bd you’re ready enough...by pema khandro rinpoche| october 27, 2018 wherever you find yourself,...
TRANSCRIPT
Bd
You’re Ready EnoughBY PEMA KHANDRO RINPOCHE| OCTOBER 27, 2018
Wherever you find yourself, says Pema Khandro, that’s the starting point ofthe bodhisattva path—all you need to do is take that first step.
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Alife by Antony Gormley, 2000. Water-dispersed aniline dye and carbon on paper. 14cm x 18.5cm.
Once upon a time, many aeons before he took birth as a prince, Shakyamuni was an ordinarybeing born into a hot hell realm, where he was forced to pull a chariot through the fires.Distressed over the struggles of his feeble companion, great compassion welled up in thefuture Buddha’s heart. This, it is said, was the first time bodhichitta dawned in his mind, andit marked the beginning of his lives-long journey toward ultimate awakening—thecompassion that arose while he was in hell.
This rather astonishing story exemplifies when and how we must generate motivation forthe benefit of others. We’re more familiar with the Buddha’s later life story: he washandsome, intelligent, wealthy, privileged, skilled in sports, and highly educated. Of course,such an ideal person, a buddha, should and could help others. But the Jataka tales of theBuddha’s past lives inform us that such an ideal life was not where he began. Indeed, it isalways the case that our highest aspirations must be launched from right in the midst of our
afflictions, wherever we happen to find ourselves in this life stream—even if it is in hell.
What gives a hell being the right to help others? Every Tibetan Buddhist practice includesthe bodhisattva vow to work for the benefit of others. However, the tradition is also full ofassertions that we cannot benefit others unless we are wise and enlightened, lest our goodintentions be misguided. So when, exactly, are we wise enough to help others? We all wantto be better versions of ourselves, but when are we “better enough” to step up and act on abodhisattva’s heroic intent?
The mind-set of samsara is that we can only be happy if we are someone other than ourpresent self. Someday, somewhere, somehow—different. Oh, the things we would do if wewere smarter, richer, thinner, if we had more knowledge or better opportunities. This is theclinging to a self that generates dukkha, or pervasive unsatisfactoriness. Dukkha oftenmanifests in negative self-images and accompanying fantasies of a better me. Buddhism, byoffering an alternate focal point, can shift our primary focus from this futile pursuit of ourideal selves. Instead of trying to be perfect, we focus on purifying our underlying motivationsso that we can wake up, show up, and act with enlightened intention—right here, right now,just as we are.
Every great Buddhist practitioner ever, in the history ofBuddhism, knew their limitations and acted for the benefit ofbeings anyway.
Being mesmerized by limited self-concepts presents the biggest obstacle to altruistic action.Every great Buddhist practitioner ever, in the history of Buddhism, knew their limitationsand acted for the benefit of beings anyway. It’s because of their lack of hesitation that we canreceive the dharma today. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche gives voice to this in his autobiography,Brilliant Moon:
Hands of wisdom and love that rescue me from the precipice of samsara and nirvana;
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Lord of the hundred families, outstanding among the buddhas;
Precious master, glorious chief of the sea of refuges;
I shall constantly serve you within the ocean of my zeal…
He follows this with sober, even severe, reflections on his limitations:
In my case, the dung heap of my defects makes Mount Meru look small, and even thoughI was able to grow a tiny sprout of the appearance of holy qualities, it could not survivebut has withered into a yellowish green and is now on the verge of drying up…whilepolluting the winds with the stench of my karma and emotions, aware of my flawswithout hiding them from myself….
If the great master Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche felt he had a “dung heap” of defects, what doesthis say about ordinary people like you and me? And how could someone who felt so awedhave spent his entire life helping others, serving buddhadharma, and so beautifullyreflecting our highest potential?
Here we see one of the marks of a good Buddhist practitioner: aware of our limitations, weare not paralyzed by honest self-reflection. Driven by motivations stronger than any limitedself-concept, we are able to transcend our perceived limitations in order to act for thegreater good. Easier said than done—after all, the voices demanding perfection are not justinside our heads. They are everywhere in our culture today. They come from outside andinside.
I, too, have fallen prey to such internal dialogues—good teacher/bad teacher, good
“Connect” by Antony Gormley, 1998.Carbon and casein on paper. 30 X 23 cm.
Buddhist/bad Buddhist. In this suffocating atmosphere of habitual self-grasping, a battlebetween our good and bad self-images wages on endlessly, draining whatever vital energy,whatever rlungta, might otherwise infuse us with the experience of being fully alive.
Underlying this inner critic, behind the veil oframpant insecurity, we find self-absorption. Ifwe aim to ground our lives in a concrete senseof “self,” before long we find ourselvesdrowning in a whirlpool of dualistic concepts. Ican’t tell you how many times I’ve heardsuccessful, prominent people tell me that theylive in fear that others will find out who they“really” are. And students, after gaining somekind of worldly success, will tell me that they’resuffering from the feeling of not deserving it,fearing that they will lose what they’ve workedso hard to gain.
In the West, we tend to dismiss this as an issueof self-worth, low self-esteem, or, morerecently, “impostor syndrome”—but that’s justthe tip of the iceberg. The real problem isbelieving in the existence of a worthy orunworthy self in the first place. Worthy/unworthy or perfect/imperfect are equally falsenarratives. From the Buddhist point of view, there is no worthy or unworthy self. Instead,something else is taking place—the pervasive presence of bodhichitta as our intrinsicgoodness, our natural propensity for compassionate action.
At first, Buddhist teachings on no-self sound destabilizing. How can we develop confidencewithout building up a strong ego? Actually, the nonself principle skillfully disarms all ourself- concepts, turning us away from the actual source of our suffering. This doesn’t have tolead to nihilism, but it could, hence Dzogchen’s emphasis on positive frameworks such asidentifying with our buddhanature or resting into presence of awareness. We are directedinstead to a deeper force within us that is more trustworthy and more powerful than mere
concepts of self.
Imbued with presence, we can show up and help our world.
To reliably locate that deeper force, we must deliberately cultivate bodhichitta: anenlightened mind-set, the wish to realize awakening in order to be of greatest benefit to allbeings. In Tibetan it is called chang chub sem, the mind of enlightenment held by an“awakened mind warrior.” This powerful idea annihilates the dualism between being anddoing. Being and doing can be united. When we act from the depths of being, the actionsthemselves arise organically from our ultimate nature. Imbued with presence, we can showup and help our world.
The life story of Yeshe Tsogyal, the female buddha of Tibet, offers an extraordinary exampleof this process. Her progress toward the highest realization is described in terms of herblossoming capacity to help others; when she transcends anger, she gains the capacity towork for others “in seven universes of the ten directions.” This capacity expands even furtherwhen she transcends grasping and eliminates the habitual tendencies of her mind stream. Inthe same way, each time we transcend a mind poison, we become available for a greaterpurpose.
We tend to think that there is a large divide between the great Buddhist masters and ourown minds. But throughout Yeshe Tsogyal’s life story, even her identity continuallyalternates between a highly realized buddha and an ordinary being experiencing theproblems of the world. In one scene, she proclaims herself Vajradhara personified, theprimordial Buddha. And yet at that same stage in her development, she also says that she isa timid woman with scant ability and serious doubts that she has what it takes to accomplishthe path.
The Dzogchen teachings Yeshe Tsogyal mastered reveal that each of us possesses this samebeginningless buddhanature. It is hidden from us by the mind-set that clings so tightly toself-concepts. How this plays out may be hard to predict. What does it mean to be a buddhaand confused in one and the same body?
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What we see in the female buddha’s life story is that the path to buddhahood is not a perfectlinear progression from a totally ignorant, karma-covered being to a fully awakened buddha.One’s identity oscillates along the way. What does not oscillate in Yeshe Tsogyal’s story,what remains constant throughout her training, maturity, and fully blossomed buddhahood,is that at all times she acts unwaveringly with the motivation to benefit others. This clarifiesany questions about how an ordinary being can navigate the ambiguity of wisdom andconfusion that characterizes our mental states. Our center of gravity and our guiding light isbodhichitta, our own altruistic motivation and enlightened intent.
“May all beings everywhere be free from suffering”—this is not just a pie-in-the-sky wishthat this will happen eventually. It is an explicit assumption of universal responsibility, adeclaration that we ourselves will actively help make such benefits possible—beginning withtaking responsibility for our own spiritual awakening. But who among us feels worthy ofhelping other beings right now? Of course Buddha could help people—he was enlightened.Of course Yeshe Tsogyal can help infinite beings—she’s gone beyond anger and grasping.But what about us? At what point in our development does the bodhisattva mandate kick in?
It’s easy to think that the bodhisattva vow is a practice for people more highly realized thanourselves. It may even seem that Buddhism has a mixed message on this point: on one hand,we’re told in no uncertain terms that we absolutely must become enlightened if we’re to havethe discriminating wisdom that allows us to effectively help others; on the other hand, wemust act now. We’ve been born into a world that is in dire need of our help.
The fact is, we’re taking some form of action all the time. Since we can’t avoid action, sincewe’re committed to right action, and since even our thoughts have consequences, we’recompelled to consider the benefits—or detriments—to others from all our actions andomissions. This basic ethic underpins all Buddhist engagement with the world.
It is tempting, in considering the bodhisattva vow, to envision a time when we will enjoybetter circumstances in our lives, when the vow will be easier to fulfill. But the extremeexamples in Buddhism gently remind us to bring altruistic intent to whatever circumstancebefalls us. Yeshe Tsogyal was kidnapped, beaten, mugged, molested, demonized, poisonedby a rival, exiled twice, and even raped. It is hard to imagine more difficult circumstances forpracticing the dharma.
When enlightened intent is relentless and unwavering, that iswhen the profound basis of the mind reveals itself to us in allits radiant glory.
What qualifies Yeshe Tsogyal to act is not her circumstances but rather her allegiance topure motivations. Through all her travails, she never stops working for the benefit of beings—including her tormentors. Paradoxically, intense hardship is transformed into anaccelerant on the path of awakening. The message of her extreme circumstances is this:when enlightened intent is relentless and unwavering, that is when the profound basis of themind reveals itself to us in all its radiant glory.
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“Untitled” by Antony Gormley, 1983.Black pigment, linseed oil and charcoal on paper. 64.3cm x 90.2cm
So what are we sleeping buddhas to do? Act with enlightened intent. Check our motives.Always act from bodhichitta. Keep the bodhisattva vow close to our heart—at all times, andin all situations. Then we can have some confidence, some peace of mind, in everything wedo. The day-to-day discipline and commitment to practice for every one of us, lamas andbeginners alike, is to do our best to help others. We enlist our lives in the service of relievingsuffering and bringing awakening into our world—even though we are sometimes good self,sometimes bad self, sometimes in the lucid reality of no-self, and at still other timesconfused and suffering with our own problems.
What does not waiver is our guiding principle: enlightened intent. Acting on enlightenedintent is a revelatory practice because it tunes us into what we really are. To abide in theheart of reality is to recognize that we are emptiness, we are lucid presence, and we are greatcompassion. In that heart is our essence, which is not other than Buddha nor different fromYeshe Tsogyal’s heart essence. We are that presence, emptiness, and compassion.
In this moment, in this circumstance, which choice will strengthen your bodhichitta? Whichchoice will express your heartfelt wish for the benefit of yourself and all others? Whichchoice will advance the joy of beings and their relief from suffering? Maybe right now itsounds a bit grandiose for us to work for the benefit of all beings. But if we aim as high asour sights allow, then the aspiration itself will be fulfilling. We will find contentment in theclarity and energy of our enlightened intention itself.
When we act on bodhichitta, we connect with our true nature—and with all of nature as well.
If we idealize buddhahood as some idealized notion of self that is forever beyond our grasp,then what exactly are we advancing toward in this life? What is there in our present situationthat we can rely upon with confidence? In Dzogchen, we learn that our true nature isbodhichitta. When we act on bodhichitta, we connect with our true nature—and with all ofnature as well. We touch the earth, ego recedes, boundaries dissolve, and buddhanaturemanifests through our activities. no more dukkha. This is mahasukkha, the great sweetnessof life.
If we become even partially aware of our buddhanature, if we are convinced that buddhamind permeates our very being, then we no longer enjoy the luxury of waiting for our perfectself to arrive before helping others. We must be willing to do our best just as we are,wherever we find ourselves on this path of awakening. Our world needs us now. Otherbeings need our best efforts. The purpose of our life is to wake up, show up, and heed thecall.
Can you hear it?
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I Vow Not to Burn OutBY MUSHIM PATRICIA IKEDA
How to Be aBodhisattva
BY THICH NHAT HANH
The Four EssentialPoints of Letting Go in
the BardoBY PEMA KHANDRO RINPOCHE
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ABOUT PEMA KHANDRO RINPOCHE
Pema Khandro Rinpoche is recognized as a tulku in the Nyingma and Kagyu lineages. She is
the founder of Ngakpa International and the MahaSiddha Center in Berkeley, California.
TOPICS: Bodhisattva, Buddhadharma - Fall '16, LR Retreat 17, Pema Khandro Rinpoche, Shantideva, Vows
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