A Large Cockroach Was My Teacher Today

I was sitting in practice this morning when a 2 inch long cockroach rushed up to me and ran across my texts. I thought I was in a stable state of mind but it startled me. Then he came closer and I brusquely brushed it away throwing the helpless creature a few feet away where it scampered away, no doubt in fear. Needless to say I was not calm and my behavior did not exhibit the virtue of patience and gentility. This gave me pause to look at myself in a more objective way.

Karma can be explained easily

Truly understanding karma will enable us to tolerate our present circumstances and will teach us how to abandon suffering in the future.
Karma can be explained very easily; love is the cause of happiness; self-grasping is the cause of suffering. 

H.E. Garchen Rinpoche

 

Karma

“A mind filled with evil thoughts – fear, hate, injustice, lust, or malice – must appear outwardly as inharmony and discord; whereas a mind filled with good thoughts – charity, purity, benevolence, or cooperation – must appear outwardly as the good life. That is the karmic law as taught in scripture: “Whatsoever a man soweth, that also shall he reap.” The mind in its unillumined state, filled with materialistic beliefs, theories, opinions, doctrines, and creeds can only manifestits own state of chaos; but a mind freed of these beliefs becomes the instrument through which the creative principle of life can flow as harmonious and eternal form. The external appearance is always mind formed. As we sow mentally, so shall we reap materially.”

Joel Goldsmith, The Thunder of Silence

Spiritual Renunciation

Over the last few months, I have been ranting, complaining, and showing my outrage along with many friends concerning the state of affairs in the US and in the world. Of course, perceiving injustice and disparity and commenting or doing something about it is considered a good thing by many. But, how does this fit in with spiritual renunciation? This has been troubling to me. I feel pulled by worldly concern on the one hand, and the tenets of my spiritual practice.

In Buddhism, we believe that there are three poisons afflicting the world as we know it, Desire (otherwise known as greed and craving), Anger, and the most fundamental, Ignorance. If someone wishes to attain wisdom and compassion for the sake all living beings, then the renunciation and transformation of self-grasping (craving and aversion) is paramount.

The Six Perfections are Generosity, Patience, Integrity (Morality), Effort, Meditation, and Transcendent Wisdom. The practice of these principles, in my view, is the way to develop spiritually. So, how do I reconcile this practice with my ranting of the past few months? I cannot and this pains me as political expression is fundamental to the principles of this country. It is a bad habit. As Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world." This means, to me, that finding harmonious and positive solutions and expressing them verbally and physically is more in line with my practice.

This doesn't mean that I don't see or agree with the dark forces arising at every turn. That is the nature of this world and will always be the case.

The most important thing to me is my spiritual practice and it involves developing Love, Compassion, and Wisdom to the best of my ability with my body, speech, and mind.

Please forgive me if I no longer participate actively in the political discussions taking place. I want to participate by becoming more of a light in this world and focus my attention on that. This is why I teach meditation and spiritual Qigong.

Self-cherishing 2

Garchen Rinpoche taught about self-cherishing here in San Francisco in 2001. To paraphrase, he said all our problems stem from self-cherishing instead of cherishing all sentient beings. It made me curious and I began an observation of the truth of this statement. After almost ten years of intermittent contemplation on the subject of self-cherishing and its negative connotation, I cannot find even an instance where this is not true. Even on a large worldly scale such an international political opinion, this is the case. When a government does an injustice, it is still an injustice in eyes and I become aroused and even angry that this government is doing something I don't want it to do. We can all relate to that. So, how do I give up self-cherishing in this instance? I have to look at the impermanent nature of all things. I have to modify my behavior to cherish all sentient beings first in everything I do. In my case, this is a full time task. I look to my teacher, how does he do it? He looks at all beings with unconditional love. He is not forming an opinion of dislike and understands that through our karma (or causes and conditions) the labels of good and bad, virtuous and non-virtuous, arise interdependently and have no inherent (independent or separate) existence. My teacher's purpose is to guide sentient beings through the torment of their ignorance to the light of wisdom and compassion. This not something I cannot do. I can. I must think of Garchen Rinpoche, be vigilant in my thoughts and behaviors, to focus on patience, generosity, integrity, and meditate on these. This will build the foundation in me to renounce self-cherishing and allow everything to be as it is without labels and judgments. This is cessation and the nature of mind as such in my opinion.

Anger

I don't want to be angry or resentful towards anyone or anything again. But this emotion created by my monkey mind creeps up in a very subtle way. Then I find myself in this negative frame of mind. Then I start again to let go like Prometheus bound!

Ethics

It is wise not to harm. This is the essence of virtue.

From Enlighten Your Life: The Six Principles