Mingyur Rinpoche: A True Yogi

In early June, 2011, Mingyur Rinpoche left his monastery in Bodhgaya, India to begin a period of extended solitary retreat. He departed in the middle of the night without telling anyone. He did not take any money or belongings, just the clothes he was wearing. The day after he left, his close friend and attendant, Lama Soto, found this letter in Mingyur Rinpoche's room.

"I write this letter to all the wise and pure-intentioned individuals who rely on me, both the monastic communities and lay practitioners throughout India, Nepal, and Tibet.

From a young age, I have harbored the wish to stay in retreat and practice, wandering from place to place without any fixed location. I also received an ocean of instructions from my glorious and kind root gurus. Though I have attempted to stay in retreat and practice, I have passed the rest of my time in laziness and diversions, letting my life come to nothing more than a distraction.

I have made a firm decision, based on the advice of the great masters of times past and my own heart's desire, to, as the example goes, take the reins into my own hands. Our lives are as fragile as a bubble and the activities of this life are as endless as the waves of the ocean. Yet whatever we do, we should rely upon and place our hopes in the Buddha's sacred and divine teachings. It is the Dharma that will benefit both us and other sentient beings. For this and other reasons, I have become disillusioned with the experiences of this life.

With genuine conviction in the lineage and instructions I have received, along with a motivation to be of benefit to others, various causes and conditions have prompted me to make the decision to wander alone, without fixed location, in remote mountain ranges. Though I do not claim to be like the great masters of times past, I am now embarking on this journey as a mere reflection of these teachers, as a faithful imitation of the example they set. For a number of years, my training will consist of simply leaving behind my connections, so please do not be upset with my decision.

As I have recommended before, throughout this period it is important to study, contemplate, and meditate. With a sense of harmony and pure discipline as a basis, it is important to study and contemplate the traditional scriptures of the Buddhist tradition, and [to learn] the traditions, practices, fields of knowledge, and other disciplines [taught in our lineage]. It is especially important to not always focus your attention outward, but to apply the teachings to your own mind. You should calm and pacify your own mindstream. It is important to bring benefit to the Buddha's teachings and to your fellow sentient beings.

There is no need to worry about me. After a few years, we will meet again and, as before, gather together as teacher and student to enjoy a feast of the Dharma. Until that time, I will continually pray to the Three Jewels and make aspirations on your behalf."

Tulku Mingyur


What an inspiration!

 

Dharma Moment will return at the end of August

Due to my summer retreat schedule, Dharma Moment will return at the end of August. Enjoy the rest of your summer!

With metta,
Lisa

No Concepts For The Ultimate

"The Buddha declared the following: 'There is a world, but there is no birth and there is no death, there is no high and low, no being and no nonbeing.' If that world is not there, how could the world of birth and death, the world of being and nonbeing, be possible? He was talking about the ultimate dimension; but all he said was a few words because we cannot use concepts and words with regard to the ultimate."

Thich Nhat Hanh, True Love

Going Beyond Conceptual Constructs

"We all relate to the concept of table.   It represents an object with properties shared with all kinds of things we call table: wood table, iron table, coffee table, etc. This is a mental concept. The concept does not arise from the side of the table itself, but is part of our linguistic construction of table.

In reality there is no actual table that shares all the properties of every other table. We assume a common 'table-ness,' but that essence is a fiction. The representation  of the table in the conceptual mind is separate from the 'real' table, and furthermore this fictional entity, 'table,' that we hold is superimposed over any real individual table we are investigating. Our experience of a table is predominately a projection an abstract generality.

That does not mean the table does not exist. The object we call 'table' sitting in front of us at this moment does not exist, but the 'table' of our conceptual mind only exists as a generality, because it is a mere conceptual construct."

Geshe Tashi Tsering, Buddhist Psychology

Anyone who has read the work of the great Western philosopher, Kant, knows that labeling and our penchant for understanding experience only through our conceptual labels of things is the glue which  confers upon all things the feeling of 'realness' and reinforces our perception of what the Hindus call Maya, the great delusion of manifestation. Heidegger, another brilliant Western philosopher asked us to allow the 'things-in-themselves' to present themselves to us just as they are: a very Buddhist instruction.

In a similar way, the great Buddhist philosophers like Dharmakirti asked us to go beyond our assumptive way of perceiving all external phenomena as solid and separate from the self we perceive as internal, solid and separate, and arrive at the reality of interdependence of all phenomena as mutually existent and empty of inherent separateness.

In Buddhist psychology, recognizing directly, not intellectually, how we interare, is the key element for going beyond the conceptual constructs that feed all forms of mental and emotional human suffering.

Freed from That Grueling Aceticism!

When the Blessed One was alone in seclusion, a reflection arose in his mind,
"I am indeed freed from that grueling asceticism!
It is good indeed that steady and mindful
I have attained enlightenment.

Having known as useless any austerity
Aimed at the immortal state,
That all such penances are futile
Like oars and rudder on dry land.

By developing the path to enlightenment
Virtue, concentration, and wisdom
I have attained supreme purity"
Mara (delusion) You're defeated, End-maker."

                                                                      Buddha, Marasamyutta, 1

It is well known that when the Buddha left his father's palace in search of the truth, he spent about six years as a wandering ascetic, practicing all manner of the most extreme austerities which were the accepted yogic path in his time. By the end of these years, the Buddha was physically wasted and no nearer, he felt, to the freedom from suffering he sought. In this passage, the Buddha celebrates his decision to end his ascetic practices, feed his body to regain strength, choose to sit under the Bodhi Tree, and practice the dharmic path of virtue and concentration until he freed his mind and gained the ultimate wisdom of enlightenment.

The Goal of Shamatha

"The goal of attention, or shamatha, practice is to become of aware of awareness. Awareness is the basis of what you might call the 'support' of the mind. It is steady and unchanging, like the pole to which the flag of ordinary consciousness is attached. When we recognize and become grounded in awareness of awareness, the 'wind' of emotion many still blow. But instead of being carried away by the wind, we turn our attention inward, watching the shifts and changes with the intention of becoming familiar with that aspect of consciousness which recognizes, Oh, this is what I'm feeling, this is what I'm thinking. As we do so, a bit of space opens up within us. With practice, that space which is the mind's natural clarity begins to expand and settle. We can being to watch our thoughts and emotions without necessarily being affected by them quite as powerfully or vividly as we're used to."

Mingyur Rinpoche, Joyful Wisdom

And cultivating this spaciousness of mind is the ultimate goal of all Buddhist practice, even the heart practices of lovingkindness and compassion.

Mind

"The restless, agitated mind,
Hard to protect, hard to control,
The sage makes straight,
As a fletcher the shaft of an arrow.

The mind, hard to control,
Flighty — alighting where it wishes —
One does well to tame.
The disciplined mind brings happiness."
                                                            Buddha, Dhammapada

We all know this mind.... too well.

Dichotomies 3

"One who recites but a few teachings
Yet lives according to the Dharma,
Abandoning passion, ill will, and delusion
Not clinging in this life, or the next,
Attains the benefits of the contemplative life."
                                                   Buddha, Dhammapada

So simple. So hard to do....

Dichotomies 2

"Those who consider the inessential to be essential
And see the essential as inessential
Don't reach the essential,
Living in the field of wrong intention."
Buddha, Dhammapada

Wow, so much clarity in so few words. Right intention arises from the right view of emptiness, the essential nature of all things.

Dichotomies 1

"Many do not realize that
We here must die.
For those who realize this,
Quarrels end."

                       Buddha, Dhammapada

Amazingly we live thinking that death is not possible in any moment. Those who do fully embrace impermanence are freed from clinging to permanence in all things. Struggling ends there.