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.

 

Cultivating true self-confidence: A magical method for unlocking the limitless power of your true self

Kadampa Ryan Cultivating a true self-confidence

In the last post we examined the mistake of basing our confidence on something external to ourselves – namely other’s opinion of us or what we do, the mistake of basing our confidence on our contaminated aggregates – our ordinary body and mind, and who we really are and what we are capable of.  We ended with the question of how do we gain the power right now to be able to engage in any of the pure deeds of a Buddha.  In this post, I will explain a magical method for unlocking the limitless power of our true selves.

What is the most important question – the question that if answered would answer all your other questions?  When we were kids, we would ask each other questions like:  if you had three wishes, what would you wish for.  Eventually we figured out that the best thing we could wish for was more wishes.  In that way, we could accomplish all our wishes.  Along exactly the same lines, the most important question we can ask is:  “what do I need to do to be able to make internal requests to you and receive perfectly reliable responses every time?”  I had this question in my heart for years, saving it for whenever I would hope to have a meeting with Geshe-la.  But he answered it through the teacher of the Summer International Teacher Training Program without my ever asking it!

The teacher said, “Geshe-la handed me a strange note.  It says, some of you might be wondering how to make requests and receive perfectly reliable responses every time.  So here is Geshe-la’s answer:  ‘It is important to develop a good heart, a Buddhist intention, a beneficial intention, day and night, even during our sleep.  We will perceive a special idea, a mental image or plan as our intention is maintained.  Through blessings, imprints, receiving teachings and so forth, a special understanding or idea will develop.  Then our teachings will be perfect.  If we follow the writings alone, we will maintain just an intellectual understanding.  It is most important that we improve our motivation.’”

The ITTP then discussed this in great detail about what it means and how we practice it.  I could write endlessly on just this advice, but here are the main ideas.

  1. First we dissolve everything into the Dharmakaya.  This eliminates all the interference from our ordinary mind.
  2. We then align our motivation with that of the Spiritual Guide.  His final intention for everyone is the Dharmakaya, so this is an additional value of dissolving everything into the Dharmakaya.  We generate a specific beneficial motivation with respect to the specific request we have for specific people by asking ourselves the question:  “what does Geshe-la want for this person/these people?”
  3. With strong faith that he is there and that he has the power to respond, we make our request.
  4. We then wait, maintaining our pure motivation for wanting a response to our request.
  5. Through this, a special image or plan will appear to our mind which will be the perfectly reliable answer to our request.
  6. This likewise works when invoking the Buddhas to accomplish their function for ourselves or for others.

How does this work?  We can understand this by an analogy.  Dissolving everything into the Dharmakaya is like having a clear space within which to project an image.  Aligning our motivation with that of the Spiritual Guide is like aligning the crystals of our karma with the direction of the light of our Spiritual Guide.  The crystals themselves are our own karmic potentialities which when a special light is shined through them they project, like a hologram, the future experiences they hold or what is possible.  These are created through our practice, study, etc.  The more faith we have that our Spiritual Guide is there the more it opens the blinds in our mind by purifying the obstructions of his presence being manifest in our mind.  The more faith we have that he has the power to respond to our request, the greater the power is the source of light.  Our request creates the cause for him to actually shine the light through our karmic potentialities.  The special idea that arises is the reflection of the light through the crystals that reflects the constellation of our karma.  This is our perfect response individually tailored to our karma.

Through mastering this technique, we can receive perfect inner guidance from our spiritual guide at any moment, and always know what to do.  With this ability, we will have nothing to fear and have infinite self-confidence.

 

Cultivating a true self-confidence: Unlocking the limitless power of our true selves

Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra, Cultivating a true self-confidence

One of the main reasons why we lack self-confidence is because we don’t know who we really are.  If we try develop self-confidence in something we are not, obviously it won’t work.  In this post we will look at (1) the mistake of basing our confidence on something external to ourselves – namely other’s opinion of us or what we do, (2) the mistake of basing our confidence on our contaminated aggregates – our ordinary body and mind, and (3) who we really are and what we are capable of.  In the next post I will explain a magical method for unlocking the limitless power of our true selves.

Overcoming the mistake of basing our confidence on something external to ourselves

There are all sorts of external things we base our self-confidence on, such as our wealth, our jobs, etc., but the most common one that gives us the most trouble is what others think of us.  Since these things are outside of our control, if we base our confidence on them, then our confidence will be outside of our control.

But let’s talk specifically about seeking approval from others.  This is the cruel truth of attachment:  If you have a need for the approval of others, then it will function to activate the karma which projects situations which cause this need to go unfulfilled.  In other words, the more attached to others’ approval you are, the less approval you will get.  We then respond by becoming even more needy for their approval, and so the downward spiral continues until we are singing that childhood classic, ‘nobody loves me, everybody hates me, I am going to eat some worms…’  This is pathetic childish behavior — that sadly we all do!

Kadam Bjorn once explained to me a special method for dealing with this attachment of wanting to feel loved or approved of.  What he said was every time we feel the need for approval or love from others, we should take this as a sign from the spiritual guide that we need to offer approval to and love those around us (our students, our friends, family, etc.) (in other words, change the object of needing approval and  love from self to others).  He said what we need to clearly realize is that needing to feel loved is a delusion.  We need to recognize this clearly for what it is:  a deceptive mind which results in only suffering that is not to be believed.

We don’t need to feel love, we need to love.  We need to align ourselves with the directional gradient of the spiritual guide – from self to others.  Kadam Bjorn said by aligning ourselves with his intention to love others – in other words instead of seeking approval and love from others we seek to give approval and love to others – then we get the winds (pure winds at that) of our spiritual guide in our sails and he loves others through us.  When he loves others through us, he satisfies their need for approval and love and likewise fills us with his approval and love.  In other words, the way in which we can feel the unconditional love of our spiritual guide is not to seek it from him for ourselves, but rather is for us to unconditionally give that love others.  Then he fills them and fills us with his unconditional love.

Overcoming the mistake of basing our confidence in our contaminated aggregates

Here we accept the fact that our ordinary body and mind are permanently and irreparably broken, and so give up on them.  This seems strange – how can we generate self-confidence when that our body and mind are permanently broken?  This seems to shatter our self-confidence. The answer to this paradox is quite profound – just as we are not our delusions, so too we are not our ordinary body and mind.  As we will discuss soon, we are our pure potential.  By realizing this, we stop basing our confidence on what we are not and start basing it on what we are.

How can we understand that our contaminated aggregates are hopelessly broken.  Our ordinary body – it gets sick, gets old and will eventually die.  It is the Titanic after it has hit the iceberg.  It is going down and it is only going to get worse, no matter what we do.  Our ordinary mind – this is all of our delusions.  If left unchecked, what would our ordinary mind have us do?  It would get us into all sorts of trouble.  It always leads us in exactly the wrong direction – deeper into samsara.  If we base our self-confidence on these, then we will necessarily be basing our self-confidence on quicksand.  I mentioned before the example of my mother and her looks; and for those who take refuge in their ordinary intelligence, there is always somebody smarter.

Who we really are, and what we are capable of

Our true self is our pure potential – our Buddha seed.  It is completely beyond defilement, no matter what delusions we might have.  Its nature is the same as the Spiritual Guide.  In other words, our true self fully developed is the spiritual guide and the Spiritual Guide is our own future enlightenment.  The definitive Spiritual Guide is not the cute little Tibetan we call Geshe-la, it is the Dhamakaya.  The Dharmakaya has all the powers and abilities of all the Buddhas.  This is who we really are.  A Buddha is simply an aspect or a reflection of our own pure potential.  Our pure potential is like a diamond, and each Buddha is like a facet of it.  The conventional aspects of Buddhas are tools which help us understand the good qualities of the Dharmakaya.

We might think, well that is nice, but I have no access to all this power, no access to myself, so what good does it do me?  It is possible to gain access to all of this power and all the abilities of a Buddha right now.  All it takes is faith and imagination.  An easy way to think about this is to think we have two selves:  our external self and our internal self.  Your external self is your ordinary body and mind.  Of course they are very limited in the sense that you have only one body and so can only do so much, and the ordinary mind is quite weak and so can’t do that much.  But nonetheless, things can and should be done with them. But it is your internal self that does the real work.  We can imagine that our inner self is already fully manifest and abiding at our heart in the aspect of Je Tsongkhapa, for example.  Je Tsongkhapa at your heart has, as we will talk about in a later post, all the power and abilities of Buddha Shakyamuni (source of all Sutra attainments), Vajradhara (source of all tantric attainments), Manjushri (bestower of wisdom and emanator of Je Tsongkhapa and Dorje Shugden), Avalokiteshvara (bestower of compassion and performer of powa), and Vajrapani (bestower of spiritual power and destroyer of maras).  He also shows the best example (outer, inner and secret), gives the most lucid and clear explanations and teachings, and engages in unequaled activities for the flourishing of the Dharma.  He emanates all the countless Tantric mandalas, including Heruka and Vajrayogini.  His body mandala is the synthesis of the spiritual power of all the Buddhas.  There is nothing any Buddha can do that he cannot do.   Since there is nothing he can’t do, and he is who we really are, there is nothing we can’t do.  On this basis we can generate infinite self-confidence.

So the question is how can we use this right now?  You know how to get your right hand to do something – you simply request it to go do something and it does so.  It is exactly the same with your internal self.  If you want to bestow wisdom on somebody, just request Manjushri to do it, and so forth.  If we check carefully, there is really no difference between requesting our right hand to do something and requesting one of the Buddhas abiding within us (which arise from our own pure potential) to do something.  When we see this, we realize we can use the enlightened beings’ bodies and minds as our own by simply faithfully requesting them to do the correct things.  When we can do this, we can engage in the actions of an enlightened being right now – long before we ourselves are an enlightened being.  We can right now do and accomplish any pure deed simply by knowing how to ask.  So the question now is ‘how to ask?’  In the next post, we will answer this question.

Cultivating a true self-confidence: Adopting a winning strategy for overcoming our faults, continued

Kadampa Ryan Cultivating a true self-confidence

In the last post we outlined the first three steps of the strategy for overcoming our faults.  In this post, I will explain the last five steps:

Step 4:  Avoid the extremes of repression and expression by learning to accept and overcome.  One extreme is repressing our delusions.  This is when you pretend, or try to pretend, that you don’t have a delusion (you are really mad or really attached, but deny it).  This just pushes delusion into the more subtle levels of mind, where is still functions but is now hidden, so it is actually worse.  It will later resurface in some dramatic way.  The most dangerous delusions you can suppress are those with respect to your Dharma practice, such as doubts about a particular subject, problems with somebody in the Sangha or with a teacher, and so forth.  These are the most dangerous because if left unchecked they will rob you of everything.  If uncontrolledly you do this, then afterwards make the request:  “please help me to identify my delusions in a way that I can overcome them.”  Realize that suppressing itself is the delusion of running away.

The other extreme is expressing the delusion.  This is when you follow the direction or advice of the delusion (you give in to it).  Normally we do this because we think this ‘gets it out of our system.’  But the relief we feel when we give in is just changing suffering – the reduction of the pain of your uncontrolled desire – you have the object so the desire temporarily subsides.  But the reality is it just plants new tendencies to do the same thing, so it will only be harder next time.

The middle way between these two is to accept and overcome.  This is when you accept that you have the delusion, and clearly realizing it is a treacherous mind, you decide to confront it head on.  We cannot run away from our karma – no matter where we go, our karma goes with us.  So there is no getting around our karma, the only way is through it.  To accept that we have the delusion in your mind, we need to do two things:  accept its existence but not its validity.  We accept the fact that a cloud of delusion exists within our mind.  Our mind is sick with this delusion.  Acceptance primarily prevents repression.  We accept that yes, we have a delusion.  Just as it is the nature of the body to fart, it is the nature of a contaminated mind to have delusions.  We shouldn’t expect it to be any different.  On this basis, we accept the existence of our delusions in our mind without judgement.  We don’t, however, accept the validity of the delusion itself.  Not accepting the validity primarily prevents expression.  We recognize delusions for what they are:  necessarily deceptive minds.  The promise us happiness but only give us problems.  It is like spam in our email inbox.  We accept that there is spam in our inbox, but we are not fooled by its message.  By not accepting the validity of spam messages, we no longer believe what they have to say, and so we cannot be fooled.  The power of the spam over us is cut.  Just as this is true of spam, it is equally true of delusions.  The delusions may be present in our mind, but we know with certainty that they are wrong, so they have no power over us.

Step 5:  Cut your identification with the delusion.  Other people’s delusions are not a problem for us because we don’t identify with them.  Our delusions are a problem because we do identify with them.  If you want to eliminate the problems associated with your delusions, stop identifying with them.  We are not our delusions, they are simply the cancer in our mind.  We are our pure potential (we will talk more about this in the next post).   When we cut our identification with our delusions, we do so by saying ‘not me’ with respect to our delusions, and backing up into either our pure potential or our self-generated deity.  Kadam Bjorn clearly explained that if you try fight your delusions while you are still identifying with them, the only thing you will do is develop self-hatred and suppress them.  If you cut your identification with the delusions and then fight them, you will actually get rid of them.

Step 6:  Increase your desire to be free from the delusion.  Kadam Bjorn also explained that our ability to overcome our delusions is not so much how well we know the opponents, but rather how strong is our desire to be free from the delusions.  Normally we think to not express is to suppress.  But this is true only when we our ‘on-net’ desire is to indulge in the delusion.  When your desire to be free from the delusion is greater than your desire to have the object of your delusion, then you will have enough power.  Otherwise, you will eventually give in (desire realm being) or explode. To increase our desire to be free, we can contemplate how delusions are necessarily deceptive minds.  They destroy our inner peace and so make us miserable.  Following our delusions moves us deeper into samsara:  either we are going deeper into samsara or we are moving out.  We want to get out of samsara for ourself (renunciation) or for others (bodhichitta).

Step 7:  Apply opponents to decrease the delusion.  Every delusion has its own specific opponent, but the following work in all cases.  It is better to get deep experience of a couple tools than superficial experience of countless tools.  (1) Breathing meditation – imagine you breathe out the delusion and you breathe in your guru’s realization of the opponent.  (2) Mantra recitation – you recite the most appropriate mantra making the request that the particular Buddha heal your mind of the particular delusion.  (3) Change objects.  For example, with anger we want to be free from suffering and we think external condition is the source of our suffering, so we wish to harm it/destroy it.  With wisdom, we try recognize that the problem is our own anger and attachment, so we try direct the same energy against our delusions wishing to harm/destroy them instead.  With attachment we want to experience happiness and we think that the external condition is the source of our happiness, so we wish to acquire it.  Here, with wisdom we try recognize that happiness comes from virtue, so we direct that same desire towards mixing our mind with virtue instead.  (4) Use the Lamrim.  We directly use the Lamrim as an opponent to our specific delusions.  Directly or indirectly the Lamrim is the opponent to all delusions, so just a regular and consistent practice of Lamrim will wear away at all of our delusions simultaneously.  But when we have a very strong delusion, we can directly use each of the Lamrim meditations as an opponent (how can meditation 1 help me overcome my attachment, etc.)

Step 8:  Eradicate the delusion with the wisdom realizing emptiness.  Emptiness essentially explains that none of this is real, it is all a dream, so there is nothing to be attached to and no us for that matter!  Ultimately, the wisdom realizing emptiness eradicates all our delusions.

 

Cultivating true self-confidence: Adopting a winning strategy for overcoming our faults

Kadampa Ryan Cultivating a true self-confidence

We continue with our discussion of how to generate a reliable basis for self-confidence.  In the last post, we talked about how to generate the basis of virtuous actions through enjoying engaging in virtue.  In this post, I will talk about how to generate the basis of our ability to overcome our faults.  In the next post we will talk about generating the basis of our pure potential.

Most of the reason why we lack self-confidence has to do with the fact that we have so many faults and make so many mistakes.  We have so many delusions that our mind is out of control and we do things that make the situation worse and we can’t stop ourselves from doing it.  When we try overcome our faults, they defeat us everytime, so we just give in to them everytime they arise.  This reinforces our feeling of being helpless against our delusions and this destroys our self-confidence even further. Because we have even less self-confidence, we have no power to fight our delusions, and the vicious cycle continues downward.

In this post, I will try explain how to reverse this situation by adopting a winning strategy against our delusions.  When we gain familiarity of using this method, we will be able to start winning battles against our delusions, and little by little we will be able to have confidence that we will be able to overcome all our faults.  Then we will have nothing to fear.

So what is a strategy for overcoming our delusions?  I will take as my example for illustrating how the method works strong desirous attachment.  Attachment quite simply is a mind that thinks some external condition is a cause of our happiness, and is usually thinks without this external condition I can’t be happy.  This is a delusion because happiness is a state of mind, and so comes from the mind.  The real cause of happiness is inner peace, whose cause is virtuous states of mind.  Desirous attachment can take many forms, such as alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, for a partner, for being with somebody (not being alone), sex, attractive forms, etc.  Just for simplicity, I will us the example of cigarettes, but it is equally applicable to any other type of attachment, such as sexual attachment.

The strategy consists of eight steps.  The first three I will explain in this post and the final five I will explain in the next post.  Before any of the steps, we recall the problem.  For example, we see or think about a cigarette and generate an urge to smoke.  Then:

Step 1:  Analyze the nature and the cause of the problem.  The nature of the problem is not something external, the fact that you saw a cigarette; it is the unpleasant feelings in your mind.  The cause of the problem is not something external, it is the delusion of attachment within your own mind.

Step 2:  Ask yourself the question:  what kind of being am I?  If you are a worldly being, namely you are interested in external happiness, then this strategy won’t work for you.  If you are a spiritual being, in other words you are interested in gaining spiriutal realizations, then everything works.  We can change what kind of being we are through the practice of Lamrim – whose main function is to change our desire.  Again, we are so lucky to have access to Kadampa centers where we can receive introductory and advanced teachings on the Lamrim.  Within the Lamrim, the quickest way to change our desire is to recall death by asking ourself the question:  “Do I want to arrive at my death and realize what I could have accomplished spiritually but didn’t because I wasn’t motivated enough to overcome this attachment?”

Step 3:  Make requests to Dorje Shugden:  “Whatever is best with respect to this delusion, please arrange.”  If it ceases, then end of story.  For example, there is a very pure monk named Gen Togden.  He told me the story of once when he had really strong anger, he requested Dorje Shugden to arrange what is best with respect to this delusion being present in his mind.  Through the faith of his request, his anger subsided immediately.  This is not some miracle.  When we know whatever is happening is for the best, all worry, anxiety, attachment or fear vanish.  Even if it doesn’t completely vanish, it will be reduced considerably.  Any residual of the delusion that persists means that Dorje Shugen wants you to train in overcoming this delusion.  Either way, you accept with infinite faith that this is perfect for your practice, so you are happy (because what you want is to practice).

In the next post I will explain the remaining steps.

Cultivating true self-confidence: The joy of pure actions

Kadampa Ryan Cultivating a true self-confidence

As explained in the previous post, there are three different reliable bases upon which we can build a true self-confidence, the first of which is our own virtuous actions.  Virtuous actions are actions that are consistent with the way things actually are – they are in harmony with the reality that we are all interconnected at a very profound level.  They are generally speaking actions that seek to help others find happiness or become free from suffering.  Because they are in harmony with the way things actually are, they work and are therefore reliable. The key to cultivating this basis for self-confidence is to learn how to enjoy engaging in such actions.  Normally we think virtuous actions are things we ‘should’ do, but don’t really want to.  We do them reluctantly, or motivated by guilt, and so are unhappy about it.  To reverse this, we need to learn how to enjoy engaging in virtuous actions.  Since we naturally do what we enjoy, if we can enjoy engaging in virtue, we will effortless cultivate this basis for self-confidence.

So the question then becomes how can we come to enjoy engaging in virtuous actions?  Virtuous actions are actually naturally joyful to engage in.  Why?  Because virtue, by definition, functions to produce the experience of inner peace within our mind – and inner peace is the main cause of our happiness.  When we mix our mind with virtue, it naturally becomes more peaceful, and so we become more happy and joyful.  So really our task is simply to remove the obstructions to our joy.  When we remove the obstructions, joy will naturally arise.

So how do we do this?  By learning how to enjoy practicing itself – to enjoy creating good causes.  There are four main points which enable us to do this:

Change what you desire to be to create good causes.  If what you desire is pleasant external or internal conditions, then attachment to results is inevitable, and we will be like a yo-yo.  If what we want is to create good causes, then whether things go pleasantly or unpleasantly, either externally or internally, it is all good, because all such circumstances equally give us an opportunity to practice – to create good causes.  What enables us to make this change in our desire?  The practice of Lamrim.  This is the main function of the Lamrim.  Because of the importance of the Lamrim, we are so lucky to have the opportunity to attend classes at Kadampa centers on the Lamrim.  Where else can we learn this?

Accepting where you are at without guilt or judgement.  This is what it means to be a sincere practitioner.  There are generally two extremes when it comes to where we are at:  guilt and complacency.  Guilt is anger directed towards our self.  Because our self is a bodhisattva, guilt is actually anger directed towards a bodhisattva which is hugely negative karma.  We feel that guilt is good because we think it motivates us to abandon negativity.  But this is the tricky mind of self-cherishing that encourages us to abandon a small negativity by cultivating a bigger one (anger towards ourselves).  So on-net, we are worse off.  Guilt leads to high expectations of our self, and when we fail to meet them, we feel guilty, so it is a vicious cycle.  The other extreme is complacency.  This allows delusions and negativity to remain in our mind like they are no problem.  Normally when we let go of guilt we go to the other extreme and become more negative because we have principally been using guilt to keep us in check.  We then go to the other extreme of admitting we are negative and deluded and saying we don’t care.  It allows delusions to run unchecked in our mind and we are gradually swept away (down) by them.  The middle way between these two extremes is regret.  Regret differs from guilt and complacency in three ways:  (1) Regret accepts ourselves without judgement.  It accepts the existence of the delusions in our mind, but not their validity.  We will talk more about this in a later post.  (2) Regret blames our delusions, not ourselves.  It makes the distinction between ourselves, which are completely pure; and our delusions, which are like the cancer of our mind.  It directs the energy against the delusions, not ourself, in the form of a strong wish to be free from our delusions.  When we have guilt it turns into the wish to harm or punish ourselves, even leading up to suicide (a case I dealt with a few times).  (3) Regret is forward looking, not backward looking.  We accept our past mistakes by using them to learn what to do differently next time.  It considers the horrific future we will have if we allow delusions and negativity to remain in our mind.  It makes plans for what to do to avoid this future.  The best analogy of regret is imagining you just drank poison.  We wouldn’t waste our time beating ourselves up over making a mistake, but would actively seek an antidote and take it.

Having faith in the law of karma:  if you create the causes, the results will definitely come (so the results are assured).  Just as the laws of physics and science explain how the external world works, the laws of karma explain how the internal world works.  These are inviolable laws of nature.  If we have conviction in the law of karma that good results necessarily come from good causes and bad results necessarily come from bad causes, we will joyfully engage in virtuous actions.   It is likewise useful to cultivate faith in Dorje Shugden.  If we have faith in the law of karma, the only remaining question is when will the results ripen?  If you rely upon Dorje Shugden, they will ripen when it is best for your practice.  He is like a karma manager.  If the results haven’t yet ripened, it is because he wants you to continue creating particular causes. So if we haven’t yet experienced results we will be happy because we realize that we are saving our spiritual pennies for something bigger and better.

Some people really struggle when it comes to the question of faith, so it is worthwhile to say a few words about faith.  Faith in the Dharma is very different than faith in other contexts.  Faith is more like confidence born from scientific experimentation.  Geshe-la calls Dharma the ‘supreme scientific method.’  How can we understand this?  Through understanding the relationship between faith and wisdom.  It is actually a cycle.  (1)  Believing faith – this is faith based on a valid reason.  We have some valid reason for believing that good results come from good causes.  (2) Admiring faith – this admires the good qualities of whatever we believe in.  We believe that good results come from good causes, and admire good causes, thinking, ‘wow.’  (3) Wishing faith – this wishes to have these good qualities for ourselves.  Our admiring faith naturally transforms into a wish to have these good qualities for ourselves.  (4) joyful effort.  We joyfully put the instructions into practice.  Having faith in good causes, we joyfully engage in them knowing that good results will come.  (5) Personal experience/wisdom.  From this practice, we gain personal experience of the truth of the instructions.  This is wisdom – when we know something from our own side.  (6) A deeper believing faith.  This wisdom then serves as a new valid reason, which enables us to generate an even deeper believing faith, and so the cycle continues.

Cultivating a true self-confidence: Motivation for doing the series

Kadampa Ryan 6. Special series, Cultivating a true self-confidence

The purpose of this series of blog postings is to explain everything I think you need to generate a true self-confidence.  It can be summed up as one thing:  Being born in the vajra family.

Without self-confidence you can accomplish nothing.  When you accomplish nothing, you feel like you are incapable of doing anything which reinforces your lack of self-confidence, so it is a vicious cycle.  The main point of being able to generate true self-confidence is to do so with respect to a reliable basis that is within your control.  If you base your self-confidence on something unreliable or outside your control, then your confidence will be unreliable and outside your control.  For example, my mother was a beauty queen when she was younger.  She basically accomplished most things in her life through her good looks.  But this proved unreliable for her because eventually our looks fail us and because we become dependent upon the opinion of others.  In contrast, if it is based on something reliable and within your control, then it becomes indestructible and is a true self-confidence.  This series of posts will explain how we can learn how to distinguish between these two, and how to cultivate this reliable basis.

This series of posts will organized as follows:  The first part will explore how to meditate on self-confidence.  This consists of generating within our mind the three reliable bases for self-confidence:  our virtuous actions, our overcoming of our delusions and our pure potential or true self. The second part will be on how to actually practice self-confidence through the mind of acceptance, through taking personal responsibility for others’ enlightenment and through learning how to become part of something bigger than ourselves, namely the Bodhisattva family.  The last part will be an exhortation to seize the precious opportunity we have before us and thereby fulfill our spiritual destiny – in short, we will learn how to become the bodhisattvas we were born to be!

My motivation for doing this series of posts is simple:  Venerable Tharchin once explained to me that if we know how the Dharma works, we will become incredible confident and effort will come easily.  We stand at a pivotal moment in the history of our tradition where we make the double transition from Eastern to Western but also Ancient to Modern.  This is why the book Modern Buddhism, and the tradition’s subsequent completely reorganizing of itself around the presentation in this book, is so important.  It provides us the frame of reference.  Our tradition has been reborn, so so must be.  For this to happen, we need great confidence.  Venerable Geshe-la knows these methods best and he is supremely confident.  If we understand why, we will be just as confident as he.

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!

Though it appears, it is not other than emptiness

Kadampa Ryan 4. Practicing in Daily Life

The Kadampa lineage is a wisdom lineage where we place primary emphasis on gaining wisdom, in particular the wisdom realizing emptiness.  All of our suffering is the karmic result of contaminated actions.  What makes an action contaminated is it is engaged in conjoined with the ignorance grasping at inherent existence of ourself, others and everything around us.  Self-grasping is the root of all delusions and delusions are the root of all contaminated actions.  If we can cut our self-grasping ignorance, all delusions will subside, we will cease engaging in contaminated actions and therefore no longer experience any suffering.  The principal reason why we generate the ignorance of self-grasping is because contaminated appearances appear to our mind – in other words, we think things exist from their own side, independent of mind, because that is how they appear.  When contamianted karma ripens, it ripens in the form of contamianted appearance.  Due to ignorance and mental habit we then believe these appearances to be true.  When we do this, we generate delusions such as attachment and aversion, and on that basis we engage in contaminated and negative actions which then plant new contaminated seeds on our mind which will ripen in the future as contaminated appearance and suffering.  The weak link of this cycle is when we mentally assent to the appearance of things existing inherently.  If we can change our conception at this stage then we can break the vicious cycle of samsara.

Samsara is the world created by our ignorance, nirvana is the world created by our wisdom.  The difference between liberation and enlightenment is when we attain liberation we attain a permanent cessation of all delusions.  Since no delusions arise in our mind, we do not inadvertently activate contaminated karmic seeds on our mind, thus contaminated appearance does not arise at all.  We abide eternally in the clear light bliss of nirvana.  When we attain enlightenment, we not only cease all delusions, but we also purify our very subtle mind of all past contaminated karmic imprints.  Removing these contaminated imprints makes our mind omniscient and gives us the ability to emanate countless forms for the benefit of countless living beings.  In other words, we can emanate countless forms for living beings without ever leaving the absorbtion on the Dharmakaya.  Our emanations and our Dharmakaya are the same entity, just two different aspects. 

Of all the meditations on the Kadampa path, the supreme is the Mahamudra meditations motivated by bodhichitta.  The Mahamudra meditations are actually quite simple:  we change our conception of the entity of an object.  At present, our view is that conventional objects are the same entity as their inherent existence.  Gold and the gold coin are the same entity, meaning you cannot take away the gold and still have the coin.  The gold coin is “made of” the gold.  In the same way, our ignorance sees objects, such as a table, as being the same entity as its inherent existence.  The table seems to be “made of” inherently existent stuff.  More specifically, we see the inherent existence of the table appearing in the aspect of a table.  With the Mahamudra meditations we change our conception of the entity.  Instead of conceiving the table as being the same nature (or same entity) as its inherent existence we choose to conceive of the table as being the same nature (or same entity) as its emptiness.  The emptiness of the table is appearing in the aspect of the table.  In both situations, there is still an appearance of an inherently existent table, but the difference is with the Mahamudra meditation we see that appearance as a manifestation of its own emptiness.

When we do this, instead of seeing the table as something inherently existent, we will understand it to be the play of emptiness.  Actors assume forms and put on plays, in the same way, emptiness assumes forms and puts on the play of our karma.  We will understand that though things appear, they are not other than emptiness.  Our entire reality will be understood by us as our karmic dream created by mind emerging out of emptiness.

The difference between Sutra Mahamudra and Vajrayana Mahamudra is instead of conceiving of objects as manifestations of their emptiness, we see objects as manifestations of our mind of great bliss, which itself is empty.  Milarepa said things are the nature of mind and mind is the nature of emptiness.  This explains Vajrayana Mahamudra.    When Milarepa said things are the nature of the mind, his definitive meaning is they are the nature of our mind of great bliss.  “Nature” in a Dharma context means “made of.”  The nature of the coin is gold, the nature of the statue is marble.  In the same way, the nature of all things is our mind of great bliss.  But this mind is itself empty.  So we take the Sutra Mahamudra understanding of the very subtle mind of great bliss is by nature emptiness (it is emptiness in the aspect of our very subtle mind of great bliss), and that this union of great bliss and emptiness assumes the aspect of the various forms we see.  So all things are the nature of the emptiness of our very subtle mind of great bliss.  Put simply, in samsara we uncontrolledly conceive of objects as being the same entity as their inherent existence.  In Sutra Mahamudra we choose to conceive of objects as being the same entity as their emptiness.  In Vajrayana Mahamudra we choose to conceive of objects as being the same entity as the emptiness of our mind of great bliss. 

Practically speaking, what happens when we do this?  First, there is no basis for us to generate delusions with respect to appearances because we see them for what they are, a mere karmic dream with no true existence at all.  Second, by focusing on the empty nature of an object (seeing an object to be the same entity as its emptiness), this functions to cause the object to gather and dissolve back into its emptiness, much like a cloud gathering and dissolving back into the sky.  This causes the contaminated appearance to subside completely and we can enjoy the blissful peace of the clear light.  Third, this meditation functions to purify our very subtle mind of the contaminated karmic imprints which give rise t the contaminated appearance in the first place.  How does this work?  When we say an object is the same entity as its emptiness, what we are really saying is the object and its emptiness are two aspects of the same thing.  When we focus on the emptiness aspect of an object while not forgetting it is the same entity as the object itself, it functions to purify the contaminated imprint giving rise to the appearance.  It is a bit like ironing a wrinkle on the fabric of our mind, leaving it smooth and perfectly clear.  Fourth, when we add the conception that it is the emptiness of our mind of great bliss appearing in the aspect of the object, when we connet with the emptiness aspect of the object as before, when the contaminated appearance gathers and dissolves into emptiness we will expereience this absorbtion like a pocket of great bliss being released into the vast expanse of our mind.  Like there was great bliss trapped inside the object, but when the object was returned to its true nature this bliss was released into the expanse of our mind and we experience this absorbtion as the release of great bliss.  This feeling of release is why great bliss is sometimes described as orgasmic.  But the difference is great bliss is a feeling of supreme inner peace that is so peaceful it is blissful. 

When we engage in Mahamudra meditations, our object is all phenomena gathered and dissolved into the blissful clear light mind realizing directly the equal emptiness of all phenomena.  We then abide in this blissful emptiness.  When conventional forms appear uncontrolledly, which they will inevitably do, we can correctly conceive of them as the pollution of our Dharmakaya.  We then identify how the conventional form appears to be the same entity as its inherent existence.  We then recall how this is mistaken appearance and that in reality it is the same entity as our mind of great bliss, which itself is empty.  So we dissolve the object first into our mind of clear light great bliss.  We then recall how this mind of clear light is itself the same entiy as its emptiness.  We then rest once againin this blissful emptiness. 

Why will conventional forms appear to disturb our meditation on the clear light?  Because our winds escape from our central channel.  If we can keep our winds gathered and absorbed in our central channel, then it will cause our very subtle mind of great bliss to become manifest, and it will be impossible for conventional forms to appear.  We then meditate on the emptiness of this mind, recognizing it as the equal bliss and emptiness of all phenomena.  This meditation functions to purify all of our contamianted karmic imprints very quickly, leading to the state of enlightenment very quickly. 

In our generation stage meditation, one of our recognitions is that though the self-generation appears it is not other than emptiness.  The meaning here is we are to see the self-generation as being the same entity as our mind of bliss and emptiness.  It is our mind of bliss and emptiness appearing in the aspect of the self-generation.  Instead of seeing our self-generation as being inherently existent, we see it as a pure creation of the mind.  We experience it as if we have put our mind of clear light into the shape or aspect or posture of the self-generation.  A true mental yoga.  We can then also carry this experience into the meditation break, viewing all objects as manifestions of bliss and emptiness.  We can view all things as, in fact, emanations of the Dharmakaya.  Each emanation is the same entity as its underlyling clear light emptiness which is our Truth Body.

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.