37 Practices of a Bodhisattva Part 5

(15)
If in the middle of a crowd of people
Someone reveals your hidden faults and abuses you for them,
To see him as a spiritual friend and to bow with respect
Is the practice of a bodhisattva

(16)
If someone whom you cherish as dearly as your own child
Takes you for an enemy,
Then, like a mother whose child is sick, to love that person even more
Is the practice of a bodhisattva.

(17)
Even when someonw who is your equal or inferior
Driven by spite seeks to defame you
To place him on the crown of your head with the same respect you would accord your guru,
Is the practice of a bodhisattva.

(18)
Though gripped by poverty and always scorned,
Though stricken by disease and tormented by evil spirits,
To take upon yourself the negativity and suffering of every living being and never to get discouraged
Is the practice of a bodhisattva.


Practice 15 is fairly self-explanatory, and indeed you can make use of this person's maliciously revealing your faults by seizing the oppurtunity to examine those faults, and make plans to get rid of them. This is reality giving you a helping hand in being awake to your hidden self. It makes sense to honestly see this person as a spiritual friend, since they can help you to learn about yourself when you may not ever have done it alone. This was not their intention, but it is good to transform the evil intentions of others into something positive.

Practice 16 is very deep and quite meaningful to me.

Practice 17 is not something I thought I ever needed. I've never really encountered someone spitefully trying to sabotage my good name, but now that I think about it, I have encountered subtle instances of this. But it's good not to get an inflated image of oneself, so even if people have impure motives when they put you down, it's okay to utilize that as an antidote to an inflated ego.

In practice 18, I know some readers of this blog (not that there are many of you) won't like the reference to "evil spirits" since it sounds too supernatural. Well, I think it's okay to think of this as a reference to mental illness. Although Tibetan Buddhists do believe in evil spirits, the afflictions of our own mind are said to have much more of a direct effect. So the idea is, even when you're down and out, still to have such a depth of compassion for others, that you're still willing and able to take on their suffering. At the conventional level, this can correspond to helping others physically, even when you feel sick. It can also correspond to doing tong-len practice where you visualize taking on the suffering of others when you yourself are suffering.
I don't do tong-len practice regularly. I think this may be a kick in the ass for me to do it.