Lama Karma Yeshe Chodron's Articles on Lions Roar

These instructions, which appear across traditions, sound so simple that we may imagine they’re self-explanatory. Lama Karma Yeshe Chödrön invites us to look deeper. When I first arrived at Pullahari Monastery in the hills overlooking Boudhanath twenty years ago, I had completed a graduate degree in biology and left a law career in Silicon Valley, the tech bubble bursting flamboyantly behind me as I winged my way to Nepal. If there was one thing I knew how to do, it was study. I wanted to know. Not ride the coattails of those who said they knew. Not assume that I knew. Not hope, think, or believe that I knew. To know the dharma with immediacy, deep within, in the very tissues of my body. Knowledge is power, they say. I sought empowerment. Listening begins well before the ears start twitching, with an itch in the heart seeking truth, leading us to find a reliable teacher from whom we hear the words of dharma. An intensive philosophy and meditation program conceived by His Eminence the Third Jamgon Rinpoche and birthed by Kyabje Khenpo Tsultrim Gyatso Rinpoche after Rinpoche’s passing in 1992, Rigpe Dorje Institute for International Students was by then in the hands of a brilliant young scholar–lama, Drupon Khenpo Lodro Namgyal. Drupon Khenpo’s exquisite finesse in marrying theory and practice, and in encouraging principled, individual engagement with the dharma, changed my approach to Buddhist study and practice from one of objective fascination to personal exploration. This changed my life. And it all began with three deceptively familiar words: Listen. Contemplate. Meditate. Seasoned dharma students across Buddhist traditions are likely to have heard some version of this instruction. On one hand, there seems to be nothing much to it. And to an extent, that’s true. Who does not have some understanding of what each of these terms means? They are so simple—and we, so sure we understand—that it may never occur to us to question them. So we listen to teachings, or we read them. Later, we think about them. Perhaps mention them to others over the next few days or weeks. Points that touch us deeply, we may treasure and share over months and even years, even if we no longer recall the full context. At some point or other, we meditate, using any of the many Buddhist techniques. And there’s the rub. This phrasing of three everyday terms is a shorthand. Its rhythm is anything but the staccato implied by the stark sequential strokes of “Listen. Contemplate. Meditate,” each term distinct from the others. Its telegraphic quality belies a profound, intertwined practice for integrating buddhadharma. No surprise, then, that it took me some time to catch on to the point that listen meant more than listen. Ditto for contemplate and meditate. Still more for the combination of the three. The words seemed simplistic, well below my lofty aspiration to embody the dharma. But thanks to Drupon Khenpo’s meticulous delineation of the workings of “the threefold practice of listening, contemplating, and meditating” (Tib. thos bsam sgom gsum), in time, I did catch on. This “integrative dharma practice,” as I have come to call it, brought me down to earth, grounding and rooting me in the words of the Buddha, becoming my beacon for engaging the dharma in depth, living it vibrantly, and taking it into the very marrow of my bones. After decades of study, practice, text translation, oral interpreting, a three-year Vajrayana cloistered retreat, and dharma teaching, I prize this method above all for its universal accessibility and remarkable efficacy in meeting us where we are, bringing buddhadharma into our lives with authenticity and joy. In my experience with my own practice as well as in guiding others, there is nothing remotely staid to this threefold practice. Rather, it is a dynamic process, transformative and deeply personal—even intimate. Prelude The elliptical phrase listen, contemplate, meditate functions as a mnemonic, each term in the triad signaling an embedded context. Each is the tip of a dharma iceberg that rewards an expedition of discovery. Metaphors abound to convey the physicality of taking in teachings, turning them about in the mind, and absorbing them into our heart: ingesting, digesting, and absorbing food. Dipping into, immersing oneself, and drinking the water of a pristine mountain lake. Cutting, rubbing, and burning ore, like a goldsmith assaying for gold. Symbolizing the move from greeting to meeting to knowing the Buddha’s teachings, these evocative images denote a graduated process of cultivating familiarity, the core meaning of the Tibetan sgom (Skr. bhavana), usually translated as “meditation.” But with what, exactly, are we becoming familiar? Listen, contemplate, meditate. This process familiarizes us with prajna, the precise knowing intrinsic to mind. By degrees, it invokes, instills, and incorporates prajna organically, yielding an independence in the dharma that nevertheless remains grounded in reliable approaches to embodying the Buddha’s teachings. A radical orthodoxy, if you will. A distillation of Buddha’s contemplative technology, beginning as early as our initial forays into Buddhist thought, listen, contemplate, meditate is a practice that accompanies us throughout the path, reaching its full bloom in realization, the transcendence of words and meaning in an unmediated experience of the reality to which prajna orients us. How in the world does such a thing play out? Listen To “listen” means to take in the words of the teachings. Our attention is directed outwardly, greeting words as they flow to us—from a teacher in person, or a classical text, modern book, YouTube video, or what have you. This is the input stage, sometimes translated as hearing or studying. Nowadays, this phase may or may not be actively aural in character. Nonetheless, I find value in retaining listening’s sense of physicality and resonance with the oral tradition in which Buddha’s teachings are rooted. Imagining myself amongst the sangha listening to the Buddha, arhats, and bodhisattvas presenting the teachings, I am inspired to be as receptive as they were, primed and ready to take the teachings into experience. Enacting the listening element of integrative dharma practice boils down to precisely that: fostering receptivity. It begins well before the ears start twitching, with an itch in the heart seeking truth, leading us to find a reliable teacher, from whom we hear the words of dharma. The heart’s urgency yields a natural inclination toward the teaching. Leaning in to give ear, we pay attention to it, our interest powerful enough to quell distraction before it gains noticeable strength. In this atmosphere, retention of the teachings follows, which may manifest as remembering the substance with clarity or even being moved to memorize all or part of it. Thus, listening, in the context of listen, contemplate, meditate, is multidimensional in character; it is more than simply hearing. Direct engagement with the words is essential to laying a stable foundation for later stages. The practice of listening includes clarifying terminology of the teachings, particularly when specialized dharma terminology is involved. This stage ensures that we dispel any misconceptions and develop a sound understanding of the meaning as intended in the given teaching. This may include unearthing any personal connotations we have with words used in the teaching. When these are out of sync, we may incorporate additional words that also convey the meaning accurately and resonate more for us personally. The intent here is not to appropriate the linguistic heritage of dharma to match our views. Rather, the purpose is to penetrate the intended meaning with immediacy, quickening the heart. In the process of listening, we turn outward, focused on a teacher or teaching, and in doing so, we arrive at semantic understanding: an accurate, basic comprehension of the terminology. This is the first degree of prajna, known as “the precise knowing arising from listening” (Tib. thos ‘byung gi shes rab; Skr. śrutamayi prajna). Contemplate This semantic prajna next becomes the object of contemplation. At the center of this threefold dynamic of integrative dharma practice, contemplating serves as the bridge between listening and meditating. In this stage, we examine the meaning of the words we heard and understood in the listening phase, refining our understanding for engagement in the meditation to come. The physical process of eating offers a useful metaphor for understanding the process. When we ingest food, we begin to break it down in the mouth, as food mixes with enzymes in the saliva, before reaching the stomach. Similarly, the raw prajna developed during listening at first undergoes a coarse processing. Contemplation receives the semantic understanding that comes of that, refining it further still. Like the stomach digesting food softened in the mouth, contemplation is crucial to refining understanding so its nourishment is accessible and amenable to fine processing in meditation. With contemplation, the goal is to accurately comprehend the teaching. This often involves asking questions, engaging in discussion, and challenging ourselves, especially when we think we’ve “got it.” In contemplation, we apply our intellect to analyze the teachings using scripture and logical reasoning. We may use straight-up research and study of texts, zeroing in on any confusion, doubts, or hesitations. We may ask clarifying questions of teachers or engage in discussion with fellow students. Tibetan monastic college culture famously employs overtly physical debate to sharpen students’ understanding. Writing out the scriptures or teachings, as well as reading, translating, and memorizing them, are also common forms of contemplation. Contemporary students engaged in contemplation might employ notetaking, journaling, outlining, drawing, writing poetry, composing dharma songs, movement...

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