Instead of looking at others or clinging to one of the eight worldly dharmas, what we really should examine is our own minds and clear away all confusion. Practicing in harmony with the dharma is the main point, Acharya Lhakpa Tshering said, of verse 30 through 32 of Ngulchu Tokmé’s 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva. What do these instructions tell us about what to abandon?
For the Benefit of Those Near and Far
As usual, we begin our session by cultivating or generating the heart of awakening–bodhicitta. We can bring to mind the pain, sorrow, and suffering of those in our immediate surroundings: our friends, family, neighbors, and surrounding community. In addition, we can think of everyone, individuals, groups, and entire nations, who suffer due to natural disasters or human-made conflict.
We always start our session with the practice of śamatha (calm-abiding meditation) with the clearly felt intention to achieve freedom, well-being, and liberation, for the benefit of ourselves and all those beings, human and non-human alike, near and far, without exceptions.
Dharmic Actions
Our resident teacher continued his commentary by starting with the 31st verse:
“If you do not examine your own confusion,
You may, under the guise of dharma, do non-dharmic things.
Therefore, through continual examination,
To abandon one’s confusion is the practice of a bodhisattva.”
(Quoted from A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, translated by Christopher Stagg)
The main point of this verse, Acharya explained, is that we need to examine our own confusion. This means that we need to look carefully at our actions of body, speech, and mind–the three doors. Are they corrupted by attachment, anger, or ignorance–the three poisons? If so, he said, we may engage in the practice of the six perfections discussed before this verse, but it only looks dharmic on the outside without it being dharmic on the inside. This is also taught by Dagpo Rinpoche (Gampopa) in Precious Garland of the Supreme Path:
“You may have entered the gate of the dharma with faith, but if you don’t practice in accordance with the dharma, it will set up the causes for going back to the lower realms, and there will be no benefit.”
Further illustrated with examples from everyday life, Acharya explained that practicing in accordance with the dharma means we need to continuously examine our own confusion. Instead of looking at others, we should be mindful and pay careful attention to our own actions. It is very important to do so throughout the day, both during formal meditation practice and post-meditation. This, Acharya stressed, is the practice of a bodhisattva.
Clearing the Confusion of All Beings
The next verse, 32, makes a similar point as the previous one. It reads:
“If, under the power of the afflictive emotions,
I speak of the faults of another bodhisattva, I diminish myself.
Therefore, to not point out the faults of those who have
Entered the Mahayana is the practice of a bodhisattva.”
Through sharing a story about a disciple of the great master and well-known teacher of Dzogchen Monastery, Paltrül Rinpoche (1808-1887), and how to practice patience, Acharya further highlighted the importance of working with our own minds instead of looking at and trying to change the minds of others.
We could move away from things and beings that trigger our habitual tendencies. We could even attempt to eliminate all confusion by pointing out the faults of others. Yet, since the number of sentient beings extends as far as the ends of space, this approach is pointless. Furthermore, if we speak of the faults under the power of mental afflictions, it will only harm them, and our own practice will diminish.
Therefore, we need to control our own minds and remove poisons, like attachment, from our mindstream. In fact, it is taught that clearing our own confusion becomes the clearing of confusion for all beings, limitless as the sky.
Abandoning the Eight Worldly Dharmas
The previous two verses speak about abandoning our confusion through the lens of the three poisons. The following verse, 33, does so from the perspective of the eight worldly dharmas by using the example of honor and gain:
“Due to honor and gain, we fight with each other
And the activities of hearing, contemplating, and meditating diminish.
Therefore, to abandon attachment to the homes of
Benefactors and loved ones is the practice of a bodhisattva.”
There are eight worldly dharmas or concerns: gain and loss, fame and lack of fame, praise and blame, pleasure and sorrow. Using the pair of praise and blame as an example, Acharya explained the common underlying pattern: we like the one (e.g. praise) and dislike the other (e.g. blame). A bodhisattva, he continued, attaches little value to either and takes an attitude of equanimity:
“If we get carried away with such temporary things like praise and blame and attach great value to them, our activities of hearing, contemplating, and meditating, will diminish. Therefore, we should neither hold strongly to things we like nor to things we dislike. This is the practice of a bodhisattva.”
We might be a great king or ruler holding to all subjects in the kingdom or someone who has gone forth yet remains attached to benefactors from the lay community. Bodhisattvas, who can be found among all of them, and regardless of their position or the object, abandon any kind of attachment, without exception. Abandoning our attachment is yet another example taught by Ngulchu Tokmé of what we need to let go of.
To conclude, we dedicated the merit.
Karmapa Khyenno!