HH Gradual Transformation

The following questions and answers
have been extracted from “Healing Anger,
The Power of Patience from a Buddhist
Perspective” by His Holiness the Dalai
Lama, Snow Lion Publications, 1997,
pp128-9, 124-5, 119.
“Q: Is there a way to train our minds so
that we don’t always feel tremendous sadness
because of the overwhelming suffering in the
world? In other words, how can we feel
joyful in the face of so much suffering?
A: Bringing about transformation in
one’s outlook and way of thinking is not a
simple matter. It requires application of
so many different factors from different
directions. For instance, according to
Buddhist practices, we emphasize the
unification of method (or skillful means)
and wisdom. So you should not have the
notion that there is just one secret, and if
you can get that right, then everything
will be okay. One should not have that
kind of notion.
For example, in my own case, if I
compare my usual mental attitude today,
my mental attitude in this situation, to
that of twenty or thirty years ago, there is
a big difference. But these differences
came about step by step. Although I
started learning Buddhism at the age of
five or six years, at that time I had no
interest in it, although I was seen as the
highest reincarnation. Then - I think
around sixteen years old – I really began
to feel serious and really tried to start
serious practice. Then, in my twenties,
even when I was in China and there were
a lot of difficulties, still, whenever I had
the occasion, I received teaching from my
tutor. Then, unlike the previous time, I
really made an effort from within. Then –
I think around the age of thirty-four or
thirty-five – I really just started to think
about shunyata, emptiness. And as a
result of intensive meditation based on
serious effort, my understanding of the
nature of cessation became something
real. Then, I could feel some sense: “Yes,
there is something, there is a possibility.”
That really gave me great inspiration.
Still, at that time, bodhicitta was very
difficult. I admire bodhicitta, that kind of
mind is really marvelous. But the practice
was still very far away in my thirties.
Then, somehow in my forties, mainly as a
result of studying and practicing
Shantideva’s text and some other books,
eventually I came to have some
experience of bodhicitta. Still, my mind is
in bad shape. But somehow, now I have
conviction that if I had enough time,
appropriate time and an appropriate area,
I could develop bodhicitta. This has been
forty years.
So, when I meet people who claim to
have attained high realizations within a
short period of time, sometimes it makes
me laugh, although I try to hide that
feeling. But you see, deep down, mental
development takes time. If someone says,
“Oh, through hardship, through many
years, then something will change,” then
I see something is working. If someone
says, “Oh, within a short period, two
years, something big changed,” that is
unrealistic.
Q: Your Holiness, please explain the
concept of prayer in Buddhism. Who or
what are the prayers directed to, since there is
no Creator?
A: There are two types of prayer. I
think prayer is, for the most part, simply
reminders in your daily practice. So, the
verses look like prayers, but are actually
reminders of how to speak, how to deal
with other problems, other people, things
like that in daily life. For example, in my
own daily practice, prayer, if I am
leisurely, takes about four hours. Quite
long. For the most part, I think my
practice is reviewing: compassion,
forgiveness, and of course, shunyata.
Then, in my case, the major portion is the
visualisation of death and rebirth. In my
daily practice, the deity mandala, deity
yoga, and the visualisation of death,
rebirth, and intermediate state is done
eight times. So, eight times death is eight
times rebirth. I am supposed to be
preparing for my death. When actual
death comes, whether I will succeed or
not, still, I don’t know.
Then, some portion of prayer is appeal
to Buddha. Although we do not consider
Buddha as a Creator, at the same time we
consider Buddha as a higher being who
purified himself. So he has special energy,
infinite energy or power. In certain ways,