(5.59) If, mind, you are concerned
About death taking this body from you
And its being burned or buried beneath the ground,
Why do you cherish it so now?

(5.60) Why, mind, do you hold this body as “mine”
And grasp it with such affection?
It is only borrowed from others
And will soon be taken from you.

Shantideva now begins his explanation of the moral discipline on gathering virtuous Dharmas.  He begins by helping us break free of our obsessive concern with our bodies.

It first should be noted that Shantideva is not saying our bodies are unimportant.  Our human body is the vehicle through which we can engage in virtue, including our meditation practices.  Our body is incredibly precious.  The path is long and we need a long life to be able to make progress on it.  Without this body we could not serve others, give good advice, engage in prostrations or our tantric practices.  There is no doubt our body has great spiritual significance and importance.

But what it isn’t is a cause of our happiness.  It is a vehicle through which we can accomplish spiritual goals, so of course we should take good care of it, but it utterly fails with respect to the purposes we normally assign it.  The delusion of attachment, quite simply, views some external object and wrongly considers it to be a cause of our happiness.  A glass of water may look thirst quenching, but when we swallow and discover it is salt water we feel like throwing up.  The same is true for all objects of attachment.  They mistakenly appear to our mind to be objects of our happiness, but when we take refuge in them for this purpose they always fail to satisfy.  Our body is, in many ways, our most deceptive object of attachment.

Such is our concern for our bodies that we are seriously distracted from gathering virtue.  Take a moment to consider just how much of our daily energy is aimed at trying to please or take care of the body.  First, let’s look at the time we spend caring for our body, say 30 minutes a day cleaning it, 30 minutes a day dispelling the impurities it produces.  Three hours a day feeding it, an hour a day preparing its food.  Eight hours a day resting it as we sleep.  Eight hours a day working at our jobs to have the financial resources we need to clothe it, feed it, move it around and house it.  Many people try pamper it with spa treatments, make it appear more attractive than it really is with make up or painful surgeries, or create pleasant feelings in it by eating delicious foods, taking intoxicants or the endless efforts aimed at obtaining sexual pleasures.  If you look at the whole world from a macro-perspective of what everybody is doing, we are left with one conclusion alone:  we all worship the God of our body.  Shopping malls, hospitals, restaurants, cars, buildings, gyms, factories and finance are all almost exclusively aimed at meeting the needs of our bodies.

And for what?  Most of the negativity we engage in is done for the sake of attachment to our body.  We spend almost all of our money on it.  And what does it give us in return?  Aches, pains, disease and death.  Sex is enjoyable, sure, but is it worth it?  All the mental and physical effort it takes to have it, is it worth it all for a few short moments of pleasure?  The longer we stay in our body, the more it betrays us with more pain, less ability to do things until eventually the final betrayal of all, it dies.  When we need it the most, it abandons us.  The pleasures of the body are short-lived at best, but what we sacrifice to secure them (our karma, our time, our precious human life) last forever.

Sometimes it can make sense to engage in negative actions for the sake of some higher purpose, such as killing somebody to protect those he is about to kill.  But is it worth it to engage in any negativity for the sake of trying to please the slave-master of our body?  Shantideva asks what is it really about our body that warrants such attachment?  We have no answer to this question.  We will be separated from our body anyway at the time of death.  This body that we cherish is going to be burned or eaten.  This will happen.

And what makes it particularly foolish is our body is not even our own body.  It was taken from our parents, it is made of all the food and animals we have eaten.  There is nothing about it that is ours other than our selfish thought thinking it belongs to us.    We should not go to the other extreme of thinking it doesn’t matter at all – it does – but it matters for its usefulness in accomplishing spiritual goals.  Beyond that, it is a burden we carry around with us everywhere and we should long for the day when we can finally see it for what it is.  In reality, it is really like a piece of clothing we wear for a while and discard.  Our goal is to no longer ever identify again with one of these fleshy things.  Why settle for pus and blood when we can enjoy bodies of blissful vajra light?

(5.58) Contemplating again and again
That I have attained this special freedom after a very long time,
I should hold as unmoveable as Mount Meru
The intention to accomplish the real meaning of a human life.

In every aspect of human endeavor, lack of strategic focus results in failure.  In military and business circles, a distinction is made between strategy and tactics.  Strategy is the overall goal that one is trying to accomplish and the plan for how to accomplish that goal.  Tactics more narrowly focuses on how to use existing resources to accomplish short-term objectives.  It is possible to be tactically brilliant, but strategically foolish.  Basically it means we do the wrong things very well.  If we lose sight of our strategic objective, we can easily become side tracked in distractions and deplete the means with which we can accomplish our strategic objective, resulting in strategic failure.  We sacrifice the larger purpose on the altar of issues of lesser importance.  If instead, we stay single-pointedly focused on our overall objective, we protect ourselves from wasting our energies on secondary goals.

It is exactly the same with our human life.  We have complete freedom in life to choose the goals towards which we work.  For simplicity sake, we can divide these goals into two categories:  worldly and spiritual.  Worldly goals are those aimed at securing happiness and freedom in this life.  Spiritual goals are those aimed at securing happiness and freedom in our countless future lives.  Before we find the Dharma, virtually all of our goals are worldly in nature.  The central purpose of the first nineteen meditations of the Lamrim is to change our goals to become spiritual in nature, first wishing to close the door on the lower realms, then to escape completely from samsara and finally to lead all beings to full enlightenment.  It does not take much to realize spiritual goals are far more important than worldly goals.  Our future lives are countless whereas this life is only one.  Countless is more than one, therefore it is more important.  Similarly avoiding lower rebirth is good, but if we remain at risk of it happening later we are not truly safe.  The complete safety of liberation is far better than the temporary safety of upper rebirth.  Finally, securing our own permanent freedom is good, but securing the permanent freedom of all living beings is a far more worthy goal since, once again, countless living beings are more important than one.

Yet, despite this, we remain almost single-pointedly focused on the accomplishment of our worldly goals.  We deplete our energies doing worldly things, leaving us without the time or resources to accomplish our spiritual objectives.  We may become an incredibly successful, wealthy, well-loved individual, but all of that will be for naught when we face the Lord of Death.  We may have tactically lived our life brilliantly, but been strategically quite foolish.  We will have done the wrong things very well.

Shantideva is reminding us with this verse, to keep at all times in our mind the precious Bodhichitta.  In can be quite hard to always examine our behavior, having to restrain ourselves, having to stop thinking or saying certain things.  We know we can quite easily become discouraged, so we must contemplate and meditate on our precious human life so that we can become resolute, so that our intention to accomplish the ultimate goal is unmoving as Mount Meru.  When we consider all the good we can do for ourselves and for others if we persevere with our training of the mind, we find the power we need.

Our actions are as meaningful as the goals towards which we work.  Going to work, taking care of our families, and the myriad of other things we do in this life are not inherently meaningless.  They only become meaningless when we do them for meaningless reasons.  If we do these exact same things with meaningful reasons, these same activities become highly meaningful.  The most meaningful reasons are spiritual ones.  Every situation we face in life will give rise to one delusion or another, therefore every situation gives us a chance to abandon our negative habits and train in virtue.  Every situation gives us a chance to relentlessly battle our enemy of delusions.  Every situation gives us a chance to dedicate our life to the service of others.  Every situation is equally empty, so every situation equally gives us a chance to train in ultimate truth.  If we are clear on our purpose in life, then we can integrate all of our activities into a single purpose.  In this way, we can both do what needs to be done in life and remain focused like a laser on our ultimate spiritual objectives.  Then everything we do will have great meaning, we will protect ourselves from becoming distracted and we will quickly accomplish our spiritual goals.

If we fail to do so, our life will become devoid of meaning, we will become distracted by meaningless pursuits, we will dissipate our energies leaving nothing for our spiritual trainings and then arrive at death empty handed.  What will we do then other than realize our foolishness of a life wasted and die full of regrets and fear for what is to come?  Don’t let this be your fate.

(5.57) I should engage only in virtuous actions
To benefit living beings, with no thought for myself;
And I should do so with the understanding that I am like an illusion
That does not exist from its own side.

We should engage ‘only’ in virtuous actions for the simple reason that we wish to be happy and avoid suffering.  Virtuous actions are the cause of happiness and non-virtuous actions are the cause of suffering.  It is only because we believe the opposite that we eagerly engage in non-virtue and only reluctantly engage in virtue.  Engaging in virtue is not complicated:  we simply put the interests of others first, and then work for their benefit.  All virtuous actions naturally flow from the wish to bring benefit to others.

What is the main object of abandonment of a Bodhisattva?  Self-cherishing, working for one’s own sake.  We know if we have a selfish intention, we’re not going to work solely for the benefit of others.  A good test for self-cherishing is we ask ourselves for whose sake are we engaging in our present action.  We need to ask this question again and again.  We will eventually realize that virtually all our actions are motivated by self-cherishing.  Normally, we are completely blind to this fact.  We should pray that it be clearly revealed to us how virtually all of our actions are motivated by selfish desires.  The more we become aware of it, the more we will naturally change because we don’t want to be someone like that.  If we have wisdom, we will realize all selfish actions are necessarily counter-productive actions.  Driven by self-cherishing, we become our own worst enemy.

The reason for this is simple:  the “self” we normally work for doesn’t exist at all!  It is nothing more than a mistaken construction of mind.  We grasp at our body as being our own, but it actually comes from the bodies of our parents, the animals we have eaten and the food harvested by others.  We grasp at our thoughts as being our own, but everything we think is derived, directly or indirectly, from what we have been taught or learned from others.  There is not a single part of our body that comes from us, nor a single thought that does either.  So what, precisely, are we?  We are a reflection of everyone else.  There is no us, we are rather the synthetic result of countless things that are not us coming together.  Take away all of those outside influences, and there is nothing there that we can point to that is us.  So what sense is there in working for something that doesn’t even exist at all?  How foolish is that?

If we are actually aware of who we are – namely the sum of everyone and everything else we have encountered – then we start to impute “self” onto something we see as a reflection of everyone else.  If we are to work for our true self, we naturally work for all living beings because that is, in fact, who we are.  We are the final product of all living beings coming together in a particular way.  To truly cherish our real self, we necessarily must work to bring benefit to who we really are – everyone else.

With a motivation of Bodhichitta, no action can be non-virtuous.  With a motivation of Bodhichitta, we should perform all our actions with an understanding the true nature of things.  In Ocean of Nectar, Geshe-la says moral discipline becomes completely pure when it becomes conjoined with a realization of emptiness.  We need to realize the three spheres of the non-virtue that is abandoned, the person abandoning it, and the being or beings with respect to whom it is abandoned.  We may feel this makes moral discipline more difficult.  Actually it makes practicing moral discipline so much easier.  Why?  Because we understand any harm we do to others we are doing to ourself.  If I kick the dog, I am kicking myself, both karmically in terms of I will eventually experience the effects similar to the cause, and literally in that the dog is quite literally “part” of me, “part of my mind”, a wave on the ocean of my mind.  Just as two waves appear distinct but are by nature the same ocean, so too “self” and “others” appear distinct but are by nature all equally karmic waves on the ocean of my mind.

It’s very useful to view ourselves as nothing more than a reflection of our mind.  But Kadam Lucy says we should go one step further and consider ourselves not to be a reflection in our own mind, but rather we are a reflection in the mind of the Spiritual Guide.  When we adopt this view, there is no trace of feeling of independent self-existence.  It is also easy to then consider ourselves to be an extension of the Spiritual Guide, which enables him to act through us.  Actually it is just him acting at that point.  Why hang on to our “self” at all?  Saint Francis said, “Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.”  To that, I say, “amen.”

(5.56) I should not become disheartened by the behavior of others –
The childish, who are in disharmony with one another –
But understand how this behaviour arises through the force of delusions
And be compassionate towards them.

The bottom line is most of us simply don’t like being around deluded people.  Their constant negative attitude, wrong views, faulty actions and complete ignorance that they are doing anything wrong just grates at us.  It’s simply no fun to be around them, and we naturally try to avoid them.  It is a fundamental contradiction to claim to be an aspiring bodhisattva yet hold on to an aversion to being around deluded people.  What is a bodhisattva promising to do other than spend the rest of eternity helping deluded people?

The behavior of others should never disturb us. No matter what they may be saying or doing, if their behavior does disturb our mind then there’s something wrong in our mind.  We like to blame others for what happens in our mind, but ultimately we are entirely responsible.  The extent to which others can influence what happens in our mind is the extent to which our mind is under the influence of delusions.

Regardless of their behavior we must be utterly accepting of them, just as our spiritual guide is utterly accepting of us.  Normally, we expect everyone else to behave almost perfectly.  When they don’t, we find fault in them.  We say, “the ‘normal’ reaction would be for the other person to do XYZ.”  We usually feel entirely justified in our expectations regarding others’ behavior.  But thinking “you shouldn’t behave like that” is an unfair and unrealistic expectation of a human being.  What is in fact ‘normal’ is for people to act in deluded, counter-productive, inconsiderate, selfish ways.  Why should we expect anything differently?  It is the very nature of contaminated aggregates to behave like that, just as it is the very nature of fire to burn.  It is not their fault — it’s the fault of delusion. To judge them for not behaving according to our expectations leaves us constantly frustrated and the other person resentful.  The appropriate reaction on our part to the deluded behavior of others is compassion.  Because they are under the influence of delusion, everything they do is self-defeating.

We have to be aware of the unaccepting thoughts arising in our mind.  We have to be careful of such thoughts because they manifest themselves in our words and expressions, and others can easily feel like they’re being told off or judged.  What we say and do can easily upset others.  People sense our disapproval; they know if there’s judgement taking place.  They become unhappy, discouraged, develop negative minds. They feel, “in this person’s eyes I can never do anything right.”  This is especially a problem if people look to us, like our children or students or friends who we help, etc.

Sometimes we think we help people by ‘telling them what they need to hear.’  But we need to check our own mind.  If our heart is genuinely full of compassion, then perhaps sometimes it is appropriate to do so.  But if our motivation is more frustration where we need the other person to change, then this is just anger.  If we accept others as they are, we don’t need them to change at all.  For us, they are perfect just the way they are, delusions and all.  When this is genuine, then we are in a position to actually help people and they will know that what we are saying we are saying for their own benefit.  Otherwise, they just see our frustration and will resist everything we say.

We need to follow the example of Geshe-la.  If we think how many times Geshe-la has told us off and how much he encourages us.  We know a lot of our behavior is wrong.  But still he’s encouraging.  The people who look to us need to sense that from us too.

When we accept others as they are, it creates a space for them to change from their own side.  When they feel judged, then they close up and defend themselves instead of try get better.  If people feel judged, unhappy or discouraged by us, this is a sign of unskillful behavior.   If we want to help people, we need to completely remove from our mind all forms of disapproval.  When they know we are not judging them, they will come to us with their problems and then we can help them.  If they feel judged by us, they will come to us with nothing, and we will be powerless to help them.  Seeing that they are not coming to us, we will feel the need to force our way in.  When we do this, they will internally reject what we have to say.  This will make the situation worse.

(5.54) Thus, having checked thoroughly for delusions
And minds that are drawn to meaningless things,
Courageous practitioners should hold their mind steady
Through applying the appropriate opponents.

(5.55) With complete certainty, strong faith,
Steadfastness, respect, politeness,
Sense of shame, fearfulness, and inner peace,
I should strive to bring joy to others.

Here, Shantideva outlines the main causes and conditions necessary for our practices of guarding the mind and moral discipline.

First, we need constant mindfulness of what we are doing with all of our bodily, verbal and mental actions.  If we are not aware of what we are doing nor seek to improve it, we will never change, but continue to be blown by the winds of our delusion and negative karma.  If instead we remain mindful of our behavior, we will become aware of our mistakes and learn how we can do even better.  In this way, we gradually improve and overcome all our faults.

Second, we need complete certainty about the objects to be abandoned and the objects to be attained.  For as long as we grasp at our outer problem as being our problem, we will remain confused about what is to be abandoned and what is to be attained.  We will waste all of our energy seeking to change our external circumstance and invest little in changing our own mind.  For me, the most important distinction on the spiritual path is between our outer problem and our inner problem.  If we are clear about the difference between the two, we will naturally seek two types of solutions:  outer solutions for solving our outer problems and inner solutions for our inner problems.  Happiness depends on peace of mind, delusions destroy our peace of mind, virtue is enhances our peace of mind, our mind goes on into countless future lives.  When we are clear on these fundamentals, the objects to be abandon and the objects to be attained become self-evident.  We have certainty in our practice.

Third, we need strong faith.  Venerable Tharchin explains that the key to effort is realizing the methods actually work.  When we see our spiritual goals are doable because the methods we have are reliable, then effort becomes “effortless.”  When, however, we believe our spiritual goals are unattainable and we have no idea how to accomplish any of them, effort will be almost impossible.  As Buddhists, we generate faith in Buddha Shakyamuni as somebody who has actually completed the path himself.  Because he has “been there, done that” we know he knows what he is talking about.  To generate faith in the Dharma, we are encouraged to test the instructions out for ourselves.  We are encouraged to be inner scientists who verify the truth of Dharma for ourselves.  Everyone who has put his instructions into practice has confirmed for themselves their efficacy.  To generate faith in Sangha, we learn from their example, both their successes and their mistakes.  With faith, we will know we are on the right track and that if we put the instructions into practice, we will enjoy all of the results indicated by the instructions.

Fourth, we need steadfastness, the mind that is undeterred by spiritual adversity.  We have a vajra-like mind that is prepared to do “whatever it takes” to accomplish our spiritual goals, no matter how hard it might be and no matter how long it might take.  Because we have methods that work, if we never give up, our eventual enlightenment is guaranteed.

Fifth, we need respect.  When we have respect for somebody, we look up to them and we naturally seek to fulfill their wishes.  If we respect our spiritual teachers, we will admire their many good qualities and wish to emulate them; and we will naturally wish to fulfill their wish for us to make progress along the spiritual path.  If we respect living beings, we will admire their good qualities and rejoice in their virtues, and we will naturally cherish others and put their interests first.

Sixth, we need politeness.  If we do not act in ways that are consistent with societal norms and expectations, then people will view us strange and have no wish to enter the spiritual paths we follow.  Without politeness, people will find us abrasive and naturally reject our advice, even when it is exactly what they need.

Seventh, we need a sense of shame and fearfulness.  A sense of shame is not guilt.  Guilt is anger towards ourselves and a non-acceptance of the fact that we are not perfect.  A sense of shame seeks to avoid faults for reasons concerning ourself, such as wishing to live up to certain ideals or even simple fear of taking lower rebirth if we do not.  Fear is not a delusion if the object of our fear is valid.  We should fear delusion, negativity, lower rebirth, rebirth in samsara and all those we love taking rebirth in samsara.  These fears protect us from making mistakes and the provide constant encouragement to do the right things.

Finally, we need inner peace.  If our mind is unpeaceful, it is necessarily uncontrolled.  If it is uncontrolled, we will have no ability to bring our behavior under control and our actions will remain faulty.  The more peaceful our mind is the more control we will have over our behavior.

And what should we do with these eight inner causes and conditions?  We should dedicate ourselves to bringing joy to the world.  Normally people bring only problems, but as bodhisattvas we strive to bring joy and meaning to others.  Our path is called the Joyful Path not just because it is such a delight to travel it, but also because it is the purpose of our path, namely bringing joy to others.

(5.48) Whenever there arises in my mind
The desire to become attached or angry,
I should not do or say anything
But remain as impassive as wood.

(5.49) Whenever I am pretentious, mocking,
Arrogant, or self-important;
Whenever I develop the intention to speak of others’ faults,
Or think of profiteering or deceiving;

(5.50) Or whenever I start to solicit praise,
Deprecate others,
Or use harmful or divisive speech,
I should remain as impassive as wood.

(5.51) Whenever I desire wealth, honour, or fame,
Or the attentions of a circle of admirers;
Or whenever my mind wishes for veneration,
I should remain as impassive as wood.

(5.52) If I develop a mind wishing to say something,
While neglecting others’ welfare
And pursuing only my own,
I should remain as impassive as wood.

(5.53) If I am ever impatient with suffering, or lazy and fearful of virtue;
If I am about to speak recklessly or disparagingly;
Or if attachment to my circle of acquaintances arises,
I should remain as impassive as wood.

Looks like Shantideva has been watching us closely.  He knows how we act.

He provides lots of examples here of the importance of being as impassive as wood when a delusion is about to arise.  If we can’t stop ourselves from acting on our delusions, we must as Shantideva advises switch off and become like a block of wood.  Our mothers always told us if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.  Shantideva goes one step further saying if you don’t have anything non-deluded to do, don’t do anything at all.

We need to stop paying any attention to what we feel is causing the delusion to arise. We just forget everything.  Stop thinking.  There will be a strong desire to continue and it will be difficult to just stop.

By doing this, in effect we are taking away the power of the delusion by stopping gross discrimination and feeling.  Without these we cannot apprehend or experience anything, and the delusion will disappear.   If we are to achieve success we must train in bringing about and meditating on the cessation of gross discrimination and feeling.  We need to become familiar with that cessation in our mind.

Geshe-la explained this when he did the teachings on Vajrayana Mahamudra.  It is not the suppression of all gross mental activity, rather it is the cessation of it.  We just let it all go and keep our gross mind unmoving. We achieve a cessation of gross mental activity and gross feelings by letting go of all of it.   When we let it go, we have to have a reason.  Otherwise we will just suppress with this method.  We realize that it is our ordinary mind spinning and it will take us where we don’t want to go, so we don’t follow it.  This is perceived by our subtle mental consciousness.  We observe with our subtle mental consciousness the absence of gross mental activity or feeling.  When we do this, all gross delusions subside.

If we become familiar with this practice we can learn to switch off more and more quickly.  If we’re utterly familiar, we can switch off right there and then in the face of delusion.   Just through this we gain some ability to control our delusions, or at the very least stop acting on them.  In Meaningful to Behold Geshe-la says, “by depriving them from energy in this way, we shall prevent our delusions from influencing our behavior, and they shall fade away.”

With a correct motivation, understanding the benefits of this practice, we try to take this advice of Shantideva to heart, especially with overcoming our desire, uncontrolled desire.  When we have desire we don’t want to stop, we want to indulge.  Sometimes it’s best to use this method.  When it becomes too much, we need to just switch off.  It is not a holding down of gross thoughts it is a letting go of all of them.  We pay attention to something different – the stillness of our mind.  This will give us some space.  With the space we acquire, we then need to debunk the delusion – realize that it is a lie.  If we still believe the delusion but don’t express it, we are suppressing it.  It will just blow up later.  You must use the space to debunk it, otherwise it will just come back.

(5.47) Whenever I wish to move my body
Or to utter any words,
I should first examine my mind
And then steadfastly act in an appropriate way.

All our actions need to be considered, rather than be habitual.  We’re learning to be in control at all times of our mental, physical, and verbal behavior. To always have a good heart and follow our wisdom.  We have unusual habits that we’ve been carrying for years and years — responding in ways that have never actually been considered. We need to become conscious of these habits.  We need to pay attention to not just of what we’re saying, but how we’re saying it; not just what we’re doing but how we’re doing it.  Huge problems can arise just from how someone says or does something, even if what they are doing is good.

It is true that as Buddhists we say the most important component in the creation of karma is our mental intention.  But our goal as Bodhisattva’s is to lead all beings to freedom, and we do that primarily through our verbal and physical actions.  Our verbal and physical actions are the medium through which our mental intentions take form in the world.  If our mind is correct but our verbal and mental actions wrong, our karma may be good but our benefit in the world will be limited.  For this reason, just as we need to bring our mental actions under control, we also need to bring our bodily and verbal actions under control.

As with the mind, it begins with becoming aware of what we are physically and verbally doing.  Most people are completely unaware how they come across to others.  Internally they don’t mean to, but externally they can come across as haughty, aggressive, careless, rude, ungrateful, clumsy, or just plain dumb.  Of course we should not be attached to what others think of us, meaning we shouldn’t think our own happiness depends on others thinking certain things of us.  But this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be concerned about what others think of us as part of our bodhichitta wish to help them.  In the mind of the spiritual person, they are just trying to be a good person, but to others they can come across as uptight, self-righteous judgmental moralizers.  Our pride often blinds us to seeing our own faults, but usually makes us keenly aware of the faults of others.  If we are to change our behavior, we must first become aware of it.

Once we become aware of it, we should seek to identify what we are doing wrong and how we can do better, then we should apply effort to do so.  It is important, though, that we don’t become awkward about it.  If we come across like some motionless, heartless robot or we become so paranoid about doing anything wrong we become paralyzed or overly apologetic for every slight mistake, then people will just think we’re weird!  We need to be natural yet controlled, relaxed yet clear of purpose, easy-going yet meaningful, approachable yet different than others, supple yet strong, confident yet humble, kind yet firm, the list goes on and on.  We are to embody every good quality simultaneously, especially those that seem contradictory.  Such is the path of the middle way.

To keep it simple, though, we shouldn’t do anything with our body or speech unless we have a clear and meaningful purpose for doing so.  If we just remember this, while remaining natural and easy-going, we will gradually find our way to correct action.  Ultimately, our real objective is to bring the guru into our heart, generate a compassionate motivation for those around us, and request that our every action of body, speech and mind is the guru working through us to liberate all beings.  If we can learn such reliance, all of our actions will naturally fall into place.

(5.46) If for no reason I begin to perform actions
That cause damage to the environment,
I should recall Buddha’s advice
And, out of respect, stop straightaway.

Shantideva’s advice here is to be friendly to the environment.  Not caring about our environment, being un-thoughtful, reflects a more general attitude which is not in accordance with a Bodhisattva’s moral discipline.  Many of the acts we do to be more environmentally friendly, such as recycling, arguably have a negligible impact compared to the scale of the environmental crisis we face.  But the point is not the physical action, rather it is the mental intention of wanting to protect the whole world.  This mental intention is hugely beneficial because it is motivated by a concern for everyone.  Besides, every little bit helps, so even if a small action, it is better than nothing.

Being considerate of others means being mindful of the impact our actions have on the lives of others, and then taking steps to minimize such harm.  For example, it is the industry and consumerism of the rich world that is causing climate change, but it is the poor of the world who will suffer most from sea-level rise, drought and desertification.  More than a billion people in China are choking on the pollution from the factories filling our stores with goods.  Do we think about them?  Do we think about the species dying out, the fish poisoned by our chemicals, or future generations who will be left with a planet stripped bare?

Sometimes we think there is nothing we can do, we are such a small part of a larger machine destroying the planet.  This may be true, but it is no excuse for not doing what we can do, in our own small way.  Even if no one act solves the problem, every little bit helps.  There are things we can do, the question is are we doing them?  If not, why not?  Is it because of some valid reason, or is it we just can’t be bothered, or worse we just don’t care?

There is a branch of Christianity called “creation spirituality.”  They view the world as it unfolds as the on-going creation of God, and to harm any part of the world is to harm God himself.  They cherish and treasure all of creation, and seek to love creation as their way of loving the creator.  Substitute creation for emanation and creator for Buddha and we have our tantric practice.  There is a branch of feminism called “eco-feminism.”  They view the environment as the body of Mother Nature, and encourage people to always remember with gratitude her kindness.  Sounds awfully similar to a Lamrim meditation.

As Buddhists, we understand that contaminated environments are created by contaminated karma.  If we want to clean up the environment, we need to clean up our own karma and help others clean up theirs.  Samsara is nothing other than the appearing object of ripened contaminated karma.  We do not merely seek to stop littering and polluting, rather we seek to completely eliminate the karmic causes of all contaminated environments by purifying our own and others minds of all contaminated karma.

We all love the teaching, “a pure mind experiences a pure world and an impure mind experiences an impure world.”   Normally we think of the verb “to appear” as an intransitive verb, meaning the subject of the sentence has no role in bringing about the object.  We say, “a Buddha appears.”  Geshe-la, however, likes to use the verb to appear as a transitive verb, meaning the subject brings about the object.  He says, “we appear Buddhas.”  In the same way, as Tantric bodhisattvas, we are not content to intransitively have a clean environment appear, rather we transitively seek to appear a pure environment.  Buddhists, especially Tantric practitioners, are fundamentally profound environmentalists.  We are spiritual environmentalists.

(5.45) Whenever I listen to any sort of talk,
Whether pleasant or unpleasant,
Or observe attractive or unattractive people,
I should prevent attachment or hatred towards them.

We need to learn to be more restrained.  When we generate attachment towards some things, we feel as if our mind is being “pulled in” by the object, and normally we go willingly thinking happiness is to be found there.  When we generate aversion towards other things, we feel the need to “push” the object away, and if we can’t push it away, we flee willingly thinking suffering is to be found there.  Just walking through a room full of people leaves us feeling pulled in or the need to push other things away in a wide variety of directions.  It’s exhausting.  We must try to weaken this habit so that we can achieve a much more balanced or stable mind.

Geshe Chekhawa says we need “Train without bias towards the objects.” This is important advice for us because we spend a lot of time with others.  First, we must become aware how our mind is being pulled in or pushed away.  If we don’t see it, we can’t do anything about it.  Second, we need to realize that this constant pulling and pushing causes our mind to be unbalanced, anxious and never at peace.  True freedom is the ability to go anywhere with anybody doing anything and our mind remains equally at peace.  We need nothing, we fear nothing.  That’s true freedom.  We need to take the time to fantasize how wonderful it would be if we had such freedom.  Just imagine how free we would feel to go through life not needing nor fearing anything.

With a desire to enjoy such freedom, we then need to change our habitual reactions to objects.  When we detect our mind being “pulled in” by our attachment to some objects, we should realize we are like a puppet on the strings of our attachment and then generate the wish to be truly free.  We remind ourselves that no happiness can be found in these objects, just further insatiable desire.  Our life experience has taught us that even if we obtain what we want, it never quite gives us the satisfaction we seek.  We are always left wanting more or we feel disappointed because it didn’t turn out the way we wanted.  Instead, we should recall that happiness comes from within our mind, and no external object has any power to do anything for us.  In this way we cut the strings that pull us and internally we remain balanced.

When we feel our mind wishing to push something away out of aversion, we should realize nothing has the power to disturb our mind if we don’t let it.  Things are only a “problem” for our worldly concerns, but adversity is our most powerful fuel on the path.  The mind of patient acceptance is a wisdom mind that knows how to use anything and everything for our spiritual training, so it feels no need to “push” anything away, rather it can welcome everything as an opportunity to train.  This does not mean we unnecessarily allow ourselves to be harmed nor does it mean we cooperate with others’ delusions and dysfunction, but it does mean when these thing happen it is not a “problem” for us, but rather an opportunity to train.

We need to be able to listen to what others say without bias.  Certainly, we should try to not react out of attachment if they praise us or hatred if they criticize us.  At present our mind is primarily driven by attachment and hatred.  We mustn’t look at others, especially those closest to us, with attachment or hatred.  We know if somebody appears attractive or unattractive our mind moves and we become unbalanced, like a “weeble wobble” (google it).  We need an evenness of mind, an equanimity.  We are equally welcoming and open with everybody.

It is important to be seen to possess that evenness, equanimity.  Because people know when we have it.  Especially within the Sangha we need to be more and more careful that we don’t become a bunch of cliques, the “in crowd” dedicated to the center and everyone else who just comes to “consume” without giving anything back.  Or between those who see everything the NKT does as faultless and those who don’t.  Or between Those who worship the teachers as a Buddha and those who see them as full of faults.  Or between those who mix traditions and those who don’t.  Or between those who have been around a long time and those who are new.  The list goes on and on, the “uptight Germans” vs. the “free-spirited Brazilians,” etc., etc., etc.  So many divisions we introduce into the Sangha, each with its own shade of judgmental attitude.  Shantideva says, no matter who we see, we need to simply be happy to see them, to listen.  This is a loving mind.

(5.43) I should undertake what I intend and have decided to do,
Without being distracted by other things;
And, with my thoughts focused on that practice,
For now, I should do just that.

(5.44) In this way, I shall do everything well;
Otherwise, I shall accomplish neither one thing nor the other.
With this skilful practice, there can be no increase
In secondary delusions, such as non-alertness.

In the modern world, people look up to those who can “multi-task.”  The people who can do many different things simultaneously.  Modern people wrongly think this makes us more productive.  The reality is quite different.  The ability to multi-task is not a quality, rather it is a modern disease.

First, it is actually impossible for the mind to do two things at once.  A single mind can only have a single object.  At best, multi-taskers are switching their focus from one object to another and back again as they do their work.  Second, switching our focus back and forth results in “transition costs” as our mind has to re-figure out where we left off last time we were working on a particular project, whereas staying focused on a project through to completion avoids that cost.  Third, most things of worth required sustained focus over an extended period of time to bring about the substantial change we are after.  As Geshe-la says, water can never boil if we keep turning the heat on and off.  Fourth, and most importantly, if we never learn to focus like a laser on our daily activities, what hope do we have of doing so during our meditation practices.  If in life we train our mind to flit from one object to another, it is certain we will do the same while in meditation.

Meditation is, by definition, the familiarizing of our mind with virtue.  The fundamental function of concentration is we become whatever we focus on.  If we focus on sex and violence, we will become a lustful and violent person.  If we focus on wisdom and compassion, we will become a wise and compassionate person.  The more fully we absorb our mind in our object, the more complete will be this inner transformation.  If we never are able to focus our mind because it is constantly jumping from one thing to another, we will never absorb our mind into its object and no spiritual transformation can take place.

According to Tantra, all of our contaminated karma is stored on our very subtle mind.  If we succeed in making manifest our very subtle mind and then we meditate on its emptiness, we will directly and simultaneously uproot all of our contaminated karma accumulated since beginningless time.  Realizing the emptiness of our very subtle mind is the very purpose of our tantric practice, and through this realization we can remove all delusions and their imprints and thereby become a Buddha in a matter of years, or even months.  The method for making manifest our very subtle mind is to cause all of our inner winds to gather, dissolve and absorb into our indestructible drop at our heart.  Once all of our winds are gathered in this way, our very subtle mind of clear light will naturally become manifest.  The most important thing to know about inner winds is the mind is located at the object of cognition and it is carried to its object on our inner winds.  If our mind conceives the moon, our mind quite literally is at the moon, and our inner winds went there with it.  If our mind wanders to any object other than our indestructible drop at our heart, our winds will go there, and our very subtle mind will never be made manifest.  It is impossible to realize the emptiness of an object we do not first cognize conventionally.  Therefore, without learning to focus our mind, enlightenment quite literally is impossible.

With this skilful practice of doing everything with single-pointed focus, there can be no increase in secondary delusions, such as non-alertness.  When we are doing our jobs and fulfilling our responsibilities, we should try to just concentrate on one thing.  It is especially important that we do this when it comes to our formal practices.  How many of us can get through a whole sadhana without thinking of other things?  Sometimes we use our puja time to think about other things because it is the only time we have to do it.

But the reality is the more we focus on our puja, the more we will be tapping into the Spiritual Guide’s mind and he will bless us with the best ideas when we need them.  If we rely wholeheartedly upon our Spiritual Guide, he’ll bless us to take into consideration what is neccessary at any time, and then we don’t have to worry.  There is a scene in the first Star Wars where the Jedi is in a fierce light-saber battle with Darth Maul, and then a barrier separates the two.  The Jedi then kneels down, closes his eyes and waits and springs into action when ‘the force’ tells him to.  We need to be just like that.  But we still worry a lot, thinking there are things we need to think about.  But why?   The deeper one’s reliance, the less one worries because we feel ourselves guided in all our activities by the Spiritual Guide.

In everything we do we should focus on what we are doing.  And what are we doing?  We are focusing on allowing the Spiritual Guide to work through us without getting in the way.  If we do this, the Spiritual Guide will literally enter into us and we will become an extension of him.  It will be as if he is in us and he is really here.  He can accomplish all that he can accomplish through us.  We become an instrument and he does everything.

Ironically, if we can learn to do one thing, namely focus on faithful reliance in everything we do, we can effortlessly accomplish all other activities.  If we become whatever we focus our mind on, and what we focus our mind on is the Spiritual Guide as the synthesis of all the Buddhas, we will quite literally become one with (or an extension of) all the Buddhas.  Such is the power of a focused mind.