Is there any pleasure in life as great as that of offering a stick of incense, or making a prostration?
Could anything be so complete, so right, so wonderful in its simplicity and perfection? How amazing that something so simple, so small, could give such fulfilment and pleasure. How incredible, of all life’s pleasures, that such a small things should be so complete.
Offerings of Incense
And to think that before I was a Buddhist (in this life!) I could never have envisaged myself bowing down to anyone or anything 🙂
Was thinking this morning of a number of classic scenarios which keep on popping up in the spiritual life. They seem to be not just classic aspects of my path, but of other people’s too … so thought I’d share them.
You get a few days where everything seems to be ‘coming together’. Meditation is getting stronger and clearer. Positivity welling up. Beauty seems everywhere. A calmness descends, an equanimity which feels like it is unbreakable and will last forever.
Nothing seems to trouble you … life seems so *easy* … just ride the waves, the surfer, at one with the Tao ….
then …..
it happens!
The Kiss of Death!
Kiss of Death painting – Bohumil Kubišta
you think the thought … the thought that is the Kiss of Death.
What is that thought ….. ?
It’s …..
“I’ve got it!”
“I’ve finally got it …. got the knack ….. seen through it ….. can see how it’s done ….. I got the riddle of life sorted … and never again will go back to confused, angry, inpatient, unclear, stressed, doubtful, or just plain suffering!
And that’s what does it!!!!
Doesn’t matter whether the thought was fully formed or not, or how strong your sense of having ‘finally got it’ was …. the very act of having some sort of ‘now I’ve got it’ …. is the ultimate Kiss of Death …. coz right after that thought …..
It all falls apart 🙂 And suffering follows most surely in its wake.
Cause and Effect …. Hubris … and the fall …..
so, like Dory in Finding Nemo ….. “Just Keep Swimming” …. and don’t attempt to grasp onto anything that arises on the path as a ground, as security, as something to rest on or leverage …. don’t grasp onto good/bad, or results …..
Which qualities of mind do not pertain to Buddha Nature – is not everything an expression of mind, and primordial wisdom?
I think I can see why you say this, and feel this way. In one sense it is so … all that appears to arise has the same nature, that of being apparent, yet empty. But, the teachings on Buddha Nature seem to point to something else here, which is the difference between those aspects of mind which are viewed as adventitious defilements, and those which are Buddha Nature.
For example, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso:
All the beings’ flaws are unreal — mere confused and impermanent appearances, because actually the Buddha Nature is originally perfect. It is empty of the separable, which are the fleeting stains, but not empty of the inseparable, which are the unsurpassable qualities.
How is this possible? Because the stains of confusion are not intrinsic to the essence of mind, so they can be removed, whereas the qualities of enlightenment are the nature of mind, so they cannot be removed.
Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Buddha Nature
This is of course a Shentong view, and would be contradicted by Rangtongpas.
Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche with Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
Not rejecting aspects of experience
Coming to your point below … I can understand what you are saying, and can see the strength in not rejecting any of your experience or in being attached to the labels of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ in relation to aspects of mind. I can also understand what you are saying about the positive changes in the balance of mental states as a result of practice.
Inherent qualities of mind
However, I think the questioner you originally mentioned in your first email was pointing at what looked like a contradiction in the teachings, which was that certain qualities are accepted as somehow ‘ultimate’ or innate qualities of mind, and others aren’t.
For example, how compassion is a quality of mind, and uncompassion, the opposite of compassion – ill-will, is not. And that issue is to do with what Buddha Nature is actually pointing to in those teachings.
