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daily buddhist practice, dharma in daily life, non sectarian, rime, tibetan buddhism, western buddhist practice
Rime (pronounced Ree-may), in its spirit, is non-sectarian.
Rime is a movement within Tibetan Buddhism where a person studies not just one lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, but studies and learns from many. The point is to preserve many of the teachings and traditions and also to remove sectarian views. Rime is something useful for Tibetan buddhist practitioners, but I believe the spirit of rime is something useful for western buddhist practitioners as a whole.
The tradition that I follow focuses a lot of emphasis on lam rim (stages of the path to enlightenment), and they say that one of the greatness of the lamrim is that one can understand all the traditions and see that they’re not contradictory. I’ve noticed that when I listen to teachings to the other traditions (Zen, Pali tradition, etc), everything sounds like a lamrim teaching. The different traditions may seem different on the surface, but they all compliment each other very well.
Setting a Foundation
At the same time, Rime doesn’t mean practice everything without having a core. All the great Rime practitioners, they learned from the other traditions, but they kept their tradition or lineage as the centerpiece of their practice. It was as if their main tradition was the masterfile, and teachings from other places were complimentary files. My teacher once commented, that western buddhist practitioners have a tendency to want to learn about everything, which is good. However, it’s really about deepening our understanding. If we know a little about everything without having deeper understandings, we become a spiritual junk yard.
What the Dalai Lama Says
I also like the way that His Holiness the Dalai Lama, himself a great Rime practitioner, explains it. All the different buddhist traditions, they’re like staircases, leading up. One staircase might be Zen, another Theravada, another Tibetan Buddhism etc. If one can, its useful to learn about all the staircases, but eventually a time will come where a person has to pick a staircase. Otherwise, a person just spends time studying staircases and they never go up.
I’m not really sure when someone decides its time to follow a tradition and lineage, that’s a pretty personal decision. I think people should take as much time as they need to figure that out, but I think the point is that eventually they’ll have to pick if they’re serious about progressing.
The deepening of practice is found exactly there: within the practice itself. Choosing a framework for practice is what we do when we “pick a staircase.” Fortunately, we can choose the staircase that best meets our predispositions. One of my teachers, Matthew Flickstein, broadens the analogy even further to include the mystical traditions within all religions. He likens them to paths up the mountain. When your viewpoint is the base of the mountain, the paths appear to be very dissimilar. As one progresses up the mountain (by having chosen one path and sticking with it), the seemingly disparate paths begin to converge and to look more alike. From the top of the mountain, the view is the same . . .
Hey Deb
Thanks for explaining Matthew Flickstein’s analogy. I think that actually makes sense, the paths seem different until someone progresses further into them. I think in a way, his being able to explain that analogy also comments about how far he’s progressed in his own practice =D
Lee
I was most fortunate to have a Nyingma teacher who also believed in blurring the lines of traditions. Truly as Deb has stated, the view from the top of the mountain is one of a single Dharma stream and not many.
Caine
Hi Caine
I was wondering, is it a teacher I might have heard of? Just curious
Lee
Great point about becoming a Spiritual Junk Yard. Gil was touching on this in his recently featured interview on Tricycle because he is both a Vipassana and Zen teacher and practitioner. Great to know there is a practice that allows us to learn from all traditions while still focusing on one as our foundation!
Hey Angela
Ya, it wasn’t actually my point, it was my teachers. I’m as unoriginal as they get =D Is that the interview about practicing 2 traditions? I think I might have read that one
Lee
Blessings Lee, I was most fortunate to receive instructions from a Lama trained by Nyogshul Khenpo Rinpoche, whom I was also blessed to receive instruction from. He was referred to as Ko. I called him Kevin as i could not pronounce his name at first. He kept the name. He had also received instruction from Dzongsur Chokyi Lodro. He was elderly when I met him. I cherished him and still do.
Thanks, I read about him on rigpa wiki just now. I always find it amazing that people are able to connect with such established practitioners because the proability or likelihood of doing so, from a mathmatical standpoint, is probably very slim. I havn’t actually received teachings from a nyingmapa before, the closest I’ve gotten was when Patrul Rinpoche was in town. I ended up missing him because I went on a retreat, hopefully I’ll get to see him in 2 months
Lee
One of my teachers had a unique style. When I first started meditation I usually would fall asleep. I would then try to concentrate on not falling asleep and that would make me do so all the quicker. My teacher had me sit in front of a tree with a hole in it, like an old squirrel hangout, more of a natural hole but one that had been added to during the time of the tree. He had me clean out the space after making sure no animal lived there and then he would have me sit about 10 feet away and told me to become the hole in my mind, he would then to make sure I would not fall asleep place rocks around the area I was meditating, so if I did fall asleep, I would knock myself silly. It took several months, first I thought about the rocks, then the hard ground, the occasional bird poo attack that would come, it was a fairly large tree. I had to meditate in rain or storm, sunshine or overcast and finally I understood and became the hole in the tree, not a literal wood object but empty, I had found that I could be as empty as the hole. My teacher had me keep it clean until I got hold of it, afterwards some squirrels moved in after the next season and seemed rather fond of the place. The purpose of it all is to find yourself empty, clear of thoughts but when I did that, I noticed thoughts that I did not care for sprang up, why does that novice seem to be the teacher’s favorite, I have been here longer or why am I having to sweep the area, I don’t usually do that. I had to deal with each of these emotions to become the hole again. In the process I dealt with my negativity over and over, all while the teacher was teaching me humility by changing my duties.
Wow that’s an amazing story and practice period. I hope this isn’t a personal question, but when you said that your mind became empty, what exactly is that? Were those periods of tranquilty, large gaps between thoughts, or were things really just empty, as in absence of the apperance of inherent existence?
I find that inspiring, but I’m separated from my teacher by a great ocean and several states. Then again, I don’t think I’m qualified or fully prepared to take on that practice either. so, I’m not sure I could get him to give me instruction on a similar practice, even if I bugged him repeatedly =D
Lee
He also would throw an occasional rock my way if he thought I was starting to dose. at first sleepy then alert but many voices in head. finally no thoughts at all then after several months it became contentment. at the end of a cold windy winter I did not feel like I had a body. I was one with all around me. within a year he sent me out of the Monastery to share the Dhamma.
Thank you for sharing his Venerable, this is very inspring and I hope to stabilize what little Dharma I understand
Lee