Lamrim III

Lama Je Tsongkhapa and his disciples

Lamrim III

Last night at Jewel Heart - Cleveland, we had our third Lamrim class. We being myself as one of the students, and Sarah as dharma instructor, with assists from David, Laura and others of team Jewel Heart.

Last week, we discussed the orgins of Lamrim, and its' value as a practice guide. We began with a discussion of preliminaries.

The text used by Jewel Heart is taken from a transcript of teachings by Gelek Rimpoche in 1997 - 98 in the United States and the Netherlands. In his presentation, Rimpoche focused on the Lamrim written in the fourteenth century by Lama Je Tsongkhapa, founder of the Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism. In turn, Tsongkhapa's teaching is based on the Lamrim's orgins in the writings of Nagarjuna and Asanga, two early Indian pandits and saints of the first century. So that is its' lineage.

Gelek Rimpoche refers to the Lamrim as "nothing but the experience that Buddha has gained and has shared." As Rimpoche explains, the collected works of Buddha run to over 125 volumes, and these are not organized as a formal teaching. They are the living record of the teachings of the historical Buddha as he traveled through India in the 6th century BC.

The Lamrim takes the teaching contained in this historical record, and distills it down to its' essential elements, so that the full teachings of Buddha are available to all who engage in its' study. Rimpoche refers to the Lamrim as a "highway to enlightment," and says that Tsongkhapa referred to it as "the essence of the essence of gold."

Gelek Rimpoche sums up the Lamrim this way:

• it is the path that all the enlightened beings have traveled
• it is the path that has been opened and clarified by Nagarjuna and Asanga
• it is the main message Atisha brought to Tibet in the 1100's
• it is the essence of the Buddhist teaching in Tibet, "revolutionized" by Tsongkhapa

Then we talked about what Rimpoche calls the four extraordinary qualities of Lamrim, which he says distinguishes them from other forms of practice, as follows:

• The understanding of Lamrim reveals the non-contradictory nature of all spirtual methods;
• The understanding of Lamrim makes you aware that every teaching by any great master can be taken as personal practice;
• The true intention of the Buddha is made clear;
• Harmful behaviors will automatically stop;

Then came a caution: the Lamrim has been developed to provide all that is needed to create the foundation for a spirtual practice leading to enlightenment. It should not be treated as a novelty, an exercise in scholarship, or as the latest spiritual fad. The benefit comes from accepting that Lamrim gives you everything you need to develop a lifelong spiritual practice, leading to attainment of the Buddhist goal of enlightment.

The next preliminary might be called the engagement between physician and patient. The effort of the teacher to engage the untamed monkey mind of humanity, with all of its' dangers. (What I think of as the essential purpose of the teaching offered to humanity by any great spiritual leader, whether Jesus, Buddha, Tenzin Gyatso, Gelek Rimpoche, Krishnamurti, or Black Elk (my personal lineage of spiritual teachers)).

It certainly seems true to me that the sufferings of humanity are created by the minds of humans for whom power at the top of the hill, and not spiritual development is the first priority. AKA, the patient. The power to create and to destroy is the essence of a human history dominated by violence, greed -- all of the west's seven deadly sins; the toll in suffering by victim and perpetrators alike, cries out for a solution. For this human power to be loose in the world without the influence that comes from a religion of love and compassion for others, creates the danger of life by the sword with which we all live. Without an awareness of others and a motivation of concern for their well-being, all is lost for humanity, and perhaps for all of life on the globe, at least for now. So the stakes are high. Higher than ever in history. Higher than in the time of Buddha, or of Jesus six hundred years later. It is a measure of the trust that we must have - that I do have -- in our spiritual leaders, to depend on them with the stakes so high.

And yet, without the human capacity for growth, all the saints of Buddha and Jesus combined cannot create change in man. It is the knowledge that the patient is capable of redemption that must motivate the physician; the knowledge that a human being is capable of learning and growing, that gives the physician the power to heal.

Of course, these are my thoughts on the matter under discussion, and certainly should in no way reflect on Gelek Rimpoche or team Jewel Heart. This is the sort of personal outburst that I want to confine to my blog, rather than risk side-tracking the instructors.