Wednesday, October 31
We had meditation last night instead of tonight because of Halloween. We continued our studies of the Eight Verses on Training the Mind written by Langri Thangpa (1054-93).
Verse Seven:
In brief, I will train myself to offer benefit and joy
To all my mothers, both directly and indirectly,
And respectfully take upon myself
All the hurts and pains of my mothers.
In brief we agreed meant “in summation”. Chris added that in his lecture, His Holiness had examined verses seven and eight first, and the others last. His Holiness explained that he considered the last two verses the short path, and all the previous verses the long path.
I asked the class what all my mothers meant in this verse. Chris explained that the Tibetans believe in reincarnation; for the Tibetans, we have all reincarnated so many times that everyone has been our mother in some incarnation. I added that even if we do not believe in reincarnation we can apply this Teaching. The point of this verse is that we owe all human beings a debt for their past love and caring of us; but if we do not believe in reincarnation, we can use this Teaching to remind us to see past the physical person standing before us - i.e. see through to their soul, which is radiant Light and Love, and in some mysterious way connected to both us and God. On the deep soul levels of our Being, this Light and Love continually flows towards us from all other souls; and from the awareness of this connection, soul-to-soul, we could reach the Love and Compassion needed to formulate the wish to respectfully take upon myself / All the hurts and pains of my mothers, as stated in this verse.
Trudy added that the Dalai Lama, in his lecture, had explained that our mother is the first person we learn love and compassion from. He added that he and his siblings had never seen anything but a loving look on their mother’s face. Someone in class suggested that we think of the archetype Mother in order to do this exercise, which I thought a fine suggestion.
I gave the class an exercise: image someone giving you difficulty, and inwardly change them into your mother, or into the archetype Mother if needed. Several people in class said it still did not help. I said that then they must find this Mother in themselves; we all must find the precious gem of Peace and Love in ourselves.
And respectfully take upon myself
All the hurts and pains of my mothers.
This is the vow of the Tibetan Buddhist Boddhisattva. The Boddhisattva is one who has reached full Attainment, full Enlightenment, and now does not need to reincarnate - i.e. the personal karma and personal desires of the Boddhisattva will not bring them back to the cycle of birth and rebirth, and its consequent suffering. These beings have been liberated, freed from the cycle of birth and rebirth. However, unlike other beings who have reached full Enlightenment, the Boddhisattva agrees to return to earth in order to help all other sentient beings. These are the true saints in the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual framework. The Boddhisattva has taken a vow to put others before themselves, to the point of death. I added that the Bodhisattva can do this because they know they are not the physical body or their thoughts and emotions - and they know that there is something greater than this physical life and the so-called ‘material’ world.
Mary asked how we take the pain of others upon ourselves. I gave the example of Saint M. Kolbe, a Catholic saint. Kolbe was killed in a German concentration camp during WW II; while there, he asked that his life be taken in exchange for the life of another prisoner who had a wife and children. That was an extreme example; those who donate a kidney for a relative, or give money to the poor, those who nurse the sick, who do social work, are all good examples of this selflessness. And we can take the suffering of others on ourselves in little ways: bringing someone a meal when they are unable to cook for themselves; we can bring in the firewood when it is cold out, do small tasks that save others suffering. If we can do this, then everything in our life, every menial task - becomes sacred.
Trudy added that if we see someone suffering we can wish to take their pain.
I also added that no one feels ready for these exercises. We must at least form the intention to do them, and then do our best.
Chris e-mailed me someone’s transcript of the speech at the Interfaith Service at Cornell. My meditation students had reported his major points very accurately. I found the following portions of his speech most helpful in explaining this seventh verse:
“Interdependency is an additional factor that strengthens the individual. Limited compassion is natural, unlimited or infinite compassion grows from training. Warm-heartedness if a key factor in making friends. Sometimes lots of money helps, but those who like you because you have money are not true friends. When your fortune fails, so will those friends fail you. Genuine friends come from a heart connection. Take care of others as much as you take care of yourself. Everyone should smile, even beggars and cancer patients. We are all human brothers and sisters. Therefore human friendship depends on warm-heartedness. We are a social animal, where one person depends on those around. Mutual support guarantees individual success.
If you take care of others it is the best guarantee for your own happier future. Those with extreme self-interest become lonely prisoners in their own lives. They cannot rely on anybody, they become helpless and finally depressed.”
His Holiness ended with: “We are all part of the same human family. The whole world is one big WE. When our national boundaries are looked at from outer space all that is seen is one tiny little blue ball. We should all remember that we are brothers and sisters to each other.”