This is the fifth talk in the series given in the summer of 2016.
From childhood right up until my early 30s I was
something of a shrinking violet. There are probably many complex reasons for
this; I wasn’t socialised early in life due to living in a very rural area, I
was very shy and I am a natural introvert. And as far back as I can remember I
lived with some uneasy fear of the world around me. I was a reflective and
observant child and therefore often confused by people, religion, history etc.
Whatever the reasons, I was a shrinking violet and that was internalised and
became my habitual way of being in the world for at least the first three
decades of my life.
I would not characterise myself as a shrinking violet
now, perhaps more a sunflower or a hollyhock. Maybe I was never really a shrinking
violet, just a sunflower in unfavourable conditions. In the Parable of the Rain
Cloud from The White Lotus Sutra the Buddha compares the Dharma to rain,
monsoon rain, and he compares people – us – to the plants which grow and
flourish as a result of the rain:
“all the various trees,
lofty, medium, low,
each according to its size,
grows and develops
roots, stalks, branches,
leaves,
blossoms and fruits in their
brilliant colours;
wherever the one rain
reaches,
all become fresh and glossy.
According as their bodies,
forms
and natures are great or
small,
so the enriching rain,
though it is one and the
same,
makes each of them
flourish.”
“Ever to all beings
I preach the Dharma equally;
as I preach to one person
so I preach to all.
Ever I proclaim the Dharma,
engaged in naught else;
going, coming, sitting,
standing,
never am I weary of
pouring it copious on the world,
like the all enriching rain.
On honoured and humbled, high and low,
Law-keepers and law-breakers,
those of perfect character,
and those of imperfect,
orthodox and heterodox,
quick witted and dull-witted,
equally I rain the Dharma- rain
unwearyingly.”
All the flowers, shrubs, bushes and trees grow in their
own unique way and similarly all the people hearing and practising the Dharma
grow and develop in their own unique way according to their character,
temperament, abilities and capacities.
At this stage, the Stage of Spiritual Rebirth, which we
are exploring this week, we begin to see what kind of plant we are, what kind
of flower or tree we are. We begin to realise at this stage what kind of
Buddhist we are and what kind of Buddha and Bodhisattva we are becoming. Bhante
Sangharakshita has referred to this stage as the Stage of Transformation,
reminding us not to get too attached to any one metaphor. Transformation is
symbolised by the flames and the Lotus on the kesa. He says: “this is when the
vision that you have seen or experienced starts, as it were, descending and
transforming every aspect of your being.” Seminar
We can see that although we are speaking in terms of
stages, this is really a process that begins when we first respond to the Dharma
and continues until it bears fruit in Insight and Enlightenment. Right from
when we first hear and respond to the Dharma we have this experience of being
transformed. Earlier in the year we had four mitras speaking on the topic “why
I asked for ordination?” And the answer in a nutshell was that the Dharma had
transformed them – how they lived their lives and how they thought about their
lives had been transformed by their engagement with the Dharma. Like flowers
nourished by the rain and opening to the sun their hearts had opened. This is Spiritual
Rebirth beginning to happen. Or even earlier, people ask to become mitras
because they have experienced the transforming power of the Dharma. As we
continue to hear the Dharma, respond to the Dharma, practice the Dharma and be
transformed by the Dharma – we become more and more the individual we really
are. The protective armour and defensive strategies of our egotism slowly
dissolves and the many faces we show the world give way to our true face, the
face of the Bodhisattva or Buddha that we are becoming. Qualities begin to
shine through, our gifts and abilities are more and more in the service of the
Dharma. We are being reborn, shedding the chrysalis of self concern and
emerging in all our splendour. As time goes by we become the answer to the
request in Bhante’s poem Secret Wings:
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 the 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.
Every star shall be a sun – every Buddhist shall be a
Buddha. Buddhism has a positive goal, it is not just about the negation of
egotism or the absence of greed, hatred and delusion. There is positive content
to the Enlightenment experience that manifests in the actions, words, thoughts
and imagination of the Buddha mind. As the great 18th century
Japanese master Hakuin said: “apart from water, no ice, outside living beings,
no Buddhas.”
The ideal of Buddhism can seem abstract, but the Buddha
was not an abstraction. We aim to emulate the Buddha, to become Buddhas not to
become abstractions. But emulating the Buddha and becoming a Buddha, is not
about becoming just like a man who lived in India two and a half thousand years
ago. That would be an absurd undertaking. We have to use our awareness to
discern and experience what kind of Buddha we can be and we need to develop our
imaginal ability, our imaginal power, to get a sense of who the Buddha really
was and what being a Buddha really means.
There are a number of traditional practices which help us
to awaken our awareness and imagination of the Buddha. The great Indian sage
Vasubandhu taught four practices – known as Vasubandhu’s four factors. The last
two of these are Recollection of the Buddhas and Contemplation of the Virtues
of the Tathagathas. Here is how Bhante describes these practices in his book
The Meaning of Conversion in Buddhism: “in Recollecting the Buddhas, one brings
to mind the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, who lived in India about 2500 years
ago, and the lineage of his great predecessors of which the Buddhist tradition
speaks. In particular, one reflects that these Buddhas started their spiritual
careers as human beings, with their weaknesses and limitations, just as we do.
Just as they managed to transcend all limitations to become enlightened, so can
we, if only we make the effort. There are several ways of approaching the
fourth practice, the Contemplation of the Virtues of the Tathagathas. One can
dwell on the life of an Enlightened One – the spiritual biography of the Buddha
or Milarepa for example. One can perform pujas in front of a shrine, or perhaps
just sit and look at a Buddha image, really trying to get a feeling for what
the image represents. Then again, one can do a visualisation practice in which
– to be very brief indeed – one conjures up a vivid mental picture of a
particular Buddha or Bodhisattva, an embodiment of an aspect of Enlightenment
such as wisdom, compassion, energy or purity.” The practice of Recollection of
the Buddha is echoed in our Threefold Puja when we say:
“the Buddha was born as we are born
what the Buddha overcame we too can overcome.
What the Buddha attained, we too can attain.”
Reading a life of the Buddha such as Gautama by
Vishvapani, is a good way to get a feeling for the Buddha as a person with a
spiritual practice. Going on pilgrimage to the Buddhist holy places in India is
another way.
The contemplation of the qualities of Enlightenment is
reflected in our study, our longer pujas, our shrines and images, and the Sadhana
practices of Order Members. The many and diverse images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
– the archetypal figures such as Amitabha, Avolokiteshvara and Green Tara – all
these images produced from the depths of meditation experience can speak to us,
speak to our depths, in a way that words and ideas may never do. These images
emerged from the meditations of unique people, unique minds, unique experiences
and we, in our uniqueness, may respond to some and not to others. There are so
many figures, so many colours, and gestures, qualities and associations. There
are many many different archetypes of Enlightenment symbolising and emphasising
different qualities. They are like the different plants of The Rain Cloud
Parable, the different unique individuals we can grow into or, of course, we
may become a kind of Buddha as yet unimagined.
All of these different Buddhas and Bodhisattvas symbolise
Enlightened or Awakened consciousness in its fullness and they each emphasise
particular qualities of the Awakened individual. These figures and their
qualities also indicate ways to practice – a path of wisdom, a path of
compassion, a path of beauty, a path of energy, a path of generosity, a path of
meditation and so on. Spiritual Rebirth manifests in even greater faith –
shraddha – unshakeable faith in The Three Jewels, because now, at this stage,
one is embodying the three jewels more and more and one is experiencing the
fruits of practice – so faith has a very firm basis.
Spiritual Rebirth also manifests in altruistic activity –
spontaneous altruistic activity – because there is less ego to get in the way;
less worry, fear, anxiety, less self concern, less need for praise, less fear
of blame. By this stage positive emotion is more established and present all
the time. By this stage integration is manifesting as the unique kind of plant
you are. By this stage, the victory over self-centredness is the norm and so
altruistic, generous and kindly activity is becoming the natural unpremeditated
way to be and behave.
As well as manifesting in great faith and altruism, Spiritual
Rebirth also manifests as greater appreciation of beauty and less desire to
possess. Possessiveness and pride and fear and status – they all kill beauty.
When they decrease, beauty is more present all the time. This is what Bhante
has referred to as the Greater Mandala of Aesthetic Appreciation – an attitude
towards the world and people that is not wanting to use or own everything, but
an attitude that is content with little and appreciates everything.
Spiritual Rebirth is not really something that can be
practised – it is the result of practice. However, Spiritual Rebirth cannot
really be divorced from Spiritual death or Spiritual Victory. Spiritual death
is a way of talking about the deeper understanding and clear vision that brings
about transformation in our lives and Spiritual Rebirth is a way of talking
about how that transformation unfolds in our lives and manifests in the world.
These are two ways of looking at spiritual practice – there is practice as
discipline, as a means to bring about growth and development – practice as a
path to transformation and there is practice as the expression of
transformation, practice as the expression of deeper understanding and clear
vision. The practice of ethics can be a discipline or training we undertake in
order to enable us to experience higher states of consciousness or ethical
practice can be the expression of a higher state of consciousness. The same
applies to meditation or devotional ritual or contemplation.
At this Stage of Spiritual Rebirth, the Stage of
Transformation, ethical practice will be more natural and spontaneous and
engagement in devotional ritual will be an enactment of the nature of Reality.
Buddhahood is the highest expression of humanity and to orientate ourselves in
the direction of Buddhahood in all our activities is both a practice and an
expression of realisation. To ritually orientate ourselves in the direction of
Buddhahood through Puja is a necessity for those who aspire to realisation and
the natural expression of realisation for those who have been transformed
through practice. At this Stage of Spiritual Rebirth, Puja, devotion and even prayer
are the practices most likely to engender the attitude and spirit of
transcendent consciousness and give a flavour of the Buddha mind. Acting on
kind and generous impulses is also a practice that can both lead in the
direction of transformation and give a flavour of those higher states of mind.
Many people get a hint of Spiritual Rebirth through
developing a connection with an archetypal Buddha or Bodhisattva – through
contemplating images of particular Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, chanting their
mantras, meditating on their qualities, even talking to them or acting as if
you were that particular figure- acting as if you were Tara or Amoghasiddhi and
so on – this intense imaginative interaction leads to a relationship with Reality
via symbol and image. Imagination is essential to Insight. Imagination is
essential to Spiritual Death and Rebirth. As Sangharakshita puts it in his
essay Journey to Il Convento: “when one truly perceives an image one perceives
it with the whole of oneself, with ones whole being. When one truly perceives
an image, therefore, one is transported to the world to which that image
belongs and becomes, if only for the time being, an inhabitant of that world.
In other words, truly to perceive an image means to become an image, so that
when one speaks of the imagination, or the imaginal faculty, what one is really
speaking of is image perceiving image. That is to say in perceiving an image what
one really perceives is, in a sense, oneself.” The Priceless Jewel, p.57. Enlightenment is
not conceptual, not a rational ideas-based experience. It is much more akin to
the experience of being moved and transformed by great art or by the natural
world, which speaks to us on deeper levels that involve the whole of us, heart
and head, emotions and thoughts, all united in an imaginative identification
with the nature of Reality.
In Ratnaguna’s book Great Faith, Great Wisdom (page2) there
is a quote from Aaron Hughes which defines imagination, It says : “Imagination
is the faculty that experiences and expresses in sensible form that which is
essentially inexpressible”. So that is what archetypal Buddhas and Boddhisattvas are doing. They are
expressing through the senses , ‘in sensible form that which is essentially
inexpressible’.
Spiritual Rebirth is the arena of imagination and
inspiration. Inspired by the Buddha we make an imaginative leap out of our
mundane concerns into the great expansive, cosmic, reaches of Reality. It is
very important that we allow for inspiration in our lives. We need to become
aware of what inspires us and as much as possible stay close to our sources of
inspiration. Being inspired motivates us to practice and practice is the
training that eventually leads to the imaginative breakthrough we call Insight,
or Spiritual death or Spiritual Victory or Vision. That is the transformation
which allows the qualities of Awakened consciousness to manifest more and more
through our uniqueness.
The great Tibetan yogi Milarepa is a supreme example of
the stages of the spiritual path and in his songs we can hear the expression of
inspiration, imagination, kindness and compassion and realisation. One of those
songs that many of us are familiar with it is the Song of Meeting and Parting.
The first verse goes like this:
“in the immense blue sky above
roll on the sun and moon.
Their courses mark the change of time.
Blue sky, I wish you health and fortune,
for I, the-moon-and-sun, am leaving
to visit the four continents for pleasure.”
So here you have the poet Milarepa giving a personality
to the sun and moon and that personality expresses Metta towards the blue sky,
also perceived as a living being. Milarepa has a close, intimate connection
with the natural world and this is where he finds his images. You also have a
reminder of impermanence. Bhante says that what is here translated as ‘for
pleasure’ might be better rendered as ‘out of sheer bliss’.So the whole verse
is an exuberant outpouring of joy, an exulting in the nature of Reality. In the
second verse the poet envisages a vulture speaking to a rock – there is again
the reminder of impermanence and the expression of Metta is even more detailed,
an imaginative identification of the vulture with the rock and it finishes with
the refrain –
“inspired by the Dharma
May we soon meet again
in prosperity and boon.”
Milarepa’s song is a hymn to impermanence, symbolising
the wisdom aspect of awakening and to Metta, symbolising the compassion aspect
of awakening. It is also a hymn to the inspiration derived from the Dharma. The
whole song is framed in highly imaginative terms that lift us into a realm of
beauty and richness. It seems to me an appropriate way to end this talk on Spiritual
Rebirth and as a special treat Arthasiddhi will now sing Milarepa’s Song of Meeting and Parting to help
us all soar into the exalted realms of the yogi Milarepa and his highly
imaginative evocation of the nature of Reality.
In the immense blue sky above
Roll on the sun and moon.
Their courses mark the change of time.
Blue sky, I wish you health and fortune,
For I, the moon-and-sun, am leaving
To visit the Four Continents for pleasure.
On the mountain peak is a great rock
Round which circles oft the vulture,
The King of birds.
Their meeting
And their parting mark the change of time.
Dear rock, be well and healthy, for I,
The vulture, now will fly away
Into the vast space for pleasure.
May lightnings never strike you,
May I not be caught by snares.
Inspired by the Dharma,
May we soon meet again,
In prosperity and boon.
Below in the Tsang River,
Swim fish with golden eyes;
Their meeting and their parting
Mark the change of time.
Dear stream, be well and healthy, for I,
The fish am going to the Ganges for diversion.
May irrigators never drain you,
May fishermen ne'er net me
Inspired by the Dharma,
May we soon meet again
In prosperity and boon.
In the fair garden blooms the flower, Halo;
Circling round it is the Persian bee.
Their meeting and their parting,
Mark the change of time.
Dear flower, be well and healthy, for I
Will see the Ganges' blooms for pleasure.
May hail not beat down upon you,
May winds blow me not away.
Inspired by the Dharma,
May we soon meet again
In prosperity and boon.
Circling round the Yogi Milarepa
Are the faithful patrons from Nya Non;
Their meeting and their parting
Mark the change of time.
Be well and healthy, dear patrons, as I
Leave for the far mountains for diversion.
May I, the yogi, make good progress,
And you, my patrons, all live long.
Inspired by the Dharma,
May we soon meet again
In prosperity and boon!
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