Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 25-minute session, Ven Jampa Ignyen grounds Buddhist ethics in a practical dilemma: how can we practice patience when we cannot know if another person is a bodhisattva, and angry words toward one could destroy a thousand eons of merit? He covers the Buddha’s three systems of vows—individual emancipation vows, gathering virtuous dharma through bodhisattva commitment, and ethics of working for sentient beings—then moves to patience as the antidote to anger. Two stories illustrate the impossibility of judging by appearance: Tilopa the fishcutter and Milarepa the green-skinned yogi, both highly realized yet appearing ordinary or unruly. The practical conclusion: we cannot afford to judge others or become angry, since anyone we meet might secretly be a bodhisattva.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 24 2001 06 28 LR.mp3
UUID: dfa36328-888f-4b1c-8195-a511dff441b3
Teacher: Ven Jampa Ignyen
Collection: y Lam Rim 2001 Month 04-06 (Ven Jampa Ignyen)
Date: 2001-06-28
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 25.5 minutes
Words: ~2,662
Beings and so on that we gain an understanding of what it is appropriate to do and what it is not appropriate to do. So one of the major major deeds of the Buddha is actually to set down all of these ethical restraints, which act as guidelines for us to follow so that we don’t end up accumulating a vast amount of negative karma. Otherwise, without these, it’s very easy to accumulate a negative potential. For instance, from a Buddhist perspective, to be a butcher is one of the five types of wrong livelihood, really because one is simply killing animals. Killing itself is a naturally non virtuous act.
And by simply killing many, many animals day in, out, one is accumulating a vast amount of negative potential. Although we, you know, it doesn’t take effect in the present life, in general the actions that we commit in this life don’t have any effect in this life. They don’t mature in this life. But when the possibility dawns on us that actions do have an effect in future and that, for instance, killing animals, and animals are sentient beings, that in fact they’ve taken rebirth as humans many times in the past, just like our rebirth at present and so on. When we start to think about these issues, then we can understand the possibility that exists for other beings, and then we’re more cautious in how we treat other beings.
All of this comes about through others setting down ethical rules in which by which we engage or interact with others. So the Buddha here has set down three different systems of vows, individual emancipation vows, of which there are many. For a layperson, there’s from one to eight. For a novice, there is thirty-six. Fully ordained monk, two fifty three.
Fully ordained nun, three sixty four. Many, many. Nuns have over a hundred more than monks. It’s very, very difficult. Why bother practicing in that way?
Reason why one practices in that way is to avoid accumulating non virtue. By avoiding accumulating non virtue, the mind becomes purer. It’s a very simple process. When the mind becomes purer and clearer, it’s possible to gain the insight into the nature of the mind itself, And wisdom is therefore possible. The wisdom depends on concentration.
Concentration depends on ethics. So firstly, is this ethics of restraining from misdeeds. Then there is the ethics of gathering virtuous dharma. So the ethics of gathering virtuous dharma means all the effort we make with our body, speech, and mind to perform virtue while having bodhicitta vows or bodhisattva vows. Bodhisattva vows is everyone familiar with the bodhisattva vows?
Bodhisattva vows is really those vows that one takes when one is convinced of the necessity to achieve or to establish bodhicitta. When one sees that this life, the best use that one can make of this life is to establish bodhicitta. Then the next step from there is to formally make a commitment to achieve bodhicitta, to make a formal vow that one will work to attain the state of a bodhisattva, to generate bodhicitta within one’s mental continuum. Then when one has taken that commitment, the virtue that one generates in one’s mental continuum is then called here the ethics of gathering virtuous dharma. So in a way, that’s the ethics that is going to help one establish the mind of bodhicitta, which is the main topic that we’re talking about.
So that also is a type of ethics. And then we have the ethics of working for the sake of sentient beings. So this is the four ways of gathering disciples, and so forth. And then as Pabongka Rinpoche says, these four ways of gathering disciples are discussed later, but then there are a further eleven ways of working for the sake of others. So that’s helping others who toil for those who suffer, working for the sake of those blind to the right methods, working for the sake of people by benefiting them, working for the sake of those threatened by danger, working for the sake of those afflicted with miseries, working for the sake of the deserted, etc.
So all of these activities are in a sense a type of ethics that can be taken on. These are also similar to, for instance, the generosity of giving fearlessness. And that also, we can see examples of that even in like America in New York. They’re working, you can see people that are actually embodying these practices, working for the sake of others, helping others when they need particular types of help. Also, for instance, the generosity of granting fearlessness to others.
You can see that even though the situation is extremely difficult, there are those who, out of their concern for others, help others and establish a sense of calm in others, even though it’s a terrible situation. So those also are ethical practices and practices of generosity and so forth. So all of these practices are absolutely essential. And although we may not be able to practice them at present, we need to think of them and develop the aspiration to perfect them in future, practice and perfect them in future. And then also we have the practice of patience, the perfection of patience.
So this is then talking about the very nature of patience itself. So patience is being undisturbed by any harm that is inflicted, or by any mental anguish due to suffering. So being undisturbed, not agitated by anything that may arise externally or internally is the nature of patience. We can see that we’re not certainly at that point yet because we’re getting we get disturbed by many different things. What we see on television, what we hear around us, even our own thoughts can be agitated and so on.
So that then is an indication that we do not have patience. If we’re agitated, then patience does not exist internally. And it says also in the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, Unruly sentient beings cannot all be subdued. They are as vast as space, but the patient mind is not discouraged and anger can be conquered only by patient thoughts. If this happens, it is like defeat at the hands of all.
So what is being said here is that patience is defeated by anger. But patience, while it remains intact, is established as patience, but what does threaten it is anger. So basically what is being said here by this particular quote is that anger and patience are opposites to each other. And the great danger for our own patience is anger arising. When anger arises, we don’t have patience.
But patience is able to quell anger. It’s the antidote to anger. By generating patience, we can overcome anger. And another, as also Śāntideva said, there is no sin like hostility and no austerity like patience. So we should endeavor to practice patience because we are always susceptible to generating impatience, agitation, anger and so forth.
So there are three types of patience that are set out by Pabongka Rinpoche’s text. The first one is the patience of remaining calm in the face of our attackers. So when we’re attacked by others, certainly we should remain patient and not be moved or not be agitated in our mind under adversity or when adversity arises. So then Pabongka Rinpoche starts talking about getting angry with others who may be a bodhisattva. And then in fact, we don’t know who, in the external world, who may be a bodhisattva.
We’re not in general, we it’s hard for us to understand the mental continuum of another being. And we don’t know if another being is a bodhisattva, another being has generated bodhicitta. And if we get angry at a bodhisattva, it’s very negative for ourselves. As it says, as Pabongka Rinpoche says, if you get angry with someone who is a bodhisattva and we destroy the virtue of one hundred eons. If we get angry at a bodhisattva, even if oneself has established the state, even if we’ve established the state of a bodhisattva, we are bodhisattvas.
And we get angry at another bodhisattva, we destroy the virtue of one hundred eons. If in fact we’re not a bodhisattva and the other person is a bodhisattva, we get angry at them, then we destroy the merit of a thousand eons. And this is mentioned in various texts. So the drawbacks are very heavy in getting angry. So in fact, we walk around, we can never know who another person is in terms of whether they’re a bodhisattva or not, because bodhisattvas can manifest in various ways.
It doesn’t mean to say that a bodhisattva will advertise that they’re a bodhisattva. A bodhisattva may look like an ordinary being, and we get angry at them. If we’re not a bodhisattva, and they are, just by getting angry at them we destroy the merit of a thousand eons. So it’s no wonder that it’s difficult for us to get out of cyclic existence because we’re always getting angry at other people, and we’re never too sure if everybody’s a bodhisattva or not. Even driving down the road, we get angry at people.
Walking down the street, going into the city, we’re not sure if these other beings are a bodhisattva. Even another being could be a bodhisattva and not know it. That’s possible. So we have to be careful because if we’re getting angry at others and they’re bodhisattvas, we’re destroying all of our merit. Destroying the merit of a thousand eons is a lot of merit.
And we need as much merit as we can, so we should be careful who we’re getting angry at. In fact, we should better to just get angry at those who are not bodhisattvas. We don’t even there, it’s not certain. As the Dalai Lama was once saying, when he was talking about China, and he was talking about Mao Zedong, and he was so in a way, was musing about what happened in Tibet. And he was thinking, it’s the fact that what happened to Tibet happened to Tibet.
It’s almost inconceivable. The fact that, you know, it was invaded and most of the monasteries, six thousand monasteries were destroyed. People were sent into exile. A million people died and so on. And it really was all through the revolution that occurred in China of the Communist Party led by Mao Zedong.
And his holiness was saying that actually for someone to have such an effect means that they have accumulated a vast amount of merit in the past. In order to influence the world on such a scale, is an indication that being has a great deal of merit, because we can’t achieve anything without merit. And then also he was saying, for being to attain that level of merit is a sign that being is perhaps a bodhisattva. Because really, to accumulate a vast amount of merit is perhaps an indication that they are a bodhisattva. Hard to say, but one can’t discount that.
So it’s not easy for us, you know, even In other words, we can’t afford to get angry at anyone. It’s difficult. We can’t, in a way, go on appearance, because we ourselves we know that. At times we appear, you know, pacified and contented and so forth, but we know ourselves we’re not pacified, we’re not contented and so on. Appearance is deceptive.
Wouldn’t be a bodhisattva necessarily. Some beings, even highly realized beings, may give the appearance of being angry or unruly and so forth. But it’s an external appearance. Inside there there may just be a manifestation of compassion inside. Outside, they look, you know, as if they’ve never practiced.
They’re rough. They’re coarse. They’re unruly. But that may be simply they’re acting in that way for a purpose. There’s no guarantee we cannot simply trust appearance.
Oh, that’s right. Tilopa. There is a story of one great Indian abbot called Naropa who was many years the abbot of this great monastery in northern India. Anyway, he decided at one point that he would resign from the monastery and seek out a guru. He still hadn’t realized that he hadn’t achieved what he’d been seeking. And he heard of this particular guru called Tilopa.
And in fact, if you’ve been to Dharamsala, there’s a village on the way from Pathankot to Dharamsala in India called Tilokpur, and this is the actual place where Naropa went. And this person Naropa then sought out Tilopa, and he heard that he was in a particular place. He went there and he asked, is there this great practitioner called Tilopa here? And the local said, the great practitioner, well, there’s old fishcutter Tilopa who lives down on the river. I don’t know if that’s what you mean, but So then Naropa went there, and this person, Tilopa, was sitting in a cave, and the cave is there in the river, and he was catching fish and he was eating the fish, raw fish.
And so this is what he would do, and there would be a pile of fish bones and so forth near his cave, So that’s how he got the name. And Naropa was, you know, not too sure about whether this person had any realizations or not. But then Tilopa would snap his fingers and the fish would come back to life and dive back into the river. And so he took this as a sign that Tilopa was not an ordinary being. But that’s right.
Appearance to the local people, he was just some eccentric who was living down on the river. But he was more than that. It’s like Milarepa in Tibet who lived on nettles in the mountains. And because he lived on nettles for so long, he appeared green. His skin turned green, and people used to ridicule him because of that.
He didn’t look like anyone especially. He was just skin and bone, and his skin had turned green because he lived on nettles. But, actually, he was a great practitioner. So also for ourselves, we can’t rely on how people appear. In fact, it could be the opposite to how things appear to us.
Those that really appear, you know, as if they’re good practitioners, they may not be. Those that don’t appear to be good practitioners may really be good practitioners. So therefore, we can’t afford to get angry with anyone. We can’t afford to judge other people. Or as much as possible, we should lessen that.
Yes. Because we don’t know if other beings are bodhisattvas, and if they are bodhisattvas and we’re getting angry towards them, then we can be destroying our own basis, our own merit. Anyway, we should stop and have a break there. Now, there’s one week left of this particular course, and I’ve been talking with Geshe la, who’s arrived last week, and Geshe la has agreed to do the following Thursday night, which will be just finishing off the text. So, also next week, we’ll hand back the tests that were done previously, and there’ll be a further test given for maybe over the holiday period.
So that’ll be made available, and there’ll be a two week, say two week period to do the test to be handed in there after the holiday stage. So recommended that if possible everyone to do the test. It’ll also be an open book test and there’ll be just a two week limit on it. But it’s good to revise the material. The purpose of doing tests is not to make things more difficult for us.
It’s simply to investigate the issues, think through the issues again in order to help us help our understanding. Right. So we’ll just do a quick Yes. Also on Tuesday, the application is agreed.