We have been discussing the letter that Nagarjuna wrote to King Udayibhadra, his friend, in South India. We have seen that this letter basically covers the Mahayana path. It’s advice, practical advice, for the king. It could be divided in many, many different ways, according to various outlines. We are following one particular outline, which divides it into (1) the initial verses, which give sort of an overview of what we need to be mindful of all the time, and then (2) the core of the text, which covers the six far-reaching attitudes, or six perfections.
We have covered the first four far-reaching attitudes, and now we are in the discussion of far-reaching mental stability, or concentration. In this text, Nagarjuna explains this topic similarly to the way that Shantideva does, at least as far as the preparation for gaining concentration goes. And this is to overcome distraction due, in particular, to attachment and desire, as those are the main obstacles to gaining single-minded concentration.
“Distraction” is just a general technical term. But what is specifically always mentioned in the text as distractions are the faults that we have to overcome for gaining concentration, the two main ones being flightiness of mind and mental dullness. “Flightiness of mind” is how I’m translating the word (rgod-pa), which is defined as distraction due to desire for something. Desire is singled out as being the heaviest distraction, even more so than mental wandering or anger or dullness (being close-minded). So, can you think of something else? Jealousy would be a sub-category of desire, actually.
So, we have this presentation of overcoming distraction. It is divided into several parts. The first part was being distracted by desirable sense objects, which included, for instance, being distracted by the wives of others, the bodies of women in general, and so on. Nagarjuna was speaking to this king, so he speaks of bodies of women. Then we had distraction by the eight worldly concerns, and, last time, we started the discussion of distraction by wealth – by wanting to get money, and so on. We are now going to continue that discussion with Verse 34.
Here, Nagarjuna is speaking about the antidote to use for distraction by wealth. This is one verse in which he speaks about the advantages of using the antidote, and then there is a second verse in which he which speaks about the disadvantages of not using the antidote. The antidote is contentment – being content with what we have and not being constantly greedy, wanting more and more.
Verse 34: The Advantages of Using the Antidote, Contentment
[34] It has been excellently said by the Teacher of Gods and Men that among all wealth, contentment is the best. (So) be fully content. If you know contentment, even if you possess no wealth, you’ll be perfectly rich.
It is quite clear that this is the type of verse that would be quoted over and over again throughout the subsequent history of Indian and then, Tibetan Buddhism. As we have been pointing out all along, this text is the source of so many of the teachings that were incorporated into the various lojong traditions. Also, Shantideva bases a tremendous amount of his material on this text, and so on. Nagarjuna, himself, of course, always says that he takes it from the sutras.
Contentment is basically knowing, understanding, feeling that we have enough, even if we have nothing. Milarepa was content with having nothing. Obviously, he had to live on something – he lived on nettles. But whatever we have, be content.
We have something similar to this in Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara (Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior) where, in chapter 8, his chapter on mental stability, he writes from Verse 85 to 88:
Recoiling from desires in this way, I shall enhance my delight in solitude. In peaceful forests, devoid of strife and emotional disturbance,
Amongst (beautiful) boulders, huge as palaces, cooled by the sandalwood rays of the moon, joyfully roam the fortunate ones, fanned by the silent, gentle, forest breezes, reflecting on the aims of benefiting others.
Staying anywhere, for as long as desired – in an empty shelter, at the foot of a tree, or in caves – those rid of the strain of safeguarding possessions live relaxed, without any cares,
Acting according to their own intent, without attachments, not bound by anyone, savoring the joy of contentment, difficult to find for even powerful rulers.
Powerful rulers like the king that Nagarjuna is writing his letter to.
The Strains of Safeguarding Possessions
This is describing the type of situation that is necessary for gaining single-minded concentration. In order to develop stability of mind, it is necessary to live in a very simple place without having, as Shantideva says very well, “the strain of safeguarding possessions” – that not only do we need to be content with what we have, but that less is better; otherwise, we are always afraid that our possessions are going to break, always having to take care of them, and so on.
If we didn’t have a computer, we wouldn’t have to worry about it breaking and then have all the suffering that goes with it. We also wouldn’t have constant emails, and these sorts of things. If we didn’t have a cell phone, a handy, we wouldn’t have the telephone constantly ringing everywhere that we went, instant messaging, SMS’s, and all these sorts of things. Obviously, not having to deal with all that would be better for gaining concentration. You can’t gain concentration with your handy turned on, can you?
As I say, contentment is not a terribly easy thing to develop because we are bombarded with advertising, propaganda to always buy more and more and that it’s good for the economy. Also, the way that we are drawn into not being content and into buying the latest things is through advertising that plays on other desires that we have – like putting beautiful, semi-naked women into the advertisement so that we get the impression that if we owned this latest type of car, we would attract a sexy partner, etc
Participant: You get the woman along with it.
Dr. Berzin: You get the woman along with it. That’s right. “Special: two for one sale.” You get them both for the same price.
Now, obviously, we have to fight against that and realize that all of this advertisement is basically just to get us to buy things. OK, we might not need a new car every year, but what about all the new computer programs? The things that we use go out of date so quickly. And, in fact, the computer companies will no longer service old models of the software. Like with virus software programs now, many of them will no longer support, give updates, for Windows 95 or Windows Millennium. In this way, they force us to go buy Windows XP. Then, if we get the next operating system in Windows, we’ll also have to buy all new other programs because the the old software won’t work with the new operating system.
So, how do we deal with it when we are forced not to be content? It’s hard, isn’t it? We can be content with buying a secondhand refrigerator rather than a brand new one, but other things are more difficult, aren’t they? So, do we give in?
Participant: It’s not something new: it’s an adaptation.
Dr. Berzin: Right. It’s not just something new; so buying it is not based on greed. This, I think, is an important component of what contentment opposes. Contentment opposes greed, wanting to have more than we really need. But with new technologies, in a sense, we have to adapt; otherwise, we can’t use them. And as I said, the antivirus won’t work for your computer anymore and these types of things. I think that’s an important aspect to take into consideration here.
Are there other areas where contentment needs to be applied besides with material objects? With material objects, there are all the classic examples. I forget the name of the meditator, but there was a famous meditator in Tibet (I think one of the Kadampa geshes from many, many centuries ago) who always had a thorn bush, a nettle bush, growing outside of the door of his meditation cave. Whenever he walked out, he always tore his robe on the thing. People asked, “Why don’t you chop the bush down?” And he said, “I have no time.” I think he meant this more in terms of death can come at any time; therefore, “I don’t want to waste my time being a gardener and taking care of all these things around my cave.” So, he was content with it being like that.
What things apart from material things could we be content about? What about contentment concerning the way our house looks? Does it need to be painted again? Contentment with where we live.
Participant: Contentment with career, I think, is also important.
Dr. Berzin: Contentment with your career. How ambitious do you want to be? Do you want to stay always in a lowly position, or do you want a higher position? I think that depends very much on what your motivation is. What can you do with a higher position? If your motivation is to just make more money, then that’s greed. Or to have more power – that’s just greed. Sometimes, though, if you are in a higher position, rather than being an underling in the job, you can use whatever you are doing in your career to actually make positive changes in the society, whereas if you are in a lowly position, you can never make any positive decisions in terms of the business. So, ambition, I think, has to do with the motivation – whether there is greed or not. The same goes with the computer stuff.
Participant: What about learning new things?
Dr. Berzin: Ah, that’s a good area. We don’t need to be content with what we’ve learned. Why not? I think there is even a saying in one of the teachings, something like, “Never be content with how much you’ve learned.” There isn’t anything that a bodhisattva wouldn’t learn.
Participant: So, then again, motivation comes in, no?
Dr. Berzin: Motivation comes in. If you just want it to be about how smart you are, that’s one thing. But I take my own example here (although I don’t know if what I’m doing is correct) about my attitude toward improving my German. I have studied many, many languages in my lifetime, and I know a little bit of many languages. My German is functional; I’m not by any means fluent. I don’t understand everything that people say, but I can communicate what I want. I can go to a store. I can make out 80% of what people say, and I’m content with that. I don’t want to put in more time. I can put my time in with many other things. Is that an appropriate example of contentment or not? What would I benefit by being 100% fluent in German? Obviously, I am capable of doing that if I wanted to, if I put in the time.
Participant: Maybe you would attract more students.
Dr. Berzin: I could attract more students if I spoke only in German. But when I do these classes, we record. I doubt that we’d ever post audio versions of them. Maybe sometime in the future, the lectures will be transcribed and the English can be used as a base. But realistically speaking, having my teachings available in English will get a far larger audience globally than just having it in German. So, I don’t think there is a great benefit for me to teach in German without the English. Therefore, I am content with the level that I have as long as it is functional.
Participant: Sometimes it is hard to draw a line. What if you are studying history, for example, as a hobby, and learning all these dates and events and stuff. You don’t have a particular use of benefiting others with this; you just like to do it. Is that wasting time?
Dr. Berzin: Well, if you are studying history and you just like to learn all sorts of dates and so on, which are, in a sense, trivial information, is that wasting time? Well, are you going to become a university professor? If you are, what is the purpose of that? I don’t know. As I say, I’m not a great example of contentment here. It’s something that I have to practice very hard with my website. Am I content with the way it looks, or does it have to be perfect? Am I content with putting up an article that isn’t in what I consider to be in perfect English? I find that difficult. People tell me that I shouldn’t be such a fanatic about that, so I try to be a little more relaxed with it. But I haven’t been very successful. What I’m not content with is when I have articles there or translations that I did thirty years ago in which I know there are mistakes. Then I’m not content. So, slowly, I am revising them.
Here, it’s not so much a question of greed as pride. Now, is there a good pride and bad pride, or is all pride bad? In my own case, what I’m thinking of is that I would like for the website to be considered a reliable source of information. If people who know Tibetan look at a translation and see that there are mistakes in it, they’ll no longer consider me reliable and start to doubt other things that are on the website. For that reason, I like very much to correct mistakes. In the version 2.0 of the website, if it ever gets up, I have replaced about fifty or more articles, which I have rewritten and corrected mistakes in – mistakes that probably nobody would have noticed but that I notice. These are in the more advanced, complicated articles. I notice they were wrong or misleading or not accurate enough.
Again, I think there is a negative pride and a positive pride here. If you want a reputation just so that you are famous – that’s one thing. Wanting to preserve a reputation so that people will consider you dependable has more to do with having a sense of self-dignity. I think. I don’t know. But perfectionism is a difficult area, isn’t it? We can be perfectionists in so many ways – perfectionist about having your house clean, for example. It doesn’t necessarily have to be in an intellectual sphere. There are people who are fanatics about cleaning their houses. Can you be content with it not being spotlessly clean? Is it a sin to have your floor not so clean? Or leaving the dishes overnight without washing them? That drives me crazy, but many, many people leave them overnight. I always think of India and the cockroaches and other sorts of insects that come to feast on the dirt on the dishes if you leave them. You certainly don’t want to leave your dirty dishes overnight in India.
There are many other areas of contentment. What about entertainment? Can we be content with one television station as opposed to two hundred?
Participant: This is a key issue, actually. There are so many problems people face, especially in the West or even in Asia – doesn’t matter. But not being content is really what creates the conditions for so many problems, including ecologically, in partnerships, and everywhere.
Dr. Berzin: This was the other area that I wanted to bring up. I was going into it gently: contentment with partnerships, with friends – with the amount of time that your friends can give you; contentment with the amount of attention that they pay you; contentment with not getting your own way all the time. These become much more difficult, don’t they? How do you deal with that? When you are not content with the amount of time that someone you like or are attached to gives you, how do you deal with that? Whether sex is involved or not is irrelevant.
Participant: Leave them in time.
Dr. Berzin: You would leave them when you found somebody else who was willing to give you as much time as you wanted.
Participant: If you feel you need time in a relationship, then perhaps, yes, perhaps no…
Dr. Berzin: Personally, I think that if you want to maintain that friendship, and that friendship has some value, you need to be content with the amount of time that the person can give. Now, if it is not enough for what you need, then you could find somebody else that can give you more time. I don’t think it’s fair, though, to throw the other one away just because they can’t meet all your needs. Then it makes us question what the friendship is based on, doesn’t it? How do you deal with this? I’m sure everybody has experienced it.
Participant: You complain, nag.
Dr. Berzin: You complain. But this doesn’t help. Then they feel that they are either doing you a favor by being with you, or they resent it. It can also work the other way – that you want time by yourself and the other person is always there. Can you be content with the small amount of time that you have by yourself? It works both ways.
How is it that mothers – parents in general, but particularly mothers – can be content with the very, very small amount of time that they get for themselves when their babies are really little?
Participant: Maybe this is genetically…
Dr. Berzin: Maybe this is genetic that they can be content with a very little amount of sleep and…
Participant: [In German].
Dr. Berzin: So, it’s a hormonal thing of bonding to the baby?
Participant: Also, maybe it’s the power of love for the child. So, they willingly take this burden on their shoulders. All the women I spoke to said, “I love this child. I would give my life for them.”
Dr. Berzin: Right. So, for most mothers it’s hormonal. I don’t think it’s the case with all mothers, though, because I’ve known women who resented very much having a baby. They didn’t like their babies and had really horrible relationships with these infants. Of course, this affected the children terribly when they grew up. Although it’s not so common, there certainly are examples of that.
Participant: After having given birth, you can have a biological depression because of all the hormonal changes.
Dr. Berzin: After having given birth, you can have a biological depression. I think what is relevant for us – not only those of us who have children but also those who don’t – is this issue of contentment within a relationship. That, also, I think is necessary, especially here, in this context of wanting to gain concentration in meditation.
If you want to gain concentration, and you’re thinking, “Why doesn’t my friend call me all the time? I want more,” it disturbs you, doesn’t it?
Participant: More food, more love, more everything.
Dr. Berzin: Right. We have all these addictions – more food, more love, more everything. So, the practice of contentment is very wide ranging. Can you be content with the amount of affection that the other person shows if they don’t show as much as you would like? That’s not easy.
Participant: The basic problem could very well be the expectation of happiness that you find with people everywhere.
Dr. Berzin: That is very true.
Participant: There is nice saying, not by a Buddhist but by Kant, I think, which is that the only type of contentment is rest after having your work done.
Dr. Berzin: Right. I can remember the last part, but now the first part is gone(my memory is not as good as it used to be). What was the first part that you said?
Participant: The only sort of contentment, real contentment, true contentment is…
Dr. Berzin: No, before that. Not Kant’s thing.
Participant: Expectation.
Dr. Berzin: Right – expectation. So, the big problem with contentment, with not being content, is having high expectations of real happiness or expecting more happiness: “If only I had more.” That’s very, very true.
The Kant quote that you mentioned was that the only real contentment is the contentment that you have when your work is done. I think that’s going in another area. From a Buddhist point of view, you would say not to be content with your level of attainment until you have reached Buddhahood. That’s certainly there.
Participant: He was talking about taking rest, a little bit of rest, after your week’s or your day’s work is done. That this is the only true happiness in a way.
Dr. Berzin: OK. So, contentment is being able to rest when we have our normal, worldly work done at the end of the day or week (which, of course, gets into the whole biblical thing of the Sabbath as well – taking a rest). So, it’s contentment with having accomplished something. However, I think that some of us, at least, are never content: “I want to accomplish more and more and more and more!” We are not content being the largest company in the world – Microsoft; we have to be even larger. We are not content that we’ve gotten our work done. We want to accomplish more and more projects. I think you’re talking about a temporary rest.
Participant: Certainly. It changes our perspective. That’s what Kant tried to do by saying that because, generally, we think that contentment means a thrill or a kick. Apparently, what he wanted to point out is that it’s not that; it’s something different.
Dr. Berzin: Alright. So, you are saying that contentment is not a thrill or a kick. I don’t know that Kant’s example would be contentment, but it is certainly a rest.
As I say, I think that it is a different type of contentment that we are talking about here. What does Nagarjuna say? He says, “If you know contentment, even if you possess no wealth, you’ll be perfectly rich.” It’s resting your effort to get more; it’s not just sitting and resting. Nagarjuna is talking about (like Shantideva says), in seclusion, working in meditation to gain concentration.
There are the teachings, of course, that say that, in terms of perseverance – and Shantideva also mentioned this – to know when to take a rest. Be content that “I have now accomplished enough, and in order to accomplish more, I need a rest.” In other words, it’s counterproductive to continue pushing. That’s certainly there in the Buddhist teachings.
Is Contentment the Same as Satisfaction?
Participant: Just a couple of days ago, I helped somebody mow the lawn, which is something that I haven’t done for many years. We did that for an hour and a half, and it was hard work. When it was finished, we sat down. It felt very, very nice.
Dr. Berzin: Right. In English, we use a different word for that. Maybe you use the same German word for both. The example that you are using is that somebody asked you to mow a lawn – something you hadn’t done in a long time, but you did it – and that after an hour and a half or however long, it felt very good. You were contented. There was a happy feeling that went with that. In English, we would call that “satisfaction” with work well done, a satisfaction that you finished your assignment. That has happiness connected with it. At least that’s a connotation of the English word. However, in English, you wouldn’t use “contentment” for that.
Participant: Zufriedenheit.
Dr. Berzin: So, Zufriedenheit. Would you use that for both what I am explaining in English as satisfaction as well as for contentment?
Participant: You could. But you could also use Befriedigung for satisfaction because being content after work that you have done is, in German, zufrieden. You could also already be content while you do the work.
Dr. Berzin: Right. You could be content while you are doing work.
Participant: An ongoing mental factor.
Dr. Berzin: Right, that’s true. “I am content with having been asked to do this little job rather than the bigger job or another job that I wanted to do. I am content with doing this. I am content with my work; I am not restless. I don’t want more.”
Contentment certainly has happiness associated with it. That’s for sure. But I think that contentment can also be used in cases like the example that you gave.
Participant: I believe that this speaks of elation for a while.
Dr. Berzin: Contentment has elation for a while? I don’t think that being content with having just rice and dahl everyday as our meal for the rest of our lives with maybe some potato as the only variety is a very happy state of mind. I mean, it is a happy state of mind to be content with that, but it’s not an elated state of mind.
Participant: Wow!
Dr. Berzin: Wow! Rice and dahl again! I’m really content with this.
In any case, it certainly is not being uneasy. It’s not being unhappy. There’s a certain level of happiness, but I think it’s a very low level in most cases. Also, being content could be that “I am content with having done this much. I did a good enough job. And I don’t have to be a perfectionist and go over and over it again anymore.” Then, you can feel happy, and also quite elated to be freed from perfectionism. So, yes, I think that there can be elation with it, but not always.
Participant: It also probably has physical side sometimes. Not only physical, but hormone levels, or whatever may be part of it.
Dr. Berzin: There can be a hormonal thing – certainly with athletics, for example. Are you content with having run the race, content with the speed that you did it in? Or would you want to be able to run even faster? Would you be content that you broke the world record? Or would you want to break your own record again after that? Or would you say, “I have broken the world record!”
Here’s another example (actually, you bring up good examples, ones that make you think). It has certainly been the case for me that sometimes you do something just to prove to yourself that you can do it, and you are content when you have proven to yourself that you can do it. But then, you certainly aren’t going to do it again; you’re not going to continue. And you feel very happy with the achievement. So, you are content. I proved to myself that I could go for a week without eating. I proved to myself that I could do that.
Participant: Have you?
Dr. Berzin: Yes, I did it once in my life. That’s why I am using this example. I did it once in my life. I went for a week without eating anything, just drinking water. I did it when I was in college, when I was a little bit of a fanatic. I proved to myself that I could go without food if I had to. My thinking was, “Well, why do I have to?” But having proved to myself that I could do it, I felt very good – that no matter where I’m traveling or what I’m doing, if food is not available, if there is no time or opportunity to have supper or anything like that, I’m not freaked out at all because I know that I can go without food. Nothing happens. Certainly, for a day one can go without food. That, I think, is an elation that can come with happiness – having proved to yourself that you can do something.
Participant: What if your motivation in doing something is very good, also altruistic, but it is not sufficient – for example, editing an article. Maybe your motivation is very good: you want to make the article more readable and helpful for others. But maybe there are things that are more important in that moment than doing some small correction to an article. For instance, it could be writing a new article on a topic that no one has written about.
Dr. Berzin: Right, exactly.
Participant: So, even if the motivation is good, it doesn’t mean that it’s sufficient.
Dr. Berzin: Right. So, you have to weigh the motivation. The motivation to correct the article so that it’s absolutely perfect is a good motivation. But then there’s another motivation, which is to make more new things available to others that are helpful, and that it is good enough without every comma and every period being correct. That’s tricky, though. That’s difficult. I certainly try to think like that, but I’m not terribly successful at it. Prioritizing is crucial. You have to prioritize, especially when you become older. Actually, it’s important at any age if you think in terms of the fact that death can come anytime. Certainly, though, once you pass sixty, you start to take that far more seriously. How much effective working time is left to spend if I spend it all on correcting commas? I should put that sign up in my room! I really should because you get a certain contentment from…
OK, here’s a good example of a sense of elation with contentment: contentment that I have gotten every comma in this article correct!
Participant: “Karma”?
Dr. Berzin: No, “comma.” It drives me crazy when the commas are in the wrong place or left out. So, there is certain contentment when I can say, “Aha! Now it is correct! My eighth grade English teacher would give me an ‘A’ on this.” I was trained very, very strongly. My best English teacher was in Princeton, if I remember correctly. There was one professor, who, if you made three or more grammatical or spelling mistakes in your papers for his class, failed it. It didn’t matter what the content was. As I say, I had a very classical, strict education. Then there was another professor who had a rubber stamp that said “bullshit” that he would stamp on the papers whenever what you were writing was bullshit. That was very helpful. Very, very helpful.
OK. So, contentment. That verse, just to repeat it:
[34] It has been excellently said by the Teacher of Gods and Men that among all wealth, contentment is the best. (So) be fully content. If you know contentment, even if you possess no wealth, you’ll be perfectly rich.
Actually, this verse makes me think of my mother. My mother never had terribly much money, but everybody thought that she was rich. The reason for that was that she was content with what she had, and she also wasn’t afraid or embarrassed to spend it for little things that she liked. She didn’t have big taste. She never had a car or a big, fancy home, jewelry, or anything like that, but if she wanted something small, she never denied it to herself. So, everybody thought that she was rich because she spent her money easily, being content with what she had. Whereas, there are other people who are very, very rich but who are very hesitant to use their money to buy little things that would not be any problem for them to buy or to go on a little vacation or something like that.
So, “if you know contentment, even if you possess no wealth, you’ll be perfectly rich.” Let’s think about that for a moment, and then we’ll go on to the next verse.
One thought came to mind with this example of being content with the time that others give us. We have to watch out when you practice contentment that we don’t have this attitude of, “Well, I am content with any little crumb that they throw me,” because then we have this very strong feeling of a solid “me.” There’s a little bit of a feeling of resentment there. I think we have to be careful not to feel resentment when we are trying to be content with what we have or with what somebody gives us and not grumble about it – “OK, I’ll take whatever.” We should not feel sorry for ourselves as well. These things can affect our feeling of contentment. We accept.
There is a difference, I think, between contentment that has an element of happiness to it and being content but not being very happy with the situation – like thinking, “I’ll put up with this because I have to and I don’t want to lose your friendship,” or whatever it is, “but I’m really not happy with this.” OK?
Then, the next verse is on the disadvantages of not using contentment as the antidote to distraction by wealth and things like that.
Verse 35: The Disadvantages of Not Using the Antidote
[35] Good sir, just as those with many possessions have problems, that isn’t the case with those whose desires are few. As many heads as the foremost nagas have, that many problems arise from (the gems that they wear on) them.
The example here is with nagas. Remember, Nagarjuna had a special relation with nagas. Snakes are always depicted over his head – naga snakes protecting him – because Nagarjuna went down to the realm of the nagas to retrieve the Prajnaparamita Sutras that were kept there for safeguarding after the Buddha taught them (because the world of humans wasn’t ready for it yet). Anyway, there is always an association of nagas with Nagarjuna.
Some of the nagas have many, many heads. The nagas are considered to be the wealthiest of animals, and they have gems on their heads. I have absolutely no idea where this image comes from. It’s undoubtedly a Hindu image or a common image from general Indian thought. But the point here is that the more gems that they have, obviously, the more they have to worry about protecting them. One can also say that the more heads you have, the more chances you have of getting headaches: you might not get a headache just in one head – you can get them in all your heads! So, the more that you have, the more problems you get. This is the point here.
The More You Have, the More Problems You Get
That is echoed very much by Shantideva as well, who writes also in this eighth chapter, Verse 79:
With the torments (involved) in amassing, protecting, and losing it, know that material advantage is a disadvantage without an end: (for) those distracted by obsession with wealth haven't the time to free themselves from the sufferings of compulsive existence.
Shantideva, I think, spells it out more clearly. He’s saying that you have a lot of problems getting things, protecting them, and being afraid of losing them. And if you do lose them, you have even more suffering. So, having a lot of “material advantage is a disadvantage.” Also, if we are obsessed with wealth, we don’t have time to gain liberation or to work toward liberation. Nagarjuna just says it in fewer words: “those with many possessions have problems,” and “just as those with many possessions have problems, that isn’t the case with those whose desires are few.”
What do you think about that? Have you found it to be true from your own experience that the more you had, the more problems you had with it?
Participant: It’s true with cars, I found this out. Once, I had two cars. I must really say that I don’t miss them at all because they are like… actually, it’s the same with computers. Ten years ago, I got this Tamagochi-X from Japan. You always had to fix them – this small X, this type of small chip. Teenagers played with them.
Dr. Berzin: What – this robot animal, this robot pet?
Participant: Yeah. I always compare, especially computers and cars, to this Tamagochi-X, because you have to worry about them all the time. All the time, you need to fix them them. You need to check the exhaust, change the tires, and on and on. Since I’ve been living in Berlin, I don’t have any more cars. And I must say that I’m really, really happy about it.
Dr. Berzin: Right. This is very true – the example that Karsten is using with cars. He had two cars, and all that gave him was more and more problems, problems getting the exhaust checked, getting the tires changed, etc., also problems associated with parking, the insurance, and all these other things. It is like these Japanese electronic pets that you always have to feed and put more and more things into. The needs never stop. That’s very true. The more complicated the electronic equipment is, the more potential problems there are with it breaking. Certainly, the more complicated the computer programs are, the more difficult it is to learn to use them. I got a new telephone – the instruction book is this thick! And it’s just so complicated.
Participant: The more TV channels you have, the harder it is to choose the right program.
Dr. Berzin: Right. That’s a classic example. Maybe you find something, but since there are 199 other possibilities, you always think there might be something better. So, we are never content with anything that we have. That’s true: the more choices there are…
Participant: Aren’t things a little bit more complicated than that? I got my first computer this year. You talk about having computers for twenty years or more. I got it when I couldn’t use the public library anymore without having computer practice. I would spend the extra time going there, and perhaps within the next couple of months, I’ll learn to use the Internet in order to check out the books. In a way, it’s inevitable to be involved to some extent with these things. With wealth and belongings, you don’t get anywhere when you have to worry too much all the time. But you also can’t get anywhere if you don’t have anything at all. That’s also true of food, lodging, and so on. And it goes even beyond that. It may be inevitable that we need computers and stuff, access to teachers, whatever. So, this isn’t greed.
Dr. Berzin: Right. So, there is a certain basic level of food, of computer knowledge, of wealth, and so on that we need in order to be able to actually survive. So, it’s a matter of degree – the level of your greed.
What you say is true. But look at the classic example of monks and nuns. They’re supposed to go around begging and to be content with whatever is put in their bowls. The example in one of the classic texts, a vinaya text, is that even if a leper’s fingers fall off into your bowl, you should be content with that. I don’t know if that means the monk should eat the leper’s finger, but in any case, having to beg is a good exercise in contentment.
There is a teacher, I think his name is Kaplan Roshi, if I remember correctly. I’m not sure.
Participant: Roshi Glassman.
Dr. Berzin: Yes, Roshi Glassman. That’s his name. Roshi Glassman, in New York, has this incredible training (which, I must say, I would find very difficult to do) of having his students be homeless for a week or something like that.
Participant: A week, I think it was. He offered it also in Berlin. I thought about partaking, but it was too much.
Dr. Berzin: To go out homeless with absolutely nothing and survive for a week – that’s really heavy.
Participant: You also start smelling.
Dr. Berzin: Well aside from smelling, what are you going to eat, and where are you going to sleep? Smelling is a minor thing.
Participant: It’s interconnected. If you smell like a pig, people just stay away from you.
Dr. Berzin: That’s true. If you smell badly, people stay away from you. But that’s a good exercise in contentment. Can you really survive on nothing?
Participant: You might start worrying.
Dr. Berzin: Yeah. And to have peace of mind would, I think, be very, very difficult. But of course, there is a difference between begging where there are people and begging in the middle of the Sahara Desert with absolutely nothing and nobody around.
But, yes. What we were talking about is the element of greed – of wanting more.
Participant: Another interesting issue is contentment concerning the number of workshops and seminars one is doing.
Dr. Berzin: Workshops, seminars, Buddhist lectures that you are going to, and so on. Well, they say that you should never be content with the amount of Dharma learning that you have – that you can always learn more. But then you also have Jorge’s point, which is: are you going to get into all the tiny, trivial details? And how many of the tiny, trivial details do you want to learn?
Participant: Don’t you really need time to digest? It would be more efficient to use time to digest than to stuff yourself.
Dr. Berzin: Well, the classical education in the monasteries, in the Gelugpa monasteries, involves debating everything that you learn. You don’t just listen to lectures. The lecture part is actually very small compared to the debate part. It’s on the debate grounds that you work out your understanding.
Participant: That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about situations in which there are forty different groups that offer different kinds of things, and also all kinds of therapies, etc.
Dr. Berzin: Right. In Berlin or in any major city where there are forty Dharma centers and seminars, and where absolutely everything is available, there are hundreds of things that one could go to. Be content. That’s the same thing as shopping around at different Dharma centers. You eventually have to choose one.
Again, what’s the motivation behind it? Is the joy in shopping? Or is the joy in actually getting something and going deeply into it? I think a lot also depends on your capacity. Are you content studying just one tradition, or do you study several traditions? But the more places you go to, the more problems you have. There are a lot of people who go to too many different centers, and they have the big problem of getting very confused.
Participant: Doesn’t it say in the scriptures, at least in Hinayana scriptures, that at some point, even wanting to be enlightened is an impediment that needs to be dropped? I mean, one has to prepare for enlightenment, one has to work for it, but maybe even that wish could be an impediment to it.
Dr. Berzin: Right. Isn’t there a saying in the Theravada text that, at some point, even wanting to gain enlightenment is an impediment?
There is a whole discussion about this – that if the object of your wish is something that is pure, like enlightenment, is wanting it a disturbing emotion? I think that one has to look more carefully at the definition of what is called a “tainted” object. A tainted object is one that is accompanied by a disturbing emotion. So, in the case of desire or attachment, you make the object of your attachment into a truly existent, solidly existent thing and exaggerate its qualities. Now, can you exaggerate the qualities of enlightenment when it is the most perfect state? Can you exaggerate that? I don’t know, but you can certainly ascribe true existence to it and to the “me” that wants to have it. Now, before you attain enlightenment, of course, you still have this concept of a solid “me.” There, I think one has to do what His Holiness always talks about, which is to have intelligent desire or intelligent selfishness as opposed to destructive selfishness.
What you say reminds me of another teaching, though, which is that what we need to overcome, what the big impediment is, is having hopes and worries – the hope that we will get enlightenment. Then, you’re wanting it and expecting it, and if you don’t get it immediately, you’re disappointed. That’s a big impediment. Almost every meditation text says to meditate without hopes or disappointments. Don’t hope for any results. However, if you didn’t want to achieve enlightenment, could you aim for it?
Participant: If you’re content to be unenlightened, maybe you would get enlightened.
Dr. Berzin: If you’re content with being unenlightened, would you get enlightenment? I don’t know. What you say – this example of not even wanting it – sounds a little bit to me like the Taoist thing of Wu Wei: without action; just flow with the Tao, with the flow of things. That’s, in a sense, the ultimate – that non-action is the best action.. Now, certainly in Dzogchen texts, they say “no striving” and stuff like that, but that, again, is based on making up something artificial. It doesn’t mean just to do nothing, to sit and watch TV and drink beer, and that you’re going to get enlightened because you’re not striving for anything. It certainly doesn’t mean that.
Again, one has to understand what’s meant here by “those with many possessions have problems, that isn’t the case with those whose desires are few” What about other things that you could be content with? What about friends? Can you be content with the number of friends that you have, or do you want more? That’s a hard one. If you have too many friends, they are going to make too many demands on your time. You can’t satisfy all of them. That’s one aspect, isn’t it? On the other hand, if you look at friendship in terms of what you can give to others and how you can help others, then, if you want to be able to benefit all beings or at least a huge number like His Holiness reaches, you would want to be friends with everybody. It’s interesting to think of the example of His Holiness. His Holiness considers he has thousands and tens of thousands, if not more, of friends. Certainly, so many people make demands on his time. But he prioritizes, doesn’t he? Also, people realize that he can’t give them time. This is likewise true of any of these big teachers who have so many students.
Participant: A funny thing, though, is that even though I never talked to him personally, still, I have the feeling that he gave me of his time.
Dr. Berzin: Right. This is the extraordinary thing with these great beings – that even if you don’t spend time with them, you feel as though they have given you time, just by going to these large teachings. That is very true. They almost are objects that are inappropriate to feel attachment and desire for. You know that you can’t be his buddy and hang out with him all the time. If you had a lot of money, you could become a groupie and travel to wherever he goes and gives teachings. Some people do that.
Certainly, it’s true that the more famous you get, the more paparazzi you have hanging around trying to take your photo and the more problems you have. But then, again, look at His Holiness. It is hard to imagine being more famous than that. And certainly, there are certain problems that he gets in connection with that. The more famous he gets, the more recognition he gets, the more the Chinese get upset, and the heavier they’ll be against the Tibetans in Tibet. But one has to accept that.
Certainly, as an ordinary person, the more famous you get, the more problems you get. That’s for sure. The more money you get, the more problems you have with the tax office, the more problems you have with how to invest it, and so on. It’s like making an investment. If you buy stock and are content just to leave it, to let it do whatever it does, you have far less suffering than if every single day you look at the stock quotation, wondering, “Well, I shouldn’t have bought that one,” and then, “What else can I buy?” and then spending your whole day doing stock calculations.
Participant: It’s a little bit like with the car: if you have possessions, you need to take a little bit of care.
Dr. Berzin: Right. If you have possessions, you need to take care of them. That’s true. I’ll give you an example. You helped me buy a new telephone fax. It’s a ridiculously complicated machine, and I still haven’t figured out how to use it properly. In any case, it is not perfect. The quality of the sound is tinny. Now, I am perfectly happy to be content with it. But then one begins to think, “Well, I can try to give it back to the store and complain.” But then you would have to figure out another one to buy. And then you would have to learn how to use that one. Everything these days is so complicated and these machines can do a hundred different things, whereas all you wanted was a telephone with fax capacity. That’s a very good example of how things are more complicated now. You can’t just buy a simple telephone because there are so many things that are packed into it. And you have to learn how to use them. It’s more complicated than before.
Participant: That’s the problem with the elderly.
Dr. Berzin: Problem with the elderly as well – that they don’t really want to learn. They don’t have patience for it, and it’s too confusing. I think the issue with the elderly – because I’m approaching that stage as well – is that we don’t have patience for this stuff. I don’t have patience for this silly machine that can do a hundred different things, when I just need it for one thing. It’s just so complicated to learn how to use. For a young person, on the other hand, it’s a challenge, it’s fun, and so on. It’s a different thing.
Participant: Every new camera was more complicated than the one you had before as a boy or as a young man.. It was just charming, wonderful, and exciting then. Now, I inherited a camera, a good camera, better than I ever had before. Thank God, I also got the book; it has five hundred pages. I haven’t managed to finish it, even to read it, and when I do I will not remember it. I’m just trying to find a few basic functions that I work with and that’s it.
Dr. Berzin: Right. It’s very true. I was having problems with an MP3 recorder. It was playing, and I couldn’t figure out how to make it stop. There’s no stop button on the thing. I went through as much of this thick instruction book as I could. It explained so many ridiculously complicated things that I wasn’t interested in at all. There was no indication in it whatsoever of how to make it stop. Well, Christian told me that you don’t make it stop. When it turns on and it starts to play, you just have to push the record button in order to record another thing and that that will make it stop playing. But if I just wanted to listen to music on it, I don’t know how in the world to make the damn thing stop. So, yes, it is ridiculously complicated. But then, what are we content with? The old 1970s tape recorder that we were using before – if I give that to people to transcribe, they can’t even hear it clearly enough to work with. You have to get something better.
It’s a complicated issue, contentment. But one key that I use for this, personally, is that if I am going to upgrade to something or get something new, I just buy the thing. I try to do it as simply as possible without going around and spending a whole week trying to find the best thing. Preferably, ask somebody else to do the research. Here in Germany you have this Warentest thing on the Internet. I don’t know what it’s called in America, maybe the Consumers’ Guide or the Consumer Report. So, you look to see what it is, then you just go out and buy it and – finished. Be content with what you get.
There is something like that in the Wheel of Sharp Weapons. There is a verse that talks about the problems that we have, and it says, “You think to do something and then you re-examine it and you regret it.” So, you decide, “I’m going to buy this,” and you buy it, and then you start re-examining. Then you regret that you bought this model, and think, “I should have bought another model,” and you want to take it back and exchange it. I think that, here, contentment is the best solution.
Participant: Once I went out with you to buy a kitchen light. I was really overwhelmed by the variety, but you just said, “OK, let’s buy this one and – finish; then we go.”
Dr. Berzin: Right.
Participant: It was actually a good teaching.
Dr. Berzin: I went to buy a new kitchen light with Karsten because then I was not content with my old one. The light bulb was constantly not working and blinking. So, we just went, and I saw what was there, chose it and – finish – whereas Karsten wanted to continue looking at more and more. “Maybe let’s go to another store,” and so on. No way did I want that errand to take more than an hour.
Participant: I’m content now with the old lamp.
Dr. Berzin: I see! You are content with the old lamp that's in your room.
So, that brings us to the end of our hour. Let me just read this verse once more:
[35] Good sir, just as those with many possessions have problems, that isn’t the case with those whose desires are few. As many heads as the foremost nagas have, that many problems arise from (the gems that they wear on) them.
The next verse – and we’ll have great fun next week – is Nagarjuna’s advice to be content with the type of wife that you have. There’s also a discussion about the types of people to marry and not to marry. Anyway, let’s think about this verse for a moment, and then we’ll end with the dedication.