If you’d like to take them…James is offering these vows at 4pm uk time
You’ll find the link to connect in the post on the Simplybeing website…
accompanied by a wonderful explanation of their value by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche….
When James last gave these vows… in January 2023… he also gave a supportive commentary on
Zoom and I put together some notes from that.
James thought they would be useful for discussion in my group…and I hope that including them
here may be helpful to some :
Why do we request these vows from the teacher?….
We do this because we are wanting enlightenment for all beings and we need
help to keep moving away from the pulls of samsara.
We can’t make these helpful pathways by ourselves, we need the help of those
who know more.
It is said that at the point of enlightenment all the buddhas and bodhisattvas
arrive filling the sky… they come with pots filled with a special liquid which,
when emptied over you, becomes light… filling you with light.
The point of this is to show that ‘I’ did not do this – we are part of the mandala
of all the buddhas.
Friends and enemies are essentially buddhas… this is the basis for their
manifestation.
However usually, when we meet a ‘friend’ – a buddha – instead of meeting
them with freshness we vomit over them, covering them with our opinions,
conversation, memories…
As we do this… we can’t see who they actually are… because we have converted
them into…who we think they are!
So the key issue here… is not so much about about what qualities I perceive in
the other… but whether or not I have the capacity to relate to them as they are.
Our friends are not liked by all…our judging whether they are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is
simply the movement of our own thoughts and memories.
Just like the projections of transient images in a cinema… these movements of
the mind produce dream-like appearances with no true existence…
Therefore we should be light and flexible in our way of being with others.
The mind has the capacity to fill with new appearances – moment by moment.
All these phenomena are equal in emptiness… so relax into the openness of the
mind and see the appearances filling… and emptying.
These appearances are fresh – ‘Just this’ – arising and passing…
…so when the mind relaxes and opens there is nothing to be added or removed.
The past is gone, the future has not come, there is ‘Just this’… this is the clarity
of Buddhism.
Pure intention:
Now I have a new identity… I wish to stay true to the path.
I will take care of murderers, torturers, nurses, doctors, all beings…
Why… ?
because their buddha-potential is the truth of all beings.
All limitations – for example the five poisons, the karmic obscurations and so
on – are incidental, not intrinsic…
So it follows that if we use these, and other judgements… about age, race et cetera… as the basis
for our evaluation…
… we are creating a false identity.
So… remain calm and open in the face of activities which are arising due to the
delusion of duality.
In today’s culture we are usually moving out with our senses… looking for
excitement.
But buddhist practice is not exciting, it is a way of life… and
repetition of practice is important.
In monasteries these verses, these vows, would be recited several times a day as
a way of massaging the blessings into those reciting.
We want to go deeper and deeper… into the heart, the site of buddha-nature…
go deeper, deeper…
Connecting, offering, being for the other – this is the centre of the path.
There are three aspects to the vows.
Firstly aspiration… and secondly actual practice… where we engage in study reflection
and meditation. This transforms the situation.
Thirdly there is absolute truth – recognising that from the beginning all
problems are illusion.
In this way we can make ourselves available for others – always available.
This is a very unusual orientation not generally followed by politicians,
footballers, mothers deeply involved in loving their own children…
Our neurotic tendencies, our irritations, have lead us into shrinking back… but
now our intention is to be relaxed and open… at all times… for all beings.
Therefore we need refuge or we will become overwhelmed.
All sentient beings have been our mothers at some time…and now we can we
repay the debt of gratitude we owe them.
So we will work to develop the qualities and skills to help others out of
samsara.
The profundity of mind is already available…but we need to open to this.
So we will meditate practice and enquire… until the meaning of emptiness is clear for us…
because if this is seen…
then all the energy of the buddha-mind is released… to work for the benefit of others.
When we come to recite…
‘Whenever I am glad I will dedicate that joy to the happiness of all beings – may
their happiness fill the sky! Whenever I get trouble I will take the suffering of all
beings as my own burden – may the oceans of suffering become dry!’
…we are saying “I will give all my joy to others and, on the moment of getting
suffering, I will invite more suffering to come to me!’
This is the practice of Tong-Len and it moves in the opposite direction to that
of the ego.
On an outer level… we do this for the benefit of others…
On an inner level…both happiness and suffering are self-arising and self-dissolving, without true
existence.
Now we have taken these vows…
yet in trying to keep them – in bringing them into connection with our habitual behaviours and
tendencies – we will undoubtedly get lost many times.
When this happens… don’t blame yourself as a bad person and get depressed.
Just as when we get lost doing shamatha meditation, simply return to the
heart of the practice…
Come back to the good and don’t brood on the bad…
knowing that as we engage with these vows the direction of our existence
will be transformed.
The Macclesfield Talk [22] Finding refuge and spreading light….is one of many resources available
to facilitate our opening up to and engaging more deeply with aspects of what’s expressed
above. I’ve just re-listened to the first 45 mins…it fits the bill and is…naturally… illuminating! ; )
