Creating Merit and Generating Wisdom
Student – The Bhutanese people commemorate Lhabab Duchen every year. I know very little about it, and so I’d be grateful if Lama could offer some background information regarding the event and also how best to honour it.
Master – Queen Maya died seven days after the birth of her son, the future Buddha Sakyamuni, and was immediately reborn in the Tushita Heaven.
After forty-one years in this heaven, she travelled to the Trayastrimsa Heaven, where the Buddha appeared to offer three months of teachings to her and the gods who resided there so that they could realize the truth and gain liberation from samsara.
As the teachings drew to a close, the Buddha was exhorted by his disciple Maudgalyayana to return to Earth, which he did a week later via a special triple ladder prepared by Vishwakarma. This occasion is commemorated as Lhabab Duchen and is recognized as one of the four major events in the Buddha’s life.
As on the other three major days, the effects of positive and negative action are multiplied ten million times on Lhabab Duchen, and so on this day it is customary for Buddhists to visit lhakhangs, chortens, and sacred sites to undertake meritorious deeds for the benefit of sentient beings.
To awaken to the truth, however, requires not only merit, but also wisdom, and so in addition to generating merit, it would be of the greatest benefit to also cultivate wisdom, which can be done by contemplating Dharma teachings, such as the Four Seals of Buddhism:
- All compounded things are impermanent
- All emotions are pain
- All phenomena are empty
- Nirvana is beyond concepts
For the sake of convenience, we can perhaps consider these teachings in the context of making an offering of, say, a flower, and so combine the making of merit with the generation of wisdom.
With regard to ‘all compounded things are impermanent’, we can mentally trace the blossom’s journey. Earlier it was a seed, which grew through its interaction with moisture from rain, warmth from sunlight, and nutrition from soil.
From this observation, we understand that a flower is not a permanent, inherently existing object, but appears due to a number of components and factors joining together. We will also note that once the force that binds these factors dissipates, the flower will fade and turn to dust.
This journey of becoming, remaining, and disappearing is not only true for a flower but for everything that can be seen, touched, smelled, heard, tasted, or even thought.
Put in another way, anything that has come into existence due to the joining together of parts, whether it be a rainbow, a human body, or an entire universe, will sooner or later fall apart. Contemplating this insight not only gives rise to wisdom, but also prepares us for the inevitability of change and finally death.
‘All emotions are pain’ is a little more difficult to grasp, but once again we can use the flower-offering to analyse this Seal.
When we fail to recognize that, like a flower, we are also composed of parts and exist interdependently with the world around us, we develop a mistaken view that there is an independent self and a separate other.
This causes us to become a human version of a fortress, seeing the world outside as either something to fear or as a source of profit and gain.
Seeking profit is not negative in itself. However, it can easily lead to greed and generate a selfish attitude, which not only results in pain for others, but also creates stress and anxiety for the person pursuing materialist goals.
At least love and kindness are positive aspirations, and so how can they cause pain?
Of course, it is true that compassionate acts are not only admired in society, but also actively encouraged in Buddhism. But, when they are undertaken with a dualist mind – a fortress mindset – they are always tainted with some kind of hope and desire, and this is a source of pain.
Why is this so? Well, hopes have a flip side – fear, a fear that the desire cannot be fulfilled. This creates anxiety or disappointment, which are forms of pain.
Now, a hope may not be for something gross, like an award, financial gain, or fame, but there will be a desire for some kind of acknowledgement, no matter how subtle, or at least a wish for a sense of satisfaction, and, as stated above, this automatically triggers fear. Like mountains and valleys, hope and fear come as a pair and cannot be separated.
Can we avoid this scenario? Yes, but not when we act with the fortress mentality of ‘us and them’. Only pure, non-dualist compassion (mahakaruna) that is the result of realizing the truth is free of hope and fear.
While we cannot achieve this state instantly, we can at least work towards it by considering whether we are hoping for something in return whenever we conduct an act of benevolence.
‘All phenomena are empty’ was partly discussed in the first contemplation. By retracing the history of the flower, we discovered that it grew from a seed through its interaction with the environment.
Therefore, if we examine a flower in depth, we will not find anything that exists independently as a bloom, but instead discover a temporary object that is composed of a number of components, such as rain, sunlight, and soil. In this respect, the flower is not a truly existing object.
Now, if we extend our observation further, we will realize that it is not only a flower that is empty of a permanent identity, but that no phenomenon possesses a truly existent nature.
When we grasp this concept, we realize that nothing we see, hear, taste, or touch can satisfy our desires any more than water in a mirage, which appears due to the joining together of moisture, heat, and light, can quench a man’s thirst.
This is the dawn of wisdom, and prevents us from getting entangled in the pursuit of material gains, falsely believing that they are real and can bring us lasting pleasure.
If our contemplations have enabled us to gain some understanding of the first three insights, then we will realize that everything is empty of a truly existent essence and no more real than an illusion or a dream.
This truth not only applies to phenomenon, but also to our strongly held moral beliefs of right and wrong and good and bad.
The final insight totally severs all attachments to our self-created illusions. Consequently, nirvana, or enlightenment, is understood to be beyond concepts.
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche describes enlightenment in this way:
When you don’t have obsession,
When you don’t have hang-ups,
When you don’t have inhibition,
When you are not afraid you will be breaking certain rules.
When you are not afraid you will not fulfil somebody’s expectations.
What more enlightenment do you want? That’s it.
Finally, the practice of making offerings should be rooted in a strong desire to be instrumental in leading all sentient beings to awaken to the truth. This aspiration is then sealed by concluding a meritorious deed with a dedication of merit: “May all beings realize the Truth and be free of suffering and its causes.”
This is a rounded and complete way to commemorate Lhabab Duchen.
