Without suffering there would be no meaning to any appearance that manifests.
Enlightenment was never an antidote to suffering, and besides an antidote can only so often apply to a causal affliction.
The path has no end, it is the endless path, it has no limits, no boundaries, no culmination, but it is culminating incessantly.
In life, there really is no "this is it", but there is this thoughtless recognition "Ah, really, missed the forest for the trees, you know there is nothing truly standout about this, yet it is so profound to realize our true uncondition"
I really appreciate how you cover gender here : )
Speaking of that swordsmanship manual there definitely must've been some beings who took that as reference to make avidya games... not vidya games.
As a young man in my 20s, I found out that the "niceness" of Pema Chodron's work is only on the surface. Her book When Things Fall Apart, which is so frequently recommended to people who's lives are actually falling apart, is all about how there's ultimately no ground to stand on. This can be comforting or reassuring but only if you're crazy enough to embrace it, like the Fool stepping off the precipice and into the abyss. I have often wondered how many people pick that book up and get something very different from what they thought they were buying.
I've wondered, further, how aware Pema was, or now is, of this pattern; what she thought and how she felt about it; whether it was deliberate from the start, or an emergent accident; and if an accident, whether she deliberately continued it after observing it working well.
Thank you for this post - it gets me thinking. However, from a practical perspective of my life, only doing useful things to tend to other people's suffering (or at least, to "help" other people) doesn't work for me, because in that case my life basically reduces to a set pattern of useful things done in a certain order every day, that loses meaning because of the repetition. I have recently found a video game that actually got me a lot excited and interested in something for once. Why can't I indulge in that a little bit, and leave the boring, repetitive useful stuff for when I've had my fill?
After reading the book—thanks for the rec!—I also listened to an audiobook called "Fully Alive: A Retreat with Pema Chödrön." It's free if you have a Spotify membership. I'm pretty sure the book is based on this retreat. All the quotes and themes are there, but not so much the vows. You get more of Pema's humour, a sense of the chaos that beset the retreat (a snowstorm rolled in), but the book is much better in my eyes. The editor did a fantastic job.
I remember Pema Chodron's teachings on Trungpa's Myth of Freedom — I think in The Wisdom of No Escape — which were very helpful to me at the time, especially some of her expansion of the theme of working with the texture of emotions, and the nuances of working with depression. Has been while since I read those but it was an excellent commentary on what I think is some of Trungpa's best work.
I have been reading Living Beautifully on your recommendation, and I'm enjoying it, particularly the chapter on 'Nowhere to Hide', which is very reminiscent of the teachings above. Thanks for sharing David, hope it proves fruitful for the reading group!
Is it possible to take the bodhisattva vow just for the duration of a sadhana? (I am particularly thinking about chod, here) -- such that youre bound by it from the start to the end (including the bit where you're offered as a sacrifice to demons...) but not beyond that?
I think an answer to that would have to depend on your practice context. That is, what would your teacher and sangha say? (So, ask them, not me :)
Or, if you are practicing solo, and want the opinion of some random guy on the internet (me), then yes. I think that would be fine.
But, whereas the lay vows often can be taken for a specific period only, the bodhisattva vow is nearly-eternal kind of by definition. You vow to not leave samsara until everyone else can, and therefore choose to be continually reborn for the next twenty-seven trillion years or so.
So, in a sense, it's not clear what it would mean to take it temporarily!
On the other hand, you can certainly practice chöd with the intention and aspiration that it will free all beings, and set that aside once you finish the ritual. And maybe that counts as "temporary bodhisattva vow"!
My mental model of it was that chöd practitioners are being a bodhisattva for the duration of the ritual, but I have no official source for that and it might not even make sense.
Yes, there are people I could ask for what the official answer is in the context of Yuthok Nyinthig, which is the version I practise.
Without suffering there would be no meaning to any appearance that manifests.
Enlightenment was never an antidote to suffering, and besides an antidote can only so often apply to a causal affliction.
The path has no end, it is the endless path, it has no limits, no boundaries, no culmination, but it is culminating incessantly.
In life, there really is no "this is it", but there is this thoughtless recognition "Ah, really, missed the forest for the trees, you know there is nothing truly standout about this, yet it is so profound to realize our true uncondition"
I really appreciate how you cover gender here : )
Speaking of that swordsmanship manual there definitely must've been some beings who took that as reference to make avidya games... not vidya games.
As a young man in my 20s, I found out that the "niceness" of Pema Chodron's work is only on the surface. Her book When Things Fall Apart, which is so frequently recommended to people who's lives are actually falling apart, is all about how there's ultimately no ground to stand on. This can be comforting or reassuring but only if you're crazy enough to embrace it, like the Fool stepping off the precipice and into the abyss. I have often wondered how many people pick that book up and get something very different from what they thought they were buying.
I also have wondered that!
I've wondered, further, how aware Pema was, or now is, of this pattern; what she thought and how she felt about it; whether it was deliberate from the start, or an emergent accident; and if an accident, whether she deliberately continued it after observing it working well.
Thank you for this post - it gets me thinking. However, from a practical perspective of my life, only doing useful things to tend to other people's suffering (or at least, to "help" other people) doesn't work for me, because in that case my life basically reduces to a set pattern of useful things done in a certain order every day, that loses meaning because of the repetition. I have recently found a video game that actually got me a lot excited and interested in something for once. Why can't I indulge in that a little bit, and leave the boring, repetitive useful stuff for when I've had my fill?
Yes, this is sane! The point is not to neglect yourself, or to burn out on caring for others, or to try to be perfect.
And, caring does not imply a set routine. It's often better if it's spontaneous!
I wrote about that recently here: https://vividness.live/relating-as-space
After reading the book—thanks for the rec!—I also listened to an audiobook called "Fully Alive: A Retreat with Pema Chödrön." It's free if you have a Spotify membership. I'm pretty sure the book is based on this retreat. All the quotes and themes are there, but not so much the vows. You get more of Pema's humour, a sense of the chaos that beset the retreat (a snowstorm rolled in), but the book is much better in my eyes. The editor did a fantastic job.
That's really interesting, thank you!
I remember Pema Chodron's teachings on Trungpa's Myth of Freedom — I think in The Wisdom of No Escape — which were very helpful to me at the time, especially some of her expansion of the theme of working with the texture of emotions, and the nuances of working with depression. Has been while since I read those but it was an excellent commentary on what I think is some of Trungpa's best work.
I have been reading Living Beautifully on your recommendation, and I'm enjoying it, particularly the chapter on 'Nowhere to Hide', which is very reminiscent of the teachings above. Thanks for sharing David, hope it proves fruitful for the reading group!
Is it possible to take the bodhisattva vow just for the duration of a sadhana? (I am particularly thinking about chod, here) -- such that youre bound by it from the start to the end (including the bit where you're offered as a sacrifice to demons...) but not beyond that?
I think an answer to that would have to depend on your practice context. That is, what would your teacher and sangha say? (So, ask them, not me :)
Or, if you are practicing solo, and want the opinion of some random guy on the internet (me), then yes. I think that would be fine.
But, whereas the lay vows often can be taken for a specific period only, the bodhisattva vow is nearly-eternal kind of by definition. You vow to not leave samsara until everyone else can, and therefore choose to be continually reborn for the next twenty-seven trillion years or so.
So, in a sense, it's not clear what it would mean to take it temporarily!
On the other hand, you can certainly practice chöd with the intention and aspiration that it will free all beings, and set that aside once you finish the ritual. And maybe that counts as "temporary bodhisattva vow"!
What do *you* think?
My mental model of it was that chöd practitioners are being a bodhisattva for the duration of the ritual, but I have no official source for that and it might not even make sense.
Yes, there are people I could ask for what the official answer is in the context of Yuthok Nyinthig, which is the version I practise.
Cut straight through, I like it :)
I'll check the book out 👍
Huh – one of the big themes of "Atlas Shrugged" is avidya!