Lama Panchen Ötrul Rinpoche

 

Visit to Chisholme, 18 March 1987

The Panchen Ötrul Rinpoche spoke in Tibetan and communicated in English through his own translator. Here are some extracts from the talk and subsequent conversation.

On non violence

There are a number of different traditions of Buddhism, traditions which are in Japan, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand and China. Many of these traditions have been preserved in Tibet. That makes Buddhism a very vast subject but if one looks into what is the very root or essence of all these different kinds of Buddhist traditions, one will find that the very essence, the main thing, is non violence. If non violence is the main aspect, the root of this practice, then it has to be put into practice, and so the way one puts non violence into practice is that one first has to look and see what is the cause or origin of violence.

When anger originates, it is due to self attachment. This can mean attachment to thinking of oneself, so that oneself can be happy, comfortable, oneself is right; or thinking with a very narrow outlook, just thinking of one's own family, so one is thinking of 'us', that we are going to be alright, or thinking of us as a group, one's own group; or bigger than that is thinking of one's own country or nation, one has attachment to that. In each case one will be thinking of the others who don't belong to that group. And so one becomes biased or sectarian, or whatever one calls it, and one has anger for the ones that one sees as other, as not belonging to oneself or one's own group.

Now every being, everything that exists is thinking that they want to be happy and they all want to avoid unhappiness. In fact, in terms of the wish for happiness every single being is the same, they all want to be happy. The Buddha said it is a very bad condition, a very bad state of affairs to be thinking of just one's own happiness; to think, 'Well as long as I'm happy then everything is alright and it doesn't matter about anyone else.'

To help other beings and to eliminate suffering.

Just one individual, oneself as an individual, is not that important. But if one is able to have great power of mind, then one can develop an attitude of thinking that all of these other beings want to have happiness but they don't have it, they're in suffering. And so one has to somehow eliminate or free these people from their suffering. If one thinks in that way then one sees oneself as just one being and so ceases to be very important in relation to all the other people one is thinking of. If one cannot have that very broad based outlook and doesn't think one would be able to help beings on that scale, then what one does instead is just to avoid harming any other being.

So somebody who is just thinking about their own benefit, trying to strive for their own happiness, if this kind of person is able to become more open to other beings, just this itself would probably remove suffering, because a person just thinking of themselves is going through a lot of difficulty and hardship. They are thinking 'Now how am I going to get out of this trouble or suffering I'm in? How am I going to get the happiness I want?' And that puts them in a very difficult situation. Whereas if their mind becomes much more open, wider, thinking of other beings, then, as they are ceasing to think so intensely about themselves, then, just naturally, the Panchen Lama says he thinks that a lot of suffering and difficulties will just disappear.

Within the Buddhist teachings there is a great deal said about wanting to help others and having this wish to benefit others. One comes across this again and again. This is the basic viewpoint that one wants to put into practice. One finds that this is the same anywhere, in Christianity or Buddhism, that the actual activity and the putting into practice of the teachings is to help others. The Panchen Lama hasn't really studied other world religions, but from what he has known from the other religions he has experienced, although different methods are used in these different traditions, the actual result or fruit of the practice of religion is the same, that is to help other beings and to eliminate suffering.

In these times you have advances in science. From science many things have been done to help people and all kinds of good conditions have been created for human beings. Even though there is a lot of help from science, it can only help just so much. There is still suffering. You have war occurring and fighting between people in one country – like in Tibet where the Chinese have invaded, so there is still a lot of suffering that occurs. So the advance purely on a material level in the external things doesn't really help to eliminate these sufferings.

What really can remove this suffering and bring peace to the world is to stop seeing things in a kind of divisive way. In particular, if all of the different religions of the world would be able to come together in a non sectarian way this is something that would be very beneficial for the world, something that surely the Dalai Lama has said many, many times before. If people can apply themselves putting effort into doing that, the Panchen Lama thinks that would be really helpful for happiness and peace.

On Compassion

Compassion is something which is very central to Buddhism As said before, the root of Buddhism is non violence and the way to develop this non violence is to develop compassion. Compassion is explained in Buddhism like this. If someone who isn't yourself, a being who isn't yourself has encountered a difficulty or suffering and if one is able to help them, then one frees that being from its suffering. Even if one can't one has the wish 'Oh if only I could free this being from that suffering. I really want to free that being from suffering.' That is compassion. It's quite a small scale of compassion. Wider than that is relating to more and more beings and not just to the beings that one encounters or initially sees, so that eventually you can develop a compassion where one feels one couldn't ignore or reject any single being in existence, as though one has compassion for them all. That's the way compassion is explained and cultivated.

Like this it becomes a universal, limitless compassion. In Buddhism it explains that there's not just this world but there are countless other worlds, so compassion embraces all beings that can possibly exist. In this compassion one is thinking that one wants all of these others to be in a better state than oneself; one is prizing them or cherishing them more than one does oneself. And so one can have the force of mind or the strength of mind to be able to apply oneself to eliminating the suffering of any other being that one sees, or all beings. One can start with one being and then increase that to a few more beings and then more beings and more beings. Because people are very different, their capacities, their strength of mind, the breadth of their outlook is different, so not everybody can just start immediately having compassion for all beings that exist.

The Panchen Lama says there is a story spoken about during the lifetime of the Buddha. There was a very rich man in India, very wealthy, but he wasn't even able to give anybody any food. When people came to him and asked for a cup of water, he wouldn't even be able to give that away, and so he asked the Buddha, 'What can I do? This is very difficult for me. I just can't give anything to anybody.' The Buddha said 'It doesn't matter. What you do, you start off with your right hand, you take some water in your right hand and give it to your left hand.'

On anger

A Buddhist myth says that when anger arises in oneself then one needs a remedy to neutralise that anger. The remedy practised in Buddhism is love. If you're feeling very angry then you see a person as being horrible and bad. Even if it's a good person, if you're feeling very angry then you're not going to see him as a good person but as a bad person. So in Buddhism there's a practice of developing love as a remedy to anger. However if you have a very intense anger that arises in you and you can't overcome that anger by, as soon as this great anger arises, meditating on love– it's not that easy, it's not like just putting out a fire with a bucket of water – so Buddhism has a lot of teaching on meditation. This will then overcome anger because through meditation one can maintain one's mind in its natural state. That is, if one can keep the mind in its natural state then this anger will be overcome, it will be overpowered.

On clarity of mind

In Buddhism the nature of the mind is clarity, and the aversion and attachments that arise in the mind, these are like stains in the mind. The nature of the mind is this clarity – it is like you have clothing which is quite clean and pure, but it can become stained and dirty, and then if you wash the clothing it becomes completely free of that stain, it becomes pure again. In that way the mind has its nature of clarity but it is stained by aversion, attachment, and so as to remove that stain, wash it clean, like if pure gold is mixed with something else and you take this to a goldsmith, he will work on it and purify it and remove the impurity within the gold and you end up with pure gold. So in a way one does this practice to remove the impurities in the mind so it has this natural state of clarity. This is like the very basic root means the Buddha taught us, by doing this this, this will determine whether a person is able to develop and improve or whether a person gets worse. It all depends on what they do with this practice of purifying the mind.

On achieving Buddhahood

Every being has the potential of achieving Buddhahood within themselves and their mind and so there are many Buddhas and many, many have already achieved Buddhahood, there are many Buddhas already in existence. Within Buddhism it is said in this world there have already appeared four Buddhas and another Buddha is going to appear again in the future and this is the Buddha Maitreya. As soon as the Buddha Maitreya appears he will gather beings around him and teach them the means to develop love and compassion and cause them to progress on the spiritual path. This is something considered very important in Tibet; this yearly tradition of going to see a sculpture in the image of Buddha is like a request for him to come. Also for auspicious reasons, it would be auspicious for the future for his coming. This is a tradition or custom that has developed in Tibet. Buddha Maitreya is one specific Buddha, but is like all Buddhas, who are essentially the same. All Buddhahood is identical. There aren't really different kinds of Buddhas or Buddhahood.

On the difference between reality and illusion

Maybe what is meant by reality is the true nature of things, the actual nature of things as they really are beyond complication. About the true nature of things, in Buddhism there are many different traditions of explaining it. To take one – you have an individual being and in that individual being you have anger coming up and desire and so on. So what is the real root source of this anger and attachment? It's the 'I' . This 'I' is something one doesn't even consider what it is or reflect on it, one just immediately thinks 'I've been hurt. 'I' want this or 'I'm happy, 'I'm unhappy. So the 'I' is never investigated to see what this 'I' actually is. So if one looks at it – it's not like something that is fabricated or made – it just appears immediately, spontaneously, with a lot of force that comes with the 'I'. This 'I' comes very powerfully and immediately but if you try to analyse it and locate where it is you can't find it anywhere, though you can look right from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head, you won't find this 'I' anywhere. It's like with a table. This table here, one assumes immediately without thinking very deeply about it that it's a table. If you look to see where the table is you take all these parts apart to see what it is, all you find is that there's no such thing as a table. It's the same for this 'I' which is very strong and very powerful, this root of all these things which come up – that when one investigates to see what this 'I' is, one can't find it anywhere, you can't locate it.

So without analysing it one thinks there is this 'I' or self and then from that there comes just wanting to benefit oneself and harm others and so on. It's the same for oneself or for all phenomena, for all things. Examine them, all these different things, their independence from one another. When one analyses all these different parts, one can't actually find any of these actual things, the 'I' or whatever. So it's through thinking that all these things, the self , the 'I' just are naturally, from that there comes all the difficulties and unhappiness. Without examining it one is clinging to this thought and feeling of the 'I' because it is something which just naturally arises up, this attachment and clinging to it. It's something that exists through not being analysed. If one can analyse and examine it, then one sees through it that there's nothing actually there.

The Panchen Lama says there are so many things to talk about in Buddhism and that in talking one talks about whatever comes up in one's mind. So if there's anything that was said that's useful, then one can take that and use it in one's lectures or whatever. And if there's anything that was not necessary then you can forget it. One can take the meaning out of the words and redo it in a much better way. This often happens in Buddhism when someone explains something, if he doesn't explain it that well then the people listening, if they understand it, then they can improve on what's been told – so you can all do that!

There's a story that in the time of Buddha the monks would go out begging in a line, the younger monks first, to get food and stuff. The one in front would give dharma teaching to the patron or sponsor and maybe if he couldn't really explain Buddhism then the one behind would do it, and so on. You'd go down the line until you'd find somebody who could explain something. One day there was somebody in this position of having to explain something and he really didn't know anything so he said to himself 'What am I going to do, because it is the custom and I have to explain something about the dharma, but I can't?' And so he said to the one who was going to listen to his talk, 'This is a big problem for me. It is very difficult because I really don't know anything.' The one who was listening said 'I see. So not knowing anything, this state of ignorance, is the source of all difficulties and suffering. This is a very good talk he gave to me.' So maybe the same thing will happen to you!

Panchen Ötrul Rinpoche
The Venerable Panchen Ötrul Rinpoche was born into a nomadic family in Kham, Tibet, around the year 1939. Because of various conditions surrounding his birth it was seen that he was probably the reincarnation of a high lama. As a result of this he was eventually taken to live at the local monastery of Dolma Lhakhang where he was cared for by two lamas, who spent their life in meditation. When he was seven it was thought he was the reincarnation of a Gelupa lama and he was taken to Pashu, the main Gelupa Monastery in that area. His teacher here was a renowned Mongolian scholar. It was with this lama that Panchen Ötrul Rinpoche took his refuge vows. At this time he was given the name of Kelsang Chokyi Wangchuk, which means 'Fortunate Lord of the Dharma'. In 1951 Panchen Ötrul Rinpoche was taken to Lhasa as a possible reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. However a candidate from Amdo was selected. Panchen Ötrul Rinpoche was taken into the care of the Tibetan Government and Tashi Lumpo Monastery and was given the title of 'Panchen Ötrul' Rinpoche which means 'Panchen Candidate'.