Tag Archives: logic

departing from the logic of this life

departing from the logic of this life

Of course common sense is a good thing. It is very practical. Some of you have heard this, I think this is true account actually. Few years ago, you see the common sense, the common, when you have so much common sense the culture that cherishes common sense has hard time understanding the concept of non-duality.

Few years ago in India, there was so many problems of rats. You know in Delhi. I read it somewhere, I think it is true and even it is not true it has some significance to this story so I will tell you. So many rats. So the government in Delhi decided to have a rat police. Several hundred of them just to basically kill or eliminate rats. Two years, I think, after two years or something like that, they only caught two rats. Of course immediately our reaction is: oh the Indians, completely inefficient, they are just like chaotic and all of that. But to me it is so beautiful story because to the Indians mouse or the rat is a ride of god Ganesh. It is a wealth deities ride. You don’t want to kill a wealth deity. And the mind that can actually chew and digest the complexity of a big elephant riding a small rat shows that there is a culture or some kind of condition to really appreciate the non-duality. Everything works, okay, monkey god, god with the six arms, god with the thousand arms, no problem. God does not necessary has to have a halo. God can be anything that is hideous looking like a Kali.

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4+4=red

dream example

Okay, very simple. Enlightenment is when you are not a sucker of the logic of four plus four is eight. You understand? That is it. That is it. Because we are all sucker of this logic. Enlightened being is not a sucker of this logic. Plus lot of other things.

Student: But I think crazy people are also … of that.

Oh very good, excellent, excellent. Very very good. Actually at glance I would say, an ordinary person, a very ordinary person, deluded being like me looking at a crazy person and a Tilopa, or a Virupa or Naropa, can’t tell difference.

So because you know what is the word definition of crazy people. Those who are not a sucker of conventional truth. And if you want to be the follower of the conventional truth. Yes, then. In fact these Tilopa or Naropa or Virupa thinks that all those people who are sucker of four plus four is eight, they are the crazy. They just can’t understand why you have to suck into this.

Student: But I think for most of us students here we still living in the worldly life and we have to cope with the worldly rule and remember four plus four is nine. So how to …

No no. This is good, this is good.

Student: Sorry is eight.

This is very good. Excellent. See, most of us we have to remember that four plus four is not really eight. Is neither nine. Definitely not one. But for the conventional sake we will use it. That is what we call skillful means. We have to get along with the people.

Student: Yes I think so we need to learn how to survive in this world, worldly world with the enlightened mind properly.

Of course. Yes. Chandrakirti has stated this long time ago. Never ever we should destroy or refute what is conventionally accepted. Never. Buddha, if you asked him: “What is four plus four?” He will say eight.

But, you know, there is a great scholar. He is the best actually, in the contemporary Tibetan scholar, he is my hero. He is called Gendun Chopel. He is really good. He said, for instance if a terrorist comes and points a gun at you and says: “Okay, lady. You have to say this wall is red. Otherwise I am going to kill you.” You will say it is red even so you don’t mean it. He said that all the Buddha’s teaching are just like that. All sentient beings are coming with the gun of suffering and then Buddha has to say all kind of things, this is blue, this is red. He is really good.

Parting from the four attachments, Nepal June 2009
(->videos on youtube)

logic

logic

You know the logic is very limited. Logic is very very limited. Logic is a very good tool. Even in the Buddhist studies actually we spend a lot of time studying Buddhist logic. It is called pramana. Actually like standard Buddhist philosophy student will spend almost six years just study Buddhist logic. Very important. But we have always been told that the logic we study to value and to validate the view. This is always for the purpose though. Once you establish the view then you see – I think the Buddhist concept of hearing, contemplation and meditation, you must have heard this, this is a very important one. I don’t know, I dare say, I don’t know maybe I am totally wrong, this is probably a concept west doesn’t have. Maybe west has hearing and contemplation. Meditation I don’t know, maybe they have it in their own sort of way but for, specially for a spiritual path meditation is so important, so important. Because the logic alone cannot, logic can only bring you from A to maybe D. You know, A B – C –- D. That is about it then the logic will collapse. From there – but it has done its good job you know. Because somewhere when you are around C lots of dreams and physical experience and things like light coming from the nostrils and you know like visions of the Buddha and you know like sharman is coming inside you and stuff like, that will come and those are very dangerous. So for that you need logic. And once you combat them then what you need? You need daringness. Daringness. And what do I mean by daringness? I was telling earlier. To be useless.

Teaching in Brighton, November 2010

logic is the door to illogic

logic is the door to illogic

To be honest, even Shakyamuni Buddha himself said, that the ultimate truth can be only understood through the trust or the devotion. So after a while, our analysis and our logic, our rationalism has to exhaust. Otherwise, you know, something called logic, I am sure you may have studied here, do you know fundamentally logic is the systematic door to illogic.

Buddhism beyond boundaries and time, Nepal 2007

representation of the concept of Mahasiddha

representation of the concept of Mahasiddha

I can tell you for instance Andrei Tarkowski’s film called Stalker, I don’t know if any of you have seen this. To me this was the probably the even more clear representation of the concept of Mahasiddha. Because we have been told by so many of our teachers there is something called Mahasiddha, meaning accomplished one. Those who have renounced the worldly thinking. Those who have gone beyond rationalism. Okay this is another thing. The essence of Buddhism is to break the rationalism. To really go beyond logic. So then suddenly we have a fear: “If you go beyond the logic, then what do we do? How can we fit into the world? How do we talk to the others?” Our Lamas, our masters they describe Mahasiddha, the concept of Mahasiddha, accomplished one. And I always had a – I just cannot imagine Mahasiddha. Always, every time I think about Mahasiddha I think in terms of all those Tilopas, Naropas, great Indian masters of the past who we, I from very young time myself saw in the Thangkas, pictures, very beautifully painted, slender looking. But now I realize if any of this Mahasiddha, this great accomplished masters walk into my house I will not welcome them, because they look filthy, they eat raw fish, they misbehave. They don’t abide with my rule. So Andrei Tarkowski’s film the Stalker really suddenly opened my eyes, and see, wow, Mahasiddha, the Stalker to me was like a Mahasiddha, the accomplished one. And he was having hard time convincing the rational logical world. I don’t know whether you have seen this film. If you have time and you have nothing much to do I would suggest. It is little slow but you have to be quite patient with this film. So it is possible I think to represent Buddha Dharma by the medium such as film.

Projecting the Dharma, Yale 2008

asking the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to remain

asking the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to remain

And then we have asking Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to remain in samsara. Remain, asking them to live long I guess, live long is maybe the way we put it, but asking them to remain. Now this again very very important. The reason why it is so important is because it actually counters wrong view. Now this is a big subject. Let me explore this a little bit. No matter who you are, what you are, you can be scientist, physicist, philosopher, critics, I don’t know, skeptics, existentialist. No matter how you think you really are not a believer, you really proud that you are not a believer. No matter how you think like that. On this earth, maybe even beyond, there is only thing we can do at the end of the day, there is only thing that is useful and that is, what you call it, we can do. And that is the only way. And that is called believe. In other words devotion. Trust. That is the only way. Even Buddha himself said: Ultimate truth can only be understood by devotion. Ultimately. This logic, analysis, all of this can bring you from here to here, maybe two inch, but you still have a journey from here to here. This has to be brought by devotion. Logic doesn’t work. Because at the end of the day, logic is actually a really very sophisticated tool to make yourself idiot. When you believe something, you have a logic that you are believing on this something. But when you also don’t believe in anything you have a reason which you believe. This reason is what you believe. So you also have a blind devotion there. So actually, there is only one thing that you can do. Even going to the toilet. I think I gave this example long time ago. You can have a doubt, is this really a – let’s say you are a woman and then you go to the toilet and there is a female sign there. In front of it, you really need to go to toilet. Right. And you are right in font of the toilet and you can invoke a doubt. Is this really women’s toilet. Maybe it is not. Maybe it is men’s toilet. Maybe somebody put it wrongly. Maybe the W and M got upside down. ??? all kinds of logical mind you can think. It is not helping your bladder. After a while you have to make a decision. You just have to go in. Otherwise, you will not get the result. This kind of believe is very important. Okay. You have only one tool which is the believe. This is what the Kagyupa, they say “meditation is the head of the path” or something like that. It’s really the most important. We can talk about the devotion later but because of that what is the opposite of devotion. Doubt. Doubt is the biggest problem. Doubt is actually flavor of ignorance if you like. It is, you know salt has a shape and it has a flavor. And when we say salt, immediately we are referring to the flavor not its shape right? Salty. We don’t really care whether it looks like a brown salt or pink salt or anything like that. We refer this to flavor. Likewise, actually ignorance is something to do with the doubt. A doubt comes from many things. Okay, yes, bodhicitta makes sense, logically it makes sense. Depending arising makes sense, logically. All of these makes sense. Logic, teaching, we have met a lot of people, actually not only the westerner even the Khenpos. I have, as some of you know, I have a Khenpo factory by the way. And many of them are good. And I have told them honestly that I am really proud that they are really good learned. But the thing is, maybe I have many Khenpos and several hundred potential Khenpos but I told them, Dharma practitioner almost none. Almost none. Many many Khenpos, yes, but Dharma practitioner almost none. Because more you learn more you become doubtful. More you are sharp. So you actually learn how to be doubtful. Even better. So in this kind of situation what do you need. You need source of inspiration. Source of inspiration. This is so important, we need an example. No matter what you do we need a model. So asking the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to live on this earth. Of course we have a teaching and all of that. You know, logic, logic teachings, all of this you can go to borders book shops, online book shops, amazon book shops, you can read, you can analysis. All of that. But you still need a person or a living proof. Living proof that really has that quality or something that is just beyond logic, beyond rational.

Parting from the four attachments, Nepal June 2009
(videos)