Listening with the right attitude from Liberation in the Palm of Your Hands

[dsiluvu]

Liberation in the Palm of Your Hands - Day 3 Page 92




While listening to Dharma some people wonder, “What is he going to say that I don’t already know or haven’t already studied?” Listening like this will not benefit you at all. Others only pay attention to the interesting anecdotes and do not take profound points of the instruction seriously. Here is an illustration. When Kaelzang Gyatso, the Seventh Dalai Lama, was giving a teaching on Lamrim, a man was heard to remark, “Today was really informative! The Dalai Lama told us that Lhuendrub Fortress in Paenpo District was also known as Mayi Cha Palace.” We mustn’t be like such people.Still others listen as if to check on the lama, whether his teachings conform with the texts or not. Lama Tsechogling Rinpoche, a tutor to one of the Dalai Lamas, has said, “These days disciples seem to be checking the lama’s accuracy.” Listening to a teaching like this will never benefit you. It is most important to bring pressure on your mindstream while you listen. When lamas teach the Lamrim, their main concern is not the correction of verbal faults; they are teaching mainly as a means to subdue the mental streams of their disciples.

I found this on dorjeshugden's FB fanpage and I thought how interesting! https://www.facebook.com/DuldzinDorjeShugden/photos/a.333716930003137.72762.124479407593558/681315841909909/?type=1&theater

It got me thinking and this was what I had to say...

Such a student or listener... will always end up heading nowhere, always finding fault, always centre hops, maybe have many Gurus, loyal to none, has mixed practices or is mixed up inside lol. He/She will always be the "lousy student", never learning anything and achieving nothing but his/her own ego.

Geez... if you're going to attend a Dharma Class with a authentic Lama teaching, firstly it was your choice to go, so you must have already checked him out right?!

If you're new, all the more to listen with your heart not head! And if you need to "check" the Guru out, check through His/Her actions; kindness, compassion, consistency, courage, generosity, etc all the good qualities... their characteristics basically.

It is and will be 100% accurate, I am sure of it foryour 6th sense will kick in and tell you, He or She is the real deal or not! Even if the Guru shouts at someone, look deeper what He is shouting about and not the "shouting" per se for the Guru is kinder or even more kinder than your mother who disciplines you when you needed it most! May the blessings of lineage master blesses all students with an open mind and <3 

[cookie]

Many of us are haunted by mind delusions which makes us skeptical, indecisive, egoistic, protective, defensive, almost confused most of the time. We create expectations from years of negative conditioning in our minds. Hence, when approaching such  pure jewels as the Guru, Dharma and Sangha, these delusions come to play and create lots of positive AND negative ideas, making us very confused and not able to see the pure benefits in the 3 jewels. We need to gain more  knowledge with an open, non-biased mind to be able to assimilate the goodness in the Dharma; take the medicine(Dharma) with full trust that it will heal us . This not only requires good attitude from the part of the practitioner, but also lots of divine help to ward off all the mind delusions and maras that come into the practice.

[RedLantern]

When reading and studying serious work and profound as "liberation in the palm of your hand" the serious readers have to require to be focused and invest meditative effort. More importantly,learning requires right motivation,demand patience constant perfection and right thought on the part of the reader.
Our spiritual liberation could actually happen and attainable in the palm of our hand.May all beings be liberated and and happy.

[dondrup]

What is he going to say that I don’t already know or haven’t already studied?”

No matter how good we think we had learned or studied Dharma, we should be humble and listen to Dharma attentively again and again until we are at the stage of no more learning i.e. enlightenment. 

"Others only pay attention to the interesting anecdotes and do not take profound points of the instruction seriously."

Every instruction on Dharma is a personal instruction to us. We must not be selective on Dharma and practise only those Dharma that we like and ignore what we dislike. Our spiritual training becomes incomplete if we are selective and discriminative.
   
"Still others listen as if to check on the lama, whether his teachings conform with the texts or not."

This is finding faults with a lama who is very kind to transmit the Dharma teachings to you.  If we don't have faith with the lama who has transmitted Dharma to us, why in the first place did we rely on and listen to the lama's teachings?
   
"It is most important to bring …. on your mindstream while you listen."

We must put effort to listen attentively the precious Dharma so that we understand and realise the actual intention of Buddha's teaching. To listen with thorough concentration allows us to create the cause to listen to Dharma again in the future.

"When lamas teach the Lamrim, … main concern is not the correction of verbal faults; they are teaching mainly as a means to subdue the mental streams of their disciples."

We should rejoice our good fortunes to listen to the precious Lamrim teachings containing the complete path to liberation and enlightenment.

[yontenjamyang]

In the modern contexts, this is called "Critical Thinking". In critical thinking one is thought to evaluate the things said and not the one saying it. So even if a janitor (any other perceived lowly person) said something, one should investigate and evaluate what is said, if it makes sense or is logical or not! The same with a person of "high standing". I think this is already a prevalent habit in most of higher educated society.

When listening to the Dharma, we are sometime critical of the person sharing the Dharma, be it a Guru or a teacher or just a fellow student doing a sharing. How he speak, his style, his articulation and his reputation are also judged. Like it is said in the Lamrim, when listening to the Dharma we should just focus on the Dharma and bring pressure on our minds to apply the Dharma. We should be critical. I suspect, that the reason why we can apply critical thinking when we are listening to everyday thinking but when it comes to the Dharma, we tend to judge the person sharing the Dharma, is because of the lack of merits and true compassion because the Dharma always challenges us to transform. Hence, the ego is resisting and tries to find reasons to reject the Dharma by way of finding faults with the Guru/teacher/presenter.

[Big Uncle]

Too often people question whether the Mahayana texts were really from the Buddha or the authenticity of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition as it is laid upon these texts. Many have questioned the Tantric liturgies and whether they were even Buddhist because they figured, the Tantric deities in union looked unBuddhist and probably Hindu in origin. Intellectuals argue authenticity and basis of the practices...

Then on the other hand, there are the ordinary practitioners who skimp through Dharma classes, while enjoying the depth of it but leave the class relatively unchanged or unmoved. Their concern is only how to make offerings on the altar in the right way or how to avert obstacles and preoccupation on the various esoteric tantric imagery that seem to promise untold powers.

This and many other variations of similar scenarios of how practitioners today revel in the superficialities of Dharma with hardly any delving deeper into its deep meaning.

[DS Star]

Nowadays, there are very few spiritual students that really pay attentions and really focus on the teachings. Many seek teachings just as a mean to confirm their pre-conceived ideas and belief.

And yes many come to teachings to challenge the lama thinking that they are better and to show off his own so-called knowledge.

In Lamrim we talk about The Three Pots Analogy. Here they are:

It’s important to listen to and study the Dharma with the correct attitude and in a beneficial way. Don’t be like the three kinds of pots:

The upside-down pot: Nothing gets in because we’re asleep or distracted.

The pot with the hole in the bottom: We’re awake, we’re listening, but we can’t remember what was said.

Take notes during or immediately after teachings.
Review, highlighting main points.

The dirty pot: Even if you pour in something pure, it gets polluted.

Ex: We come, we listen, but our motivation is polluted by any of the three poisons, by the eight worldly concerns, or by being concerned only with the well-being of this life.

Ex: We come because we enjoy criticizing others’ views.
The best motivation is the desire to transform your own mind.

To counteract these faults:

Listen attentively to teachings.
Try to recall what you have heard repeatedly.
Remind yourself to arouse a pure intention, e.g., the wish to be free from cyclic existence or to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all.
Cultivate the six recognition.

[Midakpa]

According to Pabongka Rinpoche in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, there are six helpful attitudes that one must cultivate when listening to or studying the Dharma. These are:

(1) the attitude that you are like a patient (because we have contracted the grave and chronic illness of the three poisons [attachment, hatred, and ignorance] although we do not know it.
(2) the attitude that the holy Dharma is medicine (because the only medicine that will pacify the disease of delusion is the holy Dharma)
(3) the attitude that your spiritual guide is like a skillful doctor (because just as patients depend on doctors in order to be cured, you can depend on the spiritual guide to lead you to enlightenment)
(4) the attitude that diligent practice will cure the illness (because if you listen to many oral instructions, which are like the medicine to pacify the disease of delusions, and do not put them into practice, they will not benefit your mindstream)
(5) the attitude that tathagatas are holy beings (because the Buddha's teachings on modifying one's behaviour are without error and can never be mistaken. So, we should feel that our guru, a holy being, is an emanation of Buddha Shakyamuni)
(6) the attitude that this tradition should be preserved for a long time (because after listening to the Dharma, and recalling the Buddha's kindness, one should meditate on repaying the Buddha's kindness) 

The first five attitudes are examples of recalling the Buddha's kindness. The sixth attitude is a meditation on repaying the Buddha's kindness.