[The Random Factor] Return of the Unenlightened Part 1

[The Random Factor]

Greetings brothers and sisters of Earth! 

There and back, the whirlwind in Europe
has come to an end. There is much to 
share after a week of fun and a week 
of teachings with the Dali Lama in 
Hamburg Germany 
http://www.dalailama-hamburg.de/ 


The Dali Lama was an absolutely joyous being. 
He laughed a lot, and it was contagious. 

The first thing that struck me was how he 
laughed even at times when it seemed totally 
inappropriate, such as when he was asked to 
provide insight into solving problems in 
the Middle East. 

His answer boiled down to dialogue and 
compassion. He finished by saying that he 
hopes they can work out their differences, 
"but maybe that is just a dream" [as he 
broke into hearty laughter]

To me, this says more about how he sees 
the world than words ever could. 

I got the feeling that he sees trying to 
answer questions on issues such as the Middle 
East about as logical as the events themselves. 

Key points of his teachings are that life 
is suffering and that physical reality is 
in it's essence an illusion and EVERYTHING in
this realm is ultimately unsatisfying. 

Yet everywhere he goes people him for logical
solutions that will transform the world of 
suffering into something else. 

It's like asking a top football (American 
football) coach how do we watch football 
without seeing the giant men smashing into 
each other all the time.

"Peace can come to be only through inner 
peace." - Dali Lama

As my teacher says "There will be peace on 
Earth when there is peace in the hearts of 
all people." 

You, however, don't have to wait that long.

A cause does not exist without a result, and 
so too a result does not exist without a cause. 
Since they are dependent we know that to avoid 
a result, avoid the cause. To avoid a cause, 
be mindful of the result. To manifest a result, 
manifest the cause. - Dali Lama paraphrased

The Dali Lama started the week with a disclaimer. 

"If you have a great expectation [for these 
talks] big mistake. I have nothing to offer. 
No miracle powers, [that's] nonsense." 
- Dali Lama

This was pretty funny considering I went 
halfway around the world to attend 5 days of 
teachings on a book called "400 verses on the 
Practices of Attaining Enlightenment." If 
"I have nothing to offer" was in the 
promotional material I sure missed it.

Don't get me wrong, I was not disappointed.  
I was not expecting miracles, for me this 
was a cultural experience and a good old-
fashioned adventure. Nor did I have any 
expectation of being enlightened by words. 

I've tried that road already, if words did 
the trick I'd be enlightened already. 

That was the motivation for issue #34 
http://the-random-factor.blogspot.com/2007/06/thoughts-on-thoughts.html  
 

The Dali Lama also had a warning. Generally 
speaking, people from other traditions should 
not become Buddhist because all religions have 
some truth in them and switching religions 
later in life often leads to confusion, the 
exact opposite of the clarity we are seeking. 

He said if one does desire to become Buddhist 
because their religion does not serve them 
it is most important to still respect the 
tradition from which we came and not get 
negative on it as it still serves other 
people. The tendency is to be critical to 
justify your change, this is not good. It 
is important to respect all traditions and 
recognize that they give hope and comfort to 
humanity. 

In case you're wondering. I also never had 
any intention of becoming Buddhist. Truth 
manifests in all forms and realizing this I 
guess I am a Perspectivist. I'm not looking 
for a religion to explain the way the world 
works. I am looking for a world-view that 
explains why all religions work for some 
people and no religion works for all. We get 
a much better view of how the world "really 
is" by looking from as many points-of-view 
as possible. 

This is, of course, the motivation behind the 
"Random Viewpoint Dispenser" at 
http://www.some-guy.com/viewpoints/random.php 

Of course, while all perspectives might be true 
to some degree, some are more true than others. 

The Tibetan Buddhist way is very peaceful and 
loving and the vibe of the event was really 
beautiful. The monks chanting to open each day
was one of the highlights for me. Science is 
just beginning to recognize the power of 
vibrational therapies in healing. They ought 
to be taking classes from these monks.

The week was broken up in two sections, 2 days 
of public talk, and 5 days study of the 1800-
2000 (conflicting reports) year old text by 
Aryadeva, "The 400 stanzas concerning the 
practices on the way to enlightenment" 

My impression was people connected very strongly 
with the Dali Lama himself and the public talk, 
and not as much with the text itself.  

This feeling was shared by the people I went 
with, and talked to, and supported by the 
massive line of people at the coffee stand 
during the teachings of the text.  

It had never before been taught in the West. 
Certainly much of the meaning of the text was
lost in translation as it was written originally 
in Sanskrit, a text which was lost but preserved
(re-written?) in Tibetan, which was then 
translated for me in English. 

Then again, the Dali Lama has been studying 
this text for over 65 years and he said it 
is very complicated, some of it even he doesn't 
understand. [more laughter]

Seems to me if something can not be understood 
after 65 years of study, it's probably time to 
consider that these parts just don't make sense.  

I was going to ignore most of the text and give 
you just a few gems but a good friend has said 
I really should give you all a taste of the text 
and my actual experience.  

So, I opened randomly to stanza 378

"If through flaws concerning emptiness 
[things] were established as not empty, why 
would emptiness not be established through 
flaws concerning lack of emptiness?" - 
stanza 378

Eventually I began to understand that 
"emptiness" refers to a lack of inherent 
existence of objects in conventional reality. 

Let me try again. Since multiple people 
perceive a single object differently, it's 
characteristics must be in the mind of the 
observer and not the object itself. Objects 
in conventional reality (the world as we 
are familiar with it) s said to exist in 
some sense but has no "inherent existence." 

The fact that all phenomenon share this lack 
of inherent existence is the Buddhist meaning 
of "emptiness," which is not to be confused 
with nothingness. 

Well, you can see my challenge in extracting 
the essence from these teachings, but I will 
try my best. 

There is one sneaky possibility that may be 
the real reason for the abstract and "subtle" 
nature of this book. Perhaps like the Karate 
Kid's wax-on wax-off this text has an 
ulterior motive. Instead of training the body
and mind as wax-on wax-off did, maybe a 
primary goal of this text is to pacify the 
mind in a sort of philosophical stupor keeping 
the mind occupied on harmless pondering rather 
than leaving it open for more destructive 
thoughts of violence, envy, and greed. 

If you find it hard to believe that we benefit
from having the mind pacified this way, pay 
attention to the final quote I've included, 
and to the teachings in general. 

My belief is that turning within better known
as meditation is either the only or the fastest 
path to enlightenment. Yet, the mind will do 
what the mind does, so while students aren't 
meditating perhaps these teachers have found 
a good way to keep the mind busy... just a 
thought. 

Certainly, meditation doesn't seem so difficult 
when compared to understanding this text. 

ok, so after looking at the nearly 15 pages 
I've written so far, I've decided to break 
up this writing into, at least, 3 sections. 

Part 1: Overview, and some random quotes

Part 2: Dive into the teachings in detail

Part 3: My experiences, my missions 
including your(?) awesome gift, and the 
really great folks I met on this trip.     

So, for today, here's a bunch of random 
tidbits that I found interesting. 

I hope you do too... 

-------------Random Tidbits--------------

The Dali Lama told a story about a monk who 
escaped after spending 18 years in a Chinese 
prison. The monk said "There were times when 
I faced danger." The Dali Lama asked "What 
kind of danger?" And the monk responded, 
"there were times where I almost lost 
compassion for the Chinese."

One attendee asked, "How can we expect to 
love our enemies when we often don't love 
ourselves." The Dali Lama laughed and said, 
"First you must love yourself, then love your 
friends, then love your neighbors, then you 
can learn to love your enemy."

"Compassion with wisdom and you are ok, 
compassion without wisdom can still be foolish." 
- Dali Lama

"Desire based in wisdom is ok." - Dali Lama

"Once we practice compassion, understanding 
comes." - Dali Lama

"When one is focused on compassion, what room 
is there for anything else?" - Dali Lama

"The best thing you can do is provide the 
maximum affection to your children." 
- Dali Lama

The Dali Lama told stories of monks who at death 
did not begin to decay, according to the Dali 
Lama a result of having a most powerful mind. 
One monk is said to have simply evaporated into 
nothingness... or should I say into emptiness, 
wait, he must have disintegrated into 
"ultimate reality." 

"90% of anger is projection, how we feel about 
what has been done, not what has been done." 
- Dali Lama 

"Human beings are in doubt thanks to the 
powerful ability to think." - Dali Lama

I love that one...

love and light, 

Some Guy

p.s. Hitting reply to this email no longer 
works. If you want to contact me visit 
http://www.some-guy.com/ and click on the 
"Email Me" link on the left.  Look forward 
to hearing from you. 

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