This talk was given at the Norwich Buddhist Centre's Buddha Day festival, in a marquee tent in the Norfolk countryside, in 2019
I like to read novels now and then and one novelist I return to again and again is George Eliot. I think she is one of the greatest novelists anywhere, ever. In her work there is a great combination of wisdom, compassion and technical skill. She is a profoundly moral writer trying to find a truly moral basis for humanity in a post-Christian, scientific world.
I have a reverence and admiration for George Eliot, both her work and her life. She had many of the qualities of a true individual and a visionary perspective. I also admire and revere the Buddha and Bhante Sangharakshita. I admire and revere both of them for their wisdom and compassion, their skilfulness in communication and their visionary perspective. As well as admiring and revering George Eliot, the Buddha and Bhante Sangharakshita, I am also very receptive to them and receptive to what they say.
In this talk I want to take a closer look at reverence and receptivity. Because we are here to celebrate Buddha day – the Festival of the Buddha’s Enlightenment, I want to look at reverence and receptivity in the life of Siddhartha Gautama before he became the Buddha and when he became the Buddha.
But first, what do we mean by reverence and what do we mean by receptivity? Reverence means having a deep respect for someone. It comes from a root meaning 'to be in awe of'. Receptivity is a willingness to consider and accept new suggestions and ideas. In a short essay he wrote just two years ago, Bhante Sangharakshita talks about his own capacity for reverence, he talks about all the mythic heroes he looked up to and the writers and artists and spiritual teachers of past and present. And then he goes on to make a point which I think is of great importance. He says: “the fact that I find it easy to look up, especially to my spiritual teachers, does not mean that I am able to do this simply because I am of the devotional rather than of the intellectual type. One's personal type has little to do with it. The capacity to look up to something or someone higher than oneself is inherent in human nature and reaches across religions and cultures. Any attempt to minimise the importance of devotion in the spiritual life, or to limit it to a particular personality type, is a betrayal of the Buddha’s teaching and does less than justice to human nature.”
This is very important – reverence and devotion are not a temperamental thing, not just a quirk of nature in some people. They are inherent in human nature. Reverence is natural. To lack all sense of reverence is to be artificial rather than natural. It is an artificially adopted position probably based on some alienation from the emotions and over dependence on the intellect. It is an attitude conditioned by the ethos of the society we live in.
The essay in which Bhante Sangharakshita makes this point is about the Garava sutta. The word Garava means reverence and according to Bhante “includes such emotions as admiration, wonder and delight in the fact that there exists, or existed, others superior to one’s self in creative ability or spiritual attainment.” In the Garava sutta the Buddha is depicted just after his Enlightenment experience.
The Sutta says: “thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed one was dwelling at Uruvela on the bank of the river Neranjara at the foot of the goatherds Banyan tree just after he had become fully enlightened. Then while the Blessed one was alone in seclusion, a reflection arose in his mind thus: “one dwells in suffering if one is without reverence and deference. Now what ascetic or Brahmin can I honour and respect and dwell in dependence on?” I do not see another ascetic or Brahmin more perfect in the knowledge and vision of liberation than myself, whom I could honour and respect, and on whom I could dwell in dependence. Let me then honour, respect, and dwell in dependence on this very Dharma to which I have fully awakened.” (Samyutta Nikaya, 6.2)
This whole theme of reverence is important. Reverence is a positive emotion, a positive state of mind, like Metta or faith – shraddha – and it’s an important state of mind to be able to access and experience. Without reverence for that which is higher and for those who embody something higher or deeper, we are left with our own consciousness as the highest and deepest in the universe. If we cannot look up to and reverence others then by implication we ourselves are the pinnacle of existence. I think reverence is closely related to gratitude. Gratitude is the response we have when we know we have received some benefit and reverence is the response we have when we know that someone or something can benefit us. Receptivity is being open to receiving that benefit.
I was listening to a radio programme recently – it was about IVF treatment in Denmark. What struck me was one woman saying that after she gave birth she felt the need to express gratitude to something. Even though she wasn’t religious in any way she went to the hospital chapel to express gratitude. Again it’s this sense of something innate, an urge to give thanks, to express gratitude or an urge to give or express reverence.
Reverence seems to be part of the conditions for receptivity. If we reverence the Buddha we will be receptive to the Buddha and on the other hand if we are receptive to the Buddha we will probably experience reverence and gratitude. If we are receptive to any spiritual teacher we will probably experience some reverence and gratitude towards them. This seems to be a very natural human thing.
Our Western culture and conditioning can sometimes bury and thwart our natural urge towards reverence and receptivity and one of our tasks when we embark on the spiritual path is to become aware of any conditioning like that and try to get in touch with our more natural aspirations and emotions.
As well as being receptive to people, to teachers and those who are more creative or more spiritually developed, we can also be receptive to events, to circumstances and to people we don’t know or who are not especially spiritually developed or creative. We become receptive by being aware of the significance of what is happening around us and by reflecting on that significance.
For instance what is the significance of this event today. I have travelled here to speak to you. You have all come here to be together, to hear me speak and to celebrate Buddha day. How has that come about? Why is it happening? Why are you here? Is it just a day out in the countryside or does it have some deeper significance? If it’s more than a day out in the countryside, what are the implications for you? Are you open, are you receptive to your own actions – in being here – and the actions of others in coming here? What are the implications of this gathering for other people – people you haven’t met yet, people who haven't even been born yet?
Nothing is without significance if we can bring sufficient awareness to bear on it. This is part of the message of the story of Siddhartha Gautama. He saw the musicians and dancers in his palace sleeping and he had an insight into the futility of craving. He saw a sick person, and old person and a corpse and he was struck by the ubiquitous nature of suffering and impermanence. He saw a wandering holy man and he grasped the significance of the possibility of dedicating one’s life to the pursuit of meaning and truth.
He was aware and he reflected and through that awareness and those reflections he was able to go deeper and see beyond the surface of things into their deeper significance. He was receptive to his first meditation teachers and learned and made progress very quickly. He was receptive to his own intuitions which took him on a quest beyond his meditation teachers and beyond austerity practices. We could even say he was receptive to Mara – in the sense that he didn’t deny or reject Mara but brought awareness to Mara and what Mara represents. This is what Subhuti calls 'reaction practice', not denying or rejecting our own greed, ill will, doubt and so on, but penetrating it with ever greater awareness.
After his enlightenment, his awakening, the Buddha was receptive to Brahmasahampati, the King of the gods who implored him to share his wisdom, his understanding and insight. He was inclined not to teach others thinking that nobody would be capable of understanding. We could see Brahmasahampati as representing a higher imaginative and visionary faculty which prompted the newly Awakened Buddha to go out and teach the Dharma.
His vision showed him that there were some people who would be receptive and would understand his teaching and knowing what people needed he responded out of compassion. And later he exhorted his first disciples to go out and teach the Dharma for the benefit and welfare of the many. The Dharma is for the many and not the few, to borrow a political slogan.
The title of this talk is The Three ‘Rs’ and so far I’ve talked about reverence and receptivity. The third R is responsiveness. So we have reverence receptivity and responsiveness. I have said a bit about what reverence and receptivity are and I’ve said something about reverence and receptivity in the life of Siddhartha before and after the awakening. I’d like to say something more about the relevance of reverence, receptivity and responsiveness to all of us who are practising the Dharma within the Triratna tradition.
In order to live the spiritual life and to commit to the spiritual path of ethics, meditation and wisdom, we need to see the path and the life embodied in people, at least to some degree. We need to see people who are genuinely striving to live an ethical life, who meditate regularly and take responsibility for their own states of mind. And we need to see people who are to some degree embodying the wisdom and compassion of the Dharma. As Hakuin says: “apart from water, no ice. Outside living beings, no Buddhas.”
In other words the Dharma is not just a set of abstract concepts – such as “this being, that becomes” and so on. The Dharma is not even a set of practices. The Dharma is alive when it is lived out in the lives of people. When it’s not lived out, it is dead and becomes a museum piece, something exotic for tourists in Thailand or Sri Lanka or the British Museum.
Because the Dharma needs to be lived in order to be alive, it is through living it and seeing it lived by others that we come to really, deeply understand it. It is much easier to live the Dharma, if we see others living it and easier still if we are inspired by some people who have made progress on the path. When we see people living the Dharma life very fully we quite naturally feel respect and gratitude towards them. We look up to them and revere them. This act of looking up to and revering those who are more spiritually mature is the practical manifestation of going for refuge to the Buddha. The Buddha is symbolic of what we aspire to. Those people we come into contact with who embody to some degree what we aspire to are reflections or echoes of the Buddha.
If we look up to and revere those who are spiritually mature, then we naturally want to listen to them, to hear what they think; we may even want to follow them, to emulate them. In other words we are receptive. We want to learn – not just to learn the concepts and the ideas of the Dharma but to learn how to transform ourselves.
As we gradually learn how to transform our conditioning, our negative emotions, our views and opinions: as we gradually put the teachings into practice, as receptivity bears fruit, then we can be said to be going for refuge to the Dharma. The key to this stage is awareness. We need to turn the light of awareness on ourselves and with total honesty, see ourselves as clearly as possible – to see our good qualities clearly, to see our positive emotions clearly and fully accept them, see our intelligence and aspirations clearly and warmly. We also need to see our bad qualities and negative emotions clearly and with loving kindness, see our stupidity and resistance to reality with clarity and warmth.
As we listen to and learn from our elders, we reflect deeply on what we hear and we engage in introspection, contemplation and meditation. In that way we grow in awareness. But it doesn’t stop there. Robert Bly writes about the poet Rilke: “Rilke was Rodin’s secretary for a while, and Rodin one day advised him to go down to the zoo and try to see something. Rilke did, and spent some time watching a panther. Rodin respected seeing, the ability to observe, to use the terrific energy of the eyes, to pay attention to something besides one’s own subjectivity. Rilke understood that his own poetry lacked seeing, and he wrote nearly 200 poems in about six years in an effort to sharpen his seeing. Through that labour Rilke passed to a new stage of his art. Strangely, Novalis in 1800 had spoken of this passage. Novalis thought there were two stages in an artist’s life: “self-expression is the source of all abasement, just as contrariwise, it is the basis for all true elevation. The first step is introspection – exclusive contemplation of the self. But whoever stops there goes only halfway. The second step must be genuine observation outward – spontaneous, sober observation of the external world.” (News of the Universe, R. Bly, p.204)
Awareness doesn’t stop with introspection. It must also turn outwards and see others with kindness and intelligence. This leads on to the third R of the title, which is responsiveness. It is not enough to be aware and metta-full towards ourselves. It is also not enough to be aware and metta-full towards others. We also need to act, to respond.
After the Buddha’s Enlightenment or as part of the experience of Awakening, he looked out towards the world, he turned his attention to the world around him and he had a vision of the world as a lotus lake – some lotuses were completely submerged, some were barely emerging from the water and some were completely free from the water and resplendent. He understood that people were at different stages of development and receptivity and that some would be able to understand him. So he went out into the world to share his experience with others. He responded to the needs of humanity.
Later when the first sixty disciples were sufficiently grounded in the Dharma, living the Dharma, he exhorted them to go out into the world and share their experience for the welfare of the many. They too responded to the needs of humanity. And so it has been down the generations and so it is now. That is why there is a Buddhist centre in Norwich and that is why we can be here together today to celebrate the Buddha’s Enlightenment.
The responsiveness of the Buddha manifests as a compassionate communication of the Dharma to all those who are open to it, who are receptive. Our responsiveness may have to be expressed differently, but the spirit is the same. It’s the spirit of generosity, the spirit of loving-kindness. We may not feel able to communicate the Dharma widely, but we can support those who do. And we can be friendly and kind to others in the Sangha and beyond. This responsiveness to the spiritual needs of others is an expression of going for refuge to the Sangha.
I have talked about the three Rs of reverence, receptivity and responsiveness and I have linked them to going for refuge to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha respectively. I’ve also talked about these elements in the life of Siddhartha and the Buddha, as we are here today to celebrate the awakening of Siddhartha and his becoming a fully Enlightened Buddha.
Celebrating the Buddha’s Awakening implies a reverence for the Buddha and receptivity to the Dharma he taught. The Dharma taught by the Buddha implies responsiveness to the spiritual needs of others. As the Buddha says in the Anguttara Nikaya: “of two people who practice the Dharma in line with the Dharma, having a sense of Dharma having a sense of meaning – one who practices for both his own benefit and that of others, and one the practices for his own benefit but not that of others – the one who practices for his own benefit but not that of others is to be criticised for that reason, the one who practices from both his own benefit and that of others is, for that reason, to be praised”. (AN,7.68) Let us then, out of reverence for the Buddha, be receptive to his message and let us practice the Dharma, ethics, meditation and wisdom, for our own benefit and for the benefit of others.
