All language subtitles for Discovering Buddhism Module 11 - Transforming Problems

Discovering Buddhism

Transforming Problems

Let's say you've just been fired
from your job of five years,

or your husband or wife leaves you,

or there's been a
tragedy in your country,

any worst-case scenario
you can imagine.

If someone came along and
told you that in reality,

this horrible situation is the best
opportunity for spiritual practice,

you might think they're crazy.

But, this is what the Buddha taught:

how to transform problems

into the path of enlightenment.

It makes sense. The world is
still full of war and poverty,

and our minds are full of delusions
like anger, jealousy and attachment.

Problems are a constant.

But we can learn to use these
otherwise unfortunate circumstances

as an opportunity
to accelerate our spiritual growth.

Using techniques based
on loving-kindness and

compassion for others,
and ourselves,

we can learn to face difficult
situations with skill,

wisdom and humor

and literally transform problems

into happiness.

MOTIVATION

Transforming suffering into
the path of enlightenment

is at the very heart of the
Buddhist Mahayana teachings.

But these thought
transformation techniques

are, in fact, very
difficult to practice.

When they were first
taught they were kept secret

for that very reason,
because of their difficulty.

Thought transformation techniques
are based in bodhicitta.

And therefore, it's essential
when one receives these teachings

to receive them with a
mind imbued by bodhicitta,

the attitude wishing to attain
enlightenment as quickly as possible,

in order to understand thought
transformation correctly.

Therefore for that reason generate
in your mind now a strong intention

to achieve enlightenment
as quickly as possible

in order to bring to enlightenment

all other suffering mother
sentient beings quickly.

TEACHERS

Venerable Thubten Chodren, is American born
and is a fully ordained nun
in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

She has been teaching Buddhism
for over 20 years worldwide.
She is a popular teacher and
author of several Buddhist books.

She is especially skilled at
communicating the practical application of
Buddhist teachings in our daily lives.

So I assume everybody here has problems?

Often, when we have problems

we feel like we're the only
people who have problems.

But wouldn't you say
everybody has problems?

But our problems are worse
than other peoples, right?

Isn't it?

Definitely, hundred percent worse.

So we should be the object
of other people's sympathy

and their compassion, and their aid.

And the way to transform our problems

is to get them to stop doing all the
nasty things they're doing towards us.

Right?

That's not actually
transforming our problem,

that's throwing the
problem at the other person.

Telling them that they're
the source of our problem,

and believing it ourself that other
people are the source of our problems.

When we have that view on life,

that I'm just this little
old innocent sweet charming,

wonderful, joyful person,

who doesn't mean harm to anybody,

and yet all these mean, nasty, cruel,
vicious un-understanding people,

cause me problems.

We have to totally get out
of this idea of blaming.

Because we're very much, I
think a country and a culture,

that likes to point
the finger and blame,

and you know, “You caused it, you
did it, you're going to suffer.”

If there's a problem,

finding somebody to blame,

means finding somebody
that we can cause to suffer,

thinking that when
somebody else suffers

we're going to feel
better afterwards.

I think that whole way of
looking at life doesn't work.

Because it's not about
finding one cause,

because everything's interdependent,
and everybody contributes something.

And it's not about finding the
cause so that we can punish somebody.

Now, how do we work with problems?
How do we transform problems?

I think it depends on how
we look at a situation.

First of all, how we define a problem.

Because there could be some
event going on with somebody else,

and you can call it a problem,

or you can call it an opportunity.

And this is kind of
the difference between

whether we're looking at
things in a worldly way

or whether we're looking
at them in a spiritual way.

Because, in a worldly way we call,
we label, a situation a problem

when our needs and
wants aren't getting met.

Isn't that kind of the
definition of a problem for you?

When your needs and
wants aren't getting met,

when your expectations
aren't getting met,

when your plans aren't happening.

So we have an idea of the situation,

and what we're looking for is pleasure

and happiness

and getting our way

and being right.

That's kind of what our goal is.

Our goal in this
situation is my happiness.

When the goal of my happiness

and preferably my happiness
now, rather than later,

when that goal is frustrated,
we call that a problem.

So, ...

and that's our usual worldly way
of looking at things, isn't it?

Now if we're spiritual practitioners,

the goal of any situation
is not my pleasure.

Think about that one for a while.

Can you imagine, living your life
where the goal is not your own pleasure,

and not your own happiness?

Does that seem like
something that's possible?

Hello out there?

If we're trying to
practice a spiritual path,

our goal in a situation
is not ‘my happiness.'

Our goal is to learn.

Our goal is to learn about ourselves.

Our goal is to learn about others.

Our goal is to, through this learning,

be able to purify our own mind
and develop our own good qualities.

Our goal is, through this learning,

to be able to contribute
to the welfare of the world,

to help sentient, other living beings
along the path to enlightenment,

to help them even in
some ordinary way now.

So when we change that paradigm,

when our goal in a
situation is different,

then ...

it becomes much more
difficult to have problems.

So in everything that we
experience, everything that we do,

there's always something to learn.

If we approach life with that,
that my purpose in this situation

is to learn something,

that in the end of the day will be
useful for myself and for others,

then we're never
going to have a problem

because in every situation
we can learn.

When our focus becomes on our
own training and our own practice,

our focus stops being to
make other people change,

and make other people different, so
that they stop causing our problems,

because we realize at
some level that we can't.

The transformation of the problems
starts here, with this one.

And it starts with
looking at our reactions

to the situations that we're in.

And really being able to look
honestly at our reactions,

not paint them over,

not be sweet.

But really kind of be
able to sit there, and

ok, somebody's acting this way,

why am I reacting in this?

What do I think I need from this person

that they aren't giving me.

And how, where does
contentment really come from?

When you're content, do you get angry?

When you're content, do you get jealous?

When you're content, do
you hold onto a grudge?

When you're content, are you
full of greed and craving?

When you're content,

do you hide your mistakes and
pretend you don't have them?

When you're content, do you
pretend to be somebody you're not

and impress people falsely?

It's like, when there's a feeling
of contentment in our own mind,

then kind of naturally,

we act with kindness.

And all those negative emotions

and then the behaviors that they cause,

they just get pacified automatically,

because there's no dissatisfied,
discontent feeling inside that motivates

all of those other
attitudes and behaviors.

The kind of contentment
that we're trying to develop

is not the contentment of

‘I got my way',

‘I got my needs met,

the world loves me.'

It's not that.

It's the contentment of us
feeling ok about ourselves.

It's come simply through

our own spiritual practice,

by using our own mind.

When Buddhism talks about contentment,

we should not equate
contentment with apathy.

They're two different things.

With apathy, we don't care.

And you can be apathetic and discontent.

Can't you?

And I think very often
the nihilistic position

that people go into in our society,

it's all worthless,

it's just, sign it off.

This is discontent
compounded with apathy.

Whereas, contentment is a
totally different ballgame.

Contentment is a feeling
of well being in ourselves.

So, we can have this contentment,

some kind of self confidence,

and that will lead us to
have compassion for others,

rather than criticize
them and pick them to bits,

have compassion for them.

And then, based on that compassion,

act against injustice or prejudice

or intercede when there's
a harmful situation.

So that compassion can be
just as strong of a motivator

and a much wiser one than anger.

And contentment, you know,

we can be content and we can still
want to improve things in the future.

But there's a sense of
well being in our self,

that doesn't depend on
how the world treats us.

There's a sense of
well being in the self

that comes through our
own spiritual practice.

So that there's an inner
sense of contentment

that isn't dependent
upon getting what we want,

having people like us, and
love us and appreciate us,

and tell us we're right and
intelligent and blah, blah, blah.

But, on the basis of that
inner sense of contentment,

it doesn't mean that we
eschew the rest of the world

and block it out and fall into apathy.

Because again motivated by compassion,

we can still act to remedy injustice,

remedy discrimination,

but the way we do it is not
going to be in an angry way.

We can see I've a problem and
somebody's treating me unfairly

or there's discrimination
against me or whatever.

Have that sense of inner contentment.

But then actively work
to change the situation

not because we hate the people,

the other people in it,

but because we care about them.

So you care about the
person who's oppressing you.

You care about the person
whose political ideas

you think are totally corrupt.

You care about the person who's
destroying the environment.

You care about the person
who's beating up your loved one.

This is very opposite from our
usual way of thinking, isn't it?

But our usual way of thinking
hasn't gotten us anywhere,

so we might as well try another way.

Because the thing is,

if there's this conflict situation,
we see the other person as an enemy,

and we don't care
about their well-being,

then we're likely to inflict
more harm, out of anger.

So first of all, we're
creating negative karma

because we have a negative
motivation of anger

that has the intention to harm.

Second of all, we destroy
the other person's happiness.

Because they're more miserable,

then they're going to do
more that harms us back.

So we're just escalating the conflict.

So we fight oppression or injustice
or ecological devastation or whatever,

out of care for the ‘enemy'.

Because we don't see them
as an enemy that's out there

that's inherently evil.

We see them as another living being
just like us who wants to be happy.

I'm just kind of
explaining this using words.

But to actually understand
it, we need to sit.

This isn't something
that we're going to get

through just
intellectual understanding.

We have to really sit in
our meditation practice

and think about this.

And then we need to
examine our own mind,

be able to identify in our own mind

when we are content and
when we are discontent.

Be able to identify in our mind

when we are really accepting things

and when we've gone
into nihilism or apathy.

We need to look in our
own mind and identify:

what does anger feel like?

What does genuine compassion feel like?

What is a positive aspiration?
What does that feel like?

So really understanding these things

all depends on our own
meditation practice.

It's not dependent on an
intellectual understanding. Ok ?

Abandon evil doing
Practice virtue well
Master your own mind
This is Buddha’s teaching
- Geshe Tonpa

STUDENTS

What does TRANSFORMING PROBLEMS
mean to you?

In order to be able
to work with a problem

or a difficult situation

in the sense that it doesn't upset
you or make you angry or like that,

it's not so much that one part of
it is having an antidote at the time

or using a technique at the time.

But I think far more
important than that is

that one has a fairly steady
continual solid practice.

Meditating on Lam Rim everyday

and not just one part of it, but

gradually going through
the whole Lam Rim.

Not choosing one part that you like and
not doing one part that you don't like.

But consistently and continually
meditating on the Lam Rim.

So, that really is the
basis because if your mind is

becoming more calm, more steady

on a daily basis,

by meditating on the Lam Rim,

then when situations arise,
there's less chance of

being overwhelmed by negative emotions
such as anger or attachment or desire.

You're much better or well
prepared for the situation.

And so therefore in one sense

it's almost more natural
because you see the situation,

there's better chance or more chance
of seeing the situation for what it is

as opposed to what you're
projecting or karmicly projecting,

onto the situation.

Somebody who's been familiarizing
themselves with impermanence,

day after day after day,

doing it properly, effectively,

then somebody dies or

there's separation or

in terms of time, if the time
changes or a situation changes,

it's much more easy to accept.

It's much more easy to accept this

because you're mind is already
prepared and closer to reality, right?

If you're making your mind more familiar

with this reality that others exist.

They have suffering;

they don't want suffering,
same as yourself, right?

It's very sort of straightforward
thing, it's reality you know,

others exist, they're important,

they have problems, they suffer,

just like oneself, right?

So if you're day after day
familiarizing yourself with that,

and then you come up with a situation,

a problem between yourself and some
other person or some other people,

then with your attitude there is

already less thinking of oneself and
more thinking of the other person.

So, almost already you
don't have a problem,

because you will find in most
situations problems arise,

or a problem exists
or it appears to exist,

is because of the ego's
self-cherishing mind,

attachment to one's own happiness.

So that's really the basis
of creating the problem.

It doesn't mean that outside
there isn't a difficult situation.

But inside, there's not
a problem in the sense of

it appearing like a problem so
that you're becoming emotional,

you're becoming angry,

you're becoming jealous,

you're becoming in some way
upset, your mind is disturbed.

So therefore, that difficult
situation is made very complicated

because of the mind
being disturbed inside.

Whereas, if there is
a difficult situation,

you have every chance at resolving it

if you really are concerned
about that other person,

or what that other person is
going through or experiencing.

If you really want to
help that other person,

if you really want to
help that other person,

there's not a problem.

The situation still can be difficult,
but there's not really a problem.

I mean the mind, your mind,
is not disturbed or unhappy.

Some beings go from dark to dark
Some from dark to light
And some from light to dark
May you go from light to light
-Arya Nagarjuna

Please dedicate the positive energy generated
by listening to these teachings,

so you can quickly attain Enlightenment
for the benefit of all beings.