Karma and Criticism
Oct. 12th, 2006 12:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icarusAccording to Gyaltrul Rinpoche's teachings on Vajrasattva in 1986, if someone criticizes your faults publicly and you manage to not get angry, then the karma of that fault will be purified. Even if what's said is completely unfair and untrue, it would probably still be purifying some old past karma. (I don't think you have to be passive, but often responding won't help.)
If everything that's said about your faults is true, then you have to be careful to have as much compassion and gentleness for yourself as you would have for your closest friend or your cat. We're all human, and we all have faults, and it takes time and effort to work through them. The difference is that angry people say you "are" this way as if it (or anything) is a permanent state. The truth is, as a friend of mine told me last Friday, nothing is permanent. When you were 12, were you anything like how you are today? She said she had no concept of what she would be like in ten years.
This is why hatred, greed, ignorance, etc., are called "maras" or "demons." When you watch it even looks like a demonic swirl.
According to Rinpoche, a crowd of "enemies" can be more beneficial than gentle friends, because it can force you to go back to something like Buddhism to deal with your responses. H.H. Dalai Lama calls communist China his greatest teacher. For my part, I've been very lazy about Dharma for a long time. But it's not beneficial to them so I'm sorry about that. Other than practice, I'm not sure what one can do, other than to not prod it.
Oh. There is a practice one can do even if you're busy. What you do is breathe in (through your nose, slowly) all their negativity and anger into yourself. And don't leave anyone out, include Bush, Iraq, everyone. Visualize it pulling away from them and all of the suffering and misery they're creating is brought into yourself. Consider they are completely freed from it and any suffering.They're happy and content, freed of all negativity and causes for future negativity.
Then, slowly (through your nose again), you breath out all your good karma, good fortune, happiness, even the good created by doing the practice, and so they're lives are filled with good conditions, and they're completely happy and content.
It's connected to compassion (wishing others to be free of suffering) and kindness (wishing others to be happy). It's also connected to equanimity because most of the time, okay, at least most of my problems in life are caused when I want myself to be happy and I don't care much about the happiness of others. Other people are probably more compassionate than me.
Ponlop Rinpoche taught in 2001 that if you mean well, most of your karma comes from your intention.
What I don't know is if you piss someone off, and they go on to be very angry, how is that interconnected? We can't control the actions of others, so we can't blame ourselves if they're angry, even if the response might have been predictable. Shantideva says don't participate, just do your best not to upset their apple carts and work on your own mind. So that's practical. He lived in a monastery where the monks were always angry with him for one reason or another.
Vajrayana is about interconnectedness, to be really vague and use a word that my teachers don't use so it's probably inaccurate. There are ways to consider even the worst of all these angry people the face of the Buddha (sorry, thinking out loud here). Even on an ordinary level, they're benefitting me by causing me to think about these things. At the core of even the most negative emotion is buddhanature because that's the essence of everything. I'm the one that differentiates between "this is a friend" and "this is an enemy" based on my desire to be comfortable, liked, praised. So if they've made me think about these things, as your email has made me think this through, then you're both pretty good friends.
At the same time, they're creating negative karma. I'm not sure of that point of responsibility. Hmm. Can you make someone else create bad karma?
I think it doesn't matter. I should be concerned about them whether I'm responsible or not, doing practice to benefit them regardless, and the habit of assigning blame is probably a bad one on my part. Because I'll either say it's all my fault, or I'll defend myself and say "it's not my fault!" Yeah, it was something my mom said, and something in Shantideva, and also what Gyaltrul Rinpoche said too: blame and praise are two halves of the same thing, something to neither avoid nor seek. Assigning blame is also pointless when you should just do your best and practice compassion.
I think that's right.
On the other hand, in the description of the karma of killing, if you're George Bush and order someone to, say, assassinate Chavez, both the assassin and George Bush get the karma of killing (and I think the greater portion is on Bush). But that's a direct link, a direct line of command. If Bush said randomly to the room "I think someone should assassinate Chavez" it wouldn't be the same, because he didn't intend (we hope) for the assassin to take him seriously.
We're back to intention again. If he deliberately manipulated the assassin into taking action, then he'd be just as responsible.
It's all about motivation.
Maybe a truly compassionate person wouldn't care about blame because they would be more concerned about the suffering people experience and less concerned about legalizing. What if it isn't your fault? Should you act any differently or not care? "Not my fault, so it's your problem"? So that comes to the same point. Karma isn't simple, but maybe what you need to do in response to it can be quite simple.
If everything that's said about your faults is true, then you have to be careful to have as much compassion and gentleness for yourself as you would have for your closest friend or your cat. We're all human, and we all have faults, and it takes time and effort to work through them. The difference is that angry people say you "are" this way as if it (or anything) is a permanent state. The truth is, as a friend of mine told me last Friday, nothing is permanent. When you were 12, were you anything like how you are today? She said she had no concept of what she would be like in ten years.
This is why hatred, greed, ignorance, etc., are called "maras" or "demons." When you watch it even looks like a demonic swirl.
According to Rinpoche, a crowd of "enemies" can be more beneficial than gentle friends, because it can force you to go back to something like Buddhism to deal with your responses. H.H. Dalai Lama calls communist China his greatest teacher. For my part, I've been very lazy about Dharma for a long time. But it's not beneficial to them so I'm sorry about that. Other than practice, I'm not sure what one can do, other than to not prod it.
Oh. There is a practice one can do even if you're busy. What you do is breathe in (through your nose, slowly) all their negativity and anger into yourself. And don't leave anyone out, include Bush, Iraq, everyone. Visualize it pulling away from them and all of the suffering and misery they're creating is brought into yourself. Consider they are completely freed from it and any suffering.They're happy and content, freed of all negativity and causes for future negativity.
Then, slowly (through your nose again), you breath out all your good karma, good fortune, happiness, even the good created by doing the practice, and so they're lives are filled with good conditions, and they're completely happy and content.
It's connected to compassion (wishing others to be free of suffering) and kindness (wishing others to be happy). It's also connected to equanimity because most of the time, okay, at least most of my problems in life are caused when I want myself to be happy and I don't care much about the happiness of others. Other people are probably more compassionate than me.
Ponlop Rinpoche taught in 2001 that if you mean well, most of your karma comes from your intention.
What I don't know is if you piss someone off, and they go on to be very angry, how is that interconnected? We can't control the actions of others, so we can't blame ourselves if they're angry, even if the response might have been predictable. Shantideva says don't participate, just do your best not to upset their apple carts and work on your own mind. So that's practical. He lived in a monastery where the monks were always angry with him for one reason or another.
Vajrayana is about interconnectedness, to be really vague and use a word that my teachers don't use so it's probably inaccurate. There are ways to consider even the worst of all these angry people the face of the Buddha (sorry, thinking out loud here). Even on an ordinary level, they're benefitting me by causing me to think about these things. At the core of even the most negative emotion is buddhanature because that's the essence of everything. I'm the one that differentiates between "this is a friend" and "this is an enemy" based on my desire to be comfortable, liked, praised. So if they've made me think about these things, as your email has made me think this through, then you're both pretty good friends.
At the same time, they're creating negative karma. I'm not sure of that point of responsibility. Hmm. Can you make someone else create bad karma?
I think it doesn't matter. I should be concerned about them whether I'm responsible or not, doing practice to benefit them regardless, and the habit of assigning blame is probably a bad one on my part. Because I'll either say it's all my fault, or I'll defend myself and say "it's not my fault!" Yeah, it was something my mom said, and something in Shantideva, and also what Gyaltrul Rinpoche said too: blame and praise are two halves of the same thing, something to neither avoid nor seek. Assigning blame is also pointless when you should just do your best and practice compassion.
I think that's right.
On the other hand, in the description of the karma of killing, if you're George Bush and order someone to, say, assassinate Chavez, both the assassin and George Bush get the karma of killing (and I think the greater portion is on Bush). But that's a direct link, a direct line of command. If Bush said randomly to the room "I think someone should assassinate Chavez" it wouldn't be the same, because he didn't intend (we hope) for the assassin to take him seriously.
We're back to intention again. If he deliberately manipulated the assassin into taking action, then he'd be just as responsible.
It's all about motivation.
Maybe a truly compassionate person wouldn't care about blame because they would be more concerned about the suffering people experience and less concerned about legalizing. What if it isn't your fault? Should you act any differently or not care? "Not my fault, so it's your problem"? So that comes to the same point. Karma isn't simple, but maybe what you need to do in response to it can be quite simple.
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H. H. Dalai Lama's 1990 talk, as best as I can recall (part 2)
Date: 2006-10-19 03:55 am (UTC)One begins ones day making a firm committment that today I will be mindful, and practice the Dharma path throughout the day. Then, one does one's best, doing whatever practice it is that one does. Some may be doing a meditation practice, some maybe doing a Vajrayana practice, but no matter which practice one is doing, we make an effort to do it all of the day.
Then, at the end of the day before we go to sleep, one sits and we bring back to mind: what did I do today?
At first you won't remember! (laughter) It's true. In the beginning, we will not remember what we did that day, we have been so distracted. Myself, I am so busy, sometimes I do not remember my own name. (laughter) But if you try, soon you will remember little bits and pieces... at this time I did this, and at that time I did that. We need to check up ourselves. (This paraphrase is very much a paraphrase: What did I do, what did I say, and especially, what was my mind like? My... attitude. Was I mindful? Did I practice compassion, Bodhicitta? Or maybe I did some things that were maybe a bit negative.)
Sometimes when one brings back to mind what one did, one is a little embarrassed. That is okay-- better than before when we didn't even notice if we were a little bit negative. We might experience some regret. Then one does a little bit of confession, maybe some purification practice, and then we once again make a firm committment that we will not do this in the future. This is good. Only then will we improve. If one is honest with oneself, then one will make progress, bit by bit.
As one does this every night, it becomes easier and easier to remember what we do each day. In fact, it becomes possible that one can see back and remember two says, and perhaps even a week in vivid detail. This is how one improves one's memory. It possible this way to even, with much practice, to recall one's past lives.
Of course, I do not recall any past lives. (laughs) Just remembering today is difficult enough. But Buddhas and Bodhisattvas develop that special ability, and this is how they do it.
(I'm very fuzzy on his closing remarks, largely because I was blinking over the "recall past lives" part. *laughs* But I think it went something like this:) In this way, even in our busy western lives, where we must work, we can accomplish our Dharma path. It would slip away, this precious human rebirth. Even I, even though I would like to spend my life in retreat doing Dharma practice, I have not had much opportunity for that this lifetime. It is not my karma. When I was younger, I had more chance, and maybe someday... when I was younger I would not have imagined how busy my life would become. But in this way everything I do becomes my Dharma practice.
Then we said closing prayers, including the long life prayer for HH Dalai Lama. I remember being blown away by how skillful his teaching was, because it could reach every level of Dharma practictioner -- it doesn't matter how advanced or if you were a beginner -- and it would mean something slightly different for each one, but it would be useful to all. Then also, it addressed a serious problem we westerners have when it comes to finding time to practice.
He humbled me when he pointed out how busy his life was-- I complained about how hard it was for me to find time to practice when I working full-time, and how busy is he? Sheesh.
I apologize for all my inaccuracies, misremembered parts, and incomplete sections. But I hope this little tattered remnant of my memory is of use.
Re: H. H. Dalai Lama's 1990 talk, as best as I can recall (part 2)
Date: 2006-10-19 04:28 am (UTC)Re: H. H. Dalai Lama's 1990 talk, as best as I can recall (part 2)
Date: 2006-10-19 05:30 am (UTC)