ACI Course

ACI Course 1 Class 4 | The Principal Teachings of Buddhism: The Three Principal Paths, or Attitudes

July 31, 2020 By Jeann Zhuang

In this blog post, I will be sharing my thoughts; ideas, insights, opinions and findings from The Principal Teachings of Buddhism: The Three Principal Paths, or Attitudes after watching Class 4 of ACI (Asian Classics Institute) Course 1.

As part of my quest, I have to research, read and watch content, which includes Buddhist literature, in order to aid my attempt to extract, adapt and contextualise the ideas that can help us all live happy, fulfilled and successful lives, and also really, the best way to find out if we can really make a 2500-year-old tradition relevant to us today, not as a “religion” but as a secular philosophy with broad applications.

On to Class 4!

My Class Notes for Class 4: A Pledge to Compose the Work

Class 4 took a different approach; according to what Geshe Michael said in the video lesson, the traditional approach. It kind of felt more free style and you don’t really know what to expect, with anecdotes and stories from the ancient texts.

Eventually the class ended with going through the homework questions which then gave more structured information, and hence takeaways.

3 Principal Paths & Steps On The Path

The principal thing that a person should put to practice—the essence of all the high teachings of the Victors—is the three principal paths, or what we call the “Steps of the Path.”
Geshe Michael Roach

Just want to add a note here for my future investigation: seek clarity between the three principal paths and the “Steps of the Path.” Is he referring to another text, Liberation in Our Hands? Or Lam Rim in Tibetan. If he is not, then what, how and why are the three principal paths called “Steps of the Path”?

On Authentic & Accurate Teachings

Therefore we can say that the teaching we decide to practice should have three distinguishing features:

It should have been taught by the Buddha.
It should have been cleaned of any errors: sages must have brought the teaching to its authentic final form, having examined it to determine whether any wrong ideas crept into it after the Buddha taught it.
It should have brought true realizations to the hearts of master practitioners, once they have heard, considered, and meditated upon it. And then it must have passed to us through the various generations of an unbroken lineage.

If the dharma we seek to practice has these three characteristics, it is authentic.

Milarepa

Milarepa is the most famous meditator in Tibet.

He didn’t start his serious meditation until he was 50. He was 50 before he did his great retreats. So no excuses, including “I’m old.”

The point; if you don’t meditate on advice passed down from ear to ear The place; you can sit in a cave to meditate but you’re wasting time if you don’t have a good oral tradition.

Christian Studies

In Christianity, the study of Christianity, a big tradition where the farther back you go, the better the information is; learn Greek, Latin; study the bible in Greek. The idea in Christian studies is the farther back you go, the more pure the information.

Buddhist lineage; Buddhist Studies

The closer you come to Pabongka for example, the more pure it is.
If you really want to understand Buddhism, go further back to Tsongkapa or Pabongka.
You need the explanation of each generation to understand the next generation back
In this tradition, the more years it went by, the better the presentation; more and more clear

Class 4 Homework Questions & Answers

1) Name the three characteristics of an authentic teaching, one which is appropriate to make your practice successful.

It should have been taught by the Buddha – He’s omniscient, he knew you were reading the book when he wrote the book, he was reading your mind when he wrote the book, maybe he know what you need.
Read books which have been through the process of purifying by each generation; made more and more accessible each generation. Not forgetting the relationship between accessible and accurate; don’t corrupt the teachings.
There should be people who used it and got the results; there should be testimonials of people seeing emptiness directly. Evidence that it worked for people.

2) List the three requirements of a good student as found in Aryadeva’s 400 Verses.

A good student comes to a class with an open mind; doesn’t mean they accept everything, but they listen. They are unbiased. Ask questions, but they check everything.
High spiritual IQ; They say they start to cry in the class sometimes; they get goosebumps when they start talking about emptiness.
Big vision; talking about other planets. Jump across the sky; think big. A big vision in mind to help every person on this planet; and again it doesn’t mean everybody becomes a Tibetan Buddhist, it means people start using the 4 Steps, people start using these ideas that you can become successful by sharing, by giving to others. Hopefully this becomes a culture of the world, and no one knows who started it.

Post Class Thoughts—Any practical strategies and methods?

[My quest: find out what and how things really work: What it takes for us to live happy, fulfilled and successful lives. With a current focus on—but not limited to—Buddhist philosophy.

From my current focus, 2 more questions came along.

Can we extract, adapt and contextualise the ideas and concepts from Buddhist philosophy to live a happy, fulfilled and successful life?

Can we really make a 2500-year-old tradition relevant to the 21st century, not as a “religion” but as a secular philosophy with broad applications that we can use in our lives? (source)

Most importantly, I will share my thoughts; ideas, insights, opinions, findings, and experiences as a test subject, and then document how you too can apply practical strategies and methods in your daily life to live a happy, fulfilled and successful one.]

With my quest guiding me forward, let’s look at my takeaways from the fourth class of the course.

It was a little hard to follow this class given its go-with-the-flow approach. Thankfully with my quest as a compass, and the takeaways from the previous class, it helps with continuity and context.

So in Class 3, I mentioned, “This class focuses on finding a lama, which in secular context would mean finding a qualified teacher in various domains or even a qualified mentor.”

For this class, the focus then is to find accurate and reliable content, as well as being a good student to benefit from having both a qualified teacher or mentor as well as learning content that is accurate and reliable.

Let’s find out more.

1. Accurate & Reliable Content

Today we live in the knowledge economy.

There’s so much noise in the online world. Everybody is teaching, or trying to teach you something.

Authentic

Authenticity might be a hard one in the secular world. What defines authenticity? Or being authentic? Especially when creativity and innovation forces us to keep coming up with new ideas. And if we think about it, nothing’s really “brand new.” Then again, is originality synonymous with authenticity?

Or would fusion count as authentic?

In a world where the lines are getting muddled, we’re careful with imposters and rip-offs.

But how would we define authenticity?

Instead of getting bogged down by authenticity, and its subtle nuances, let’s just agree for now, in our secular world, that authentic content respects copyright. It’s simplistic, but let’s make do for now.

Which is why I propose a focus on accurate and reliable content.

Accurate

Accurate content would be it’s error-free, fact-checked, and it was thoroughly examined by the teacher, trainer, coach etc.

Again, we can’t guarantee 100% accurate content, so let’s look at why I mentioned, reliable.

Reliable

This clicks with the last point for the first homework question.

There should be people who used it and got the results; there should be testimonials of people seeing emptiness directly. Evidence that it worked for people.

We would have to do our due diligence. Remember the three tests?

1) The statement cannot be disproved by any direct perception you have or have had.
2) The statement can’t be contradicted by correct, airtight reasoning.
3) Nothing he ever said before contradicts what he said later.

Do your homework to check out not just whether your shortlisted teacher or mentor is qualified, but whether or not what you’re going to learn from them is accurate and reliable!

Just like what Geshe Michael Roach mentioned in Class 3,

… be demanding, your mental real estate is irreplaceable. You have so many hours in your life. The number of breaths you will take has a number and don’t waste it. Check the people out. Don’t go and sit for a year and find out they are not qualified.
Geshe Michael Roach

I would say, check the person or people out together with what they promise to teach you!

2. Being A Good Student

Great, now you’ve done your due diligence and all’s clear with the person and the content.

Now the onus is on you.

Honestly, out of the three requirements for a good student from the Buddhist text, perhaps the first one would fit best to our secular needs, which is

A good student comes to a class with an open mind; doesn’t mean they accept everything, but they listen. They are unbiased. Ask questions, but they check everything.

I doubt it’s asking us to be difficult or cynical. Perhaps skeptical, but in the words of American Astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, as a proper skeptic to get to the truth.

The second requirement, instead of high spiritual IQ, I would say EQ. Nothing beats being grateful and having a heart of respect for someone who’s going to impart you knowledge that might transform your life.

The last requirement, instead of the Buddhist metaphysical big vision. Think big would suffice. Think how what you’ve learnt could be used to make a difference to the world, how can you contribute?

Conclusion: What Next?

I feel more relieved down that we’ve covered finding qualified people to teach us the stuff we want to learn, as well as knowing how to screen the stuff they teach and us taking the responsibility to learn well.

Personally, I think it’s pretty cool that I was able to extract, adapt and contextualise ideas from Buddhist philosophy.

How does these ideas so far contribute to us living happy, fulfilled, and successful lives?

One thing I know right now, it’s aligned to Anders Ericsson’s research on expert performance as well as Cal Newport’s ideas on craftsman mindset. Both contribute to living happy, fulfilled and successful lives. More on this in upcoming posts!

Next on the study list, ACI Course 1 Class 5.

ACI Course 1 Class 3 | The Principal Teachings of Buddhism: The Three Principal Paths, or Attitudes

July 23, 2020 By Jeann Zhuang

Diving in!

My Class Notes for Class 3: How to Take a Lama

The video lesson basically focused on answering the homework questions, so the following notes also include substantiating context from the reading for Class 3: “The Key that Unlocks the Door to the Noble Path, folios 5b-7b. “

Lama & Proper Behavior

When we speak of “proper behavior towards your lama,” it’s necessary for the student to realize that we draw no distinction between the person who delivers him formal dharma teachings and the person who teaches him the alphabet and so on. Whatever a disciple undertakes in the service of his lama during the length of their relationship—whether it be attending to him, paying him respects, or so on, everything except those minor things like the personal daily recitations that the student does for himself—all of it counts as what we call “lama practice.”
Geshe Michael Roach

On finding a qualified teacher

… be demanding, your mental real estate is irreplaceable. You have so many hours in your life. The number of breaths you will take has a number and don’t waste it. Check the people out. Don’t go and sit for a year and find out they are not qualified.
Geshe Michael Roach

10 characteristics of a qualified lama

Controlled; self control like a well tamed horse; keeps their morality; they are ethical.
Peaceful; they have good meditation, if they are peaceful they have behavior signs such as: they don’t get upset easily, they are very good at problem solving, they are calm, do things carefully etc.
Super peaceful; seen emptiness directly or they understand emptiness correctly. It’s best they have seen it directly.
The teacher should know more than the student.
They enjoy the trouble of teaching people, they enjoy teaching people. They work hard for their students and they think it’s fun to teach people and to help their students.
Rich in scriptural knowledge; they know all the great books, they’ve memorized them.
They have seen emptiness directly for sure; super understood and super realized emptiness (reference point 3).
Master teacher; they adjust to the student’s level.
Super love; made of love. They teach for the love of their students and not for money, not to get attention, nor to get famous.
They never give up on you.

Post Class Thoughts—Any practical strategies and methods?

[My quest: find out what and how things really work: What it takes for us to live happy, fulfilled and successful lives. With a current focus on—but not limited to—Buddhist philosophy.

From my current focus, 2 more questions came along.

Can we extract, adapt and contextualise the ideas and concepts from Buddhist philosophy to live a happy, fulfilled and successful life?

Can we really make a 2500-year-old tradition relevant to the 21st century, not as a “religion” but as a secular philosophy with broad applications that we can use in our lives? (source)

With my quest guiding me forward, let’s look at my takeaways from the third class of the course.

This class focuses on finding a lama, which in secular context would mean finding a qualified teacher in various domains or even a qualified mentor.

1. Lama; teacher or mentor

If you look up “lama,” apart from the 4-legged furry creature, you’d find a myriad of definitions but mostly sum up as a spiritual teacher in Tibetan Buddhism, or a teacher who teaches the Dharma.

Again, let’s steer away from the religious tones and nuances and adapt it for the modern day, secular living context.

When we speak of “proper behavior towards your lama,” it’s necessary for the student to realize that we draw no distinction between the person who delivers him formal dharma teachings and the person who teaches him the alphabet and so on.
Geshe Michael Roach

Simplified, our school teachers, or extra-curriculum teachers, mentors at work and business, life coaches, even possibly our parents are included in “proper behavior towards your lama.”

My takeaway here is the attitude one should have when we learn from somebody—teacher, mentor, coach—who is imparting us skills that we either didn’t have before, or helping us become better at something.

Instead of a transactional and mercenary attitude, “I paid you therefore you’re obliged to teach me,” perhaps we should be grateful and apply what we learnt about the three problems of the pot here as well.

Because, sometimes or more than often, money can’t buy the best teacher. Maybe you think so, but your attitude determines how much that best teacher is willing to teach.

2. Finding a qualified teacher or mentor

You can look up to your teacher or mentor, hold him or her in reverence, be in awe, idolize, and whatsoever, but you gotta make sure he or she is qualified.

After all, like what Geshe Michael Roach mentioned in the video,

… be demanding, your mental real estate is irreplaceable. You have so many hours in your life. The number of breaths you will take has a number and don’t waste it. Check the people out. Don’t go and sit for a year and find out they are not qualified.
Geshe Michael Roach

Don’t waste your time and your mental capacity to learn less than you could.

So how do you check them out to find out if they are qualified? While the list again is for finding a qualified spiritual teacher, let’s take some creative liberties here to adapt it to finding a qualified teacher or mentor in our secular modern-day life:

Integrity: someone who does the right thing regardless of who’s looking. Can’t imagine a mentor who doesn’t practice what he or she preaches, right? Or a teacher that tries to pull the wool over your eyes.
Emotionally stable: passionate about what they teach but cool-headed. Can’t imagine a mentor who lashes out at you every other day right?
Expert: The teacher should know more than the student. Erm, duh?
Passion: They enjoy the trouble of teaching people, they enjoy teaching people. They work hard for their students and they think it’s fun to teach people and to help their students. If not, why bother?
Master teacher: they adjust to the student’s level to help you grow in way that suits you best!
Professional: They teach for the love of their students and not for money, not to get attention, nor to get famous. They get their priorities right basically.
Attitude: They never give up on you. In other words, they are driven to help you succeed!

So, instead of the 10, we streamlined it to 7 qualities that you can use as a checklist to find that qualified teacher or mentor.

Conclusion: What Next?

I actually thought this class would prove impossible to extract any ideas to adapt it into the secular context.

But who knew?

The fact that we do look for teachers and mentors to help us grow personally and professionally—I mean, look at the growing personal development industry—means we shouldn’t take finding a qualified one too lightly.

We’re not just talking about the fees we have to pay them, but the limited time we have in our lives! After all, we want not just the biggest bang out of our buck, but the greatest transformation we want without wasting too much time.

So find a qualified teacher, one who is worthwhile for you to respect and grateful to grow under his or her wings!

That said, gotta move on to ACI Course 1 Class 4 to find out more!

ACI Course 1 Class 2 | The Principal Teachings of Buddhism: The Three Principal Paths, or Attitudes

July 13, 2020 By Jeann Zhuang

Let’s go!

My Class Notes for Class 2: The Lama and the Word; Why Learn the Three Principal Paths?; An Offering of Praise

The video lesson basically focused on answering the homework questions, so the following notes also include substantiating context from the reading for Class 2: “The Key that Unlocks the Door to the Noble Path (Lam bzang sgo ‘byed) written by Pabongka Rinpoche (1878-1941), a commentary upon the Three Principal Paths (Lam-gtzo rnam-gsum) of Je Tsongkapa (1357-1419), folios 1a-5b.”

The Three Principal Paths

A fast track to Buddhahood: the teaching known as the “Steps to Buddhahood.”
The instruction on the three principal paths is the very heart and very life of this teaching.
“The three principal paths are like the main beam that supports all the rest of the roof; your mind must be filled with these three thoughts if you hope to practice any dharma at all, whether it be the open or the secret teachings of the Buddha. A mind caught up in renunciation leads you to freedom, and a mind filled with hopes of becoming a Buddha for the sake of every living being brings you the the state of omniscience. A mind imbued with correct view, finally, serves as the antidote for the cycle of life.”

Merit or Good Karma

Continuing from the above, unless one has the three main attitudes, one can do non-virtuous deeds, also called non-merits, or deeds of merit, deeds called “invariable,” which will keep us in the cycle of birth.
“But unless the three principal paths fill your thoughts, each of these profound practices can only bring you back to the cycle of birth—they can’t even begin to lead you to freedom, or to the state of knowing all.”
Merit is also known as good karma, and it does not necessarily lead to nirvana and Buddhahood if it’s not committed with good motivation.
There can be “dirty good karma,” which is karma committed with bad or selfish motivation.
Reference to the three problems of the pot again, specifically, “[Pabongka Rinpoche] spoke first about how we should avoid the problem of being like a dirty pot because a good motivation was important not only for our classroom hours, but essential too for the steps of contemplation and meditation that should follow the initial period of instruction.”
“Once you’ve managed to develop these attitudes, every single virtuous act you perform leads you, despite yourself, to freedom and the state where you know all things.”

Mahamudra or The Great Seal

Mahamudra is Sanskrit for the “great seal”

Means seeing emptiness directly
In Tantra; secret teachings, mudra is your partner, which means the commitment to practice the secret teachings, speeding up the process to attain enlightenment together.

The relationship between the three principal paths and the great seal is that one cannot touch Tantric practice without the three principal paths.

Two Principal Causes that bring about the state of Buddhahood

Method:
- Bodhisattva’s training; code word for the activities and thinking of a Bodhisattva
- Principal paths 1 & 2
Wisdom:
- Understanding emptiness
- Principal path 3

Two Bodies of a Buddha & their causes

Rupakaya: Physical part of the Buddha (There’s 2 parts inside the physical body:
1. Nirmanakaya – emanation body
2. Sambhogakaya – 112 marks; 32 major signs & 80 secondary signs, the one that stays in heaven
Dharmakaya: (Also 2 parts:
1. Jñanadharmakaya – mental state of a Buddha; the omniscience of a Buddha, the ability to see all things at all time, past, present & future
2. Svabhavakaya – the emptiness body; you have it now, it’s your “Buddha nature”; Tathagata garbha, it means you already have emptiness, you can change into Buddha)

Wisdom causes Dharmakaya (The mind of a Buddha and the emptiness of a Buddha combined; the body of all things) which is path 3; correct view; the direct perception of emptiness from the three principal paths

Merit causes Rupakaya which would be path 1; renunciation & path 2; bodhichitta.

The connection between the first and second principal path: The second principal path is just the first principal path aimed at everybody. Bodhichitta is just renunciation spread towards everybody.

Two Obstacles to Buddhahood

Mental affliction obstacles: the obstacle which is kleshas (mental afflictions)
Obstacles to omniscience: the obstacles that stop you from omniscience

Post Class Thoughts—Any practical strategies and methods?

[My quest: find out what and how things really work: What it takes for us to live happy, fulfilled and successful lives. With a current focus on—but not limited to—Buddhist philosophy.

From my current focus, 2 more questions came along.

Can we extract, adapt and contextualise the ideas and concepts from Buddhist philosophy to live a happy, fulfilled and successful life?

Can we really make a 2500-year-old tradition relevant to the 21st century, not as a “religion” but as a secular philosophy with broad applications that we can use in our lives? (source)

With my quest guiding me forward, let’s look at my takeaways from the second class of the course.

This class focuses almost entirely on becoming a Buddha, which makes it so religious that it’s challenging to consider any practical applications that’s secular.

That said, if we just stretch a little with the creative liberty, we might still be able to find one, or maybe even two.

1. Renunciation or, I’ve had enough!

Instead of going the entire mile of becoming a Buddha in the complete sense of the word ‘renunciation,’ let’s adapt it for the modern day, secular living context.

Renunciation, or dismay at the pain of the world
Asian Classics Institute

Ever felt that you’ve had enough of the “same shit, different day” saying?

I recall listening to Tony Robbins Unleash Your Power Within audiobook and he talked about how good is not enough. We need to raise our standards if we truly want to unleash our power within.

Instead of settling for mediocrity, which more than often feels worst than what the word seems to convey, we can only rise to become the best versions of ourselves if we’ve had enough, even of “good enough.”

Perhaps like Tony Robbins himself said, we need to raise our standards, commit to the high standards we set for ourselves, to become outstanding.

Thinking that we want better and deserve better isn’t going to help get achieve better. Taking action does.

The 10% shift daily, doing the small things which are easy, daily, are what compounds into a revolution.

Let’s break free from mediocrity!

2. Merit or demerit system?

Before we even consider the cycle of birth, let’s consider the cycles we are going through in this life.

The cycle of ups and downs. Again, aren’t you guys sick of it? Have you not had enough of the ups and downs?

For some reason what I took away from the idea of merit or good karma, in context of our personal and professional lives, is that if you accumulate enough of what’s needed, you will meet the tipping point.

But if you go about raising your standards one day and then sabotaging yourself the next, then you’ll always be on the see-saw getting nowhere instead of making your way up, consistently, to the peak.

And the see-saw is really a classic example of me versus you. If one goes up, the other must come down. But no one wants to be the one going down, so we’re always driven by our selfish needs—a self-centred motivation.

On the other hand, if you commit yourself to the high standards of reaching the peak, some people might laugh at you before you begin, some might give up along the way, but you might win yourself a tribe of trusted few, where you guys would depend, motivate and support one another to get to peak, together.

Conclusion: What Next?

It was tough to extract, adapt, and contextualise ideas from this class to apply in our secular lives.

I think there’s more to explore in the idea of the merit-demerit system in our lives.

For instance, focusing on growing a team and helping your team members grow is obviously creating the momentum to succeed together. Whereas if the team gets distracted and begins to focus on their individual needs, the team falls apart. Or if the team wastes time thinking of how to beat and sabotage others instead of raising their own standards of becoming outstanding is certainly a demerit system because the team could raise the standards for the competition to catch up, instead of trying to fend their position.

The former is not only consuming resources but not helping the team grow and the industry grow, and then consumers have to settle for less, which makes it a waste of time when it could have been put to better use when you focus on raising your own standards so that the industry grows and even your competition grows as a result, in the end benefiting the customers, and everyone.

That said, gotta move on to ACI Course 1 Class 3 to find out more!

ACI Course 1 Class 1 | The Principal Teachings of Buddhism: The Three Principal Paths, or Attitudes

June 26, 2020 By Jeann Zhuang

So let’s get started.

ACI Foundation Course 1: The Principal Teachings of Buddhism

ASIAN CLASSICS INSTITUTE MAKES THE FOUNDATIONAL, PROFOUND, AND TRANSFORMATIONAL TEACHINGS OF THE BUDDHA AVAILABLE TO THE WORLD IN AN ACCURATE, ACCESSIBLE AND RELEVANT WAY
Asian Classics Institute

“ACI Course 1 is a thorough study of the three great realizations (commonly known as the “three principal paths”) needed by every practitioner of Buddhism—which is why it’s the first of the 36 courses. These three are:

renunciation, or dismay at the pain of the world;
the Wish for enlightenment, or wanting to become a Buddha ourselves so that we can help every living being in the universe; and
a correct view of the world, or seeing that there is no person, and no object, which does not come the seeds in my own mind.”

Reading materials, interactive transcripts, video recordings in English, Chinese, Spanish, Russian and German for ACI Course 1 Class 1 can all be found on The Knowledge Base, which archives the teachings and events of the Asian Classics Institute.

“The Knowledge Base is about sharing a new view of the world which can make you successful in every aspect of life. Its basic tenet is that our reality is shaped by how well we take care of others.Acts of kindness towards others create seeds in the mind that determine everything about the people and the world around us, as reflected in everything from our finances, health, and partner, on up to happiness, peace of mind, and enlightenment itself.”
The Knowledge Base

Based on the class notes in PDF format I’ve downloaded, here’s what’s included:

An introduction to the lineage and overview of the 18 foundation courses
Buddhist prayers
- Offering the Mandala
- Refuge and The Wish
- Dedication of the Goodness of a Deed
- A Buddhist Grace
Course Syllabus (An overview of Course 1 and the reading for each class)
Homework for 10 classes
10 quizzes
1 final examination
Class notes taken by a student in class, comes with a disclaimer
Answer key for the homework, quizzes & examination

ACI Course 1, 10 Classes Overview

Class 1: An introduction to The Three Principal Paths

Class 2: The Lama and the Word; Why Learn the Three Principal Paths?; An Offering of Praise

Class 3: How to Take a Lama

Class 4: A Pledge to Compose the Work

Class 5: Encouragement to Study; Why You Need Renunciation; Stopping Desire for This Life

Class 6: Stopping Desire for Future Lives; How to Know When You’ve Found Renunciation

Class 7: Why You Need the Wish for Enlightenment

Class 8: How to Develop the Wish for Enlightenment; How to Know When You’ve Found the Wish for Enlightenment

Class 9: Why You Need Correct View; What is Correct View?

Class 10: How to Know When Your Analysis is Still Incomplete; How to Know When Your Analysis is Complete; A Unique Teaching of the “Implication” School; Put Into Practice What You Have Learned; The Conclusion of the Explanation; A Disciple’s Prayer; A Secret Key to the Three Principal Paths

My Class Notes for Class 1: An introduction to The Three Principal Paths

The course content is translated from a book called Lamtso Namsum, its full name is Lam Gyi Tsowo Namsum.

Real title: Three Main Paths of Buddhism, but changed to The Principal Teachings of Buddhism to make it more accessible.

Principal teachings: main teachings
3 attitudes that are the principal teachings of Buddhism
3 big ideas, not methods or routes

Lineage or tradition

Author of the book is Je Tsongkapa; this book, 14 verses, is a letter written to Nawang Drakpa, his disciple
Pabongka Rinpoche wrote the commentary to the original text; his entire commentary is in the course
Trijang Rinpoche (1901 – 1981), Pabongka’s disciple & Dalai Lama’s teacher, edited the Lam Rim, who is also Khen Rinpoche’s root teacher
Khen Rinpoche wrote the introduction to this course
Geshe Michael Roach translated Pabongka Rinpoche’s commentary and wrote this course

The text doesn’t jump right into the three principal paths but preliminaries which is tradition:

Avoid the 3 problems of the pot
- Upside down (already full of other ideas): Not open to learning
- You can’t pour water into a dirty cup: What you hear you mix it up with other stuff you’ve learnt
- Don’t be like cup with a hole in the bottom: You’re leaky, you learn something today and forget by tomorrow.

All Lam rim texts have 3 big divisions and they depend on the motivation of the people (refers to heart)

Little people: I don’t want to go to the lower birth (The Pen teaching would satisfy)
Medium people: I don’t want any kind of samsara; suffering life, I want nirvana for me
Big people: Want everyone to be enlightened; Bodhisattva

Three Principal Paths:

Renunciation: Not the classical meaning of renunciation / It means: recognize that if you don’t figure out the seed system, everyone around you will collapse and die, including you. I’m tired of seeing the suffering in the world, I want to fix it. Give up misunderstanding how the world works: wrong worldview.
Bodhichitta: Wish to become enlightened to help all the living beings
Wisdom: See emptiness directly if you want to become enlightened

Should have been called the Three Principal Attitudes

The three are mental, ways of thinking, attitudes
Not paths, not concrete, not even instructions, not Sutras

Post Class Thoughts—Any practical strategies and methods?

[My quest: find out what and how things really work: What it takes for us to live happy, fulfilled and successful lives. With a current focus on—but not limited to—Buddhist philosophy.

From my current focus, 2 more questions came along.

Can we extract, adapt and contextualise the ideas and concepts from Buddhist philosophy to live a happy, fulfilled and successful life?

Can we really make a 2500-year-old tradition relevant to the 21st century, not as a “religion” but as a secular philosophy with broad applications that we can use in our lives? (source)

With my quest guiding me forward, let’s look at my takeaways from the first class of course.

1. Three Problems of the Pot

This really reminded me of the many social media posts I have encountered about a man who went to a master, but ended up having hot tea spilling over from his cup to illustrate the idea of our cup is already full.

I started thinking how “Three Problems of the Pot” really reminded me of me, and the people around me, who are either searching for ways, or just wishing to become happy, fulfilled and successful.

Let me put it this way:

Problem 1: Upside down, already full of other ideas, not open to learning

These are the wishing folks. They want to, wish to, hope to become happy, fulfilled and successful. They appear to be “all ears” to what you have to offer them, but actually they are immensely comfortable in their discomfort. It’s ironic, but I guess most people are.
Yet another quote comes to mind, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”

Problem 2: You can’t pour water into a dirty cup: What you hear you mix it up with other stuff you’ve learnt

The over-zealous, over-enthusiastic, over-anxious person who wants instant happiness, instant fulfilment and instant success.

It’s like conducting an experiment. If you want to know whether something works, you first have to test it out “as is” first.

No one mixes Mexican tacos with Szechuan hotpot.

There’s two Chinese sayings:

画龙点睛
画蛇添足

The first means dotting the eyes to the dragon you’ve drawn, the second means to add legs to the snake you’ve just drawn.

What does it mean?

The first means the finishing touches to a masterpiece, and the second is basically adding unnecessary touches, or again another quote:

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

So one wonders why they don’t see their results of happy, fulfilled and successful lives?

A reminder that it doesn’t mean putting the engine of a jet inside a Ferrari with monster truck wheels would get us faster. Don’t start by picking and mixing, start by getting good, master the tools, achieve results, know how things work, then build your own rocket only when you’ve got what it takes.

Problem 3: Don’t be like cup with a hole in the bottom: You’re leaky, you learn something today and forget by tomorrow.

I guess to become happy, fulfilled and successful we have to actually remember what we learnt, and put into action.

Not just action as and when we remember, but put what we’ve learn into practice, disciplined, consistent, committed to become happy, fulfilled and successful.

2. Three Principal Attitudes

Really got me thinking beyond religion.

More as a human.

All the human rights, animal rights, women rights, and so on…

What are we all really fighting for, albeit in different causes?

What does it all boil down into?

Attitude 1: Renunciation

I guess it comes close to the first principal attitude, which is in Buddhism, renunciation.

But as humans, nobody wants to suffer, nobody wants pain, and nobody wants to die.

Honestly.

You may say, there are people who want to die, but that’s because they see death as a way to end their misery, their suffering, their pain.

But instead of seeking the “easy way out,” there’s something to learn here from the class. And we don’t have to be a Buddhist to have an attitude towards all the unnecessary inequalities, suffering, misery, pain, unhappiness that we, humans, animals, etc are going through.

In a way, that’s why we stand up for what we believe in, and fight for what we believe in.

But it seems here, in Buddhist philosophy, perhaps we have to figure out what is said here in the class introduction, “a correct view of the world, or seeing that there is no person, and no object, which does not come the seeds in my own mind.”

That’s Attitude 3, but let’s get to Attitude 2 first.

Attitude 2: Bodhichitta

Based on the above, of us fighting for what we believe in, like protecting animals, or against children abuse etc, lies a heart that cares.

So I’m guessing, it should come an inch closer to the Buddhist idea of Bodhichitta?

I mean, first, not all of us agree on the concept of enlightenment as Buddhism, so it’s kind of contrived to even wish to become enlightened based on the Buddhist’s definition: the Wish for enlightenment, or wanting to become a Buddha ourselves so that we can help every living being in the universe.

But at the very least, I care about my loved ones, I care about feeding those in need enough to donate food and deliver food to those facing hunger, I care about animal cruelty enough to start a movement, I care about eradicating poverty enough to donate to efforts by the United Nations, I care about children getting the education to break out of the chains of poverty enough to sponsor children to go to school, I care enough about something enough to take action.

I guess, all, if not most of us, have something that we care about that we would step up to do something to protect, contribute, or empower others.

That’s an attitude.

Attitude 3: Wisdom

Ok this one is not just a little tricky but mind boggling for most, even for Buddhists.

It says in the introduction, “a correct view of the world, or seeing that there is no person, and no object, which does not come the seeds in my own mind.”

But from what I heard in the class, wisdom, which is to see emptiness directly if you want to become enlightened.

Firstly, back to the point about becoming enlightened above.

Secondly, what does it mean to see emptiness directly? Well, this calls for another blog post or even blog series to properly research and share my thoughts.

Lastly, is there a correct view of the world? Does it mean everything comes from seeds in my own mind? What does that even mean? Does it mean there are wrong views then? What are they?

It’s not practical to answer these questions in this blog post, but definitely calls for more research and blog posts to answer them. So stay tuned.

Conclusion: What Next?

There are lessons to be learnt from Buddhism that could be related to, applied to our lives without having to become a Buddhist.

As I’ve extracted, adapted and contextualized the

Three Problems of the Pot
Two out of Three Principal Attitudes

It also kinda brought be back to what I learnt in Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Scientific Thinking and Communication MasterClass, to not be intellectually lazy and to be a proper skeptic.

Moving on to ACI Course 1 Class 2…

Thoughts?