A Bodhisattva’s Daily Practice

Verses 32 through 37

Not Speaking of the Faults of Others

We’ve been going through Gyalse Togme Zangpo’s 37 Bodhisattva Practices, and we got up to verse 31. Now, we’ll go through the rest of the text.

(32) A bodhisattva’s practice is not to speak about the faults of a person who has entered Mahayana, because, if under the power of disturbing emotions and attitudes, we talk about the faults of others who are bodhisattvas, we ourselves will degenerate.

Normally, we feel that it’s quite OK to gossip. When someone brings us some strange or exciting news, we don’t only listen but we’re desperate to know more and more about it. The simple fact is that when we allow this kind of garbage into our brain, it automatically makes us judge or hate others. Before we’ve even met someone, we have all that information and content in our brain, painting a very negative image of them. If we gossip, there should be awareness of what we are doing. 

There is a saying about Las Vegas, because people go there for fun and to do naughty things. So, they come back and say, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” The same thing here. If we gossip, then gossip. But – and this is a big but – don’t leave all of the gossip trash in your brain. This is difficult for us to do. 

For certain, bodhisattvas don’t gossip. If they were to speak ill of others, automatically the positive karmic connections they’ve made with sentient beings would be lost. That’s why bodhisattvas try to see not only the good qualities of their gurus, but of all sentient beings. They ignore the negative things in sentient beings. In order to build good connections with sentient beings, we need to see their kindness, how they are kind toward us. If we look down on others, it only affects us negatively. 

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