Jewels and me
I was ordained by Bhante Sangharakshita on June 11th 1988. On June 10th, the day before my private ordination I had a very vivid vision in my meditation. I saw a small man sitting on a rock in the middle of a lake and he said to me “the important thing about jewels is the light”.
The reason why jewels were in my consciousness at all, was because I
had decided to take up the Ratnasambhava meditation practice. Ratnasambhava
means “The Jewel Born” – he who is born from a jewel. The jewel that
Ratnasambhava is born from is the same as the jewel in the parable if the Jewel
in the Garment, from the White Lotus Sutra, which we are looking at this
weekend.
Earlier that year, 1988, I was here in Padmaloka on a month-long
retreat – in those days we were invited on a month-long retreat here before
being invited to a three-month ordination retreat at Guhyaloka. On that month
long retreat I kept having spontaneous images in meditation of descending to
the bottom of the ocean and entering a cave which was glittering with jewels
and there I would encounter Ratnasambhava. That’s why I was taking up the
meditation on Ratnasmabhava.
I don’t think I knew at the time that the image of caves under the sea
full of jewels is associated with the mythical creatures called Nagas, who
feature quite prominently in Mahayana Buddhism, including in the White Lotus
Sutra. Nagas are depicted as half human half reptile and can change into being
human. They are associated with wisdom – wisdom coming from the depths.
So, jewel symbolism has been an important element in my spiritual quest
for a long time. But what is jewel symbolism about? Well of course, jewels are
precious, very valuable – so symbolically they come to stand for that which is
most valuable, that which is most precious.
It is important to note that a symbol can have more than one meaning,
or to put it another way, an object or image can have many different symbolic
meanings. It is not a simple case of this means that and only that. So, when we
look at the symbolism in a parable there can be more than one meaning. Or when
we look at the symbolism of jewels there can be many meanings.
Parable of Jewel in the Garment
In this story of the Drunkard and the jewel, also known as the jewel
in the garment, in the White Lotus Sutra, the jewel represents that which is
most precious in our consciousness, our inner world, and it can also be seen to
represent the Dharma teachings and guidance we have received from the Buddha.
Here is the parable:
“It is, O Lord, as if some man having come to a friend's
house got drunk or fell asleep, and that friend bound a priceless gem within
his garment, with the thought: Let this gem be his. After a while, O Lord, that
man rises from his seat and travels further; he goes to some other country,
where he is befallen by incessant difficulties, and has great trouble to find
food and clothing. By dint of great exertion, he is hardly able to obtain a bit
of food, with which (however) he is contented and satisfied. The old friend of
that man, O Lord, who bound within the man's garment that priceless gem,
happens to see him again and says: How is it, good friend, that thou hast such
difficulty in seeking food and clothing, while I, in order that thou shouldst
live in ease, good friend, have bound within thy garment a priceless gem, quite
sufficient to fulfil all thy wishes? I have given thee that gem, my good
friend, the very gem I have bound within thy garment. It is something foolish,
my good friend, to be contented, when thou hast with (so much) difficulty to
procure food and clothing. Go, my good friend, betake thyself, with this gem,
to some great city, exchange the gem for money, and with that money do all that
can be done with money.”
The friend is one way of thinking of the Buddha. He refers to himself
as a Kalyana Mitra – a spiritual friend as we say. The drunkard falling asleep
is a symbol of unmindfulness, lack of awareness of what is most important. Buddhism sees our suffering and deluded
behaviour as coming from ignorance rather than wickedness. Spiritually speaking
we are like children who don’t know any better. There is a difference between
sleep and drunkenness though. Sleep is necessary to our animal nature. There
are aspects of us which are instinctual and stay unconscious. Drunkenness is an
active avoidance of awareness. Not only do we have forces within us that
operate automatically in terms of fight and flight, but we add to that
deliberately by pursuing delusions in an effort to find happiness. The jewel is
the potential that we all have, to Awaken, to attain Enlightenment. It is
Shraddha or faith to begin with and later becomes awareness and Insight into
the nature of reality and finally an embodied realisation of that reality. The
friend symbolises the Buddha who points out our potential to us and gives us
the gift of the Dharma.
Psychologically speaking, we could interpret the poverty and the wandering
around for the sake of material well-being as symbolising or representing the
projection on to external objects and situations the qualities which belong to
the poor man all along. The poor man is spiritually impoverished. Seeking
outside ourselves for the qualities we already possess is one way of thinking
of psychological projection.
This is often what happens in romantic relationships and sometimes in
relation to spiritual teachers. We project on to our partner or on to a
spiritual guide, qualities that we eventually need to recognise as our own. The
jewel hidden in the garment.
We can also see the parable as an entirely internal process. We are
the drunkard and simultaneously we are the Buddha and the Jewel. We wander
about in search of security and well-being in all sorts of places. We search
for happiness in relationships, in careers, in possessions, in power, in opinions
and views, in escapism. But all the while another aspect of our consciousness
is aware that we are not satisfied, not contented and that there is more to
life and more to us than mental restlessness. And the potential for greater
awareness is always present. It’s as if we have a lower and a higher mind.
Why is the jewel hidden in the garment? Often our relationship to our
own spiritual potential or the depths of our being is a superficial one. The jewel is something that has to be brought
into the light of awareness and then can be seen for its true value. In the
work of the German romantic writer, Novalis, there are lots of references to
jewels being hidden beneath the earth, in darkness and unpolished. Spiritual
jewels need to be mined through meditation, ethics, and receptivity to
teachings. Jewels need to be brought out into the light and not hoarded but
shared with others. That of course reminds us of the jewel of compassion, which
is the jewel or mani in the well-known mantra om mani padme hum. The jewel held
to the heart of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion.
Bhante Sangharakshita makes the point that the jewel doesn’t come into
our possession at some particular time – it is always there. Parables are not
to be taken literally and always take place outside of time. The jewel is our
deepest, true nature. It is that which makes us truly human. The potential to
become more and more aware and loving. It is what is most valuable. To fully
activate our humanity means fully activating our potential for greater
awareness and love. This corresponds to some degree with Bhante’s teaching
about the need to find emotional equivalents to our intellectual understandings.
The jewel could be seen as the spark that ignites our motivation to practise
the Dharma and transform ourselves. This spark could be called faith or
shraddha.
Jewel symbolism is very common in Buddhism and the jewel, as is
appropriate, is multi-faceted in its meanings.
Parable of the Jewel in the Topknot
In the White Lotus Sutra, there are at least two other stories where a
jewel is prominent. There’s the parable of the jewel in the topknot.
“A king seeing his
troops successful in warfare, he is greatly delighted and rewards them
according to their merits, giving them fields, houses, villages, cities,
counties; or else clothing; personal ornaments; or various precious treasures
of gold, silver, lapis lazuli, mother-of-pearl, carnelian, coral, or agate; or
elephants, horses, carriages, servants, or subjects.
"Only the bright
pearl on his cowl, that alone, he does not give away. Why not? Only the king
can wear this pearl on his crown. If he gave it away, the king’s retinue would
surely be greatly astonished.
"Manjushri, eventually the wheel-turning
king, seeing among his troops those who have been greatly successful, is
overjoyed and at last gives them the incredible pearl, which he has long worn
in his topknot and which he would never casually give away.”
This parable has pretty
much the same message as the biblical instruction “do not cast pearls before
swine”. In other words, don’t try to give what is precious to those who won’t
or can’t appreciate it. Here the jewel represents the various teachings of the
Buddha, or the jewel simply represents the Truth, or the nature of reality, and
the king represents the Buddha, who waits until people are ready before
revealing the full truth.
Again, we can look at
this as a completely inner process. The soldiers and ministers of our mind are
our concerns with worldly matters, defending ourselves, planning for our
security and happiness. The king is our better self, which requires the right
combination of conditions before it can be fully integrated. The jewel here is
both the teachings we hear and our capacity to take them on board. If we try to
go to the seemingly higher teachings before we have grasped the basics, we can
only confuse ourselves. So, this is pointing to both the need for a teacher who
can guide us and the need for patience when it comes to the spiritual life.
If we don’t have a
teacher or some guidance we may mistake jewels for gravel, and mistake gravel
for jewels. We may be inclined to overvalue what is not valuable and undervalue
that which is really precious.
Both of these jewels, the
jewel of our potential and the jewel of deeper meanings in life can be revealed
to us suddenly as a result of some misfortune or a mystical experience or some
combination of circumstances. But we still need to then learn about the path
and how to practice and how to grow in awareness and loving kindness. This is
what is meant by vision and transformation. The vision of life’s spiritual
purpose or meaning may come to us somehow but the transformation will require
effort from us. Effort to be receptive and effort to understand and practice
what we learn.
Jewels and Nagas
The third appearance of a
jewel in the White Lotus Sutra is when a young Naga princess rises up from
beneath the sea and makes an offering of a jewel to the Buddha. I mentioned the
nagas before. They are mythical creatures in the form of half reptile, half
human who live at the bottom of the ocean and they have vast treasures of
jewels.
According to tradition
and legend, the Prajñapāramita sutras (perfection of wisdom) had been given by the Buddha to a
great nāga ,who guarded them in the sea, and they were conferred upon Nāgārjuna later by a naga. In Tibetan Buddhist literature, nagas are portrayed as guardians or
owners of submerged treasure, which can be mere wealth or "spiritual" treasures. So,
the nagas are associated with wisdom and a gift of a jewel from the nagas is a
gift of wisdom. The jewel is a symbol of wisdom from the depths, in this
context. The fact that we have reflexive awareness, which is the nature of
human consciousness, means that we have a kind of innate wisdom, which can be
activated. That is the jewel of our potential to grow spiritually, the jewel of
wisdom.
The
Three Jewels
Perhaps
the most well-known jewel symbolism in Buddhism is the Three Jewels of Buddha,
Dharma and Sangha. Our Order and Community is called Triratna, mean three
jewels and on our kesa is an image of three jewels. So, for us the three jewels
of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are the most precious or valuable things in the
world. The Buddha is both an historical figure, the one who instigated the
whole tradition of Dharma teachings and created a spiritual community based on
those truths and the Buddha also represents the potential for Enlightenment or
Awakening, which it is possible for any human being to activate. This is what we are reminded of in the
Threefold Puja with the lines,
“What
the Buddha overcame, we too can overcome,
What
the Buddha attained we too can attain.”
The Dharma is the
teaching of the Buddha and the path pointed out by him and the Dharma is also
the truth, the reality, the way things really are. The spiritual community is
the communication and co-operation between those who awaken their own potential
for Enlightenment in the quest to realise the way things really are. We are
jewels and if we are exposed to the light of the Buddha and the Dharma, our
inner light shines through and the true value of our precious humanity can be
seen more clearly. The important thing about jewels is the light.
Pure Lands
There are some Sutras of
later Buddhism, which describe what they call a Pure Land. A pure land is a
metaphor for the most ideal conditions in which to practice the Dharma. And
Pure Lands are always described as being made of jewels – the trees are jewel
trees, the fruit on the trees is jewel fruit, the ground is a ground of jewels,
there are jewel chains marking different areas – jewels everywhere. When you
read these descriptions of pure lands – if you take them literally, they are
not very attractive. They sound like the jewellery section of a very high-class
department store. But they are not to be taken literally. They are to be read by
the faculty of imagination. It is as if you are meditating, and you start to
spontaneously experience everything as utterly precious. You are precious,
other people are precious, the possibility of spiritual growth is precious,
everything that enables you to practice is precious, your body, your mind, your
capacity for effort and understanding. Everything is precious and in that sense
jewel-like. The Pure Land is an image or metaphor of a pure mind, a mind
devoted to spiritual growth.
The symbolism of jewels
is, appropriately enough, multi-faceted. Jewels can symbolise Enlightenment or
the path to enlightenment or your own potential for enlightenment, or the ideal
conditions for enlightenment. Of course, all of these meanings are intimately
connected. It is the human potential for Buddhahood, the jewel referred to in
the parable of the jewel and the drunkard, which enabled the emergence into
this world of the Buddha, the Dharma and all the practitioners down the
generations. And it is all those who have sincerely put the Dharma into
practice who have created the conditions which we all benefit from.
Jewel Symbolism and Us
When the friend sees that
the man in the parable is still scrabbling around to make a living and unaware
of the jewel, he sort of tells him off. It is as if the parable is saying it is
beneath the dignity of a human being to ignore or be unaware of our spiritual
potential. Our potential to grow and develop spiritually is the most important
thing about us, it’s what makes us human and to ignore it or squander it is
shameful and undignified, and stupid even. To spend our lives in pursuit of
ephemeral mundane things like wealth and status and power or fame is an
undignified way to use our precious opportunity.
Coming down to our own
situation, it is for us to realise the preciousness of what we have discovered
in the Dharma and the Sangha. It is for us to realise what rich, abundant lives
we have and what precious opportunities we have.
The appreciation of our
conditions and gratitude for what we have received and are receiving is the
necessary attitude for making progress. If we are unaware of our own good
fortune, then we are like the man in the parable, wandering around trying to
grab the bare necessities, while all the time we have within our hearts
something much more precious than any mundane wealth or status.
Here we are on a weekend
retreat at Padmaloka – in such great conditions, getting teachings about the
Buddhadharma, having time to meditate and reflect, sharing what is most
important to us with like-minded people and being well looked after. We are in
a little Pure Land, glittering with jewels and all we need to do is be as
present as possible, open our hearts to the gifts we are being offered and
allow our own inner jewels and inner light to emerge and radiate, so that our
love and understanding grows and connects with the understanding and love
radiating from those around us. This is the path to contentment and happiness
for ourselves and the path to creating a world that is more at peace with
itself and therefore more creative and worthwhile.
