Lam-rim 25: Nominal Gems; Actions for Training from “The All-Inclusive Text”

The Buddha is the ultimate source of safe direction. This is because the Buddhas are the only ones who have gotten rid of all of the obscurations. 

The Dharma and Sangha Gems are, to the extent that they refer to what occurs on the mental continuum of an arya with attainments less than those of a Buddha, the provisional sources of safe direction. 

There are also causal and resultant sources of safe direction. 

Causal sources of safe direction are those who have actually achieved liberation and enlightenment – the Triple Gem - and who act as causes to inspire us to go in their direction. 

Resultant sources of safe direction are the liberation and enlightenment that we have not yet attained and the Triple Gem that we will attain in the future. In other words, they are the true stoppings and the true pathway minds that we have not yet attained but which we are able to attain on the basis of Buddha-nature. 

So, when we talk about bodhichitta, we're looking at our future enlightenments that we have not yet attained and are aiming to achieve that. If we're looking in terms of safe direction, we're looking at the whole span of true stoppings and true pathway minds, starting from a state of an arya that we have not yet attained but which we are aiming to achieve. 

The last division of Gems is the Nominal Gems. The Nominal Gems are merely called “Gems.” They are not actual sources of refuge. 

• The Nominal Buddha Gem refers to the paintings and statues of Buddhas. 
• The Nominal Dharma Gem includes printed Dharma texts from any of the twelve categories of Dharma. 
• The Nominal Sangha Gem refers to an assembly of four or more fully ordained monks or fully ordained nuns. 

So, these are not actual Gems. We don’t worship the monks, nuns, statues, or books 

OK. What I'd like to focus on now are the various trainings that are involved in putting safe direction in our lives. One of the things that I find most sad is the way people tend to trivialize various aspects of the Dharma. The most fundamental aspect that people tend to trivialize is safe direction. What does it actually mean to take refuge, to have this safe direction in life? Is this something that is really significant and deep within us? One of the ways of analyzing that is by looking at the various trainings that follow having taken safe directions. 

So, what I would propose is that we go through these lists and examine ourselves in terms of each of them to see, "Am I really doing this,” and to see whether this is something that is meaningful in terms of being able to help us go in that safe direction. 

First, we have two sets of four actions: 

• One set is comprised of actions that are parallel to taking safe direction individually from (1) the Buddhas – there is one action for that; (2) the Dharma – there are two actions for that; and (3) the Sangha – there’s one action for that. 
• Then there are four actions that are parallel to taking safe direction from the three Gems as a whole.

Actions Parallel to Taking Safe Direction from the Three Gems Individually

Parallel to taking safe direction from the Buddhas is (1) committing ourselves wholeheartedly to a spiritual teacher. If we haven't yet found a personal teacher to direct our practice, the commitment here is to find one. 

This is a very serious point. On the Buddhist path, the spiritual teacher is essential. Buddhism is not something that we can learn just from reading books, searching the Internet, or by listening to audio files. We need a teacher. A spiritual teacher is not just someone who gives us information – that we can get from books, the Internet, etc. The spiritual teacher is someone who inspires us. So we're not just talking about getting information; we're talking about gaining inspiration. 

The teacher needs to be someone who embodies the teachings in some way. They at least need be really trying to put them into practice and to have achieved something along the path. It’s not necessary that they actually be Buddhas, that they be able to multiply their bodies into thousands of forms and so on – which would be a consequence of having had non-conceptual cognition of voidness. But they must be able to really move us. That inspiration is something that gives us strength. It's called the “root of the path.” The root is that through which a plant derives its strength and energy. Likewise, the teacher provides us with inspiration and energy, which helps us, as it says in the texts, “in the beginning, middle, and end of the path.” 

Many of us may not have personal teachers, but this commitment is to actually try to look for one. Now, most teachers are very busy. Certainly, the great lamas are. It would be quite difficult to get personal instructions from someone like that – His Holiness the Dalai Lama, for example. Those who do get personal instruction from them are those who are extremely serious in their practice. His Holiness the Dalai Lama does direct the people who are in lifetime retreats above Dharamsala. Occasionally, they come down to the palace for personal instruction from him. For those who are really super serious, these great teachers do make time. So, in order to find a teacher that is going to instruct us personally, we have to be really serious about our spiritual path. 

Now, obviously, going to a teacher and sitting in an audience with a thousand other people can be inspiring. We can even gain some sort of idea of what to practice. And that’s fine. It’s certainly better than not going at all. But, again, it's a question of how sincere we are about putting this direction in our lives and whether we are really going to try to achieve these goals. Are we sincerely working to gain liberation from uncontrollably recurring rebirth? Are we sincerely aiming to reach the enlightened state so that we can equally help every single living being in the universe? These are not light goals, and they are not to be trivialized. 

So, this is the first thing to examine: how serious are we about finding a spiritual teacher? It doesn't have to be the highest quality spiritual teacher, but it certainly should be someone who is qualified. There are lists of qualifications of a teacher in the texts. It's going to be nearly impossible to find someone who has all the qualifications, but the person should have most of the qualifications. At the very least, they should have more good qualities than negative ones.

Let’s reflect on that – how seriously we take finding a spiritual teacher, or, if we have already found one, how serious we are about committing ourselves wholeheartedly to that teacher. We haven't yet covered what it means to entrust ourselves to a teacher in terms of our attitudes, our actions, and so on, but let’s just think about how seriously we take this whole idea of committing ourselves to the teacher.

[meditation]

OK. To maintain a Dharma direction in our lives, there are two trainings: (1) studying the Buddhist teachings, and (2) focusing attention on those aspects of the teachings specifically for overcoming our disturbing emotions and attitudes. 

In general, we could say that all the teachings are aimed at and are leading us to overcome our disturbing emotions and attitudes, whether directly or indirectly. But, here, we are trying to focus our attention specifically on those aspects that will act as opponents, whether provisional or obliterating opponents, to our disturbing emotions and attitudes. 

So, how seriously are we studying the teachings, and how seriously are we looking to learn about those aspects that we can apply directly to ourselves in order to overcome anger, greed, attachment, hostility, jealousy, pride, naivety, etc? I think that we also have to examine what it means to study the teachings. What does it mean to study?

Participant: One has to analyze and familiarize.

Dr. Berzin: Excellent. So, it's not just to read. It's not just to sit and listen to a lecture. It's quite easy to read and listen to a lecture without retaining or even thinking about what one is reading or hearing.

Participant: Also, after that, it’s finding examples from our lives.

Dr. Berzin: Right. This is how we analyze. When we analyze, we have to examine not only in terms of logic – whether it makes sense in general, according to the laws of logic – but also in terms of our own lifetime experiences. In that way, we learn them. 

It's a very interesting question: what does it mean to know the Dharma, to know something?

Here, with the Dharma, to know it means to digest it, in a sense. It’s not just to know a fact about something, such as this type of meditation acts as an opponent for that. Instead, it’s to really understand something and to understand it on a deep level so that we are convinced that it is true. 

We have this term “to apprehend” something – at least that's the way that I translate it. It's defined as “to cognitively take an object of cognition both accurately and decisively.” In other words, it’s to know something with certainty, to be convinced that it is true. So, when we study the teachings and focus attention on those aspects that are aimed at overcoming our disturbing emotions, we have to not just memorize the list; we have to be really convinced that these things are opponents, that they will actually work. 

Now, we might not know from firsthand experience – for example, to know that the teachings on voidness will actually get rid of anger and attachment. Is that something that we know and are convinced of in terms of firsthand experience? Well, no, because we don't really understand voidness. So, if we don't really understand it deeply and correctly, how can we be convinced that it will get rid of anger and so on? So, here, we have to try to analyze it, at least to whatever extent we can, and look at the examples of others who have actually understood and applied these things. 

So let's look: Are we just casual students of the Dharma, or are we really sincere ones? If we actually have this direction in our lives, we would need to be really serious and be sincere in our study of the Dharma. 

[meditation] 

Studying and learning the Dharma and paying attention to those aspects for overcoming our disturbing emotions is a lifetime endeavor. It’s not something that one just does for a year when one goes to India or Nepal or that one does when one goes once a week to a Dharma center.

Participant: Or when there is crisis.

Dr. Berzin: That's also quite true. When everything is going well, we don't pay any attention to the Dharma, but when things are not going well, we do. That’s not the way to follow this path sincerely. 

And we shouldn't think just in terms of this lifetime. We want to take the safe direction all the way to liberation and enlightenment. So, this is a continuing process. As one of the root tantric vows indicates, we must never say "enough" – that we have learned enough, practiced enough, and so on. This is the implication of the eleventh root tantric vow that is phrased in terms of the downfall that would breach this vow, namely not meditating on voidness continually.

There's an issue that some people have, which is that "I've heard so many teachings. My head is full, and I need a break from it. I need time to digest it." What do you think about that? 

Participant: There are always crises; still, one has to practice.

Dr. Berzin: But what does that have to do with some people feeling that they’ve heard enough. “My head is full. Now I need to digest it." I'm really wondering. When people say that, do they actually take the time to digest? Or is it that they just take a break?

Participant: It’s like telling your girlfriend that you need a break from the relationship.

Dr. Berzin: Right. It's like telling your girlfriend or boyfriend that you need some space. Well, things are never quite the same when you go back – if you go back.

Participant: But for instance, when you are a student at a university, you have phases where you go to lectures and phases where you put what you’ve learned into practice – an internship.

Dr. Berzin: I think that that's not so applicable here. It might be applicable in the case of, let's say, doing a retreat in which you take a whole period of time off in order to do an intensive practice. But I think that if you are going to classes, there is a problem if you don't also take time each day to really think about and digest the teachings. I think that's the problem. One needs to have an ongoing dual process of listening to the teachings and then, later, actually reviewing and digesting them or having discussion sessions with other teachers. This is the way it's done in the monasteries. They have the lectures, and then they go out and debate for hours. Debate is a way of digesting the material because they really work analytically with the material to make sure that everybody understands it. So, it's quite clear that in the monastic education they combine the two. 

I think the problem here lies with what we mean by practice. Practice in terms of applying it to our lives is something that should go on all the time. As I said, there are retreat situations in which we’re engaged in doing a particular practice and not necessarily taking time to reflect. But to take a period of time to review and reflect on the teachings is, I think, something that we need to do piecemeal, every day. Some people write up their notes. That's a very good way of reviewing.

Participant: But I think when somebody says that now their head is full and so has to take a break, that they might have a point. I recently read an article about the functioning of the brain. It said that it's really important not to have constant input but to take breaks, to have some leisure time. This leisure time, when you just seem to be doing nothing, is time the brain needs to reorganize.

Dr. Berzin: What I’ve understood from my reading of science is that that's the function of sleep. Without sleep, the mind doesn't have a chance to digest all the events – not just studying – and to put it all together. So, there is some sort of truth to what you’re saying, but I'm wondering if that means that now I take a two-month break.

Participant: I would have to say that, from what I’ve heard from scientist friends and also read about, a lot of revolutionary ideas happen when scientists are on vacation.

Dr. Berzin: But what does this mean? This is the interesting question. I find, for instance, that my mind is the clearest very, very early in the morning, soon after I have woken up. So, this is the best time for me. For some people, that might not be the case. So, that would be a period of rest for them. 

Participant: I think one also has to differentiate between serious practitioners and those who practice only occasionally. I think that the scientists who’ve had their best ideas in their spare time had all the things they had studied in their hearts. So, they are practicing the whole time.

Dr. Berzin: Right. The scientists who had these insights weren’t just casual researchers or scientists, so they were thinking about these ideas all the time. 

Now, what I find to be very true is something I learned from my teachers. When I am stumped and am unable to understand something or to figure out what word to use to express something clearly – things like that – I stop and do Manjushri mantra. I focus on the Manjushri mantra and the various visualizations that are associated with that. And that works. Usually, within a few minutes, I'm able to come up with the correct answer. That, in a sense, is taking a break, but it's not taking a break by just sitting there. 

Now, also, there is a teaching – Trijang Rinpoche always used to say this – that says that when you're in a bad mood, are cranky, or things like that, the best thing to do is to take a nap. Then you will wake up fresh. Also, if your mind is just overwhelmed – OK, you take a nap. I don't want to dispute the fact that you need to take breaks. You do. The point is for how long?

Participant: And to keep the goal in mind.

Dr. Berzin: Right. Also, you take a break with the motivation to come back refreshed. It's like setting the motivation before eating: "I take this food not out of greed, not out of attachment; I take it as a medicine to give me strength so that I can continue working to benefit others and to reach enlightenment." That's paraphrasing the prayer, but it’s this type of thing. In like manner, one takes a break. But I don't think the break should be long. I think that you need to continue the process of studying, learning, analyzing, and so on. And when you do take a break, it’s important not to lose the motivation. 

Participant: I think that this differs from person to person.

Dr. Berzin: It will.

Participant: When I have a task, like writing a paper about something, and I get really stuck, I find the best thing is just to put it aside for a while. It might be a weekend, if I’m really stuck. Then on Monday morning, when I start, everything is very easy.

Dr. Berzin: Yes, this is within the boundary of what is a reasonable amount of time for a break. But to extend that longer and longer starts to get into the realm of laziness. And then it's more difficult to come back.

Participant: One always needs to watch one's motivation. 

Dr. Berzin: Right. I think the problem for some people is that they push themselves too hard and they don't know to take a little bit of time off each day. One friend of mine pointed out that in some Nyingma texts, they say that one should practice day and night and meditate all the time – that because of impermanence and so on, one shouldn’t waste one’s time. What I pointed out to this friend was that, usually, in Nyingma presentations, they are speaking from the point of view of the resultant level of a Buddha or from the level of a highly advanced practitioner. So, when you are ready to put in twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for the rest of your life into achieving enlightenment, you do this day and night. 

But for ordinary people taking safe direction doesn't mean being at the most advanced level in which, day and night, you do absolutely nothing else. It means that this is the major endeavor in your life, the direction that you're going in. You're doing it sincerely and seriously but at a pace that is not going to make you sick. But you’re also not going to the other extreme, just making more and more excuses in the name of "I need to digest it," which is really just an excuse for laziness. This is the point that I'm trying to make. 

Participant: There was a woman I met in India. She got really sick because she was practicing too much. She never really lost her motivation, but she was pushing herself too hard. So, she decided to take longer breaks, to stay with the breath and quiet down, but with the goal to come back.

Dr. Berzin: This is usually due to a syndrome, called lung (rlung) in Tibetan, in which the energies are all frustrated. You're very tense, very anxious and nervous. It’s like having too much caffeine. Your back hurts, your muscles are tense, and so on. That happens especially when you're pushing to gain shamatha, single-minded concentration. But, obviously, it happens in other practices as well. So she switched to focusing on the breath. This is very good. One has to quiet down. She didn't switch to going to parties and dancing or something like that. 

One really does have to watch out not to push too hard. And people can be misled by these texts that say that you should practice day and night and to do nothing else because of death, impermanence, and so on. It’s important to realize that Buddha and these great masters taught with skillful means. They taught differently to different audiences. Also, these types of texts are speaking to the most advanced practitioners, ones who are way, way further along on the path than we are. 

To take direction from the Sangha community of highly realized practitioners means (4) to follow their example. That doesn't necessarily mean becoming a monastic, but it does mean making sincere efforts by putting the teachings into practice. The way that it's spoken about in the texts is to put sincere effort into realizing non-conceptually the four noble truths – the true suffering, the true causes, the true stoppings, and the true pathway minds. So, to take direction from the Sangha is to try to actually gain that understanding and to put it into practice. Putting it into practice entails determining, "This is what I want to get rid of; this is what I want to accomplish." We try to do that to whatever degree we are capable as we progress along the path. 

So, how much are we trying to actually apply the teachings? When I'm in a crisis, when I'm having difficulty – or even when I'm not – how much do I actually apply them? When I'm lusting after someone, for example, lusting after a pretty body or something like that, do I just indulge in that? Or do I try to apply opponents, such as thinking what they would look like if I took their skin off and saw what's in their stomach, or what they would look like when they are eighty-five years old, or what they looked like when they were a baby, etc? Do we actually apply the teachings when we're having disturbing emotions? So, let's examine ourselves. And if we don't apply the teachings, why not?

 [meditation]

Actions Parallel to Taking Safe Direction from the Three Gems as a Whole

Then we have four trainings in terms of the Triple Gem as a whole. First one is: (5) Withdrawing our minds from the pursuit of sensory pleasures when they inattentively fly after them and working on ourselves instead is the primary task in our lives. Examples of such pursuits would be watching TV or listening to music all the time. We constantly chase after these sensory types of input, these pleasures. It could be other senses as well – smell, taste, touch, etc. – that our minds go off after. So, withdrawing the mind from that type of thing and working on overcoming the disturbing emotions and so on instead is the primary task in our lives. 

Now, of course, this needs to be understood within the context of what we were talking about – that sometimes we need a break. But the point is, what is the primary thing that we're after in life? Is it entertainment, distraction, and sense pleasure? Or is it working on ourselves, using the Dharma methods to overcome our shortcomings, our disturbing emotions? I think that examining the role that entertainment plays in our lives involves quite a lot of self-inspection. How much do we want to be entertained? How important is that we be amused? 

[meditation]

What thoughts do you have on this?

Participant: This is a very difficult training.

Dr. Berzin: It is very difficult, especially if we compare the energy that draws us to watch a television program to the energy that draws us to meditate or to read or think about some sort of Dharma thing. The energy to watch the TV program or to put on some music is, for most of us, much stronger. 

Participant: Or it could be chocolate.

Dr. Berzin: Right. It could be food, etc. 

Now, what does it mean to work on ourselves? Does it mean that all the time we should be sitting and meditating, working on this and that disturbing emotion? Again, our approach has to be balanced. There should be some meditation like that but not to the extent that we become obsessed and push too hard. 

I think that what’s more important is to try to apply the various teachings as situations come up in our daily lives. Obviously, we have to be familiar with these methods already. I'm always jumping ahead to a more advanced level. But once we have started to think about the methods and have some idea of our own problematic areas – the danger zones, as it were – then, in daily life, as situations come up, we can actually work on ourselves and apply the teachings so as to not have entertainment and amusement be the primary things in our lives. 

Does that mean no entertainment at all?

Participant: Yes.

Dr. Berzin: No, I don't think so.

Participant: No TV.

Dr. Berzin: No TV, no radio, no radio, no music, etc. Well, if one is following monastic discipline strictly, that would be the case. But if you go to India and see how many of the monks like to watch Bollywood movies when they have a chance, you will be surprised. 

But look at His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He's told me that he doesn't like to listen to music. Once, I was with him for an interview – I was there as the liaison and translator, though he did it in English – in which he was asked what he thought of music. He said that he didn’t find it at all interesting and that he didn't listen to it. The person who did the interview was rather shocked. That was not what he expected as an answer.

Participant: “Music has a healing property.”

Dr. Berzin: Yes, “music has a healing property,” and so on. 

Obviously, for some people, it's very relaxing. And, obviously, one can communicate Dharma and so on through music. One shouldn't dismiss it totally. But the point is, some people use it to constantly distract themselves so that they never have to think.

Participant: But I think you can abuse so many things – almost everything.

Dr. Berzin: That's true. And overuse things. 

I think the point here is, when we're having some sort of problem, do we avoid it by distracting ourselves with entertainment, or do we actually face the problem and try to apply the teachings? Here, it says that our primary task is "withdrawing our minds from the pursuit of sensory pleasures when they inattentively fly after them and working on ourselves, instead." Ultimately, what do we take refuge in, sense pleasures or the Dharma?