p. 202 We must start where we are and with
what we know: form, image, sound, movement. So first we use these conventional
manifestations of relative reality, and then we practice with emptiness.
[no special sequence required of these
practices] [visualization: no problem if fluid and wavy, or even not there…”The
most important thing is to feel that the buddhas are here. If you cannot
imagine al the forms and colors it doesn’t matter.”]
p. 204 …My father was trying to break this
attachment to both grasping and to perfectionism. He was trying to teach me
that what I wanted was only attainable once I let go of wanting it so much, and
to show me the benefits of letting go of grasping. I also learned that when I
could not construct the mental image, to simply practice shamata without an
object, and sometimes the image would just appear effortlessly.
p.206 By the end of the common foundation
practices, we aspired to be free from suffering but we didn’t have a clear
sense of our destination. Once we made a connection to reliable sources of
protection, our destination coms into view. We begin to discover the missing
piece in our pursuit of happiness, which had eluded us because samsaric refuges
do not last.
This connection to Buddha, Dharma, and
Sangha is not like a rigid, concrete bridge that connects one side of the river
to the other and is designed to last for a thousand years. It’s more like an
enchanted rope that slowly but inevitably draws t he two shores closer together
until they merge, until we realize that samsara is nirvana; and that the
outside buddha and the inside buddha are the same.
p. 209 The Four Immeasurables
1. May I have happiness and the causes of
happiness.
2. May someone (be specific) I love have
happiness and the causes of happiness.
3. May someone whom I feel neutral about
have happiness and the causes of happiness
4.May someone I actively dislike have
happiness and he causes of happiness.
Then free from suffering and causes of
suffering
Then May I never be parted from the sublime
joy free from suffering
Then May I rest in equanimity free from
aversion and attraction to those near and far
In each case, we start with ourselves in
order to confirm the truth of this feeling through our own experience. Then we
expand this aspiration to someone we love, then someone about whom we feel
neutral, and finally to someone that we dislike.
p. 212 The four exercises for happiness are
intended to develop a better understanding of the essential qualities we share
with all beings, and to confirm that this commonality outmatches the
differences between us.
[This exercise is used to develop
gratitude. Keep it simple and humble. If you have feelings of jealousy for
example, be grateful for this feeling that allows you to reveal your self to
yourself]
p. 217 May all beings have happiness and
the causes of happiness.
Here we let go of the four separate objects
of loving-kindness and include all sentient beings. It’s important to
understand “all” in a literal way. When you work with the boundless
aspirations, there are no exceptions—not the dog that killed you cat, not the
drunken driver who killed your son, not the dictator who ordered mass killings.
Not the torturers, child molesters, or rapists. No exceptions, no loopholes, no
picking and choosing…We hear the essence of compassionate action, which
recognizes the suffering of both oppressor and victim. To take revenge on our
enemy by becoming the enemy leaves all of us victims. Mahatma Gandhi said, “An
eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”…218 Impartiality does not
overlook, deny, or condone the negative activity of the aggressor. This would
confuse compassion with approval. It is not approval. But we wish that those
inflicting harm find freedom from their destructive patterns; we wish for them
to find happiness through helping, not harming others.
p.221 While aspiration bodhichitta is
oriented toward the end point of the path—the complete enlightenment of all
beings—application bodhichitta works with the causes and conditions to bring
about this fruition. The practical means for helping all beings discover their
true nature are the six paramitas. Paramita
means “perfection,” and includes six behaviors that transcend samsara, go
beyond samsara, and that aspiring bodhisattvas like us apply in daily life to
perfect our inherent enlightened qualities and to cross over from confusion to
clarity: [222] generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, meditation, and
wisdom. Once we encounter the paramitas, ngondro becomes relative bodhichitta
practice.
p. 224 When we speak of absolute
bodhichitta, we point to a completely awakened mind that has moved beyond all
concepts, beyond all dualities, beyond samsara and nirvana. Used in the absolute
sense, bodhichitta becomes another way of referring to Buddhahood, awakening,
enlightenment, recognizing emptiness and realizing boundless, indivisible,
sky-like reality.
p. 225 With the union of emptiness and
compassion, we are not entrapped by the relative reality of suffering, nor are
we analyzing it. We are not using our limited, conceptual intellect to figure
it out. The intelligent heart responds with compassion, while at the same time
wisdom recognizes the true emptiness of the situation. We do not have to become
entangled in the story line that people use to explain their unhappiness. We ma
be able to analyze how they create their own suffering; we may perceive the
delusions that make their confusion appear fixed [226] and immutable. We recognize
the insubstantial nature of the situation, but we still see people trapped in
destructive habits, and we respond to people’s inability to step away from
their own confusion.
Recognizing emptiness closes the gap
between self and other, and this manifests the union of emptiness and
compassion. This explains why enlightened beings are capable of boundless
activity, while the average social activist gets burned out. If we bring our conceptual,
quantifiable, ego-bound ideas to our good deeds, the work quickly becomes
overwhelming…
Yet every concept about how significant and
vital our work is, and about how we can or cannot achieve it, is constrained by
the limitations of conceptual thinking. It’s as if our aspirations hit a
wall—and that wall is made up of ideas, delusions, and preconceptions about who
we are and what we are doing…both the work and the worker become objectified
and quantified. This offers no immeasurability, and actually magnifies fatigue.
Immeasurability is made possible by
emptiness. Once we bring emptiness into the picture, the whole situation
loosens up. Experiences that once seemed real and substantial might now become
dreamlike…[we work] without getting caught in the drama and without taking our
actions and ourselves too seriously. We can work wholeheartedly for the welfare
of others, while at the same time recognizing that the entire situation arises
from the mind.
[Q: do you still suffer when enlightened? A
yes, but the tears have no roots.]
Tears without roots. Once emptiness has
been recognized, suffering cannot take hold. It does not arise from habits or
neuroses, and does not perpetuate attachment to suffering or patterns of
self-pity.
p. 227 If we lose sight of emptiness, then
the bodhisatta commitment is not only inconceivable, but also unmanageable. For
this to relly work, we must have some recognition of emptiness, even if it
requires a leap of faith…
Once we understand bodhichitta, then all
the practices become immeasurable and become an expression of the paramitas, of
going beyond samsara…
[NB A Tibetan translator tells me: ‘Merit’
should rather be translated as ‘grace’.]
[dedicating merit] This is the most
succinct way of reaffirming our intention to let go of ego-fixation and to
practice for the benefit of others. If we do not give away our merit it may
grow in our own mind like barnacles that stick to a boat, until we are pulled
down by the weight of ego-pride. By giving the merit away, we make sure that we
do not misuse our dharma practice in order to put another hat on our head.
Dedicating the merit is also a way of
“sealing” the benefits of the practice. Without this, whatever meritorious
action we perform will have a very short term effect and can be lost very
easily. This sends [228] forth our aspirations so that the benefits of our
practice will multiply for others as well as ourselves.
Dedicating the merit is one of the most
profound aspects of our practice, but it is not confined to formal practice
sessions. We can dedicate the merit after any positive experience. …It can also
come after performing…for others, or writing a poem, or taking a swim in a
mountain lake. The point is not to keep the merit or the effects of positive
experiences for ourselves, and not to allow self-satisfaction or pride to
increase our obscurations. If we hold on to the merit, we are taking one step
forward, one step back. Dedicating the merit, on and off the cushion, keeps us
going forward.
p.229 External images of the Buddha,
Dharma, and Sangha put us in touch with our true refuge, meaning our own buddha
nature. Having identified the causes and characteristics of suffering, we
expand our aspiration for liberation to include all sentient beings. With this
magnified motivation, we wish to dissolve everything that stands in the way of
recognizing our innate purity, to cleanse every bit of dirt that still obscures
the diamond….We must purify our ignorance about the fact that we are inherently
pure…we supplicate Vajrasattva, a buddha who specializes in removing
obscurations.
In my lineage, all the buddhas merge into
Vajrasattva…p. 230 When we sincerely
take these practices to heart, nothing in our life, past or present—nothing at
all, no matter how awful—cannot be purified…
p. 231 …Our strenuous efforts cannot defeat
the emotional burdens that we carry. Past events can harden into pockets of
fear and trauma, guilt and remorse, which stay stuck inside of us. It does not
help to say, “Oh, but they are ultimately, inherently empty.” Emptiness is not
an idea, but a lived experience, and these knots of tension that remain in our
mind and body block our awakening.
Like the refuge vow, Vajrasattva practice
encompasses a conventional/relative aspect and an ultimate/absolute aspect…232
Much of what Vajrayana uses what we have—even our bad karma—as an invaluable
source of transformation. Once we really comprehend that nothing in our life
needs to be discarded, or swept under the rug, or cut out like some kind of
spiritual surgery, then the path becomes quite joyful.
From the absolute view, the practitioner
has no inherent independent identity—nor does the objet of that person’s
supplications, nor does the action. Ultimately all of us and all of our
activities are emptiness. Vajrasattva is emptiness, and our suppications and
prayers are emptiness. Ultimately there is no past and no future. Understanding
the essential emptiness of form offers the best purification. However, as long
as we live in the relative world and relate to our life from the relative
perspecdtive, we benefit from the relative practice. Still, it’s important to
hold some idea, however faint, of the absolute view, because to be enlightened
we must purify our view that we are not essentially empty and pure.
During the practice session, Vajrasatta
sits directly above our head. We may begin with a dualistic sense that “I am supplicating
him”. Yet this dissolves into an absolute nondual union of Vajrasattva and
ourselves. In the practice, we imagine becoming the deity that we supplicate.
This is not a temporary union that occurs during practice. This union manifests
the true, continuous inseparability between the impure form of our relative
self with the pristine purity of our absolute self.