37 Practices of a Bodhisattva Part 4

(11)

All suffering comes from yearning for your own happiness.
The perfect Buddhas are born from the intention to benefit others.
Therefore to truly exchange your own happiness
For the suffering of others is the practice of a bodhisattva.

(12)

Even if someone driven by desire steals all your wealth
Or incites someone else to steal it.
To dedicate to this person your body, possessions,
And all your virtue of the three times
Is the practice of a bodhisattva.

(13)

If someone cuts off your head
Even when you have not done the slightest thing wrong,
Through the power of compassion
To take his misdeeds upon yourself
Is the practice of a bodhisattva.

(14)

Should someone slander you
Throughout a billion worlds,
With a heart full of love to proclaim his good qualities in return
Is the practice of a bodhisattva.


The eleventh practice here is related to the practice of tonglen. You visualize the negativities and suffering of others as a dark smoke emanating from their pores, which you breathe in an convert to pure white light which you return to them. The true Bodhisattva intention is to actually take on the suffering of others in this process. This is a hard one for me to accept. At a deep level, I'd rather that we are all happy, but highly realized bodhisattvas actually do take on other people's suffering. (An indication that Jesus is a bodhisattva?) According to the commentary I'm reading, the visualization of taking on other people's suffering is practice for the day you can actually do it! Geshe-la, the teacher at the retreat I'm attending, also mentioned tonglen practice today. Tonglen practice is useful, he said, because when you become sick and are suffering, you are already accustomed to the idea, and you might even desire more suffering in order to help others. From this perspective, I suppose that, although we are suffering physically and mentally from whatever disease we might have, we can transform that suffering. So tonglen is not ultimately a way of making us miserable, but of taking suffering (of others and of ourselves) and transforming it.

The twelfth practice is fairly self-explanatory and not too hard for me, personally, to accept. If someone steals from you, forgive them. Lama Karma Chötso, from whom I heard the 37 practices for the first time, related a story of a lama who was visiting Florida. He left his bike on the porch, and it was stolen. When someone pointed this out, the Lama said that it hadn't been stolen, but that he'd simply given the bike to someone he didn't know. Out of compassion it is important to let others know that you are giving away whatever was seemingly stolen. That way you can ameliorate the negative karma accumulated by the thieves.

Practice thirteen is similar but more difficult. Here we are to forgive and even help in a deep way those who intend us physical harm or even want to kill us. The Buddha gave up his life many times, but viewed it as an oppurtunity to gain merit, and eventually the merit accumulated caused him to become enlightened and attain Buddhahood. Thus when someone tries to harm us, we can view that person as a spiritual friend who is giving us the oppurtunity to gain merit. Here is a quote from the commentary:


When someone is trying to physically injure us, the practice is to meditate on patience for oneself and compassion for our enemy. Imagine a child who loves his mother very much. Suddenly, the mother goes crazy and begins to beat him because she is emotianally unbalanced. The child's affection makes it easier for him to respond patiently and compassionately to his mother, and to help her find a cure. Using this example, we can regard someone trying to harm us as our mother who has gone mad, and our attitude can be helpful.


The fourteenth practice is returning praise for slander. This is a good one for me, although I haven't really had the oppurtunity to practice it too earnestly. It is certainly best for my emotional well-being to return praise for slights. When I'm driving, especially long distance, I tend to get angry at other drivers for no reason whatsoever. This car is passing me, that car is going too slow, that one is driving funny, etc. The other drivers aren't showing me sufficient respect. I've found that an antidote to this weird hate that builds in my heart is to mentally apologize to those drivers I get angry at. I've also found that when a car races up and speeds past me, rather than being jealous, it is helpful to be happy at this accomplishment of a member of the human race. (Of course there are safety issues and so forth, but since I can't stop a person from speeding, it is better for me to cultivate sympathetic joy than useless anger.)

Well, time for me to close, for now. An interesting thing we learned about today is dream yoga, or clear light meditation. Geshe-la mentioned that one of the times in our lives that we experience our innate Buddha-nature, or clear-light mind is right before we fall asleep. (This resonated very strongly with me.) Therefore, great benefit is possible from cultivating this. To do this, basically you meditate as you fall asleep. There are many types of meditation, and he suggested meditating on emptiness as you fall asleep, but you could also meditate on a deity, such as Red Tara. I fully intend to incoporate this into my practice. All my life I've had a tendency to sleep a lot, and when I first heard about dream yoga as a possibility to sleep skillfully I was intrigued. Today was the first time I've ever heard it explained, and by a Geshe no less.

Peace, and may you have happiness and the root of happiness. May you be free from suffering and the root of suffering.