Recap
We have been studying Dharmarakshita’s text Wheel of Sharp Weapons, which is the earliest version of this genre of literature – lojong, attitude training. We have seen that bodhisattvas – bodhisattvas are those who are aimed at enlightenment, they have bodhichitta – are focused on, first, all beings – the benefit of all beings; and then on enlightenment, with the wish to achieve that, and the intention to achieve that in order to really benefit others the most. We’ve seen that bodhisattvas don’t want to just go where things are easy and nice, but they all along the path want to able to help others, and so they go to the places where people are having difficulties; they don’t run away from that. Obviously, this is referring to bodhisattvas who are strong enough to be able to do that. In these situations, they practice tonglen – giving and taking. Even if we don’t have the strength to actually go and be with these people who are having difficulties, we can just in our own safe space of meditation practice this giving and taking. This can be very beneficial.
Whether or not it actually helps the other people – that it actually will work is quite rare, but the main point is to develop the courage and the willingness to deal with others’ problems; to overcome the self-cherishing attitude, with which we don’t want to get involved with others; and to try to really destroy as much as possible this selfishness. This is done both with these visualizations – imagining taking on the problems of others and dealing with them; and particularly with the deepest antidote, which is the understanding of voidness. With this, we’re able to see how all these various problems of ourselves and others arise from causes and conditions. They don’t have something on their own side that is, just by their own power, making these problems so horrible, so difficult, and so on. In this way, we understand that everything is affected by cause and effect, and so we can somehow change the situation as well.
When we ourselves are suffering from different problems, as are outlined here in the text, we try to see what the karmic causes for them are. We resolve strongly to try to avoid those causes – avoid repeating them – so that we don’t continue to experience these types of results. Then we think in terms of all others who have a similar type of problem, and we imagine taking on that similar type of problem of theirs, so that we’re not so limited in thinking, “Poor me, I have this problem.” When we broaden our scope and think of everybody who has that same problem, then it helps us very much because we think that it’s not just me; it’s this whole karmic situation of acting in such and such a way – such a negative way – which produces this type of problem. Everybody has that. We think in a more general way to try to overcome that problem and give the antidote; and give the antidote to it not just to me but to give it to everybody. So, it really trains us in type of activity that a Buddha would do. It’s a helpful practice and something which is not very easy to do, especially not easy to do in a sincere way.
As we have been explaining, what makes it the most difficult is if we think of it in terms of a solid “me.” If I think in terms of a solid “me,” then of course “I,” “me,” don’t want to have your problems; it’s bad enough I have my problems. This is the thing that’s strange about this practice, because if you don’t have the understanding of voidness – or at least some understanding of voidness – then you want to try to smash that grasping for a solid “me” with these horrible visualizations, but that’s not so easy, as we were explaining before. It’s only if you’ve at least weakened the hold on this solid “me” with some understanding of voidness that the combination of that and these visualizations can be effective, I think.
Karmic Causes of Hunger
We’re up to verse 12. We started last time with this series of descriptions of when we have various sufferings, and it’s the wheel of sharp weapons coming back from this and this cause; and so, we will stop committing the cause, and we’ll give happiness or whatever is the opposite of it to others. We started this, and we have been doing this with a meditation for each of these verses, and so we’ll continue like that. Verse 12:
When hunger or violent thirst overwhelms us, this is the wheel of sharp weapons returning full circle upon us from wrongs we have done. Till now we have kept what we had without sharing; we’ve plundered and stolen and lured people on. Hereafter let’s take from them hunger and thirst.
We think of the karmic cause and effect relationship here that describes this syndrome. If we’re very hungry and thirsty all the time, the cause for that is being miserly, not wanting to share. It’s the whole syndrome of the hungry ghosts or the clutching ghosts – however you want to call them; you keep everything to yourself, and you don’t want to share it with others, and it could be so bad that you don’t even want to let yourself use it, you just hoard things and don’t use them at all. Well, this is a very tight mind, and that’s exactly what the Tibetan word for preta – hungry ghost in Sanskrit – means. It’s a mind that is tied uptight; if we think of the hungry ghosts, the throat is all constricted and they can’t get any food inside them. It’s a situation similar to that. They are always hungry, they are always thirsty – people who are starving and don’t have any food, or in a desert or something like that. You’re hungry and thirsty, you never get enough; you can’t get enough, you’re very poor.
Being very poor with food, and drink, and these sorts of things – that’s also from not only not sharing, but it also says that “we’ve plundered, and stolen, and lured people on.” If you steal things from others, then we don’t have things, we’re poor. “Lured people on” is when we say we’re going to give something and then we don’t give it. This is also a very strong cause for a rebirth as a hungry ghost. You say, “Oh, I’m going to help you,” and then you don’t. Or, “I’m going to a donation for something,” and you don’t. What it says is that we’re going to try to stop doing that; we are willing to share – particularly here with food and drink – and we’ll take hunger and thirst on from them. That gives quite a lot to think about because, on the one hand, we might think of ourselves as being fairly generous, but how generous are we when it comes to the last piece of cake on the table or whatever it is that we like the most?
I know that I can be generous with certain things that I’m not attached to but, if people are coming, don’t we have the tendency – I know I do – of not putting out the things that I really like? I’ll save that in the refrigerator, and I’ll put out the other things. For each of us I’m sure we have something that we like very much and that we’re not so happy to share, even though we might share other things quite easily. This is something to think about here. Obviously, we can think about other things that we might not like to share – like to share our time, to share our space – but here it’s specifically talking about material things and particularly food. Food and drink. It’s interesting to look at ourselves: we’ll share the really nice things with special people but not with everybody, isn’t it? What results from that is being hungry and thirsty. Other people aren’t going to share with us what’s really nice. Obviously as a bodhisattva what we would think of is that everybody is equal. But it’s very interesting: when you have some guests you’ll go out and you’ll get oranges and make fresh orange juice; and other guests – when they come, you’ll serve them just orange juice from a container. Let’s think in terms of our own experience – I’m sure all of us have this. It’s hard to be sincere about this, I think, especially if you have economic considerations, economic difficulties. But do we give equally to everybody? I know, being very honest, that I don’t. From a karmic point of view, that’s not too good; it results in being hungry and thirsty, and other people not sharing with us.
We think about that and try to as much as possible not repeat that type of behavior. We think in terms of taking on the hunger and thirst of everybody, which means to accept that everybody would like to have the fresh-squeezed orange juice We try to give good quality things to everyone, at least in our minds. Remember, when we do this tonglen practice, what is going to be most effective is when we do it when we actually are hungry and thirsty, not when we’ve just finished eating. When we’ve just finished eating and we’re full, I don’t think it has as much strength as when we’re really hungry and, for instance, we don’t have the opportunity to eat – like you have to run to a class in the evening or something like that, and you have no time to eat. At that point, think of the people who are starving in Africa, and how my little hunger is nothing compared to something like that. We think to take on that type of thing: “May they be freed from their hunger and from their thirst.” One brings that into oneself – without fear, without attachment, repulsion; not considering some close, not considering some far; not with mental wandering or dullness – but being interested in them, taking them seriously. “They are human beings with feelings just like myself, and they want to be free of that just as I would want to be free of that hunger and thirst.”
Then we imagine taking it on, feeling that, and then we can apply – like these Mahamudra methods – that it’s just a sensation, hunger and thirst. The discomfort of that is just a wave on the ocean; it’s no big deal in terms of the clarity of the mind, and we calm down. I think that’s very important; when we have this hunger or thirst ourselves, or any type of physical pain, we tend to panic, we don’t relax with it. We try to relax – and think, “It’s no big deal” – and then with our mind calm and happy, give to others: “May you have food and drink,” here in this situation.
Karmic Causes of Being Mistreated
Then the next verse, verse 13:
When we lack any freedom, but must obey others, this is the wheel of sharp weapons returning full circle upon us from wrongs we have done. Till now we have looked down upon those who were lowly and used them as servants for our own selfish needs; hereafter let’s offer a service to others with humble devotion of body and life.
Talking about situations, it says that we lack freedom, we have to obey others; and it says that the cause for that is, “Till now we’ve looked down on those who are lowly and used them as servants for our own selfish needs.” Now, we might not have had servants, but there are certain things that you don’t really want to do yourself, and so you ask somebody else to do it for you: “You clean up,” “You wash the dishes, I don’t want to do it.” In a sense, we’ve used others as our servants. If we really examine very well, we all have done that to some extent to another – with our friends, with our family members. We certainly treated – most of us – our parents as our servants. They are supposed to clean up after us, pick up our clothes from our room, wash them, cook for us, do all these things. We looked down on them in the sense that we didn’t even think in terms of, “Maybe they are tired,” “Maybe they don’t want to do this,” and so on. So, now it says, “Let’s offer our service to others with humble devotion of body and life” – in other words, we serve them. That doesn’t mean to become a servant or a slave of everybody but, in a sense, a bodhisattva offers themselves. Shantideva says that: “Now I’ve offered myself, my body, to all others so let them use it for whatever they want for as long as they don’t use it for something harmful.”
What does that mean? I’m at your service if you would like me to go to the store, if you would like me to teach you something, if you would like me to help you with whatever. As long as you’re not asking me to help you go kill somebody, then I’m quite happy to do that and do that in a humble way, even if it’s not something very nice like take out the garbage, or clean the toilet, or whatever it might be. This is what it’s talking about: our exploiting other people to do our dirty work or work that we’re basically too lazy to do ourselves. When we do that, then what’s the result? We don’t have any freedom; we have to obey others. We have to work in an office in which we’re always told to do really stupid type of work, and we have no freedom at all. We have to do it the way that the boss wants us to do it and so on.
So, this is this verse. Let’s read it again and then work with it a little bit. It says: “When we lack any freedom and must obey others” – anybody is telling us what to do, and we don’t really have any choice – “this is the wheel of sharp weapons returning full circle upon us from wrongs we have done. Till now we’ve looked down upon those who are lowly and used them as servants for our own selfish needs” – so they didn’t have freedom; they had to obey us. So, we get into situations in which we have to do that. Maybe we’re not somebody’s servant, but we have to work for somebody, or be in the army, or be in a school.
So, “Hereafter let’s offer our service to others with humble devotion of body and life.” We think first in terms of our own karmic situation: if we are experiencing lack of freedom, having to obey others, how we’ve used others; and even if we might not be experiencing that now, if we’ve used others, what the karmic result of that might be. We regret having used others and really ignored their need. We just looked down on them or just assumed that they are going to do the dirty work: “You clean up, I’m busy.” How many times do we walk away from the table and leave all the dishes on the table, and assume that the other person is going to clean up? When we are in that type of situation, in which we lack this type of freedom, we think of everybody else who is in that type of situation. We take that on ourselves and think in this much larger scope. We calm down from that suffering, think in terms of voidness, of the clarity of the mind. We’re taking on, breathing in, and then breathing out, giving them our service or whatever they might need. Then in actual life we need to do that as much as we can when it’s appropriate. Again, it depends on the person; you have to give them what is appropriate, what they would feel comfortable with. That’s always important in terms of practice of generosity – to give others what they would feel comfortable with; don’t make them feel uncomfortable.
I was thinking about a situation that I had with my teacher Serkong Rinpoche. In many ways I was a servant for him. But thinking about it, what made it work in a harmonious way was that he actually never really asked me to do anything. That’s the secret. Everybody in the household including myself knew what had to be done and just did it. You do it from your heart. I did it basically because I saw how incredibly valuable what Rinpoche was doing was, and how wonderful it would be to make him more available to more people by arranging everything for him to travel, and translating for him, and doing whatever I could – running around and getting visas, and getting all the plane reservations, and making all the arrangements. He never really had to ask me. Now, that only works if you’re doing something that’s worthwhile; not if you’re just using others for your selfish needs – this is what is said in the verse.
Karmic Causes of Being Verbally Abused
Now, verse 14:
When we hear only language that is foul and abusive, this is the wheel of sharp weapons returning full circle upon us from wrongs we have done. Till now we’ve said many things without thinking; we’ve slandered and caused many friendships to end. Hereafter let’s censure all thoughtless remarks.
When we hear nasty language, and people yell at us and speak to us in a very unpleasant way, this the wheel of sharp weapons coming back to us for many nasty things that we’ve said. Very often we speak without thinking. We just say the first thing that comes into our minds – here it’s particularly referring to slander and causing friendships to end. That means saying bad things about other people to their friends. Then we hear people saying nasty things to us, when we have been saying nasty things about other people. This is the karmic thing coming back. The point is not to say nasty things about other people, whether it’s true or it’s not true, because often when you say nasty things about somebody, then you cause friendships to part and so on, which is mentioned in a later verse as well. It says we have to be careful about our thoughtless remarks.
What type of situations does that occur in, in which we say nasty things about other people? Why do we say nasty things about other people? We’re talking about examples like saying really horrible things about President Bush, for example. It was just in the newspaper that Chavez, the President of Venezuela, was calling Bush all sorts of nasty names. This is saying foul and abusive things about other people. Whether it caused people to dislike Bush or not, I don’t know; but the karmic result of that is that people would say foul and horrible things to Chavez about himself. This is what it’s talking about. It’s not showing respect and so you get back abusive things to you. This is what it’s talking about. What it’s saying is that we need to at least restrain from these thoughtless remarks that we make, these inconsiderate type of things that we just say. Sometimes we say it just even without thinking.
That’s the point here – that we say without thinking. It just comes out, when we criticize people, and especially it’s talking about criticizing someone behind their back to somebody else. Now, what happens if it’s true what we’re saying? Does that make any difference? When we criticize somebody to someone else, even if it is true, what are we doing? We’re complaining, aren’t we? Think in terms of friends: I asked my friend to do something and they didn’t do it, and so now I say to another friend, “Boy, I ask this person to do it, and they didn’t do it.” So what is that? That’s complaining, and it’s saying nasty things, even though they are true, about the other person. What’s going to be the result of that? Either the person that we’re telling it to develops bad feelings toward the one that we’re complaining about, or they develop bad feelings toward us – probably both. Nobody likes to listen to somebody who is just badmouthing other people. Do you know that expression badmouthing? To speak badly about somebody else. At least I know in my own case that the main example of that is complaining. Most of us, I think, complain. You had a bad day in the office, you had a bad day at school, you had a bad day with the children or whatever, and then you complain to somebody else and tell them all the bad things about the other person. It’s anger, it’s frustration – it’s a lot of things, isn’t it?
We want to relieve the pressure, and so we tell somebody else. But it’s not fair to dump all of that on somebody else. Do it in a controlled way, not every time, and also ask their permission. “Look, I had a really tough day, and all sorts of things happened. Would you mind if I unloaded it on you?” If you make it clear what you’re doing, it makes it a little bit easier, and actually it makes it a little bit lighter for yourself, in a sense. Let’s just do a little bit of thinking about this, and about taking on this problem of others if they have it – if people speak badly to them or about them. The main thing that we need to watch out for is this speaking thoughtlessly and mindlessly – saying nasty things about other people, whether they are true or they are not true.
When we hear only language that’s foul and abusive this is the wheel of sharp weapons returning full circle upon us from wrongs we have done. Till now we’ve said many things without thinking, we’ve slandered and caused many friendships to end. Hereafter let’s censor all thoughtless remarks.
In other words, think before you say something like nasty things about someone else. Think about the effect it will have on the other person, the effect it will have on us, and so on.
Dedication
Let’s end here with a dedication. We think whatever understanding has come from this, whatever positive force, may it act as a course for reaching enlightenment for the benefit of all.