Dharma bum: a year in a pagoda

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia -- When I was asked to give a gift to the head of the Buddhist temple where I would spend the next year, I expected to hand over symbolic lotus flowers or pricey Western goods. Sarong, my host, pointed to two dusty cases of Red Bull. “That’s what the monks like”, she said.

<< Photograph: Scott Howes/Phnom Penh Post
When Nathan A Thompson swapped his stress-packed life in the UK to live for a year with monks in Takeo province, he expected to immerse himself in a stark way of life. The reality was rather different. Here, he reveals what it’s like to forsake everything you know to live in a temple.

My new housemate, Sareun, sat cross-legged, his face hard-set. He was swathed in orange robes and had a scar that bloomed from voice box to shoulder. I sat on the floor with my legs swept to one side and bowed three times. I raised my gift in his direction, and he took it without comment. In the renunciate life of a monk, the odd can of Red Bull can provide quite a kick.

Three weeks previously, I had been trapped in the longest, darkest winter the UK had seen for years. I worked in overdrive to gather enough money to fund the first few months of a new life I had planned, thousands of miles away.

A freelance writer, I took every job I could get; I churned out content on everything from hotels to sofas. Two days out of every fourteen were spent in bed, glassy-eyed with exhaustion. As soon as I felt better, I hunched back over my laptop in the winter twilight, tapping away, pulled by thoughts of Cambodia.

I planned to live in a rural village and volunteer for a new NGO. For months at a time, I would be the only foreigner there. Like many over-stimulated Westerners, I had romantic notions about Eastern spirituality. I started my days with some meditation and yoga postures. When Sarong’s email told me that I would be living with monks, I was thrilled.

I arrived in a tuk-tuk packed with bags, boxes of books and my bicycle. We rattled through the temple entrance guarded by two Angkor warriors in peeling paint. We passed the small reservoir and the assembly hall. The hall is two storeys high and is large enough to accommodate all 200 families in the village on a celebration day like Khmer New Year. The courtyard beyond the hall was surrounded by houses painted blue, white and yellow.

Centre stage was Sareun’s mansion, which loomed yellow and gold in the sunlight, two giant storeys with huge pillars that supported the balcony.

I stumbled out of the tuk-tuk wanting to get into my room as quickly as possible. Then I met Sareun for the first time, cigarette dangling from his lips.

My first surprise. “The Buddha never said we couldn’t smoke,” he told me, speaking through a translator, on my second day at the temple.

Sareun’s headshot is framed along with other unsmiling heads of his order in my room. Every day he is surrounded by friends – men who are now grandfathers. They sit outside his grand stone house on the slatted wooden platform talking and joking. The young monks scurry past his gaze clutching Dharma books, their eyes downcast.

When he was ordained as a monk in 1979, after the colossal destruction of the Pol Pot regime, there was, he says, “no other kind of education available”. He learned the Dharma – the teachings of the Buddha – from a man named Hing Ngat, who escaped the regime.

Sareun’s decision to become a monk was prompted by contracting tuberculosis and cancer following the Khmer Rouge years. The diseases left him a curious legacy. “If I have sex I will die – the doctor told me. So I decided not to get married and focus on learning the Dharma. I want to follow the Buddha’s teachings and be a saintly person.”

At first, he lived in a palm leaf cottage on the site of Wat Baray, which was then a brick-strewn crater. One building remained, and he began to use it to teach Dharma. After Hing Ngat died in 1988, Sareun succeeded him as head of the temple. It has taken 30 years for him to rebuild the fishscale roofs and pink and yellow buildings – most of the work funded by donations from the local people. The monks who live there now are mostly teenagers who come because Wat Baray has a good reputation as a place to learn both Buddhist scriptures and English.

I was given a room at Wat Baray in Sareun’s stone house with cool tiled flooring. It’s unusual for a Westerner to live in a temple. The few NGOs that work with temples have separate accommodation for staff. The NGO I work for is founded by a woman whose family is from the village, so it was no problem for her to get the monks behind her project. Buddhist temples exist for the benefit of the community and often have people staying there. Anyone in need is welcome: orphans, people with disabilities, friends and family – they must, however, be male because monks are celibate. I make a monthly donation to cover my costs.

My first few days were fraught. I had to learn to eat egg fetuses, sleep on a straw mat and wash in a giant bucket next to a hole. Not everyone was immediately welcoming. On my third day at the Wat, I needed a knife to peel a mango. I approached the kitchen, where the 70-year-old Yay Nath, a shaven-headed nun, sat among stained cauldrons and pots. She sounded like an army major shouting at a group of sloppy recruits. “Knife – what is?” I mumbled pathetically, trying to sound amicable. She unleashed a battery of angry-sounding syllables. I didn’t return for two weeks.

When I did, she fed me roasted banana and told me her story. She’s been a nun for 24 years. “After my husband died, Sareun asked me to come and cook for the monks, and I was happy to volunteer while my son supports me financially.”

She hopes that through service she will be reborn into a good life. “I don’t want to reborn underground or as a ghost. If I cultivate good virtue in this life by serving the monks, then I will be reborn as a human or a heavenly being.”

Buddhists believe that the type of mind we posses when we die determines our reincarnation. If the mind is pure, the positive vibrations lead to rebirth in a human or heavenly body. Bad vibes lead to hell. 
It’s not easy keeping the mind pure.

“I wish the Buddha would have allowed us to eat dinner in the evenings,” teenage novice Nam Soukhaine told me on an empty stomach one evening. Buddhist scriptures stipulate that monks should not eat after noon. At the temple, they have breakfast at 7am and lunch at 11am.

At 16, Soukhaine is only required to learn Dharma for three hours a day, as opposed to the seven hours put in by his older peers. He hopes to leave the monkhood when he turns 20.

“For my parent’s generation, you had to be a monk before you could get a good job like doctor or policeman. They wanted me to be a monk because monks have fine accents and virtuous characters.”

Some monks exemplify the virtuous ideal more than others. Every so often, a report pops up about wayward behaviour: recent months have seen pagoda chiefs defrocked over singing, drinking and cavorting with women at karaoke clubs. In recent years, there have even been reports of sexual assaults carried out by monks.

“These bad monks join the monkhood for their own gain,” said Sambo, the ex-monk who teaches Pali, the ancient language of the Buddhist scriptures.

“They create fake building projects and ask for donations; sometimes they buy a gun illegally and use it to rob rich people. It is mostly a problem in the city; because there are so many monks there, it is difficult to control them.”

“But the monks at Wat Baray have an excellent reputation,” he added, laughing.

In the evenings, the television casts a glow on the white-tiled walls. Sareun watches Chinese and Korean kung fu films, sitting with one leg thrown over the arm of his mahogany recliner. The young monks guiltily abandon their studies to watch.

There is a debate within the Buddhist community over how much television and internet should be allowed in a temple. So far, no dictum has been reached. Keo Vichith from the Khmer-Buddhist Educational Assistance Project, who was a monk for 10 years, favours the middle path.

“It depends how the monks use it; if they are watching TV or using their iPhones for educational purposes, that is OK because monks should not be isolated from the issues that are important to people,” he told me.

At Wat Baray, Sareun does not allow the young monks to have iPhones for fear that they will waste too much time.

As time wore on, I began to let go of my expectations of temple life. The strict regime of work, exercise and meditation that had led to burnout in the UK was no longer needed because, for the first time in my life, I had enough money. I bought a moto. I swam in the reservoir with the children, their dolphin-like movements interrupted by the “Pwchaar” noises of a mimed gun battle.

I have also witnessed incredible compassion. One day, we felled a small tree for firewood and came under attack from a colony of ants. While I slapped and cursed, the monks were calmly picking each ant from their skin and placing them back on the tree scrupulously, following the Buddhist precept to “harm no living being”.

Another day, the monks dragged me to the reservoir in the Wat - a lush patch of water with an island in the middle – with the words, “Come quick. You must see, you must see.” A huddle of children were watching something in the water. It had the head of a dog with the skin of a frog. Two yellow reptile eyes. Everyone was still.

As it moved towards the stone steps that lead into the water, the outline of a shell and two flippers became visible: it was a narrow-headed soft-shelled turtle, one of the most endangered species in the world. Sareun adopted two from the 100 Pillar Pagoda in Kratie province, home to the Mekong Turtle Conservation Centre. The kids threw rice in the water and prehistoric jaws opened and slammed shut. The two turtles are just some of the menagerie of animals that bark and scratch around the pagoda. “I hope these turtles will survive with Buddha’s blessings,” Sareun said.

Not all the monks will stay for long.

One young man who recently left the monkhood lives in a nearby village. Now that his arranged marriage to a Cambodian-American woman is secure, his parents are barely letting him leave the house. He is their ticket out of poverty. (He did not want to be named in case it affected his application for an international marriage licence.)

“I want to be a monk forever because everything the Buddha said was right,” he told me, as generations of cats, chickens and dogs flowed in the dust around our ankles.

As we talked, his teenage sister rode in with a smile; you’d never guess she’d cycled and sweated 16 kilometres to attend school. “It’s a shame I have to get married,” he said wistfully. “But I can’t go against my parents wishes.”

He is 20, athletic and handsome. “The body is a very ugly thing. It is full of sweat and waste. Only crazy people like their bodies; the Buddha teaches us to not care about the body or property.” Reluctantly de-robed and dressed in jeans and a grey zip-up hoody, he sat in a hammock strung between two concrete pillars that support the wooden room he shares with his parents and sister.

“I miss living in the pagoda because all my friends are there.” He gave a pained smile. “We would talk about the Dharma, and I would learn so much.” In order to cheer him up, I Googled pictures of his new home: Atlanta, Georgia. He looked at the twinkling skyscrapers. “Wow.”  

On my way out, I thought about what awaits him in the US and if his earnest Buddhism will survive an encounter with hyper-consumer culture. In my room at the temple now, the only thing that remains from my old life among the skyscrapers is my to-do list – meetings, work, gym sessions. Underneath are many sheets of blank paper.

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Taking it to the streets: Urban Dharma brings Buddhist teachings to the heart of Asheville

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Asheville, North Carolina (USA) -- Take one look at the “spirituality” section of our calendar, and it’s easy to see that the Asheville area aims for wellness of mind and heart in a variety of ways — meditation, mindfulness, earth medicine, prayer, peacefulness, the metaphysical and Zen listings abound. One of those gems is Urban Dharma, where Hun Lye welcomes those seeking to practice and learn more about Buddhism. (Pictured: Hun Lye; photo by Taylor Johnson)

Lye practices the Drikung Kagyü tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, but says of his downtown-Asheville center, “When people come in and say ‘I’m looking for a Buddhist group,’ we don’t want to assume that this is where they belong; I want them to see all of the groups, what they are doing, where they are meeting — and find what works for them.”

He adds that Asheville is “much more yoga” in many ways, while Buddhism is “a different mode of spirituality that is kind of quiet rather than ecstatic.” So he aimed to “start a place that would be a resource for anyone who is interested.”

Last month, Lye received a new title — Dorjé Lopon — which made him the first non-monastic teacher in the West to receive the honor. Born in 1970, he grew up in Penang, Malaysia; studied under Buddhist teachers of many traditions; and earned his doctorate in Buddhist Studies from the University of Virginia. He also taught Buddhist studies at both Warren Wilson College and Davidson.

Soon after being named Dorjé Lopon, he spoke with Xpress.

Mountain Xpress: When did you first conceive of the idea for Urban Dharma? And how did you choose Asheville for the location?

Hun Lye: Somewhere around 2010, conversations started among a group of people that I had known for a while, many from … Warren Wilson. Ironically, from 2003 to 2008, I was not convinced that a Buddhist center would work in Asheville. I knew there were many groups around, and I did not think we needed another [one]. It was when we began to talk more seriously that I said, “There might be a need that is not being met yet, and that need is for a clear Buddhist presence in downtown, serving as a clearly dedicated Buddhist place.” …

I joke about how you can’t really go into any retail downtown, without seeing some sort of of Buddhist “thing” in there, even if the shop has nothing to do with anything Buddhist. So there is that pervasive sense and feeling of being open and interested in Buddhism or at least [its] material culture. [But] there is not a lot of excitement in Buddhist programs. It was one of the reasons that I had to think really hard about, Is there a need here?

[But] since we’ve opened, I’ve seen that there are a good number of people from all age groups coming to our events, from the very young to the very old, and that is encouraging.

What does being appointed Dorje Lopon mean within the Drikung Kagyu tradition?
The most common use of this title is actually in a ritual context in Tibetan Buddhism. [The Dorjé Lopon] is not the person that is doing the most things during the ritual; it is another person, who is just quietly sitting there, but at the same time is the center of attention, because it is believed that this person is doing the inner work necessary to ground everything.

So when the head of the Drikung Kagyu decided to use this title and to give it to specific individuals, it was a way of acknowledging that [this other spiritual leader] can play that role. Because I’m not part of the monastic system, and more conventional titles that are necessarily monastic cannot be given, he … applied it as a daily-use title. So it’s an innovation of sorts, [and] in this case, the title signifies that the person who holds it can pass on the transmissions and the traditions of the lineage.

How do you think Urban Dharma and what you stand for compares to other Buddhist centers in the area?

We are trying to appeal to a broader context. I joke about this, but every time people say, “I’m Buddhist,” the follow-up question from others would be, “Do you meditate?” and I’m like, “You know what? The majority of Buddhists don’t meditate. American Buddhists, maybe, but there’s more than one way to be Buddhist, and Urban Dharma is trying to communicate that.

We’re trying to create a community part that’s accessible to people, so that people don’t feel like in order to be a “real Buddhist,” “I need to spend x number of hours a day meditating; I need to spend x number of months a year attending retreats; I need to go into the mountains — all of that. There is a place for that and there [are] definitely traditions like that … but again, it’s about what is needed here. And I feel that what’s needed here is a way of being Buddhist … downtown.

You don’t have to go into the mountains to be sane. The name [Urban Dharma] is communicating, I think, an attitude, a state of mind, a way of understanding that spiritual practice is not only available and possible in the mountains. It’s in the midst of all of this.

Here, we encourage young families to bring their kids, and from my experience at other places in the past, we would have people who attend the program get very annoyed and say, “I came here to get some peace of mind, and these kids!” — which is an understandable reaction if they conceive of a Buddhist center as a form of spa. And that’s a particular conception of what the Buddhist community is, and I find it troublesome. Here, we have to remind everyone that you have to mind your own mind. You can’t say, “These are distractions.” We have to integrate this.

Urban Dharma’s motto is “Changing Minds, Transforming Cities,” and in one of your talks, you mentioned that practices such as prayer, meditation or special diets don’t cause transformation. How does transformation play into Urban Dharma’s mission and what place should practices such as prayer or meditation have in people’s lives?
[Those] are devices and methods that help us to change our minds. The real work and the real measure of how well we are doing as Buddhists should not be measured by how many hours in a day I’m spending on a cushion being quiet, but rather how much has the mind/heart changed? Is it still very quickly falling into habits of misery? Or is it becoming easier to notice when you are going down that particular circuit, and when you notice, to break it and move in the other direction?

When minds start to change, then we can begin to think about transforming our families and our communities. Any real change will have to come from changing the mind first. Otherwise, other activities become another way for us to act out our insanity. Even a meditation program can become a way to act out the insanity.

What does your new title and position mean to you and for Urban Dharma?

The recognition of a title is just the beginning of the hard work — if you do it right. I am taking very seriously the head of the lineage giving me this title, but at the same time, I am trying my best not to take myself seriously!

What does it mean for Urban Dharma? I hope, now that this is my main focus, it would say to someone who is interested that I’m not just doing this on my own, but that I am connected to a lineage and that the lineage has very publicly acknowledged that I can transmit and teach this lineage. What I say either makes sense or not. If it makes sense and helps you see and understand [Buddhist teachings] better, then come. It doesn’t matter what title I have. I happen to by playing the role of the leader in this community, but the sooner I make myself obsolete, then the sooner we have reached our goal.

Urban Dharma is located at 29 Page Ave. in Asheville. All programs and events are offered on a donation basis. The nonprofit is also supported by 100 percent of the profits from sister company Tibetan Spirit, an online Tibetan Buddhist store. 225-6422, www.urbandharmanc.com.

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Dharma Drum Mountain President to visit Toronto

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Dharma Drum Mountain (Ontario) Buddhist Association announces Abbot President Guo Dong Fashi Toronto Visit Oct. 20/21

Toronto, Canada -- The world is changing at a fast pace, and we need a method to put our mind at ease, in every moment. The DDMBA AbbotPresident and many Venerables are visiting Toronto to deliver their vows toward wisdom and compassion. They will bring us Buddha teachings in order to illuminate our mind and guide us along a peaceful and joyful road in life.

DDMBA Ontario (Dharma Drum Mountain (Ontario) Buddhist Association) is a registered charitable organization in Canada. The organization has been holding various activities related to the practice and study of Buddhism for over 10 years, including meditation, Buddha name recitation, study groups, Dharma ceremonies, Sutra calligraphy, and a host of other activities related to Chan (Chinese Zen) Buddhism. The organization also invites Venerable Chan teachers from New York and Taiwan to visit Toronto, several times a year, to lead various special events.

Master Sheng Yen (1930-2009), the founder of DDMBA, first proposed the idea of “protecting the spiritual environment” in 1992. Protecting the spiritual environment means protecting our mind from vexations, as well as abandoning greed, anger, and ignorance. The purpose of protecting our mind is to uplift the quality and character of humanity and, in doing so, build a pure land on earth.

By changing the way we view things, we can transform vexations and troubled thoughts into a wise, compassionate, and pure state of mind. DDMBA believes that building a pure land on earth starts from cultivating our own mind. As long as our mind is pure, the land we are in is pure; conversely, if the mind is not pure, no place on earth can be pure. Master Sheng Yen uses Buddhist philosophy as a foundation, coupled with the right views and methods in Chan meditation, to provide people in today’s world with solid methods with which to practice spiritually in their daily lives. Although Master Sheng Yen passed away in 2009, his great vow of purifying the mind and building a pure land on earth is being carried forward to this day, by all the Venerables and lay practitioners of DDMBA around the world.

To help carry forward Master Sheng Yen’s great vow, DDMBA Ontario announces today that the Abbot President, Guo Dong Fashi, will visit Toronto for the second time. He is here to lead a fundraising event, “DDMBA Ontario 2012 Dharma Gala” on October 20th, as well as to oversee a Buddha Name Recitation One Day Retreat on Oct 21st. There are a total of five Venerables and two Dhamapala leaders accompanying his visit. This is a rare opportunity for a Buddhist, or for anyone who is interested in Buddhadharma (Buddha’s teachings), to participate in and engage with the organization, as well as to learn more about Buddhism in general.

Venerable Guo Dong Fashi was appointed to be the Abbot President of DDMBA in 2006. He became the President of Dharma Drum Sangha University (in Taiwan) in 2007. From 2009-2012, he has continued to serve as the Abbot President of DDMBA. The Abbot President has a very jovial and good-natured personality, and he often delivers the Buddhadharma with witty and humorous words.

In addition to his ceaseless member-caring activities, the Abbot President constantly travels around the world to spread Buddhist teachings, sharing DDMBA’s affirmation of protecting the spiritual environment. In addition, Venerable Guo Dong encourages everyone to practice the Bodhisattva path, which incorporates both wisdom and compassion. He has remarked that we can apply Buddhist teachings in daily life, using the principals of “adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing”.

“Adding” refers to treating everyone and everything as resources to cultivate our blessings and wisdom. “Subtracting”, on the other hand, refers to continually reminding ourselves that what we need is not very much, but what we want is often too much, and that we should only take what we need and what we should take, but never take what we should not take, or what is not ours. “Multiplying” refers to cherishing all causes and conditions, since every achievement is an accumulation of causes and conditions in addition to other people’s efforts. Lastly, “Dividing” refers to abandoning any kind of ignorance, obstructions, and vexations and transforming vexations into a pure mind.

Venerable Guo Dong will lead Toronto in thevery first Buddha Name Recitation Retreat for DDMBA Ontario, on Sunday October 21st. Buddha Name Recitation is an excellent method for purifying the mind. Through reciting Buddha’s name, prostrating to the Buddha, and fast-paced chanting, we can practice letting go of one’s self and attachments. In addition, through this practice, we can generate a compassionate, repenting, and appreciating mind. All of these elements form the foundations of walking the path of Bodhisattvas and to enlightenment. In our daily life, if we can treat everyone around us (including strangers) with a compassionate and appreciating mind, the so called “pure land” will appear on earth.

Moreover, the “Dharma Gala” fundraising event on October 20th is aimed at establishing a fund for a Chan Centre in Ontario, for people to learn and practice Buddhist teachings. The Abbot President has said: “The purpose to establish a Chan Centre is not to attract donations, but to deliver orthodox Buddhist teachings to every person in the world.” Buddhadharma is a beacon guiding us toward the right direction in life. If we can light up the beacon in everyone’s mind, it will illuminate all human beings on earth. This is exactly what DDMBA Ontario is trying to promote: to lighten everyone’s mind and thereby to illuminate the darkness on earth.

The fundraising event will also include (1) Dharma talks by Abbot President Guo Dong Fashi (2) music, art performances and silent auctions, and (3) a ceremony of “illuminating the mind.” Free vegetarian meals will be served during the events. Both events are open to the public and are free of charge. Registrations are required. Donations are appreciated on the spot..

If you go:

1. “Dharma Gala”
Time: Saturday, October 20th, from 11 am to 3 pm
Location: Chinese Cultural Centre Of Greater Toronto
Address: 5183 Sheppard Avenue East, Toronto M1B 5Z5
Please register at http://chanmeditation-ddm-ontario.ca/home.html

2. “Buddha Name Recitation One Day Retreat”
Time: Sunday, October 21st, from 9 am to 5 pm
Location: North York Civic Centre at member’s Lounge underground level
Address: 5100 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON M2N 5V7

To register, please email ddmba.toronto@gmail.com, or call 416-855-0531 to leave a message

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Buddhism in a Nutshell: The Four Seals of Dharma

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Timphu, Bhutan -- "Buddhism is distinguished by four characteristics, or 'seals.' If all these four seals are found in a path or a philosophy, it can be considered the path of the Buddha." People often ask me: “What is Buddhism in a nutshell?” Or they ask, “What is the particular view or philosophy of Buddhism?”

Unfortunately, in the West Buddhism seems to have landed in the religious department, even in the self-help or self-improvement department, and clearly it’s in the trendy meditation department. I would like to challenge the popular definition of Buddhist meditation.

Many people think meditation has something to do with relaxation, with watching the sunset or watching the waves at the beach. Charming phrases like “letting go” and “being carefree” come to mind. From a Buddhist point of view, meditation is slightly more than that.

First, I think we need to talk about the real context of Buddhist meditation. This is referred to as the view, meditation and action; taken together, these constitute quite a skillful way of understanding the path. Even though we may not use such expressions in everyday life, if we think about it, we always act according to a certain view, meditation and action.

For instance, if we want to buy a car, we choose the one we think is the best, most reliable and so on. So the “view,” in this case, is the idea or belief that we have, that is, that the car is a good one. Then the “meditation” is contemplating and getting used to the idea, and the “action” is actually buying the car, driving it and using it. This process is not necessarily something Buddhist; it’s something we’re doing all the time. You don’t have to call it view, meditation and action. You can think of it as “idea,” “getting used to,” and “obtaining.”

So what is the particular view that Buddhists try to get used to? Buddhism is distinguished by four characteristics, or “seals.” Actually, if all these four seals are found in a path or a philosophy, it doesn’t matter whether you call it Buddhist or not. You can call it what you like; the words “Buddhist” or “Buddhism” are not important. The point is that if this path contains these four seals, it can be considered the path of the Buddha.

Therefore, these four characteristics are called “the Four Seals of Dharma.” They are:

All compounded things are impermanent.All emotions are painful. This is something that only Buddhists would talk about. Many religions worship things like love with celebration and songs. Buddhists think, “This is all suffering.”All phenomena are empty; they are without inherent existence. This is actually the ultimate view of Buddhism; the other three are grounded on this third seal.The fourth seal is that nirvana is beyond extremes.

Without these four seals, the Buddhist path would become theistic, religious dogma, and its whole purpose would be lost. On the other hand, you could have a surfer giving you teachings on how to sit on a beach watching a sunset: if what he says contains all these four seals, it would be Buddhism. The Tibetans, the Chinese, or the Japanese might not like it, but teaching doesn’t have to be in a “traditional” form. The four seals are quite interrelated, as you will see.

The First Seal:
All Compounded Things are Impermanent

Every phenomenon we can think of is compounded, and therefore subject to impermanence. Certain aspects of impermanence, like the changing of the weather, we can accept easily, but there are equally obvious things that we don’t accept.

For instance, our body is visibly impermanent and getting older every day, and yet this is something we don’t want to accept. Certain popular magazines that cater to youth and beauty exploit this attitude. In terms of view, meditation and action, their readers might have a view—thinking in terms of not aging or escaping the aging process somehow. They contemplate this view of permanence, and their consequent action is to go to fitness centers and undergo plastic surgery and all sorts of other hassles.

Enlightened beings would think that this is ridiculous and based on a wrong view. Regarding these different aspects of impermanence, getting old and dying, the changing of the weather, etc., Buddhists have a single statement, namely this first seal: phenomena are impermanent because they are compounded. Anything that is assembled will, sooner or later, come apart.

When we say “compounded,” that includes the dimensions of space and time. Time is compounded and therefore impermanent: without the past and future, there is no such thing as the present. If the present moment were permanent, there would be no future, since the present would always be there. Every act you do -let’s say, plant a flower or sing a song - has a beginning, a middle and an end. If, in the singing of a song, the beginning, middle or end were missing, there would be no such thing as singing a song, would there? That means that singing a song is something compounded.

“So what?” we ask. “Why should we bother about that? What’s the big deal? It has a beginning, middle, and end - so what?” It’s not that Buddhists are really worried about beginnings, middles or ends; that’s not the problem. The problem is that when there is composition and impermanence, as there is with temporal and material things, there is uncertainty and pain.

Some people think that Buddhists are pessimistic, always talking about death, impermanence and aging. But that is not necessarily true. Impermanence is a relief! I don’t have a BMW today and it is thanks to the impermanence of that fact that I might have one tomorrow. Without impermanence, I am stuck with the non-possession of a BMW, and I can never have one. I might feel severely depressed today and, thanks to impermanence, I might feel great tomorrow. Impermanence is not necessarily bad news; it depends on the way you understand it. Even if today your BMW gets scratched by a vandal, or your best friend lets you down, if you have a view of impermanence, you won’t be so worried.

Delusion arises when we don’t acknowledge that all compounded things are impermanent. But when we realize this truth, deep down and not just intellectually, that’s what we call liberation: release from this one-pointed, narrow-minded belief in permanence. Everything, whether you like it or not - even the path, the precious Buddhist path - is compounded. It has a beginning, it has a middle and it has an end.

When you understand that “all compounded things are impermanent,” you are prepared to accept the experience of loss. Since everything is impermanent, this is to be expected.

The Second Seal:
All Emotions are Painful

The Tibetan word for emotion in this context is zagche, which means “contaminated” or “stained,” in the sense of being permeated by confusion or duality.

Certain emotions, such as aggression or jealousy, we naturally regard as pain. But what about love and affection, kindness and devotion, those nice, light and lovely emotions? We don’t think of them as painful; nevertheless, they imply duality, and this means that, in the end, they are a source of pain.

The dualistic mind includes almost every thought we have. Why is this painful? Because it is mistaken. Every dualistic mind is a mistaken mind, a mind that doesn’t understand the nature of things. So how are we to understand duality? It is subject and object: ourselves on the one hand and our experience on the other. This kind of dualistic perception is mistaken, as we can see in the case of different persons perceiving the same object in different ways. A man might think a certain woman is beautiful and that is his truth. But if that were some kind of absolute, independent kind of truth, then everyone else also would have to see her as beautiful as well. Clearly, this is not a truth that is independent of everything else. It is dependent on your mind; it is your own projection.

The dualistic mind creates a lot of expectations - a lot of hope, a lot of fear. Whenever there is a dualistic mind, there is hope and fear. Hope is perfect, systematized pain. We tend to think that hope is not painful, but actually it’s a big pain. As for the pain of fear, that’s not something we need to explain.

The Buddha said, “Understand suffering.” That is the first Noble Truth. Many of us mistake pain for pleasure - the pleasure we now have is actually the very cause of the pain that we are going to get sooner or later. Another Buddhist way of explaining this is to say that when a big pain becomes smaller, we call it pleasure. That’s what we call happiness.

Moreover, emotion does not have some kind of inherently real existence. When thirsty people see a mirage of water, they have a feeling of relief: “Great, there’s some water!” But as they get closer, the mirage disappears. That is an important aspect of emotion: emotion is something that does not have an independent existence.

This is why Buddhists conclude that all emotions are painful. It is because they are impermanent and dualistic that they are uncertain and always accompanied by hopes and fears. But ultimately, they don’t have, and never have had, an inherently existent nature, so, in a way, they are not worth much. Everything we create through our emotions is, in the end, completely futile and painful. This is why Buddhists do shamatha and vipashyana meditation—this helps to loosen the grip that our emotions have on us, and the obsessions we have because of them.

Question: Is compassion an emotion?

People like us have dualistic compassion, whereas the Buddha’s compassion does not involve subject and object. From a buddha’s point of view, compassion could never involve subject and object. This is what is called mahakaruna—great compassion.

I’m having difficulty accepting that all emotions are pain.

Okay, if you want a more philosophical expression, you can drop the word “emotion” and simply say, “All that is dualistic is pain.” But I like using the word “emotion” because it provokes us.

Isn’t pain impermanent?

Yeah! If you know this, then you’re all right. It’s because we don’t know this that we go through a lot of hassles trying to solve our problems. And that is the second biggest problem we have—trying to solve our problems.

The Third Seal:
All Phenomena are Empty; They Are Without Inherent Existence

As Buddhists we practice compassion, but if we lack an understanding of this third seal - that all phenomena are empty - our compassion can backfire. If you are attached to the goal of compassion when trying to solve a problem, you might not notice that your idea of the solution is entirely based on your own personal interpretation. And you might end up as a victim of hope and fear, and consequently of disappointment.

You start by becoming a “good mahayana practitioner,” and, once or twice, you try to help sentient beings. But if you have no understanding of this third seal, you’ll get tired and give up helping sentient beings.

There is another kind of a problem that arises from not understanding emptiness. It occurs with rather superficial and even jaded Buddhists. Somehow, within Buddhist circles, if you don’t accept emptiness, you are not cool. So we pretend that we appreciate emptiness and pretend to meditate on it. But if we don’t understand it properly, a bad side effect can occur. We might say, “Oh, everything’s emptiness. I can do whatever I like.”

So we ignore and violate the details of karma, the responsibility for our action. We become “inelegant,” and we discourage others in the bargain. His Holiness the Dalai Lama often speaks of this downfall of not understanding emptiness. A correct understanding of emptiness leads us to see how things are related, and how we are responsible for our world.

You can read millions of pages on this subject. Nagarjuna alone wrote five different commentaries mostly dedicated to this, and then there are the commentaries by his followers. There are endless teachings on establishing this view. In Mahayana temples or monasteries people chant the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra - this is also a teaching on the third seal.

Philosophies or religions might say, “Things are illusion, the world is maya, illusion,” but there are always one or two items left behind that are regarded as truly existent: God, cosmic energy, whatever. In Buddhism, this is not the case. Everything in samsara and nirvana - from the Buddha’s head to a piece of bread - everything is emptiness. There is nothing that is not included in ultimate truth.

Question: If we ourselves are dualistic, can we ever understand emptiness, which is something beyond description?

Rinpoche: Buddhists are very slippery. You’re right. You can never talk about absolute emptiness, but you can talk about an “image” of emptiness - something that you can evaluate and contemplate so that, in the end, you can get to the real emptiness. You may say, “Ah, that’s just too easy; that’s such crap.” But to that the Buddhists say, “Too bad, that’s how things work.” If you need to meet someone whom you have never met, I can describe him to you or show you a photograph of him. And with the help of that photo image, you can go and find the real person.

Ultimately speaking, the path is irrational, but relatively speaking, it’s very rational because it uses the relative conventions of our world. When I’m talking about emptiness, everything that I’m saying has to do with this “image” emptiness. I can’t show you real emptiness but I can tell you why things don’t exist inherently.

Question: In Buddhism there’s so much iconography that you might think it was the object of meditation or an object of worship. But, from your teaching, am I to understand that this is all non-existent?

Rinpoche: When you go to a temple, you will see many beautiful statues, colors and symbols. These are important for the path. These all belong to what we call “image-wisdom,” “image-emptiness.” However, while we follow the path and apply its methods, it is important to know that the path itself is ultimately an illusion. Actually, it is only then that we can properly appreciate it.

The Fourth Seal:
Nirvana is Beyond Extremes

Now that I have explained emptiness, I feel that the fourth seal, “Nirvana is beyond extremes,” has also been covered. But briefly, this last seal is also something uniquely Buddhist. In many philosophies or religions, the final goal is something that you can hold on to and keep. The final goal is the only thing that truly exists. But nirvana is not fabricated, so it is not something to be held on to. It is referred to as “beyond extremes.”

We somehow think that we can go somewhere where we’ll have a better sofa seat, a better shower system, a better sewer system, a nirvana where you don’t even have to have a remote control, where everything is there the moment you think of it. But as I said earlier, it’s not that we are adding something new that was not there before. Nirvana is achieved when you remove everything that was artificial and obscuring.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a monk or a nun who has renounced worldly life or you are a yogi practicing profound tantric methods. If, when you try to abandon or transform attachment to your own experiences, you don’t understand these four seals, you end up regarding the contents of your mind as the manifestations of something evil, diabolical and bad. If that’s what you do, you are far from the truth. And the whole point of Buddhism is to make you understand the truth. If there were some true permanence in compounded phenomena; if there were true pleasure in the emotions, the Buddha would have been the first to recommend them, saying, “Please keep and treasure these.” But thanks to his great compassion, he didn’t, for he wanted us to have what is true, what is real.

When you have a clear understanding of these four seals as the ground of your practice, you will feel comfortable no matter what happens to you. As long as you have these four as your view, nothing can go wrong. Whoever holds these four, in their heart, or in their head, and contemplates them, is a Buddhist. There is no need for such a person even to be called a Buddhist. He or she is by definition a follower of the Buddha.

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This article is based on a talk by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche entitled, “What Buddhism Is, and Is Not,” given in Sydney, Australia in April of 1999.

View the original article here