How to Face Sufferings

A talk given at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on the evening of July 29th, 2011

Welcome Speech by Host:

First let me give you a brief introduction of our honorable speaker, Khenpo Sodargye.

Khenpo Sodargye had been following his root guru, H. H. Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche, for many years. While he is teaching and administrating the Han Chinese disciples, he also endeavors to spread the wisdom treasures of Tibetan Buddhism throughout China and all over the world.

Khenpo has more than one hundred writings and translations of dharma teachings, and his work still continues. In recent years, Khenpo uses internet, videos and microblogs to broadcast dharma, guide dharma practitioners and novice Buddhists. He is also devoted to a variety of charities, such as building schools, caring for the elderly, protecting and releasing animals. Khenpo always says, “I don’t know how long I will live, but as long as I have one breath inside me, and as long as there is only one listener, I would do my best to benefit that person with the sacred Dharma!”

Today, the benevolent Khenpo came to us. Let all of us stand up and express our warmest welcome to him!

Thank you, please sit down. First let’s welcome Mr. Yiu-kuen Kam, President of the Buddhism Association at PolyU, to give the welcome speech.

Mr. Yiu-kuen Kam (Cantonese): What language should I speak in? I think they prefer Cantonese. First, let’s welcome Khenpo Sodargye to visit and speak at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. We also appreciate our honorable guests, both from the University and outside for being here today. You are equally important to make this happen, because without all of you, Khenpo would not be able to give his talk. So many thanks to all of you!

Many of Khenpo’s writings and translations are very popular. I had the chance to read them and bought many of his dharma books when I was in Mainland China many years ago. We have been reading his books and hearing his teachings a lot. Today I’m very glad that I can finally meet Khenpo in person. Probably most of you have the same feeling, don’t you?

(Mr. Kam once again repeated the introduction in Mandarin.)

Okay, I want to keep my introduction short and not to waste our time. Otherwise, I am afraid later my friends in mainland see the tape, they will be confused by what I am doing here.

Once again, I want to thank everyone for joining us, and thank Khenpo Sodargye for giving this talk. I’ll stop here. Let’s welcome Khenpo!

Hello, everyone! I’m very happy to visit the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. When I just arrived, Mr. Kam and several faculties showed me around the buildings on campus. After the tour, I had a feeling of being at home. Why? It is because the architecture is very similar to my monastery in colors and style. I was told that the architectural style is modeled after that of the Cambridge University and the Oxford University in England, and bears the scent of Industrial Revolution, open and inclusive, and also embodies the humanistic spirit of this university.

As the Buddha always said, “All phenomena arise from causes and conditions; all phenomena also cease due to causes and conditions.” Worldly people also like to say, “Predestination brings together two people a thousand Li away, without it, they will not get acquainted even if they are facing to face.” Therefore, it is impossible that without a cause, all of us can gather here this evening. The cause should be in all your faith and devotion to Buddhism, and thus we have today’s topic, How to Face Sufferings.

Suffering is not an unfamiliar word to us. In this world, there are many sufferings. I, myself, have not broken free from sufferings, and it would be inappropriate to talk to you about it rhetorically. Nevertheless, I got interested in dharma at a very young age, and for many years, I have been following my guru and dedicated myself to learning, researching and practicing dharma. So in certain aspects, I can briefly report to you some of my own experience.

I. Classifications of Human’s Sufferings

There is a variety of classifications within the Three Realms and the Six Destinies. For us human beings, there are suffering of suffering, suffering of change and all-pervasive suffering, which are the three root sufferings. It can also be categorized into eight branch sufferings, i.e., the suffering of birth, the suffering of old age, the suffering of sickness, the suffering of death, the suffering of being apart from those you love, the suffering of being together with those you despise, the suffering of not obtaining what you seek, and the suffering of the flourishing of the five skandhas.

Bodhisattva Aryadeva, the great scholar in India, divided human’s sufferings into the physical suffering and the mental suffering. He said in his Four Hundred Stanzas on the Middle Way, “The High have mental suffering, and for the Commons suffering comes from the body. Both kinds of sufferings overwhelm people in the world each day.” People at higher levels mainly suffer from the mental sufferings, such as pressure in work, anxiety from competition, the loneliness and bitterness of being at the top. On the other hand, people at lower levels mainly suffer physically, such as lack of food and clothes, extra hard work and so on. Regardless rich or poor, people in the world are all overwhelmed by these two sufferings.

In the past, many people thought money could bring happiness. Once they were wealthy, they found that happiness was still far away. In fact, they experienced more sufferings. The Gallup poll shows that, Happiness Index for the Chinese consumers was 69 out of 100 in 1994, then it reached 71, the highest, in 1997. Ten years after the first poll, however, it dropped down to 67 in 2004. What does this mean? During the economic development in the past ten years, people initially felt happier, but shortly after that, their satisfaction with life started to decrease, and consequently, their happiness index was even less than the start.

Not to say the whole world, a survey showed that, in China alone, approximately 287,000 people died of suicide and two million people attempt to commit suicide each year. It is equivalent to the fact that every 2 minutes one person kills him- or herself. As we can see, many people are dressed nicely and looking very happy, but deep inside, they are suppressed and exhausted by many sufferings.

II. Recognizing Suffering Is the Nature of the Three Realms

However, experiencing more sufferings than happiness is inevitable in our lives. If you have doubt, you may read the first eight chapters of the Four Hundred Stanzas on the Middle Way, which talk about all kinds of sufferings in mundane life. Then you will realize that sufferings are everywhere in our lives. As the Buddha states in the Lotus Sutra, “There is no peace in the Three Realms, it is more like a burning house.”

Of course, some of you will not agree with this statement, and may think, “I don’t think life is full of sufferings, because I am always happy.” I used to know a guy who likes drinking very much. He once told me, “You believe samsara is suffering, actually it’s not that painful. Like myself, I feel very happy with drinking every day.” The pleasure caused by drinking, however, is just a crazy and abnormal delusion, not true happiness at all.

Darrin McMahon, an American history professor, once wrote a book called The Pursuit of Happiness: A History from the Greeks to the Present. It took him six years to search for the true meaning of happiness by extensively citing historical references. He tried to understand what really brings us happiness. What kind of conclusion did he get? Like the Holy Grail in the Bible, supreme happiness can only exist in our imaginations. In other words, we can never attain true happiness in this mundane world. Such view is consistent with the idea that there is no peace in the Three Realms in Buddhism.

Therefore, we must realize that life is full of sufferings. Without knowing this, many people, including some Buddhists, will start complaining and blaming the God for their setbacks, “why am I so unlucky that all misfortunes befall me.” They do not know that the nature of samsara is just suffering.

Some may think, “Not everything in samsara are sufferings, there should be some happiness.” This thought is correct, however, in fact, all such happiness is temporal and impermanent, and can turn into suffering at any time. Just like white spots on a piece of blue cloth, happiness is the occasional ornament in our lives, not the background color.

Furthermore, some believe happiness comes from our sensations. Body contact, pleasing sound and beautiful things, can all bring us happiness. This kind of happiness, however, is very superficial, and sometimes can be obtained through drugs. True happiness will come from our inner minds. If we want to stay happy and away from suffering, we have to work on our minds with the great medicine of Mahayana to uproot all sufferings.

III. Different Ways to Get Rid of Suffering

So, how can we get rid of sufferings?

1. The Poor Worldly Methods

I want to first talk about the incorrect methods of releasing sufferings used by worldly people. When facing traumatic sufferings, some people would indulge in alcohol, cigarettes or even drugs. I know a Buddhist, who told me that he could not stop drinking or smoking. Whenever he becomes fretful, he hides in a café smoking, goes to a bar drinking. He believes that being drunk can release all his worries. Is it true? The answer is certainly no. These behaviors can only make him more upset. After sobering up, he still needs to face the reality that he can never run away from.

Some may indulge themselves in sexual misconduct, Karaoke or Mahjong when in a bad mood, all of which are still a temporary escape.

Some may write down all their pains and then burn them. They feel in this way sufferings will go with ashes, which is no more than superstition.

Some would like to shout in an empty valley, bump head against the wall, or even smash all their bowls and pots, to vent their frustration and get relieved.

Even worse, some try to attain happiness by killing people. Recently in the US, a 17-year-old boy killed both of his parents. He then invited 40 to 60 friends to his home on Facebook, drinking beer all night, while his parents’ bodies still leaving in the room.

Or, some would kill either themselves or their lovers after the breakup, or even kill someone similar as a replacement if could not find the lovers. I heard that one college student picks the girls on campus in red dress with long hair and kills them, as revenge to his ex-girlfriend for abandoning him relentlessly.

2. The Better Worldly Methods

In a better scenario, when suffering, some choose to travel, talk with a wise person, or see a therapist. They would also read some inspirational books, such as Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Chicken Soup for the Soul, written by an American writer, had been very popular several years ago. It has many short and philosophical stories, and is also fun to read. However, unlike dharma teachings, I feel it lacks deep pith instructions to eradicate afflictions. Nevertheless, it is one way to face one’s sufferings.

All these methods, like taking painkillers, can temporally suppress sufferings and free ourselves from their torture to a certain extent. However, they can only relieve the symptoms, but cannot eradicate the root cause. If we want to uproot sufferings completely, the best way is to follow dharma teaching.

3. The Best Methods in Buddhism

So today, I want to share with you what I know about Buddhism. Through these methods, it’s very easy to get rid of our inner sufferings. We may not eradicate all of them at once because some habitual inertia can be very strong. However, with continuous practice in dharma, suffering will leave eventually.

What are these methods? Here are a few.

1) Benefiting Sentient Beings Instead of Oneself

When you are suffering badly, you need to first recognize the cause of suffering, which is our ego, or self-interest. As we all know, in a difficult situation, most people feel bad about themselves, but very few people worry about others. Therefore, to eradicate all sufferings, we need to cut off their root cause. To achieve this goal, we need learn sutras of Buddhism to change our self-interested mind with the spirits of Mahayana.

There are many people, who are frustrated by all kinds of things before, after they learned Mahayana teaching and engaged in many activities of benefiting others, such as charity work and volunteer service, their earlier sufferings gradually disappeared as a result. Therefore, the first method of getting rid of suffering is to help others. The best situation is that you cultivate Mahayana’s compassion and Bodhichitta in your mind. Even without them, you should at least follow the normal tradition and have a kind heart, which is also a good medicine for healing people’s sufferings.

In 1988, a historic conference attended by more than 75 Nobel Laureates was held in Paris, discussing the advancement of the science in the 21st century and the problems human beings are facing. They suggested that if we are to survive, we must travel back 2,500 years in time to tap the wisdom of the Confucius.

Regrettably, while the Chinese culture was regarded as a hope abroad, the teachings of Confucius and Mencius were interrupted unprecedentedly in China. I remember when I was young, perhaps in the year of 1974, the revolution of “Condemnation of Lin Biao and Confucius” was held throughout China. In order to prevent people from using Confucianism to thwart the Cultural Revolution, the Gang of Four criticized the Confucianism. This movement lasted less than half a year, but its influence continued to be very strong. Since then, the traditional Chinese culture has been waning till today. Although many insightful people try to revitalize the national culture, it is just like a dying sick man, too difficult to completely recover.

During a seminar yesterday at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, I found many young people are not only interested in Buddhism, but also are active in propagating the traditional Chinese culture. Why’s that? Although it is highly valued by foreign countries, the traditional culture is largely neglected in its home country. We can hardly find such virtues as being filial to parents and respectful to teachers in our society. Many teachers themselves never receive such education, and certainly it is impossible for them to teach their students. In turn, the bad cycle continues.

Therefore, we need to continue to improve what we teach in the current education. We should not just go after high scores. Nowadays, every university regards the test score as the single criterion for college admission. In fact, the score is not so important, and instead one’s character determines everything. A very smart person without a good character, will do more harm than good to our society. Therefore, virtue should be the primary concern in our education curriculum.

I have met some college students, who do not have much knowledge except arrogance as big as mountain king. They scorn and criticize Buddhism as they like. In fact, Buddhism welcomes criticism, since the revealed dharma truth will stand up to any challenge. However, if knowing nothing about Buddhism and just garbling a few words and making nonsense, one can only expose his or her own shallow ignorance, rather than hurting Buddhism.

Therefore, the main purpose of education is to teach students how to be a person, a person with both ability and integrity. In ancient China, whether a person can be used depends on both his ability and character. With a noble character, even if one doesn’t have abundant knowledge, he can still be put in an important position. On the contrary, without a heart of compassion and kindness, even if one is extremely talented and has endless erudition, or masters the whole Tripitaka of Buddhism, he may not benefit the world.

Therefore, we must understand the importance of virtue. There is a saying of Confucius hanging on the wall at the UN headquarter, “Do not do to others what you would not like to be done to you.” Do many of us really understand it? When your life is under threat, you desire to live and fear dying. Then how about those animals eaten by you? Didn’t they have the same feeling? Benefiting sentient beings instead of oneself is not just a verbal slogan. You need carefully observe yourself from many aspects. If you really do it, for sure you can get rid of all kinds of suffering.

2) Turning Suffering & Happiness into the Path

When we are having tremendous sufferings, there is another method in Buddhism to help us, which is to turn suffering and happiness into the path. In other words, you can use the suffering as a dharma practice, instead of regarding it as suffering.

For example, Bodhisattva Ngulchu Thogme (Gyalse Ngulchu Thogme Zangpo) said in his The Song of Happiness, it is okay we are either healthy or sick. If we are sick, we can clear bad karma of the past; if we are healthy, we can benefit others. It is okay we are either poor or rich. If we are poor, we can cut off the attachment to wealth; if we are rich, we can accumulate merits through offering and giving. Some renouncing practitioners do not cling to money and money automatically comes. In this case, you need not worry what to do with the money. As the Buddha said in vinaya, if you collected huge merits in your past lives, this life you will get very rich even without any hard work. So it is okay for a monk to live in a luxurious house and wear expensive robes. Therefore, no matter what happens, regardless good or bad, we should be happy all the time.

In fact, if one wants to succeed, it is necessary to endure all kinds of sufferings. Einstein once said, “There is only one road to human greatness: through the schools of hard knocks.” Therefore, a wise person won’t be afraid of suffering, rather he will turn every adversity in life into a stepping-stone of the path toward liberation.

There is a parable of this theory. Once upon a time, a farmer’s donkey fell down into a dry well. The farmer was very worried nearby the well, but he could not find a way to get the donkey out. At last, the farmer made a decision: since the donkey was so old and the well should be filled up anyway, so it was not worth to retrieve the donkey. So he asked his neighbors to come over and help him fill the well with dirt.

The donkey immediately realized what was happening. At first, he cried horribly. Then, to everyone surprise, the donkey calmed down. The farmer looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey shook it off and took a step up. Soon, to everyone’s amazement, the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off!

In real life, we should shake the sufferings falling down on us off like dirt, step on them instead of getting buried by them. Eventually we can free ourselves from the oceans of samsaric suffering, like the donkey freeing himself from the well.

In Tibetan Buddhism, the Kadampa has many teachings of turning suffering into the path. I have a classmate who is very good at it. He is a leader. During a race for a position, he was indifferent as if it has nothing to do with him. His friends were worried and asked him, “Why did not you run for it?” He said, “It’s OK. If I didn’t get the position, I would have more time to practice dharma. If I got it, I will have more opportunity to benefit more people. Regardless of the outcome, I am happy.”

Unfortunately, many people do not understand this these days. They are always worried about personal gains and losses, and sometimes even turn good situations into bad ones. If you look at a problem from a different angle, unflavored conditions can also be transformed into auspicious ones. As Beethoven had said, “The most excellent people receive joy through sufferings.”

3) The Practice of Taking and Giving

The Tonglen practice of taking and giving is also very powerful in reducing sufferings. When lying sick in bed, or being destitute, you may wish, “As in cyclic existence, there are so many sentient beings suffering in this way, may all their sufferings come onto me.” Then, when you exhale, visualize you give all your happiness to others, like taking off your coat and putting it on them. When you inhale, visualize all the sufferings of others come into your body, and you take on their suffering so that all sentient beings are free from suffering and attain vast happiness.

This is a profound instruction of training mind in Mahayana teaching. If we can keep practicing through sufferings, all our sufferings will have value, and our ego-cling will weaken as well.

4) Using the Wisdom of Emptiness

The best way to eradicate sufferings is to build the wisdom of emptiness in your mind because it can directly cut off the roots of sufferings. How does it work? Because all our sufferings come from our conceptualized minds, emptiness can exactly clear such illusion. As Bodhisattva Aryadeva said in Four Hundred Stanza, “If things exist inherently, what is the good to perceive emptiness? Since you are bound by the conceptions of duality, the wisdom of emptiness is to be refuted here.”

To cultivate the wisdom of emptiness, of course, you do not have to realize the state of the first ground Bodhisattva. But, at lease, you should understand the truth that “all phenomena are empty”. So it’s necessary to study shastras such as Fundamental Treatise on the Middle Way and Four Hundred Stanzas. Especially for some young practitioners, who have been Buddhists for many years, they still know nothing about dharma teaching except reading a few books occasionally. If so, they are not worthy of the title of Buddhist.

Buddhists today mainly have two pitfalls. One of them is that, unlike practitioners in Tibetan Monasteries, many Buddhism scholars do not spend much time on dharma through listening, contemplating and meditating, or through teaching, debating and writing, and they are merely satisfied with a Master or Doctoral degree in Buddhism. Thus, their knowledge of Buddhism is rather superficial, their papers also lack greater insights. Nevertheless, their arrogance grows inside them day by day. The other pitfall is some followers have a blind faith. They only seek shortcuts for liberation by going around asking for empowerments and blessings.

In fact, as a Buddhist, in order to truly understand Buddhism, one has to learn and follow dharma practice step by step. It takes nine years in the worldly compulsory education system to graduate from the middle school, so it is impossible to understand the vast and profound dharma in a short term. Dharma learning is much harder than any worldly knowledge. If you don’t study it systematically and are satisfied with a refugee certificate or some empowerments, the outcome is only skin deep and exists in name only.

Therefore, Buddhism is not as simple as someone might think. It requires both learning and practicing, and none of them can be neglected. When I was talking with Mr. Kam just now, we both agree that in Buddhism, theoretical study alone is far from enough, and practice is also a necessity. In addition, one’s practice needs to be guided by dharma teaching. Everyone needs to work hard on these two aspects.

Coming back to suffering, as I said, if you want to eliminate sufferings, you need to know emptiness, which requires some learning and contemplating on the middle way. Especially the shastras such as Fundamental Treatise on the Middle Way, I guarantee you can benefit from it. It was Bodhisattva Nagarjuna, the author, who had spread dharma all over the world back then. I had read many worldly and trans-worldly books, and they are really able to arouse the irreversible faith in me towards the Buddha.

If you want to learn about emptiness, you’d better start with Fundamental Treatise on the Middle Way. The dedicatory verse at the beginning of the text reads:

To the one who teaches dependent arising,
Which is peace and the pacification of complexity—
No cessation, no birth,
No nihilism, no externalism,
No coming, no going,
Not many things, not one thing—
To the perfect Buddha, the best of teachers,
We prostrate.

The truth about all phenomena are thoroughly revealed by these few words. Regardless of our mind, our sufferings, or all external phenomena, their nature is all about no cessation, no birth, no nihilism, no externalism, no coming, no going, not many things, nor one thing. Bodhisattva Nagarjuna spent 27 chapters to explain the truth in great details, which cannot be refuted by any scientist.

Yesterday, one professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong asked me, “What should we do if college students these days do not believe those stories in Buddhism?” I said, “Actually we needn’t tell them stories, otherwise they would mistake Buddhism stories for those myths or cartoons they are used to know. To guide them in knowing Buddhism, we’d better start with the middle way and the Buddhist Logic, to remove their arrogance first. Then, we can tell them the stories so that they can appreciate the greatness of the Buddha.

On July 2009, the Geneva-based International Coalition for the Advancement of Religious and Spirituality (ICARUS) unanimously named Buddhism the Best Religion in the World. The title is based on the votes by more than 200 religious leaders from every part of the spiritual spectrum. Many religious leaders voted for Buddhism rather than their own religion. Why’s that? It is because in history, there wasn’t a single war fought in the name of Buddhism. The compassion in Buddhism is to love and benefit every sentient being, and its wisdom can reveal the truth of all phenomena. These are all unique characteristics of Buddhism.

While at Fudan University, I quoted the former President of University of Science and Technology of China. He said, “When scientists finally managed to climb to the top of the mountains, the masters of Buddhism had been waiting there for a long time.” Indeed, regardless of the subject, one can always find perfect answers in Buddhism. If some Buddhists are not familiar with this view, that’s their personal problem, not the fault of Buddhism.

By analyzing the so-called non-existence of “I”, especially the wisdom of emptiness, all sufferings can be eliminated. As we know, the person “I” who feels suffering and the perceived suffering share mutual dependence. Neither one can exist by itself. In the Fundamental Treatise on the Middle Way, Bodhisattva Nagarjuna said, “How would anyone exist without anything? How would anything exist without anyone?” Nowadays many people feel a lot of sufferings. However, where is this suffering “I”? And where are those sufferings? Observing with the logic of middle way, you will realize that sufferings do not truly exist at all, other than in your illusion.

Therefore, not knowing about emptiness, we will easily run after for gains and losses, and think of all illusions as real. Once we can get rid of the ego-cling using the wisdom of emptiness, as many eminent monks or great virtues did before, all sufferings will vanish and the enlightenment will bring you undescribable happiness.

5) Practicing Tolerance

We can also practice tolerance when suffering. Tolerance, if put in worldly words, means being strong and persistent. With it, one does not easily give in when in pains.

The American President Abraham Lincoln is a great example. Throughout his life, Lincoln dealed with defeats his whole life. He lost in eight political races, failed twice while running business, and suffered depression once. He could have quit many times, but he didn’t. Because of his persistence, he became one of the greatest presidents in the US history.

Another example is the deaf blind American author Helen Keller. She achieved incredible miracles in her unyielding life.

And Marie Curie once said, “First principle: never to let one’s self be beaten down by persons or by events.” In her biography, she led a very poor life during her study at the university, and endured numerous unbearable hardship. She occasionally fainted due to malnutrition. In cold winter, she put on all she could to get warm, even including a chair to give herself some sort of illusion of weight and heat.

In the history of Tibetan Buddhism, the great lineage master, Longchenpa, led an austere life while practicing in Samya. At that time, all that he had was a sack made of matted yak hair. When snowing, he got into the sack, which became his quilt, cushion, and his only clothing.

Speaking of “the only clothing”, I recall a fox cub in a short documentary about animal conservation, where it said, “I have a beautiful coat, and I wear it in four seasons of a year. This is the only coat in my whole life. My mom gave it to me when I was born. I wear it every day since then, even when I am sleeping at night. Mankind, this is the only coat I possess, while your closet is already full. My coat is my own fur, and without it, I’m only left with flesh and blood. You can change your coat three times a day, but I will die if tgakin off mine.”

Indeed, if we stop wearing fur, we have other clothes to wear. If we stop eating meat, we still have vegetable to eat. Some think it is not a big deal to eat meat, but it was that piece of meat at cost of the life of that animal. Have we ever thought about it? Nowadays there are many organizations in the West for animal protection. Even though it is not popular here, all of us should start caring all animals with our own actions. For example, if you enjoy eating meat, try to eat less in the future, which is also a kind of practice of tolerance.

6) Mipham Rinpoche’s “Practice of Joy”

In Tibetan Buddhism there is an instruction of practice, which can get rid of the sufferings in our daily life and keep us in a joyful mood.

The method is simple: First look straight ahead, free your body and mind and relax, open your mind as much as you can, hold and recite the mantra, “Tadyatha, Om Tsomo Milena Deka Tamo Svaha.” You can repeat this mantra seven times or one hundred and eight times. This practice helps us to keep a good mood and improve the relationships with other people. Many problems will simply go away.

I had been practicing this mantra for a while, and benefited a lot. Of course, you may not feel it apparently if you lack faith. For any dharma practice, faith is the key. Some think it is not rational to rely on faith. In fact, you can hardly enter into any profound state by being rational all the time. Similarly, relying on perceptual experience only is the other extreme. Some academic researchers completely deny faith or blessing, and they only trust their own conceptualized mind, while some believers never study the theory and blindly trust their faith. Both attitudes are unacceptable. To realize the truth in this world, we need to stay on the middle way and away from any extreme behavior.

That mantra practice can expand our mind. If we look at things from a different angle, we will not get stuck on one point. Once an artist painted a black dot on a piece of white paper and then framed it. Many people watched the painting and had no idea of what it stood for. In fact, it has a deep meaning: when one focuses on one point, typically he will ignore other things and cannot see the open space nearby.

If you get scolded or slandered for no reason today, you may be too upset to eat if you cannot get over it. Or if your father passed away, your relationship is in trouble, you may feel it’s the end of your world. Although there are many things that can bring you happiness, you can still suffer strongly, find it hard to let go if you simply attach yourself firmly to that single black dot and ignore the remaining area of the white paper.

I used to know a woman who became desperate for family problems. She chartered a car and drove from Chengdu to Dzamthang, and arrived at a prairie. The prairie is vast, and one cannot see its edge from tens of kilometers. She let the driver go and stayed there just by herself. She let out her pain by shouting. After a while, her mind was cleared as she noticed the sky was endless and the prairie was so vast. She felt just like a tiny ant busy with its little house all day, and it was meaningless. Realizing this, she got relaxed right away and all sufferings disappeared. Therefore, our inner attachment is the source of suffering. Once we let it go, suffering will stop binding us.

None of the greatness has taken pain seriously throughout the history. As said in The Way to Bodhisattva, “If there is a remedy, then what is the use of frustration? If there is no remedy, then what is the use of frustration?” This is a very good logic. Suppose you parents are dying, if there is a way to save them, there is no need to suffer; if not, crying is useless. However, today very few people have such an attitude when facing sufferings.

I’m not saying that I am one of them who can calmly face anything in life. But through the study of Mahayana for many years, I have developed a completely different attitude toward the loss of family members. I will not lie in front of so many people. So when suffering, I wish you can find a good way to solve your problem in Buddhism. Suicide, drugs, ecstasy pills, all of which will do nothing but to destroy you. Don’t choose them as a way to escape. You should try to read some dharma books or listen to the teachings from eminent monks or the great virtues, and understand the true meanings of dharma. This way, you can get rid of suffering by uprooting its cause.

Many people have such experience. Originally, they feel meaningless with what they do. After learning dharma, they start to understand the meaning of life, and are able to solve many problems and experience the inner happiness this way. None of these can be bought with money.

Among professors and students present today, maybe some of you are manifestations of Buddha and Bodhisattva. For those who are really sages, that is a different story; however, for ordinary beings like me, I would recommend that you use dharma as an antidote to your sufferings. If you listen, contemplate and meditate on dharma constantly, I can guarantee that you get rid of sufferings completely.

7) The Uncommon Pith Instructions of Recognizing the Nature of Mind in Vajrayana

At the end, I want to introduce the Dzogchen practice. You can get the detailed teaching only after you finish the preliminary practice and receive the empowerment. From my personal experience, this is the simplest and the most straightforward method. In this practice, analysis or observation with the Middle Way theory is not necessary, what you have to do is to rely on the pith instruction from a Dzogchen master, and you will recognize the nature of suffering and transform afflictions into enlightenment.

The Platform sutra of the Sixth Patriarch also said, “Affliction is enlightenment.” This is the most profound pith instruction in Zen and Vajrayana, which can be experienced only through faith. It is kept secret from those with strong conceptualized mind and huge doubts. Nowadays someone tries to read these books without permission. However, if you don’t have the instructions from the guru, the words themselves won’t bring you any deep meaning. Except some verbal explanation, you cannot reach the true meaning at all.

In summary, there are all kinds of ways to eliminate sufferings. You do not have to use all of them. As each of us has different background, you can choose the one that works best for you. Just like getting sick, some use Chinese herbs, some use massages, or some use injections. No matter which method you use, the purpose is the same, and it is to get rid of sufferings.

We should remember that, all sufferings come from our minds, so we have to work on our minds to eliminate them. External materials, such as money, will not solve our problems. The only way of uprooting the cause of suffering is to purify or tame our minds through dharma. Finally, I hope you can get some benefit from today’s talk, even it is just a little bit. If the talk can free you from your sufferings and make you happy for just one moment, it will be worthwhile to me.