The Four Revolting Thoughts
Approximate script of the podcast with some variations and possible errors:
The Four Thoughts to Turn the Mind – or the Four Revolting
Thoughts
Hello and a truly warm welcome to whoever has come to sit
down in the Double Dorje virtual restaurant and listen.
This podcast is not very old, but I have several times had
occasion to mention the foundation or preliminary practices, the ngondro. When
we speak of them, the thing that usually comes to mind is what we call the
“special” preliminaries, including all those prostrations, refuge and
bodhicitta prayers, purification mantras, mandala offerings, guru yoga and so
forth – lots of colour, lots to enjoy! But today I think it’s time to look at
the four “ordinary” or “common” preliminaries, since it’s only on the basis of
those that these special preliminaries make any sense. So let’s take a quick
look at these four, namely the precious human birth, impermanence and death,
action and fruit, also just called Karma, and suffering. When these four
thoughts have sunk in the student should be ready to genuinely take refuge in
the three Jewels, the Buddha, the Dharma, and the sangha (as you probably do by
now know). The four thoughts are supposed to make us turn away from the cycle
of suffering and towards the Dharma, which is why they’re called four thoughts
to turn the mind. They are intended to bring us to a state of revulsion at the
endless suffering and bondage in which we find ourselves, which is why I like
to call them the four revolting thoughts. The four repulsive thoughts might
also be quite a good term.
But there is something that is preliminary, even to those
four very basic-level thoughts. Sometimes this point is just somehow
understood, but coming from a non-Buddhist background and culture, as many
listeners will be, it may be worth pointing out. It’s something that was made
clear by the very structure of an important text written by Gampopa. I’m
referring to the “Jewel ornament of liberation”, the Dagpo Thargyen.
Gampopa flourished around the turn of the 12th
common-era century, and is widely looked on as the main disciple of Milarepa. It
must be said, however, that his style of teaching and life was largely very
different from that of Milarepa. Milarepa had been a wandering yogi, living on
alms and dwelling in caves, while Gampopa represented the monastic side of
Tibetan Buddhist life. He founded the Kagyu monastic order, a large part of
which would become the Karma Kagyu of today, as well as other branches of the Kagyu.
Gampopa did only stay with Milarepa for a fairly short time, and there are
those who feel that Milarepa’s long-term and very close disciple, Rechungpa, is
more deserving of the title of Milarepa’s chief disciple. Rechungpa, however,
did not found any large and wealthy institutions, so power and money have
largely given Gampopa that title.
Be that as it may, Gampopa did wonderful work, and one of the
fruits of that work was the text I referred to before, the jewel ornament. This
was one of the first major texts of the class known as “stages of the Path”, or
Lam Rim. Some three centuries later, Tsong Khapa, founder of the Gelug school
of which the Dalai lama is the best-known representative, made his own version
of the Lam Rim genre into a major pillar, a flagship teaching, if you like, of
that school.
But to return to Gampopa’s version, it is worth giving some
thought to the fact that BEFORE getting into the four revolting thoughts, he
points to the main thing behind all this: the tathagatagarbha, sangye nyingpo,
the Buddha essence. Many texts do not refer to this at an early stage, because
it would be so easy to mistake it for some kind of substance, or a little
golden Buddha living, perhaps, inside our heart – in other words to make it an
object of conceptual thought. But without this, the whole path would be
pointless. Any kind of Buddhahood that was achieved by following all the
philosophical, ethical, and meditational practices would be something
constructed and therefore temporary and illusory. But if, even in a vague way,
we know or sense that there is something infinitely wonderful and valuable,
even though deeply covered in all our karmic habits and crap, then it starts to
make sense to wonder if our crap can be removed. We begin to get our thinking
in order by means of the four revolting thoughts.
Before we leave Gampopa, let me say that anyone who feels
like obtaining and studying this book will first have to choose between the
various versions. I would recommend the version translated by Khenpo Konchog
Gyaltsen, and I would definitely advise against the version that people of my
age had to start on translated by Herbert Guenther, who overlaid his
translations with a thick covering of German existential philosophy. Unless you
want to spend a year or two studying THAT in preparation for Guenther’s works,
there may be better uses of your time.
Because this whole podcast is not a “teach yourself Buddhism”
project, I will leave it up to you, if it is your wish, to do the work of
learning and studying these teachings, but not to leave you totally in the
dark, here’s a very quick rundown.
Firstly, precious human birth. Before going any further, this
is NOT the idea that human life is precious. Yes, human life certainly is
precious, but only very few human lives are precious human births in the sense
intended here. This kind of precious human birth has to have an interest in the
Dharma, the capacity for studying and practising, the resources of time that
are needed the availability of the teachers and teaching, it has to happen in a
historic period when the Dharma is available to be studied and so on. It is
indeed rare.
Secondly, impermanence, and in particular death. We need to
let it sink in that absolutely everything is impermanent, and that absolutely
everyone dies. The time, of course, is uncertain, but the fact is entirely
certain. We are also advised to think about changes occurring every moment,
cycles of day and night, the seasons, historical epochs, geological time and
cosmic time. This precious human birth is a very, very brief flash in the pan
of precious opportunity.
Thirdly, action and fruit, or karma. Here we learn about the
10 virtuous deeds and their opposites. The point I really want to emphasise is
that while karma is said to be infallible, this is absolutely not the same as
the idea that everything we experience is a result of karma. That idea is logically nonsensical, and it is
also insidious, as people who adopt that foolish view find an excuse for victim
blaming. Picking that bad idea apart might be a subject for another episode.
Fourthly suffering. It’s everywhere. Even in paradise, or the
most wonderful circumstances that you can possibly imagine, there is suffering
if only because it will pass. The image of the “six worlds”, that is to say the
gods, the semi-gods, human beings, animals, hungry ghosts and hell realms is
often used to illustrate this. You can find extensive descriptions of this
elsewhere. Just like in mediaeval Christendom there was a certain tendency to
explore with gleeful horror the torments imagined in the Christian hell, some
Buddhists have been tempted to elaborate on the various forms of suffering to a
disturbing degree. So you can look that up. The main teaching is that the magic
state in which everything is perfect for ever and ever more, simply does not
exist.
This brings us back to the Buddha essence. Its presence means
that there is in fact a way out, so although we do need to be earnest, we don’t
have to be depressed.
For the reasons I’ve mentioned often enough how, on the one
hand that I am not your teacher and on the other hand that there are plenty of
places to find material on this, such as the books mentioned above, or these
days even simply by Internet searching. Memorising all the details may perhaps
not be necessary, yet you should indeed get at least familiar with these things
if you want to set out on the path. You may even want to memorise a set of such
things, since the teachings of the four revolting thoughts can to a large
extent reduced to a few lists covering, for example, the 18 factors in the
precious human birth, the various signs of impermanence, the 10 skilful and
skilful acts, the three types of suffering in the six worlds. In a list I once
drew up, and still refer to from time to time, there are 40 points. Learning
something like that does take a bit of effort, but it’s not ridiculous. And of
course, even if you don’t memorise them, it is more than a little valuable to
at least be familiar with them.
So, that’s the hard bit. We have to rub our noses in it. Get
down to the dirty ground. Once we are totally clear about what a shit-heap Samsara
is, we can start to relax and enjoy it for what it is, not for a fairytale
about what it isn’t.
So that’s it for today. Just a quick reminder to like share
or subscribe – and be revolted!
#Buddhism #Vajrayana #Tibet #DoubleDorje #tantra #mahamudra
#dzogchen #lama #mantra #meditation #nyingma #kagyu #FourThoughts
Words or phrases you might want to look up:
●
Gampopa
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Milarepa
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Rechungpa
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Kagyu
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Vajrayana
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Tsong
Khapa
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Khenpo
Konchog Gyaltsen
●
Herbert
v. Guenther
●
Jewel Ornament of Liberation
●
Lam Rim
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