Phurpa Tashi Rinpoche
(Rinpoche is a mind emanation of Guru Rinpoche. He has completed the four visions of Thogal and attained the youth vase body.)
Lama Achuk Rinpoche often taught, “For a beginner, engaging in practice is not the main focus, it is more important to first understand properly how to practice.”
If we do not understand how to check and adjust our motivation, or how to practice the Dharma correctly, an external appearance of doing good deeds may end up becoming non-virtue. For example, the consciousness of some people who were Buddhists when they were alive were observed by high Lamas to have fallen into the three lower realms after their death. It is beyond many people’s comprehension how a Buddhist could end up in the same way as someone who does not practice virtue. In reality, if a practitioner does not know how to practice the Dharma correctly, such a result is quite common.
Since we started practicing Dharma, I believe most of us have engaged in a large number of good deeds. However, can these good deeds be considered “virtue” from the perspective of Dharma? What criteria should we use to gauge?
First, check if our desire, anger, ignorance and various mental afflictions have decreased; check if our faith, kindness and compassion have increased? Use this as your measure of improvement. The view of Buddhism is extremely fair and objective. The concept of “virtue” is not based on some external appearance, such as how enormous your good deeds are, or how many sadhanas or texts you have recited etc. Performing these actions does not ensure that you are practicing the genuine Dharma.
As a practitioner, we aspire to take rebirth in pureland or Sukhavati. However, from an ultimate point of view, where is Sukhavati? As the sixth Chan patriarch Huineng said, “A mind of virtue manifests Sukhavati before your eyes.” That is to mean, Sukhavati is not at some location, but is really an appearance arising from a pure mind.
All sentient beings possess the Buddhanature. This point is mentioned in many teachings. Lama Achuk Rinpoche’s Guru Yoga also states, “All beings are originally Buddha.” The Tantra of Two Observations states, “All sentient beings are Buddhas, only obscured by adventitious defilements.”
All sentient beings possess the Buddha-nature but are unable to reveal all enlightened qualities. The reason is that they are obscured by habitual tendencies and mental afflictions. An analogy is an always-existing blue sky which is concealed from our sight by clouds on an overcast day. The sky has never vanished; it is only veiled by the dark clouds.
The reason for performing a variety of good deeds is simply to dispel these defilements, to uncover the innate Buddha nature. If these defilements are totally exhausted, the sign is that adverse conditions (mental afflictions) lessen and conducive conditions (faith and compassion etc) increase continuously. If the Dharma practice is unable to achieve this, then how useful can it be to meditate daily, go on pilgrimages, visit high lamas etc?
Of course, in order to protect your faith, a genuine Guru will never tell you directly that these “good deeds” are useless or have no merit. However, if we examine this point from the perspective of what Dharma is intended to achieve, we have to ask ourselves honestly if performing these good deeds has really brought us closer to liberation.
In Yonten Dzod, it is stated, “(Merits) depends on the pure or impure motivation (behind the action), not on the magnitude or form of the virtue or non-virtue.” This alone counsels us that genuine merit depends on how much one’s faith, kindness, compassion and renunciation have increased, and how much one’s desire, anger, ignorance and other mental afflictions have decreased. In our practice, it is imperative to keep checking our mind and motivation.
We often say that the reason for practicing Dharma is for increasing happiness from life to life. Practically, this means that, in our everyday life, due to engaging in virtues, our mental afflictions should be decreasing, even if we are not totally conscious of it. When we face difficulties or hardships, we utilize Dharma methods to balance our mental state, therefore, the happiness and contentment in our heart are always increasing.
If we were to describe this without Dharma terminology: let’s say, in the past, we were happy in a month for only a certain number of times, while most of the other times were filled with mental suffering or afflictions. However, after practicing Dharma and due to taming our minds, we find that we are more frequently happy and less often unhappy. This means that our practice is gradually moving along.
Knowing this point, our Dharma practice becomes very down-to-earth and practical. We are not always dwelling on the number of texts, mantras, sadhanas, ngondros that we have completed, because these numbers do not represent our merits or qualities. Of course, from a certain point of view, it is much better to engage in more practices diligently. On the other hand, the quality of practice is by far more important. Otherwise, it is nothing more than an external appearance of practice.
In short, if you do not put your energies into taming or training the mind, then even if you imagine that your view is high and your merits are continually increasing, I am afraid that you are not much different from an ordinary person who does not practice at all.
Our teacher Lord Buddha Shakyamuni said, “Purify your mind, this is what the Buddha taught.” As long as mental afflictions exist, and faith, kindness and compassion do not increase, then imagining that you possess a high view is quite groundless. This is not the real practice of Dharma.
