.......For as long as space exists
And sentient beings endure,
May I too remain,
To dispel the misery of the world.
***
There is no evil like hatred, And no fortitude like patience.
Thus I should strive in various ways To meditate on patience.
My mind will not experience peace If it fosters painful thoughts
of hatred. I shall find no joy or happiness; Unable to sleep,
I shall feel unsettled.
***
Having found its fuel of mental unhappiness In the prevention
of what I wish for And in the doing of what I do not want,
Hatred increases and then destroys me.
Therefore I should totally eradicate The fuel of this enemy;
For this enemy has no other function Than that of causing
me harm.
***
If in those who encounter me An unfaithful or an angry thought
arises, May that eternally become the source For fulfilling
all their wishes.
May all who say bad things to me Or cause me harm, And those
who mock and insult me Have the fortune to fully awaken.
May I be a protector to those without
protection A leader for those who journey And a boat, a bridge,
a passage For those desiring the further shore.
May I be an island for those who seek one And a lamp for
those desiring light, May I be a bed for all who wish to rest
And a slave for all who want a slave.
May I be a wishing jewel, a magic vase, Powerful mantras
and great medicine, May I become a wish-fulfilling tree And
a cow of plenty for the world.
Just like space And the great elements such as earth, May
I always support the life Of all the boundless creatures.
And until they pass away from pain May I also be the source
of life For all the realms of varied beings That reach until
the end of space.
***
May the pain of every living creature Be completely cleared
away.
May I be the doctor and the medicine
And may I be the nurse For all sick beings in the world Until
everyone is healed.
May a rain of food and drink descend To clear away the pain
of thirst and hunger And during the aeon of famine May I myself
change into food and drink.
May I become an inexhaustible treasure For those who are
poor and destitute; May I turn into all things they could
need And may these be placed close beside them.
Without any sense of loss I shall give up my body and enjoyments
As well as all my virtues of the three times For the sake
of benefiting them all. By giving up all, sorrow is transcended
and my mind will realise the sorrowless state.
It is best that I now give everything to all beings In
the same way as I shall at death.
***
For as long as space exists And sentient
beings endure, May I too remain, To dispel the misery of the
world.
References
From the Bodhisattvacharyavatara by Shantideva (Guide
to a Bodhisattva’s Way of Life)
translated by Steven Batchelor (©Library of Tibetan Works
and Archives, 1979)
Basics of Buddhism - The Four Noble Truths
From Anthony Flanagan,
Your Guide to Buddhism - About.com
The starting point for understanding Buddhism is the Buddha's
teaching on the
Four Noble Truths. In his early life, despite the pleasures
that were readily available to him, the Buddha saw that the
world was a place of suffering or 'unsatisfactoriness'. Whatever
happiness could be attained could not withstand the inevitable
onslaught of old age, sickness and death.
- Suffering or dukkha is the first noble truth that in his
search for enlightenment the Buddha came to see very clearly.
As human beings, suffering is part of our lives, whether
physical, mental or emotional. More fundamentally, there
is a sense within us that life cannot bring lasting satisfaction.
Life is impermanent and ever-changing, and any happiness
that we enjoy is unstable. But why is this so?
- Craving or tanha is the second noble truth. If we suffer
it is a result of selfish desire - wanting to satisfy our
senses with pleasurable experiences and wanting to avoid
what is unpleasant. This craving is also connected with
bolstering our sense of ourselves as having a permanent
self rather than a personality which is subject to change.
- The end of suffering is Nibbana, the third Noble Truth.
Buddhism would be a bleak religion if it stopped at the
first two truths. When he attained enlightenment, the Buddha
saw and experienced that there was an end to suffering,
a place of ultimate peace and understanding. He taught that
this state was here and now and could be experienced through
following the right path.
- The Noble Eightfold
Path, the Fourth Noble Truth (ariya-sacca), is the Buddha's
practical method for attaining Nibbana. In short, the Noble
Eightfold Path requires us to develop wisdom,
morality and meditation. All three are necessary and
inform each other. The eight factors that make up this path
are: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right
action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness
and right concentration.
The Four Noble Truths are the bedrock of the Buddha's teaching
and unite the different schools of Buddhism and their differing
practices.
His Holiness The XVII Karmapa has generously left an exquisite example of Tibetan Calligraphy at the Nalandabodhi Centre of Vancouver BC.
The first noble truth is dukkha, the starting point for Buddhism's
penetrating analysis of man's condition. Of course, you don't
need to be a Buddhist to know that suffering is a part of
human life. We all suffer in various ways. Sometimes this
suffering is physical; at other times emotional. Sometimes
it is mental suffering, feeling frustrated or unfulfilled.
It is very rare for any of us to go through the day without
experiencing some form of suffering. Birth is suffering, old
age is suffering, sickness and death are suffering. Indeed,
the general unsatisfactoriness that we often feel is also
suffering.
Beyond Palace Walls
It was this basic awareness of suffering that impelled Siddhattha
to leave his palace, his life of luxury and even his wife
and child. As the traditional story has it, before the Buddha
was born, it was predicted that he would either be a great
monarch or a holy man. His father, Suddhodhana, fearing that
his son would forsake his inheritance, endeavored to provide
him with as much pleasure as possible, hoping to shield him
from suffering. Of course, this proved impossible. On his
excursions beyond the palace walls, Siddhattha encountered
a sick man, an aged man, and a corpse, three of what are known
as the 'four sights'. The fourth person he encountered was
a holy man.
The Buddha, therefore, gave up all he had to find out if
life could offer anything more than temporary pleasure, old
age, sickness and death. The sight of the holy man offered
some hope. Perhaps this was a way of getting to the cause
of this suffering and find an escape from it. Perhaps there
was an answer...
The beginning and the end
Of course, the Buddha did find an answer, that our destiny
doesn't have to be suffering. First he saw that suffering
was caused by craving or tanha, the second noble truth. Our
desire for sensuous things, our clinging to things that are
by their nature impermanent, were what led us again and again
into suffering. He also saw that there was state beyond suffering,
Nibbana - the third noble truth - and that this could be attained
by following the noble eightfold path, the fourth noble truth.
If Buddhism was a pessimistic religion, it would have got
no further than suffering. In fact, Buddhism is anything but
a pessimistic religion. It faces suffering head on and says
'let us have no illusions about life'. Yet it also teaches
that there is a place beyond suffering, Nibbana. The Buddhist
path starts with suffering and ends with suffering in the
sense that suffering is brought to an end!
Craving
Logical approach
Buddhism takes a very logical approach in its analysis of
the human condition. In the first noble truth, the Buddha
explained that existence is suffering, that this suffering
takes various forms and that even material happiness, health
and good fortune carry within them the seeds of suffering.
Such happiness cannot be maintained as sickness, old age and
death are inevitable. But where does this suffering come from?
The second noble truth offers an explanation. According to
the Buddha, suffering comes from craving or tanha. This is
sometimes translated as 'desire'. Such craving is deep-rooted
but if we are to reach nibbana it needs to be uprooted. Destroy
craving and you bring an end to suffering - it's as simple
as that. Well, in theory at least. Of course, getting rid
of craving is no easy matter. If you can spend a little time
observing your thoughts you will soon realize how much on
a day to day level craving is present; indeed, how often it
is the force behind what we do or say.
Sensuous Desire
Craving can take many forms, from something fairly trivial
such as 'I must have that chocolate bar!' to more addictive
patterns of behavior that can be seen in alcohol and drug
dependency. More generally, tanha equates to sensuous desire,
our constant impulsion to gratify our senses with things that
are pleasant - attractive sights, sounds, tastes and smells;
things nice to the touch. At an instinctual level, it also
includes sexual desire which is one of the reasons why Buddhist
monks and nuns take a vow of celibacy. Of course, it is not
just a matter of attraction but also aversion, shunning things
that are unpleasant or unattractive.
If you try to imagine someone trying to walk along a straight
road, at the end of which is his home. To his left and right
there are many attractive sights - beautiful buildings, pleasant
company, lovely things to eat and drink! In front of him are
various obstacles, things that are unpleasant to touch and
see. His natural impulse is to stray off the path, to enjoy
the pleasant things on the side of the road and avoid the
unpleasant things in his way. If he does this, however, he
will never find his way home.
So it is with craving. If we allow it to dominate us we go
through life pursuing pleasant sensations and avoiding what
is unpleasant we will never find peace. The Buddha teaches
us to deal with what is and not to be guided by our likes
and dislikes. This is very difficult because since we were
children we have often worked according to this principle:
move towards what is pleasant, avoid what is unpleasant. The
danger here is that we are constantly seeing the world from
a very narrow perspective - the world as a playground for
gratifying our desires, giving this 'self' or 'ego' exactly
what it wants. In Buddhism, true happiness can never be found
this way.
Getting Rid
But how do we get rid of something so deep rooted in our
psychological make-up? In Buddhism, there are various ways
of tackling the problem of craving. One is generosity or dana.
In giving - providing there are no ulterior motives - we are
acting in the opposite direction to craving. We are moving
away from acting egocentrically to operating altruistically.
Similarly, with loving-kindness or metta we are thinking of
others, wishing them happiness without discrimination. And
meditation is also important. In this we start to analyze
and breakdown this illusion of 'me' as a confused conglomeration
of desires and wants. We learn to note when we are motivated
by greed or aversion and the noting of them can help dissolve
their power over us.
Nibbana (Nirvana)
A World Beyond Words
One of the basic questions of any Buddhist is 'What is Nibbana?'
A simple question but not an easy one to answer. This is because,
in a sense, it's a question that doesn't have an answer. The
answer is in the experience - beyond words, beyond concepts,
like all mystical experiences, ineffable. A state - if we
can use the word 'state' - that is far beyond our normal consciousness.
This does not mean, however, that we can't discuss Nibbana
in a meaningful way.
The Ultimate Goal
Most importantly, Nibbana is the ultimate goal of Buddhism,
the third Noble truth, the culmination of the Noble Eightfold
Path. It signifies the end of craving (tanha) and therefore
the end of suffering (dukkha). The word 'Nibbana' literally
means 'extinction' (from the Sanskrit Nirvana meaning 'to
cease blowing', 'to be extinguished'). Nibbana then, is sometimes
referred to as being 'like a flame that has gone out'. More
poetically, it is referred to as 'the cool cave', a simile
which would have had a lot of resonance in the Buddha's time,
the cave being a shelter from the hot Indian sun. At other
times it is referred to in rather negative terms - 'the unborn',
'the uncreated' - to avoid the conceptualization that we are
prone to. More positively, it is also seen as the highest
bliss, as the supreme security from bondage, the ultimate
liberation from the world of suffering and the round of rebirths.
(See what the scriptures say).
King Milinda
Despite the difficulty of putting Nibbana into words, the
questions of the Greek King Milinda to the monk Nagasena lead
to some useful insights. Along with other metaphors, the venerable
monk likens Nibbana to a lotus - just as the lotus is unstained
by the water, Nibbana is unstained by defilements. Nibbana
is also likened to medicine - just as medicine protects one
from poisons, Nibbana protects one from the passions. Of course,
elsewhere Nibbana is referred to as the highest peace, a state
of perfect bliss - but even when we use these descriptions
we are still falling short of what Nibbana must be.
Getting There!
To reach Nibbana one must cultivate the highest virtue and
practice meditation with great diligence. The path isn't always
an easy one. It requires constant practice, steely determination
and great courage! Perhaps the best thing to do is not to
think about Nibbana too much and concentrate on practicing
in the right way. As the Dalai Lama advises:
'I myself feel, and
also tell other Buddhists that the question of Nirvana will
come later. There is not much hurry. If in day to day life
you lead a good life, honesty, with love, with compassion,
with less selfishness, then automatically it will lead to
Nirvana.'
The Buddha taught that the world is a place
suffering, that there is cause for this suffering, which is
craving, and an escape from or end to suffering, which is
Nibbana. These are the first three noble truths. First there
is an analysis of our present state. Second, the Buddha explains
the cause of this sorry state we are in. Third, he promises
a place beyond suffering which can be realized in the near
or distant future, depending on our own efforts. The missing
link, of course, is how do we achieve this place of peace
in which all craving and suffering have come to an end? The
answer to this question is provided by the fourth noble truth,
the Noble Eightfold Path.
Three Strands
The eight factors of the Noble Eightfold Path
(often symbolized by a wheel consisting of eight spokes) can
be grouped into three strands - wisdom, morality and concentration.
Wisdom consists of two factors, Right Understanding and Right
Thought. The first of these is to do with developing an understanding
of the Buddha's principal teachings, including the four noble
truths, the law of kamma (good deeds lead to happy states,
bad deeds to miserable ones) and the three marks of existence
(suffering, impermanence and not-self). Right Thought is thought
free form ill-will, cruelty and lust.
Morality
Like all other religions, Buddhism encourages
its followers to adhere to a robust moral code. In the Noble
Eightfold Path, this is represented by Right Speech, Right
Action and Right Livelihood. Consequently a Buddhist endeavors
to abstain from lying, harsh or malicious speech, gossip and
tale-bearing. Similarly, by Right Action, a Buddhist abstains
from killing (including animals), stealing and unlawful sexual
intercourse. The last of these would include rape, cheating
on your partner and visiting prostitutes. Right Livelihood
would preclude any occupations that would involve the breaking
of the five precepts. Consequently, jobs which involve killing
(a butcher, for example) or drinking (a publican) would be
seen as unwholesome.
Concentration
The final three factors, Right Effort, Right
Mindfulness and Right Concentration can be classed under the
umbrella term 'Concentration'. Right Effort involves avoiding
or overcoming unwholesome states and developing and maintaining
wholesome states. For example, you decide to avoid losing
your temper and instead develop and maintain a sense of equanimity.
Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration relate to two approaches
to meditation that are seen as vital to one's spiritual development.
Without meditation, nibbana can't be won - morality and understanding
on their own are not enough. In fact, all three strands, all
eight factors are necessary.
Own Efforts
Although the way to nibbana is described as
a 'path', this does not mean that each of the eight factors
needs to be followed in sequence. For example, one doesn't
perfect Right Thought, then Right Understanding, followed
by Right Speech. All parts of the path can be worked on concurrently.
At the same time that one is developing Right Understanding,
one can also be working on Right Speech and Right Concentration.
In the Theravada tradition, the significance of the Eightfold
Path is that it offers a practical path to Enlightenment based
on one's own efforts rather than reliance on a celestial being.
If you want to read
the words of the Buddha (his own words) then you will need
to read the Dhammapada.
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