Inner Revolution by Robert Thurman

Author:Robert Thurman [Thurman, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 1999-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

This is the messianic drive of the bodhisattva, the spirit of love and compassion called the enlightening soul. It is not merely the wish that all be well with all beings—it is the determination that you yourself will assume responsibility for others. Acting on the insight that yourself and others actually are one single body of life and that your sense of having a self apart is a tragic illusion, you joyfully wish to give yourself away totally, on every level, to enrich the lives of all. You systematically resolve to attain buddhahood, which is the ultimate form of evolution, the state from which you really can accomplish the benefit of living beings.

The magnificent conception of this soul of enlightenment is a central moment in the evolutionary career of a sentient being. It is the moment in which a new spirit of love and compassion pervades the being’s whole life and destiny, and further evolution becomes a purposive, creative progress. Shantideva stated that as soon as beings conceive this soul of enlightenment, they become “children of the Lord of Bliss,” each a buddhachild. From this moment, they become bodhisattvas, worthy of honor, who can rejoice in the newfound fruitfulness of their existence.

It is impossible to overemphasize the enhancement of life brought about by the conception of this soul of enlightenment. It is a conscious act of making one’s own life purposeful and, by experiencing unconditional love and compassion, of easing the suffering of others everywhere. From the moment one attains this grand conception, one has an inexhaustible well of hope and optimism. One must become open to the prospect of boundless future existences. Then the horizon is vast and open-ended enough that the bodhisattva does not feel excessive pressure and the messianic orientation indeed becomes reasonable, natural, and even immediately rewarding. This is the yoga of the greatest contentment, wherein we turn away from the self to find the doorway to happiness and the most powerful form of inner revolution.

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