Amid First Dharma Center Visit, Karmapa Teaches on Meditation

(April 4, 2015 – Mount Laurel, New Jersey) His Holiness the seventeenth Karmapa is by and by influencing his initially remain at a Dharma to focus on this two-month visit. For his first day of Dharma exercises amid this stop, he gave lessons on contemplation, addressed a broad arrangement of inquiries from understudies and allowed a strengthening toward the evening.

As is fitting for a visit concentrated on colleges, the principal strengthening that His Holiness the seventeenth Karmapa presented amid this two-month excursion to the United States was the strengthening of Manjushri, an illuminated being particularly associated with the development of intelligence. The lessons and strengthening were allowed at the demand of Karma Thegsum Chöling-New Jersey (KTC-NJ), situated in the close-by southern New Jersey town of Shamong and serving both as a Dharma focus and as a home far from home for the Karmapa in the United States.

The day was especially promising to start this all the more customarily Buddhist part of his trek: with a full moon and an aggregate lunar obscuration occurring today, the impacts of exemplary activities are thought to be duplicated many circumstances over. The morning was fresh and cool and a light breeze unsettled the air as His Holiness the Karmapa set out in the morning from KTC-NJ where he is dwelling amid this remain. The half-hour drive to the showing site in the close-by town of Mount Laurel went through pleasant wide open spotted with farmlands and extensive residences. Then, more than 700 individuals had been documenting in consistently to fill the leased lobby at the Westin Mt. Shrub a long time before His Holiness himself arrived.

The seventeenth Karmapa himself started by taking note of that subsequent to tending to such a significant number of college groups of onlookers where the theme was not particularly or straightforwardly Buddhist, he felt as though he were influencing a sudden U-to hand over giving a Dharma talk.

Thinking about his encounters amid this outing, he went ahead to comment that amid his visits to the home office of Google and Facebook, he had seen that they too were making spaces for their representatives to contemplate and underlining care in the working environment. “It is amazing that everybody has the chance to rehearse reflection,” he said. Be that as it may, while praising their endeavors, he struck a solid preventative note.

“Given that reflection should by its extremely nature be an individual, singular thing that every individual encounters in their own particular manner, in light of their own needs and attitudes, in view of their own examination, I figure it should never be marketed or utilized for business purposes.”

He came back to this subject later, indicating the way yoga is now and again advertised as a type of physical exercise, albeit customarily it is an exceptionally thorough type of profound preparing. “These days many individuals are keen on Buddhism and particularly contemplation. Be that as it may, they consider contemplation some sort of otherworldly treatment, similar to profound back rub. They trust that by rehearsing reflection they will have the capacity to decrease the anxiety and weight that they feel in their bustling lives and unwind. This is fine, yet it is not a total routine with regards to contemplation as educated in Buddhism. That requires a more restrictive or escalated preparing. I think the expectation that reflection will comfort you and make you more agreeable may cause some disappoint. As a matter of fact I feel that the escalated routine with regards to contemplation will presumably make you extremely awkward at first, since old propensities stalwart, and in the act of reflection we are endeavoring to supplant a large number of our old negative propensities with new ones. This conflicts with the grain of our identities and in this manner will likely be exceptionally awkward.”

Displaying reflection inside a Buddhist setting, His Holiness clarified that by and large there are two sorts—situation contemplation and scientific reflection. Without the establishment of shamatha, which is considered arrangement contemplation, it would be extremely hard to create vipassana. His Holiness clarified that in the first place, so as to create shamatha we require a tranquil or separated condition, and customarily it takes between three to a half year to prepare in shamatha.

“However a tranquil or detached place or condition doesnt just mean a place that is physically calm,” he clarified. “It additionally intends to be detached from states of diversion, for example, telephones, the Internet et cetera.”

Watching that despite the fact that in the West there are numerous reflection bunches that meet week after week to ponder for a couple of hours, His Holiness communicated his questions this is adequate practice to really create shamatha. He at that point made a proposal that started numerous discussions later in the break between sessions.

“Up to now, Dharma camps where individuals can concentrate only on shamatha preparing or rehearse for a while are exceptionally uncommon. In this manner I am urging you to really make such scenes or open doors for a few month long concentrated shamatha programs in Western nations,” he expressed.

Upping the ante yet further, the Karmapa underlined the significance that our shamatha rehearse turn into an antitoxin to our irritating feelings, or kleshas.

“The point of shamatha hone is not just to accomplish genuine feelings of serenity and feel good and loose in one’s psyche. Shamatha hone is really to enhance our brains, and to improve our identities by debilitating lastly curing our kleshas. A few people think the fact of the matter is simply to rest easy, casual and agreeable, however that is not it. The capacity of shamatha is to fill in as a solution for our kleshas.

“It is insufficient to hone contemplation just in our holy place room sitting on the pad,” he proceeded. “It is important to bring the act of shamatha into all post-reflection exercises, including our work. It is particularly imperative to have the capacity to apply it when we turn out to be profoundly enthusiastic.”

Next the Karmapa welcomed inquiries from the group of onlookers, asking that they adhere to the theme of reflection. In a steady progression, excited understudies grabbed the chance to straightforwardly suggest their reflection conversation starters to His Holiness the Karmapa, who opened the floor after the meal break for extra inquiries.

The main examiner called attention to that in the cutting edge world it is hard to locate a detached situation reasonable for shamatha work on, looking for His Holiness’ recommendation.

“In this twenty-first century, alongside the gigantic material advance that we have accomplished, we have created extraordinary propensities for consumerism and voracity,” the Karmapa reacted. “This is obviously energized by a portion of the media, and in our yearning for stuff, we are kept from having mental confinement and a feeling of non-diversion.

“Regardless of the possibility that we don’t need or ache for a certain something, there will dependably be something different for us to long for, in light of the fact that corporate greed influences broad utilization of brain science keeping in mind the end goal to bewilder us. I think on the off chance that somebody had offered Jetsun Milarepa an iPhone it may have kept even him occupied for a couple of hours!

“The pervasiveness of our outer extravagances and every one of our gadgets truly frames a net that we are gotten in, and it is hard for us to get away. I believe that in the event that we can unwind our brains and take a gander at the falsity of consumerism we can recapture our freedom. I believe that autonomy is the beginning spot from which we can start to build up the mental disengagement or non-diversion that is required for shamatha rehearse.”

Another inquiry raised the issue with reference to whether it is important to finish the preparatory practices (ngondro) before starting ones preparing in shamatha contemplation, as is frequently instructed. His Holiness the Karmapa clarified that there are two arrangements of preparatory practices: the four regular preliminaries that involve the four considerations that turn the psyche to Dharma; and the four exceptional practices that include asylum and bodhichitta with surrenders, Vajrasattva, mandala and master yoga. He noticed that a great many people concentrate significantly more on the last four, the remarkable ngondro rehearses.

The motivation behind why individuals like to invest more energy in the phenomenal preliminaries is that there is tallying, he noted wryly, evoking a burst of chuckling from the gathering of people. You tally numbers, and in light of the fact that you are checking, you feel a feeling of accomplishment, which individuals like. The examination of the normal preliminaries are considerations without anything to tally, and hence there are no markers that give you a feeling of accomplishment. Be that as it may, the genuine indication of accomplishment is that your psyche and identity move forward.

Underscoring his point, he stated, The consideration of the four basic preliminaries is critical, and in reality I think the regular preliminaries are more vital than the phenomenal preliminaries.

In light of an inquiry on the most proficient method to proceed with our training even with persistent obstructions, His Holiness prompted that we ought toreally observe our afflictions not as impediments but rather as circumstances.

“From the perspective of dharma itself, it is in reality better when professionals encounter difficulty since it gives them the open door both to take in more lessons and to really apply their training so they can blend the experience of misfortune with the act of Dharma.

“The fact is the means by which we see misfortune,” His Holiness commented. “On the off chance that we can see difficulty as an open door for training, that is by all accounts the most ideal approach to utilize it. Once an unfriendly circumstance has emerged we never again have the choice to avoid it, so we would be wise to make great utilization of it. There is no reason for simply disdaining it. What is most critical is the manner by which we see affliction, and that we consider it to be an open door.”

Another understudy looked for His Holiness’ recommendation in the matter of regardless of whether there is any contention between doing Dharma practice and taking drugs to regard diseases, for example, misery and nervousness.
“There is a distinction between normal or regular passionate states and the real sicknesses of melancholy and tension,” His Holiness cleared up. “Whenever wretchedness or uneasiness is something other than a mental state yet really an articulated ailment, it is truly a physical thing and in this way requires a physical cure. We presumably can’t defeat it by working with the mind alone. In this manner, not exclusively is there no inconsistency between rehearsing the Dharma and taking antidepressants or hostile to uneasiness medicine under restorative supervision, yet it is impulsive to stop since you turn into an expert.

“Infrequently individuals who experience the ill effects of discouragement wind up plainly Buddhist or start to rehearse Buddhism and see that the act of dharma appears to fill in as a solution for their misery. At that point in their underlying burst of excitement they quit taking their meds and turn out to be extremely unwell. It is impulsive. Obviously, we would prefer not to take these solutions since they all have physical symptoms, and we take them simply because we need to. In a perfect world we need to create to the point where we never again require them and can slowly get off them, yet we ought not do as such rashly.”

In light of an inquiry on the best strategy for expanding our astuteness, His Holiness answered by drawing a qualification between outward-looking intelligence and internal coordinated shrewdness.

“Outward-looking shrewdness is essentially learning which we gain through investigation. Typically our psyche ends up noticeably found out about everything aside from itself. We are insightful about everything aside from our own psyche, which more often than not remains absolutely insensible of itself.

“In this manner I believe that the most critical thing is to pick up the shrewdness that is simply the acknowledgment of the psyche. I trust that is the premise of genuine intelligence. We call this ‘knowing one and freeing everything’, in light of the fact that when you pick up that sort of knowledge it is comprehensive and permits the power or force of your intelligence and figuring out how to increment normally.”

At the point when another examiner asked how we can hone reflection ceaselessly all through the 24 hours of every day, His Holiness forewarned against attempting to constrain this, saying it wouldn’t offer assistance.

“It is unrealistic to endeavor to take part in formal reflection hone all through the whole day and night. In any case, we may have the capacity to stay in a reflective perspective ceaselessly. The way to this is to start every day by framing the goal to do as such, making the objective of the day to keep up a thoughtful state. With this sort of responsibility and desire, we can occasionally remind ourselves to do it,” he clarified.

He at that point offered an inventive utilization of present day innovation for helping us to stay careful for the duration of the day.

“Cell phones are extremely useful in light of the fact that you can set them up to buzz, ring or sing a caution at you wherever you are. In the event that you set up your cell phone to remind you each a few hours to be in a reflective state, since you shaped the goal toward the start of the day and are intermittently helped to remember this aim for the duration of the day, it ought to be conceivable to support the energy of contemplation.”

Toward the evening session one examiner inquired as to whether he could expand on exhortation about investigating our kleshas. Accordingly His Holiness sketched out a three-stage solution for kleshas, utilizing outrage for instance.

“The initial phase in managing any klesha is to perceive the issues that it causes,” he clarified. “This can’t be supplanted by hearing the lessons of your master or concentrate the lessons of the Buddha about that klesha—you need to remember it by and by, personally and experientially.”

His Holiness clarified that the second step is figuring out how to settle our brains with the goal that we utilize positive qualities like love and empathy as a device for reacting to circumstances, instead of naturally permitting the kleshas to shape our reaction.

“The third step in managing our kleshas is to settle on a choice or responsibility not to offer in to it. Such choices or such responsibilities might be overlooked, so it is critical to remind yourself intermittently that you are truly not going to enable yourself to get irate. As time collects, the propensity for the dedication not to get furious will wind up noticeably more grounded and more grounded.”

Tap on photograph above to see full slide appear. Photography by Karma Lekcho. View the video of the morning session of this instructing here.