Journey from Head to Heart: Along a Buddhist Path

By Ringu Tulku

The Heart Wisdom series aims to make the teachings of Ringu Tulku Rinpoche available to a wider audience, by bringing his oral teachings to the written page. This volume presents 37 short teachings, designed to be read individually and integrated with our practice and daily life. Together they take us on a journey through the vehicles of Buddhis

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bodhicharya Publications CIC
• Release date: Apr 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781915725097

Ringu Tulku

Ringu Tulku Rinpoche is a Tibetan Buddhist Master of the Kagyu Order. He was trained in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism under many great masters including HH the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa and HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. He took his formal education at Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Sikkim and Sampurnananda Sanskrit University, Varanasi, India. He served as Tibetan Textbook Writer and Professor of Tibetan Studies in Sikkim for 25 years.Since 1990, he has been travelling and teaching Buddhism and meditation in Europe, America, Canada, Australia and Asia. He participates in various interfaith and 'Science and Buddhism' dialogues and is the author of several books on Buddhist topics. These include Path to Buddhahood, Daring Steps, The Ri-me Philosophy of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great, Confusion Arises as Wisdom, the Lazy Lama series and the Heart Wisdom series, as well as several children's books, available in Tibetan and European languages.He founded the organisations: Bodhicharya - see www.bodhicharya.organd Rigul Trust - see www.rigultrust.org

Book preview

Journey from Head to Heart

along a Buddhist Path

Ringu Tulku Rinpoche

Compiled and edited by Mary Heneghan

First published in 2013 by

Bodhicharya Publications

Bodhicharya Publications is a Community Interest Company registered in the UK.

38 Moreland Avenue, Hereford, HR1 1BN, UK

www.bodhicharya.org Email: [e-mail]

©Bodhicharya Publications 2013

Ringu Tulku asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Please do not reproduce any part of this book without permission from the publisher.

ISBN 978-1-915725-09-7

Compiled and edited by Mary Heneghan.

Teaching sources:

Public teaching: Daring Steps towards Fearlessness. London, May 2006. Recorded by Bernie Hartley. Transcribed and edited by Mary Heneghan.

Public talk: The intelligent heart – creating happiness in our lives. Friends Meeting House, Oxford, June 2012. Recorded by Jonathan Clewley. Transcribed and edited by Mary Heneghan.

Question and answer discussion session: with White Tara group, Oxford, June 2012. Recorded by Jonathan Clewley. Transcribed and edited by Mary Heneghan.

Public teaching: Meditation. London, May 2009. Recorded by Bernie Hartley. Transcribed and edited by Mary Heneghan.

Bodhicharya Publications team for this book: Tim Barrow; Jonathan Clewley; Annie Dibble; Marita Faaberg; Mary Heneghan; Maria Hündorf-Kaiser; Marion Knight; Alison de Ledesma; Mariette van Lieshout; Pat Little; Eric Masterton; Rachel Moffitt; Jet Mort; Pat Murphy; Paul O’Connor; Minna Stenroos; Claire Trueman; David Tuffield.

Typesetting & Design by Paul O’Connor at www.judodesign.com

Cover images: © Yeshe Lhadron, Mandala Garden, Holy Isle, Scotland.

Inside back cover image: © R.D.Salga, Nepal: www.facebook.com/ExquisiteTibetanArt

Printed on recycled paper by Imprint Digital, Devon, UK.

The Heart Wisdom Series

By Ringu Tulku Rinpoche

The Ngöndro

Foundation Practices of Mahamudra

From Milk to Yoghurt

A Recipe for Living and Dying

Like Dreams and Clouds

Emptiness and Interdependence, Mahamudra and Dzogchen

Dealing with Emotions

Scattering the Clouds

Journey from Head to Heart

Along a Buddhist Path

Riding Stormy Waves

Victory over the Maras

Being Pure

The practice of Vajrasattva

Radiance of the Heart

Kindness, Compassion, Bodhicitta

Meeting Challenges

Unshaken by Life’s Ups and Downs

Days are where we live.

Editor’s Preface

The idea for this book came out of noticing how helpful Thought for the Day books were to people, and then expanding the thought out to a teaching – a teaching for each day. While there is a theme running through what is included here, each section is designed to offer a self-contained reading, concise enough that we can bring the influence into our daily lives.

Buddhist teaching is broad and deep, detailed and elaborated in many different ways. Yet there are core themes that run through all Buddhadharma. Sometimes, when we are embroiled in busy lives, it is not possible to study large volumes of teachings in depth, or even to keep reading through relatively small books. In times like this the challenge is to remember the essence of Dharma and keep it in the forefront of our minds as we go about our lives. The living Dharma is, after all, that which we apply in our lives and express as we live.

Ringu Tulku’s teachings bring out these common and fundamental threads at the core of Buddhadharma. We have drawn from several of his teachings to compile this set of short reflections. Our main source was a series of teachings Ringu Tulku gave in London in May 2006 entitled Daring Steps towards Fearlessness. Ringu Tulku taught on the three main vehicles of Buddhism, taking us through the Sravakayana to the Mahayana or Bodhisattvayana, and on to the Vajrayana ways of practising. If not mentioned otherwise, this is where the extracts included here are taken from.

Other sources include a public teaching given in London in May 2009 on Meditation and a question and answer discussion with the ‘White Tara Group’ and public talk, both given in Oxford in June 2012. The White Tara Group is a practice group that meets monthly in Oxford to listen to Ringu Tulku’s recorded teachings, discuss them and practise meditation together. During our discussions we highlight what particularly struck us from the teaching, looking at what it means to us and how it relates to our own life experiences. After listening to the Daring Steps towards Fearlessness teachings mentioned above, extracts of Ringu Tulku’s words were chosen to include here, based on what the group found particularly helpful.

White Tara herself, who the group is named for, is a female embodiment of enlightenment. She displays the qualities of perfectly realised compassion and wisdom, which mark all those who are fully awake or enlightened. And, within this, the particular blessings she brings out are long life, good health and the wisdom of clear seeing. Ringu Tulku talks about Tara more fully in teachings included here. Because of her particular qualities, White Tara is said to watch over Dharma study and practice and to encourage the conditions that uphold it, which is why we set up the Oxford group under her banner. A section on Tara is included in this book as an example of how a deity can be used in Buddhist practice.

Further information on the topics touched on in these excerpts of Ringu Tulku’s teachings can be found in some of his other books. For example, a full elucidation of the three vehicles of Buddhism is found in his comprehensive book Daring Steps, edited by Rosemarie Fuchs. The Lazy Lama series looks at key topics like Meditation, Taking Refuge, and The Four Noble Truths; in a simple and direct way. The Heart Wisdom Series takes a closer look at a range of topics. More on the philosophy of Emptiness and Interdependence is found in Like Dreams and Clouds, and a step-by-step guide to Dealing with Emotions is found in the Heart Wisdom book of that title. Talks on Death and Dying, Reincarnation and Working with a Spiritual Teacher form the Heart Wisdom book From Milk to Yoghurt; and further instruction on the Ngöndro foundational Vajrayana practices are found in The Ngöndro of the Heart Wisdom Series.

We hope you enjoy your reading and these teachings bring benefit into many days. And from there go out wider and wider to gently help all beings on their paths.

Mary Heneghan

Bodhicharya Publications

Oxford, February 2013

May all beings be happy and have the causes of happiness.

May they be free from suffering and all causes of suffering.

May they never be separate from great happiness untainted by suffering.

And may they dwell in natural great peace,

free from attachment and aversion.

Fear, Suffering and Happiness

The Buddha Taught Four Noble Truths:

There is suffering.

There is the cause of suffering.

There is the cessation of suffering

And there is the path to the cessation of suffering.

Then he said:

There is suffering; it has to be understood.

There is the cause of suffering, which has to be eliminated.

There is the cessation of suffering, which must be achieved.

There is the path to the cessation of suffering, which must be practised.

And then he said, again:

There is suffering; it has to be understood,

but there is nothing to understand.

There is the cause of suffering, which has to be eliminated,

but there is nothing to eliminate.

There is the cessation of suffering, which must be attained,

but there is nothing to attain.

There is the path to the cessation; it must be practised,

but there is nothing to practise.vi

Suffering is based on fear: Fear of pain is the same as what is usually called the ‘suffering of suffering’. Fear of change is the ‘suffering of change’. And fear of insecurity is the same as ‘all-pervasive suffering’.

What is suffering?

When we talk about suffering or happiness, I think it is good to mention the basis of what we mean by suffering and by happiness. When Buddha left his kingdom and his wife and child, it was not because he did not love his wife and child or because he did not care for them. It was because he saw that the people of the world have many problems and pains and difficulties, and he saw that people did not like this; they did not want it. They wanted to be free from these problems and difficulties.

Some of these sufferings people want to be free from are emotional sufferings. Some are more what we could call physical difficulties, like old age, illness and death. Other sufferings are getting what we do not want and not getting what we