5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden

Cultivating true self-confidence: Fulfilling your spiritual destiny

Kadampa Ryan 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden, Cultivating a true self-confidence

This series of posts combines together much of my understanding of what it means to be a Kadampa and how that serves as the basis for an infinite self-confidence.  In the first few posts we learned how to construct a reliable basis for self-confidence:  our virtuous actions, our overcoming of our delusions and our pure potential.  In the subsequent posts, we learned how to practice self-confidence by learning how to wholeheartedly accept everything and everyone, how to embark upon the Bodhisattva’s path by making a vajra commitment to others and how to become a qualified member of the vajra family.

In the next two posts we will talk about where to go from here.  What do we do with all of this?  To answer this question, I will first try explain how all our past spiritual practices over countless previous lives have ripened in the form of this one moment.  Then, in the final post of this series, I will talk about how to fully seize the opportunity we now have.

Understanding how all our past spiritual practices over countless previous lives have ripened in the form of this one moment

How can we understand this? We currently have everything:  We have a precious human life.  We were not born a hell being, we were not born a hungry ghost, we were not born an animal, we were not born a demi-god, we were not born a god, we have all our mental and physical faculties, we live in a country where religion is tolerated, we live in a country where there is the pure Dharma, we live at a time when Tantra is being taught, we have a strong interest in spiritual matters, we have the resources necessary to practice.  We have access to Dharma centers.  We have found a pure spiritual tradition with a robust spiritual community and pure instructions, we have the opportunity ourselves to work to cause the Dharma to flourish and engage in a bodhisattva’s actions.  We have all the books, all the sadhanas, the study programs, a qualified spiritual guide, everything.

None of this happens without a cause.  Essentially all the karma on our mind is negative.  We have spent 99% of our previous lives in the lower realms where we engaged almost exclusively in negative actions.  When we were in the upper realms we rarely if ever engaged in virtue, but instead just burned up our merit.  It is extremely difficult for us to engage in virtue. Look how easy it is for us to get angry versus how hard it is to love somebody else unconditionally without expecting anything in return.  Psychologists estimate that for most humans, it is 9 times easier to generate a negative thought than a positive one.  To create the cause for just a human rebirth, you need to engage in a pure action of moral discipline together with stainless prayer for an upper rebirth.  How often do we do that?  And we are Dharma practitioners.  I did the math once, and karmically speaking a life like this happens roughly only once every 475 trillion lives!

But look at all that we have.  We have created the cause for every single thing we are currently experiencing.  We have been saving up our spiritual pennies for countless lives, and they have all ripened in this life.  Dorje Shugden has caused it all to ripen in this one opportunity.  It is, for all practical purposes, now or never.  Essentially all of our Dharma karma is ripening right now.  If we waste this opportunity, the causes which created it will exhaust themselves and then we will have nothing left.  This should cause our heart to crack open with fear.  If, however, we use this opportunity to the fullest, then we will create the causes to continue and eventually get out.  It is as if we are in a line hundreds of billions of people long, and we are third in line.  Now is not the time to get out of line because we see some shiny object of attachment.

For all practical purposes, our choice at the end of this life is the pure land or hell.  These are basically our only two options at the end of this life.  Why?  If negative karma ripens at the time of our death, we will fall.  What activates negative karma at the time of our death?  If we respond to the death process with delusion and a negative mind, it will activate negative seeds and we will fall.  Right now, when we encounter just the smallest of inconvenience or discomfort we respond with negative minds.  Death is the loss of everything.  Everything will be taken away from us.  We will realize how almost everything we worked for in this life was for naught.  Our body will likely be in pain perhaps from cancer.  Our mental faculties will be dulled, whether it is from old age or all the medicine we will be on.   As we die, there is a good possibility we will feel as if we are suffocating.  If we can’t deal with the check out line at the grocery story without delusion, how will we manage death?

We must not allow the laziness of indolence to cause us to waste this precious opportunity.  We must actively seek out and destroy our delusions, like a resistance fighter living under occupation.  I know a practitioner who calls delusions warlords who have seized control of the field of our mind.  We must not allow objects of attachment to distract us.  Spirits can give you everything to keep you distracted and then at the time of death they reveal themselves saying ‘gotcha’ as you fall into hell having wasted this opportunity.

We need to realize what all you can accomplish with this life.  We can solve all the problems of this life, we can prevent ourself from ever having to fall into the lower realms again, we can permanently wake up from the nightmare of samsara, we can gain all the abilities of a Buddha.  We have a local Dharma center with which right now we can engage in a bodhisattva’s actions.  Through the center we can cause the Dharma to flourish and directly engage in a bodhisattva’s actions.  If all of this didn’t exist, we could only intellectualize about the Dharma.  So what are we going to do with the opportunity we have?

Cultivating true self-confidence: Unity born from being part of the same entity.

Kadampa Ryan 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden, Cultivating a true self-confidence

What is the unity born from being part of the same entity?  Here, we realize that we are all ultimately the same entity.

The correct meaning is we don’t say everything everyone does in the NKT  is perfect, rather we say I can transform everything they do, the good, the bad and the ugly, into something that is perfect for my own practice.  We can learn much more from people’s mistakes than their successes because people generally make many more mistakes than they do things right.  Each mistake we observe teaches us something, so even though it is a mistake in a conventional sense, for us it is perfect for our practice.  When we extend this understanding, we start to see the guru as the synthesis of all three jewels.  We see the Deities of our tradition as our personal Buddha Jewels, we see the books and teachings of our tradition as our family Dharma Jewels, and we will see the teachers and practitioners of our tradition as our close Sangha Jewels.  Since we are teachers and practitioners of the Kadam Dharma, it is correct to say that we are the same entity as the guru.  He gave birth to us and everything we have comes from him.  To see our Sangha as the spiritual guide appearing in the aspect of all Sangha Jewels means to make no distinction between Sangha and Geshe-la.  When we think Geshe-la, we think our Sangha.  When we think our Sangha, we think Geshe-la.  Our relationship with our Sangha is our relationship with Geshe-la, and vice versa.  If our relationship with even one member of the Sangha is not good, then our relationship with one aspect/part of our spiritual guide is not good.  The same logic applies to our relationship with each instruction in the tradition and each deity in our pantheon.  If we extend this view deeply, we come to feel our bodies as being Geshe-la’s body in this world.  Our speech will become Geshe-la’s speech in this world.  Our thoughts will become Geshe-la’s mind in this world.  We are all part of the same entity.   If we have unity born from same entity, we will naturally have unity born from a common view and from this common purpose and being polite and considerate to one another.  In my view, unity born from the same entity is our final goal and what Geshe-la is encouraging us to arrive at.

So what should we do concretely?  We shouldn’t keep our focus just our local center or teacher, but we should try understand how they fit within the larger picture of the tradition (we act locally, but we think globally).  We should try develop relationships with members of our extended vajra family.  For me, for example, my main teachers have been Gen Lekma, Gen Lhamo, Kadam Bjorn, Venerable Tharchin, Gen-la Samden (when he was Gen-la), Gen-la Khyenrab, and Gen-la Dekyong.  I likewise feel very closely connected with Kadam Lucy, Kadam Morten and my dear friend Kadam Olivier.  Spiritually speaking, these people have been my principal spiritual influences.  My home Sangha will always be the Sangha of Santa Barbara in the mid-1990s because that is where I spent my spiritual childhood.  We are almost all still around somewhere.  It was a great group.  The Sangha where I was really a member of a spiritual home is the Sangha of the Suisse Romande (French-speaking Switzerland).  This is when I was with my spiritual family of my own.  They are all each practicing in their own way now.  What I find is I naturally seem to form easy friendships with students of my main influences.  I think we should actively seek to build bridges across the entire vajra family by meeting and developing relationships with those in other parts of the vajra family.  This is why those who go to the festivals year after year feel like they are going back to a family reunion.  Our center, teachers, our courses and our Sangha are simply microcosms of the larger universe of our tradition which we should rely upon entirely as inseparable from the guru Geshe-la, who himself is nothing more than how Je Tsongkhapa is appearing in this world for us.  Because our center is a microcosm we lack nothing and have all we need, but because it is a reflection of a bigger picture, we can have so much more…

 

Cultivating true self-confidence: Becoming part of an epic revolution

Kadampa Ryan 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden, Cultivating a true self-confidence

In this post I will explain my understanding of how to become part of something bigger than ourselves.  When we consider ourselves as this small, ordinary individual, then we are correct in feeling like we are nothing.  But if we are part of something bigger than us, we are able to generate confidence from that larger entity – for example, being part of some large, powerful organization everybody benefits from that power.  It is the same thing in the spiritual realm.  The bigger thing we can become a part of is the vajra family.  It is like we put our individual candles together, and we each benefit from the blazing sun this creates.  First I will talk about what is the vajra family, then I will talk about how we can become a part of it – become a qualified member of it.  In the next post I will elaborate more on how to become a qualified member of our vajra family by uniting with it.

What is the vajra family?

First, we need some background on the vajra family.  Who is the head of the vajra family?  It is Buddha Vajradhara, who is currently appearing to us as Geshe-la. What is the purpose/mission of the vajra family?  Its ultimate purpose is to help all beings awaken themselves into the eternal, pure happiness of the Dharmakaya.  The temporary purpose is to solve all the problems of all living beings for all their lives.  What is the principal means by which this mission is accomplished?  By changing our own mind – we seek to change the external by changing the internal, not the other way around.  If I change my mind, I change the world since my mind projects it.  We focus simply on practicing Dharma purely and helping others to do the same.  Who are the members of the vajra family?  They are the Spiritual guide, our teachers, our sangha, past, present and future; our students, past, present and future; our close karmic circle of family, friends, colleagues, and the people we interact with in our area.  In short, the are in the broadest possible sense, the field of merit of all living beings.

How do we become a qualified member of the vajra family?

The Vajra family is open to everyone who wishes to be a part of it, so to become part of it, you simply have to want to do so.  The relevant question then becomes what do we need to do to make ourselves a qualified member of this family?

So how do we become a qualified member of the vajra family?  I this post I will discuss five different things we can do, and in the next post I will explain five more:

  1. Make a vajra commitment to take personal responsibility for the eventual enlightenment of each member of your vajra family.  To our Spiritual Guide and teachers, we need to make a commitment to strive to fulfil their pure wishes that you share, the ones that resonate in our heart.  This last point is very important.  The Spiritual Guide has countless good wishes for living beings.  At our current stage of development, we do not equally feel all of his good wishes.  There are some of his pure wishes that particularly “speak to us” and “move our heart.”  These are the ones we share with him.  These are the ones we should focus our efforts on.  We should not try force ourselves to work on wishes that we don’t (yet) share, because that can lead to all sorts of tension and resentments.  Rather, we pursue the wishes we share, and in doing so the scope of our own wishes will expand until eventually we share all of his good wishes.
  2. We should strive to align our personal aspirations with those of the Spiritual Guide – make his aspirations your aspirations.  Make what you want be what he wants.
  3. We should also strive to gain the realizations that we need to fulfil our commitment to our vajra family.  For example, if we see those around us suffer from anger, we should gain the experience of using the Dharma to overcome our own anger.  If we see those around us suffer from pride, we should gain the experience of using the Dharma to overcome our own pride.  By practicing in this way, you will naturally gain the realizations that your vajra family will need, and then almost by osmosis of being in regular contact with the Sangha, everyone will benefit from your realization, which will help them overcome the same problems in their minds.
  4. It is also vitally important to accept yourself and others fully without guilt or judgement to create a space in which yourself and others can change and allow your good qualities to flourish.  In an earlier post we talked about how the way our parents treated us influences how we treat ourselves which influences how we treat others.  In the same way, we should study how our vajra father, the head of our Vajra Family, Buddha Vajradhara appearing as Je Tsongkhapa appearing as Venerable Geshe-la treats us.  We should then treat ourself that way and then treat others accordingly.  Remember it is a delusion to think that the members of your vajra family are anything other than perfect for our practice just the way they are.  This doesn’t mean they are objectively perfect from their own side, rather this means that all of their faults and limitations are perfect for our practice, just the way they are.  We don’t need them to change because we appreciate how they are perfect.  If they do change for the better, then that is perfect too!  It is all good.  Basically, we need to have zero expectations and indeed desire that the members of our vajra family be any different.  For me, the easiest way to accept everyone is to view them all as extensions of the body, speech and mind of the guru manifesting as Dorje Shugden’s enlightened deeds.
  5. If we are a teacher or a more senior member of a local Sangha, it is very important that we strive to help others accomplish their personally chosen spiritual goals, not manipulate them with the Dharma to get them to accomplish ‘our’ spiritual goals for them.  We should not try to change others, rather we should just focus on changing ourself.  We need to 100% respect people’s freedom to do as they choose, and in that space we demonstrate our good heart and intention.  If we do this, people will naturally come and ask questions without us having to seek them out.  When they do ask of us, we seek only to give them the information they need to use their freedom wisely – we help them understand the consequences of their actions.  Because we have patient acceptance, we do not resist anything and do not need them to make any particular choice because we know how to use it all for our practice.  When we have this mind, we amazingly no longer feel the need to push anybody away because they are faulty or deluded.  What freedom!

Cultivating a true self-confidence: How do we make our life a samsaric purification system?

Kadampa Ryan 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden, Cultivating a true self-confidence

In the last post we examined how to make our life the synthesis experience of all living beings.  Now the question is how do we then make our entire life a method for purifying the samsara of all living beings.  How do we practice this?  The core of it is we exchange self with others, where we are identifying with their minds.  When we have done this, then what arises in our mind is actually what is arising in their mind.  First we say, “their delusions are my delusions” – we impute ‘my delusions’ onto the basis of the aggregate nexus of their delusions.  Second, we say “my delusions are their delusions” – we impute ‘their delusions’ onto the basis of the delusions arising within our own mind.  We know we have done it correctly when we experience life as both of these simultaneously and without any contradiction.  My experiences are their experiences – their aggregate experiences are my experiences.  Both of these simultaneously and without any contradiction.  My mind is their mind, their mind is my mind, both simultaneously and without any contradiction.  My subtle body is their subtle body, their subtle body is my subtle body, both simultaneously and without any contradiction. There is simply no longer any independent self or Ryan – “Ryan” becomes ‘nothing other than’ a microcosmic reflection of my vajra family.

With this recognition, we use all of the Dharma we have against ‘my delusions’ (the delusions arising within our mind).  We work exclusively on our own mind.  There are two different ways we can practice this:  King-like bodhichitta (or Christ-like bodhichitta) – it feels like I am treating directly my delusions, and by doing so I am indirectly treating their delusions that I have taken on (so directly me, indirectly them).  Christ took on the negative karma of all living beings, and then his suffering was actually the negative karma of others ripening on him so others didn’t have to experience it.  By generating faith in him, one gains access to his special blessings which function to free our from our negative karma by allowing him to take it upon himself.  In the same way, we take on the negativities, delusions and obstructions of our vajra family, and then the negative karma, delusions and obstructions that we experience are actually those of others ripening on us so that others don’t have to experience it.  By others generating faith in us, they gain access to our special blessings which function to free them from their negative karma, delusions and obstructions by allowing us to take them upon ourself.  We design our own enlightenment in this way.  With divine pride thinking I am Heruka doing this we generate the feeling like we are treating directly their delusions in their mind for them, and by doing so we are indirectly treating our own delusions by creating the karma to have Buddhas do the same for us.  Eventually these two methods will collapse into the same thing without any contradiction.

Technically speaking, how can we do this?  We essentially take on the contaminated karma of our vajra family.  This includes all the negative karma, deluded tendencies similar to the cause and their obstructions to omniscience.  This is possible to do directly if we have sufficient compassion/superior intention, concentration and understanding of emptiness.  We can more easily also accomplish this through requests to Dorje Shugden.  We have on our mind the contaminated karma for virtually any experience.  So we are essentially requesting Dorje Shugden to activate the karma in our mind that corresponds with the delusions and negative karma of our vajra family. We make requests to Dorje Shugden and dedicate, “may the delusions that arise in my mind be those of my vajra family; and when I overcome them in my mind may they be eliminated from their minds.”

What are the benefits of this practice?  First, it will give our suffering meaning, so we will gladly accept it.  Second, it will eliminate all of ‘our’ delusions in one fell swoop.  We will no longer have any delusions, they will be those of our vajra family.  Third, it will help us cut our identification with the delusions arising within our mind.  They are not our delusions, they are the delusions of others that we have taken on.  Fourth, with this practice, Bodhichitta comes naturally.  We see the direct connection between overcoming our delusions and negative karma and benefiting others.  The distinction between ourselves becoming a Buddha and our leading others to enlightenment disappears.  When we engage in our practices, we are directly working on the delusions arising in our mind, but we understand them to be those of our vajra family.  Finally, by overcoming the delusions arising in our mind, we gain the realizations we need to help those with these delusions overcome them.

This practice also enables us to create a special karmic connection with these beings which will ripen in the form of them being our disciples in the future.  This practice will karmically draw you closer to these beings in the form of you having a special relationship with them as your disciple.  This practice and this faith enables them to appear in your life.  Dorje Shugden does not activate the karma for them to come into our life before we have the realizations necessary to actually help them.  When we overcome their delusions in our mind, then we will know how to help them.  It is at this time that Dorje Shugden activates the karma for them to appear.  It is in this way that centers grow, and why Venerable Tharchin said that what we need to do to make the center grow is for ourselves, the members of the center, to gain realizations.

By eliminating others’ delusions in our mind, we eliminate them in their minds.  This is so because their faults and delusions come from our mind anyway.  If we understand this deeply, we will see we can directly engage in the actions of a Buddha right now.  We can carry the entire vajra family forward in proportion to their karmic connection with us simply by working on our own mind.

Cultivating a true self-confidence: Embarking upon the bodhisattva’s path

Kadampa Ryan 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden, Cultivating a true self-confidence

In this post we will discuss how to embark upon the bodhisattva’s path by making a vajra commitment to others.  A vajra commitment is a commitment to take personal responsibility for the eventual enlightenment of somebody else.  We promise somebody that we will do everything we can to help them attain enlightenment as quickly as possible.  We promise that we will continue working for their behalf for as long as it takes, even if that means countless lifetimes.  We will never abandon them.  We don’t have to directly do this with them, but internally we make such a commitment.

Who do we make these vajra commitments to?  Our vajra family.  Who is our vajra family?  Our sangha, our future students, our close karmic circle of friends and family.  Why do we start with our vajra family?   Because they are closest in our spiritual karmic proximity.  We can help people spiritually in proportion to our karmic connections with them.  Making a vajra commitment to somebody is the highest possible commitment we can make to another living being.  There is no higher commitment.  Helping people spiritually is the method for providing the greatest possible benefit.  If we can help somebody else attain enlightenment, we double the number of Buddhas working for others – like opening a second cash register at the supermarket.

Why do we make vajra commitments to others?  Because doing so puts ourselves in perfect alignment with the Buddhas, so their power flows through us, and as a result, we naturally and easily have self-confidence.  We credibly feel as if we can accomplish anything.  Making such commitments to others is the best possible thing we can do for our practice.  It changes everything in our life, like somebody having a child.  But it is much more than being a parent, because we are concerned for others’ spiritual welfare and our commitment is for all their future lives. Vajra commitments make our bodhichitta real, not abstract.  Bodhichitta is the wish to become a Buddha for the sake of others.  When we have others who we are personally responsible for, we need to get serious about gaining realizations to be able to help them.

As unattainable as such commitments may seem, they are in accordance with reality.  Things are empty, which means others are nothing other than projections of our own mind.  They are a part of us, like our right hand.  Anything we would do for ourselves, we do for others because we see no difference between us and them – everyone is ‘us’.  We are their creator – we created them, so of course it is our responsibility to take care of them like any good creator should.  We need to lead every appearance in our mind to enlightenment.  This is the meaning of a ‘great enlightenment.’

How to fulfill our vajra commitment to others

There are several different means by which we can fulfil our vajra commitment to others, but I will explain two:  ‘owing others faults as your own’ and ‘viewing your faults as those you have taken on’.

The first method is to own others faults as your own.  When you see faults in others, ‘own their faults as your own.’  The only reason why others appear to have any faults is because we ourselves possess the same fault within our mind.  When we see a fault in somebody else, we should see that person as a ‘mirror-like’ Buddha who reflects back to us our own faults.  Then we should find that fault within ourself and purge it like bad blood.  If we have difficulty identifying it within ourself, we can rest assured it is there.  We can also make requests to Dorje Shugden, please help me clearly identify this fault in my mind.

When you do this, several things happen:  First, you will gain the realizations you need to be able to help the other person overcome their fault because you do it yourself.  Second, you will show the best possible example for the other person, namely the example of somebody overcoming, or being free from, their biggest fault. Third, you will be able to maintain pure view of the other person, or at the very least find them to be precious for you so you will cherish them.  Fourth, amazingly, the fault will actually disappear in the other person.  The fault in the other person actually comes from your own mind, when you eliminate it from your mind, it will disappear from the other person.  In this way, a Bodhisattva gradually leads all beings to enlightenment.  And fifth, even if none of the above occur, at the very least, you will have one less fault in your own mind!

The second method is to view your delusions and negative karma as those you have taken on (from your vajra family).  When a delusion arises in your mind, imagine that it is one that you have taken on – that of your vajra family or your future students.  Imagine that as you overcome it in your mind, you are eliminating it in their mind.  For example, when you are sick, imagine you are removing their sickness; when you have a delusion, imagine you are overcoming all of their delusions, etc.  We take on the delusions of our vajra family because we realize we are in a better position to work through them than they are.   Our mind becomes like a computer monitor which reflects the aggregate nexus of the delusions arising in the minds of our vajra family.  We become like a contaminated mind treatment facility.  We bring in delusions and negative karma, we treat it within our mind and then return it back purified.

In the next post we will explore how we actually put this into practice.

Cultivating a true self-confidence: Abiding in a pure land right now

Kadampa Ryan 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden, Cultivating a true self-confidence

During the first several posts under this series, we looked at how to meditate on self-confidence by constructing a reliable basis for confidence.  In this post we will explore how to actually practice self-confidence by looking at (1) What it means to wholeheartedly accept others just the way they are, (2) how we can wholeheartedly accept others just the way they are, and (3) some special considerations on practicing within our capacity.

What it means to wholeheartedly accept others just the way they are

To accept wholeheartedly means to welcome.  Right now we have a problem with everything.  There are certain people or situations which we would rather avoid and we push them away or resist them.  We live in samsara.  We resist these things because we think they cause us suffering.  If we can instead learn to use all of these situations, then we wouldn’t need to resist them but we could accept them wholeheartedly.  As our ability to use difficult people to accomplish our spiritual goals increases, so too does our confidence because difficult situations no longer pose a problem for us.  We will fear nothing.

So what does it mean in practice to wholeheardly accept others just the way they are?  It means to abandon attachment to others changing.  We have attachment to others changing when we feel that our happiness depends on others changing.  In reality, if you think that others are anything other than perfect just the way they are, you are wrong.  This is worth repeating like a mantra.  Normally we try change others, even sometimes motivated by concern for their interests, but we cannot change others – only they can change themselves.   We can help them change in the way they want to, but we shouldn’t try change them the way we want them to.  When we accept someone as they are, we create the space for them to change.  When we don’t accept others, they become defensive and self-justifying and this blocks all change.

It means to respect 100% their freedom to choose their own actions.  Normally we ask ourselves how much freedom we should give others, but the reality is they already have all the freedom.  Our job is to respect that and give them the information they need to use their freedom wisely.  It means we push nothing away and resist nothing. We accept the situation as it is without resistance, and then deal with it.  It does no good to live in denial of how things are   We do not resist the situation or others because we don’t need to.  We can use everything.  This doesn’t mean we don’t do what needs to be done, but we just accept reality as it is.  Like a cancer patient who accepts their cancer and then deals with it.  It means we create around ourselves a zone of total acceptance without any judgement.  We don’t judge others, but accept them as perfect just the way they are.

How can we wholeheartedly accept others just the way they are?

There are several different things we can do that will enable us to do this:  First, we need to learn to accept ourself without judgement.  A very senior teacher explained to me once that the way we treat ourselves determines how we treat others.  If we are hard on ourselves, we will be hard on others.  If we accept ourselves, we will accept others.  A strong influence of how we treat ourselves is how our parents treated us.  Usually people motivate and chastise themselves as their parents did to them.  So we need to check this.  To accept ourselves is to accept that we will have delusions.  Just as a body farts, an ordinary mind has delusions.  We accept this as it is, without judgement.  It is just the nature of things.  We don’t expect it to be any different.    When we accept ourselves without judgement, then we create the space for ourselves to change.  I am sick, time to get better.

We can consider everyone to be an emanation of your spiritual guide who has come to teach you different spiritual lessons.   We can accept others because they are so useful for our practice.  So it depends upon our ability to transform whatever others do into an opportunity for us to practice.  We can view ourselves as being on solitary retreat right now, inside our heart, and everything is emanated by your spiritual guide.  We can view these as opportunities to purify.  Problems are the ripening of our negative karma.  If we happily accept them as purification it purifies our negative karma.  We can view it as a lesson in karma – we need to avoid negative actions and engage in virtuous.  We can view it as a lesson in renunciation – samsara is the nature of suffering, so let go of any expectation that it be any different.  Use the fact that by nature broken to make the decision to ‘get out of this dump.’  We can use it as a lesson in cherishing others – all problems come from cherishing ourself, all happiness comes from cherishing others.  Lesson in compassion, bodhichitta and emptiness.

We need to learn to accept and indeed cherish others faults.   We need to accept that they are deluded.  We usually have anger wishing that they were different.  We don’t want to deal with their delusions.  The belief that they are anything other than perfect is a delusion.  We will talk more next post about how to respond to others being deluded.  The greatest quality others have is their faults because these are the most useful thing for us as Dharma practitioners.  If we see their faults of others as qualities, they are no longer faults!  We can practice pure view with respect to their faults.  Pure view does not say what the other person is doing is perfect, rather is asks ourselves the question, “how can I receive perfect benefit from what this person is in fact doing?”  When we receive perfect benefit, then we can honestly think perhaps this person is a Buddha with just very skilful means.

We should rejoice in whatever others do do, and ignore the rest.  Rejoicing in others should be our main practice.  The world you pay attention to is the world you experience.  If you pay attention to others’ faults, you will live in a faulty world; if you pay attention to others’ good qualities, you will live in a pure world.  Whatever you relate to, you draw out.  If you relate to people’s faults, you will draw them out; and if you relate to their good qualities, you will draw them out.  So this is a real act of compassion.  Rejoicing creates the cause to acquire whatever good quality you are rejoicing in.  Criticizing creates the causes to acquire the faults that you criticize.  Rejoicing is the root of the Mahayana path.  Enlightenment depends upon bodhichitta, which depends upon compassion, which depends upon cherishing others, which depends upon finding others precious, which depends upon our finding them attractive/useful.

How does this mind of acceptance enable us to be in a pure land right now?  A pure land is a place where there is no manifest suffering and everything leads us to enlightenment.  Through the mind of acceptance, we can use everything, so nothing is a problem for us – just an opportunity to grow.  In this way there is no manifest suffering.  Everything functions to push us out of samsara.  Everything confirms the Dharma and propels us further on our path, so all energy put into the system gets channeled into pushing us out.  So it is just like a pure land.  We can then be like the Buddhas who are able to remain in samsara and joyfully use everything to help beings get out.

Capacity considerations for engaging in this practice

Here are some considerations for being able to practice this:  First, we should know when we should practice it.  We practice it on unavoidable suffering.  If we can deal with some situation through normal means, we do so; but for the unavoidable stuff, we practice patient acceptance.  Geshe-la gives the example of a headache:  take an asprin and practice acceptance until it kicks in.  Second, we need to be aware of our capacity of what we can transform and what we cant.  The test is not whether a situation is difficult, but rather whether remaining in it destroys our capacity to practice.  Third, we need to find a middle way between being a doormat and being a jerk.  This is done by learning how to establish clear, fair limits.  We don’t set limits for others, we set limits for ourself.  “I am incapable of being in a relationship where you are going off with somebody else, etc.”  We then respect completely the freedom of the other person to decide.  Our limits should not be aimed at having the other person change, but on our own ability to change and what is best for our practice.  Fourth, we need to accept our mistakes.  We will make many mistakes, but we need to accept them (in other words, use them).  It’s normal that we will make mistakes, so we accept this without guilt.  We then learn from our mistakes and try do better next time.

 

Center as home, home as center

Kadampa Ryan 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden

I had a dream recently in which I was visiting my old center.  I was having a conversation with the teacher there.  I was explaining to him how the absolute most important thing is to create a feeling of family among the Sangha.  If our center turns itself into a war zone, where the teachers, administration and students are struggling against one another, we have no center, even if all the physical infrastructure is there.  When I awoke from the dream, I realized that the responsibility of each member of any center (whether they are teachers, administrators or students) is to actively make our centers home and make our homes our centers.

What do I understand this to mean?  We need to take what it means to be a good home and cultivate that within a center.  And we need to take what it means to be a good center and cultivate that within our home.  Our ability to do this depends upon making the work and members of our home (spiritual or traditional) objects of refuge instead of objects of delusion.

So what makes a good home?    A good home is a place where we can take refuge from the world.  It is the place where we can rest, recharge our batteries, clean ourselves up, and then prepare ourselves to rengage with the world.  It should be clean, it should be welcoming, it should be well-provisioned.  It should be easy to get to, yet still somewhat away from it all.   Most sigificantly, home is where our family lives.  What distinguishes family from friends is no matter what happens our family always remains our family.  Friends can change, but our family never ceases to be our family.  We may fight with our family, but we know we must work through our differences not cease to be family over them.  Within a good home, everyone is more or less free to do as they wish as long as they first meet their responsibilities.  A good home is a place where those who live within it are able to grow up, both in terms of maturity and in terms of becoming increasingly capable to successfully engage the world.  Home does not necessarily need to be in one physical place – it can move all of the time as long as it takes its culture and characteristics with it.  One of the most vital ingredients of a good home is it is a place where those who live within it can have a good-hearted laugh at the absurdity of ourselves, others and the world.  Having a good laugh is the key to cutting the drama, heaviness and seriousness with which most of us labor through life.  It should be a place people long to return to, and that depends entirely upon whether there is a culture of love within it.  A culture of love means we are delighted to see those who live with us, we value their happiness as something important to us and we stand ready to do anything to unconditionally help and support each other in their respective projects.  Everybody is responsible for cultivating and maintaining this culture of love, but the primary responsibility falls on the parents to create it through their own example and encouraging its development.

So what makes a good center?  A good spiritual center is a place where people can learn how to become a better person and they have the opportunity to practice doing so.  A good center is a place where people can learn how to apply ancient, timeless wisdom to our modern lives.  A good center is singular in its tradition, but universal in its application of that tradition.  A good center never criticises other traditions or ways of doing things, but respects them all as different paths for different people.  A good center NEVER abuses its power to try manipulate and control others to get them to do something.  The focus of a good center is on rejoicing in what people are doing right, not judging them for what they are doing less than perfectly.  In a good center people feel free to make mistakes without judgement or censure, because it is only when we are free to make mistakes that we dare try to do things differently.  A good center has a clear purpose that everyone understands and has voluntarily aligned themselves with, yet at the same time it creates the space for people to align themselves with this purpose in their own time.  A good center exists to serve the community it finds itself within.  This service primarily takes the form of gaining the wisdom that community needs to transform the life within that community into the quick, joyful path to enlightenment.  There is endless work to do within a center, but nobody feels obliged to do any of it – they do so because they view such work as the very means by which they can improve themselves and joyfully serve others.  Just as the most important ingredient of a home is a culture of love, the most important ingredient of a center is a culture of joy.  The essential purpose of a Dharma center is to gain Dharma realizations.  This depends upon effort, and effort depends upon (and is in fact defined as) taking delight in virtuous actions.  Just as if there is no love there is no home, so too if there is no joy there is no center.  While it is the responsibility of everyone within the center to cultivate this culture of joy, the responsibility for this falls primarily upon the teachers and administrators.  This depends upon ourselves enjoying our work in the center, even though sometimes it is exhausting.  This depends upon us always leaving the members of the center free to say no when we ask them to do something.  It depends upon us explaining how work for the center gives the students an opportunity to develop within themselves the skills, realizations and abilities that they seek.  We should never guilt-trip or emotionally (or worse spiritually) blackmail people into working for the center, because even if they do the work there will be no joy (in fact, there will be resentment), and thus no actual Dharma progress.

The key to bringing the home into the center and the center into the home is transforming the work and the people within the center and home into objects of refuge instead of objects of delusion.  An object of refuge is one that protects us, either in a simple way, through direct protection, or in a special way, through giving us an opportunity to cultivate within ourselves greater spiritual qualities.    Others may push us and provoke our delusions, but whether they become an object of refuge or an object of delusion when they do so depends entirely upon us. 

We can honestly examine our centers and ask ourselves, “does the center feel like home for people?”  If not, identify why and work on improving those aspects.  Likewise, we can honestly examine our homes and ask ourselves, “does my home feel like a good center?”  If not, we can identify why and work on improving those aspects.  If we work in this way on improving both our home and our center, the two will gradually merge in our mind until they become one, where each embodies the best of both.  By extension, Manjushri center is Venerable Geshe-la’s home, and he makes it all of our home – the home of the global Kadampa Sangha.  By learning how to be a good member of one home we learn how to be a better head of another home.  By learning how to be a good head of one home we learn how to be a better member of another home.  In this way, we can likewise merge Manjushri with our local KMCs, our local centers and our local homes.  How wonderful!

OM VAJRA WIKI WITRANA SOHA!

My Kadampa understanding of the Bible: The story of John and Revelation

Kadampa Ryan 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden, My Kadampa understanding of the Bible

Some time had passed and all of Jesus’ apostles had died except John.  John was hiding in a prison on an island, sending out letters to all of the Churches under a false name to hide his identity.  The Roman emperor declared himself a God and demanded that all Christians in the Empire take him as their sole god or die.  The son of a Roman general who was acting as a spy in a Christian village heard rumors that John was still alive, so he went to his father in Rome to tell the Emperor the news.  The Emperor installed the general as governor of the area where the Christians were with orders to kill John and all of the Christians.  The general then sent his son under cover as a prisoner to the same prison John was hiding at.  While there, John impressed the son and eventually won him over.  During this time John received a series of visions about how Jesus’ story ends.  He was transported to heaven, shown the four horsemen of the apocalypse, but with Jesus eventually prevailing over all evil forever.  They then try a prison break for John before they all are to be killed, and in the process the general’s son becomes a believer in Jesus and stops the Roman commander who was about to kill John.  Then, the general arrived, said that the Emperor was assassinated and that the new Emperor declared an amnesty for all Christians.  John then went back to the mainland and preached for a few years before he died.  So just as John was the last to stay with Jesus when he died, so too he was the last to live to spread the word of Jesus.

As a Kadampa, what does this story teach me?

  1. It was very hard to be a Christian in the early days, but because they never lost their faith despite their persecution their religion flourished.  There is something inspiring about somebody who is willing to sacrifice everything for their faith, especially when that faith seems to teach only love.  While believers will be persecuted, those who watch the persecution will be won over, and ultimately the persecutors as well will change their hearts.  As Kadampa’s we can admire and rejoice in such faith, and we can develop gratitude for those who suffered and died to keep the Kadampa lineage alive in this world.  In particular, Jangchub O.
  2. John was shown the end so that the followers of Christ would not lose hope and faith.  In Revelation, after horrific sufferings of war and fire, Jesus emerged triumphant, love emerged triumphant and in the end all were saved in the silence of heaven.  This is not unlike the story of Buddha’s enlightenment where all of the maras attacked him but he overcame them all with love.  The Christians were shown that love conquerors all evil through revelation, and knowing this gives them faith to follow the path of love all the way until the end.

I have learned a tremendous amount by considering each of the stories of the Bible through the lens of the Kadampa teachings.  We need to make a very clear distinction between mixing religions and appreciating all religions while following our own purely without mixing.  One extreme is sectarianism thinking that we alone have a monopoly on the truth and that only the Kadampa is correct.  This extreme is wrong because Buddhas reveal themselves in different ways to Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike.  The other extreme is mixing together all religions into a hodge podge of our own creation.  This transforms our ordinary self into our own spiritual guide thinking that we are somehow qualified to put together a spiritual path that is superior to the ones laid out by the holiest beings to have walked this earth.  The middle way is to follow one’s own tradition purely without mixing while appreciating all other traditions as valid for those who follow them.

There are close to 2 billion people on this earth who are Christians.  In particular, Modern Kadampa Buddhism has initially emerged in a Western, Christian cultural context.  Therefore, if we are to learn how to transmit the essential meaning of Kadampa Buddhism in such a cultural context, we must strive to possess the wisdom that can realize how the Kadampa path is revealed through the stories of the Bible.  These stories have shaped this civilization.  If we can see the Dharma in these stories, we will be able to see the Dharma in this civilization, and as such be much more capable of transmitting this wisdom perfectly.  It is with that intention that I have engaged in this project.  It is part of my appreciating other religions, but my appreciation arises out of how they reveal the truth of the Kadampa path or how the Kadampa path explains these stories and this religion.  Realizing this appreciation of the Judeo-Christian world through the lens of the Kadampa helps us eliminate the grasping at any tension between the cultural context we inhabit and the teachings of the Kadampa.  Therefore it helps us accomplish our mission of achieving the union of modern life and Kadampa Buddhism.    Just as it is not mixing to derive Kadampa lessons from the stories of our everyday life, so too it is not mixing to derive Kadampa lessons from what so many consider “the greatest stories ever told.”

I dedicate any merit I may have collected by doing this series of posts so that Dorje Shugden will bless the minds of all those who read these words and bestow upon them correct Kadampa understandings regardless of whether what I wrote was correct or non-sense.  Sometimes reading non-sense helps us realize wisdom, and so may whatever mistakes I have made ripen only as pure wisdom in the minds of those who read these posts.  May all Kadampas unite seamlessly their modern lives with Kadampa Buddhism in such a way that, like a magic crystal,it  functions to transform this ordinary impure world into a pure land in which all beings are free forevermore.

My Kadampa understanding of the bible: The story of Esther

Kadampa Ryan 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden, My Kadampa understanding of the Bible

The Persian empire conquered Judea, and the Jews were taken to Babylon.  Over time, while there, they prospered and rose to high positions.  Esther was an orphaned Jewish girl taken in and raised, like a daughter, by her cousin Mordecai.  In a drunken state, the Persian king Ahasuerus (also known as Xerxes) ordered his queen to appear before the court so that he could show her off as his most precious possession.  Not wanting to be considered an object she refused.  The king then banished her for disobeying a direct command of the king.  To find a new wife, he ordered all of the virgins be rounded up for him.  Mordecai told Esther to hide that she was Jewish so she could get better treatment.  Due to her courage, integrity and beauty, the king fell in love with Esther and made her his new Queen.  Mordecai overheard two conspirators who wanted to kill the king, and so he told Esther who told the king.  The king felt gratitude for Mordecai saving his life.  Later, Haman, a prominent prince in the area, became the king’s Chamberlain (much like a Prime Minister).  Mordecai refused to bow to Haman, viewing him as corrupt, and this infuriated Haman.  He then told the king that there is a group of people within the realm who refused to acknowledge the supremacy of Persian law and that they were a threat, and so therefore should be exterminated completely.  Haman did not say it was the Jews, just some random tribe in the empire.  The king agreed, and Haman set in motion his plans declaring that on a given day all Jews in the empire would be killed.  When Mordecai informed Esther of this, she understood why God had elevated her to be Queen of Persia.  She then went to the king, told him that it was the Jews who were to be killed, which included both herself and Mordecai, and the king was furious at Haman and had him hung.  But the king could not undo the royal decree established by Haman that all the Jews were to be killed.  The king then made Mordecai the Chamberlain and asked Mordecai and Esther to come up with a solution.  The solution they came to was granting the Jews the right to defend themselves by force.  When the day came, many died, but the Jews succeeded in defending themselves and as such were saved from extermination.  To remember this, Jews now celebrate every year a special holiday called Purim.  Some of the Jews decided to leave Babylon to go back to Jerusalem where they could be safe.  They were led by Ezra, who had the temple of Solomon rebuilt and became their spiritual leader.

As a Kadampa, what does this story mean to me?

  1. Very often on the Kadampa path we will be put into certain circumstances that at first seem very bad but later we come to realize there is a deeper purpose.  What started out as severe misfortune, is later understood to be our greatest blessing.  Esther was initially kidnapped, but then became the Queen.  Mordecai was to be hung, but later became Chamberlain.  The Jews were to be exterminated, but were saved and became respected within the empire.  In the same way, if we rely upon Dorje Shugden there will be various times in our life where it seems like we are experiencing great misfortune and we don’t understand what is going on.  At such times, like the Jews did, we can feel that the holy beings have abandoned us.  But if we maintain our faith and reliance, then over time it will be revealed to us how what seemed like misfortune was in fact our greatest blessing.  It may not always be a great blessing from an external worldly perspective, but it always will be from an internal, spiritual perspective.
  2. If there is no harm to it, we need to sometimes act in accordance with local convention.  It may be true that Haman did not merit being bowed down to, but unnecessarily provoking him prompted him to want to kill all the Jews.  I understand that Jews are to bow down only to God, but bowing in this context is not declaring Haman a God (as would have been the case with Joseph and the Pharaoh), rather it is just recognizing his position within society and respecting local conventions.  As Kadampas, we are to act in accordance with local conventions and to not engage in extreme behavior.  Of course we should never abandon our refuge, even at the cost of our life, but refuge is an internal thing and sometimes we need to be skillful in how we express externally our convictions.  Esther, for example, hid the fact that she was Jewish and respected local customs.  As a result, she rose to be Queen and actually did more to break down the stereotypes because all were able to appreciate her good qualities without getting bogged down with religious labels.  Sometimes this is also necessary for us Kadampas, though in general we should not hide things because we are not doing anything wrong.  But there is a difference between not hiding and being intentionally provocative or flaunting our beliefs when we know it could upset others.  We need to be skillful.
  3. Wherever the Jews go, they thrive on the merit of their actions.  There is something about Jewish culture that causes them to thrive in all domains, political, economic, social and spiritual.  They are usually a minority religious community wherever they are, but absent persecution, they generally thrive.  The Mormans are similar.  I think as Kadampas we can learn from these two communities and emulate their merit based success in all that they do.  Nothing is ever given to them, but through the force of their own efforts and merit, they rise.  We should be the same, learning to be successful in all aspects of life.  We do so not because we seek worldly success, but because we seek excellence in all that we do, and all of our actions are motivated by wisdom, compassion and faith.  Since our actions are good, it is natural that we will come to enjoy great success in all endeavors.  But we must be careful with this success to not provoke persecution against us.  One of the reasons why the Jews are so often persecuted is precisely because they are such a small minority yet still manage to be so influential and successful.  If as Kadampas we gain in power and influence, we need to be vigilant to always use our power and influence for the good of others and we should make an effort to integrate fully into the societies we find ourselves.  This will help protect against unnecessary persecution.
  4. Some Jews decide to stay where they are a minority, others choose to go to Israel, their homeland, where they can be the majority.  This notion of a promised land is a big part of the Judeo-Christian narrative.  Within Kadampa Buddhism, we have no such notions.  Some people confuse the political cause of Tibet with the narrative of the promised land within the Judeo-Christian world.  But this is a false analogy.  According to Kadampa Buddhism, the Dharma is like a yoke on the surface of the ocean that goes from place to place depending upon the karma at the time.  It has no fixed geographical location.  Confusing the political cause of occupying and controlling certain geographical locations with the spiritual path of Buddhism, some people are willing to sacrifice the Dharma for the sake of the political cause of Tibet.  As Kadampa Buddhists, we never do this.  Of course we wish Tibetans to be free, as we wish this for all peoples, but there is no particular spiritual significance to worldly lands in and of themselves.  In any case, we would never sacrifice our spiritual beliefs for political purposes.

My Kadampa understanding of the Bible: The story of Samson and Delilah

Kadampa Ryan 5. Reliance upon Dorje Shugden, My Kadampa understanding of the Bible

The story of Samson takes place at a time when God is punishing the Israelites for not following God’s laws.  They are living under occupation by the Philistines.  The Israelites long to be free, but nobody is strong enough to lead a rebellion.  God then came to a couple that was too old to conceive and said that they would have a child who would free the Israelites – he would have superhuman strength, but should not drink alcohol or cut his hair.  He was born and grew up without any further signs.  Everyone knew he was strong and they wanted him to lead a revolt, but Samson knew if he did so they would just all die.  At one point, a Philistine patrol attacked his quasi-girlfriend and he defeated them.  At another point, he wrestled a lion and won. His myth grew and so the Philistines feared him, so they tried to capture him.  But he killed them all with a bone.  Seeing that his people did not help them, he gave up on them and went out wandering.  He came upon a kind Philistine family, fell in love with the daughter and wanted to marry her.  Samson’s mother thought this was terrible because she was not an Israelite, but Samson married her anyways.  At the party after the wedding, the Philistine army pressured the father of the bride to ask his daughter for the answer to the riddle that Samson posed to everyone.  Under pressure she did so, and when the army captain solved the riddle Samson realized what had happened, became enraged and killed all of the Philistine soldiers who were there. Later the Philistines killed his wife, and then Samson started a Rambo-like solitary war against the Philistines.  The Philistines didn’t know how to stop him through force, but they identified his weakness was beautiful women.  So they sent a princess, Delilah, to him.  She tricked him into falling in love with her, and she got him to reveal that his strength depended upon his hair not being cut.  She then cut his hair, he lost his strength and was captured and blinded.  The Philistines then proceeded to crush the Israelite rebellion.  Samson then went to work as a slave in the Philistine iron mines, where he labored and regained his strength.  At a party celebrating the Philistine victory, they brought Samson and tied him to some pillars to show off as a prize of war.  Samson, though blind, requested God’s blessings for strength again and he tore the pillars down causing the entire temple to collapse, killing all of the Philistine noble court.  This then turned the tide of the war and the Israelites were free of the Philistine occupation.

As a Kadampa, what does this story teach me about the Dharma?

  1. When we are confronting suffering, it is good to draw the connection between our suffering and our own past wrong deeds.  The Israelites felt that the suffering of the Philistine occupation was God punishing them for their wrong deeds. The conclusion of this view is to accept the suffering as atonement and to redouble one’s efforts to follow moral discipline.  While in Kadampa terms we would never say that Buddha’s punish us for our wrong deeds, we would say that our past wrong deeds are the cause of all of our own present suffering.  This brings us to the same conclusion of the need to purify and redouble our efforts at moral discipline.
  2. Holy beings have the power to transform even our own uncontrolled delusions into something useful if we never abandon our reliance.  This is actually a very profound point which can easily be misunderstood.  Samson had three main minds:  faith in God, lust for women and a burning desire for revenge.  The latter two are obviously deluded minds.  But because he had faith, and the people of Israel had faith in him and God, God was able to channel Samson’s uncontrolled deluded actions skilfully towards a higher good of freeing the Israelites from oppression.  Thus, God was able to take even the impure and contaminated and use it for good because the power of faith of all those involved was greater than the delusions.  In exactly the same way, we are still deluded beings.  Even if we are still highly deluded beings, uncontrolledly forced to follow their deceptive advice, if we rely sincerely upon Dorje Shugden he can transform even our negative karma and delusions into our spiritual path – such is his power!  Our negative karma may ripen, but our faith opens our mind to view our suffering with wisdom and therefore learn spiritual lessons.  Our delusions may push us to engage in all sorts of stupid, deluded actions, but through our reliance on Dorje Shugden the mess that emerges from our wrong actions will still be what is perfect for our own and other’s swiftest possible enlightenment.  Disasters may strike us due to our own deluded and negative actions, but through the power of the Wisdom Buddha Dorje Shugden, he can transform these disasters into a perfect condition for our enlightenment.  We may not realize how at first, but over time it will become revealed to us how our past disasters were in fact our greatest blessings.  It will be revealed to us how our own past mistakes are our greatest teachers.  This does not mean delusions and negativities are good and are not to be abandoned, rather it means even if we are still deluded and negative, if we nonetheless maintain our faith the holy beings have the power to keep us moving forward on the path.  Such is their power.
  3. The Israelites always believed in a messiah, somebody who could come and deliver them from their suffering and oppression.  They believed this while under Philistine occupation, they believed Samson was sent to deliver them.  They believed that with Jesus as well.  As a Kadampa, how can we understand this?  We can understand this through faith in the laws of karma.  If you believe in a messiah, then you realize he will only come if you merit him coming through your atoning for your wrong deeds and by training in virtuous deeds.  By purifying and practicing moral discipline in this way, you create the karmic causes for a higher rebirth free from oppression and gross forms of suffering.  Higher rebirth does not just happen when one dies and is reborn, but it can happen many times even within a single human life.  So by believing in a messiah and acting accordingly, you create causes for the situation to change and for you to become more free.  Sometimes this may take many generations as the society as a whole accumulates the collective karma for their situation to change, but if people perservere with this course it is just a question of time before the “messiah” will come (will karmically appear).  The messiah might not always be a person and the messiah may not always liberate us in the way we think, but the effect will definitely be accomplished.  This is true due to the infallibility of the laws of karma.  Understanding this, when we find ourselves in a very difficult or unfree situation, if we strongly believe in the “messiah” of pure deeds, we will be delivered from bondage.  It is guaranteed!