Into the Heart of Life by Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo

Author:Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Religion, Buddhism, General, Tibetan, Rituals & Practice
ISBN: 9781559393744
Publisher: Snow Lion
Published: 2011-05-16T00:00:00+00:00

In ancient India there was a kind of austerity known in Sanskrit as tapasya, and we can see this at work in many other spiritual traditions. Tapasya often took the form of very severe fasting. For example, the Buddha himself fasted until he was only eating a single grain of rice a day. Other forms of austerity would include standing for years with one arm in the air, or never sitting down at all, or standing on one foot, or standing out in the Indian summer in the midst of four fires with the sun above as the fifth fire. These are things which people do, even today. But the Buddha said to forget them all except for the greatest austerity, kshanti paramita, which is patience. Now, this sense of austerity means having patience and tolerance toward difficult people, trying circumstances, and adverse conditions. Patience expresses a mind that is very open and spacious.

Consider how each one of us is just one person. There is one “me” while in this whole world there are billions of “non-me”s. Are we going to spend our lives trying to make everybody say and do exactly what we want them to say and do in order that we may be peaceful? This is not feasible. As Shantideva reminds us in the Bodhicharyavatara (Way of the Bodhisattva), the earth is full of stones and thorns, and as we walk around we are bound to stub our toes on the sharp flints. So what are we going to do? he asks. Are we going to carpet the whole world so that it will be soft underfoot? This is not possible, even with all the money in the world. But there is no need to go to such extremes. All we require is a piece of leather beneath our soles in the form of sandals or shoes and then we can walk anywhere. Likewise, we cannot create a world in which all circumstances and all beings act in accordance with our wishes. It’s exhausting to even think about it! But if we arm our own mind with patience and tolerance, then we can deal with everyone and every situation.

Anger is a very interesting emotion. Going around from east to west and north to south in whatever country in the world, I am asked two main questions. One question is, “How do I find a spiritual master?” People generally ask this out of a need for guidance. But there are some who ask out of the fantasy that if they could only meet a certain spiritual master, somehow or other all their problems would be solved. They don’t understand that that’s probably when their problems actually begin! And the second question which is asked again and again is, “How do I deal with anger?” Because anger is an unpleasant feeling. We don’t like to be angry—it makes us feel uncomfortable. People don’t like us; they don’t admire us when we are angry. So we want to rid ourselves of it.

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