Uncommon Happiness: The Path of the Compassionate Warrior by Kongtrul Dzigar Rinpoche

Author:Kongtrul, Dzigar Rinpoche [Kongtrul, Dzigar Rinpoche]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9789627341741
Publisher: Random House Inc Clients
Published: 2011-12-13T02:00:00+00:00

Student: When you say remove ourselves from our prayers, do you mean completely from our prayers or just from the center?

Rinpoche: If you can remove yourself completely, that would be good. The experience of removing yourself from the center of your prayers and any involvement in your spiritual studies and practice is not a bad bargain. It has a very good outcome, if you do not cling to that outcome. Clinging actually gets in the way. You need to work with lifetimes of habits of clinging to self and aiming to benefit that self during any and every activity. So removing yourself means two things. Mentally always engaging in mother sentient beings’ mind and giving up any benefits to them. Along with this is letting go of any habits that you may have of clinging to the self and replacing the clinging with feelings of loving-kindness and compassion towards all mother sentient beings

Let’s say that you are working for a big company. If you do your job well, you will get a big commission. There are two ways to do this. One way is to think about the commission and work from that perspective. The other is to think only about the job and to work from there. Let me suggest that you do your spiritual practices and training by thinking about the job to be done, not about the commission—even though there is most definitely a commission. The commission is the freedom that you get inside, the purification you begin to experience. Just think about all mother sentient beings, generate the aspiration to benefit them, and in the end dedicate the merit. By practicing in this way, the purification that takes place is the commission. Once the purification takes place, the qualities of enlightenment begin to surface. These emerging qualities have certain functions and benefits, such as the benefit for others.

Let’s correlate the work example with the three kayas. The dharmakaya is one’s own commission, while the sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya are for the benefit of all others. It will not work if you think, “I want to attain dharmakaya.” That “I” itself hinders you from obtaining dharmakaya. Dharmakaya must be obtained by the motivation to benefit others.

The purity of the wish to obtain enlightenment depends on two things: to what degree we have gotten rid of self-centeredness, and to what degree we are able to generate loving-kindness and compassion for others. Cleansing our mind also helps us to generate loving-kindness towards others, as it lessens self-centeredness. The result is always to have the completely selfless wish to bring all beings to enlightenment. To have that wish blazing in our heart is a practice inclusive of the four immeasurables. Getting rid of self-centeredness is like finding a treasure in our mind, a wish-fulfilling jewel. This pure wish is protection from all the usual delusions and egoistic problems. All the buddhas and bodhisattvas that have ever gained enlightenment were born from that wish to benefit others. That wish was kept continuously in their hearts; it never died out.

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