This talk was given
at the London Buddhist Centre in June 1995
This is my fourth talk
on the subject of Dana or Generosity in the course of a year. I am
quite happy to speak on the subject of Generosity again and again.
There are two main reasons why I am happy to speak on this subject.
The second reason is because I believe words have an effect and that
if I extol the virtues of Generosity often enough and with enough
conviction it will encourage myself and others to take the practice
of Generosity more seriously, to be more generous, which is the basis
of the spiritual life, the starting point for spiritual evolution as
opposed to psychological integration. William Wordsworth said: “Words
are too awful an instrument for good and evil to be trifled with:
They hold above all other external powers a dominion over thoughts.”
(Stephen Gill, William Wordsworth, A Life, OUP
1989) I am happy to talk about generosity again and again because I
want all of us to be more generous and I hope that talking about it
helps to bring that about.
But the first reason,
the main reason why I like to talk about generosity, why both the
concept and practice of generosity appeals to me, has to do with the
Buddha Ratnasambhava. As many of you will know, when someone is
ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order they are given or take up a
new meditation practice called a Sadhana which involves the
visualisation of an archetypal Buddha or Bodhisattva. In my own case
the practice I took up involves the visualisation of the Buddha
Ratnasambhava.
Ratnasambhava is an
archetypal Buddha, one of the Mandala of five Buddhas. An archetypal
image expresses more than words or concepts can ever express. That is
the great value of an image. It is a higher level of communication, a
more subtle and sophisticated level of communication, than mere words
and concepts. An archetypal image engages our whole being; body,
speech and mind. An archetypal Buddha communicates Enlightenment,
communicates the Enlightened mind. Every archetypal Buddha or
Bodhisattva communicates Enlightenment in its entirety. However,
usually a particular aspect of the Enlightened mind is highlighted or
emphasised. It is easier for us, in our limited state of
consciousness to relate to an aspect of Enlightenment, to a
particular quality of the Enlightened mind. We are limited by our
personality and temperament, by our likes and dislikes. Some
qualities in us are more emphasised, more clear to us and these
qualities respond to their own perfection in the form of an
archetypal Buddha or Bodhisattva.
The aspect or quality
of the Enlightened Mind which Ratnasambhava communicates is the
quality of Generosity. Ratnasambhava is sometimes called the Buddha
of Giving. He is associated with riches, with abundance, jewels,
exuberance, expansiveness, with the Wish Fulfilling Gem. His mudra is
the Varada Mudra, the gesture of supreme generosity.
When we engage with an
archetype our imagination and intuition is activated. Deeper levels
of our being become involved. If we engage with Ratnasambhava we will
be influenced on a deeper level of our being to act generously. Our
intuition and imagination will provide the foundations for a more
thorough and spontaneous life of giving. Generosity will become more
natural to us. As we move towards Ratnasambhava the beauty of
generosity will be revealed more and more to us and the urge to give
will become a strong influence in our lives. If we are to practise
generosity we need to engage with it. We need to have a vision of the
heights to which generosity can carry us and engage with that vision
from the depths of our being. I hope that by introducing you to
Ratnasambhava today, I will be able to help you make that stronger,
more intuitive and imaginative, connection with the beauty of giving.
In the rest of my talk
I am going to describe Ratnasambhava and try to give you a taste, a
glimpse, of what Ratnasambhava represents. Ratnasambhava is golden
yellow in colour. He is seated in the full lotus posture. His right
hand is extended in the gesture of Supreme Generosity, the Varada
Mudra. His left hand rests in his lap holding the Wish Fulfilling
Gem. His body is a body of light, golden yellow light. His face
expresses compassion, he has blue/black hair and around his head is
an aura of green light. Around his body is an aura of blue light. He
wears richly embroidered robes. He is seated on a moon disc, in the
centre of a yellow lotus. His lotus throne is supported on the backs
of four beautiful yellow horses. In the Sadhana practice this whole
image is visualised in the midst of a vast clear blue sky.
The lotus is a symbol
of the Transcendental, a symbol of Insight, of consciousness that has
broken free from the gravitational pull of the mundane and is
experiencing a pure vision of things as they really are. So what is
above the lotus pertains to the transcendental and what is below the
lotus pertains to the mundane. What is below the lotus indicates the
mundane qualities that have to be developed and perfected as a basis
for the experience of the higher transcendental qualities represented
by the archetypal figure of the Buddha or Bodhisattva. In the case of
the Ratnasambhava the Buddha of Generosity, the lotus throne is
supported by horses.
The horses represent
the highest qualities of the mundane world which need to be perfected
as a basis for transcendental generosity. Spontaneous, free flowing,
natural generosity that makes no distinction between giver and
receiver. So what does this mean and what do the horses represent?
What do the horses suggest to us?
Just try to imagine
these horses. These four magnificent, golden yellow horses, galloping
through the clear blue sky. Here is a poem about horses by the South
American poet Pablo Neruda, to help our imagining;
I saw horses from
the window
I was in Berlin, in
winter. The light
was without light,
the sky without sky.
The air, white like
soaked bread.
And from my window I
saw a desolate arena
bitten by the teeth
of winter.
Suddenly, conducted
by one man
ten horses stepped
out of the fog.
Gently wavering,
they emerged like flames,
yet for my eyes,
they filled the whole world,
empty until this
hour. Perfect, burning,
they were like ten
gods on large, chaste hooves
with manes like the
dream of salt.
Their rumps were
worlds and oranges.
Their colour was
honey, amber, blazing.
Their necks were
towers
cut from the stone
of pride,
and energy, like a
prisoner,
rose up in their
furious eyes.
And there in
silence, in the middle
of the day, in a
dirty and dishevelled winter,
the intense horses
were the blood,
the rhythm, the
inciting treasure of life.
I looked and looked
and so returned to life: not knowing
there was the
fountain, the dance of gold, the sky,
the fire that lives
in Beauty.
I shall forget the
winter of that dark Berlin.
I shall not forget
the light of those horses. (Pablo Neruda, Estravagario 1958)
Some of these lines
convey wonderfully the quality of the horses; “energy like a
prisoner, rose up in their furious eyes”, and, “the intense
horses were the blood, the rhythm, the inciting treasure of life.”
Or, “Gently wavering, they emerged like flames”, and again,
“Perfect, burning, they were like ten gods on large, chaste
hooves.”, “Their colour was honey, amber, blazing”, “I shall
not forget the light of those horses.” Pablo Neruda uses the
imagery of fire and flames and light and energy to convey something
of what the horses meant to him, that intense energy, that burning
energy, they symbolised life itself to him, “the force that
through the green fuse drives the flower” to quote another
poet.(Dylan Thomas, Collected Poems, Everyman 1978, p.8) He says, “I
looked and so returned to life”.
The beautiful powerful
horses communicated “the inciting treasure of life” to him. And
the horses of Ratnasambhava also communicate the “inciting treasure
of life”, that intense energy burning with a passion for Beauty,
Ratnasambhava’s horses are energy raised to its highest level,
sublime energy, channelled, harnessed, ready to burst out into the
joy of Transcendental Insight and pour forth in a spontaneous flow of
generosity.
To practise generosity
we need energy. We need to have a passion for the beautiful vision of
the spiritual life in order to rise above the mud swamp of our fears
and anxieties. Our hearts, our intuition, our imagination must leap
with joy at the vision of a world of unceasing generosity. We must
fall in love, fall in love with the ideal of generosity. Then we will
have the energy, then we will have the interest, the motivation, to
embrace with open hearts the open-handed practice of generosity. The
beautiful, powerful, wild horses of our untamed energy can become the
sublime passion for Beauty that draws us towards the ideal of our
intuition and imagination.
When we bring our
attention to our ideal, when we discipline ourselves to focus on the
highest in our lives, when we take the risk of abandoning the known
for the unknown, when we take the risk of abandoning the security of
sex and possessions for the insecurity of Metta and generosity, then
we will begin to experience that intense energy surging through us in
fierce pursuit of the Highest, of the most Sublime. That energy which
enables us to be generous without feeling impoverished, that energy
which feels like wealth itself, the wealth of life exploding into
abundance and exuberance.
The horses of
Ratnasambhava are energy intensified, sublimated and refined. They
are the energy of meditation and the energy of artistic creativity.
Meditation and intense artistic activity are two different avenues
leading to the beautiful city of the spiritual life. Generosity is
the gateway to the city of the spiritual life and energy is the key
to that gateway, refined, intense energy, the energy of the horses of
Ratnasambhava.
Resting on the backs of
the beautiful golden yellow horses is a yellow lotus, an enormous,
sublime, delicate lotus. The lotus is one of the most universal and
profound symbols in Buddhism. Beginning in the dark mud at the bottom
of the lake the lotus grows and rises slowly gradually towards the
light, eventually it breaks free of its watery element and opens out
in its full glory, its breathtaking beauty, it opens out to the light
of the sun, it unfolds to its fullest capacity. We too begin in the
mud of our mundane experience, the, “foul rag and bone shop of
the heart”(WB Yeats, Collected Poems, Macmillan 1978, p.392)
and in response to the call of the transcendental, in response to the
call of the meaningful, the ideal, we rise towards the light of
wisdom, towards the warm rays of compassion. We open out to reveal
our full potential, becoming bigger and more beautiful as we practise
the Dharma. We learn to know ourselves and gain strength and courage
enough to raise ourselves with all our tenderness and softness out of
the waters of the mundane into the bright light of the spiritual.
To be a lotus,
delicate, tender and open-hearted, standing alone above the safe
waters, is a vision that is both inspiring and frightening. As we
practise the spiritual life we will grow upwards and outwards like
the lotus and our unique beauty will reveal itself and have an
inspiring influence on all who see it. The lotus of spiritual Insight
delicate and tender as it may seem, rests on the firm foundation of
the intense and refined energy represented by the horses of
Ratnasambhava. The lotus is also connected to its roots in the dark
depths and is nourished from below, the energy being constantly
transformed into the pure elixir of higher states of consciousness.
In the centre of the
lotus is a white moon mat. This is the radiant pure heart of the
fully opened lotus, the radiant purity of the mind expanded with
Insight into Reality. And seated on this moon mat, resting on this
radiant purity, is the archetypal Buddha Ratnasambhava, the “Jewel
Born One” or the “Jewel Producing One”, the Buddha of
Generosity with his body of golden yellow light. The yellow of
Ratnasambhava is intensely alive and vibrant, and it is also a ripe
rich yellow. It is a colour of abundance, of wealth and an expansive
alive colour that moves towards you and embraces you in its warmth
and penetrates to the core of your being, like the warm yellow rays
of the noon day sun warming you to the heart and awakening the seeds
of joy and exuberance in the depths of your being. These seeds of joy
and exuberance grow and blossom and ripen and bear fruit in acts of
love and kindness, in warm laughter and compassionate smiles and in a
spontaneous overflowing generosity of spirit. The golden yellow of
Ratnasambhava awakens the vibrant life in us, that is the truly human
life, the life that exults in warm, loving connection with all beings
that live, all beings that share this rich, vibrant life.
Ratnasambhava’s left
hand resting in his lap holds the Wish Fulfilling Gem. The beautiful
scintillating, light-shattering jewel, blindingly beautiful,
emanating radiant streams of light and colour. The jewel is an
inexhaustible symbol for the inexhaustible treasure of spiritual
riches waiting to be released from the coffers of our fear and
ignorance. The Jewel of Ratnasambhava is a Wish Fulfilling Jewel.
When you reverence this jewel all your deepest wishes are granted.
The Wish Fulfilling Jewel is the Threefold Jewel of Buddha, Dharma
and Sangha. When you reverence the Threefold Jewel of Buddha, Dharma
and Sangha all your dearest wishes are granted. The Threefold Jewel
of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is reverenced by making an effort to
change, making an effort to grow, making an effort to overcome
limiting fears and limiting ideas and expanding into the freedom of
wisdom, compassion and commitment.
“We reverence the
Buddha and aspire to follow him. What the Buddha overcame we too can
overcome. What the Buddha attained we too can attain.” When we
recite these lines of the Threefold Puja we are expressing confidence
in ourselves. We are seeing the connection, the inevitable
connection, between the Jewel-like nature of the Buddha and our own
precious jewel-like nature. Here there is no doubt, here there is no
hesitation, no self-pity, only confidence, strength, nobility,
dignity. “What the Buddha overcame, we too can overcome.”
And then, “We
reverence the Dharma and aspire to follow it, The Truth in all its
aspects, the Path in all its stages. We aspire to study, practise,
realise.” After our confidence in our ability to grow comes our
determination to act. Our determination to unlock the jewelled
treasures of our hearts. Our determination to realise the essence of
that ‘Jewel in the Heart of the Lotus’ which is the Perfection of
Wisdom and Compassion. Our determination, to wholeheartedly and
single-mindedly realise the magnificent jewel of Transcendental
Insight through study and practice. So, “We reverence the Dharma
and aspire to follow it, with body, speech and mind until the end.”
Then, “We
reverence the Sangha and aspire to follow it, the fellowship of those
who tread the Way. As, one by one, we make our own commitment, an
ever-widening circle, the Sangha grows.” “One by one, we make
our own commitment”, this then is another facet of the Threefold
Jewel, after the brilliance of confidence and determination we have
commitment. The word commitment comes from a root meaning “to join
together”. So, we could use this root meaning to remind us that
making a commitment includes the confidence in our ability to change
and the determination to make an effort. But more than that, it is
that confidence and determination joined together in common cause
with others who have similar confidence and determination. Commitment
includes both direction and context. It is joining together with
others in common cause and with confidence and determination. The
incandescent light beams of confidence and determination mingle and
blend with the rays of commitment to produce the blazing fire of
spiritual passion that burns up all impurities and illuminates the
way to Wisdom and Compassion.
The Wish Fulfilling Gem
in the left hand of Ratnasambhava emits the blazing light of
confidence, determination and commitment. The eternal universal
principle of Karma ensures that all our dearest deepest wishes are
granted when we strive with diligence to maintain confidence in the
Buddha and confidence in ourselves. The Law of Karma ensures that our
wishes are granted when we practise with determination to overcome
our fears, anxieties and our limiting pride and when we join together
in commitment to the most valuable precious Ideals enshrined in the
Threefold Gem of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. The universal Law of
Karma is our guarantee that our efforts will make a difference, and
the more we realise the true nature of life, the more we attune our
lives to the changing process of life, to the changing process that
is life, the more we will experience the freedom of higher states of
consciousness.
The Wish Fulfilling
Jewel also represents the attitude of wealth and richness with which
we can approach life. All too often we have a poverty mentality, we
see ourselves as emotionally impoverished or on the verge of
emotional bankruptcy and we feel that we have to hoard our precious
reserves of love and generosity for ourselves or we will collapse in
a heap, and this attitude of emotional miserliness can lead to actual
miserliness as we confuse inner wealth and emotional richness with
money and possessions. We project our inner wealth and richness onto
objects and other people and then we feel we must possess them and
hold onto them for our own happiness and well being. The Wish
Fulfilling Jewel of Ratnasambhava suggests that we should turn this
attitude upside down. Our real happiness and well-being lies in an
attitude of abundance, rather than an attitude of impoverishment. An
attitude of abundance manifesting in an open-hearted and open-handed
sharing of ourselves and our possessions with others.
The Wish Fulfilling
Jewel is an image of self-replenishing abundance, constantly pouring
out. The pouring out and the replenishment are the same thing.
Generosity and the happiness of giving are the same thing. Loving and
the joy of loving are the same thing. If your love and your
generosity is an overflowing from the abundance of your friendliness
and goodwill it will replenish your heart’s happiness. If your love
and generosity is a miser’s attempt to bargain with the Law of
Karma, you will feel the pain of loss and loneliness.
The Wish Fulfilling
Jewel of Ratnasambhava is a symbol suggesting that the only real
wealth is inner wealth. The way to nourish inner wealth is to develop
confidence, determination and commitment in our Going for Refuge to
the Three Jewels. The way to develop confidence, determination and
commitment is to give, to give ourselves, to give our possessions, to
share our lives with others to the best of our ability, to be
open-hearted and open-handed in our interactions, especially within
the Sangha.
The right hand of
Ratnasambhava is extended in the mudra or gesture of supreme
generosity, the Varada Mudra. The right hand does know what the left
hand is doing. The lavish richness of the Wish Fulfilling Jewel in
the left hand is inextricably linked to the open-handed,
outward-looking gesture of the right hand. The spontaneous ceaseless
downpouring of compassionate activity that is supreme generosity is
the source of the fountain of riches and abundance represented by the
Wish Fulfilling Gem. That same spontaneous ceaseless downpouring of
compassionate activity is also the activity of the Wish Fulfilling
Gem.
The inner abundance
that allows us to be unstintingly generous is nourished by our
actions and thoughts and words of generosity and it gives rise to
further generosity. It is like a circle of generosity feeding
generosity or more than a circle, it is a spiral. A spiral in which a
little generosity gives rise to more generosity and greater
generosity and a greater and greater ability to be generous. The more
we give the more we can give. The first drops of generosity become a
shower of generosity and eventually we become a veritable monsoon, a
joyous downpouring of generosity, nourishing the seeds of spiritual
birth in ourselves and others. In this way the spiral of generosity
grows and blossoms into a Pure Land, the glorious pure land of
Ratnasambhava, where all is abundance and richness and beauty and
nobody possesses anything because there is no concept of possession,
there is only sharing.
This is the kind of
Pure Land that the archetypal image of Ratnasambhava suggests to us.
This is the kind of Pure Land that the human realm can become.
Ratnasambhava is especially associated with the human realm. It is
said that the great failing of the human realm is pride. Pride is the
poison of the human realm. Our pride is what holds us back, our pride
limits us. Pride could be extended to include all negative
comparisons.
We could say that the
great failing of the human realm is making negative comparisons. By
comparing ourselves with others we limit ourselves and we inhibit the
growth of Sangha. We compare ourselves in three main ways. We think
of ourselves as superior to others or inferior to others or equal to
others. All of these comparisons are unhelpful to us in our striving
to live the spiritual life. They are too self-orientated,
self-obsessed even. The characteristic quality that moves away from
the psychological towards the spiritual is an awareness of others as
individuals and a caring for them growing out of that awareness.
To be constantly
thinking of ourselves as superior to others or inferior to others or
equal to others is to limit ourselves and dwell in a world of
self-centred pride. We are not superior to others or inferior to
others or equal to others. We are all unique. We are all unique
individuals with unique combinations of good and bad qualities. As we
grow and develop spiritually, our uniqueness will manifest more and
more, our individuality will become more manifest. So it is not
helpful to make comparisons with others. If we are really changing,
if we are really progressing spiritually any such comparisons become
more and more nonsensical.
Acknowledging spiritual
hierarchy, the fact that some people are more developed than us, is
not the same thing as making negative comparisons. Ratnasambhava
comes into the human realm with the message of Generosity and the
Wisdom of Equality as antidotes to our tendency to make comparisons.
Generosity works against self-centredness in a very obvious way, to
give we need to be aware of others and their needs.
The Wisdom of Equality
sees the common features of human experience. It sees our “common
humanity”. We are all subject to impermanence, unsatisfactoriness
and we are all ever-changing processes. We all can develop higher
states of consciousness and we are all capable of experiencing
Insight into the nature of Reality. In this respect we are all equal,
but as personalities, with temperaments and qualities and abilities
and conditioning we are all different, all unique, and Reality will
manifest through us in a unique and individual way. This is what the
parable of the rain cloud in The White Lotus Sutra teaches. Here is
what Sangharakshita says in The Drama of Cosmic Enlightenment:
“Now, although the
rain falls on all alike, and the sun shines on all alike, the plants
themselves are all different and they grow in different ways. A nut
grows into a tree, and a seed into a flower; a rose bush produces big
red blossoms whereas a crocus bulb produces small yellow ones.
Some plants shoot up in the air, others creep along the ground, and
others clasp bigger and stronger plants. They all grow according to
their own nature. And it is just the same, the parable suggests, with
human beings. They all receive the same truth, they all hear what is
in principle the same spiritual teaching, and they all grow. But the
strange, astonishing, and wonderful thing is that they all grow in
different ways. They all grow according to their own nature. People
may all hear the same teaching, believe in the same teaching, and
follow the same path, but they do what seem to be completely
different things. Some become more and more deeply involved in
meditation, so that in the end they are spending most of their time
meditating and have hardly any contact with other people. Others take
up social work. Others burst into song, write poetry, or paint
pictures. And others, perhaps the majority, simply go on being
themselves. They do not display any specific talent, but just become
more and more individual. The paradox is that although we each
develop, at the same time we also become more and more like one
another: more aware, more sensitive, more compassionate; in a word,
more alive.
This means that in
the spiritual life there can be no question of regimentation. It is
reasonable to expect that, with a little endeavour, all human beings
will grow, but it is unreasonable to expect all human beings to grow
in the same way.” (Complete Works, Vol. 16, p.126)
The Wisdom of Equality
is about having an equal attitude to all, being equally kind, and
caring towards all, equally mindful towards all, because all can grow
spiritually. It sees sameness in diversity, but it does not try to
obliterate the diversity. In the human realm we need to beware of
making comparisons which are unhelpful to ourselves and others and
instead we need to try to relate to other people as unique
individuals sharing in a common humanity. And we need to try to
relate to the best in others and in ourselves.
We are not superior to
others, we are not inferior to others, we are not equal to others; we
are all unique. Some people will, of course be further along the Path
than others. The Pure Land of Ratnasambhava begins to arise when we
go beyond the self-centredness of making negative comparisons and out
of recognition of the value of other people and our
interconnectedness with them, we start to rejoice wholeheartedly in
their successes and their qualities and we are moved to share our
experience, our abilities, our possessions. In The Pure Land of
Ratnasambhava, which is called The Glorious, there is no calculation,
there is no need for calculation. There is abundance and an exuberant
giving out of that sense of abundance. There is a wealth mentality
which knows that giving and receiving are the same and therefore has
no fear of loss.
Can we transform our
Buddhist community into a Pure Land? A Ratnasambhava Pure Land, where
there is a culture of abundance, a culture of generosity. A Pure Land
pervaded by an atmosphere of friendliness and hospitality. An
atmosphere of human kindness. Can we envisage our Buddhist community
as a society in which generosity, helpfulness, hospitality and
kindness are the natural and spontaneous way for all of us to behave
towards each other and towards new people coming into contact with
us?
Can we envisage our
Buddhist community as a society in which our differences of
temperament are acknowledged and valued as part of the rich and
vibrant life of the mandala of practitioners?
Can we envisage our
Buddhist community as a society in which the spirit of generosity and
outgoing expansiveness is so all-pervasive that we feel no need to
seek security in possessiveness, whether possession of other people
or of things? Can we envisage our Buddhist community as a society in
which our sense of security is firmly founded in an experience of
interconnectedness and interdependence that manifests as
friendliness, kindness, generosity and hospitality? Can we envisage
our Buddhist community as a community of people motivated by their
highest ideals and aspirations coming together to create an
atmosphere of harmony and delight?
If we are to create a
better world for ourselves and for future generations we need to have
large dreams, we need to imagine the unimaginable and we need to dare
to live by the ideal truths of our dreams. If we can let our
imagination soar into the Glorious Pure Land of Ratnasambhava, and
follow our intuition on wings of courage and commitment we will
change ourselves and through ‘the fragrance of the perfect life’
we will change the world. If we want to fly we have to flap our own
wings. If we want to make spiritual progress it takes an effort, a
dedicated and wholehearted effort. As Sangharakshita puts it in his
poem Secret Wings:
“We cry that we
are weak although
We will not stir our
secret wings;
The world is dark –
because we are
Blind to the
starriness of things.
Oh cry no more that
you are weak
But stir and spread
your secret wings,
And say “The world
is bright, because
We glimpse the
starriness of things”.
Soar with your
rainbow plumes and reach
That near-far land
where all are one,
Where Beauty’s
face is aye unveiled
And every star shall
be a sun.” (Complete Works, Vol.25, p.185)
In the spiritual life
the next step is the most important step. Without the next step there
are no steps. So you need to ask yourself, what is the next step for
me? What effort do I have to make now? If you can imagine greatly and
are willing to make the effort to take the next step in the direction
of your aspiration then spiritual progress is assured.
If we all imagine
greatly and make the effort to take the next step we will be building
the foundations of our Pure Land, we will be transforming our
Buddhist community into a society that supports the spiritual life
very fully, a society which encourages us to spread our secret wings
and soar towards the pure crystalline peaks of Wisdom and Compassion.
I would like to finish
this talk on a slightly different note by reading you a little
anecdote told by Sangharakshita in one of his study seminars:
“In 1956 I was
invited by the government of India as one of the fifty-seven
‘distinguished Buddhists from the border areas’ to visit Delhi
for the 2500th Buddha Jayanti celebrations. In the course of our
travels we came to Benares, and one of the other distinguished
Buddhists from the border areas, a friend of mine who was a lay
Nyingmapa Buddhist, took me into Benares to see a Tibetan Lama –
not an incarnate Lama, an ordinary monk – who was living there to
learn Sanskrit. His name was Tendzing Gyaltsho. He was over
seventy. The Dalai Lama had wanted him to start teaching, but he had
refused. He told the Dalai Lama that he was far too busy learning; he
hadn’t finished his studies. So he settled in Benares to study
Sanskrit. We found him at a place almost like a typical Hindu ashram.
He had a little room at the top, but it was quite bare. He was
sitting on the floor with a tin trunk in front of him which served as
his desk and table, with just a little text on it which he was
studying. He was very pleased to see me and we talked for about an
hour. As we rose to depart, he said, “I really must give you
something”. He looked around the room, but there was absolutely
nothing. I could see that he was almost desperate. He had nothing but
his mala, so he broke his mala and gave me one bead and said, “Please
take this. I must have said many millions of mantras on it. It’s
all I have to give you”.(Mitrata, The Bodhisattva Ideal,
Altruism and Individualism in the Spiritual Life 2, p. 47)
And that is all I have
to give you now too.
