The paramita of patience

Faults and virtues

Patience is one of the most important paramitas because is the antidote to anger and hatred.

Although we have practiced generosity and ethics without patience a sudden intense anger or hatred can destroy the result of all our good actions. 

Definition

Is a feeling of ease accompanied by compassion.

Classification

Towards those who causes us harm, do not reply with harm. We must change our attitude through reasoning.

1. The person does not control her actions.  Due to internal or external circumstances, emotions such anger control her action and speech.  In fact, anger and compassion are twin emotions. When we encounter difficulties one or the other may be triggered.  When someone harm us we get irritated, but the person is not her own master, but the anger.  Her ignorance, her suffering, her fear and anguish push her to doing wrong.  Then, our irritation should aim her emotions, instead of the person.  It is better to feel compassion towards the person. 
2. By the law of cause and effect, current difficulties are the result of causes that we created in the past, with actions, speech and negative thoughts that we did, said or thought in the past.  Act out of anger only increases the liabilities of our future suffering.  On the contrary, with patience, our negative karma decreases.
3. There are conditions that allow the difficulties we experience happen that are not under the responsibility of the person that causes harm to us.  Without the sensitivity of our body and mind, the physical and moral suffering couldn't harm us.  So, why we don't blame our body and mind too?
4. The person than harm us, actually help us, because without an enemy we could not develop our patience.  We are lucky of having a chance to purify our karma and perfect the virtue. [History of the Buddha]
5. We must look carefully the aim of our anger [against the wrongdoer].  We want to kill him, to make him suffer?  Death and suffering of karma will hit him infallibly.  Actually, the anger and hatred he experiences are suffering, an inner burning.

Towards the obstacles and life difficulties. For example, if we are sick, treatments may be painful, but help us to avoid heavier consequences.  A warrior facing a big danger is considered brave, bold.  Our worst and more powerful enemies are the negative emotions, and facing them lead us to the enlightenment.

Towards the highest teachings, develop understanding and open our mind. Persevere our study, until we understand [the ultimate] truth.  This cannot happen after try it only once.  We must work listening and reading, reflecting, and meditating.  Step by step we develop the understanding.

Meditation

Loving kindness and compassion.

The paramita of ethical conduct

Faults and virtues

Without a right conduct we cannot go very far.

Definition

Avoid doing negative actions and act in a positive way.  Ethics is often referred as discipline.

Classification

• Actions that we should avoid: the classical texts (e.g. The jewel Ornament of Liberation) describe the precepts of monks and nouns, about actions of body, speech and mind. In the same book, in the chapter about karma there are 10 actions to avoid:

• Body actions: taking life; stealing; sexual misconduct
• Speech actions: lying; divisive speech; harsh words; idle talk
• Mind actions: covetousness; harmful thoughts; wrong views  
• Positive actions: Those are based on compassion and wisdom, and generate the discipline to develop the other qualities. There is no list, because every action must be founded in an altruistic motivation to qualify it as good.
• Work to benefit others: there are thirteen actions grouped in four types.
• Generosity: alleviate poverty; protect from fear; alleviate pain; give to people in need;
• Beneficial advice: teach ignorant people to act intelligent   help other to develop their potential; motivate people to aspire to do good and beneficial
• Practice what you teach: help those that benefit others; thank the good we receive from others; rejoice other's good deeds; do a spiritual practice; suppress all that must be suppressed; inspire respect by your talents
• Adapt yourself to the person we help to fulfil the request 

The paramita of generosity

Faults and virtues

• Without generosity we cannot get enlightened.
• The essence of generosity is to not have attachment. To give enriches us, to keep impoverish us.
• Among all the possessions, the highest is contentment. A person contented is rich (Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche: "For a yogi richness is enough")
• Desire and craving are like a bottomless well. In the Tibetan tradition, craving lead us to become like King Midas, who fulfilled his wish to transform everything he touches into gold.  Surprisingly, he could not enjoy anything, even eating, as by touching food become gold.
• We should do like the policy of General-Motors to become rich: give to people more of what they like, and less of what they do not like.
• Be rich and unable to give is like be poor.
• What has been given lead us to the enlightenment, while that we keep lead us to the path of suffering.

Definition

To give fully without attachment.

Classification

1. Material generosity
1. Impure motivation: wrong e.g. to harm, inferior, e.g. to avoid bad karma
2. Impure materials: like poison or weapons
3. Impure recipient: to a crazy person, giving food to a glutton
4. Impure method: unhappy, with disdain, with anger
5. Pure material: anything that benefits the person
6. Pure recipient: to people suffering, to people that you deserve respect like your parents or an spiritual teacher
7. Pure method: with happiness and respect
2. Provide fearlessness: is to protect from thieves, animals, diseases
3. To give the dharma (teachings)
1. Recipient: to someone that want and respect the teachings
2. Motivation: to benefit others
3. Dharma: teachings that are not corrupted and show the right path
4. Method: at an appropriate place and moment

Transcending

1. Wisdom: without pride or attachment
2. Intelligence: with good intention, and a positive motivation.  
3. Dedication: wish to share the benefits with the other beings.  The highest form is the intention to bring all beings to enlightenment

Meditation

• Settle your body and your mind
• Rest in open awareness for a moment
• Think on a difficulty you are going thru, consider that it will pass
• Think on a nice, wonderful experience you are going thru, consider that it will pass
• Impermanence is the nature of reality
• Make the wish to find a stable contentment through all the changes, that will reduce the power of good and bad experiences will have on you
• Countdown from 5 to 1
• 5. This too shall pass
• 4. Clarity, presence, stillness
• 3. This too shall pass
• 2. Clarity, stillness, peace
• 1. This too shall pass
• Rest in open awareness

Addendum - Overview of the 6 paramitas

After we finished the reading of the book we will revise the two last chapters on cultivation of inner values and meditation.  For this purpose, I will use the commentary of Ringu Tulku ("Path to Buddhahood"/"Et si vous m'expliquez le bouddhisme?") of one of the classical texts of Tibetan Buddhism "The jewel ornament of liberation".

The paramitas are the practices of the bodhisattva, the Buddhist ideal of behavior.  The Sanskrit word means literally "gone beyond", "to transcend".

The six paramitas

The first four paramitas: generosity, ethical conduct or discipline, patience or forbearance, and diligence or joyful effort, describe the right conduct.  Three are described in the chapter 10 of "Beyond Religion", but ethical conduct is not detailed in the chapter because all the book talks about ethics.

The fifth paramita is meditation, and is the topic of chapter 11.  There are many ways of presenting meditation, and I will use the five poisons and the five antidotes as in the classical presentation of the paramitas.

The sixth paramita, wisdom, is not mentioned in the book.  As it describes the Buddhist view of the reality, it could be confusing considering the Dalai Lama' secular proposal for ethics.  However, I would also discuss about it, in a later post.

A summary of "Beyond Religion"

Abstract

This document is a humble attempt to summarize the extraordinary book Beyond Religion, the proposal of ethics for the whole world that the XIV Dalai Lama.

Introduction

Placing priority on material values do not stop all problems. Science have been very effective to find solutions to material problems, but it cannot provide foundations on personal integrity. In our mixed society we cannot adopt either a religious approach. Therefore, we need a secular ethics.

Part I: A new vision of secular ethics

1. Rethinking Secularism

Secular ethics must be based on two principles:

1. Shared humanity
2. Understanding of our interdependence as humans

2. Our Common Humanity

What we humans have in common?

1. Our body, ultimately stardust
2. Our conscious experience: pain and pleasure

3. The Quest for Happiness

There are two levels of satisfaction:

1. Sensory level experiences: wealth, health and friendship. But having all three do not guarantee happiness
2. Inner mental state: where we can experience the genuine happiness

Other factors contributing to happiness (based on scientific research): sense of purpose and connection with others.

4. Compassion, the Foundation of Well-Being

Humans need affection to grow up, and also in the adult life when we encounter difficulties. Our happiness not only appears when we receive, it is even more important when we give love.

There are two levels of compassion

1. Biological level: it is instinctive (ex: mother love)
2. Extended level: need deliberate cultivation

5. Compassion and the Question of Justice

Punishment can be conceived to benefit everyone, including the wrongdoer. Forgiveness is not forgetting; it helps to liberate us from the pain and gives a chance to peace.

Ethics must look at motivation. Pure motivation, to benefit others, makes actions ethically sound.

6. The Role of Discernment

We need discernment to ensure we take realistic choices. Although we can have rules, most cases are not black or white and we need to look carefully pros and cons.  Ultimately the good of bad of our action is about our motivation.

7. Ethics in Our Shared World

Ethics must apply to our personal and social life, developing a sense of global responsibility: there are wars, economic inequalities, etc.

Education should include exercises of attentiveness and cultivation of inner values. Need perseverance.

Part II: Educating the heart through training the mind

8. Ethical Mindfulness in Everyday Life

Ethical training proposed by the Dalai Lama is base on lojong (Mind training in Tibetan) providing of the Nalanda tradition.

There are three aspects or types of ethics:

1. Cultivating the right behaviour of the body, speech, and mind, retraining of harming others
2. Practicing virtue with other: being generous, charitable, and helpful. Praising others and rejoicing of their achievements.
3. Being altruist: it is not necessary to set a goal too high. We will use discernment to cultivate our altruism with heedfulness, mindfulness, and awareness.

9. Dealing with Destructive Emotions

Often emotional states are divided on pleasurable and painful. However the Nalanda tradition distinguish two types by another criteria: beneficial and harmful.

Destructive emotions undermine our wellbeing, and although they can have an evolutionary purpose, we must learn to handle them as they distort our perception of the reality.

There are five families of emotions: anger, attachment, envy (jealousy), pride, and ignorance.

We need to

1. Reduce their impact, understanding their causes, and learning how to use the antidotes (the positive emotions).
2. Develop enthusiasm to avoid our inner peace disturbed.

10. Cultivating Key Inner Values

The key values we must develop are:

1. Patience and forbearance: tolerance, forbearance, and forgiveness
2. Contentment: absence of greed. Poverty is not a virtue.
3. Self-discipline: must be voluntarily embraced
4. Generosity: there are four kinds; we must use discernment, having joy when giving.

11. Meditation as Mental Cultivation

• Develop ethics needs: cultivation of awareness and inner values
• Transformation operates with the three levels of understanding: hearing, reflection and contemplative experience.
• Analytical and absorptive meditations
• Cultivate the mind and the heart
• Create conditions: avoid procrastination, plan the practice, reflect on the benefits of practicing
• Meditations: focussed attention; present moment awareness; loving kindness and compassion; equanimity; rejoicing; dealing with emotions
• Success is realistic approach and perseverance