Report On His Eminence Ratna Vajra Rinpoche's Melbourne Visit

What is Enlightenment?
Talk given by HE Ratna Vajra Rinpoche at the Richmond Town Hall, October 2006

Summarised by MLC, on the basis of the translation of Lama Choedak Yuthok.

On the 19th October 2006, the Melbourne Sakya Centre was extremely privileged to host a public talk by HE Ratna Vajra Rinpoche on ‘What is Enlightenment?’ at the Richmond Town Hall. HE Ratna Vajra is the elder son of HH Sakya Trizin, the head of the Sakya, and hence he is an important lineage holders. In his talk, His Eminence presented it as the wish of all sentient beings to obtain happiness and the way to do so. He also discussed what is the enlightened state and its qualities, the concept of Buddha nature, and how and what is required to achieve this.

All sentient beings are striving to achieve happiness, no matter whether they are an insect, a human being or any other sentient being. They are working for happiness, great peace and harmony. But usually through ignorance, most people do not know the right causes and conditions to achieve happiness and what is the cause of all the sufferings. Without knowing the cause and effect, lots of effort is in the wrong direction. Efforts put into gaining wealth or material possessions alone will not achieve inner peace or yield real happiness. His Eminence gave the example that over the past 30 - 50 years, in spite of the progress in achieving material possessions and improvements in technology, people are not happier or more peaceful than 30 - 50 years ago. People are having more problems than before with more violence, turmoil and suicides compared to 30 - 50 years ago. Material developments have not improved peace or harmony in this era or achieved more happiness for all. Material development alone does not yield enlightenment, happiness or inner peace.

His Eminence emphasised that it is through the internal world - the inner mind - and not through the external world that is the way to achieve happiness or inner peace. The external world can help people to solve problems and difficulties and also to make things more comfortable. For instance, the airplane delivers people to their destination faster and in more comfortable surroundings but if the plane crashes, many people can die at one time. Hence, external material development can give support to achieve happiness but it is not the main cause to achieve our own happiness. In order to achieve happiness, one needs to train their mind. The way to train the inner mind is to generate loving kindness and compassion. It is based on these thoughts that one can cultivate the qualities to generate the enlightened mind.

What is the enlightened state? It is a state free from all sufferings, free of dissatisfaction, free from all conceptual thoughts, and free from all obscurations. It possesses the ultimate knowledge, the ultimate power to liberate all beings from samsara and have the ultimate wisdom that knows all the subtleties of cause and effect. Enlightenment or Buddhahood is a mind or state which is clearly free from the two obscurations and has the complete knowledge of the relative and absolute knowledge of things. Such an enlightened state is not attained without the relevant causes and the attainment of the enlightened state is not produced by chance nor obtained by a wrongful path or incorrect or incomplete causes. To obtain the enlightened mind requires the correct and complete causes. Such a state is not exclusive to anyone in particular, it can be achieve by anyone with the right causes. We have the same potential to achieve this state of enlightenment by cultivating the spirit, accumulating the merit and wisdom, and perseverance. All sentient beings in the six realms of existence and the intermediate bardo world have the same potential called Buddha nature. The concept of Buddha nature or the seed of enlightenment is present in all sentient beings.

Enlightenment refers to the state of mind that is free from any adventitious obscurations, a clear limitless state of mind, which understands the ultimate reality. The nature of the mind itself is free from all obscurations. The problems in our minds are afflictions of desire, hatred and ignorance. These are temporary factors; they are removable and are not intrinsic to the nature of the mind. If the nature of the mind is afflicted and impure, then no type of antidote will be successful. The nature of our mind is pure, free of afflictions of desire, hatred and ignorance. If seen, they are only incidental and it is the cause and conditions that make them appear. Because they are only temporary, certain conditions can make them disappear and the purity of the mind is restored. His Eminence gave the example of a piece of white cloth soiled by stains or dust. The nature of the piece of cloth is white but the cloth is temporarily soiled by other factors. Knowing the nature of the cloth is white, it is re-claimable and it is necessary to use an agent like soap and water to remove the stains to restore the whiteness of the cloth. In a similar way, we take the mind to be like a piece of white cloth, which is basically pure. We have ways or methods for the mind to remove or to separate the stains. The reason why all the sentient beings have Buddha nature is that the mind is basically pure, having the qualities of clarity and emptiness. These qualities are its invisible nature. How is it possible to achieve enlightenment? It is not the Buddha who washes our sufferings or stains away. It is our own effort of separating the stains from the cleanliness or from the purity of the mind.

How do the Buddha’s teachings help and in what particular way? Buddha’s teachings are to show the way in order to help beings to know and see what they should learn to avoid and what to practice. When one is able to follow the teachings properly then the correction of the negative habits occurs. If one does not follow the methods and teachings and leads a reckless life, it will bring unhappiness and failure in life leading to a woeful rebirth in the three lower realms and constantly cycling in the realm of existence.
The fully enlightened Buddha has shown the way, the path which leads to the cessation of suffering. Whether one will be a beneficiary of that depends on one’s ability to accept the precepts and become responsible for the success of their path. Persons who engage in study, contemplation and meditation will depend on how well they put that into practice and not only pursue the attainment of knowledge. If one is well versed in dharma, it does not mean that that person is tamed in the mind and subdued by the teachings. In order to obtain enlightenment, just to study is not enough. One has to study, to contemplate, and be supported by necessary analysis of meaning and practice. It depends entirely on one’s effort. The Buddha said: ‘Though I have shown the actual path leading to liberation, whether one uses it and whether one attains the result will depend on one’s effort and practice’. One is one’s own potential master and leader or one’s enemy. Success and failure is totally due to one’s effort to study and practice leading to a mind that is liberated leading to a stage of omniscience.

His Eminence cautioned that the greatest enemy is one’s own self; it is even greater than an external enemy. The external enemy cannot bring as great suffering to the person than the suffering we bring to ourselves, such as lower rebirths. Our own hatred and anger can be a cause of our temporary sufferings; it is a seed leading to our rebirth to lower realms. No external enemy can cause so much harm. It is our own defilement and hatred that can become unmonitored, undetected and unlimited, that can bring unlimited suffering to our lives. Hence one needs to recognise the true cause of suffering and the obstruction to our happiness is our own inner hatred and anger that one needs to learn to conquer. Conquest of these will lead to enlightenment.

The qualities and the state of enlightenment are beyond imagination. The quality of the enlightened body, the enlightened speech and enlightened mind are described.

The enlightened body can assume an appropriate form to train a sentient being. Buddha has the capacity to assume any form that is appropriate to train sentient being’s disposition. Due to such consideration of the Buddha’s body, the Buddha can appear as different manifestations simultaneously. They can appear simultaneously at various forms, at various stages and shapes to suit the needs of the trainee at appropriate dispositions. The forms which Buddha have manifested to help sentient beings are not necessarily in the form of the Buddha, he can assume an appropriate manifestation that will be more appropriate either in a human form or a non-human form. The unique attributes of the fully enlightened Buddha’s form body are extraordinary. There are three form bodies or manifestations of the Buddha, the three kayas. There are the Dharmakaya (truth body), Sambhogakaya (enjoyment body) and Nirmanakaya (emanation body).

The enlightened Buddha’s speech qualities are that one is able to hear the teachings in the same language, at the level of intelligence and the topic that is appropriate to the listener’s mind. The Buddha’s voice is constant as one is able to hear his voice whether it is far or near, and the sound is appropriate for the audience. The enlightened Buddha’s mind has the knowledge of phenomena – the absolute knowledge of the ultimate nature of things. He has the amazing omniscient mind that knows all our past lives and our future lives. These are some of the supreme qualities of the supreme one.

In conclusion, the enlightened state is free from all suffering and obscurations and the seed or the potential is present in all sentient beings. It is through engaging on the right path, and through one’s effort, practice and perseverance, that one will attain a liberated mind.