Into the Heart of Life (12 page)

Questions

Q: Can you speak of the four kinds of right effort in relation to cultivating our garden? We uproot negative emotions; we don’t let them come up again; we cultivate the good. What is the fourth right effort?

JTP: The fourth right effort is about encouraging the future good plants to come. You uproot all the weeds, and you stop future weeds. Likewise, you take care of the good plants that are there, and you encourage future good plants to arise. It is very important, as we come to recognize our faults and take measures to deal with them, that we also appreciate the goodness in ourselves—the good things, the things which are going right, and to
encourage
those, because if we don’t encourage the good, then like a plant with no sunlight or water, the goodness just grows spindly.

In all schools of Buddhism, after regretting and feeling remorse for the wrong that we have done, we should also rejoice and encourage ourselves in all the good that we have done, not in order to become proud but in order to restore a kind of balance within ourselves. If we only zero in on all the wrong within us, then that undercuts our own self-esteem, our own confidence, and our own appreciation that we also have good qualities. If we lived always with a companion who was endlessly pointing out our faults but never ever encouraged us to notice the good things, then that would be a very unpleasant sort of companion. A good companion, of course, from time to time, points out our faults so that we can correct them. But they also give us some compliments, too, to encourage us to do better. In Buddhism it is not regarded as a virtue to see oneself constantly as a poor, helpless sinner. We are bodhisattvas on the path, with the potential for enlightenment glowing within us.

Q: Jetsunma, I have a question related to your nunnery. In the documentary film
Cave in the Snow
and in the slide presentation, the
togdenma
tradition was mentioned. Could you tell us a little bit more about that?

JTP: In our monastery at Tashi Jong, called Khampagar, they have a tradition which they brought from Tibet, of what are called
togdens,
or realized ones. They are monks who go into long-term retreat to practice especially the Six Yogas of Naropa. They are taken out of the monastery and disappear. The image which I use is that of making bread. First you have the dough, which you put in a hot oven. You close the oven door, and then you leave the dough in there until it is completely cooked, because if you take it out when it is half-baked, then it will just collapse, and will be unpalatable. But if you leave the dough in the oven until it is completely cooked all the way through, then when you take it out as bread, it does not collapse, and is both delicious and nourishing. So these yogis, when they are finally released, so to say, and are seen again, they not only have actual realizations but their realizations are stabilized.

My lama, the previous Khamtrul Rinpoche, at one time said to me there were also females of this lineage in Tibet, but due to the events there, that lineage was broken; and he always prayed that I would re-establish this very precious female lineage. So I went to Amdo in Tibet to meet the head of the Drukpa lineage who was a very old lama called Adeu Rinpoche, to request him to give this transmission to some of our nuns. He knew about this, and he agreed to do so, although he said it would take six months to give the transmission. Unfortunately the next year he died. So now we are trying to get the transmission through the present Khamtrul Rinpoche. There are problems, but eventually it will happen. It has to do with the fact that the female and male lineages are slightly different. But in the meantime, we do have five nuns who are in a three-year retreat, and they are being taught by our most senior togden. At least we have started.

Q: The second part of my question relates to the bhikshuni ordination. I have just read in a German magazine that Venerable Thubten Chodron in the United States has started to give full ordination, and I wonder what the situation is in your nunnery. How do you deal with the subject?

JTP: As to the bhikshuni lineage, at the moment this is not happening in the Tibetan tradition. The main problem is that there is a lot of opposition from the monks. So without the sense of consensus from the monastic order, the higher lamas don’t want to go forward. I should explain to those who do not know what we are talking about: in Tibet, nuns can only receive the novice ordination; they cannot receive the full ordination. However, many nuns have been studying now for fifteen, eighteen, twenty years. And they have not received any kind of official recognition or degree. Some of the nuns now want to become geshes and khenmos, and they really hope for this. His Holiness the Dalai Lama said, “Yes, it is right: you should get this.” But in a recent meeting in Dharamsala, certain lamas, geshes, said of the nuns, “No, they can never become geshes because they are not fully ordained, and since they are not fully ordained, they cannot become geshes.” So that is it. Because the nuns are not fully ordained, they cannot study the monastic code and be examined on it.

So I am hoping because of this total rejection the nuns will now say, “We want to be geshes. We have studied for eighteen years; we have a right. And if it means we have to have full ordination, then we are going for it.” If they push, then something might happen.

Q: You said renunciation is difficult to attain, but monastics already have some renunciation when they take their vows. It seems a bit of a contradiction to me.

JTP: All these qualities which are praised are simply ways for us to aspire. Of course renunciation is difficult, but we can renounce. Of course bodhichitta is difficult, but we can develop it. If it were impossible, spiritual masters would not tell us to do it.

Q: You said it was difficult for lay people and for monastics to develop renunciation?

JTP: Of course renunciation is easier if you are renounced, and that is why the Buddha started the sangha. But it does not mean that as lay people you cannot also practice contentment through having fewer possessions. Practicing the joy of giving and of sharing is also a form of renunciation. And the ultimate renunciation is the renunciation of our self-concern, our self-grasping mind. In this, monks and nuns are in as bad trouble as lay people, I assure you.

Q: My question relates to your teaching about anger. I have experienced a difficult situation of anger arising. I felt the anger, but somehow I could not step back far enough to let it go. Do you have a certain technique, or what advice would you give in this way?

JTP: Of course anger is something that comes up again and again in people’s lives, and so there are a number of techniques. But as with every technique, it does not always work the first time. You have to practice. The best method, and one which Longchen Rabjam would definitely approve of, is that at the moment of anger arising—at the very moment it arises—if we recognize it, then the anger transforms of itself into a very powerful wisdom energy. This is a very tricky thing, though, because normally by the time we have discovered that we are angry, the anger is already quite developed. We didn’t see it at the first bare moment.

Of course the traditional way to work with anger is to recognize that our anger is also—and really this is an important thing to remember—our opportunity to develop patience. Anybody who has a problem with anger definitely should read the chapter on patience in Shantideva’s
Bodhicharyavatara (The Way of the Bodhisattva)
. If we don’t have anybody, or any situation, which upsets us, we can never learn how to deal skillfully with our anger. Forbearance and patience are very important qualities to develop. Therefore, instead of resenting and getting angry with someone who annoys us, we should feel gratitude because this is our opportunity to start putting all these ideas into actual practice. These ideas of the Dharma are very wonderful, but if they just stay up in the head, they are not going to help at all. So we really have to look at what our weaknesses are. As I say again and again, it is like going to a gymnasium. At a gymnasium, a trainer will look at you and immediately point out your weak parts. And those are the bits he will get you to work on. So therefore, a particular weak spot where, for example, we get angry easily, or jealous, or greedy—that is our opportunity. That is our good fortune. We can really make a difference by dealing with the problem and turning it around.

That is why our biggest challenges are our greatest opportunities. In addition, if you have somebody or something habitually pressing your buttons, then when you are sitting in meditation and you are nice and calm, you can replay the situation again. And while you are quiet you can really see how it was, and then you can rewrite the script. Where did it start to go wrong? One needs to do that again and again. You do see a certain pattern, and what we need to do is to start reworking the pattern. As one’s awareness becomes stronger, when anger arises, one recognizes it—
I am angry.
And one accepts that. And then one lets it go. It takes work, but it can happen.

One of the most beautiful togdens in our monastery, whom everybody loved—he was so completely loving, his eyes just beamed with love—had once been a monk who was so angry and so nasty that the other monks finally said to him, “You know, either you train to be a togden or you leave the monastery.” So then he really worked on his mind. He really practiced a lot of lojong, mind-training; he really worked hard on compassion, and in the end he became the most loving being.

We can change. It is very important to realize that our biggest flaw is our greatest opportunity to transform.

Q: Is there a kind of destiny or calling for us humans? One practices Dharma, and there is the feeling of being destined to do something. The second part of my question is about the power of positive thoughts. How strong is the power of positive thought, and is it a form of attachment?

JTP: As to the idea of a calling, of course from a Buddhist point of view, that would be the result of very strong imprints from past lives. For example, if someone had in many lifetimes been a musician, then probably he would in this lifetime have a calling toward music; or if someone had spent many lives on a spiritual path, then they would in this life again be drawn to spiritual teachings from an early age.

As to positive and negative thinking, certainly it has now been proved that if we have very negative emotions in our mind, such thinking affects every cell in our body. So it is very likely, if negative thinking does not make us actually ill, that it certainly does not help in our healing process. Likewise, positive emotions and positive thoughts have a positive effect on the cells of our body and could help in a healing process.

We are all inwardly very interconnected. Every cell of our body has an intelligence. And our thoughts and feelings have very strong repercussions outside our brains. Clearly on a very practical level, even if we are very sick, to dwell in positive thoughts is much nicer than to dwell in negative thoughts. Positive thoughts bring happiness, and negative thoughts bring suffering. Even though the body may be suffering, there is no reason for the mind to suffer. Sending positive thoughts throughout one’s body and out into the universe seems to me like good common sense. I don’t see why it is attachment. I think right now the world is in great need of positive good thinking.