beginner student | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

The following is an excerpt from a teaching called “Essence of Devotion”

When embarking on the path, we look for the most excellent method. We look for that method that gives excellent results every time. That method would be Dharma. Dharma has brought about enlightenment in generation after generation of students and teachers alike. Students have become teachers who have returned to benefit beings, just as I hope you are hoping to do.

Now, we not only need that, but we need an excellent captain, and that captain should be considered none other than the Buddha and his emanations in the world. The Buddha is the one who has successfully crossed the ocean of suffering and has, without a doubt, achieved enlightenment. If you read the life of the Buddha there is no doubt that he has achieved enlightenment. The results of his life—having brought enlightenment to so many others for 2,500 years—can only have arisen from the mind of enlightenment. So we want the proper ship. We want the proper captain. We also need the proper navigator because it’s considered that, while the Buddha is the supreme captain of our ship, it is his spirit, his mind, his nature which is present in the navigator who does the driving and keeps us afloat. And that is our teacher.

So that is the situation that we want to hook up to. That’s how to leave the party, another analogy that we can use. I love to teach in analogies because it’s much easier and simpler for us. We can understand parties. We can understand foolishness. We can understand suffering. We can understand ships and water and the urge not to drown, but sometimes it’s hard to understand Dharma. So I like to learn and I like to express in analogies. One good analogy for understanding our present situation as we embark on the great task of practicing refuge and Bodhicitta is that when we look around and we read the paper and we see our own eventual age and death and all the sufferings that come with it, as well as the sufferings of others, we consider that the two of them are unbearable and they are inseparable. I am suffering, you are suffering. It’s all one package. You come to realize that it’s like you’re in a burning room. You know, the room just burning, burning, burning, burning, on fire, and at that point you look around and you realize that there is one door, one opening, not even a window. One door as an exit from that room, and that door is wide open. How much love and regard will you have for that door, while being in that burning room? Well, we’re so funny, we’re so kind of asleep at the wheel, at least in the first part of our spiritual path. Maybe we don’t even have much realization but, when in our own experience the room really begins to get hot and we begin to see the singeing of our own hairs and really relate to the burning of our own flesh. we begin to see, really see, what the situation is due to our own experience. And we will someday. We will. If not now, then someday. Then at that time we look at that door with such love and regard. In fact, we don’t even think about how much we love and regard the door. We are so into the door that we are out of the door as soon as possible. We love the door. The door is our hope.

It’s like that when we approach the path. As we begin to practice turning the mind towards Dharma, we begin to practice seeing what is in this ocean of suffering, what we are surrounded with. Then at that point, we begin to take in our own real experience and how kind of silly it is when we try to keep on top of our suffering when, in fact, we are suffering and it is foolish to be in denial about that. At that point our minds soften. They gentle and they turn. And suddenly we get smart in a way we were never smart before. Suddenly we’re on Red Alert. Something is different and we begin to regard that door, not as just a shape in a room, but as something that is more meaningful to us than anything else. The path is that door. Our teachers who give us the path are that door. The method is that door. That is our opportunity to exit samsara.