Taurus New Moon Solar Eclipse Today, May 9th, 2013
It’s the middle of the summer eclipse season 2013! Lunar! Solar! Partial! Full! Whatever! A one word can suffice: change. Yeah, okay. But what kind and what for and what to do about it? Well, how its playing out in each of our lives can be somewhat different but the main theme is change. So, it all started in April with the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio; so a Scorpio Moon; check your schedules, journals, calendars or reflect back to the 25th of April during that full Moon. (I did and see a theme developing with finances; not surprising when we’re dealing with Scorpio and the opposite polarity Taurus. They rule the 2nd and 8th zodiac houses of our money/other people’s money—generally speaking as a huge over-simplified theme. Survival, values, self-worth and issues of power/control and these types of categories—that’s what we’re talking about, if we’re getting thematic and we are.
TECHNICAL—SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU’RE NOT ‘INTO’ ASTROLOGY: Most people don’t know these details about themselves but I’ll mention anyway that if anyone has planets in Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius that are between 1 and 11 degrees, that this energy will be most deeply felt. Why? Because this upcoming Full Moon Eclipse on the 25th of May happens at 5 degrees and is triggering the lot of any planets in those signs and in those degrees via aspects or angles, that’s why.
But even if you don’t know those details, everyone has transiting Saturn (in Scorpio) and Mars (in Taurus) triggered at that time. So, you’re effected with or without knowledge of your planets, houses or signs. But knowledge is power, so let’s continue.
Although I just said that I’d leave myself out of it, Saturn in Scorpio brought (for me) deep emotional sadness (my brother had just died) and other emotions had me initiating (Mars) some new ideas about monetary survival concerns (Taurus). I’m sharing this for the purposes of helping others understand their own astrological eclipse energy as I try to figure this thing out myself. What is the message that is being given to us by the universe this eclipse season?
Eclipses can suddenly expose a hidden problem and are like the ‘wild cards’ of the zodiac which can bring up stressful emotions, chaotic events or they can be very positive and exciting. I’m sure there are those who feel little or no effect at all. Why so? Well, it depends on whether or not those signs relate to something significant in the natal chart triggering the soul’s karmic past or evolutionary goal—some eclipses do and others don’t. Just because someone experiences an eclipse season as mild, doesn’t indicate some type of spiritual advancement. Besides, let’s face it. If we got hit intensely and heavily with each and every single eclipse, chances are we’d be overwhelmed—that’s why we have something called ‘time’ to slow it all down for us. So, wipe the grin off your face if you are not being affected by this particular eclipse, there’s always next year!
My Natal North and South Nodes are being hit by this eclipse season so my soul’s karmic past and evolutionary intention are really being shaken. Last year, the summer eclipses (in which I relocated from the mountains to this apartment complex down mountain) occurred I the signs Gemini-Sagittarius. One archetype of this zodiac axis relates to short trips and travel—that axis in my natal chart occurs in 5-11, the archetypes of children (5th) and the clan/community (11th). I’m in the community now “fer’ shure” as we used to say it in the 80’s. I moved into this apartment complex where my children live. And I did so last year between the May 20th and June 4th eclipse. My move in date was the 21st of May last year, 2012. So all that Gemini-Sag eclipse stuff that last year is being mentioned here as an example of how an eclipse season can work. Let’s get current–it’s now one year later, May 9, 2013.
So much for history; let’s return to the NOW. Scorpio – Taurus is where we’re at for this years eclipse season encore. And for me triggers more family/career stuff since in my life, the natal nodes are in the 4-10 house axis. Again, if you are born with personal planets in Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius; then you’re being affected.
My whole generation is feeling the effects of this eclipse since all people born in the Pluto in Leo generation which is roughly between the years of 1940 and 1957 are affected by these eclipses in Taurus/Scorpio via the square; especially if their Pluto is within orb or between 1 and 11 degrees Leo.
Oh, I may be getting too technical. We’re just talking about what issues can cause concern when we look at the signs and houses that an eclipse affects.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SOLAR AND LUNAR ECLIPSE?
ANSWER: Just as a general rule of thumb, solar eclipses are more external dealing with outer world events while the lunar eclipses are more emotional and internal.
So let’s go back to April 25th. We checked the calendar/journal/schedule and reflected back to that last week or so of April a moment ago—was that more internal or external for you? We feel intensely emotional about something and that can result in taking the bull-by-the-horns so to speak and initiating an external event. I was re-thinking my whole approach to things at that time due to some emotional unrest and as a result did initiate a few outer world experiences. I will leave the details to your imagination.
Eclipses have a profound effect on a person’s life—at least potentially depending upon what other planets it triggers. The tension may last only a few weeks; however the change that happens in that period can last a lifetime.
Take, for example, the eclipse season of last summer as it relates to my own life. The move closer to my family—definitely true that things that have happened this past year did affect my life and the lives of my family and the affects likely will last a lifetime i.e. our relationships, memories and all of that. So there’s a good example. The intensity of the move—the packing up and moving in took weeks but the change? Well, pretty dramatic.
Eclipses can illuminate areas of one’s life—like shining a light on the person, the path bringing into awareness something that beforehand was not being noticed. We could say something like removing a blind spot! I think that’s a good way to phrase it. Whatever has been pushed to one side or shoved under the carpet becomes obvious. Sometimes I think of eclipses as earthquakes—especially after last summer as well as the current energy.
Today’s eclipse (May 9th 2013) is Solar and this Sun/Moon conjunction is closely (as mentioned earlier) merged with Mercury, Mars and most importantly the South Node. So past life or even this current lifetime’s past memories and past actions (Karma possibly-?) is being illuminated revealing, once again, possible blind spots.
The next eclipse of this series is another Lunar Eclipse and occurs on May 25 on the full Moon. There are two eclipse seasons every year – lunar eclipses are the byproducts of any given solar eclipse. Therefore, the eclipse ahead of us on the 25th (Full Moon Lunar eclipse) is the byproduct of today’s New Moon Solar Eclipse.
Today’s Solar Eclipse may bring events that we have not consciously precipitated or triggered and then the consequential upcoming Full Moon Lunar eclipse on the 25th will be associated with events brougth about by our own thoughts and feelings.
Let me end with a quote from astrologer Dena DeCastro’s (www.denadecastro.com) recent newsletter to give us more of an idea about this eclipse season. Her comments echo other astrologers all of whom are saying essentially the same thing. About this eclipse season Dena wrote:
“We’re being invited to confront our fears, and to let go of the things we’ve held on to – habits, ideas, material things – that makes us feel secure. And, that’s the South Node in Taurus: we are learning to release attachment to some things that have allowed us to be comfortable for a while. The evolutionary condition is that, as a whole, we have become too comfortable, cozy, sleepy. Inertia has set in (shadow side of Taurus). Scorpio medicine invites us to surrender to what feels out of our control. For example, intense emotions, maybe long suppressed, may be coming to the surface now. Or, you might find that you can no longer avoid doing that thing you are passionate about, but have been so afraid to do. If you don’t know what that is yet, don’t worry. Another year and a half of North Node in Scorpio will likely reveal it to you. But you must be willing to look beneath the surface of things, to confront fears, and to ride the wave rather of change rather than fighting it. ~ So these themes and lessons are brought to the surface each time the eclipses occur in the Taurus/Scorpio polarity, particularly heightened in the two weeks leading up to and away from the eclipses. We are in such a time frame currently, which began in early April and goes through the early part of June. In my life, it has been a challenging time, full of Scorpionic themes. I touched on some of these in my previous newsletter. As I look at the lives of those closest to me, and events in the world around me, I see many of us being pushed out of the inertia state of shadow-Taurus toward confronting uncomfortable, even frightening, realities. Through being awakened to the things we usually don’t like to consider, however, we are provided the opportunity to gain wisdom and the ability to find the true sources of our own power.”—end quote, Dena DeCastro
I hope this post helps someone out there to hang on with chin up! As mom used to say, “This too shall pass” and as I say, “I can go through anything if I know why and how long it’s likely to last!”
Maybe by next month, if we don’t get it right now, we will be able to look back on this time period of 3 eclipses April 25 thru May 25th and figure it all out! Here’s to eclipses (raising my coffee cup to the air and not spilling a drop) and may the force be with you.
I hope that we all receive some positive changes through this intense time period and I hope for you that your experiences are the intensely happy kind. May the odds be ever in your favor!
Hunger Games
Difficulties and Tensions Happen to Spiritual People and the Truth about the Number 11! Spiritual Flaccidity and May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor
Maybe it’s the Aquarius or Uranus part of me, but I’ve always gone the opposite way of the crowd. And in this instance I’m talking about the crowd that thinks or believes that if you have a difficulty in life or tension in any way that you’re doing something spiritually wrong! Natural Law, you know? Nature as an example: the flower, in order to grow, requires the resistance of the earth to push against in order to find the light, the Sun. Of course, how often do we hear of the other example of the lotus pushing up from the mud to symbolize our life on earth—without the mud the lotus couldn’t grow!
Tension! There’s been a lot of that this year so far but this is (for me) and 11 year after all – numerology. Anyway, the soul needs the tension, the strain, the stress, the pull within caused by life on Earth for growth and development just as flowers need rocks in their soil against which to push in order to reach the sun. If we avoid tension at all costs—the way that the spiritually elite white-lighter population does—we become flaccid of spirit! And live in yet another delusional state!
We seem to learn and to grow though tension: maybe that’s what an 11 personal year is all about. Does the tension and stress of earth living keep the spirit from going flaccid or getting fat and flabby? Don’t we have to keep in shape (even spiritually)? And so don’t we need challenges or some sort of oppositional energy (Ha! Thinking in astrological language now) in order to draw us out of our otherwise sleepy white-light delusional haze? I’m just asking, contemplating—that’s an 11 year thing. The word “tension”, interestingly enough, is used in describing the vibration of the number 11; Google it, you’ll see. Other “T” words associated with the 11 vibration are these: trials and tests. Surprised? If so then you might be a white-lighter in need of some 11 “T” vibe reality.
I mentioned at the start of this post the Uranus/Aquarius aspect of psyche and guess what the number 11 is associated with in astrological terms? Yeah, Uranus/Aquarius is the answer. And in soul astrology when we look in a chart to find where the soul has experienced trauma or wounding, we usually have our eye scanning for the location of Uranus and what where Aquarius is located. Anyway…
Any trauma or crisis creates divine possibility and probability for spiritual growth—right? We can’t have a flaccid soul or spirit now, can we?
Like I was saying, we need that tension in order to grow—or so the theory goes. Tension is the key to growth; we learn through tension and we exist through tension here on Earth. Tension creates that oppositional energy that pulls our lotus-flower-self right up out of the mud! Light does that, sun does that and who says that the light or the sun (the 11 energy) doesn’t come right along with exactly what we need to grow, including crisis and all those T words mentioned earlier? I’m just sayen’—just contemplating the idea of the necessity of opposition, of the right amount of necessary tension to shape our souls, our hearts, our minds, and our spiritual journey here.
Take the Yin-Yang; within the light there is darkness and vice versa. And as the white-light crowd goes one way seeking spiritual flaccidity and I go the other contemplating the necessity for oppositional tension, life goes on as it will despite our theories. Are our experiences in life on Earth all about haphazard odds? Or is there a divine force of intelligence guiding those odds? As they say in the book and movie The Hunger Games, “May the odds be ever in your favor!”
Meanwhile, if any of those T words are part of your experience (tensions, trials, tests, and trauma), don’t immediately jump to the conclusions that those white-lighter’s push about creating your reality and positive thinking and all the rest of that. You don’t need a crash course in the Law of Attraction (gimmie’ a break!) and you don’t need to escape into the white-lighter nihilistic delusion either. Simply realize the true 11:11 vibrational message: there needs to be balance, yin/yang and avoid the flaccid spiritual extremes.
White and black are the colors of the numbers of 11 which is reminiscent of the yin/yang symbol—two sets of opposites, the world of duality—light in the darkness and darkness in the light.
The number 11 represents challenges; do people know this?
Here’s something I found online [http://www.professionalnumerology.com/chaldeansystem.html] about the number 11: This is an ominous number to occultists. It gives warning of hidden dangers, trial, and treachery from others. It has a symbol of a “Clenched Hand”, and “a Lion Muzzled”, and of a person who will have great difficulties to contend against. [Based on Chaldean numerology]
My greater point is that great difficulties happen even though we wish that “the odds be ever in your [our own] favor” … despite that, sometimes struggle, strain and striving happens and like the flower pushing against the rock and soil or mud, that’s how we grow. Don’t let those white-lighters make you feel bad – it doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong! It’s only life on earth; it’s soul growth and maybe it’s the odds! 
I just remembered a few things. First, I’ve not been blogging regularly and with this recollection, I (once again) vow to be more consistent. Secondly, what ever happened to the 37 Verses of the Bodhisattva that I said that I was going to start doing? Opps, see all of the above; it’s an 11 year! However, with the above in mind, I did draw a verse number out of the basket here to add to rectify my delinquency. I drew vow #23 which has to do with attachment and impermanence. It talks about not holding on to anything — yin or yang, light or dark and those rainbows in life and not being attached to anything. What do you think about how this verse applies to what I’ve written in this post? Here it is:
When you encounter attractive objects,
Though they seem beautiful
Like a rainbow in summer, do not regard them as real,
And give up attachment.
Divination: Ace of Pentacles and Doubt
Divination! Let’s do some! Got a question, a problem, an “issue”? I do–who doesn’t really?! Let’s be honest. Even high spiritual teachers have them. Lately, I’ve ripped off my mask but am thinking that it might be better to put it back on–people rather like the mask and let’s face it, nobody REALLY wants to know “what lies in the deep” or beheath it@! Love that phrase, “lies in the deep”-but that’s the scorpio in me I suppose. Anyway, it’s a line from Lord of the Rings–I really LOVE the music from that movie, especially the Return of the King CD. But let me pull this all together here and get back to the diviniation question.
Got one in mind? Like I said, I do. You focus on yours and I’ll focus upon mine–let’s form this question carefully. Perhaps even write it down. No paper and pen handy? Open a document and write it down there. Got it?
Okay, mine has to do with doubt–what’s yours have to do with? Let’s see what the oracle tells us. I will use the tarot today. Now that I think about it, doubt is a common human issue.
I’ve drawn the Ace of Pentacles. I can’t help but be drawn to the blue mountains in the background–it seems everything reminds me of the moutains lately. But let’s stick to the question, what does our issue about doubt have to do with the Ace of Pentacles? Well, the answer here is that there is an opportunity, something material and earthly (like money) that comes as a result of the issue at hand that we’re asking about.
New Beginning, opportunity, door opens (represented by the archway in the picture on the card). Something material or earthly will happen to help overcome the doubt that exists around the question.
This is beginning to make sense to my own inner question– is it for you as well? It is encouraging. I’ve always loved this card with the hand of spirit holding the coin over the path! That’s probably because there’s still a tendency within me to struggle with money or poverty issues.
The bottom line here is that there’s no reason for doubt–there are heavinly forces that help us in material ways to stay on the path!
… and whatever it is, i planned it that way! (Don’t forget the funny factor)
I was thinking today about how once I fell of a clinician stool in a clinic full of patients and other physical therapists. I was moving from point A to point B while rolling on the stool between my two patients and caught the wheel on a towel on the floor. I laughed along with everyone and announced that I’d planned that! No embarrassment—okay very, very minimal.
So could I feel that same way about my life today? Could I look at some of the “revolting developments” like my mother used to call them – those frustrations of life and act like I planned those and laugh about it? Hmmmmmmmm….. really, did I and could I?
I’ve been learning about co-dependent arising of energy and it’s complicated but we could say it has to do with that k word that everybody cringes about—karma. There’s good karma too and lots of it and I’ve got a lot of that going and I think we all do, so why do we tend to be focused on the opposite? Good questions to contemplate in meditation to get a personal view. But Buddhism already has some of the well thought out and logical insight already there on the plate but fair warning—there “ain’t” no savior in Buddhism; it’s all you and if you can’t handle that one, best not go there.
But one part of Buddhism has to do with just looking at what we think of as reality and not arguing with it and just seeing it as the illusion it is. When we energize the illusion by getting all excited about it, we create all those “arising’s” as we drift farther away from …. What’s the best word to use here? Tranquility Base! Yeah, I know, it’s a 60’s reference to the Moon landing but I like it.
Tranquility Base
To me that’s the core and base still mind that simply just IS and there is no thought there on tranquility base, simply tranquility. The more we drift away from tranquility base and play in illusion and energize the thoughts that create the illusion, the less tranquility we have and the more cause and effect, ugh, that K word. With positive karma in mind and realizing we can’t just sit in tranquility base 24-7 (we do have to engage in certain functions), the more we energize the most positive illusions, the better.
All of this is another way of saying what all the modernized teachers are saying which are the ancient teachings of Buddhism.
Anyway, I’m going to pretend just for today that no matter what has happened recently and what is happening now that I planned it like that; I’m going to agree with it just like when I fell off the stool. No resistance, no trying to make it any different—these frustrations, these “revolting developments”… I planned it that way and let me laugh at it all like I did when I fell off the stool. No need to take it all so seriously—right?
However these things arise, these developments, some have to do with me and others don’t—life is as life is. I can’t take credit for everything and I can’t be blamed for it all either; I am only a part of it as I breathe in and breathe out… it’s an illusion and what affects me personally, I planned it that way and it’s funny. Why? Because it’s all an illusion and it’s only as serious as my mind makes it!
I had quite a laugh earlier today reading an email from a Buddhist friend of mine who, like me, just made it through another x-tian holiday with x-tian family members and reading it had me laughing out loud! It so helps to have others who get the illusion and find humor in it! Hey, I planned it that way!
Giving Up Concern for this Life–Can We? Enlightenment Practice #4 of the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva
Vajrasattva
I asked a vajra teacher, a Lama that I’ve been communicating with, for a 2nd best book to continue my sort of self-made dharma lessons on The Thirty Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva. Oh, maybe vajra teacher is incorrect phrasing according to custom. I think the word for spiritual teacher in Tibetan Buddhism is vajracary or vajrasattva is probably more technically correct but I can’t say for sure being an American who is trying to pick up where haven left off from previous incarnations—not that I could prove this. Which actually brings me to the 2nd best book since the 1st best was $150 (totally out of the budget).
I asked a Lama of the Karmapa lineage and was referred to a book by the 17th Karmapa (who I have heard speak on TV and really admired) called ‘Traveling the Path of Compassion’, a book on the 37 Practices, which I’m now reading.
I just finished a passage written by the Karmapa on Practice #4 which was cool because he wrote about death (specifically, there’s no death) and reincarnation—he gently points out how it is almost impossible to feel that a loved one who has died is totally gone and never present in some way! “Most people”, he writes, “have a feeling that a loved one who has passed away is still somehow still available.”
He says death is not nothingness. Nor is it a blank state; it is the time when we transfer our light to another way of being. We are, he says, not a candle that is finished when the flame goes out but instead a torch, a light shining everywhere that can be transferred one bright flame to the next.
Well, I had to include that here and write about that first before I start to write what I’m REALLY writing about today! HA! So here we go—the real reason I’m writing today! And it still relates to Practice #4 which is about attachments.
The teaching is about being attached to this life and of course if you practice the dharma or said another way if you subscribe to the Buddhist philosophy of life and therefore relate to and start to apply the teachings to your own life (in order to increase happiness and decrease suffering first for self and then for others) then what you do in Buddhist language is that you “practice the dharma”. Which in this case the word dharma means “the teachings” –but the word also translates to “phenomenon” and I’ll write on the correlation there another time. Getting back to the practice of dharma, he says that we have to release attachments to life if we are going to call ourselves a Buddhist and in particular a Bodhisattva…. [paraphrased].
BODHISATTVA, WHAT?
By the way the word bodhi translates into “understanding the nature of things” or “enlightenment” –the root word “budh” means ‘to awake, become aware, notice, know or understand). Sattva in sanskrit means purity and reality. One could say bodhi means enlightened and sattva means existence. So, a Bodhisattva is one who lives an enlightened existence. And the 37 practices was written in the 13th-14th century by a highly respected and devotedly compassionate monk instructing others on how to live an enlightened existence. That could be one way to put it which I think would be a fairly correct interpretation based on what I’ve read and surmised and I offer it to the reader with the highest intentions.
Anyway, the point that I wish to make here is that I was reading a passage written by the 17th Karmapa on the 4th Practice of a Bodhisattva in which he refers to those who turn to the dharma when in a crisis of some sort and the rest of the time their main attraction is to life and the world or the world’s entertainments. He says that we consider our worldly possessions crucial to our lives and the very source of our happiness.
Personally, I see people who hang to each other in that same way, seeing the ‘other’ as the very source of their happiness as well. And as he points out, even if we do not think these things consciously, they are at the background of our minds—our unconscious attitudes hold to worldly things as if our happiness depends on them.
Personally, I am guilty of this fault but am, through effort now, working to keep the dharma teachings working at all times in the background instead of my attachments and aversions running the show. It’s a process! There are slippery patches and tricky spots but I’m taking those and really more consciously working with them—sometimes I go unconscious and fall back into the old habitually created karmic patterns. (There’s an actual word for that; it sounds like “bach-tah” but I cannot seem to find the proper spelling and definition…sigh! I looked thru the glossaries of 3 Buddhists text I have here on the shelf and consulted a number of online Buddhists dictionaries! ) Well, there’s another lesson in practice #4, letting go and non attachment! (I’ve been highly obsessed and attached to finding that word for a good while now! ugh! letting go!)
Yeah, so anyway there’s a word for those patterns and I’ve just turned all my writing time into google time instead trying to find that right word and in giving up now must conclude this writing!
Here’s the note from the universe this morning that somewhat resembles what I’ve been trying to convey here to some extent—using life challenges to reach non-attachment and therefore happiness is what I’m trying to say and the thing below that showed up in my email says it better than I could in 10 pages of writing which is why I’m including it. And with this, will have to wish you a good day—my time is up!
NOTE FROM THE UNIVERSE IN MY EMAIL BOX TODAY WHICH CORRESPONDS TO MY CURRENT BUDDHIST STUDIES:
(www.tut.com)
It’s not that your life totally rocks, Joy, except for a few tricky spots, slippery patches, and challenges.
But that your life totally rocks, in large part, because of the tricky spots, slippery patches, and challenges.
Stranger than fiction,
The Universe
By the way Enlightenment Practice #4 of the 37 Practices reads this way:
Everyone will part from relatives and old friends;
The wealth of long labor will be left behind;
The guest, the consciousness, leaves its lodging, the body behind:
To give up concern for this life is the practice of a bodhisattva.
Oh, and by the way, (in addition to my own personal experiences and the work that I do as a medium), I’ll take the 17th Karmapa’s word on the afterlife and reincarnation since he’s the official incarnation of the 16th Karmapa’s previous life… well, you know what I mean. He passed the tests involved in determining the lineage continuation–he was the 16th Karmapa in his last life, and now he’s back as the 17th Karmapa! So I supposed that if anybody should know about this reincarnation stuff, it’d be him. Or I’d like to think so; and we have to trust, eh?
My first thought when I drew the paper with number 32 out of the basket today and read the words associated with this practice was to recoil and to think, “Wait, I don’t do that!” Following which I knew this must be a “biggie” if I had such a strong adverse reaction. “You’d better look closer at this one Joy!” was the next thought.
I turned to the commentary by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche to help with this. I think my problem was that I interpreted the wording of the original root text that read, “…if you point out the faults of another Bodhisattva…” That brought to mind the Dalai Lama or Kwan Yin or even someone like the 17th Karmapa or any of the Rinpoche’s or Lamas or even Buddhist nuns—take Pema Chodron and the like. I revere, admire and venerate teachers of this nature; I can’t imagine ever criticizing any of them. I honestly sat stupefied and then solemn for a moment and deeply inquired if I’ve criticized other Bodhisattvas.
Well, maybe Christians who still tend to irk the jesus out of me, pardon the pun. I admit that I’m still healing the wound from prior life religious persecutions—but of course it is just mind latching onto an identity as one who was supposedly persecuted. I get that intellectually and sometimes emotionally but not when the wound takes a direct hit. Okay, okay—let’s say I’m working on that. It’s a little bit difficult for me to see a Christian practitioner as a Bodhisattva but maybe I need to reconsider that.
Meanwhile, back to what Khenpo Tsultrim says about practice 32… he links this to The Seven Points of Mind Training. The Buddhist seem to have a lot of numbers associated with their teachings: the 3 this, the 4 that, the 6 this and the 7 that. Probably a good way to memorize teachings!
Anyway, Khenpo Tsultrim says that one stanza in The Seven Points of Mind Training directs the reader to think that all positive qualities belong to other sentient beings and that all faults are one’s own. This is the correct attitude. [that will develop humility for sure!] Generally, most people think just the opposite: someone else is always wrong, while they are always right. This attitude is to be given up. Patrul Rinpoche advises students to acknowledge their own deficiency first; and then, when they recognize it in someone else, to pray that the guru grants blessings to them both. It is always beneficial to see that the perceived fault in yourself is greater than it is in the other. Then you know that person is no different from you. [I highlighted what I felt where the most important points there.]
Oh Lordie, I do see how I worry/am concerned about one of my family members and their relationship to money and that this fault is greater in myself.
The Dalai Lama spoke on each of the 37 practices of a bodhisattva and he wrote one line very succinctly which says it all, “We must try to conquer our own illusions rather than those we ‘think’ we see in others.”—pg 101, Essential Teachings
Most of what I come up with while investigating the meaning of practice 32 relates to infighting amongst various schools of Buddhism criticizing each other or student’s critiquing other students or teachers.
DIVINATION ~ MESSAGE
Through examining this practice as it applies to my own life experience I can see how I am repulsed and disgusted with Christians to are always quoting scriptures. Yet, am I not right here and now quoting Buddhist scriptures in the same way?
Buddhist teachings are helping me a good deal but I must remember that Christian teachings are in the same way helping those humans who, like me, are only hoping to be better humans and grow and evolve and become a better compassionate and loving soul—a bodhisattva!
Oh, and on that relationship to money thing… better go look at the bills I’ve been avoiding looking at and work on ‘my own’ illusion!
Shantideva (who wrote A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life AKA Bodhicaryavatara
The humble monk (Ngulchu Thogme) wrote the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva it in a cave in the Himalayas around the 13th century. It’s a guide for travelers on the path to enlightenment—practically advice on how to actually live day-to-day. Are you trying to consciously travel this path? Me too; c’mon let’s figure this out!
So like I’ve been saying how I’m going to write about the 37 practices of a Bodhisattva (guidance to live by). You know the Dalai Lama? He is said to be the Bodhisattva of Compassion incarnate. Oh, to be like him! Anyway, I’ve got (like most of you) about 1,000 coals-in-the-fire-of –life’ as the saying goes (busy/whatever) but I want to get started here. So I’m writing numbers from 1 to 37 onto 37 small slips of paper and have now put them in a small basked. I will draw one at a time and write about that one while asking that it bring importance guidance for something currently relating to my life on the day the number is drawn! Ready?
Divination Message 3/16/13 from the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva: Today I’ve drawn Practice Number 30! I don’t know these by heart, so I’ve got to grab the book and have a look; let’s together see what it says. I guess you already know that a bodhisattva (essentially) is someone who wants to work for enlightenment not only for their own benefit but for the benefit of others in order to end suffering. You probably already knew that.
Bodhisattva Practice #30
Reading and typing and divining as we go along here… right away I see it’s about virtue with heart. Maybe this is about putting our whole heart into attempts to be virtuous?
Gosh, I’m remembering (flashing on) something my “spirit-guides” (as it goes) conveyed and at the time (as I did with many things then), I shrugged and felt it to be too simplistic. You know, I was looking for something more profound after all—I was looking for something really sensational when I asked why I was here and what my purpose is. I was told we are here to develop and practice virtue—I completely blew that off back then. Yet, divine irony of irony, here I am studying the 37 Practices and Buddhism and that’s exactly what it’s about!
As I look at this little book of Essential Teachings (the one I carried unknowing with me for 6-weeks –see previous blog—which is the writing of the Dalai Lama himself), he’s talking about having the “right view”. The word “view” in Buddhism (email me if I’m wrong if you’re a Buddhist monk or someone more expert than myself a humble student) has to do with understanding the nature of reality and the 8-fold path.
“Right View” as they call it has to do with the type of wisdom that has to do with understanding of things as they are which of course has to do with those 4 main truths: there’s suffering, get real about it and then understand what causes it and the good news is that there’s a way to end it *(yay!) and following the 8-fold path enables us create that cessation. And back to the 8 fold path again of which right view is a part. Didn’t we just make a circle, a loop—right view leads back to right view. Ingenious!
Hey, by the way, thanks for being patient while I work through this.
Not to let all the cats out of the bag at once creating confusion but the 8 fold path (just as a preview and curiosity satisfy-er) and no, I’m not going into all this right now but they are as follows: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. But hey, let’s just stick with the view for the moment—right view. And let’s get back to the #30 practice of a Bodhisattva.
The Dalai Lama the guru teacher here says that this view in practice #30 has to do with realizing that the person who acts in any kind of way to do any kind of thing or who takes any action +plus the action itself that is taken +plus the person who may receive the action that we take don’t (in the right view) actually inherently exist. Wow, that’s a tough one to explain to the average bear on the street human if you know what I mean!
This IS samsara after all, don’t you know? This is a dream-like state of reality. That is what we’re being asked to remember. Things exist on a conventional level but ultimately—no, they don’t. It’s really not that hard to understand with the new science where we look at atoms and the core of the atom itself doesn’t even exist only if we put our mind on it. You know what I mean!? You’ve heard this! The chair you sit on or the table or any object is solid according to our perceptions but it is because the vibration is very, very, very slow. On the quantum physics microscopic level (hope I said that right), it’s nothing but energy molecules vibrating—just a bunch of atoms which are empty at their very core!
So, let’s say you give someone a gift, you could say something like, “There is no giver, no action of giving, no gift, and no receiver of the gift”—that’s ultimate truth. Conventionally, there is all that, but ultimately NO. So that’s the right view of things which, if you think about it, is quite liberating and there’s a part of us that says, “Okay, I get that and now I can tell myself to stop worrying about every little thing!” Or that’s one view you could take and it would be ‘ultimately’ right, correct, on the quantum or ultimate level.
Whew! Hope that makes sense. The bottom line of this practice is: No subject, No object.
So, what do we do?– we practice this. We hold this in our mind and remember it and function in life with this view right alongside conventional reality—to practice this it changes our behaviors, our attitudes, and we become a teacher of the dharma (phenomenon and the truth of phenomenon) by our very being via our life being witnessed by others.
Right view is called the word “prajna” in Buddhist teachings. If we get this one thing, in my humble opinion, it is the best thing we can understand and it really answers most any question we have about life and addresses any concern. Upset? Worried or fearful? Remember practice #30 of The 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva – understand the emptiness of reality and shazam, this right view just calms it all right down for ya’! Totally and fer’ real as they say! What is real isn’t real—totally dude! Samsara is an illusion.
Another way of saying it since this practice #30 is the 6th of the Six Paramitas (more on that another time)… the 30th is about cultivating “non-conceptual superior knowledge” and in the words of the monk himself or at least one common translation:
Without superior knowledge, it is not possible to attain perfect enlightenment through the first five paramitas alone. Therefore, joining it with skillful means and not conceptualizing about the three spheres is the practice of a Bodhisattva.
And another translation:
Since five perfections without wisdom cannot bring perfect enlightenment, along with skillful means cultivate the wisdom that does not conceive of the three spheres [as real].
Note to reader: the three spheres in Buddhism are 1) self 2) other and 3) connecting action.
THE DIVINATION
Now. How can I apply this personally in my own daily life? Ha! I’m reminded lately of the story of the monk who, so inspired by teachings on generosity, gave away his worldly possessions, two of which included his food bowl and his shoes! Since his generosity was not accompanied by wisdom he had to ask for them back when it came time to eat and then to go somewhere! I was very inspirit-ed to work with generosity yesterday in my efforts to be an ‘active’ Bodhisattva! In other words, it is one thing to wish all beings be relieved of suffering and I do that plenty but what about “putting one’s money where one’s mouth is?”—as the saying goes.
I did that to the point of pain yesterday—giving when it doesn’t hurt really doesn’t count in my book. If you’re going to give, make it a bit of a sacrifice at least! So with that attitude, I did so in a fairly large way; in fact, I gulped hard several times in the process thinking, “Yike, I hope I’m not being like the monk who gave away his bowl.”–!!
And today’s Bodhisattva Practice 30 is a great message for me (using the 37 practices as divination messages here)!
I’m being reminded that the 3 spheres of giver, gift and receiver are not ultimately real; self, other and connecting action don’t exist; and to remember this and embrace it is a practice of a Bodhisattva!
