How To Define A Buddhist? - talk by Lama Phuntsho

Today I will talk on the commonly asked question of how to define ourselves as Buddhists? Depending on different schools, there are different ways of definition. Generally let me explain what is needed to be a true Buddhist. If someone were to ask you this question of how you would define yourself as a Buddhist? The answer to which His Holiness always use is, as far as you have a good heart and you do not harm anymore, you are a true form Buddhist. This is of course a very general explanation.


Normally to be a Buddhist, one must take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. This is the gateway to become a Buddhist. At the same time, after taking refuge, it is very important to remember the 4 seal all the time. Taking refuge alone is not enough. The 4 seals are the compositive phenomena of impermanence, the second is the phenomena of sufferings or miserable, the third is the phenomena of emptiness and selfless and the last is Nirvana or peace. Once you have taken the refuge and become a Buddhist, remember these 4 seals.


Whether you are practicing Theravada, Mahayana or Vajrayana, 4 seals are the foundation to be a Buddhist and taking refuge alone is not enough. Also in Theravada, one has to understand the concept of emptiness without understanding and practicing on emptiness there is no way to achieve Nirvana. That is why it is called the Wisdom Realising Emptiness and this is the one that cuts the roots of Samsara. Without achieving the Wisdom Realising Emptiness, it is not possible to cut of roots of Samsara. To overcome the cyclic existence of Samsara, one must understand and practice and realized emptiness. All negativities have it’s own antidote. Desire has it’s own antidote, hatred has it’s own antidote and so is attachment. While compassion may be the antidote to hatred patience may not be the antidote to desire or attachment. It is important to practice and realize emptiness because it is the antidote to all negativities and which is why it is called a universal antidote. Once you practice and realized emptiness all negativities can be overcome. It cuts off the root of Samsara.


To be a true Buddhist one has to take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha and always remember the 4 seals. If we talk about the contaminated phenomena of suffering, we often misunderstood how we deal with our daily thing and how we ignorantly engaged into it. Like a sword which is very sharp and long is laced with honey on top of the sharp blade. Because of our greed, craving, attachment and wanting we licked the honey on top of the sword, and because of the sweetness of the honey, we did not realise that our tonque is cutted by the sharp blade. Our attachment is so strong that we don’t feel it. It is due to our ignorance to have licked the honey on top of the sword. A lot of negativities are created like doing negative things, thinking negative thingsdue to our ignorance. The honey is our object of desire and the sword cutting is our own negative karma.


Emptiness is helping us to practice contentment and make use of our precious lives meaningfully. Like the great master, Shantideva says “Cur human body is like a ship. We have to make use of this good ship which we have right now to sail to the ocean of Samsara. We do not know if we could get this kind of good ship again. Since we have such a good and strong ship we have to make use of it to cross the ocean of Samsara to reach enlightenment. We have to make use of it, the reason behind is impermanence, because we will never know what will happen to our ship. It may breakdown, so every moment is precious moment. That is how the 4 seals is to be practiced and these are the basic understanding that we have to rely on. Be it Hinayana, Mahayana or Vajrayana, the higher it becomes only more are added on; but these are the foundation which cannot be escaped.


Question : Emptiness is so much talked about. It seems that it is such an important subject and is like an ultimatum to achieving enlightenment. My understanding of emptiness is like when no one is in the room, I would say that the room is empty. Can Lama Phuntsho enlighten me on the true meaning of emptiness.


Answer : Emptiness is in fact a very important factor of the practice. The easiest way to explain is to first understand the dependent origination. Everything exist because it exist by depending on others. Anything do not exist on it’s own is emptiness which means it is interdependent. This is a very brief and simple explaination but it is very difficult to go deeper into it.

[Note: This talk was given by Lama Phuntsho on 4 Oct 2009

The transcript has been prepared by Bro HP Lim]