Our resident teacher, Acharya Lhakpa Tshering, began our session by guiding our meditation practice once again. He offered some brief instructions, starting with giving rise to the enlightened intention: “Whatever positive outcome we may get from this practice, may it be the seed of enlightenment for myself and all sentient beings.” Together with a comfortable posture of body, the most important point is to meditate with a simple awareness of the present moment, without any pressure. Not being able to relax would otherwise turn into an obstacle. “So, relax,” he said.“Just be simply aware.”
Post-Meditation: Dealing with the World
The verse Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen taught last week, verse eleven, focused on the practice of Tonglen (giving and taking) from within meditative equipoise (a deep state of concentration). The next ten verses are about post-meditation practice or subsequent attainment, starting with verse twelve:
“Even if someone, out of intense desire, steals all my wealth,
Or makes another do so,
To dedicate my body, possessions, and all virtue of the three times
To them is the practice of a bodhisattva.”
(Quoted from A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, translated by Christopher Stagg)
Post-meditation practice starts the moment we rise from meditative practice and deal with the real world: our jobs, family, friends, or work for our center. The practice pointed out here by Ngulchu Tokmé is that of taking loss onto the path.
Bringing Enlightenment Closer Through Dedication
The first two lines, Acharya Lhakpa commented, have a very deep meaning. While the verse speaks about the person who steals our wealth as the one having great desire, this is something that applies to all of us. Perhaps the degree differs, but we all have some kind of desire and continuously try to accumulate things for ourselves.
As a consequence, if someone steals what we have accumulated, we typically react with anger and seek revenge. When we do so, Acharya pointed out, we are no different from the person who stole our wealth. “That will not make us a bodhisattva,” he said.
What bodhisattvas do, in contrast, is to dedicate everything they have to this person–their body, wealth, and all merit–and wish that negative karma does not come to fruition for him/her/them. Instead, we wish this person to be free of suffering. “If we are able to dedicate in this way, it will bring our full enlightenment closer to us,” Acharya said.
Making Dedication Meaningful
The questions you may have, Acharya Lhakpa said, are: “Why should I be kind instead of punishing this person? Why should I give my body, possessions, and virtues I have accumulated?” What we need to do, he continued, is to change our mindset. We can do so in two ways.
One way of thinking is how all beings have either served us in some way or another in previous lives (since we have been in samsara from beginningless time) or that we perhaps stole from this person. Another way of thinking is that this person actually has no freedom or autonomy because of being under the influence or compelled by the afflictive emotion of desire. It is like the example given by Śāntideva in The Way of the Bodhisattva: if someone hits us with a stick, we will be angry with the person. But the person (or thief) here is like the stick. The intense desire (or the mental affliction) is the one controlling the action; the person/thief has no autonomy, as he is overpowered by the intense desire.
In one way or another, it shows how it makes no sense to be angry at this person and, instead, be kind and dedicate all we have to them. It is important to do that with one of these views in mind. If we would merely think, “I will give this to you,” then our dedication has little meaning.
Letting Go
In a previous verse, Acharya Lhakpa reminded us, Ngulchu Tokmé already taught that we cannot take anyone or anything with us at the time of death, including our own body, which we so dearly cherish. Therefore, a bodhisattva lets go of this life; but what about the virtue we accumulate?
As a beginning dharma practitioner, we speak about accumulating merit as a method to generate interest and a joyful mind towards practicing the dharma—just like we play games and introduce all kinds of arts to children to educate them. In this way, we think we will be getting something. This makes use of our very strong habit of wishing to accumulate things.
“However,” our resident teacher taught, “when we practice dharma, there is nothing to accumulate. We have to let go as much as we can. Doing so, we will realize emptiness and attain enlightenment.” There really is nothing collecting nor something to be collected. So, we let go and dedicate everything to other beings.
Practicing Right Now
To conclude, what is the main practice pointed out by Ngulchu Tokmé in this verse? Is it about the person who is stealing all our wealth and possessions? “No,” Acharya Lhakpa said.
“The main thought and practice pointed out is about us holding on, cherishing and being attached to our body, possessions, and all virtue of the three times. It is this that we need to let go of. If we can’t let go of that, it will turn into an obstacle for obtaining the state of buddhahood.”
“Furthermore,” Acharya Lhakpa added, “we should not wait until someone with intense desire comes and steals our wealth. We should practice letting go of our body, possessions, and virtue now.” While practicing fully and directly, truly giving these away to others, may be very difficult; what we can do right now, without a thief coming along, is to reduce our attachment and decrease our holding onto things. “Please, don’t wait till someone comes and forcefully pushes you to practice. We should engage in the practice right now,” concluded Acharya Lhakpa.
Following those words, we ended our session by dedicating the merit.
