INTRO TO STUDY GUIDE for Path To Buddhahood by Ringu Tulku
see Welcome Page for our Super Questions for Study link.
Session One-Introducing the Four Ways To Misinterpret Buddhism. Our Journey with Ringu Tulku to Tibet begins.
See learning about Metaphor and Buddhist technology link at end.
INTRODUCTION: STUDY GUIDE for Path To Buddhahood: Teachings on Gampopa’s Jewel Ornament of Liberation. By Ringu Tulku
Buddhist teachings are to be applied to our sick old selves. They are the medicine for our various illnesses. It makes sense then, one must know the illness and with this spirit, we are going to present a STUDY GUIDE that identifies at least 4 Illnesses through which we misinterpret Buddhist teachings…not just a little….but magnificently…to make sure we do not become enlightened in this lifetime, insuring that we can’t help other beings discover the happiness that lasts either.
As Ringu Tulku says, “we see things as we’d like them to be instead of how they really are.” That is certainly true in our case. In sharing this
1. Always ignore the Unfamiliar. Assume our misunderstandings are shared by the other brilliant people who always agree with us.
2. Choose the wrong English definition of a word to use in a Buddhist teaching not only once several times, as it suits us.
3. Misuse a Buddhist teaching Story, judging the characters as right or idiots we would never be or become, even if we wanted to change into them.
4. React to teachings with our Mind In A Box turning away any idea that is shaped differently than our preconceived notions of ‘real’ or ‘comfortable.’
Now all these Four, have found themselves amusingly played out in an adventure we had with Rinpoche traveling to
But first, we need to understand some bizarre and appalling tricks that have been played on us as we read.
As you know, Rinpoche’s (Ringu Tulku) book Path To Buddhahood is written by Rinpoche, from within the context and frame of his Great Compassion. We read his book, as we read all Buddhist books…to help ourselves. PTB (Path To Buddhahood) was written specifically with our goal in mind. Unlike books of other subjects, whose writer’s mind may or may not be trustworthy with our experience, we have chosen carefully. If we read PTB carefully and correctly, our mind will be correctly led by the deliberate and careful sentences that Rinpoche uses to lay down a path we can actually follow and end up as happier people. However, if he points right, and we veer directly left as our minds are prone to do when we get the least small whiff of hot chocolate chip cookies baking in the distance…we will end up at our own Samsaric front door, not having gone through much change at all.
If things go right, we do end up back at home, but it should look a bit different. What would our home look like if we were enlightened? Well, even the Buddha could not tell us. WE must look and see. No one but ourselves can stand there in front of our very ordinary house and see what is really there. But that is a journey from here. Some smart effort is required.
Americans are good at that. While everyone else is waiting for history to repeat itself to see what is going to happen, we Americans set off speedily on a new course, with not a clue what lies ahead, certain we can adjust along the way. So in typical American fashion, we are going to do just that…set off and go. But armed with coonskin hat, rifle, or MP3, whatever…and four ways we misinterpret Buddhism.
To even get us out of our Lazy boy, first we must understand that everything we experience guides our mind in some way. The TV is a power-vac sucking the mind right out of our brains. If we don’t do something Gampopa says, we will not change.
Fortunately for us, the Buddhist teachings might in fact be likened to a Lamborghini that knows how to drive itself to the goal. It must itself be completely in tune with the goal in order to keep to the right road at all times. It is why we take teachings from someone who has accomplished some of the path him or herself. To be sure we are not only going to stay on the road, but that we ourselves will develop the skills that specifically generate the experiences that gradually coalesce into enlightenment. Ringu Tulku has an engine that can spring the release on the Lazy boy and off we go.
Every thing we read guides our mind in some way. A book can be about any subject, but it is always about the mind of the writer. Every word of it. We have carefully chosen the teacher who will be entrusted with giving us the tools to deliberately shift our Identity to one that is happier and more content. Also one that can help others in the best of ways. Off To
Waiting For The Lama
We were waiting for Ringu Tulku to arrive, sitting in our group of twelve around the
“Say…I heard just recently that the Foreword by Matthieu Riccard and Rinpoche’s Preface give us some clues we need to succeed with this book.” We all looked around at each other with some confusion. Had one of us become enlightened but and we hadn’t noticed? A kind of panic set in. Rinpoche was coming. We should know something. What might that be?
“Okay, so what does Riccard mean here in the first paragraph?” You can see where we got our first Rule to Fail to understand Buddhist teachings from. “Clearly, if Rinpoche himself says “Jewel Ornament of Liberation” is used in monasteries to train people, and it blends the traditions of the monastic and the yogic, forming the basis for the whole Kagyu tradition, it must be crucial, no? “ The rest of us sat up.
“Where did you get that? I didn’t see that! Did any of you read that in the book?” Marlene our musician in the group directed her ire at Cookie. Cookie trains horses. She’s filled with common sense.
“Go research the Mahayana Kadampa tradition and the tantric Mahamudra tradition on the web. It’s not easy to explain in one sentence.” Cookie was never pleased to associate with someone who didn’t look things up.
It’s always amazing how a visit from Rinpoche focuses us. We’d read the book ages ago. We thought we had this all figured out. Here we were packed and ready to go from
After careful reading of Riccard’s first paragraph, we had our first solid consensus…”Hey, Riccard speaks of Rinpoche’s images. He says Ringu Tulku (Rinpoche) uses everyday images that relate to everyday experience.
“Okay, don’t panic. So we know these are impermanent.. They have to be impermanent cause their everyday. Relative level.
“Now it says here, Rinpoche also guides us to discover basic Buddhist principles.
“These are, you know, they don’t change. Right? Buddhist principles don’t change?”
Well the question seemed easy enough but no one had the confidance to venture an answer. And it was such a simple one.
Someone else piped in, “Understanding these then must lead to the Nature of Mind experience. Impermanent and unchanging.”
We had all missed this. Know what is changing and know what does not change. Sounded like Western cultural studies to some folk around the table. But Marlene disagreed.
“You can only know that after you finish the book.” We agreed with Marlene.
“The last chapters are on Buddha Nature and the Activities of Buddha Nature. You might not catch that on the first reading. So, the second reading might bring you closer.” There were frowns. Who read a book twice these days, never mind a slow read with out skimming..
As he always had, Lance had been getting sleepy listening to us. It soon became apparent he was going to disappear and disappear he did. Boing. He was gone. Chair still warm. Happened so fast the chair cushion still had two moons in it. Disappeared right before our eyes like a light turned off. Roberto who had been sitting on the sill, gladly took his chair. Lance, lacked the auspicious interdependence to remain in touch with teachings and was frequently popping in and out of practice. After a while, it was too difficult to fill him in on all that happened in his absence. The time between his appearances lengthened and sadly, he disappeared right before Rinpoche’s arrival. We checked the back room. His luggage was gone as well.
The afternoon sky, as autumn always is in Tulsa, had began to shimmer with that unclouded blue luminescence that brought out winter jackets that for some served for the whole short winter that is typical here. The climate is most evident in the changing and vast skies. Summers used to be a lot less humid fifty years ago, before all the man-made lakes were dug for recreation. But it’s the sky here that draws one in. We had just left the slightly green tinged water color summer sky behind with its orange sunsets that settle into a strong band along the horizon before the stars emerge from the black above. If the wind is right at the airport, people arriving from a flight can even smell the hay nearby. Birds sing all night long greeting passengers at the arrival line. Besides being the second major Art Deco focus for architecture in the country as a result of building during the oil booms, there are 743 houses of worship and 110 bars according to the Yellow Pages.
Anyway, our group consists of several people who “came from someplace else” as well as people who’s ancestors settled here long before
“
Calling The Lama
So if Riccard meant to say that the book uses Relative level everyday stuff to explain what does not change and we can actually get there to the Ultimate unchanging level…why doesn’t he just come out and say it like it is? An Anonymous speaker asked his name not be used added ….”yeah….and when is the Happy. When does it get Happy?”
Just then, Rinpoche appears at our door. Unbelievably, this trip he was alone. When Uncle doesn’t come, we miss him terribly. And we miss Tempa when he doesn’t come. He loves to play with Karune, the boston terrier Rinpoche helped name (on request) and who will get to the offerings if they are left on the low shrine table. (only happened once. Who admits these things?)
Refuge
“Good evening Rinpoche,” we said.
“Hello.” His usual big beaming smile, taking in each one, making eye contact. We brought him tea which he only sipped after setting down his saffron colored bag on the floor besides the black leather chair. Someone ran to get hot water. These Lamas are drinking less and less tea, more water it seems. It seems to be a trend.
“So!” “It looks like no one is ready, no bags?” he says. They were hidden in the other room and we were all on cushions or chairs. As usual, we didn’t know what was expected. “Have you all read the book? Yes? I thought maybe, you’d all have gone on ahead. You don’t need me to go!” There was much explosive laughter. No one had anything really to say.
Rinpoche continued, “Most people think the beginning of the book is the…beginning (of the path).” Watching him lean back and relax reminded everyone of his nickname, The Lazy Lama. He even told some students not to practice. But those were instructions not to fool with too much as we all found out as several followed Lance’s evaporation…if we disappeared, it was hardly rainbow body. Our Tsog practice stayed strong. We learned how to relax deeply…without forgetting to show up for class.
“Actually, understanding deeply,” Rinpoche said sipping hot water and now
looking serious, “that’s the beginning of real experiencing. Experience cannot be explained and then you know. You must experience the teachings inside, for yourself. Then progress is possible.” He smiles and laughs because we are all holding our worn out copies of Path To Buddhahood and looking kind of glum in comparison to his ease.
We are sometimes through no fault of our own, a motley looking group. Someone comes from doing lawns, the lawyers are exhausted and can’t drink anymore coffee no matter how organic it is, the artists, paper, painting and tile, wonder how to put money in the donation cup, former ceo’s of families (it’s what we call mothers), video trades, sports…we seem to represent all Relative ways of functioning. We are a group that loves spending Friday night immersed in dharma, beginning with good Mexican coffee, meditation to test our caffeine levels, a few Ripa cookies (high end) for those who skipped dinner, Tsog practice, and some catching up afterward. We start at 7 but get going by 7:30. We finish at 9 but really end at 11 or at 1am…and emerge into the night air that is quiet, except for the tree toads in the summertime near the Arkansas River beds easing up into the Tulsa hills that hide one another until the Ozark mountains take over in the next state…or hills that ease down until they flatten out in the other direction toward the Texas panhandle, pink earth and white cotton on black twigs
“We are all packed Rinpoche.” It seems cliché, but it’s us who look tired, not Rinpoche who had just come from
This is a clue. Do you think when we walked outside the building there was actually an expanse of ocean before us in the middle of
In
The fact is, we are all prone to sea sickness, but still we all chose to go on this trip. How you look at Dharma Travel depends on perception. Sometimes you get seasick. Sometimes not. It’s all going to be unfamiliar in some way.
The unfamiliarity of it all made us happy Rinpoche was with us on this voyage, as we have all tried to take many dharma voyages alone, in books from the easy chair and we got nowhere. Now we were actually going. We all had our copies of the book. He had his. Nothing in his book is underlined or highlighted. It looked fresh and new. We think now, he was just pretending to have a book, it was all inside himself.
We mentioned how unfamiliar things feel. If you ask what are the other three of the Four Ways to Misinterpret Buddhism you are on the right track…to study Buddhism, it’s necessary to hold things in the mind while reading others. To hold the benefit of others as a goal as we make this journey. This is not going to be easy. This is as good as reality TV gets.
So keeping a ‘frame’ of Bodhichitta is what we are to do. It’s like wearing a life-vest. When we are tired, we will not sink, and we will reach the destination and others will benefit from our efforts.
We will use the wrong English words to understand the teachings and go miles off course, taking Rinpoche to strange places even he has never been before. We will stop to take the weary Gampopa on board but Rinpoche won’t hear of it. And we won’t listen. We won’t hear. Much like we read Rinpoche’s e mails…adding what we think should be there, subtracting what we don’t like to hear…we have a mind in the box vessel with an impulsive rudder.
In the next session, Session II, we travel into the quote by Tibetan Yogi Shabkar, that Riccard cites for us in his Foreword.
The title for Session II could be “The Buddhist Story That Everyone Thinks Doesn’t Apply To Them.” It will not be title that because we need not rest too long on our faults. Riccard’s use of the word ‘Rigor’ in the last paragraph of his foreword does not mean applying harshness to ourselves, or being inflexible as in ‘Rigor Mortis.’ …rigor correctly refers to the English definition “precision or accuracy.” Being accurate. Approach the teachings with care and accuracy.
We give thanks to Gampopa, his students, to Rinpoche, to the Lineages, and we…as they say, hurry slowly.
End of Session I: Beginning the Beginning: Actually Going.
See the use of Metaphor to change perceptions.