Question: What are the three things the practitioner cannot do without?

Chogyal Rinpoche: In short, the three things are compassion, wisdom and meditation. Many people in their process of learning Buddhism will always hear these three words. For Buddhists, they are so familiar terms. Many people feel that they know what these are and they can do as well. I used to think the same, but according to my 26 years of practice, the mouth-said compassion, wisdom and meditation, are something different from the compassion, wisdom, and meditation in real action.

First, open your compassionate heart

In 1989, when I was five years old, I began to study Buddhism in a temple on the Himalayas in India. I was very young at that time. I did not know much about the outside world. Every morning after chanting scriptures, or at the end of the Dharma sessions, the masters would teach us to return the merits to the sentient beings, to save the beings in the six realms from the bitter sea. I then felt that the idea and practice is very good. 

However, I also met with some elders, they told us the little monks: in the world in addition to Buddhism there are many religions, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam and so on, of which Buddhism is the world’s best religion. Buddhism is the truth of this world. Other religious believers are making detours. At that time I felt so surprised. Firstly, prior to that I had never heard of other religions in the world except Buddhism, and secondly, it is the first time I heard such a difference. Thereafter, when I saw the people around the temple wearing Hindu costumes, I would naturally produce a sense of fear and nausea. When I saw the Christians in the vicinity of the village, I would also have a sense of exclusion.

There was also an elder told me: Buddhism has different classification, Mahayana, Hinayana, Vajrayana. But the Hinayana is not as good as ours. Their teachings are not good as our Vajrayana. They just want to free themselves. Mahayana is a little better than Hinayana. And they know compassion and other methods of practice, but they need to take a long time to attain liberation, not as Vajrayana, by which we can attain Buddha hood in this life. So, it is also worse than us Vajrayana. That shocked me again.

I remember that later on we went to Bodhgaya to attend a Dharma session, where I saw some Hinayana monks from Sri Lanka. As a 10-year-old ignorant child, I felt sympathy for them that they are too poor, because they are the Hinayana, whose teachings are not good. I also saw a number of monks from China and Japan, but also felt compassion for them because they are not as good as us.

More than that, a few years later in the learning process, someone told me: Vajrayana also has many different schools. There are Kagyu School, Gelug School, Nyingma, Sakya School, but our school is the best among of them. Later, some people said to me: Kagyu school has 12 sub-schools. You and I are of the Karma and we are the best. Later it was said to me: There are still many groups in the Karma, different groups have different temples and you belong to this temple.

Now, thinking back, the reason why I would have that kind of mood is because what the elders said to me had deeply stamped in my subconscious. Yes, people are really too easy to be brainwashed, especially the child. Just some words from these elders changed my way of seeing other people. The kind of unintelligent arrogance, now in retrospect, makes me feel particularly chilling. Poor me was polluted by that narrow thought.

So mouth-saying the sentient beings in six realms are equal, actually there is strong discrimination in mind. When I started to have my own thoughts and ideas about the outside world, one day I asked myself: where is compassion? That discrimination has nothing to do with Buddhism also have nothing to do with my daily chanting sutras, nor the teachings I received in temple. The Buddha has never said that. Those are some personal thoughts and emotions that filled in my mind. For a period of time, I really have that obsession, as a result, only a small and narrow world can hold me in the end. 

I share this experience, in order to let everyone realize, sometimes we start our practice with beginner’s mind that all the sentient beings in six realms are equal, but in fact, we are affected by the ideas of others and their discrimination, constantly closing our hearts and make our world more and more narrow.

Practitioner should always try to open your heart, instead of closing your heart, which is what I hope each practitioner can do —- to open your compassion.

Second, improve your wisdom

The wisdom I am speaking of is not referring to the theory of emptiness or the complicated philosophy of Buddhism, but refers to the simple knowledge and insights. As a Buddhist practitioner, first of all we need to learn about the knowledge of Buddhism to gain a better understanding of our beliefs. Then as a Vajrayana practitioner, we also need to read more books on the Vajrayana to master more knowledge of Vajrayana. With this foundation, we can learn other School and other religious knowledge. With more knowledge in your mind, your insights and visions will naturally become more and more wide; your mind will not be easy to be influenced.

As a child, I was brainwashed by others because my knowledge was not enough, Later on through constant learning in the temple, and then I went to the Buddhist Institute for learning, I grasp the basic knowledge of our belief and strengthen the conviction in my practice. Together with the constant learning of other School and groups and even the knowledge of other religions, the absorption of their wisdom and the understanding of the truth help me vanish the arrogance and the discrimination completely.

Therefore, I think to improve the wisdom is an important bridge to open your compassion.

Third, meditation

What is meditation? Here is not going to explain in detail with you. But we all know that the function of meditation is to get a calm heart. Because only when your heart calm down, the wisdom of the mind can manifest. Once people are emotionally controlled, no matter how intelligent, they will lose the right sense of judgment. So we often hear people say calm down and think. This is the truth.

In general, as a practitioner, remember that practitioners are inseparable from the three things, as the essence of 84,000 Dharma doors are here. Practice is to open compassion, improve the wisdom, and to practice meditation.

Therefore, I think that no matter which school you are in, which temple, with which master, and which practice methods. If you make progress in these three things, your practice is making progress.

If we raise these three things to the highest level, we can achieve liberation from six realms. The most fundamental reason for our continuous samsara in the six realms is greed, hatred and stupidity. If compassion is increased, anger will disappear naturally. If we raise the wisdom, the stupidity will disappear naturally, and the greed will disappear naturally in Samadhi.

How to do these three things

A. Persistence in meditation.

Please spend 15 minutes a day to stop and meditate. 15 minutes a day, is seven and a half hours one month and is 90 hours meditation yearly. Your heart will be more and more calm. The persistence in meditation can help change your mental state unimaginably. So to adhere to it every day, is like to charge your own spirit and will have a positive impact when you do other things.

Those who have learned how to meditate can continue to adhere to, those with no experience of meditation can read my articles about how to meditate.

B. Adhere to reading. 

Before, when I had a lot of time for study, I used to finish reading a book every day, and later not so much time allowed, I adhere to complete a book every week. Every time I read a book, I will obtain a lot of benefit. By understanding the points from various masters, it naturally opens my visions.

I know that most of you are busy with your work and it’s hard to spend a lot of time studying. But try to set goals for yourself, such as reading at least one book a month. Imagine that, one book a month means twelve books a year! You will get the wisdom and experience which benefit you infinitely. Even if you cannot understand the book thoroughly at the moment, that does not matter. 

Adhere to reading, as long as that knowledge swept into your brain, one day it will naturally be unlocked and gives you the answers. This is my experience. If you really do not want to read, I can understand as everyone has his own way to learn. You can watch videos or listen to audio books. The most important thing is to insist on absorbing new knowledge.

C. Adhere to help others.

I have talked a lot about compassion in other articles. Compassion refers to the opening of heart. Sometimes we get hurt because of childhood memories, or family relationships, marriage, relationships between friends, and even the relationship with strangers, and thus close our hearts. As an ordinary person, it is difficult; all of a sudden to forgive all things, so please try to forgive one person a week, every week to untie a knot. 

As time goes on, the closed heart naturally opens. Slowly, your spirit will become relaxed and flexible. Or you can get up early every day to develop a plan to help a person around, no matter they are strangers, guests, colleagues, friends or others. Imagine that you help a person every day, which means you help at least 365 times a year. Stick to it, your compassion will naturally open.