4. Practicing in Daily Life

On Not Being Attached to our Solitude:

Kadampa Ryan 4. Practicing in Daily Life

Many Dharma practitioners prefer their alone time to being with other people. We may even rationalize this with the teachings from Shantideva in Chapter 8 about the glories of being alone and the futility of dealing with the childish.

But this can also be a form of running away from others because, frankly, it can be tiring to be around deluded and needy people who only see faults in us anyways. This is just another form of attachment, aversion, and self-cherishing.

So how do we get it right? The test is what is best for all living beings. Sometimes it’s best for others to be directly with them, cherishing them, training in patience with them, overcoming the delusions we generate towards them, etc. Sometimes we can help them more by being away on retreat or quasi-retreat-like conditions. Sometimes the best way to help them is to not help them directly so they learn how to do things themselves. Theoretically, of course, Shantideva is right – we can help people more by attaining enlightenment as swiftly as possible for them, and retreat-like conditions are often the best way to do that. One way or the other, our motivation needs to be what is best for all living beings, and more profoundly, what is best for our swiftest possible enlightenment for their sake.

How then can we know if being directly with others or being alone is best, even if our motivation is this correct bodhichitta?

At one level, we just have to be honest with ourselves and examine our real motivations. Are we driven by a desire to get away from them? Are we using our time alone for deeper spiritual training? Are we really motivated by bodhichitta or are we just using the Dharma to rationalize what our delusions want? If we find ourselves falling short on our motivation, we can do the inner work to make our motivation more authentic and heartfelt. Perhaps that is why we are alone – to get past the intellectual and have the time to learn to make it genuinely heartfelt.

At another level, we actually don’t have a clue what is best for all living beings. But fortunately, we know a Buddha who does – Dorje Shugden. We can, with the most sincere bodhichitta motivation we can generate, request him to reveal to us and arrange whatever is best. If it is best for me to continue to have alone conditions, then please reveal to me why and keep them going. If it is best for me to be with others, cherish them directly, and train my mind in that context, then please reveal that to me and arrange the conditions for that to happen. Then, we accept whatever subsequently arises as what he is arranging for us. We need to continue to do this on a fairly regular basis because karma shifts and we need to be prepared to shift with it.

If we have faith in Dorje Shugden and our motivation is genuinely to do what is best for others, then we will be able to happily shift between times where we are with others and times when we are alone. We will understand this as basically like our spiritual high intensity interval training. The sign we have it right is we have genuine equanimity towards the two possibilities, seeing them both as equally good just in different ways, and trusting that Dorje Shugden is giving us exactly what we need.

Then, no problems.

On Replacing Delusions as our Friends:

Kadampa Ryan 4. Practicing in Daily Life

Why do we turn to our delusions? It seems there are two main reasons. First, they seem to be our friends, promising us some benefit if we listen to them; and second, we don’t know who else to turn to that might be better.

Dharma practice largely comes down to finding new inner friends. We don’t need to beat ourselves up for having relied upon the wrong friends. Sometimes the best way to let them go is to thank them for their service, but say we’ve got this from here. Essentially, we don’t need them anymore because we can satisfy the need they used to fill in healthier ways.

At the end of the day, we all wish to be free from inner pain and to feel happy. Our delusions have basically been our different coping mechanisms we have been using. Dharma helps us see how ultimately, they don’t work. But we won’t be willing to let them go until we first come up with something to replace the need they seemed to fill. Otherwise, we will feel like we have to give up some of the protection they seemed to provide. When we’ve got something better, namely the Dharma opponents, we don’t need the delusions anymore. We can thank them for their past service – no point beating ourselves up with guilt, we did the best we could – but we no longer need them because we have new, better tools to meet those same needs.

So yes, as Shantideva says, we do need to be at war with our delusions, but we don’t need to be at war with ourselves. This is a very important distinction.

For example, our attachment to worldly pleasures promises us at least something good in what is otherwise our generally difficult lives. Better to have at least some moments of respite – or changing suffering – than none at all. We work really hard, we deserve some rewards for our labors. It can’t be all grind, grind, grind. Turning to them is a coping mechanism. But it leaves us vulnerable to our happiness being dependent upon external things and they never quite bring the satisfaction we hoped for. They gradually lose their effectiveness in lifting us up and eventually we need more and more to just not feel bad. In this sense, they are no different than addiction to drugs, just to different degrees. So they seem to be fulfilling some need, but not doing a very good job at it – and ultimately, they are causing us even more problems, the not least of which is keeping us going back into samsara again and again. All delusions are deceptive in this way – they promise us something, kinda deliver, but with a hidden cost that leaves us worse off.

Jealousy promises us to get whatever we covet that others have, but usually just drives it further away. Anger promises us protection from harm, but creates enemies who attack and leave us internally miserable. Self-grasping ignorance promises to help us know who we are, but leaves us chasing phantoms. Deluded doubt promises to protect us from believing something that isn’t true, but prevents us from believing anything that could help us. Pride promises self-respect and dignity, but makes us insecure and our sense of self-worth dependent upon what others think or their failure.

The key point is this: Delusions promise to fulfill legitimate needs. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be happy, fulfilling our wishes, being protected from harm, knowing who we are, following the truth, or having self-respect and dignity. And there is an extent to which delusions kinda work. We have to acknowledge this or we won’t realize why we keep turning to them. But they don’t actually work. They don’t provide any real protection. And they always come with a hidden cost that leaves us worse off – both in this life and in all our future lives. Following delusons is always a Faustian bargain. In short, they are not reliable inner friends.

The various opponents taught in the Dharma are our new inner friends. The Buddhas introduce us to them, explain how we cultivate a friendship with them, and show why they are simply more reliable. We need reliable friends, healthy friends, that bring out the best in us. Such friends do not exist outside of us, but must be grown through our inner efforts. They will never arise on their own, though when we receive blessings we are given a taste of their friendship.

Contentment helps us be happy with what we’ve got. Rejoicing helps us be happy with what others have. Patience helps us accept things as they are. Cherishing others is the source of all our future happiness. Humility makes us stable. Wisdom realizing emptiness makes everything possible. These are more reliable inner friends. They actually meet our legitimate inner needs, but without the hidden costs.

When our delusions arise and we are tempted to believe them, what is actually happening is we have some legitimate need which is going unfulfilled, but we just don’t know any better method for fulfilling it, so we say, “f*ck it, let’s go.” Then we go down the wrong roads, it kinda works at first, but then we pay the price. Happens every time. We can’t blame ourselves for this process, we simply didn’t know any better. But now we do. We have been shown how these strategies – these mistaken coping mechanisms – just don’t work. We have also been given different, more effective coping mechanisms for meeting the same needs, namely the opponents.

So when our deluded tendencies arise in our mind, instead of developing guilt and quickly repressing them down since we are a Dharma practitioner and know we shouldn’t have delusions, take the time to ask yourself, “what legitimate need is this delusion trying to fulfill? Will it work? What could meet this need better?” When we ask ourselves these questions, we will know what to do. We will be able to tell our delusions, “thanks, but no thanks. I’m going to do this instead.” We won’t feel tempted to follow them and it won’t be a struggle to not. We don’t need to deny the legitimate need they represent, we just need to employ healthier methods for fulfilling them.

In short, we don’t need to be at war with ourselves. Like with our veterans of past wars, we can thank our delusions for their past service, embrace what they really represent (namely the wish to fulfill some legitimate inner need) into our mind, and begin to build a harmonious inner community among the different parts of our mind. In other words, we cultivate inner peace. Without inner peace, outer peace is impossible.

We Each Experience Different Worlds, But Some Are More Valid Than Others

Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra, 4. Practicing in Daily Life

Because everything is empty – a mere projection of our mind – the worlds we experience, others experience, and Buddhas experience are all different. They are similar enough that we can use the same words to describe things so we know what each other is talking about, but what appears and what is understood by these words can be quite different.

There is no point debating with people, “it is like this,” “no, it is like that.” It ISN’T any one particular way. Both are true – it is like this for me, it is like that for you. When we create the space in our mind for that to be, much of the unnecessary conflict in our life begins to melt away and we develop a more accommodating heart.

The risk, though, in understanding this is we can fall into an extreme of relativism or nihilism. Who’s to say Hitler was wrong, for example? Normally, when we grasp at things existing from their own side, we think truth is established by identifying what is “objectively true,” meaning true from the side of the object. But when we understand emptiness, we know such a thing doesn’t exist at all.

On what basis, then, can we differentiate which world view is more valid than another? The Prasangikas have two answers – a philosophical one and a practical one.

Philosophically, what is valid or true is not established on the side of the object, but rather on the side of the mind. If the mind is a true mind, the objects known to that mind are true. If the object is a valid mind, the objects known to that mind are valid. But that begs the question, how do we know what is a true or a valid mind? This is where enlightened beings come in. Their minds know only the truth. Their minds are completely valid. We can use what they understand to be the truth as the relative basis for establishing degree of validity and truth in what we understand to be true. Further, the more our mind begins to resemble theirs, the more our mind is true or valid. If Buddhas see things one way (all beings our our mother) and we see them a different way (friend, enemy, and stranger), then we can say relatively speaking their perspective is more true or more valid, and we can work to bring our mind around to their point of view.

Practically, we might not know what Buddhas think or how they see things, so how are we to navigate through life? Fortunately, both Gen Tharchin and Gen Losang explain there is a compass which always points us in the right direction, namely “what is more beneficial to believe.” A good example of this would be the Kadampa version of Pascal’s Wager. If hell exists and we believe it doesn’t, then we might think we can engage in negative actions with impunity. This will result in us hurting others and us confronting a terrible reckoning when we fall into the lower realms. But if hell doesn’t exist, but we nonetheless believe it does, then we will be extremely careful to avoid negative actions. This will mean we hurt others less and our own mind will be more peaceful because we will have a clean conscience. So it is clearly more beneficial to believe hell exists, even if it doesn’t (which it does).

The same logic can be applied to any situation. Take, for example, the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians. Who’s right? They both are right from different perspectives, and both wrong from different perspectives. Believing one is right and the other is wrong is what keeps the war going. Creating the space in our mind for both to be right from different perspectives opens up new possibilities and recognizes the dignity of the other, creating the possibility for peace. We all know without inner peace, outer peace is impossible. Creating this space in our mind is the foundation for both.

Likewise, we can ask ourselves, “how would a Buddha see this?” They would no doubt see it as a powerful lesson in cycles of karma and delusion. What is most beneficial for all concerned to believe? That these are all our kind mothers killing each other and experiencing – and creating the karmic causes for – a resembling hell. When we recognize the happiness of each being is equally important, we stop rationalizing why it is OK to kill each other’s children. What needs to change is not positions on the battlefield or poltical control over different populations or territory, but how we think about these things.

If this understanding is good enough for pointing the way towards peace in such intractable problems as the millennia of conflict in the holy land, then it is probably good enough to help us navigate through our conflicts within our family, at work, or even within our Dharma communities.

More practically still, within our tantric practice, these understandings guide us on how to move from samsara first into the charnel grounds and ultimately into Keajra itself. How to move from seeing ourself as a suffering sentient being to a bodhisattva and ultimately to a Buddha. Ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions are both less valid and less beneficial than pure appearances and pure conceptions. Our tantric practice of pure view (grounded in an understanding of emptiness) moves us from mistaken appearance to unmistaken appearance. This is not an on/off switch, but rather a volume knob as we slowly make our way to the pure land.

But in the end, it is not enough to just understand these things. We need to do the work in our mind to abandon our invalid, impure minds; dismantle our mistaken and harmful views; and come to believe and ultimately realize the world as a Buddha knows it. Dharma explains how. Sangha are those in the world trying to do the same thing. The more we enmesh ourselves in these three, the more we will naturally move into the truth, the more harmonious all of our relations will become, and the happier both we and those around us will be.

On Transforming our Family’s Suffering, Delusions, and Negative Actions:

Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra, 4. Practicing in Daily Life

My struggle is since I know delusions and negative karma lead to suffering, when I see my family or those I love going down those paths, I quickly develop attachment to them not doing so. This then causes me to try manipulate or change them to not act in these ways, which not only makes me miserable but invites resistance to my efforts and ultimately causes them to reject what could actually help them.

What has helped is realizing I am not responsible for their feelings, reactions, or experiences of life – they are. They are going to feel what they are going to feel, react how they are going to react, and experience what their karma leads to. I need to accept all of that. It doesn’t mean I don’t care or wash myself of any responsibility, it is just an acceptance of how things work. I can’t create karma for them, they have to.

It’s hard, though, since I so don’t want them to suffer. But just as I need to be at peace with my own unpleasant experiences and transform them into my path, I likewise need to be at peace with their unpleasant experiences and negative or deluded reactions and similarly transform the appearances of these things into my path.

It requires me accepting in the short-run, there is not a lot I can do. I can set a good example, I can offer advice when asked, but mostly I just need to accept and do my own inner work. But I need never feel discouraged because I know in the long-run, their suffering is pushing me towards attaining enlightenment for them. I often think of what Gen Tharchin said, namely for every step we take towards enlightenment we bring all beings with us in proportion to our karmic connection with them. He also said those beings who were the primary basis for our generating bodhichitta are among the very first that we will liberate when we become a Buddha.

By playing the long game, eventually I will be in a position to always be with them, for as many lifetimes as it takes, until they gradually do what it takes to free themselves from their misery. Just as my enlightenment is inevitable, theirs is too. We know how this story ends.

From a tantric perspective, we can bring this future result into the path and believe in our correct imagination that they are all actually emanations. This view helps ripen them by bestowing blessings and drawing out their good qualities through our appropriate attention. Ultimately, my suffering family that I normally see does not exist at all. They are just karmic hallucinations of my delusions. I will see the end of their suffering when I attain enlightenment. From the perspective of a tantric practitioner, all beings attain enlightenment with us – even if they don’t see it for themselves.

But in the meantime, a huge part of generating qualified bodhichitta is learning how to both find other’s suffering completely unbearable yet still maintain a happy mind. This is my struggle, but I’m working on it.

Not Mixing Dharma and Politics is Very Subtle

Kadampa Ryan 4. Practicing in Daily Life

One extreme is using Dharma for worldly purposes, saying to disagree with our politics is to disagree with the Dharma. Another extreme is when we let our political views block us from accepting some natural conclusion of Dharma – we reject the Dharma because it doesn’t conform with our tightly held political views.

However, not mixing Dharma and politics does not mean Dharma practitioners cannot have political views or that the Dharma should not inform what are political views are. Sometimes we misunderstand the instruction on not mixing Dharma and politics to mean Kadampas shouldn’t have any political views at all. Politics is part of modern life and our mission is to attain the union of Kadampa Buddhism and modern life. Especially those of us in democracies, we have certain political responsibilities to the societies we live in, and we should embrace these responsibilities and try fulfill them in ways consistent with our understanding of Dharma.

The core principle of any Kadampa center (or on-line Kadampa community) is “everybody welcome.” The Kadam Dharma makes no distinction between race, gender, socioeconomic class, worldly position, mental or physical disability, and so forth. It also makes no distinction between our political views. The truth is most Dharma centers and communities tend to lean left politically, making more right-leaning Kadampas feel less welcome. Just as we need to make sure we are not being racist, sexist, abelist, or whatever in our cultivating a Dharma community culture, we likewise need to make sure we make people of all political stripes feel equally welcome within Kadampa communities.

It is perfectly possible for two sincere Kadampas to arrive at completely contradictory political views. It’s natural that this happens because we each have a different understanding of the world we live in according to our karmic perception of things. We might also occupy different positions in society and so see things differently – yet we still 100% agree on every aspect of the Dharma.

I often find it helpful to consider the experience of Kadampas with schizophrenia. There are quite a number of them, actually. The world that appears vividly to them is sometimes quite different than the world that appears to others. And yes, there is a difference between a schizophrenic hallucination and the conventional world we normally see (though not as much of a difference as we like to think…). In helping them, of course we try help them differentiate between what is a hallucination and what is conventional reality, but sometimes that is not possible. So what advice should we give them? We tell them to respond with Lamrim minds to whatever appears – whether it is demons, their bodies covered in spiders, or fairies adorning everyone with flowers. It doesn’t really matter what appears to their mind, the way they pacify their delusions and mind is to respond with Lamrim to whatever appears. If they do so consistently, even with respect to things that are not there at all even conventionally, their mind will gradually come under greater and greater control, they will create better and better karma, and their appearances will become increasingly pleasant and pure.

The exact same thing is true for Kadampas of different political persuasions. Things like pandemics, wars, elections involving certain political leaders, structural discriminations, or major societal developments can trigger a whole host of different political opinions within the Kadampa community and it can lead to all sorts of divisive debates about what is the correct Kadampa response to the political development, with accusations flying in all directions about who is mixing Dharma with politics and others saying we shouldn’t have any political views at all.

The resolution to all these debates is simple: we all agree on the Dharma but we perceive a different world. Our job for each of us is to respond to whatever appears to OUR mind with as much wisdom and compassion as we can. For some it will lead to one political conclusion and for another it may lead to a completely contradictory political conclusion and that is perfectly OK. We all agree on the Dharma and we respect we may all come to different political conclusions when we apply the Dharma to the world as it appears to us. Then, no problems. Then, everybody welcome.

On Embracing Unpleasant Feelings

Kadampa Ryan 4. Practicing in Daily Life

Throughout my practice, I have been too much in my head and not enough in my heart. I’ve found that as I increasingly move into my heart, I’m unlocking all sorts of other feelings that I have been repressing, some of which are very unpleasant. I’ve realized that I have been running away to my head to escape not knowing how to deal with my unpleasant feelings. It’s basically been my coping mechanism.

While at one level it has protected me from being hurt, it has likewise prevented me from getting into my heart. But I need to get into my heart. The whole point of Dharma practice is to have the Dharma touch and ultimately reside at our heart. To put it in Star Trek terms, I need to see past my Vulcan like tendencies and embrace my human side. 🙂

I’m realizing that, to a certain extent at least, I have been inadvertently using the Dharma as just another inner coping mechanism to escape dealing with my unpleasant feelings. The Dharma is always good for us, but relating to it in unhealthy ways is, um, unhealthy. Many people develop unhealthy relationships with the Dharma and it usually ends badly, both for the person and for the faith of others – and sometimes for the whole tradition.

For me, it seems it is my non-acceptance of my unpleasant feelings that is at the root of all my unhealthy coping mechanisms, both externally like turning to self-destructive behaviors or internally such as guilt, self-discouragement, hopelessness, etc. I suspect I am not alone.

While it’s absolutely true that our feelings are empty and changing our discriminations will change what feelings arise, from a practical point of view of daily experience, feelings arise and we need to respond to them with good discriminations. To put it in karmic terms, feelings are the karmic effects of our previous discrimination kamric causes.

But karma ripens with a lag. The karma that is ripening now (in other words, the feelings arising in my heart) is the result of actions I engaged in long ago, some of which were good, some bad, some pure. How I respond to those feelings determines what new karma I create now.

Sometimes unpleasant feelings arise. Instead of thinking I need to shut them down or change them, I need to accept them wholeheartedly – welcome them into my heart, allow them to pass through me. Accepting them (as opposed to repressing them or thinking they are a problem) enables me to train in correct discriminations towards them, embracing them as teachings, purification, empowerments, and opportunities to train my mind.

In short, unpleasant feelings are not an object of abandonment, delusions and negative actions are. Responding to unpleasant feelings with delusions and negative actions is. Unpleasant feelings, like pleasant ones or even pure ones, are just another condition for our practice. We know sufferings, we abandon origins.

Accepting them, welcoming them, no-longer fearing them, are all part of being a healthy Kadampa. They will still arise, but they won’t be a problem for us.

Eventually, through training long enough, we will change our karma and they will no longer arise for us. We will have exhausted or purified all the karma giving rise to them and we will no longer create any more karma for future unpleasant feelings, but long before that we will have overcome our fear of them. Indeed, we can start doing that right now.

Do Not Despair, No Matter How Hard it Gets

Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra, 4. Practicing in Daily Life, 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden

The bottom line is this: each person is experiencing their own little world of hallucinations. We are all schizophrenic from one perspective. A world appears vividly to our mind, and we respond to that world as if it were actually real, when in reality it is nothing more than our karmic hallucinations. This is equally true for everyone. The only difference is some people’s hallucinations are more calm or “normal” than others. But they are all equally hallucinations.

The challenge is we each have a different set of hallucinations, and they don’t necessarily correspond to what others are hallucinating. So we may be acting in a PERFECTLY RATIONAL WAY relative to how the world is appearing to us, our family is likewise acting in a perfectly rational way relative to how the world is appearing to them, and the same is true for everyone else. For us, it might make no sense how our family or society are acting. For our family, it might make no sense how we are acting. Many can’t understand how society is acting, but it makes sense to them relative to their world. Everyone then accuses each other of being crazy and they are the only normal one. Nope, sorry, we are all crazy – just a different kind of crazy.

So what can we do to address this? There are two things I am aware of:

First, instead of fighting with people about why they act the way they do, we need to improve our communication with them so we at least mutually understand one another. Ask them questions about how they perceive things and why they act the way they do, not out of defensiveness, but in trying to understand the world as it appears to them. Likewise, we can share our perspective with them so they understand how the world appears to us and why we act the way we do. They will continue to think they are in reality and we are in crazy land, but that’s OK. We understand we are all crazy, just in different ways. But virtually all conflict comes from misunderstanding each other’s appearing worlds. If we take the time to understand the world appearing to their mind better, there will be less scope for misunderstanding and conflict. Things will externally pacify somewhat at best or we will understand better at worst.

Second, regardless of what appears, respond with Lamrim minds. It doesn’t matter even if everything appearing to our mind is schizophrenic hallucinations (I know it isn’t, but it also is like it is for everybody else). The point is this is HOW the world is currently appearing to us, whether it has any grounding in reality or not. How the world appears to us is NOTHING MORE than a mere karmic appearance to mind. But it is OUR karma. It is OUR karmic dream, every last bit of it. The only way to change the karmic dream is to change our karma. There is no other way. The way to change our karma is to change our actions.

It is possible for us to change our karma for the worse or for the better. The choice is ours. The way we change it for the better is by trying, to the best of our ability, to put the Lamrim into practice. Try to recognize we have a precious human life with which we can accomplish spiritual goals. Admit that we may die at any point and could fall into the lower realms. Generate qualified refuge in your mind. Follow assiduously the laws of karma. Generate the wish to wake up from all our contaminated karmic hallucinations. Generate the wish to help others do the same – they think they are in reality when they are just trapped in a different kind of crazy. Dissolve the guru into your heart, and ask him to work through you, to bless your mind, to guide you out. Above all, rely on Dorje Shugden, requesting him to arrange all the outer, inner, and secret conditions you need to advance along the path to enlightenment.

If we do these things in our daily life, responding to whatever arises with some Lamrim mind, Venerable Geshe-la 100% guarantees us that things will get better. Not right away. They could get worse in the short term, who knows what karma we have created or has ripened, but if we play the LONG GAME, it is 100% guaranteed if we change our actions, we will change our karma, and that will change what appears to us. There is no doubt about this. Tantric practice is just a super-charged method of doing this.

Both of these solutions will require a great deal of patience. Things will take time. But they will help. And they will work in the long run. It doesn’t matter how lost we are or where we find ourselves, it is never too late to start heading in the right direction. If we never give up, we will eventually get to where we want to go.

We Need Never Worry

Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra, 4. Practicing in Daily Life

When we dissolve everything into the clear light, we don’t just dissolve our own body and mind into emptiness – transporting ourselves to the inner pure land – we also can dissolve the bodies and minds of everyone we love into emptiness – transporting them also to the inner pure land.

Just like us, their samsara is a mere karmic appearance to their minds, a hallucination they believe is real and suffer from. But their samsara is not just empty with respect to THEIR minds, it is also empty with respect to our mind. They suffer because they believe their samsara and they believe the lies of their delusions.

When we dissolve them into the clear light, we should imagine we are freeing them from the clouds of hallucinations that have been tormenting them and they are freed and delivered into the inner pure land where they enjoy infinite peace and omniscient wisdom.

Dissolving them into emptiness doesn’t make them cease, it just makes their samsara they normally see cease. Their minds remain, abiding in the bliss of the emptiness of all things.

We should feel that our meditations on emptiness are supreme acts of compassion and that those we dissolve into the clear light are directly blessed by the definitive guru because we dissolve the mental obstructions between them and his loving care.

When we think about it, if we allow their samsara to again reappear to our mind, it is like we are re-imprisoning them in a samsara of our creation. We can’t do that! So out of compassion, we again dissolve them back into the clear light, imagining we are re-delivering them to everlasting joy. This is Vajrayana Mahamudra.

All of this works because it is correct imagination and they are empty. There will of course be a lag between when we see them this way and they come to see themselves in this way, but if we keep at it for as long as it takes, eventually they will. This is why we need never worry.

Just as nobody can stop us from leaving the prison of samsara if we choose to do so, so too nobody can stop us from also freeing everybody else from samsara.

According to common appearance, it will appear as if they are freeing themselves (they will be blessed to start to do the right things, if not in this life in some future life), but from the uncommon perspective of our own enlightenment, we will directly perceive us having liberated all beings and they all abide with us in the pure land, not just at some point in the future, but always in all three times.

It will be as if samsara never was, not just for us, but for everyone. As Nagarjuna said, with emptiness, everything is possible.

The Path May be Joyful, but Walking it Can be Painful:

Kadampa Ryan 4. Practicing in Daily Life

We have to go through a lot of pain before we can develop a qualified bodhichitta.

First, we have to admit to ourselves that our situation in samsara is hopeless without giving into despair because we have found a way out.

Then, we have to get to the point where we cannot bear those we love suffering without any trace of self-concern or despondency.

Finally, we have to accept we are currently powerless to do much to help those we love and they will continue to suffer for a long time until we become a Buddha for them, and even then they will have to do the work themselves.

Each one of these is like walking on a mental tightrope and falling into the extremes on either side of each one is very painful. We will fall. We will hurt. We will cry. It will not be easy.

This journey is only made in the heart and the heart feels. We have to have the courage to knowingly and willingly take on the inner hurt associated with embarking on this inner journey. It’s not all adventure and rainbows. It’s a whole lot of struggle and inner pain.

It’s easier to just think ignorance is bliss than accept the truth of our situation. It’s easier to harden our heart to other’s plight than take on their pain. It’s easier to fool ourselves into thinking we are farther along the path than we really are than accept without discouragement that we are still a mess. It is easier to believe that somehow everyone will be OK and they not fall deeper into samsara than accept that virtually everyone we love is on a one-way ticket to the lower realms. It’s easier to just stay at the intellectual level than move into the heart.

But the easy way is in fact the hard way. The hard way is, in the long-run, the easier way because there is an end. We have been shown what we need to do. It works for all who try it.

But nobody said it would be painless.

Common and Uncommon Pure View:

Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra, 4. Practicing in Daily Life

In Tantric Grounds and Paths, VGL explains there are three main practices during the meditation break: Viewing everything as manifestations of emptiness, viewing everything as manifestations of our mind of great bliss, and viewing everything as manifestations of enlightened deities. I think we can say from the perspective of a practitioner on the path, we first train in seeing things as manifestations of deities until this becomes our daily experience, then we train in seeing them as manifestations of our mind of great bliss until that becomes our daily experience, then finally we train in seeing them as manifestations of emptiness. This is moving from gross to subtle to very subtle.

Normally we think of the nature truth body as the deepest level of the Dharmakaya and the wisdom truth body as like its surface, like waves on the surface of the ocean. I think this is common appearance from the perspective of a practitioner on the path.

From the uncommon perspective of a Buddha, I think we can say the wisdom truth body is found inside the emptiness of the nature truth body. When we think about the four profundities, we first need to realize ultimate truth before we can realize conventional truth, then we realize they are non-dual, though still nominally distinct. Then our understanding of emptiness is complete.

For a Buddha, they see inside the emptiness of all phenomena is their omniscient mind of great bliss, and inside that are countless emanations of enlightened deities. This is exactly how we experience the three bringings. Things are not becoming more gross as we move from truth body to enjoyment body to emanation body, rather we are seeing increasingly subtle levels. The most subtle of all is seeing appearance as inside emptiness. We see only emptiness, but it is directly appearing as completely purified all phenomena. This is what is meant by completing the practice of clear light. Instead of seeing appearance as a more gross conventional truth we directly see it as an ultimate truth inside emptiness.

In short, Buddhas see so deeply into emptiness they see appearance. For a Buddha, the gross is the nature Truth Body, the subtle is the wisdom truth body, and the very subtle is the emanation bodies. Hinayana Foe Destroyers absorb into emptiness, but it is only when we remove the obstructions to omniscience from that clear light emptiness that we attain the omniscient mind of a Buddha seeing directly all phenomena inside emptiness. In Sutra Mahamudra we say the mind is so clear, it knows. In Tantra Mahamudra, I think we can say our mind of great bliss is so empty, it appears and functions. Buddha see this directly.

Thoughts?