The Spiritual Significance of Team Based Right Livelihood

This talk was given at the London Buddhist Centre in the course of a Team Based Right Livelihood day in July 1998

Right livelihood in Buddhism

Right livelihood has been part of Buddhism from the very beginning according to the tradition recorded in the Pali. One of the first discourses of the Buddha concerns the Four Noble Truths of which the Eightfold Path is the fourth. And of course right livelihood is one of the stages of the Eightfold Path. Three stages are concerned with ethics - right action, right speech and right livelihood and at first glance it seems peculiar that livelihood should get mentioned separately. After all, the stages of right action and right speech deal with the ethical issues concerned - i e non-violence in respect of people and property.

My own view is that the Buddha refers to livelihood separately as a direct challenge and contradiction to the system of caste which was prevalent in India. According to the caste system your livelihood was determined by your birth, each caste had its own professions, but the Buddha is saying, no it is not caste that should determine your livelihood but ethical concerns. This would have been a socially radical step that would have distinguished the Buddha's followers from the followers of other sects. In other words the element of social transformation is there in Buddhism from the very beginning, and right livelihood as well as being about ethical behaviour which involves self transformation, is also about applying spiritual and ethical criteria to work and is therefore about the transformation of society and has always been concerned with the transformation of society.

We, in the West, do not have a caste system and careers are chosen on different grounds. However it is not the ethical principles of non-violence, generosity, truthfulness and so on which are uppermost in most people's minds when choosing a career. Their concerns are more likely to be money and, for some, status. So the theme of right livelihood still needs to be emphasised both for reasons of personal ethics and for social reasons.

Sangharakshita has emphasised from the start the social aspect of right livelihood. Out of this emphasis there grew the phenomenon of the team based Right livelihood business. It is possible to practice right livelihood without team-based right livelihood businesses, but the team based right livelihood is a particularly intense and effective form of the practice. So in the Triratna Buddhist Community we have developed our own situations in which we can practise and fully explore the Buddha's teaching of right livelihood. The development of these situations has been a long and at times painful process of learning and experimentation. And there is still plenty to do to make our businesses and charities more total right livelihood situations and then of course, beyond right livelihood is perfect livelihood - the transcendental level of practice.

The development of team-based right livelihood has involved the simultaneous development of all the elements that go to create a work environment and context where people can effectively go for Refuge to the three jewels. The elements I would like to look at more closely are: Ethics, Dana, Work as Practice and Sangha.

Ethics

The ethical element of team-based right livelihood applies to what kind of business we carry on, it applies to our relationships with our customers and suppliers, and of course to our relationships with each other in teams. The basic principle of Buddhist ethics is non-violence or Metta and that is the basic principle we need to apply to our businesses. They must not cause any violence to people, animals or the natural environment and where possible they should encourage positive emotion towards people, animals and the natural environment.

We also need to be honest and friendly and kind with our customers, suppliers, auditors etc. This is a very important aspect of the practice of team-based right livelihood, exemplifying the Dharma in the world. Sangharakshita has said that we can't always be happy but at least we can be friendly and this is worth bearing in mind. If you are unhappy, you don't have to be grumpy or taciturn with the customers. And of course we need to observe the principles of non-violence, generosity, kindly speech and so on in relation to our fellow team members. This is extremely important. Sometimes we may be tempted to indulge our negative emotions at the expense of our fellow workers and if we do we need to apologise immediately. But ideally we would be so constantly aware of the ethical dimension of our interaction, that we take responsibility for our own unskilful mental states and work on ourselves to change them, with the help of other team members.

The ethical element of team-based right livelihood runs through every aspect of what we do and is very basic. Sometimes people think of the ethical aspects of team-based right livelihood purely in terms of what we sell and who our suppliers are and so on. But I want to emphasise that it also applies to our interactions with our customers and others and even more importantly to our interaction with fellow team members.

Ethical responsibility should work from the centre out so to speak. You need to have a skilful response to yourself first, then to those you are most in contact with and so on just like the stages of the Metta Bhavana. If you practise like this then your principles and values will become firmly based in your character and your ethical response to wider issues will become quite natural.

Dana

A big part of the original reason for setting up our businesses was to generate funds for the Buddhist Centres. Because we don't have a large pool of ethnic Buddhists willing to support the full-timers and because we don't even want to encourage that split between full-timer and nominal Buddhist or monk and lay, it is essential that we can generate income for our Centres through our businesses.

However this is not the only reason why Dana is a major element of team-based right livelihood. There is also the fact that from a spiritual perspective it is necessary to develop the altruistic dimension of practice all the time and, in every area of our lives, because eventually as we progress and gain greater insight there is really no other dimension. All spiritual practice leads to compassion and generosity is the beginnings of compassion. By practising generosity we are exercising the muscles of compassion and by giving away money generated by your business you're going beyond any tendency to narrow down into self interest and are moving towards compassionate activity.

We usually speak of the Dana element of team-based right livelihood in terms of giving away part of the profits to support Dharma activities, but there is also the whole area of ‘give what you can take what you need’. To give what you can is to operate in the spirit of generosity. This is one of the most challenging aspects of the practice. It entails going against the current of our conditioning and the norms of society to such a degree that it inevitably gives rise to conflict within the individual. If there are disharmonies in a team or the work becomes difficult, then it can easily feel like one is being exploited or that one is a fool to be working for a pittance. However, it is also a very rewarding practice.

By living a simple life and learning to be able to maintain freedom in spite of the continuous torrent of advertising and other pressures that promote consumerism, we become happier and more contented individuals and have a palpable experience of freedom. There is also the sense of a good conscience from knowing that one is not being an undue burden on the environment and is not engaging in a level of consumption that inevitably implies poverty and destitution for others in less fortunate countries.

It takes time to identify with the business as your business and to be able to give freely and generously of yourself without thinking of reward, it also takes time to form friendships and while our emotional needs are not met we tend to experience greater financial or material needs. So people sometimes think in terms of their financial needs being met as a reward for their hard work. But this is not how it works at all. There is no financial reward for labour in a team-based right livelihood situation, there is no financial reward for taking responsibility. The principle is generosity not exchange.

You need to practise team-based right livelihood in the spirit of giving what you can to the project, to your workmates, to the customers - this is the spirit of generosity. And it is this spirit that takes us beyond egotism, beyond self-centredness and prepares us for an insight into reality. If you work with the attitude that your needs are the main thing and you must remind the rest of the team and even fight for your needs to be met, you will find team-based right livelihood an unpleasant experience which never really rewards your efforts. If you work with an attitude of generosity and developing trust, then team-based right livelihood will be a very satisfying and inspiring experience.

A basic principle in Buddhism is that of Going Forth. Going Forth means giving up attachment to and dependence on everything except the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. This is something that usually happens gradually. Joining a team based right livelihood business is a form of Going Forth because the principle of generosity and living a simple life is so much at the heart of it. Non-attachment or Going Forth is another way of talking about generosity. So the Dana element of team-based right livelihood can be seen in terms of the whole team generating profits and giving away some of those profits and it can also be seen in terms of each individual having an attitude of generosity towards the whole project and towards the rest of the team ; it's a case of mutual generosity - a better phrase perhaps than the Marxist 'give what you can, take what you need'.

Work as practice

What do we mean by work as practice? Well what I mean is using the actual task in front of you as a method for spiritual development, i.e. development beyond your current sense of personal limitation and beyond self-centredness and also development of greater awareness. So obviously with any work or task we can practise mindfulness. To practice mindfulness is to be fully engaged, fully with yourself and with the task in hand. Just as in meditation you need to have broad awareness and focus, so also with the task. As Sangharakshita put it "if your work is not your meditation then you meditation is not your meditation". Also as with meditation, when we work we can experience mental hindrances - anxiety, resentment, pride, impatience and so on and we need to endeavour to transform these hindrances as we work, so that we can work from mental states of goodwill and good humour.

Sometimes people take on personal precepts and make an effort to work on their particular hindrance with the help of the rest of the team. I think this is an excellent practice. Another aspect of work as practice is taking responsibility and contributing rather than complaining and alongside this is allowing others to take responsibility. Another very important aspect of work as practice is reflection. Every day as we work we have a great many experiences both internal and external, some more significant than others, and we need to develop the habit of reflecting on our experience. Initially we will reflect on our experience after the event - for instance we could spend some time each night before we go to sleep, bringing to mind events of the day and reflecting on their meaning. You may have had an argument with someone and been upset and now in a quieter moment you can try to see the deeper significance of that, generalising out from the specific to gain some understanding of the meaning of quarrels and even perhaps looking into what conditions give rise to such situations and perhaps relating it to the Buddha's words in the Dhammapada, "people forget that their lives will soon end. For those who remember, quarrels soon come to an end". You can reflect in this way on all sorts of events and mental states and gradually you will become able to reflect as the event is actually happening, so that your experience more and more takes place in the larger context of the Dharma. This sort of reflection makes team-based right livelihood an insight practice.

Sangha

I would say that a primary purpose of team-based right livelihood is to build Sangha - in other words to create the conditions in which we can develop friendship. This cannot of course be divorced from the other elements of team-based right livelihood, you cannot cultivate spiritual friendships without a spirit of generosity, a willingness to transform yourself and the motivation of a common spiritual aspiration. Working together in a team gives us the opportunity to get to know each other very fully. You can live with someone for years without encountering them fully, but in the work situation, where we are so dependent on each other and co-operation is essential, there is no hiding from each other.

Team work provides the ideal conditions for developing friendships. The first thing that becomes obvious in a team situation is how different we all are and then we become aware of how those differences can be allowed to be a hindrance to co-operation and friendship or how they can become the very means of co-operation.

Each of us carries within our own hearts and minds conflicts and contradictions, elements that are not integrated into our overall purpose and tendencies which we are unaware of as yet. A team is similar and the task of Sangha building has to include firstly, rejoicing in merits, secondly, awareness of difficulties, thirdly ,conscious effort to change and fourthly, constantly bearing in mind the spiritual context. If we miss out on any of these four we will have problems. For instance, I have seen situations where there is a great awareness of the difficulties and even efforts to change but the spiritual context is somewhat forgotten, which means a loss of perspective occurs or the ethical dimension of relationships is forgotten. Or you can have a situation where everyone is so focused on spiritual attainment and being good Buddhists that they avoid looking at the conflicts and contradictions, the messy bits.

Rejoicing in merits or positive feedback or praising what is praiseworthy, in short telling people that we appreciate their qualities and their actions is an extremely important aspect of Sangha. It creates the right atmosphere for all other communication and it is beneficial to both giver and receiver. Rejoicing in merits is a verbal form of generosity. It benefits the person who is praised or appreciated because feeling appreciated is a basic emotional need and it benefits the person doing the rejoicing because any generous act, whether of body, speech or mind, raises our state of consciousness. As Dhardo Rimpoche put it, ‘if you can't think of what to do, do something for somebody else.’ The solution to many of our mental or emotional difficulties lies in generosity, because the practice of generosity is expansive. So rejoicing in merits is beneficial to everyone. We can rejoice in someone by telling him or her what we appreciate or we can rejoice by telling others. The first is kindly speech, the second is harmonising speech and both are essential to Sangha building.

After rejoicing in merits we come to acknowledging difficulties. Building Sangha can be difficult, to be generous can be difficult, but these things are the essence of team-based right livelihood and they are also the reward of team-based right livelihood. If we apply ourselves courageously we can experience the happiness, joy and ease of Sangha, of deeply satisfying friendship based on mutual trust and respect. This is the reward of team work in this context. The reason why it is difficult for us to co-operate, to be generous and to trust is because we are spiritually ignorant, we do not see clearly. We cannot see ourselves or others as we really are. The tendency of our minds is to fix ourselves and to fix others with a static identity, personality and habits and this fixed view has consequences for us individually and for our relationships. You could say, that usually when we look at someone what we see is a fiction, a fiction of our own making. The more of a true individual we become the less fictional other people become, because we are less fixed and we have less need to fix them.

The Three Fetters

In traditional terms then, our problem and therefore the problem of team-based right livelihood, is that we are still under the domination of the first three fetters. So we need to undertake as a team to work at breaking through these Fetters or at least weakening them. The first three Fetters are self-view, doubt and reliance on rites and rituals as ends in themselves or as Sangharakshita puts it - habit, vagueness, and superficiality. So how can we use the work situation to breakdown these fetters and hindrances?

Self-view or habit or personality view manifests as an experience of personal limitation, often accompanied by fear or anxiety. It also manifests as difficulties in communication and as a reluctance to take responsibility for one's own mental states or for the project you are involved in. I mentioned earlier that in some teams each individual takes on a precept, in consultation with the rest of the team, and this seems to be a good way to work on these issues.

Broadly speaking we could say that people fall into two types - those who emphasise the need for harmony and those who emphasise the need for autonomy. These types have different work to do on themselves, different limitations to overcome and therefore different kinds of precept to take on. Of course there are different degrees of these tendencies and as we work to go beyond our basic tendency we gradually become more truly individual. Those who emphasise the need for autonomy fear that their sense of individuality could be swamped by the group and that they will lose their freedom of choice. As a result, sometimes they cut off from human relationships and maintain an unreasonable independence. This means that they are so busy defending this independence and self-sufficiency that they don't really connect with others and don't really come into contact with others. So those who emphasise the need for autonomy need to take on precepts that bring them into contact with others, even precepts that make them dependent on others to some degree, they need to work on developing trust. Those who emphasise the need for harmony, on the other hand, may want to belong to a group because that is seen as bringing security and a sense of identity. So they are more likely to get totally absorbed in the group to the extent of denying aspects of themselves which don't seem to conform to group norms. They tend to feel that they have no power and it is up to others, the authorities, to sort out problems and tell them what to do. So those with this tendency may need to work on taking responsibility for themselves and making their voice heard. They need to risk disapproval and they need to ask questions of themselves such as, why am I doing this? What should I do now? Do I believe what I am saying or doing? Most of us will probably recognise some elements of these tendencies in ourselves or our team-mates.

What we are aiming at is individuality which is based on confidence in ourselves and goodwill towards ourselves. Lack of confidence and self hatred affect our relationships with others and leave us distrustful and suspicious, because basically we are distrustful of ourselves. In working with the fetter of self-view we need to strive for self knowledge and be prepared to acknowledge our weaknesses and our strengths, our personality tendencies and our aspirations and then by bringing this self knowledge into relationship with our friends we start to go beyond the limitations imposed by our conditioning and enter into spiritual friendship. We can gain self knowledge in the work situation by noticing our responses, to the work, to our team-mates, to the customers and reflecting on these responses, reflecting on what they tell us about ourselves. If we were irritable, for instance, we can try to probe ourselves for the real underlying causes - what is it about me that causes me to get irritable when such and such happens? Am I anxious? Do I feel unloved? Why? How can I take responsibility here? What initiative can I take to become more positive? And so on. Insight is born of such reflections. If you're satisfied with saying that I am irritable because he or she did such-and-such then you are satisfied with a state of ignorance, from the perspective of Going for Refuge.

The next Fetter is doubt or as Sangharakshita puts it vagueness. In terms of team-based right livelihood this is forgetting why you are there. It is very important to work at maintaining a bigger perspective, a higher perspective - relating your work to going for Refuge, seeing the mythic context of your work. Some teams try to do this by having rituals at the beginning and end of each day, having study groups, retreats and so on. This is excellent and works well. As well as this each individual needs to make their own connection between the day-to-day, hour to hour work and their spiritual aspirations. I mentioned mindfulness and reflection earlier in this respect. Also you can chant a mantra silently or repeat some verses which inspire you or just have a phrase or sentence to turn over in your mind. For instance when you're irritable you could say to yourself, ‘all things are impermanent,’ and allow your mind to dwell on the connection between that and your irritability. Anyway the main point is to find as many ways as possible to connect your work situation with the vision of the Dharma.

The third fetter is reliance on rites and rituals as ends in themselves or superficiality. Putting yourself in a community and a team-based right livelihood situation does not ensure spiritual progress. To use Sangharakshita's phrase from a talk on community living, 'it's an opportunity not an achievement'. So we need to be on our guard against complacency. You can have all the right conditions and still not go for Refuge. Going for Refuge involves making an effort to transform yourself. Team-based right livelihood provides an opportunity for you to do this because you are in close contact with others who also want to transform themselves. If you are in team-based right livelihood because of the money or time off or because you can't cope with the world and are looking for security, you will probably find it unsatisfactory and it certainly won't help you much to make spiritual progress. Spiritual progress comes about as a result of a conscious effort to progress spiritually, and there is no other valid reason for working in team-based right livelihood except the aspiration to spiritual development. Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels is the beginning, middle and end of team-based right livelihood. The kind of work, the profits, the routines, the difficulties are all related to Going for Refuge.

Leadership and management

There is one other issue I'd like to look at before closing, even though I've probably covered it indirectly already. That is the issue of leadership and management. Some people have the notion that working in a team means that everyone is equal and everyone should have a voice in every decision. In an ideal world this might be true, but our world and our teams are far from ideal. We have a wide range of abilities, and people are also at different stages of spiritual development. This means in effect that some people will be better than others at fulfilling different tasks. One person may be good at serving customers, another at dealing with suppliers etc. But some will have a broader spread of qualities and abilities and will quite naturally take a lead.

Leadership is important because it provides spiritual direction and vision and leadership of this kind should be taken by the more spiritually experienced. Effective going for Refuge needs to be at heart of our businesses. This is the essential ingredient for a successful team based right livelihood. There can only be leadership where someone is prepared to take a lead and where others are willing to co-operate. For example, I am the leader of this mandala to the extent that I am willing to fulfill that role and to the extent that others are willing to co-operate. If either my willingness or the co-operation of others were missing it wouldn't work. I think it is useful to acknowledge the leadership in our businesses, remembering as I said that leadership is a matter of effective Going for Refuge. Management is a different thing and is concerned with the efficient running of the business. It is best I feel if the leadership and management are combined in one person but this may not always be possible. When it's not possible then it is of the utmost importance that there is harmony between whoever has the managerial overview and whoever is spiritual leader. And the spiritual dimension has to be taken into account in all managerial decisions. The spiritual always takes precedence.

Conclusion

Most difficulties in team-based right livelihood are to do with communication. Difficulties in communication are an opportunity for spiritual growth. They are an opportunity for confession, apology, forgiveness and generosity. Team-based right livelihood is a spiritual practice. You can attain insight into the nature of reality through you're wholehearted engagement with your team and work and through reflecting on your responses to that engagement. We are seeking to transcend egotism, to go beyond self-centredness, to overcome personal limitations and to dissolve wrong views. By working with others who are similarly striving we have a precious opportunity to transform ourselves and to create ideal conditions for living a spiritual life. We can go beyond conformity and individualism to individuality. Individuality begins with making the decision to change and it is carried forward by the practices of metta and mindfulness. In team-based right livelihood these manifest particularly as generosity, co-operation and reflection. If we understand this we will have understood the spiritual significance of team-based right livelihood and if we practice generosity, co-operation and reflection we will experience for ourselves the spiritual significance of team-based right livelihood.

Exuberance is Beauty

This talk was given at London Buddhist Centre in 1998

The title of this talk is a quote from William Blake from The Marriage of Hell. It was first brought to my attention by Bhante Sangharakshita at the time of my ordination. At the time of my ordination I took a meditation practice focussing on Ratnasambhava – sometimes known as the Buddha of Beauty. And because I was meditating on this Buddha figure, Sangharakshita quoted this line to me from Blake. I have never quite understood it. What does exuberance mean in this context and how does it relate to Beauty? What, for that matter, is meant by Beauty? .

The ancient Greeks spoke of the Good, the True and the Beautiful as the highest meaning in life. In Buddhism too we can speak of the Path of Goodness, the Path of Truth and the Path of Beauty – all three need to be followed, but different people may put the emphasis on one or other of these paths.

Goodness and Truth are concerned with wisdom and compassion. In the Religion of Art, Bhante speaks of the Path of Beauty as the way of the artist. Beauty is seen in terms of creativity – artistic creativity even.

But art in this context has a very specific meaning – it must be both beautiful and meaningful in a universal sense – it must embody values that have the power to transform the individual for the better. So clearly this definition of art will exclude certain things which might be called art under other less stringent definitions. On the other hand it might include some things which would not normally be considered works of art. For example, Sangharakshita himself has created the Triratna Buddhist Order and the Triratna Buddhist Community. I think Triratna could perhaps, at a stretch, be considered a work of art according to this definition.

The important factors are the beauty, the meaningfulness and the creative energy that is applied. Creativity is a focussed application of energy. Energy is emotion. Energy , to paraphrase another quote from Sangharakshita, is nothing but “the rhythm of delight in your own experience”. Energy is the rhythm of delight in your own experience. Exuberance is a creative movement of energy and exuberance is Beauty. Beauty is a creative movement of energy; that rhythm of delight in your own experience. Your own experience of course is an experience of the world, an experience of other people, an experience of responses to everything and everybody you come into contact with. The Path of Beauty involves taking delight in your responses to everything and everybody – it involves creativity; transforming and beautifying your responses to everything and everybody. In this sense exuberance is Beauty. The Sangha is characterised by “unfolding mutual delight”. Sangharakshita says communication and taking delight are of the essence of friendship, Sangha. The Sangha, we could say, is characterised by exuberance, an overflowing of energy into creative activity that is saturated with meaning and beauty. This is the vitality of Sangha, this is what gives life to our common pursuit, this energy, exuberance, delight that flows, pours forth in constant creative activity, creative activity that is transforming ourselves and transforming the world, into something beautiful, something that is permeated by truly human values. This overflowing of energy into creative activity, this exuberance transforms ourselves and the world into works of art. The true artist is engaged in self-transformation which has universal application and is a source of inspiration and even challenge to others.

The Path of Beauty is the path of energy, of exuberance. Energy in Buddhist terms is virya – energy in pursuit of the Good. Virya is exuberance. Virya is essential to spiritual practice - it moves us from the realm of thinking it's a good idea to actually doing it. Actually transforming ourselves. A spiritual practitioner is energetic, exuberant, creative. A spiritual practitioner is becoming beautiful by endeavouring to embody the Good, and the True. A spiritual practitioner is someone whose energy is in exuberant pursuit of the Good, the wholesome and the pure. Someone who delights in the adventure of evolving consciousness – someone who works like an artist, always making creative effort to transform their responses into something meaningful and beautiful.

This is the opposite of self-obsession. There is a teaching in the Abhidhamma of the Pali Canon about “unwise attention”. To give unwise attention to something means to focus on an object that will lead us into unskilful mental states or to focus on an object in such a way that it will lead us into unskilful mental states. Sometimes we do this with our responses to people or events. We maybe feel a bit inadequate or shy and we focus on it in such a way as to render us almost immobile – we increase our feelings of inadequacy or shyness by giving them unwise attention. Or we might feel a bit resentful and by getting obsessed with it, we develop it into a rage or fury, again giving “unwise attention”.

We give wise attention by focussing on how to change our responses – how to change our feelings of inadequacy or resentment or whatever – we take a creative approach. We also give wise attention by choosing to focus on something in our experience that is more positive. We are not 100% inadequate or resentful or unconfident – there are other aspects to our experience that we can focus on and by giving them attention they start to predominate.

I think when we are tempted to spend time poking around in our own psyche, analysing our moods and so on, we should bear in mind this teaching about “unwise attention” and “wise attention” and ask ourselves are we doing something creative? It is possible to creatively look at out negative habits and mental states and illuminate them with transforming awareness. We can ask ourselves is our energy moving in the direction of the good and the beautiful? Are there aspects of our experience that we could delight in? Most people have a positive response to something – whether it's music, painting, poetry, trees, animals, the sea, mountains or whatever. Sometimes it may be necessary to turn your attention deliberately to something you enjoy, something you have a good response to , and that will introduce another element into your experience. A more energetic, exuberant element that will help you to take a more creative approach to life's ups and downs.

Exuberance is not boisterous, it's not just mindless activity. Exuberance in this context is an attitude and a tendency. It's an attitude of abundance, an attitude of plenty and it's a tendency to optimism. An exuberant attitude is optimistic about the universe. |The law of Karma is operating an so it is possible to see the universe as basically benign. And following on from this is optimism about people and optimism about oneself. It's a “can do” attitude, a “get up and go” attitude, an attitude that delights in a challenge. An attitude that sees possibilities and opportunities.

And the greatest challenge, the greatest adventure that faces us at this point in human history is the challenge of the evolution of consciousness. This is not just a Buddhist idea. This is recognised by many thinking people the world over.

Here for example is a quote from the American anthropologist, Loren Eiseley, from The Immense Journey p.140

“The need is not really for more brains, the need is for a gentler, a more tolerant people than those who won for us against the ice, the tiger and the bear. The hand that hefted the axe, out of some old blind allegiance to the past, fondles the machine gun as lovingly. It is a habit man will have to break, but the roots go very deep”.

The triumph of evolution is the brain of mankind, a brain that increases in size by a multiple of three shortly after birth. This brain is an extraordinary phenomenon and it has made us the lords of nature. However, the survival needs of mankind are now of a completely different kind and they necessitate a growth in awareness, wisdom and compassion, which is as yet only scantily present in the world.

As Loren Eiseley said “the need is for a gentler, a more tolerant people than those won for us against the ice, the tiger and the bear.” The need now is for a recognition, an insight into our essential interconnectedness, the need is for a transcendence of selfishness, a transcendence of even the notion of self. The need is for a transcendence of egotism, and a wholehearted embracing of egolessness – a wholehearted venture into the unknown realms of experience beyond separateness, beyond selfishness, beyond egotism.

“Egotism”, according to Sangharakshita, is “a centripetal tendency, a movement of contraction”.

“Egolessness”, on the other hand, “is a centrifugal tendency, a movement of expansion towards something absolutely outside the orbit of it's own being.”

“Something absolutely outside the orbit of our own being” is vast unknown territory for us and this is where we must go. We must venture forth on the quest for egolessness – this is what the higher evolution of consciousness demands of us. And like all great adventures, all great endeavours, we must go alone, we must decide in our own hearts to take up the staff of spiritual practice and enter upon the path of self-transformation. Others may be travelling in the same direction, they may help us and encourage us, but in the end we must travel that path ourselves. In plain words – we have to change ourselves. This movement of expansion towards what is beyond us, towards the unknown is a description of the spiritual life.

Expansiveness is characteristic of the spiritual life. Expansion is energy moving out beyond self concern. It is above all an attitude of generosity. It is a renunciation of narrow self interest and an understanding of the close, inseparable nature of the interests of both self and other. When we understand and recognise this truth, that our real interests and the real interests of others are identical, then there is no difficulty in being expansive, no difficulty in being generous.

The path of the higher evolution of consciousness is a path that leads us from a more thorough awareness of ourselves, a more thorough integration of our selves out to a greater and ever greater awareness and understanding of others, and of the interconnectedness of all life. The path of the higher evolution of consciousness, this conscious effort to change and grow and transform ourselves; this is what life is about. This is the meaning of life.

Life must live. Life must expand and grow. Life is inherently exuberant. Life is energy and we humans, with our marvellously developed brain and our capacity for self awareness, can marshal that energy and move it ever outwards in a “centrifugal movement towards something absolutely outside the orbit of our own being”. This is truly the great wonder of this world and our dignity as human beings and possibly even our survival, depends on us individually making the decision to take up the challenge and act accordingly. The teaching of the Buddha gives us a detailed method and the teaching of Sangharakshita further clarifies and elucidates that to make it more applicable to our particular context and circumstances here in this global village. It's a heroic task. The alternative is to live an escapist life, burying our heads beneath the trivia of a materialistic world or putting or faith blindly in some god or messiah to do our living for us.

Let us then take up the challenge. Let us decide to transform ourselves. Let us allow ourselves to become part of the fabric of this exuberant, expansive life that flows through the universe. Let us give scope to our energy and creativity. Let us create ourselves anew.

Let us engender in ourselves this exuberant attitude of abundance and plenty – this attitude of optimism, get up and go, can do. Let us build something beautiful together. A Sangha and the delights of Sangha, the creations of a Sangha, beautiful spaces for meditation, beautiful spaces for living and working in, beauty and refinement. Joyful relationships, rich and loving friendships. Let's not complain and fight and quarrel. Life is really too short for that (Dhammapada, verse 6). Let's not be fearful – there is nothing to be afraid of. Let's not have miserly pessimistic attitudes – let's have have an attitude of abundance and optimism. Let us not spend too much time wandering in the labyrinth of our own minds. Let us engage with those things of beauty which will create for us new mental states and new minds.

Let us be creative, dynamic, energetic, exuberant – and let's take delight in the Buddha – for giving meaning to our lives – for revealing the meaning of our lives. Let's delight in the Dharma for allowing us to change and grow. And let's delight in the Sangha simply for being there. Let us delight in each other for being a living, breathing, aspiring Sangha, intent on the highest ideals and willing to wholeheartedly practice what we believe.

In practice then, here at the London Buddhist Centre (London Buddhist Centre), let us practice hospitality to a much greater degree. Let us be welcoming to anyone we don't know – let no one remain a stranger for long. Even if we've only been coming along for a relatively short time, let us welcome those who are newer. It is my heartfelt wish that the London Buddhist Centre has a reputation for hospitality – a welcoming, friendly, warm atmosphere. We do well in this area but I think we could do better. I had a letter form someone a while back, saying that a visitor from America who came to part of our Wesak festival in May didn't feel at all welcomed – in fact felt excluded by a sort of cliquishness. So by all means enjoy your friends and your chats but please look out for those who are alone or who don't know anyone. Let's be welcoming and hospitable.

And going further than that, as we get more involved, let's make an effort to build friendships. Let's befriend someone. Don't wait until someone befriends you, take the initiative, go out and make friends. It requires patience, it takes time and requires commitment, but it is worth the effort. The Sangha is simply, and wholly, a network of friendships. A loving, trusting friendship between two people is the basic unit of our Dharmic society. It is sometimes said that the family is the basic unit of society – perhaps it is. But friendship is the basic unit of Sangha. Without genuine friendships the Sangha becomes a horrible ecclesiastical shell administering meaningless institutions. With friendship the Sangha is very much part of the self-transcending path of Beauty – encouraging expansiveness, energy and an exuberant outward movement into the realms of non-separation, the realms of higher states of consciousness where the designation of yours and mine become increasingly meaningless and insight is no longer just an idea. So let's work at making friends – let us seek to love rather then look for love. We will be loved if we love. We will have friends if we make friends.

And this year and for two years here at the London Buddhist Centre we have a campaign to create a new retreat centre for our benefit and above all for the benefit of future generations. Let us have an optimistic, energetic, outgoing response to this vision for a new Retreat Centre, Vajrasana. Some people immediately feel a bit overwhelmed by mention of large sums of money (although what a large sum of money is is a very relative matter) and they immediately say “oh, it's too much”, “it can't be done”, “oh dear, do we really need it?” and so on. That is a sure way to failure.

But we can do it. Of course we can. We just need to raise about £300,000 between us in 2 years. That's not outlandish, that's not fantastical, it's well within the realms of possibility. And our attitude makes a big difference. If we have an exuberant attitude, then we can create wealth and abundance. If we think creatively and in a spirit of optimism, we create an atmosphere of abundance. How we think influences how we speak and how we act and it also influences other people. Our actions obviously influence others, our words influence others, what we say creates the flavour of our world. And our thoughts influence others too. We are not totally separate entities. Consciousness influence consciousness, thoughts have an effect. So we need to be aware of this and if we can't, for instance, support Vajrasana and the appeal for help and funds, with our actions – then let us support it with our speech and our thoughts. Let us give the project, the vision, air to breathe in. The air of optimism and energy and abundance is the atmosphere in which Vajrasana will grow into a reality and manifest in our world as a beautiful retreat centre. So if we don't have money or time or anything else to give to this project, let us at least be generous with our thoughts and our words and give birth to the atmosphere out of which the vision can take shape.

Let us practice hospitality to a greater degree and be welcoming to newer people. Let us take action to befriend people – build the friendships which go to make up the Sangha and let us support the Vajrasana retreat centre project with our energy, our encouragement and our optimistic thoughts.

There are a great many conventions, assumptions, mores in the world around us and we are affected by these conventions and assumptions. Often we are quite consciously affected by the ideas, views and assumptions that are so much part of the fabric of the world we live in. We can have very conventional attitudes and beliefs, without realising it. Exuberant, expansive joyful, optimistic idealism is not very conventional.

Cynicism is conventional. Those who regard themselves as sophisticated and worldly wise can be quite cynical and pessimistic. They can regard all idealism as fantasy, pie in the sky, never stopping to consider what the ideals actually are and how they are being put into practice. Because, of course, idealism can be pie in the sky unless it is being put into practice and unless the way it is being put into practice is permeated with the values of the ideals. For life to be at all meaningful, we need to have ideals – and high ideals. Some people's ideal stops at a good job and plenty of money. That is probably a waste of human potential. We need to have high ideals – the highest ideals – of Wisdom and Compassion perfected – and we need to put ourselves wholeheartedly into making those ideals more and more of an everyday reality. Cynicism is conventional, it is even seen as wisdom sometimes. Idealism is not so acceptable. Let us not be conventional. Let's be unconventional – let's be notoriously idealistic and strive with all our hearts to practice what we believe in.

And again, Materialism and Consumerism are conventional. Many people see their salvation in terms of shopping. Happiness and contentment can be purchased – you just have to shop around. The more we can accumulate the safer and happier we will be. Wealth brings security and pleasure. What more could you want? It is sad that such a large chunk of humanity spends so much of it's free time accumulating worthless things and destroying the environment and making life miserable for another large chunk of humanity at the same time. And we are all strongly affected by the materialistic convention of the world around us. We all want to go shopping – into those brightly lit, enticing, places of comfort and salvation. We want to be saved – from our emptiness and loneliness – and we go shopping. We pray to GAP or NEXT or M&S. We pray to designer labels – and our prayers are never answered, but hope springs eternal in the true believer – and we go shopping again.

Living a simple life, with few possessions is less conventional. But a simple life, with few possessions, is much more conducive to spiritual practice, it is a spiritual practice and if it leaves us with surplus money we can give it away – which is another spiritual practice.

Materialism and consumerism are conventional. Living a simple life as a spiritual discipline is not. Let us not be conventional, let's stop paying obeisance to the false gods of the shopping mall and live simply - for our own benefit and the benefit of others.

It is conventional to find fault with great individuals, to debunk them, to topple them from their heights. Especially it is popular on TV, in newspapers or biographies to delve into the private lives of individuals and bits of gossip-worthy stories that bring the great down a peg or two and show that we are all equal after all.

But some people are greater than others. Some people have made a greater contribution to the life of humanity, some people have more ability, more intelligence, more talent. Some people are gifted, some people are truly great. Greatness should be recognised and applauded. We should be grateful to those who have excelled in any field. Plato, Einstein, Shakespeare, Nelson Mandela, George Eliot and so on – there are many many great and worthy people who deserve our gratitude and praise. Let us recognise a hierarchy of merit, a hierarchy of ability and of course a spiritual hierarchy and not go along with the current practice of finding fault with the great men and women of past and present. Madeleine Bunting, the religion correspondent of the Guardian, echoes this:

“There is a curious late 20^th century obsession with destroying reputations. Something almost patricidal as we metaphorically murder the figures who have framed our history and culture. Something akin to a witch-hunt about how we search out contradictions and weaknesses in people and seize upon them as evidence of hypocrisy. Finding out such things is a legitimate pursuit of knowledge, but is done with a judgmentalism which has echoes of bitter disillusionment.

(Guardian 13 Aug 1998)

This metaphorical murder is conventional. It is conventional to debunk, to bring everyone down to the same mediocre level. Hierarchies of merit, ability and spiritual insight are not so readily acceptable. Let us not be conventional. Let us be unconventional. Let us recognise greatness and revere the great of past and present.

It is conventional to not take any active part in public life. Society is atomised, we feel powerless and are apathetic. The motto is to look after number one. There is an emphasis on the private, personal world. We can have our computer at home, our TV, video player, Hi-fi – we are becoming more and more self sufficient isolated units in society and leaving public life to the few. This is bad for democracy and in the long run bad for the society we live in. At the election and referendum last May, only 35% of the electorate in Tower Hamlets voted – it was less in some places. This is not a good sign. We should at least vote. But we should do more than that, we should take an interest in our local community. We should be part of the community and encourage community spirit, encourage mutual helpfulness and neighbourliness. We should not go along with the convention of self-centredness, and apathy which undermines democratic public life. Let's not be conventional. Let us be outgoing, sociable, neighbourly. Let us encourage and engender community spirit and a healthy public life. This is a very natural extension of the practice of loving kindness.

It is conventional to be nationalistic or to identify with some particular group. Nationalism and groupism of all kinds are more in favour than simple humanism. We hear of the gay community, the Black community, the Irish community, the business community, the countryside lobby and so on.

And usually identity in terms of one group is at the expense of conflict with other groups. Nationalism is a stark example – in Northern Ireland, in Bosnia, in Kosova, in the Middle East. This is humanity still functioning very much on a level of lower evolution – the level of “the hand that hefted the axe”, as Loren Eisely put it - conflict and competition to ensure survival. This is totally stupid. Breaking into mutually exclusive groups and threatening each other is more likely to lead to human extinction than human survival. But this madness goes on. This is the depth of spiritual ignorance in the world. And we need to turn our backs on this. We need to give up identifying with little bits of humanity – we shouldn't even identify with Buddhism as a group in opposition to others. We need to identify with humanity, we are human beings first and foremost – this is enough. Where we were born, what we look like, our gender, our sexuality, our religion – all these are secondary. And we should not be content even to identify with the human race, let us identify with all that lives, let's be sensitive to life wherever and however it manifests. Let us not be conventional, let us be unconventional. Let us give up all allegiance to groups and identify with humanity and all sentient life.

It is conventional to value the romantic sexual partnership as the most important of human relationships. It is even considered to be the basic unit of society, albeit a rather unstable basic unit. The romantic sexual partnership , the couple is considered to be the closest, most intimate human relationship. It is considered to be the most fulfilling, most desirable human relationship. To not be part of a couple is to be a social misfit. You must be part of a couple – this is the conventional norm.

In the Sangha we value friendship more highly than the romantic sexual relationship. We value same sex friendship as the most important and highest human relationship and we encourage and praise friendship. It is not that it is bad or wrong or unspiritual to be in a romantic couple relationship. It is just that friendship, same sex friendship is a higher form of human relationship. It is the basic unit of the Sangha.

Let's not be conventional, let's be unconventional. Let's give highest priority to our friendships, let's give more time and energy to our friendships and let our sexual coupledom take second place.

There are no doubt many more conventions, assumptions or commonly held views that are all around us all the time – and we hardly notice. For instance there's the conventional notion of social drinking – drinking alcohol to be sociable. Alcohol make you drunk! - not sociable. There's a big difference between being sociable and being intoxicated. But the convention has it that you must drink to be sociable. What a sham! It's a very counterfeit sociability you get when people drink alcohol. There is in fact no good reason for drinking alcohol as far as I can see, unless getting drunk is essential to your well-being. There are many good reasons for not drinking alcohol – social reasons, economic reasons, health reasons, ecological reasons, even spiritual reasons.

Again let us not be conventional, let's be unconventional. Let's be genuinely sociable and friendly and not intoxicated. No doubt you can think of more areas of conventional behaviour and ideas which we could throw out and be happier and healthier for it.

Let is not be satisfied with dull conventional lives that have nothing of the adventurous spirit of exploring the heights of consciousness, the frontiers of consciousness. Let us be unconventional. Let us have faith in great and glorious ideals, let us have big ideas. Let's have a vision of a better world. Let's value the spiritual above the material, a simple life of few possessions over consumerism. Let's value great men and women who give substance to a vision of humanity's potential. Let's value public life and community spirit and don't shut ourselves away in atomised apathy. Let's identify with humanity or all sentient life rather than with any particular group. Let's value friendship above romantic sexual relationships and let's be sociable rather than drunk. Let's break free of the bonds of convention. Let's break free of the narrow confines of accepted ideas and norms of behaviour. Let's set our sights on a vision of beauty. Let's be creative and allow our energy to expand outwards beyond narrow self interest, beyond narrow self-concern, beyond egotism, out beyond the orbit of what is known and comfortable. Let us be exuberant in our pursuit of the good. Let us be optimistic and exuberant. Exuberantly generous. Let's be hospitable and welcoming to strangers. Let's give time and energy to creating loving and deep friendships and let's create an atmosphere in which the work of the Sangha flourishes – an atmosphere of optimism and abundance.

Let's not stop there. Let's be even more radical – let us not accept the world as it is at all. Let's change the world – let's create a world more worthy of us, more in keeping with human dignity – a world that recognises the absurdity of nationalism, the absurdity of racism, the absurdity of materialism. The absurdity of human beings destroying or harming each other. Let's create a world that is saturated with the Wisdom of the Buddha which sees clearly the interconnectedness and interdependence of all life.

Let us not be conventional, let us be unconventional. Let's be radical. Let's practice the Dharma wholeheartedly. Let's build Sangha – a beautiful tapestry of friendships – and let us engage in the great adventure of the Higher Evolution of consciousness, this great optimistic, exuberant, expansive, beautiful adventure that gives meaning to life and to our lives.

Amoghasiddhi – Nothing To Fear

This talk was given at the London Buddhist Centre, June 1998

Amoghasiddhi is perhaps the most mysterious of the Archetypal Buddhas. Almost everything about Amoghasiddhi demonstrates a seeming contradiction or paradox. His symbolism includes lots of opposites, opposing forces, and these opposites, these opposing forces, are united in Amoghasiddhi.

Amoghasiddhi is associated with midnight. He is visualised in a deep blue sky, a velvety blue in colour, the colour of the night sky in the Tropics. His imagery includes a couple of strange features. First of all his lotus throne is supported by two mythical figures, known as Shang-Shang birds which are half human half bird. In their hands they hold cymbals which they clash together. Amoghasiddhi is green in colour and his left hand rests in his lap holding a double vajra, a very potent symbol , which I will return to. His right hand is held up, palm outwards in the Abhaya mudra: the gesture of fearlessness. In this talk I'm going to focus mainly on two aspects of Amoghasiddhi, the aspect associated with the Abhaya mudra, the gesture of fearlessness and the aspect associated with the double vajra.

Bhante Sangharakshita has said that all fear is at bottom a fear of death. We could see this in two ways: as relating to physical death and also as relating to spiritual death, death of the ego. There is of course a connection between the two, because the fact of our physical decay and death reminds us that we are not totally in control of our lives and it is loss of control that we often fear when we need to let go into a bigger spiritual Reality. We experience ourselves as being substantial beings, in a particular time and place, occupying a certain amount of space, possessing certain things which are ours and with intelligence, feelings, appetites, all of which we satisfy as best we can. We are here and we are alive and we have a name and personality and identity. And yet, death awaits us. There are many ways to respond to this dilemma. We may turn away and reassure ourselves that we are here and alive or we may run and hide or stand and stare in a state of confusion. Whether we reassure ourselves or hide or become bewildered, our response in its nakedness is one of fear, horror even, perhaps even indignation or rage. What have I done to deserve this? Or What has my friend or parent done to deserve this? It's not fair. Anger is frustrated craving and what we crave is life. We want to hang on to life. We don't want to grow old or to die, or to suffer in any way. We don't want to see our friends sickening or dying or suffering. We want to be alive and to be happy.

We reassure ourselves that we are alive and we pursue happiness through our relationships with other people and via our possessions, whether material or intellectual. We hide from death and decay by distancing ourselves with television, cinema, shopping, fashion, falling in love, making plans and so on. Or in extreme cases by falling into addiction. A state of bewilderment or confusion is a step further on than self-reassurance or running away because at least here we are facing the facts: we are decaying, we will die, it horrifies us and we are thoroughly confused by it. Bryan Magee writes: “I used to look at people going about their normal lives with everyday cheerfulness and think: “How can they? And how can they suppose that any of what they are doing matters? They're like passengers on the Titanic, except that these people know already that they're headed for total and irremediable shipwreck. In a short time every one of them will be dead, either a heap of grey ash in an urn or a corpse rotting underground with worms wriggling in and out of its eye sockets. And that situation will be every bit as real then as their situation now is now; and it will last for very much longer. Why aren't they overwhelmed with horror at it? Why don't they seem even to mind?”. In my London club – which unlike most of the others was something like a family – I would look at middle-aged and elderly members and think: “How can they sit there enjoying their lunch, telling jokes, laughing, their eyes sparkling with pleasure? In a short time now they will be dead, all of the, and what's more they know it now. They're almost face to face with total oblivion. Don't they care?”. I was baffled by the fact that almost all human beings knew what was in store for them yet lived as if it were not so – or as if it were something that they were perfectly happy about. Above all, I was baffled by the fact that the middle aged, who were so close to death, tended to be even more cheerful than the young. In some of my moods they seemed to me like a lot of lunatics chuckling dementedly while the asylum burnt down and turned them to ash.” (Confessions of a Philosopher, p.266)

This sort of state has potential for wisdom in it. However most of us, most of the time have not got that far. We are still trying to reassure ourselves that we will live forever and we think we just need to make a few adjustments here and there and life will be pretty perfect and we can sit back, put our feet up and relax. But life keeps knocking us back: our plans don't work out, someone close to us dies, we lose our job, our partner runs off with someone else, and the bank raises its interest rates. Or we are afraid of these things happening. We are afraid that we will be alone and impoverished. Many people have a sort of secret horror that they will grow old alone and poverty stricken, wandering the streets uncared for, and since it does happen to some people it's not a totally unrealistic horror.

In response to these fears we put a lot of time and energy into finding and holding onto a lover, a family or friends to ensure that we won't be alone and we put time and energy into getting a good job, accumulating some money and property, enough to ensure that we won't be in want, we won't be impoverished. We experience fear or at least it lurks somewhere in the cellars of our mind and we find various ways of coping, none of which actually work.

And so perhaps we turn to Buddhism. And Buddhism tells us we are afraid because we are egotistic and our egotism is a state of gross delusion. Does that help us to cope with our fears? No. But fortunately Buddhism is above all practical and so we are given practices which we are told that if we follow them assiduously we will see through the delusion and experience a great sense of liberation and happiness. In a sense we won't really be beyond our fear of death and all fears until we gain Insight into the nature of Reality. But to borrow a phrase from Yeats, Insight “comes dropping slow like the morning dew.” In other words, Insight into Reality and freedom from the fetters of our deluded egotism is not necessarily going to be a big bang experience. It is more likely to be an accumulation of little insights that slowly drop into our psyche and gradually transform us. We have to pursue two parallel approaches to our fears: one, we need to undertake practices which help us cope with our fears, and two, we need also to, as it were, face the facts of life and through study, reflection and meditation gradually clarify our existential vision and prepare the ground for an intuitive and imaginative turning about in the depths of our being. What we need to help us cope with our fear is something to trust in. We try to put our trust in lovers and money and computers but somehow it doesn't quite work.

What can we trust in? Well there are different levels of trust. There are some things you can put some trust in but not total trust and there are some things you can trust totally. According to Buddhism you can have complete trust in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Arya Sangha. The Buddha represents the Enlightened mind or Reality. You can trust Reality. The Dharma is also Reality, it is the way things are. As well as that, the Dharma is the methods or path by which we come to see Reality. The Arya Sangha is all those who have gained Insight into the nature of Reality. So we can have complete trust in the Buddha, the ideal of Enlightenment, the Dharma, the Path, and the Arya Sangha, those who have attained Insight into Reality. But perhaps we need something more immediate and tangible to trust in, something that can take the place of money and property and so on. The Tantric tradition has addressed itself to this question and come up with some answers which are partially helpful to us.

In the Vajrayana tradition you put your trust in the Guru. Outside of that tradition it is virtually impossible to replicate the system of guru as Buddha without falling into all sorts of of confusion or worse. What we, in the Triratna Buddhist Community, have is the Kalyana Mitra, Spiritual Friend; someone a bit more experienced on the path. We place our full trust in the Buddha and we place some degree of trust in our Kalyana Mitra. We trust them in matters pertaining to the spiritual path. But we retain our own judgment and autonomy. The Kalyana Mitra, spiritual friend is simply someone more experienced on the spiritual path than we are, someone we respond to with faith. We judge from their behaviour, their speech and from our intuition that they are indeed more spiritually experienced and capable of giving us some guidance, not necessarily advice on how to live our lives, but some guidance on the spiritual path, in the realm of ethics, meditation and so on.

In terms of the Dharma refuge we simply put our trust in the practices; the precepts, generosity, the Metta Bhavana, the Mindfulness of Breathing. These are tried and tested practices. And we can put our trust in the concepts of dependent arising (pratitya samutpada) and karma as reflections of the way things are.

As regards the Sangha, we put our trust in friendship with others who share our aspirations and try to relate on the basis of that shared aspiration. Obviously we can't rely on our friends totally, they have human weaknesses and failings, but we can rely on each other to the extent that we re genuinely practising ethics and meditation. Our Kalyana Mitras, spiritual friends can be relied on to some degree. The practice and concepts of the Dharma can be relied on and our friends in the Sangha can be relied on to some extent. These all help us to cope with our fears. They are something to be getting on with until such time as Insight comes dropping slowly to penetrate to the depths of our being. As we pursue this approach of finding more reliable ways to cope with our existential and resultant fears, we also need to pursue the path of Insight through study, reflection and meditation.

By studying the concepts and symbols of the Dharma over and over again we learn to make connections that we hadn't seen before, we penetrate deeper into the meaning and this paves the way for us to gain an intuitive glimpse of Reality. When we become quite familiar with concepts such as dependent arising, the five precepts or the five skandhas or the three laksanas, (marks of conditioned existence) we will be able to turn them over in our minds, especially when on retreat and this sort of reflection or contemplation will gradually yield rewards. Even a simple concept like the phrase we sometimes use in the Metta Bhavana “May I make progress” can be the basis for reflection, or “All things are impermanent”. These reflections take us to the limits of our ability to intellectualise and then when we have reached the top of that particular pole, to use an image from Zen, we are in a position to make a wild leap into the unknown. Before that, for many times, we will simply slither back down to earth, feeling more confused than ever. It is not for nothing that it is said that Padmasambhava, who took Buddhism to Tibet, said “Let these three expressions: I do not have, I do not know, I do not understand, be repeated over and over again. That is the heart of my advice”. (The Life and Liberation of Padmasambhava, Part II, Canto 93, p.635) He was warning that our intellect will be battered to bits against the Walls of Reality, until we let go of grasping at intellectual answers and float free into the blue sky of Wisdom. If we pursue these parallel paths of finding more stable and safer things in which to trust and studying, reflecting and meditation on the truths of the Dharma, then we will be dealing creatively with our fears. We will also be gradually learning the message of Amoghasiddhi's Abhaya Mudra, the gesture of fearlessness. The message of this mudra is not that we must be fearless, but rather that there is nothing to fear. There is nothing whatsoever to be afraid of. Everything we fear is a phantom of our own mind. It is because we hold on to a particular view of ourselves and of the world that we are afraid. When we wake up from the dream of our wrong views, our delusions, we will be fearless because there will be nothing to fear. As the Heart Sutra says, “The Bodhisattva holding to nothing whatever is freed of delusive hindrance and rid of the fear bred by it.”. It is what we are holding onto that causes us to fear. When we finally let go there is nothing to fear.

However in the meantime we need to have a practice of fearlessness. Taking risks is the essence of the practice of fearlessness and courage. There is no easy way to deal with fear, it has to be faced. We can face it gradually, taking small steps at a time, small risks. What we are usually risking is humiliation or failure, loss of face. One of my biggest fears was always the fear of having to speak in front of other people. When I first came along to the London Buddhist Centre at the age of twenty eight, I was very shy, painfully shy. I found it very difficult to speak in any group even a small group of six or seven people. When I was about to be ordained I doubted whether I was really up to it because I thought Order Members had to give talks, teach meditation etc., and I just couldn't really see myself being able to do that. But, as you can see, something has changed and even though being up in front of a crowd of people is not necessarily my favourite activity, it doesn't bother me any more. It has been a gradual process of just doing it and feeling the discomfort and nervousness and fear of humiliation and sweating palms and shaking legs and having to go to the toilet five times before speaking etc. But ,as I say, I've cracked it and I don't even get nervous now. I'm just telling you that, because it might be encouraging. You may have your own fear. Some people for instance have no problem with speaking in groups but are frightened of having to be alone. There are all sorts of things we fear.

Traditionally the yogis went into the cremation ground at night to face their fears, ghosts, wild animals and the dead. We each have our own equivalent of a cremation ground. The cremation ground is the crucial situation that we find difficult to face; a particular communication, speaking up, going abroad, not being able to speak the language, what others think. We often 'prepare a face to meet the faces that we meet'. The practice of fearlessness is a practice of gradually taking risks, facing our crucial situation, entering our cremation ground. According to the Tantra when you come out the other side of your fear what you meet is the Dakini, the Sky Dancer, a naked female figure ,brilliant red in colour, dancing through the sky with complete abandon. This is a symbol of the tremendous freedom and energy that arises from facing fears and taking risks. So that's what we can look forward to, when we face fears. We can look forward to a great sense of freedom and a release of energy. We begin to live our lives more and more fully.

Now I'd like to go on to look at the symbolism of the double vajra. A vajra is a symbolic thunderbolt used in Tantric rituals and depicted in thangkhas or images of various Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, most notably Vajrasattva, Akshobya, Vajrapani, Amoghasiddhi and Padmasambhava. Very simply described, a vajra consists of a central sphere with five spokes emerging from it on each side. There is a lotus emerging from the centre on each side as well and the heads of some mythical beasts called Makara, like crocodiles. Each of these elements: the central sphere, the two sets of five spokes, the lotuses and the mythical beasts, has its own symbolism and the whole vajra is a very rich symbol. I'm not going to go into that now. Today I am concerned with the double vajra and I want to concentrate on the symbolism of the two sets of five spokes and say more things about the double vajra.

One set of five spokes represents the Five Buddhas and the Five Wisdoms. The five Wisdoms are the Mirror-like Wisdom of Akshobya, the Wisdom of Equality associated with Ratnasambhava, the Discriminating Wisdom of Amitabha, the All-Performing Wisdom of Amoghasiddhi, and the Absolute or Dharmadhatu Wisdom of Vairocana. The second set of five spokes represents various things but I want to concentrate on the five poisons. These are infatuation or spiritual ignorance, aversion, conceit, craving and jealousy or envy.

The vajra contains all these elements, the poisons and the wisdoms. It embraces opposites, it is a union of opposites and the double vajra re-emphasises this union of opposites. When you achieve a union of opposites, transformation takes place which gives rise to great energy and the double vajra is a symbol of tremendous energy. It is the spiritual equivalent of nuclear power. The energy of the double vajra is unstoppable, invincible, it is the energy of Enlightenment, the energy that arises when the forces of the psyche are transformed into the Wisdom of Reality.

On one side of the vajra we have negative energies; greed, hatred, ignorance, pride and jealousy and on the other side we have the positive energies of Transcendental Wisdom. But there is only one vajra and it contains both. There is only one energy which can be channelled in different ways. Our psyche, our mind is a vajra, a double vajra even and contains contradictions, opposites, conflicts. We are in conflict with ourselves and as we pursue the spiritual path the conflict intensifies. There is the conflict, the tension between our spiritual aspirations and our craving for distraction. There is the conflict between our ideals and the mundane reality of our lives. There is the conflict between our desire for immediate pleasure and the need for discipline. There is the conflict between our need for guidance and our fear of authority, and so on. Our lives are full of conflict and contradictions. Internally we experience conflict and tension in terms of opposing tendencies and desires and externally we experience the conflict of encountering other minds and other selves beyond our control or understanding.

This conflict and contradiction can seem a chaos and can be very painful as we try desperately to impose order on the unruly forces of our own mind and try to control the world around us. The mistake we make often, is that we try to banish or defeat or obliterate one side of the conflict in our minds. This just causes even greater problems. We cannot become good by banishing the bad. We cannot expand our consciousness and attain higher states by banishing some elements from consciousness. We have to learn to be big enough to contain contradictions. One difference between Buddhism and traditional Christianity is that nobody is eternally damned in Buddhism. The devil symbolises all that is wicked and bad and is traditionally consigned to everlasting damnation, beyond redemption. It's a long time since I learned my Christian doctrine so the devil may have been rehabilitated by now. In Buddhism this is an impossible notion, for if the devil is not redeemable, then we are not, because all that is wicked is ours, as well as all that is good.

My own experience was that when I began meditating I was not aware of any conflict in me. It all seemed quite simple and straightforward. I wanted to progress spiritually, I wanted to become more aware, more happy, more compassionate and so on and meditation would help me do that, so no conflict. But of course when you meditate you become more aware, you become aware of the nastier aspects of yourself, your selfishness and pettiness and so on. I gradually became aware of aspects of myself that did not want to progress spiritually, did not want to meditate etc, in fact didn't want to be bothered and were screaming, leave me alone. And the conflict got more and more intense, this conflict between my idealism and faith and determination to live a spiritual life and my wanting an easy life that didn't involve any change or difficulty and was completely indulgent. When I'd been meditating for about two years I almost exploded with this conflict as aspects of my psyche that I'd been repressing burst into awareness. I felt very emotionally unstable for several months and went into depression. I hope this doesn't put you off meditation. However, I never lost trust in the practices and theory of Buddhism, I don't really know why. Gradually the conflict in me not only intensified but clarified and during the course of a solitary retreat I came to be able to contain both of these strong tendencies within my view of myself. I was no longer trying to get rid of an aspect of myself. It just seemed to resolve on a deeper level and something else came into being that was larger and softer. I began to have images of lakes in meditation. I became bigger somehow, more expansive. That is what we are aiming at with meditation. We need to become big rather than good. To be big is to contain contradictions. As the American poet, Walt Whitman, said:

“Do I contradict myself?

Very well then ….... I contradict myself

I am large ....... I contain multitudes”

(Song of Myself) 

We need to embrace all of us, warts and all, so to speak. We are not good. We are not bad, we are good and bad. That is why we need to transform ourselves and that is why we can transform ourselves. Because if we think we are all good there is no need to change and if we think we are all bad we can't change. But either one of these lopsided states is a state of alienated awareness. And as Bhante Sangharakshita says: “It is better to establish real, living contact with our negative emotions (which means acknowledging them and experiencing them but not indulging them) than to remain in an alienated state and not experience our emotions at all. (A Stream of Stars, p.45)

In the vajra the poisons are recognised and through the power of awareness are transformed into the Wisdoms. Hatred is transformed into the Mirror-like wisdom of Akshobya. Hatred already has in it a sort of sharp objectivity which through the practice of forbearance or patience is transformed into the more benign objectivity and clarity of the Mirror-like Wisdom. Pride is transformed into the Wisdom of Equality, Ratnasambhava's Wisdom. The hallmark of pride is making comparisons with others and through the practice of an attitude of generosity towards everyone, pride or making comparisons is transformed into the ability to relate to others on the basis of their spiritual potential, and the attitude of generosity eventually can become the Wisdom of Equality. Craving or greed is transformed into the discriminating Wisdom of Amitabha. Greed is concerned with preferences, (I like this, I don't like that) and through the practice of deep meditation, the tendency of our mind to make distinctions can be transformed into the an ability to see the unique qualities of individuals and situations, which eventually can become the Discriminating Wisdom. The poison of jealousy or envy is transformed into the All-Accomplishing Wisdom of Amoghasiddhi. Through the practice of fearlessness, courageously taking risks, we can achieve success in whatever we attempt and this brings a confidence that dissolves envy and can eventually become the All-Accomplishing Wisdom. The poison of spiritual ignorance is transformed into the Dharmadhatu or Absolute Wisdom of Vairocana. Through reflection on the essential teachings of the Buddha, seemingly even simple teachings such as 'actions have consequences', our minds become open to the Reality of existence and become gradually saturated with Truth. Spiritual ignorance is slowly dissolved leaving space for the arising of Insight and eventually the attainment of Enlightenment and Absolute Wsidom.

In this way through the practices of patience, generosity, meditation, fearlessness (taking risks) and contemplation the five poisons are transformed into the five Wisdoms and the double vajra is a symbol of the tremendous energy released by this transformation. The single vajra is the emblem of Akshobya and is an indication of energy required for the practice of forbearance (ksanti), the energy required just to be. The double vajra could be seen to symbolise the energy needed in order to be and to do simultaneously. To be centred and calm and at the same time active and effective. The key to this is the practice of awareness or mindfulness which raised to its highest level is the state of Nirvana or Enlightenment.

The centre of the vajra, the sphere, represents the state of complete Enlightenment. The poisons pass through the central sphere on the way to becoming the Wisdoms. What this means is that awareness is the fundamental Buddhist practice which needs to permeate all other practices and a state of bare awareness is a state of freedom. A state of liberation from all the turbulent and unskilful tendencies of the mundane mind. Awareness leads to self-knowledge. We need to know ourselves in order to transform ourselves. Our awareness needs to be permeated by goodwill, which is why we do the Metta Bhavana, as well as the Mindfulness of Breathing.

We need to become aware of our defilements. Aware of the poisons in our minds, aware of our hatred, greed, ignorance, pride and jealousy and we need to maintain an attitude of goodwill towards ourselves at the same time. There is no place for condemnation in Buddhism. No place for condemnation of ourselves or others. There is a place for making judgements and constructive criticisms which are in the context of goodwill or Metta. Bhante Sangharakshita mentions this. He says: “Criticism is not condemnation. I never condemn anyone, since I believe that human beings are capable of change. Criticism if taken in the right spirit helps us to grow.” (A Stream of Stars, p.98) This highlights something else about criticism. It needs to be taken in the right spirit as well as given in the right spirit. The right spirit is a spirit of goodwill. With regard to ourselves we need to be big enough to acknowledge our capacity for evil, for hatred, greed etc., and acknowledge our actual unskilfulness while at the same time maintaining an attitude of goodwill and kindness towards ourselves. With regard to other people and situations, we need to be able to acknowledge the gap between the ideal and the actual while maintaining an attitude of goodwill.

Some people complain about the absence of the ideal, as if other people or circumstances or situation ought to be perfect. But this is not an intelligent way to proceed. We need to work at changing ourselves and the world around us precisely because the actual is not the ideal. Complaining that things are not ideal is like a child complaining that its parents are not perfect. The child doesn't realise that nobody's parents are perfect. (To be fair to children, many adults also complain that their parents were not perfect!). Bhante has something to say about this: “It is sometimes necessary to criticize the weaknesses of others, but people often seem to find it difficult to do so without doing it in a 'hard' sort of way that excludes compassion. Perhaps, in some cases, people criticize others as a way of paying homage to the ideal without actually having to practise that ideal.” (A Stream of Stars, p100)

We need to practise, and by doing that become emotionally big enough to include contradictions and big enough to forgive ourselves and others for failing. If we are big enough to forgive failure in ourselves and others, then there is less fear of failure. The double vajra is a symbol which unites all opposites and encompasses all of Reality. The double vajra is a symbol of the mind of the spiritually aware individual. The individual who is aware and honest and open enough to contain contradictions; aspiration and craving, love and ill-will, faith and doubts. The individual who through awareness and an attitude of goodwill constantly works to transform the poisons of ignorance, greed, hatred, jealousy, pride, and in so doing releases more and more energy for further spiritual practice.

The double vajra could also be seen as a symbol of the Sangha, the spiritual community, the harmony of mutual helpfulness. The Sangha at its best unites all opposites, transcends division and difference and develops co-operation and trust, creating a realm in which we can let go of fear and take risks: risks in communication, risks in self-revelation, risks in generosity, risks in apology and forgiveness. All of this also releases tremendous energy for the good. The double vajra is a symbol of the energy released by the integrating effect of spiritual practice and it is also a reminder to us of the need for constant effort and application if we want to make spiritual progress.

The energy produced by the acknowledgement and transformation of the mental poisons is assured of success because the union of opposites involves encompassing the whole of Reality. In Reality there are no opposites to be united, there are just varying degrees of ignorance obscuring the clarity of how things really are. When we reach closer to an insight into the nature of existence, not obscured by hatred, greed, ignorance, envy or pride, we will have less to fear, because then we will experience less separation from life round us. We and other life are not opposites, we are one, an interconnected whole. As we start to see things from this larger perspective that transcends opposites, there is less and less to fear, until eventually we will understand the message of Amoghasiddhi – there is nothing to fear.