CHAPTER 3:  Generating Engaging Bodhichitta

Now Shantideva describes the remaining limbs: rejoicing, requesting, beseeching, dedicating, as well as the practice of giving. First we turn to rejoicing.

(3.1) With great gladness I rejoice
In the virtues that protect living beings
From the sufferings of the lower realms
And lead all those who suffer to fortunate realms.

(3.2) I rejoice in the accumulation of virtue
That releases living beings from samsaric rebirth
And leads them to the state of nirvana –
The supreme, permanent inner peace.

One of the most important methods for attaining good qualities for ourselves is the practice of rejoicing.  Every time we rejoice in virtue, we create strong causes to possess that virtue in the future in abundance.  This happens on two levels, first the mental action of rejoicing itself is virtuous and creates for ourselves a similitude of the virtue we are rejoicing in.  For example, when we see an ordained person working hard to maintain their ordination vows in this modern world filled with temptations, we create for ourselves karma similar to if we were ordained ourselves.  Why would we want this?  It is not hard to imagine how wonderful it would be to be a child of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Bill Clinton or George Bush Sr.  Belonging to such a family brings tremendous benefits.

The uncommon characteristic of family is it is the people we would be willing to do anything to help, and we stick together no matter what.  The ordained belong to the close family of Je Tsongkhapa.  They are his close spiritual children, and by virtue of his close karmic relationship with his children, they receive special blessings, virtue and protection.  When ordinary beings engage in the practice of moral discipline it creates the cause for a higher rebirth.  When spiritual beings engage in the practice of moral discipline it creates the causes for a precious human life in which we find the Dharma.  When an ordained spiritual being engages in the practice of moral discipline it creates the causes for them to be reborn into Je Tsongkhapa’s Kadampa family with deep faith and a desire to practice.  The uninterrupted continuum of their spiritual practice is ensured, and with it their eventual enlightenment.  We should all want this, regardless of whether we are lay or ordained.

The second way in which rejoicing bestows upon us great virtue is in the mind of rejoicing there is present very strong admiring faith that welcomes the virtue into our own mind.  We all are reluctant to invite our enemies into our home, but we gladly welcome our friends and family.  Faith, quite simply, is a mind that welcomes virtue into our hearts.   Sometimes we fear virtue, thinking it will make us unhappy because we have to deprive ourselves of all those things we enjoy, but such a thought is born of profound ignorance.  Virtues only function is to bring happiness.  Faith sees this and welcomes it wholeheartedly.  If we are to make authentic progress we must rejoice in the spiritual paths of others.  We need to learn to see such qualities in others and rejoice in others’ spiritual paths.  Try to see those qualities in other people.  When we do this, we naturally start to emulate their view and actions.  We start to act in similarly wholesome ways.  Wholesomeness is a unique form of spiritual beauty, but one that only appeals to a pure heart.  Sometimes we mistakenly think wholesomeness means we all need to become socially uptight people who judge everyone else’s morals.  Not at all.  Genuine wholesomeness is a mind that lacks nothing – it is whole – and so it overflows with kindness and generosity.  It judges nobody and welcomes all.  Because it seeks nothing, everyone naturally trusts it and admires it.  Without saying a word, it naturally inspires others to become better people and it heals the sorrows of this world.

We should especially rejoice in those areas where we have difficulty ourselves in certain aspects of our training.  The best method really to improve ourselves is by rejoicing.  If we have difficulty training in concentration, meditation, then we must rejoice when we become aware of others who are good at meditating.  We have to watch out for the mind that says, “they may look like they’re meditating, but …”  There’s a mind that always tries to get in and spoil our rejoicing.  It always yes, “yes, but…”  Why do we want to think like that?  Why do we allow ourselves to?  If we can’t understand Dharma, maybe subtle subjects, then we must rejoice in those who are able to understand Dharma — subtle subjects, clearly, quickly.

We sometimes ask ourselves “is there a danger if I’m looking to someone as an example that I’ll be let down if that person suddenly disappears?”  Never any danger in looking at a person’s example, spotting good qualities, and rejoicing.  We need to take every single person who leaves the Dharma and learn from their mistake.  Perhaps they are a Buddha showing you a potential pitfall in your mind so that you can avoid it.  Venerable Tharchin says we must take our primary refuge in the Dharma, not the person.  If we take primary refuge in the person and they do something stupid, we can lose everything.  If we take primary refuge in the Dharma and the person does something stupid, we receive a Dharma teaching.  Then we are protected regardless of what they do.

(2.63) Whatever I have done
Out of unknowing and confusion –
Be it a natural non-virtue
Or a transgression –

(2.64) With my palms pressed together
And my mind fearful of suffering,
Prostrating myself again and again,
I confess them all before the Protectors.

(2.65) I request all the holy beings
To free me from all my evils and faults;
And since these bring only harmful results,
In future I will not commit them again.

Shantideva concludes his chapter on purification with a prayer we can memorize and recite at any time we wish to engage in purification.  Sometimes people struggle with recollecting the meaning as they recite Sanskrit mantras, other times we can’t begin prostrating to the 35 Confession Buddhas during a meeting in the conference room at our work.  But there is never a time we can’t recite these verses as a prayer of purification.  In my view, they capture perfectly the essentials of purification practice.  It is advisable to memorize all of Shantideva’s Guide, but at a minimum we can select specific verses that speak to us and memorize them.  These three verses certainly stand out as worthy of memorization.

This is Shantideva’s conclusion: “since these bring only harmful results, In future I will not commit them again.”  We must cease engaging in any harmful actions arising from attachment, aversion, ignorance. If we feel like Shantideva that we need to stop, we will stop.

When we make a promise, we do so because we genuinely “want” to stop (not “should”). We think, “I feel like stopping.”  Then our promise has real power.  This only happens when we make a direct and irrefutable connection between our negative actions and our suffering.  As long as we are not convinced of the relationship between the two, our promises to stop our negativity will lack power.  We do not struggle to make promises to never drink poison again, so why should we struggle to make a promise to not engage in negative actions again?  It can happen that poison does not harm us, but our negative karma always will.

It is vital that we no longer want to engage in negativity.  Because we are desire realm beings, we have no choice but to do what we desire.  If in our heart we still want to engage in negativity, such as taking intoxicants, engaging in sexual misconduct, cheating on our taxes or expense reimbursements, etc., but out of some feeling of obligation or attachment to reputation we refrain from doing so, all we will really do is repress our deluded tendencies.  They will eventually grow in power until we “crack” and like a bulimic, binge on our negative habits.  If we change what we actually want, then there is no danger of this.  Our promises are the nature of wisdom knowing actions and their effects.  If we gain this wisdom, we will promise because we want to.  Later, when our delusions remanifest, we can remind ourselves of the wisdom that took us to the conclusion to refrain from negativity.  After we have done this a few hundred times, we will begin to change, not because we “should” do so, but because we “want to.”

It is important that we have promises.  When we do make a promise, it is important to focus on some specific behavior.  We need to take the time to honestly examine our own behavior, admit where we are making karmic mistakes, contemplate deeply the consequences of our wrong choices, and then make specific promises to refrain from such behavior again knowing what awaits us if we don’t.  Generalized promises of “I won’t do anything wrong ever again” are so vague they lack sufficient concreteness to change our behavior.

We should likewise feel we are actually making promises to holy beings that we will stop.  Sometimes people post on Facebook for the world to see New Year’s Resolutions because doing so in front of others makes it more real.  In the same way, when we make our promises we should feel like we are actually going before Geshe-la and making an actual commitment (offering) that we will change.  This makes it more real and powerful in bringing about real change.  If we were to make an actual promise in front of Geshe-la, we would certainly keep our word.  This is how we should feel when we make promises in the context of our purification practice.

Sometimes in dependence upon such a promise, especially when we ask for help, results come quickly.  We quickly turn around a behavior that we have had for a very long time and we never turn back.  All it takes is the decision from our own side to do it and to let go of trying to do both stop and not stop.

We very often overlook the power of the promise, but this is in many ways the most important. The power of the promise purifies the tendencies similar to the cause to repeat our bad actions.

Every time we resist the direction of our delusions, in other words keep our promise, we create the cause for an upper rebirth.  So this reframes the choice:  the choice is not between having something we want or depriving ourselves of that thing; rather it is a choice between an upper rebirth vs. lower rebirth.  The reason why we have a precious human life now is because in the past we resisted the grain of our delusions.

Finally, when we make promises we need to make mini-promises and train gradually.  If we make too big of promises and break them, then decrease confidence and capacity and it gets worse.  If make too small of promises, it doesn’t do anything.  If we make promises which push us slightly, and we keep them, then our confidence and capacity increase and we can gradually abandon all negative actions.

This concludes the second chapter of Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, entitled “Purifying Negativity”.

(2.62) “How can I definitely be freed
From non-virtue, the source of all suffering?”
Throughout the day and the night,
I should think only about this.

We need to be just like this, completely obsessed with ridding our mind of its non-virtue.  Instead, we are usually obsessed with engaging in it.  We have karmic time bombs within our mind that can go off at any point in time, and we don’t know when.  We have right now on our mind the karma to experience every misfortune we see in the world, from poverty, disease, violence, rape, war, public humiliation, loss of position, etc.  At a very profound level, we can say every misfortune we see in the world is a warning from our Dharma protector of what awaits us if we do not purify.  The red lights are flashing, and we remain oblivious.

Very often we fear purification more than we fear not purifying.  This is totally mistaken.  It is true, when we engage in purification it can happen that it seems like the amount of misfortune we experience in our life actually increases.  Why is this?  It is not different from when people engage in detoxification practices to try remove defilements from their body.  Sickness, acne, rashes, etc., often occur.  But we gladly accept such things knowing we are expelling contaminants from our body.  In exactly the same way, when we engage in purification of our negative karma, it can happen that karmic residuals are kicked up, but we should gladly accept such things knowing we are expelling such karma from our mind.  Geshe-la explains in Great Treasury of Merit that when we engage in purification, sometimes our purification practice does not remove the totality of the negative seed, and a residual ripens.  He says we should happily accept this knowing we just avoiding a karmic future far, far worse.

Every moment of every day and every night our urgent priority should be to purify.  When we suddenly find ourselves in financial difficulty, we make it an urgent priority to find a solution to our problem because we know if we don’t, our circumstances can become much worse very quickly.  In the same way, if we don’t make purification of our negative karma our top priority, it is just a question of time before it catches up to us and ruins everything else we have worked for hard for.  When our relationships with those close to us are troubled in some way, we know we can’t do anything else with them until we have put things back on good footing.  In the same way, we have a fundamental relationship problem between our past and present self; and our present and future selves.  Our past self has left us a legacy of karmic debts, and if our present self doesn’t pay them off our future self is doomed to an eternity of misery.  Our ordinary debts are absolved by our creditors at the time of our death, but our karmic debts enjoy no such forgiveness – we carry them with us into the future until we either purify or the debt is paid with suffering.

We should start with what is most difficult for us, such as certain deluded tendencies similar to the cause, such as strong attachment or anger or non-faith.  We each have a delusion that creates for us the most difficulty.  For some it is frustration and anger at the endless cascade of troubles we experience in life; for others it is addictive attachment to harmful substances; for others it is paralyzing laziness.  If we don’t overcome these deluded habits, they will haunt and torment us forever.  Delusions are negative karmic habits of mind.  Normally we battle our deluded tendencies, but it is far simpler to purify them with sincere purification practice.  The primary force of purification is the power of regret – we see how this negative karma creates problems for us, and we wish to once and for all be free from it.  Driven by this wish, we engage in purification.  Oftentimes, though, we have more faith in our negative karma than our ability to purify it.  The methods for purification are not difficult, and they work.  Doubting their effectiveness undermines their power; believing in their effectiveness is their power.

We should never miss an opportunity to engage in purification.  As we clean, we should imagine that we are purifying this negative karma from our mind.  As we bathe or brush our teeth or even go the bathroom, we should imagine we are removing negative karma from our mind.  As we experience difficulties, we should imagine that through this we are burning off all of these deluded tendencies similar to the cause.  Since samsara is the nature of suffering, every moment is, in fact, an opportunity to purify.

There is a particularly pure spiritual practitioner I know named Taro who, in the past at least, was in a psychiatric hospital for more than a decade.  He would sometimes have really awful days where the delusions were really strong and just torturing him and it was all he could do to not get swept away by them.

He once told me the following story:  “This morning was a total thrashing for me, really, really difficult – as hard as it has been.  I thought, ‘I can’t take it any more.’  Then it suddenly stopped, I relaxed a bit and then I heard a voice say, ‘But I love you’ and he felt this huge wave of love from Dorje Shugden.  He understood that Dorje Shugden was having him go through all of this out of love so that he can once and for all break free from all suffering.  It was all a real act of love.  I then thought, ‘I am in the martial arts temple of Dorje Shugden where he is forging me into a spiritual warrior, so what do I possibly have to fear?  This is all part of my training.”

For me, this is an absolutely fantastic example for us.  It helps us understand what is going on when we have difficulties and it shows us how we should take them.  Instead of clamoring after pleasant experiences, we learn instead to embrace the horrible.  If we can do that, then we can be happy all of the time.

(2.60) What remains with me now from the pleasant experiences
Of my previous lives that have now ceased?
And yet, because of my strong attachment to worldly pleasures,
I have gone against the advice of my Spiritual Guide.

In our countless previous lives, we have enjoyed numerous times every enjoyment samsara has to offer.  But what do we have to show for it?  We can’t even nostalgically remember them.  In this life, we are constantly chasing after the next high, only for it to be shorter and less intense than the last one.  Eventually, we reach the point where nothing does it for us anymore.

Instead of changing strategy, we simply change the external objects we chase.  But each time we do, the result is always the same.  There is no reason to assume it will ever be any different.  Despite this, we keep thinking, “next time will be different” and we chase the rainbow once again.

Our Spiritual Guide has been pretty clear:  chasing after our attachments just makes us more miserable.  We all know the reasons why, and have received many teachings on the subject.  Yet we still continue running after our objects of attachment, engage in all sorts of non-virtue for their sake, and generally waste our precious human life.  After death, it will be too late.  We have our chance now to change course.  If we don’t, we will regret it.

(2.61) If, when I depart from this life
And from my friends and relatives,
I must wander all alone,
Why commit non-virtue for the sake of friends and enemies?

Sometimes when we feel inspired after a teaching we go in the right direction, but then we stop.  Why do we allow ourselves to remain attached to the pleasures of samsara? That attachment is the source, directly or indirectly, of all our suffering.  We need to ask ourselves why we don’t follow the advice of the Spiritual Guide.

Through his immense kindness he is strongly wishing us to swallow the medicine of Dharma?  Do we trust his intention?  We know if we’re following that advice perfectly or not.  We all have areas of our life where there is some instruction we have been given and we are not following it.  We need to ask why and come to a definite decision.  We sometimes pretend in front of others that we are putting the instructions into practice so that they think good about us.  But who are we kidding? Ourselves, our Spiritual guide, everybody, or in fact nobody.  We need to ask ourselves why we do this?

(2.57) If it is necessary to exercise caution
When near a small, ordinary precipice,
How much more necessary is it when near the fathomless pits of hell
Into which I could fall for a very long time?

I had a dream once where I was in a seemingly beautiful place.  There were these beautiful women flirting with me, encouraging me to follow them for some fun.  I of course eagerly did so, and then all of a sudden I found myself stepping out over a ledge and began falling into fiery pits all around me.  As I did so, the beautiful women removed their masks – they were in fact demons – and as I was beginning to fall, they said “gotcha!” and then I woke up.  This is our very predicament, the only difference being when we wake up we will not find ourselves in our bed, but rather we will find ourselves having fallen into the lower realms.

Modern people like to think they are too sophisticated to believe in seemingly superstitious things like hell.  But we need only look to other parts of the world to realize what is possible – famine, war, genocide, mass rape, extreme poverty, terrible cold, scorching heat, terrible darkness.  Karma changes very quickly.  Most of us are only one paycheck away from finding ourselves on the street.  Wars break out, governments collapse, sea levels rise, heat waves destroy crops, new diseases emerge, we develop cancer, we become maimed in a car accident.  These are daily occurances, and they can happen to us at any time.

The lower realms are not far away places, they are simply terrible dreams that begin at death from which we don’t wake up.

(2.58) It is unwise to indulge in pleasures,
Thinking, “At least I shall not die today”;
For without doubt the time will come
When I shall become nothing.

(2.59) Who will grant me fearlessness?
How can I be freed from these fears?
If I shall inevitably become nothing,
How can I continue to indulge?

Most of us pursue a dual strategy of trying to get both the best of Dharma and the best of samsara.   We do this because we think by doing so we can get the best of both worlds.  But we need to check, are we getting the best of neither?  Is that how we feel — that we are getting the best of both worlds?   Is it enough to just get through this life OK?  What will we do when we die?

We have enormous inner tension because we are trying to hang on to both samsara and the Dharma.  We are holding on to contradictory desires.  We still have a taste for samsara’s pleasures.  We feel we can enjoy Dharma and enjoy samsara.  People say all the time that it is hard.  The only reason why it is hard is because we are trying to hold on to contradictory desires.

We have a choice, either let go of the Dharma and have all of the sufferings of samsara come crashing down on us or let go of samsara and go from joy to joy to enlightenment.   To let go of samsara we simply need to identify the deception.  When we know we are holding a burning pan, we have no difficulty letting go.  It is the same with samsara.  We just need to see samsara for what it is and we will have no difficulty letting go of it entirely.

The choice is ours.

(2.54) If I need to follow the doctor’s advice
When frightened by an ordinary illness,
How much more necessary is it to follow Buddha’s advice
When perpetually afflicted by the many harmful diseases of the delusions?

The more I study Buddha’s teachings, the more I come to the conclusion that we really only have one problem:  we have misdiagnosed what our problem is.  We spend all of our energy trying to solve the wrong problem, and we completely neglect addressing our real problem.

Yes, of course, we need to try improve our external circumstances, but if we change our circumstances without changing our mind, we will soon find ourselves with exactly the same problems as before, just with different faces.  There was a woman once who lived in L.A., and she convinced herself that Californians were the problem.  So she packed her bags and moved to North Carolina.  At first, she loved it, but within a year she was just as depressed as she was before, lamenting how everyone was awful in North Carolina as well.  She may have changed her environment, but she didn’t change her mind.  Her mind simply re-projected its problems onto a new canvas of karmic appearance.

If there is a smudge on a movie projector lens, it will project an image on the screen that looks smudged.  We wouldn’t go up to the screen and start scrubbing it to try improve the image, instead we would clean the lens.  In the same way, if the lens of our mind has the smudge of delusions, it will project an image on reality reflective of that delusion.  Changing the external appearance won’t solve the problem, only removing the delusion will.

Universities and libraries are filled with theories, methods and teachings for how to change and manipulate the external environment, but ultimately all such methods will fail to improve human happiness unless they address the real “projector” of the problems, namely our own deluded mind.  Buddha’s teachings explain to us how to do so.  This does not mean only Buddha’s teachings work.  Anything that opposes delusion is, directly or indirectly, Dharma, even if it is not presented in a Buddhist context.  The point is if we want to solve our real problem, namely our delusions, then we need to rely upon teachings that explain how to do so.

(2.55) If all the people living in this world
Can be greatly harmed by just one of these delusions,
And if no medicine other than Dharma
Can be found anywhere to cure them,

(2.56) Those who do not act in accordance with the Dharma teachings
Given by Buddha, the all-knowing physician,
Through which all pains of the delusions can be removed,
Are surely foolish and confused.

When any practice is done motivated by a mind of regret, it serves to purify.  Non-virtue can only remain in a deluded mental environment.  In a mind free from delusion, there can be found no cause of suffering.  Our task, therefore, is to cure our mind of the disease of the delusions by taking the medicine of Dharma. Without taking the medicine of Dharma we will not be able to put an end to non-virtue.  We will continue to experience all the harmful effects of non-virtue.

Many of us have been with the Dharma for a long time.  We have been taking the medicine of Dharma, but perhaps we haven’t been swallowing it, or swallowing it all.  We know the taste of the medicine of the Dharma from it being in our mouth. For example, we know the taste of renunciation, “this tastes like renunciation.”  We know the tastes of the different medicines of Buddhadharma.  But we have to ask ourselves, are we swallowing it?  Swallowing so that it is actually curing us of the diseases of the delusions?  Why is it self-grasping is still there? Why is self-cherishing still there? Why is attachment still there?

We need to ask ourselves, are we acting in accordance with Dharma teachings, or not?  Are we practicing Dharma or not?  We know all the Dharma teachings, we know all the delusions, we know their opponents, but we still experience mental and physical suffering.

So how do we stop it?  By taking the medicine of the Dharma.  By applying these opponents.  We know if we are to take the medicine of the Dharma we must be prepared to change. We are resisting like a child that has to swallow some medicine. Every day we’re tasting the medicine of the Dharma.  Are we swallowing, are we allowing the instructions to change us?  We default to the solutions to the temporary problems which don’t require us to change.  If our choice is take a diet pill or start exercising, we choose the pill.

(2.52) I go for refuge to Arya Vajrapani,
Upon sight of whom all harmful beings,
Such as the messengers of the Lord of Death,
Flee in terror to the four directions.

In the previous posts we discussed the value of generating a healthy fear of our negativity and the lower realms.  The purpose of this fear is to encourage us to go for refuge – to seek our protection.  When a soldier is behind enemy lines, he is in constant danger, but when he comes back to his home base, he is able to feel safe and protected.  In exactly the same way, while the terrors that await us are real, they are no match compared to the infinite power of the Buddhas.

A very close friend of mine once said what I believe to be the best line of Dharma I have ever heard:  “stop telling your Spiritual Guide how big your problems are and start telling your problems how big your Spiritual Guide is!”  Not only are the Buddhas more powerful than our delusions and negativity they are utterly untouchable.  When we are under their protection, we have nothing to fear.  We need to feel their power and have confidence that with their blessings our delusions simply don’t stand a chance.  The enemies of the delusions metaphorically flee in terror in the face of the Buddhas.  The Buddhas are our champios, our defenders,  and our protectors. We need merely put ourself under their care and we will have nothing to fear.

(2.53) Previously I transgressed your advice,
But now, having seen these great dangers,
I go to you for refuge
To quickly dispel my fears.

There are two types of object we have engaged in negative actions towards and therefore two types of power of reliance:  We have engaged in negative actions against living beings.  To correct for that, we generate bodhichitta, which is the exact opposite.  We have also engage in negative actions against holy beings.  To correct for that, we go for refuge, which is the exact opposite.

In the Lamrim teachings, it explains that the mind of refuge has two main causes:  fear and faith.  We generate fear of our negative karma through the power of regret.   We generate faith by turning to the Buddhas seeing them as the solution to our problem of negative karma.  Each Buddha has the ability to bestow certain types of blessings, so we turn to Buddhas who specifically help with purification – Buddhas whose blessings function to purify.

Shantideva is serious about all of this, but we have to ask, are we? How seriously do we take what he’s saying?  Would we take refuge the way he’s doing here?  If we’re experiencing difficulties, suffering, we will sit down and pray to Arya Tara, Medicine Buddha, etc. But how often?  One of the commitments of refuge is to go for refuge again and again.  If we’re only going for refuge once in a while, will we be protected?

Shantideva is calling for help — “a desperate cry.”  Why don’t we? We don’t feel helpless! We don’t invite the holy beings into our daily life because we feel to a great extent that we have control over it without them.  We think, why ask for protection when genuinely from one day to the next we don’t feel any danger?  Generally people read these verses and think there’s something wrong with Shantideva!  We have to realize there’s actually something seriously wrong us.

(2.50) To Protector Avalokiteshvara,
Who acts unerringly out of compassion,
I utter this desperate cry for help:
“O Please protect me, an evildoer!”

Normally, when we hear language such as this we cringe.  It just sounds so fire and brimstone, Inquisition-esque, or worse it reminds us of George W. Bush!  But if we are honest, that is exactly what we are.  Let me explain.

If you look at the long arch of our mental continuum, we will see that we have spent virtually all of our past lives in the lower realms.  What do beings do in the lower realms?  The kill their prey, steal from the weak, and torture their enemies.  When we read the descriptions of the lower realms in books like Joyful Path, we shouldn’t think they are describing some distant place, rather they are a description of our own past deeds.  There is no reason to assume we were a saint in the lower realms, there is every reason to assume we were like everybody else.  If a prisoner spent his entire life committing horrific acts, but then one day acted nicely, would we not fairly describe the bulk of his actions as bad?  In the same way, if we spent our countless past lives engaging in evil, but have managed so far in this life to avoid anything that would throw us in prison, can we say we are not an evil-doer?  In this life, we have lied, stolen, cheated, killed insects, said hurtful things, grasped tightly onto wrong views, wished harm on our enemies, etc.  While we may not be as bad as beings in the lower realms, nor as bad as some in this realm, compared to the holy beings our actions are beyond the pale.

As was described in an earlier post, the number one obstacle to our engaging in purification is our total denial of our wrong-doing.  If we can’t admit our wrong deeds, how can we hope to purify them?

Admitting we are an evil-doer does not mean we need to fall into some extreme of guilt and self-hatred at how awful we are.  Self-flagellation is not a stage of the path.  An honest reckoning of our deeds is.  Beating ourself up for our mistakes is actually a form of distraction from actually changing our ways.  So we admit our mistakes without guilt, realize they were driven by being confused by our delusions and through the force of karmic habit, and then we try do better going forward.

(2.51) Seeking refuge, from my heart
I pray to Arya Akashagarbha,
To Arya Ksitigarbha,
And to all the compassionate Protectors.

For purification to be effective, it has to be heart-felt.  When I was a young child, my father was thinking of buying some land right on the edge of a bluff overlooking the city.  Since we were little, he was worried that we might not appreciate the danger the cliff represented.  So he took us literally to the edge, held us tight and safe so we wouldn’t fall, but showed us what lay below.  I do not remember much from my early childhood, but this memory was burned into me forever.  I have since always been wary of getting too close to the edge.

In the same way, we literally need to stare into the abyss of the lower realms and see what lays below.  The compassionate Buddhas, like my father, will take us to the edge, hold us tight and safe so we won’t fall, but then describe to us the terrors that lie below.  Every 21 days, we come to the meditation on the lower realms and do exactly this.  The point is not to scare us, the point is to warn us of the dangers that lie ahead if we do not change our ways.

Irrational fear is destructive, rational fear is protection.  We should have a rational fear of the lower realms.  If we look honestly, it is far more likely we will fall into the lower realms than take another fortunate rebirth.  When adversity strikes, we respond with delusion and negativity.  Delusion and negativity activate further negative karma.  There is no adversity greater than death.  If we generate big delusions with respect to small things, what chance do we have to only generate small delusions with respect to the biggest thing of all – our own death.  And even small delusions are not enough, we need to respond with virtue if we are to have any chance of remaining in the fortunate realms.  How often do we do that now?

(2.48) Likewise, I sincerely go for refuge
To the Dharma they have realized,
Which dispels the fears of samsara,
And to the assembly of Bodhisattvas.

Our self is imputed upon our body and mind.  Up until now, we have – unwittingly – offered both to our delusions.  We are slaves to our delusions and we do whatever they ask of us.  Our thoughts are ruled by them and our bodily actions are as well.  For as long as we continue to make this mistake, we will forever remain enslaved by them and liberation and enlightenment will be impossible.

Instead, we need to offer ourself – meaning both our body and our mind – to the three jewels.  The function of delusions is to deceive us into engaging in actions that damn us to the lower realms.  The function of the three jewels is to enlighten us into engaging in actions that free both ourself and all living beings from suffering forever.  The choice is ours, but we must choose.  There is no middle ground between delusion and wisdom.  They are necessarily mutually exclusive.

To offer our mind to the three jewels means to make our every thought consistent with the Dharma.  The Dharma is a way of thinking.  We adopt that way of thinking as our own.  It is not enough to simply start parroting the Dharma we have heard, we need to do the internal work to convince ourselves of its truth by dispelling all wrong views.  The essential meaning of contemplation is “testing the truth” of the teachings.  We engage in this exercise with intellectual integrity, prepared to change our views where proven wrong.  We then examine for ourself whether the teachings are true and reliable.  Everybody who has engaged in such an exercise with an open mind has come to the same conclusion – “yep, that’s right.”  It is also not enough to just have faith that the teachings are true when we don’t really understand why.  Faith is good, wisdom realizing the truth of things ourselves is better.  Only wisdom has the power to actually free us from the control of our delusions.

(2.49) Overcome with fear, I offer myself
To Arya Samantabhadra,
And I offer my body into the service
Of Arya Manjushri.

To offer our body to the three jewels means to offer it into their service.  What does this mean in practice?  Sometimes people think it means we need to go become a slave for the Spiritual Guide, bringing them dinner and tea, and working long hours for Dharma centers.  For some, that may be the case, but for most people that’s not realistic nor even desirable.  To offer ourself into the service of the three jewels quite simply means to offer ourself into the service of all living beings.  The Buddhas have only one objective – to benefit all living beings, indeed to eventually lead them all to everlasting happiness.  When we dedicate ourselves to the same purpose, we offer ourself into the service of the three jewels.

What are the advantages of doing this?  First, all of our actions become powered by all the blessings of all of the Buddhas.  If a sail on a sail boat is not aligned properly with the wind, the boat will not go anywhere even if the wind is howling.  But when the sails are aligned with the wind, the boat is pushed forward.  In the same way, the pure winds of the blessings of all the Buddhas are constantly blowing around us.  They always point in one direction:  the enlightenment of all beings.  When we align the sails of our mind with this objective, their pure winds fill our sails pushing us swiftly and effortlessly towards enlightenment.

Second, all of our actions become causes of our own enlightenment.  Because we work for the enlightenment of all beings, the karma we create while doing so is necessarily non-contaminated.  Since the final purpose of our actions is beyond samsara, the karma we create takes us beyond samsara.  It is as if our body becomes an extension of the body of all the Buddhas in this world, where they act through us but we get the karma.

Third, we are happy all of the time.  Our happiness, quite simply, depends upon whether our mind is at peace or not.  When our mind is controlled by delusions, our mind is rendered unpeaceful.  That is the function of delusions.  The root of all delusions is the self-centered mind (self-cherishing and self-grasping).  Working for all others is the opposite of all delusions, and so it functions to oppose all delusions.  Virtue functions to make the mind peaceful and controlled.  There is no virtue greater than cherishing others because all other virtues flow from it.  Dedicating ourself to the service of others fills our mind with virtue, which makes our mind peaceful and enables us to be happy all of the time.  Even a superficial look around us shows that the selfish are miserable and the selfless are happy.  The question is who do we want to be?

Perhaps we still don’t appreciate just how much negative karma remains on our mind from our previous lives.  Perhaps we even look back over this life and think “I haven’t been that bad.”

The heart of purification is admitting our negativity.  If for whatever reason we can’t honestly admit it, our purification practice will lack sincerity and power.  We may superficially appear to be engaging in purification, but we won’t actually be cleaning up the karma on our mind.  If we don’t actually admit our actions are negative, we won’t regret them nor their karmic consequences, instead we will rationalize why they are not so bad.  If we don’t admit our actions were mistaken, we will have no real desire to change our ways.  If we don’t wish to change, then our turning to the three jewels will lack any real meaning or purpose.

When we engage in purification, it is generally more powerful if we have some specific negativity in mind.  It is true we can engage in generalized purification, but there is a tendency for this type of purification practice to become quite abstract.  But when we have a specific type of negative karma in mind, such as purifying all of the wrong views that prevent us from realizing we are bound for the lower realms if we don’t change our ways and purify our negative karma, then our purification practice becomes much more qualified and “real.”

One question we can ask ourselves is what exactly are we purifying?  If we don’t have something specific in mind, we won’t be purifying.  In particular we need to look at our vows: for example with respect to our Pratimoksha, Bodhisattva, and Tantric vows, we can go through all of our vows and ask ourselves honestly, “have I done anything wrong with respect to these?”  If we’re honest, we incur downfalls every single day of our life.  The truly amazing thing is we don’t even see it.  We tell ourselves, “I’m doing my best as a Bodhisattva”, but we use this as an excuse for doing nothing.  We need to check, how important do we feel it is not to incur a downfall?   We need to ask ourselves when we do go against our vows, what specific karma is placed in the mind?  What will the results of these actions be?  We need to examine carefully why we haven’t even looked at what the downfalls are or made any plans to avoid them?   Is it that we don’t want to look because we don’t want to change?  Is it because it requires changing our behavior?  Now is the time to really check how we feel about these things.

(2.47) Therefore, from today I go for refuge
To the Conqueror Buddhas who protect living beings,
Who seek to give refuge to all living beings,
And who, with their great strength, eradicate all fear.

Buddhas can help us with our purification practice in two main ways.  First, their powerful blessings function like a drop of soap dropped into a greasy pool of liquid, the grease is immediately dispelled.  Their blessings effectively neutralize the negative karma on our mind, disarming the karmic bombs we carry with us wherever we go.  Christians believe if they generate faith in Christ they will be saved from their sins.  How exactly does this work?  Each enlightened being has a “specialization,” where their blessings specifically function to help living beings in a particular way.  When people generate faith in Christ, for example, their mind opens up to receive his blessings.  His “special blessings” function to “take” the negative karma on our mind and have it ripen upon him in the form of his sufferings leading up to and including his crucifixion on the cross.  Christians understand his suffering on the cross is his having taken the consequences of our sins upon himself.  Understanding this karmic mechanism, we can say with confidence that Christian practices do indeed work.  In exactly the same way, the special blessings of Vajrasattva and the 35 Confession Buddhas likewise help us purify our negative karma through our generating faith in them.

The second way Buddha’s help with our purification practice is by helping us change our ways.  It is good to engage in purification practices, but such practices alone are not good enough if they are not accompanied with the power of the promise to change our negative ways.  We should not be like Don Corleone in the Godfather who confesses in Church while his hit men kill his enemies.  We should not be like the smoker who promises to quit, only to start up again the next day.  Buddhas can also give us the strength and wisdom to change.