infinite emanations of infinite Buddhas manifesting within infinite universes in order to help infinite beings. However, unless our understanding of Buddhahood is complex enough to embrace these more cosmic facets of enlightenment, the refuge we take in the Buddha will not have the necessary force. Mahayana practice, in which we commit ourselves to providing all sentient beings with happiness, is a large undertaking. If our understanding of Buddha were limited to the historic figure of Shakyamuni, we would be seeking refuge in someone who died long ago and who no longer has the power to help us. In order for our refuge to be truly forceful, we must recognize the different aspects of the state of Buddhahood.
How do we explain this never-ending continuation of a Buddha's existence? Let us look at our own mind. It is like a river Ч a flowing continuum of moments of mere knowing,
each leading to another moment of knowing. The stream of such moments of consciousness goes from hour to hour, from day to day, from year to year, and even, according to the Buddhist view, from lifetime to lifetime. Though our body cannot accompany us once our life force is exhausted, the moments of consciousness continue, through death and eventually into the next life, whatever form it may take. Each one of us possesses such a stream of consciousness. And it is both beginningless and endless. Nothing can stop it. In this sense it is unlike emotions such as anger or attachment, which can be made to cease by applying antidotes. Furthermore, the essential nature of the mind is said to be pure; its pollutants are removable, making the continuation of this purified mind eternal. Such a mind, free of all pollution, is a Buddha's truth body.
If we contemplate the state of full enlightenment in this way, our appreciation of the Buddha's magnitude grows, as does our faith. As we recognize the qualities of a Buddha, our aspiration to attain this state intensifies. We come to appreciate the value and necessity of being able to emanate different forms in order to assist infinite beings. This gives ' us the strength and determination to achieve the enlightened mind.
CHAPTER 15
GENERATING BODHICITTA
THE CEREMONY FOR generating the altruistic mind wishing enlightenment is a simple one. Its purpose is to reaffirm and stabilize our aspiration to attain Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. This reaffirmation is essential for enhancing the practice of compassion.