We are patient with endless pains n sufferings in rebirth
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I attended the Om Mani Padme Hum chanting at Poh Ming Tze and the H.E. Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche gave very refreshing speech. Like to share some pointers here.
He said that two ancient tibetan gurus had wondered in surprise why we have so much patience in the endless pains and sufferings we had to endure in endless rebirths but we have little patience in practise. We would complain when we had to meditate for 10 minutes, backpain, leg cramps etc yet we could tolerate the pains and sufferings in rebirths.
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H.E. Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche can speak perfect English that you can understand every word that he said.
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难�能�，难行能行
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It is because most of the 众生 are 愚痴, lack of wisdom.
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Originally posted by Wiser:
I attended the Om Mani Padme Hum chanting at Poh Ming Tze and the H.E. Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche gave very refreshing speech. Like to share some pointers here.
He said that two ancient tibetan gurus had wondered in surprise why we have so much patience in the endless pains and sufferings we had to endure in endless rebirths but we have little patience in practise. We would complain when we had to meditate for 10 minutes, backpain, leg cramps etc yet we could tolerate the pains and sufferings in rebirths.
Backpain, leg cramps are physical and feelings that we have 'now'.Rebirth happens without the present form remembering the past (pains).
I'm sure the monks know this, so I'm not sure what I'm missing here...
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Loor it's not monks. They are ancient gurus and teachers. H.E. Sangye Nengpa Rinpoche is the 10th reincarnation of the 1st one. What he says is true. Most people can be quite complaining and lazy when it comes to practise.
What Rinpoche is trying to point out is that if you can tolerate your heart pains, sufferings of life in endless rebirths, why can't you tolerate the hardship in cultivation which can liberate you from the endless sufferings?
So the next time if i feel very tired during a one day praying event, i will encourage myself by telling myself, " hey if i can tolerate the pains and sufferings in rebirth, i can also tolerate this one day of praying, at least i can be liberated . "
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Doing dhama practise and meditation is the way to liberating ourselves from rebirth. We can tolerate endless sufferings and pains in endless rebirth, so we should use the same tolerance of pain and sufferings in our daily practise. At least the hardships will yearn us liberation from the sufferings of endless rebirths.
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The next pointer i can remember is about a metaphor that the Rinpoche used. He said your enemy is anger.
If someone used a stick to hit your head, you would be in pain and you would of course be angry at the person.
But why aren't you angry at the stick that caused you pain? The person who hit you had anger in his heart, that's why he picked up the stick to hit you. But the pain comes from the stick. You will not aim your anger at the stick, maybe you will even pick it up and say " Ho, this is a good stick , i will keep it".
You will be angry at the person who hit you. Actually your enemy is the anger in that person. If you can look at your negative emotions clearly, you will know you do not need to be angry at the person because he himself is also affected by his mindless emotions that blinded him to hit you in a flash.
By being clear of the negative emotions, you can then control your own. You can diminish and subsided the negative emotions in your own heart and you will then realise that your enemy is the anger.
I wrote the above from what my own understanding of Rinpoche's speech. I have not copied his speech words by words here so i might have miss out some of his words and full meanings. Please pardon me.
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I'll say first that I'm not a deeply religious person, but do sway towards the teachings of Buddhism. I enjoy discussing and querying (and learning) about topics relating to religion, so I hope this is not seen as an act of disrespect or me trying to discredit anything in particular.
Would it not be easier to ignore/accept the pains of rebirth than it is the physical pains that we are feeling 'now', as the former is more conceptual compared to the real and present sense of physical pain? Furthermore, how far does one bring this before it becomes an issue to ones wellbeing?
I understand that there are various ways of cultivaion, so perhaps those are the alternatives to turn to, to prevent the issues of physical pain?
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Meditation is just like yoga. The more you do , the softer and more flexible your body become.
The keyword is perservance. Of course there will always be exceptional cases where the person is not suitable to push on when it is clearly not suitable. In that case, you can still do your mediation sitting on a chair (which the ancient taoist sutra suggests that it is equally good).
When we do the three steps one bow or when we do the full body prostration , we will find it very difficult at first. Perspire, body aches , panting for example. However if we persist, we will definitely find it much easier the next time, our body more adapted to the exercise ( which in a way is good for physical health).
There is actually no hardship in practise once you get used to it. It is only in the mindset of beginners , laypeople when they just embark that it is quite suffering. In that case, if one meditated and see all the sufferings in one's past-lifetimes, one will realise that the best way to end it all is to be liberated from the rebirth cycles.
Yes, the physical can be "Now" but the memories of pain can be in your conscious from previous lifetimes.
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Originally posted by Wiser:
Meditation is just like yoga. The more you do , the softer and more flexible your body become.
The keyword is perservance. Of course there will always be exceptional cases where the person is not suitable to push on when it is clearly not suitable. In that case, you can still do your mediation sitting on a chair (which the ancient taoist sutra suggests that it is equally good).
When we do the three steps one bow or when we do the full body prostration , we will find it very difficult at first. Perspire, body aches , panting for example. However if we persist, we will definitely find it much easier the next time, our body more adapted to the exercise ( which in a way is good for physical health).
There is actually no hardship in practise once you get used to it. It is only in the mindset of beginners , laypeople when they just embark that it is quite suffering. In that case, if one meditated and see all the sufferings in one's past-lifetimes, one will realise that the best way to end it all is to be liberated from the rebirth cycles.
Yes, the physical can be "Now" but the memories of pain can be in your conscious from previous lifetimes.
Makes sense...especially from physical point of view.
You mentioned, "...the memories of pain can be in your conscious from previous lifetimes" - in what form does this come in in our current lives? i.e. how do we recognis these pains from our previous lives?
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i don't know cos didn't happen to me. Unless i go into very advanced meditation stages and see my past lifes.
If you are very curious, you can research, find books to read about others' past lifes and how they recognize them. There are aplenty in the bookshops and online.
Just do your homework.
i had this book about a trained certificated hypnotist helping many people to overcome their phobia through hypnotism. Many had the phobia instilled in them from previous lifetimes encounter which they found out during hypnotism sessions.
for eg, one successful lawyer simply had fear of flying and lose many business deals cos he could not bring himself to take a plane.
So he went to see the hypnotist to solve his problem. Found out he fell from working on a church roof pitched on a cliff in his past life and died during the hypnosis session. Thus his great fear of height. There were many other stories in this non-fiction book.