37 Practices of a Bodhisattva Part 11

(35)
Once you become accustomed to the mental afflictions,
They are hard to cure with antidotes.
Therefore, with the remedies of mindfulness and awareness
To eliminate mental afflictions the moment they arise is the practice of a Bodhisattva.

(36)
In brief, wherever you are and whatever you do,
Always examine the state of your mind.
Cultivating mindfulness and awareness continuously,
To benefit others is the practice of a Bodhisattva.

(37)
To clear away the suffering of all infinite[ly many] beings,
With superior knowledge free of concepts of the three spheres,
To dedicate the merit accumulated through these efforts to enlightenment
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva.

Relying on what is taught in the sutras, tantras, treatises,
And the words of the genuine masters,
I have composed these thirty-seven Bodhisattva practices
To benefit those who wish to train on the Bodhisattva's path.

Because my intelligence is small and my studies few,
I cannot compose poetry to please the scholars.
Yet, since they are based on sutras and the teachings of the genuine masters,
I believe these practices of a Bodhisattva are not mistaken.

Nevertheless, since the vast conduct of a Bodhisattva is difficult to fathom
For one with an inferior intellect such as mine,
I pray to the genuine masters to consider with patience
All my mistakes, such as contradictions, incoherence and so on.

By virtue of the merit gathered here,
By the power of relative and ultimate bodhichitta,
May all sentient beings become like the protector Chenrezi,
Who dwells neither in the extreme of existence nor in that of peace.

The monk Thogme,
A proponent of scriptures and logic,
Has composed these verses
In a cave known as Ngulchu Rinchen Puk
To benefit himself and others.


Practice 35 tells us to maintain awareness of ourselves so that when mental afflictions arise, we can apply an antidote from our toolkit. Thus we can catch ourselves, for instance, when we get angry at someone. An antidote that works pretty well for me when this happens is to pray for the well-being of the person I got angry at. This way the momentary anger won't blossom into a resentment. It's remarkable how much I've changed in the past couple of years. It used to be that I was a walking pile of resentments, and that was normal for me. Nowadays, however, when I start to build one, it makes me so uncomfortable that I try to let it go as soon as possible. I'm not perfect, and I do have trouble carrying my mindfulness with me throughout the day, and I still get caught in habit patterns that I find it difficult to break. (e.g. overeating, laziness, obsessive email checking, obsessive internet surfing) Still I am improving, although I don't want that fact to become something I use as an excuse to not make progress.

Practice 36 reinforces a point that I was just making, the need to be mindful throughout the day, and not just when you're sitting and meditating.

For practice 37, I know that the dedication of merit is an important part of Buddhist practice. At the conventional level, you are reinforcing your commitment to help others, and, speaking more spiritually, you are making sure that the merit achieved by your practice isn't squandered. Ani Yeshe Palmo explained it by saying that if you don't dedicate the merit, a careless act such as stepping on a spider will use it all up, but if you dedicate for the benefit of all beings, then the merit persists. Now, how do you truly help another being. According to the Buddha, you liberate others by allowing them to see the empty nature of reality. At a deep level, all things are empty of intrinsic nature. Thus the act of dedicating is itself empty. Here's what Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche has to say:


How does a Bodhisattva dedicate merit? The Bodhisattva applies the superior knowledge of emptiness of the three spheres. This means that he or she purifies the dedication process by realizing that there is no one to dedicate merit, no merit to be dedicated, and no one to receive merit. Subject, action, object do not truly exist. This is the meaning if "...free of concepts of the three spheres," and it cannot be separated from the superior knowledge with which it is suffused, the wisdom that realizes emptiness. Without understanding that the three spheres do not truly exist, it is quite difficult to comprehend how to dedicate merit in this way.

Imagine a dream in which you are sitting at a shrine. In the exact moment of dedication, you awaken and instantly realize that no one has been dedicating merit, no merit has been dedicated, and no one has received any merit. It was all a dream. This is how to understand the practice of dedicating merit.