To see the truth is most important: Dzongsar Khentse rinpoche
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Dzongsar Khentse rinpoche
The rinpoche spoke on a range of issues: from suicide to sexual orientation
Discourse: While the fast moving society and alienation is often blamed for the spate of suicides reported in the country, it was perhaps time, said Dzongsar Khentse rinpoche, to start creating awareness on the preciousness of life, and to listen more to the younger generation.
Buddhism’s take on suicides was one of the questions the rinpoche answered, after his talk on Guru Rinpoche’s principles on October 18 in Thimphu. This trend or epidemic called suicide is very complicated, and because karmic manifestation is just so deep, he said, he couldn’t say why this was happening.
Rinpoche said taking one’s life is violence, and therefore a negative action in Buddhism. “But one thing that people should really bear in mind is that this act of taking one’s life is one of the most powerful habituating forces; that if you commit suicide, it’s likely that you will commit suicide again because the addiction to this thrill, ends up being deeply rooted into your consciousness,” he said.
However, while life may be hard, problems are also impermanent, and that it was important to celebrate life, he said. “Most of the time, we’re always preparing to have a life, which is understandable because we’re worldly beings, but keep in mind, that life is happening now,” he said.
Gender
One’s sexual orientation has got nothing to do with seeing the truth, rinpoche said, in response to how the issue of gender fits in Buddhism.
“Wisdom is most important in Buddhism and all others are secondary; to see the truth is most important, and if morality, discipline or even meditation isn’t making you see the truth, then it’s useless,” he said. “Seeing the truth is important because the so called method is always mixed with culture.”
While the Buddhist truth, such as the four seals of Buddhism, is never stained by culture, getting to the truth is, he said, because it has to be delivered to the humans, who can only think in terms of culture.
“Therefore your sexual orientation has got nothing to do with understanding or not understanding the truth,” he said. “You could be gay, lesbian, or straight, but we never know which one will get enlightened first.”
While this may be argued by those, who think this kind of practice falls in the category of sexual misconduct, he said, one has to be careful here, because people mingled culture and situation with the truth, which shouldn’t be done.
“Somebody asked me why women are not allowed to enter the goenkhangs, the Mahakalarooms, and the answer is simple – it’s wrong and they should have never done it,” he said, adding that such norms are created by culturists. “It’s not in the kanjur, not in the tenjur, nor in the tantric text that a women must be stopped from entering the goenkhangs.”
“I want to especially tell Bhutanese parents that, if they notice a slightly different manifestation from their children, you should not look at this as a disease,” he said. “I also want to tell those with such orientation that you have to be patient, because as much as we Bhutanese think we’re such a great species on this earth, we’re very conservative and so stuck up on self righteousness.”
Organ donation
As a Mahayana Buddhist, rinpoche also said that he strongly encouraged organ or blood donation. “It’s fantastic if you can do it; just take yourself as an example, and if you happen to require an organ or blood, and if somebody is going to give you this, how much joy would it give you,” he said.
In tantric teachings, he said, one is not supposed to harm the body because, according to thetantra, the body is the mandala, which is supposed to be cherished and venerated. “But I don’t think donating blood, even for a tantric practitioner, is harming the body,” he said. “While in the Mahayana, every breath, every sweat and whatever endeavour you do, directly or indirectly, should try to benefit others; and I think donating blood is such a brave, wholesome, virtuous and meritful action.”
Guru Rinpoche’s Principles
The lotus born phenomenon, Guru Rinpoche, is the means and not the end, the rinpoche said, and that, in a way, the whole principles of Guru Rinpoche is the mean or the method.
The concept of lotus born, he said, is both profound and poetic, he said. “Lotus here represents your devotion, your mind,” he said. “Even though you roam around yourself in the stained, defiled world, the absolute nature of your mind is as pure as a lotus; and it’s believed that, when we say Guru Rinpoche is born from the lotus, it means that the moment you have devotion towards Guru, that devotion is the blossoming of the lotus.”
Mindfulness, he said, is the core practice of Buddhism. “To everything we do, in the tantric ritual, we do it because we want to enhance and maintain that awareness, and for that reason we have Guru Rinpoche statues, dances and holy places,” he said.
Humans, he said, are capable of only one thing, which is to believe. “You may pride yourself that you’re one of the most vicious non believers, but you’re blindly believing in the reason on why you don’t believe,” he said.
This is the only thing the humans have and whether the belief is supported or not, it doesn’t make whatever one believed in truer, he said. “But doubt and belief are these two components that you will have, and you have to have it,” he said. “They’re actually one, and it will go on for a long time, and one day you’ll never doubt Guru Rinpoche but you’ll also never believe in him. That’s the time the means of Guru Rinpoche is finished.”
By Sonam Pelden
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