Lama Karma Chötso gave a teaching at our center about the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva several months ago, which I feel was an answer to my "seventh step prayer" to be rid of my character defects. I think it would be profitable to go through this text, composed by the monk Trogme, on this blog. It starts out with a few introductory stanzas:
Namo Lokeshvaraya.
You see that all phenomena neither come nor go.
Still you strive soley for the benefit of beings.
Supreme guru and protector Chenrezi,
To you I continually bow with body, speech and mind.
The perfect Buddhas sources of benefit and happiness
arise from accomplishing the genuine dharma.
Since that in turn depends on knowning how to practice
The practices of a bodhisattva will be explained.
Chenrezi is another name for the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, whose inspiration Trogme cultivates in composing these verses. A natural question concerns why we should bow to Chenrezi. In Buddhism, when we bow to a teacher, we are not worshipping the teacher as a God, but rather are showing our respect for their teaching. Thich Nhat Hanh has said that even though we respect teachers, we have a responsibility to think about what they say, and ask them questions if there is something we don't understand or don't believe. It is important when doing this that we are questioning the teaching and not the teacher, he says.
(1)
Now that you have obtained the precious human body
The great boat so difficult to find,
In order to free yourself and others from the ocean of samsara,
To listen, reflect and meditate with diligence day and night
Is the practice of a bodhisattva.
(2)
Passion towards friends churns like water.
Hatred towards enemies burns like fire.
Through dark ignorance one forgets what to adopt and what to reject.
To abandon one's homeland is the practice of a bodhisattva.
As we see in the first stanza, our goal as bodhisattvas is to liberate all sentient beings, including ourselves, from "samsara," which is the world of our habit patterns, as the Khenpos say. It is the world of karma; the world of the unawakened. In the second stanza, we realize that strong attachment, positive or negative, to people can disrupt our spiritual life, and that leaving one's homeland can actually be a good thing, as it allows you to cultivate equanimity more easily.
35 more to come!
4 comments:
That second stanza confuses me. I will question it. In the second stanza, every value of the first stanza is turned on its head, therefore I wonder if it is really meant that it is good for a bodhivista (sp) to leave his/her homeland. Rather it seems to be drawing our attention to everything that is not desirable in a true bodhivista. Perhaps they are negative human qualites that persist that persist even in those who have attained enlightenment -- perhaps this is a slightly 'zen koan'-ish moment of paradox.
Just some rather jumbled thoughts.
La Misma, I was trying to brush that under the rug! :)
I have to admit, the phrasing does sound wrong on its surface. I'd probably want to rewrite it to say "To abandon one's homeland, if necessary, is the practice of a bodhisattva." Also, a commentary I've read indicates that "abandoning one's homeland" doesn't necessarily mean to abandon it literally and physically. Instead it can mean to relinquish one's attachment to it by seeing that it is not truly real. Perhaps it means that we should be careful not to identify ourselves with places too much. If the Israelis and Palestinians weren't so caught up in the identifciation of themselves as Israelis and Palestinians, there'd be a lot more peace in the world. In fact, as I think about it, and I'm really glad you prodded me to think more deeply, La Misma, rivalries between regions, including ethnic violence, are a huge source of misery in the world today. It makes sense that this issue would be addressed already in Practice 2.
I'm embarrassed I misspelled bodhisattva so atrociously.
I definitely agree that strong nationalism or regionalism is usually negative -- exclusivist and limiting of mind.
Emily Dickinson might have disagreed. Or Thoreau.
Well, it was an exuberant misspelling. My understanding is that bodhisattva means: `buddha being.' Bodhi--Buddha, Sattva--Being. Another Sanskrit word using sattva is "Mahasattva," which means `great being.' The bodhi tree is also the tree under which the Buddha realized enlightenment. I think it's an actual species of tree.
Post a Comment