Серия ежедневной практики, курс 03 — Размышление о практике даяния и принятия (1997, Коннектикут), занятие 6

[Speaker 2]
Lesson 6 Okay, we're going to... We have to cover three contemplations this class, because I finished two more, and you have to print them between. And then that's finished.

We didn't finish it in North Carolina about two years ago, and just finished it this morning. So, hot off the press. Now the big question, you know, does tonglen work or not?

And I think it boils down to the question of can you take other people's karma or not? So I'm going to read you... This is an excerpt from The Garden.

And this young man has just met Master Asanga in The Garden, and Master Asanga has taught him how to do tonglen meditation. And he's been trying to do it on his mother, who died. And so they finish the len, and they're doing the tong.

And he tells the boy to send her a light like a lantern, and pretend that it's like a spiritual lantern, and then she can use it to go to a holy place or something. So he's been doing that. Now I'll try to read it, okay?

Imagine that she realizes the light has come from you, from her son, and imagine that a great joy as white as the light fills her heart. Imagine that she reaches into the ray of light and takes up the lantern. Imagine that as we speak, it has already begun to draw her forth to the greater light.

[Speaker 1]
Imagine that she reaches into the ray of light and takes up the lantern. Imagine that as we speak, it has already begun to draw her forth to the greater light. Whilst Master Asanga spoke, my heart ranched with painful memory, and at the same time left with sudden hope.

Is it possible? I asked perfectly. Can she really see it?

Does it really go to her? He gave me a look of intense compassion, his eyes glistening, and said quietly, Listen carefully, for I bring you very glad tidings, but not the kind that you may expect. Let me ask you, first of all, a few simple questions.

Do you believe in the existence of the Enlightened Ones? Yes, I said. I may not be able to see them, but more importantly, I understand how they can exist, and I even understand how I might become one.

Aside from all this, I have an instinct, although I admit that instincts are generally to be viewed with caution, whereas understanding can always be trusted, which has stayed with me throughout my whole life and throughout my whole being. This instinct informs me that the Enlightened Ones certainly do exist. And do you imagine, you said, that an Enlightened One is aware of the suffering of those beings who are not yet enlightened?

Most certainly so, for they know all things, and our suffering is but one of all things. And do you believe that these Enlightened Ones are compassionate? When they see one of us suffering, do they care?

Of course they care. They care about our suffering even more than we do. And so if there were any way in which they could remove any single atom of our suffering, by doing this meditation themselves, do not you think that they would have done so a long time ago?

I sat silent, stunned by the thought. And so can we not say that the fact that we do suffer now is proof that suffering cannot be removed simply by someone wishing it to be removed, whether that someone is ourselves or any other being in the universe? My utter silence confirmed the truth of Nestor's songless words.

So what is the use, I cried out then, what is the use of doing this meditation or anything else? If it cannot really remove anyone's pain or provide anyone with happiness, then why do we even try? He gazed at me somberly.

I asked you, he said quietly, why was it that you and I started this meditation in the first place, earlier this evening? I had asked you if there was any way, I had asked you if there was a way to learn compassion, if there was any way that I could learn to care for others with the same intensity that I care for myself. And do you understand why your heart and the heart of every living being craves so for this holy water?

Do you understand why you thirst so deeply for this ability, this ability to love equally? It is nothing that I can put into words. Only I sense it to be true.

I think we all sense it to be true. The real reason, he replied sincerely, is that with this love we can do all things and be all things. And there is a part of our mind which realizes this fact, although we are too weak to act on it properly.

To put it very simply, this compassion is the one quality that can turn you into a spiritual warrior. It is the only emotion which can drive you to the greatest height of human endeavor, which is the absolute and unquestioning service of all those, all those around us who need it in any way. And so actually this meditation cannot help my mother or anyone else, I am used to hardly hearing his words.

Master Asanga grabbed me full on the shoulders, and for the first time he revealed the strength, the overpowering might of both his eyes and his intellect. He gave me one powerful shake and said, Look in my eyes now. I looked.

Think. I tried, I was tired, I was beginning to lose the point. What would be the logical result of the meditation in which he attempted, if only mentally, to remove the sufferings of every living creature in the universe and to bring them every wish in their heart's desire, from the measly happiness of a damaged existence we live now all the way up to the highest bliss of total enlightenment?

I thought for a moment, more clearly under the intensity streaming through his iron arms and hands. Like all thoughts, I began hesitantly, it would plant the seed of imprint in my mind, but I cannot imagine a more pure intention or any thought which could cover a greater object since we would be wishing for the ultimate happiness not just of ourselves or a few loved ones, but rather for the whole living kind of the entire universe. And then it dawned on me.

If I had to choose the one action which could create an entirely perfect world in the future, if I had to choose one thing which could leave an imprint in my mind, it would make me see every single detail and person of the world as completely perfect, as pure life and pure bliss. That would be the very meditation we are doing tonight. He nodded and continued to stare in my face, waiting for more.

But what good is a perfect world that I have created only for myself if my mother cannot see it? What good is a perfect garden if it is only large enough for a single selfish person? Now listen, he commanded me again.

What does logic tell you? What can your mind find to answer your question? Think.

This is why you have come here. This is why the garden exists itself. This is why you have seen and talked to us, to me.

When your mother was ill, when the cancer started to eat at her breasts and then moved to her arms and belly and finally clawed its way into her heart and released the red blood there over the floor of your entire house, was there anyone who could have come and removed her sickness with the wave of their hand? No, no one. Not for her, not for anyone, as long as humanity has lived.

Then what caused her to be ill? According to all that we have said, it was because she herself failed at some point in the past to respect life. And why did she fail to respect life?

Well, because she was like all of us. She was like the entire mass of humanity who has lived out their existence and suffered horribly through that existence to know no end to the suffering, neither even recognize that the suffering will continue beyond death nor even often as they suffer realize they are suffering, but continue on like sheep to the slaughter. In fact, like sheep that could somehow pick up the knife and slit their own throats.

But we suffer because we have caused other suffering to others and we are completely ignorant that this is what brings us our suffering. And because finally, in seeking to protect what we think are our own interests, we respond to evil with new evil and thus assure evil upon ourselves in the future as well. And how is it that you came to know this truth?

He said simply. It is the kindness I said breaking into tears, the kindness of yourself and the kindness of all the teachers who have come to this garden to show me that the real source of all pain is the pain that we do others. And why did we have to show you?

Why did we have to speak and describe and reason with you and make you think and bring you to true understanding? Couldn't we have simply taken what we know and magically put it into your mind without these hours of heartfelt discussion and contemplation? No, I don't think it's possible.

Why not? If you loved me, you would have done so long ago. I would have had no reason to come to the garden.

I would know everything already, simply because you wanted me to know. And do you think that we understand simply because we understand? Or do you think rather that once upon a time, at some point in the past, we were exactly like yourself and knew nothing of the path and then had the great blessing to meet spiritual guides?

I think you must have been at some time in the past just like myself. And then you met the spiritual guides and you came to understand their teachings and so finally you reached the ultimate goal of the teachings. And so now we have come to the point.

I ask you to imagine a world without a single spiritual guide. Think of this garden as an empty, dark place with none of the light that you have seen here since the first night when she granted you the kindness of allowing you to enter this sacred place. I could not bear the thought.

I shook my head violently and pushed back against his hands on my shoulders. And so I ask you, what is the best and in fact the only way to help your mother? Do you think you're going to send her a house to stay in or a bed to sleep in or some piece of bread or fruit?

Do you think this will help her where she is now? Do you think this is what she needs? Do you not know very well that during her brief stay in this world she had a house and that she slept in a bed and she filled herself with a mountain of food that a person consumes over the course of a lifetime?

And did these things stop the cancer? No, no, I saw. So what will you send to her on the white light from your heart?

Like a lantern, a special lantern that guides her to a place without suffering. A lamp of understanding, the very things you have taught me. And who can be her lamp?

Who can teach her truly the entire path from beginning to end? Who sees her whole past and her whole future and her whole mind? Who knows exactly what knowledge she needs?

What steps to lead her upon? Only an enlightened one, I burst back. And what creates an enlightened one, he demanded.

That same thing which creates all things. Actions of the mind, actions of the speech, and actions of the body. But to create an enlightened one, these actions must be totally pure.

They must plant the seeds in the mind that will make us see ourselves become enlightened ones, I said urgently. And what meditation is it that plants those seeds most perfectly, he demanded. I could think of none more perfect and complete than the one you have just taught me.

I replied, calming within. Because this is the path to compassion itself. The compassion which loves all others as we love ourselves.

Better than we love ourselves. And so now you tell me, he said, releasing my shoulders and looking down quietly. Can you simply, with the power of meditation, take away the sufferings of your mother and fill her with your every wish, her ultimate wishes, perfect happiness and paradise?

That meditation makes my mind an enlightened one and gives me the ability to go to her and teach her this path perfectly. Then I said, this sudden feeling of complete joy, yes. Then send her the white light, said Master Asanga as he rose from the bench.

Send the lantern, be the lantern. Send water to those who thirst, become the glass of the water. Send a companion for those who are alone, become the companion.

Be a lover for those who need a lover. Be a child for those who want a child. Be a tree for those who wish to sit and rest.

Be a rose for those who seek beauty. Be all things to all people that bring them any happiness at all. Send everything on the white light out with your breath.

[Speaker 2]
Don't do meditation, okay? Start with your breath, okay? Then take refuge in bodhicitta and the love that we can have for other people.

Invite your lama to come and sit with you. Think about their bodhicitta that made them come to you. Then offer them your attempts to be good to other people and to love other people.

Then think about all the times you didn't love other people and how stupid it is to dislike people when we're all going to die. Spend a suffering life. Then rejoice in the fact that you've heard about tonglen and you have a chance to practice it.

Then ask for the blessings of all the great lamas who've lived and all the people who already have bodhicitta to help us. Then pray that these teachings stay in the world, and that the people who teach them stay in the world. Let this spread to the places that haven't been shared.

Then go back to your breath. Ten breaths. Then try to imagine a big, flat place like, I think of Kansas.

Huge, plain, barren ground. And it just stretches on to all the horizons. Flat, flat, brown ground just stretching to all the horizons.

And above a hot sun. Then turn the ground to steel, iron. Then see it getting hotter and hotter, like almost red-hot.

Heat it up to red. Then small flames coming off the red iron. Then imagine people running across the iron, and they're naked.

Great crowds of people screaming, burning, their feet burning. It doesn't matter where they run, there's no place to run. It just keeps going on.

Still they have to run. They're pushing against each other in panic and running and screaming. Then imagine that you could send your body there.

You're up in the air like a bird, and you're flying above them. You spread your arms and your legs. Then you turn your body into a cloud.

The cloud spreads across the whole plane. It starts to send down this beautiful, cool water. The ground starts to cool down.

The people start to calm down. They stop burning. Then the ground grows grass, green grass, cool grass.

Then you come down and you turn your body into silk, and you clothe each one of them in beautiful silks. Then you rise up again in your body. You turn your body into a beautiful, huge pavilion, like a tent, and cover them all from the sun.

They're all sitting happy in the grass under this beautiful tent, huge tent. They're happy. Then imagine that you're coming down to the grass.

They're circling around you, and you're teaching them tong len. So they can be happy forever. Then do an act of truth.

It means swear by what you just did. Say, if it's true that I had some small feeling that I would hope to do this in the future, then may it come true. And swear by the truth of what we just did.

Then ask your lama to come in your heart, and they come happily. Then dedicate this really pure, holy karma to all the beings in the hell realms. It could help them.

Okay, then we'll do a mandala. This is the end of session six.