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Shenpa
Hey everyone,
So far I have only read 1 book about Buddhism and it was basically a teaching of Shenpa. I haven't seen Shenpa anywhere else (especially on this forum) and I was wondering if anyone else had heard of it/learned about it. When I search google for Shenpa the first thing that comes up is Shambhala.org, which is a website created by Pema Chodron, which is the author of the book I was reading. So is Shenpa a common thing amongst Buddhists?
So far I have only read 1 book about Buddhism and it was basically a teaching of Shenpa. I haven't seen Shenpa anywhere else (especially on this forum) and I was wondering if anyone else had heard of it/learned about it. When I search google for Shenpa the first thing that comes up is Shambhala.org, which is a website created by Pema Chodron, which is the author of the book I was reading. So is Shenpa a common thing amongst Buddhists?
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"This is a teaching on a Tibetan word: shenpa. The usual translation of the word shenpa is attachment. If you were to look it up in a Tibetan dictionary, you would find that the definition was attachment. But the word "attachment" absolutely doesn't get at what it is. Dzigar Kongtrul said not to use that translation because it's incomplete, and it doesn't touch the magnitude of shenpa and the effect that it has on us.
If I were translating shenpa it would be very hard to find a word, but I'm going to give you a few. One word might be hooked. How we get hooked.
Another synonym for shenpa might be that sticky feeling. In terms of last night's analogy about having scabies, that itch that goes along with that and scratching it, shenpa is the itch and it's the urge to scratch. So, urge is another word. The urge to smoke that cigarette, the urge to overeat, the urge to have one more drink, or whatever it is where your addiction is.
Here is an everyday example of shenpa. Somebody says a mean word to you and then something in you tightens— that's the shenpa. Then it starts to spiral into low self-esteem, or blaming them, or anger at them, denigrating yourself. And maybe if you have strong addictions, you just go right for your addiction to cover over the bad feeling that arose when that person said that mean word to you. This is a mean word that gets you, hooks you. Another mean word may not affect you but we're talking about where it touches that sore place— that's a shenpa. Someone criticizes you—they criticize your work, they criticize your appearance, they criticize your child— and, shenpa: almost co-arising."
http://www.shambhala.org/teachers/pema/shenpa3a.php
Dhukha is another good word to understand. It's often translated as 'suffering', but it means so much more.
I also realise that when you first come to Buddhism it seems like a confusing bag of stuff, so a good place to start is with the Buddha's first sermon and find out about the Four Noble Truths. That's the Buddhist framework. It teaches about suffering, where suffering comes from, the cessation of suffering and the path that leads to the cessation of suffering.
Attachment is key to all Buddhist schools, and it's many forms are a big topic of discussion and study. There are a lot of different terms for attachment in general, and for specific forms of attachment. Shenpa, for example, also means grasping, clinging, and desire.
One teaching on attachment, by a well-loved Buddhist teacher called Manjushri, is titled "Shenpa Zhidrel," meaning "Freedom from the Four Attachments."
The teaching was:
If you are attached to this life,
you are not a true spiritual practitioner.
If you are attached to samsara (the unending cycle of life and its suffering),
you do not have renunciation (the desire to be free of the cycle of life and its suffering).
If you are attached to your own self-interest,
you have no bodhichitta (deep desire to help others).
If there is grasping,
you do not have the View (the correct view of reality).
This short teaching could be studied for months - if one studies it as a beginner, one ends up with a nice vocabulary of important Buddhist concepts right off the bat--concepts which are basic to just about any school.
Pema is an excellent interpreter, in my opinion -- she really seems to know how to translate concepts in ways that make sense to the Western mind. So often, concepts have a different shade of meaning than the simple word conveys; I think that was the point of her teachings on shenpa.
"Attachment" is probably one of the most misunderstood terms in the West, and yet is one of the most important concepts in Buddhism, so a lot of time is spent on it. Translation is a labor of love, lol!
Here's a really beautiful post by a military veteran, relating the shenpa teaching on attachment to his life: http://bit.ly/Q5qAVt
Wishing you all the best at the beginning of your journey!
So even though I still have a lot to learn, I have already gained something from my interest into Buddhism.
In other words, clinging itself is a problem, regardless of what you're clinging to.
It goes to the fundamental Buddhist concept of not doing anything to excess; holding something gently is not necessarily a problem, but clinging too tightly is unwise.
That's why "attachment" is problematic, as a translation--because, in English, "attachment" can cover everything from "holding gently" to "clinging."
This Buddhist definition of attachment, then, reveals another important Buddhist concept--that we, the individual, are the one with a great amount of responsibility (and power). It's not just whatever's "out there" (good, bad or neutral) that controls our lives, but also how we choose to handle it.