Thursday, August 15, 2019

Visa for Nirvana


Faith and Legacy- a journey towards Buddhism

A man, after long years of practice and contemplation claims by another practitioner “I did it, I am enlightened now, what about you”. The other man laughingly reciprocates “where is I, keep meditating”.

Faith by its various perspectives.

Seeing is believing, or believing is seeing? Does it touch the term faith?
Pertinent truth of the faith, from the Buddhist sutras and texts can be seen through the life of Siddhartha Gautama, the then prince of a kingdom, an only heir to his royal lineage, before he denounced the beauty and pleasures of a princely life, but worldly. He was common being like us, bound by the chain of extreme bliss within the four walls, therefore, a life full of abundance and choices, unheard and unseen of the existence of so-called suffering. However, by virtue of time or the awaited destination, one day he happened to step out, where then he encountered various forms of worldly stages of life- old age, sickness and death, yet unaware of the fact that he could be one day going through the same stages, nor he knew that those were the sufferings.
Unlike common beings like us, where we come across such situations countless and yet untouched to depth of the heart, his already ripened compassion took him through the extreme and unbearable pain, which then arose in him, an unshakable faith and determination to go into depth as to what was that and how to overcome. That very faith and determination led him towards complete renunciation, physically and mentally from all the worldly affairs, where then he went into extreme penance, sitting under the Bodhi tree and sustaining on single grain of rice a day, until he fully understood the reality of existence, a stage of complete awakening. Understanding all, he again developed another stage of unshakable faith and commitment, to instill same wisdom and compassion into all other beings, so that all other samsaric beings could as well achieve his state of awakening. However, besides the efforts of teachings to guide us into the right path, in the virtual world, the term faith is by virtue limited to our physical capacity of thinking and contemplation, just aimed at meeting ones comfort and choices. For instance, our faith on education to become doctor, or running a successful business to become rich. Therefore, all the efforts of faith in this category are transitory, almost inevitably accompanied by some sort of sorrow, endlessly cycling through birth, death and rebirth, governed by the principle of causes and effect.
The Buddha’s realization of the existence of Buddha nature in all sentient beings and our capacity to be awakened demonstrates high degree of recognition in the value of life in sentient beings, which otherwise implies the sense of deep faith in the truth of this world and the samsara as a whole, its suffering status, the law of cause and effect, the emptiness and the possibility of awakening. Few of these wisdom got deeply instilled in myself, that I now feel blessed to have this birth, in the place governed by conditions to choose the path, to atleast set my footstep into the journey of liberation with strong faith of achieving, be it now or in one of the future lives to come.
Let me now talk of faith in myself, and the journey towards the path of ultimate bliss. I come from a small village located in South Central Bhutan, which comprises of only two religious groups- Hinduism and Buddhism, and I am the descendant of Hinduism. An auspicious start towards Buddha footsteps- in 2003, when I was in high school, undergoing my 12th standard, I and my elder sister lived in a small rented apartment in the outskirts, whereby, over a few hundred meters above, on a small hill top, stands a majestic Buddhist temple with one old monk of late 80s (and still). Over the period, I found a reason to visit that temple, initially as a source of blessings and hope for qualifying through my studies, and also to rejoice the serene beauty of that peaceful environment during cooler hours, so that I could concentrate well on my studies. The frequency of visits started increasing either for study or circumambulations, becoming almost a daily routine, greeting the old monk. One fine day, I remember his soft voice asking me for a favor, and that favor was to stay with him. Without a second thought, my voice echoed "yes I will certainly". Taking the opportunity as blessings, I shifted all my belongings and started living in a temple. Over the period of our togetherness, his adoption became more of grandson than a stranger, with full trust, to the extent that he could leave entire temple in my charge to be guarded upon, making me to offer butter lamps and incense, circumambulation, or entertaining the visitors during his absence. He guided me at times through the basics of Buddhism, the meaning, practices and the fruit, though my approach towards learning Buddhism was minimal, confusingly being divided between two dharmic paths. Confused because, just few months back only I completed two large volumes of hindu texts, Ramayan, and Mahabharat, understanding the path. Anyway, not being so divided by the different views, I enjoyed closely observing those sacred statues, relics, texts and the type of practices he did. Finally, I completed my studies successfully and then left for my higher studies.
Almost 7 years later, after I joined service in 2010, and having seen the world from various perspectives, I started feeling the true craving for learning Buddhism, not just to overcome boredom of free hours, but for true wisdom, and that was when questions started erupting in my mind; what is Buddhism, where can I find it- in the statues, texts, or what makes me a different person being Buddhist, and many more. This longing was not simply a quest to learn, but the true faith and devotion so deep and unwavering that even seeing the Buddhist statues or simply their thoughts brought emotions and tears rolling down my eyes. I started feeling that Buddhas are in me, everywhere and blessing me every time, holding torch of wisdom and lighting my path. The emotion of love and devotion went so unbearable that I wanted to leave my profession and family, and enter the monkhood. With same faith, I once travelled to Sikkim, India to join monkhood. However, not fulfilling for some reasons, I then went to one of the Buddhist monasteries in Bhutan, located in a place called Bumthang, to a master, H.H. 7th Namkhai Nyingpo Rimpoche, literally translated as the one who has the power to fly over the sun’s rays. Having gone here and there, all through the journey of seeking the path, I got striking answers, the wisdom and advice to me that “practicing Buddhism is not external, and one needn’t necessarily change robe or quit job” however, with the door open for me if I really weigh the possibility of me being a fervent practitioner besides extreme mental turmoil of having left everything behind. One very strong grasp of wisdom on that juncture was that physical display of our practice is just the discipline and lineage tradition, which too needs to be shed off one day, as I came across various truths and explanations that Buddhism is more of the “Science of life” explaining the possibilities beyond this very moment. That was when I got convinced to seek middle path thereafter, balancing social, professional and spiritual journey of living Buddhism, and thus I am here today, not as a monk but simply a practitioner- more appropriate to describe myself as culturally Hindu, spiritually Buddhist. Every time I think of my practice, I correlate the immense support and guidance of my fortune grandfather- the monk who groomed me through basics.
All these I correlate as the birth of true faith, and in fact the highest state, because as for Buddha, there was no one to guide him, until he found the answer in himself, whereas for us, we have thousands of volumes explaining what is truth, thus our job is just to walk the path undoubtedly.
To talk of legacy, the highest legacy in Buddhism is the faith itself, the faith in Buddha and their teachings, the faith in Buddha Nature of all sentient beings, and its full recognition as the true enlightenment.
To conclude, nurturing the right faith for right practice under right guidance shall lead us to reap the highest achievement of mind training and enlightenment. For the purpose, the path is open to all, just that if one really wish to walk that path.

THE END

Sunday, June 11, 2017

WHERE ARE WE HEADING TOWARDS

In this modern era where we see increasing level of chaos and destruction, especially when we hear of terrorism, where media reports of such people quoting the name of god, I strongly believe that there is a severe lack of responsibilities from the parents initially, then the education and a society for wholesome education. 
A child is not born terrorist, but societies make so, societies in the sense people encountered in the journey of one's life, brain washing with all the fake assurances of being blessed from such sacrifices and extremities. 
Firstly, parents should be well educated to differentiate between good and bad, and the same information should be repeatedly instilled in the maturing brains of his/her siblings, providing quality and quantity times with one's offspring. Only then the external influence will have less impact. 
But in this modern societies, where we see the number of demonstrations, destructions, radical abuses, where mature and elderly people people are involved themselves, who must be having kids at home to see and follow- so what good can we expect from the future generations, being born and brought up in such families, who already feel that destructions and selfishness is the way of life.

I strongly believe in some of the religious view of saying that we have entered the phase of degeneration, because current generations are already infected with the disease of disharmony, disobedience, destructive emotions, so on, so our future generations will see it as more of culture.

Best solution for the healthy world could have been humanity and not divinity, because the moment we start searching divinity ignoring humanity, we are already on wrong track.


Thursday, March 30, 2017

How much we know oneself

Knowing great figures or even the gods is not a big issue because there will be thousands of materials through multi media displaying the history, geography, qualities and characters of that figure. But the greatest challenge lies in knowing self, because no one knows other than oneself, nowhere we can find the information but by self observation. 
Sadly, this is the most lacking part of wisdom in most men and women, because of which we see lots of chaos and disorders, as, instead of watching and observing self and ones moves in life, the people are busy focusing onto the external world, onto other's business.

Making habit of sitting quitely even for 5 minutes and watching self/physical/emotional and mental status could bring a tremendous changes in one's life as we then realize that the first fault lies in one's view upon the world, judgemental view.

Sunday, October 23, 2016

A dream yet not a Dream

I had a dream, saw a dove (i guess pigeon) feeding her young chicks in their coup on a tree top. The chicks were chirping of happiness and satisfaction. Suddenly an eagle appeared and snatched away that bird, leaving those fragile and helpless babies crying behind of seeing their mother been robbed from them, clamped between strong claws of that eagle. I was screaming n mourning as well by that site of the pain and agony on both sides- hearing of the painful sound on one and the sight of dragging on the other. Helpless, I was feeling the fear that bird went through- of dying and the pain of missing her little love who were to be never seen again, or how would they survive of their own. I got awakened from that sleep where then I realized that it was a dream. Unfortunately, that is our real world too.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

LOVE SPICE

FOR A HEALTHY AFTER MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIP, 
THE MIND SHOULD BE NEVER OLD 
AND THE LOVE SHOULD BE NEVER COLD.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Monday, April 11, 2016

Shortcuts

NO TWO SHORTCUTS WILL BE OF SAME LENGTH FOR A SAME DESTINATION

Friday, April 1, 2016

Thousand objectives and commitments could could one fulfillment,
One single output from all those would count thousand fulfillment

OPPORTUNITIES

Obstacles that we consider in a mundane world are the opportunities in real Dharma practices.
Perfect example- a crumbling defeat from an opponent, or a sharp blow, otherwise having a pain sensation at its mundane experiences, is an opportunity for realization of in-depth wisdom  on what it would mean to others with that piece of hardship, and therefore practicing endurance.

Thus, all is the matter of realization, nothing good or bad inherently

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Seeing fault in others have two sources;



Either the opponent poses that faulty behavior, or because of one's own negative attitude that we fail to see the good things in others