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

MEDITATING ON COMPASSION
99 NINE
CULTIVATING EQUANIMITY
TEN BODHICITTA
117
ELEVEN
CALM ABIDING
127 TWEEVE
THE NINE STAGES OF CALM ABIDING MEDITATION
139 THIRTEEN
WISDOM
147
FOURTEEN
BUDDHAHOOD
161
FIFTEEN
GENERATING BODHICITTA
169 AFTERWORD
BY KHYONGLA RATO AND RICHARD GERE
181
PHOTO CREDITS 191
FOREWORD BY NICHOLAS VREELAND
IN BUDDHISM COMPASSION is defined as the wish that all beings be free of their suffering. Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to rid the world of its misery. We cannot take the task upon ourselves, and there is no magic wand to transform affliction into happiness. Yet we can develop our own minds in virtue and thereby help others to do the same. In August 1999 His Holiness the Dalai Lama was invited by The Tibet Center and The Gere Foundation to give a series of talks in New York City. This book is drawn from those talks. In the following pages His Holiness the Dalai Lama shows how we can open our hearts and develop true and lasting compassion toward all beings. His Holi-ness's entire life has been a testament to the power of open-heartedness. His own spiritual training began when he was just a child. Upon being recognized as the reincarnation of
the thirteenth Dalai Lama at the age of two, he was taken from his home in northeastern Tibet to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. He assumed temporal rule of Tibet at sixteen and was forced to put his beliefs in nonviolence and tolerance to the most extreme of tests as the Communist Chinese army brutally invaded his country. He did his best to protect his people and keep his aggressors at bay while also pursuing his studies and his practice of the Buddha's path to salvation.
In 1959, as the Chinese Communist forces prepared to bomb his summer palace, the twenty-five-year-old Dalai Lama fled his country. More than 100,000 Tibetans followed him. Living in India and throughout the world, they now devote themselves to an extraordinary nonviolent campaign for Tibetan freedom. From the Indian town of Dharamsala, nestled in the foothills of the Himalaya, His Holiness has established a democratic government to serve his people Ч those still in Tibet, the great number who live in Indian refugee settlements, and those in other countries. His Holiness has worked hard to preserve all aspects of Tibetan culture, but at the center of his efforts is Tibet's spiritual tradition, for in Tibet, spirituality and culture are inseparable. He has maintained his own practice of study,
contemplation, and meditation and has tirelessly taught the Buddhist path to people throughout the world. He has devoted great effort to the reestablishment of monasteries, nunneries, and their traditional curricula of study and practice, all in the service of keeping alive the way of understanding outlined by Buddhism's founder, Shakya-muni Buddha.
The story of Buddhism's birth is familiar to many. In the fifth century B.C., Prince Shakyamuni led a privileged life in his father's kingdom in what is now Nepal. While still a young man, Shakyamuni came to recognize the pointless-ness of his comfortable life. Witnessing old age, illness, and death among his people, he began to see through the deceptive veils of comfort and worldly happiness. One night the recently married prince left his palace, as well as his wife and young son. He cut off his hair with his sword and set off into the jungle in pursuit of freedom from the worldly life and the miseries that he now understood were inextricably associated with it.
The young renunciate soon came across five ascetics, with whom he spent many years practicing strict meditation and other austerities. But ultimately he realized that this was not bringing him any closer to his goal of wisdom
and enlightenment, so he left his companions behind. Having broken with their severe ways, he now decided to devote himself to a search for ultimate truth. He sat beneath the Bodhi Tree, vowing not to move until he had attained this goal of final realization. After much perseverance, Prince Shakyamuni was successful. He saw the true way all phenomena exist and thereby attained the fully enlightened and omniscient state of a Buddha.
Shakyamuni Buddha rose from his meditation and wandered through northern India until he once again encountered his five ascetic companions. They were initially determined not to acknowledge his presence, as they believed that he had renounced their true spiritual way. However, the glow of his enlightened state so affected them that they beseeched him to share his discovery. The Buddha then propounded the Four Noble Truths: the truth of suffering, its origin, the possibility of its cessation, and the path leading to that cessation. The Buddha showed the true nature of our miserable state. He taught the causes that bring about this situation. He established the existence of a state in which our suffering and its causes come to an end, and then taught the method by which to achieve this state.
While in New York City, His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave three days of teachings at the Beacon Theatre. The subject of these talks centered on the Buddhist methods by which one achieves ultimate enlightenment. He wove together the contents of two texts, the Middle-Length Stages of Meditation by the eighth-century Indian master Kama-lashila and The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas by the fourteenth-century Tibetan practitioner Togmay Sangpo.
Stages of Meditation was composed when the thirty-third Tibetan king, Trisong Detsen, invited its Indian author to Tibet in order to defend the analytical approach to Buddhist practice favored in the great Indian monastic universities of Nalanda and Vikramalasila. This form of Buddhism, introduced into Tibet by Kamalashila's master, Shantarakshita, was being challenged by Hashang, a Chinese monk propounding a view that discouraged any mental activity. In order to establish which form of Buddhism would be followed in Tibet, a debate was held before the king. In the debate between Kamalashila and Hashang, Kamalashila was able to irrefutably establish the importance of mental reasoning in spiritual development and was thereby proclaimed the winner. To commemorate his
victory, the king requested that he compose a text establishing his position. He wrote a long, a medium, and a short form of Stages of Meditation.
Kamalashila's text outlines clearly and concisely what have been called the "vast" and "profound" stages of the path to highest enlightenment. Though often overlooked in Tibet, the book has immense value, and His Holiness has devoted much effort to bring it to the world beyond.
The second text, The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhi-sattvas, is a concise and clear description of how to live a life dedicated to others. Its author, Togmay Sangpo, inspires us to change our habitual selfish tendencies and to instead act in recognition of our dependence upon our fellow beings. Togmay Sangpo himself led the life of a simple monk, selflessly devoting himself to others through the practice of opening his heart to love and compassion.
Throughout these talks, translator Geshe Thubten Jinpa admirably expressed the subtle aspects of Buddhist philosophy taught by His Holiness while also conveying the loving humor always present in his teachings.
On the last day of His Holiness s visit, a Sunday morning, more than 200,000 people congregated in Central Parks East Meadow to hear him speak on Eight Verses on
Training the Mind, a poem by the eleventh-century Tibetan sage Langri Tangpa. Speaking in English, His Holiness conveyed his views on the importance of respecting our neighbors, our compatriots, our fellow nations, and all of humanity. He shared his way of transforming pride into humility and anger into love. He expressed his concern for the divide between rich and poor. He ended by leading a prayer for all beings to find happiness. The transcript of that Central Park talk follows in the introduction.
I hope and pray that this book may help all who read it in their search for happiness and that this happiness may in turn spread to others so that the hearts of all beings may in some way be opened.
INTRODUCTION CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK CITY, AUGUST 15,1999
BROTHERS AND SISTERS, GOOD MORNING. I BELIEVE THAT every human being has an innate desire for happiness and does not want to suffer. I also believe that the very purpose of life is to experience this happiness. I believe that each of us has the same potential to develop inner peace and thereby achieve happiness and joy. Whether we are rich or poor, educated or uneducated, black or white, from the East or the West, our potential is equal. We are all the same, mentally and emotionally. Though some of us have larger noses and the color of our skin may differ slightly, physically we are basically the same. The differences are minor. Our mental and emotional similarity is what is important.
We share troublesome emotions as well as the positive ones that bring us inner strength and tranquillity. I think
that it is important for us to be aware of our potential and let this inspire our self-confidence. Sometimes we look at the negative side of things and then feel hopeless. This, I think, is a wrong view.
I have no miracle to offer you. If someone has miraculous powers, then I shall seek this persons help. Frankly, I am skeptical of those who claim extraordinary powers. However, through training our minds, with constant effort, we can change our mental perceptions or mental attitudes. This can make a real difference in our lives.
If we have a positive mental attitude, then even when surrounded by hostility, we shall not lack inner peace. On the other hand, if our mental attitude is more negative, influenced by fear, suspicion, helplessness, or self-loathing, then even when surrounded by our best friends, in a nice atmosphere and comfortable surroundings, we shall not be happy. So, mental attitude is very important: it makes a real difference to our state of happiness.
I think that it is wrong to expect that our problems can be solved by money or material benefit. It is unrealistic to believe that something positive can come about merely from something external. Of course, our material situation
is important and helpful to us. However, our inner, mental attitudes are equally important Ч if not more so. We must learn to steer away from pursuing a life of luxury, as it is an obstacle to our practice.
It sometimes seems to me that it is the fashion for people to put too much emphasis on material development and neglect their inner values. We must therefore develop a better balance between material preoccupations and inner spiritual growth. I think it natural for us to act as social animals. Our good qualities are what I would call true human values. We should work at increasing and sustaining qualities like sharing with one another and caring for one another. We must also respect the rights of others. We thereby recognize that our own future happiness and welfare is dependent on the many other members of our society.
In my case, at the age of sixteen I lost my freedom, and at twenty-four I lost my country. I have been a refugee for the past forty years, with heavy responsibilities. As I look back, my life has not been easy. However, throughout all these years, I learned about compassion, about caring for others. This mental attitude has brought me inner strength. One of my favorite prayers is
So long as space remains,