Bodhisattva ethical restraints: Auxiliary vows 12-15

• Auxiliary vows 8-16 are to eliminate obstacles to the far-reaching practice of ethical discipline. Abandon:

  • 12. Willingly accepting things that either yourself or others have obtained by any of the wrong livelihoods of hypocrisy, hinting, flattery, coercion or bribery.

  • 13. Being distracted by and having a strong attachment to amusement, or without any beneficial purpose leading others to join in distracting activities.

  • 14. Believing and saying that followers of the Mahayana should remain in cyclic existence and not try to attain liberation from delusions.

  • 15. Not abandoning destructive actions which cause you to have a bad reputation.

The practice of keeping precepts is something that benefits us on many different levels. Just trying to keep the precepts strengthens our mindfulness and our introspective awareness. Those two mental factors help our concentration and make generating wisdom easier. Whatever level of precepts we have, we need mindfulness and introspective awareness to keep them well. And as we keep them well, we feel better about ourselves, our heart is lighter, our relationships with other people are better, we purify our mind of much negative karma, and we prevent the creation of new negative karma. 

Let’s approach listening to the bodhisattva precepts with a happy mind, because we understand the benefits of keeping them not only for our own practice but for everybody around us. The more we live within the bodhisattva precepts, which are designed to oppose the self-centered thought, the kinder we’re going to be, and others receive direct benefit. Through us progressing on the path to enlightenment they receive indirect benefit, which one day will be direct, but right now we’re creating the causes. With that kind of perspective, let’s approach the topic today.

12. Adopting wrong livelihood.

We’re on number 12. Chandragomin calls it, “Adopting wrong livelihood,” and here it says, “Willingly accepting things that either oneself or others have obtained by any of the five wrong livelihoods of hypocrisy, hinting, flattery, coercion, or bribery.” They talk a lot about the five wrong livelihoods in the lamrim. There is a section in the lamrim about making offerings before we start to practice, and they emphasize making offerings that have not been obtained by means of the five wrong livelihoods. I’ll read what it says here, and then we’ll make some examples. 

This misdeed is the first of three that mainly concern ourselves. It involves acquiring goods such as food and clothing in an incorrect manner. In ‘The Great Way,’ it is described as ‘deteriorated livelihood.’ In the lamrim it is explained that the five wrong ways of earning our livelihood are affecting false piety, using flattery, hinting, using force, and giving small gifts in the hope of receiving something substantial in return. Using any of these methods to acquire food, clothing, and so on without the slightest twinge of consciousness or regret is a misdeed. As with the second misdeed, maintaining thoughts of desire, the present fault is necessarily associated with kleshas, with afflictions. However, if we sincerely make an effort to resist our desire to engage in wrong livelihood, try hard to do so, apply the remedies but fail, as with the second misdeed, there is no fault.

Let’s take a look at these five wrong livelihoods. I don’t know about you, but a lot of the way I was brought up was to do the five wrong livelihoods, because those were considered much more polite than asking for something directly. Because it wasn’t very nice to ask for something directly, so what do you do when you want something that somebody else has? You hint. Because if you ask them directly, that shows that you’re greedy.

But if you just hint, like, “Oh, those cookies you gave me last month were so good!” Or, “Oh, that sweater you gave to so-and-so is so nice, they’re really enjoying it so much, and look at this old thing that I have.” Or, “There’s this whole empty wall in my room, a thangka would look so nice there.” So, we hint and we hint. I don’t know about you, but this is how I did things. Because it’s not nice to ask directly, especially for women. I think women are not allowed to ask for things directly, you’re considered bossy if you do. So, what do we do? We hint. Maybe you disagree. Do any of you hint? All the guys aren’t moving.

Then flattery: “Oh, you were so kind, you’re one of the most dedicated people we have at this abbey. Really, you’re so wonderful. Nobody else helps us as much as you do.” We praise people. Praising people is good. We should praise people, but this is flattery, because we’re trying to get something out of them. It may be true praise, but the reason we’re saying it is because we want something. The motivation in the mind is very contorted. So, we flatter people: “Oh, you’re so quiet when you meditate, you’re one of the best meditators. You’re so generous.” We flatter people in the hopes that they’ll like us and give us something. 

Sometimes we might combine hinting and flattery. You praise the person and tell them how wonderful they are, and then you hint what you’re wanting. 

The next one is giving a small gift in order to get a big one. Sometimes they translate it as bribery, but bribery sounds like an underhanded, low thing to do. Giving somebody a gift so that they’ll give you another gift that’s hopefully worth more, that is something people do. When you gave Christmas presents or birthday presents, did you tabulate how much the present that you were going to give somebody needed to cost so that they’d give you something really nice in return? That’s what I mean. You give as little as you can without looking cheap, but enough so that the other person feels obliged to give you something back that’s nice. 

Audience: [Inaudible]

Venerable Thubten Chodron (VTC): Okay, you were born in East Germany. You had relatives in the West you would give something to so that they would give you some nice chocolate and different products from the West that you couldn’t get. 

We do that sometimes. We give somebody a little gift and hope that they remember that we gave them something, so they’ll give us something back that’s nice, especially if we present ourselves as a Dharma practitioner. “Here I am, the renounced one giving you a gift.” Isn’t that the perfect set-up? We must be quite careful of that.

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: Exchanging favors even though it’s not a material good. This one pertains specifically to material goods, but when we’re looking at the motivation, some forms of exchanging favor could certainly be like that. The whole thing depends on your motivation. I know somebody important here, and I’ll introduce you to them if you introduce me to the important person you know over there. It’s nothing material, but we’re manipulating out of greed. That’s basically what it is: giving a small present to get a large one. 

The next one is putting somebody in a position where they can’t say no. They’re going to look bad if they say no, they’re going to feel bad about themselves if they say no. “We’re doing this building project, and you gave us $10,000 for our last building project, and we’re so appreciative. You’re really, really kind; we don’t have many other people who can give us that much, and we really need the money, because otherwise we’re not going to be able to do this project. It’s so important that we do it, so we’re really counting on you.”

What are they going to say? We certainly did some flattery in there, didn’t we? A tinge of hinting, but it’s very much coercion. Because they would feel lousy if they said no. We put somebody in a position (and you can easily do it by combining it with either hinting or flattering) where they’re going to feel bad if they say no. Or they’re going to look humiliated, they’re going to be embarrassed in front of a group. “Oh, we’re doing the fundraising here and everybody else in this group gave $100. See all the other people in the room? They all gave $100. How much are you going to give?”  

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: I know, it’s like a script out of a fundraising book. That’s why I tell you that a lot of the five wrong livelihoods are things that we were raised to do. And they’re considered polite, but they’re manipulative, that’s the point. 

The fifth one is hypocrisy, or (he had another term for it here) false piety. You pretend to be this incredible, devout practitioner whenever your benefactor is around. They look, and oh, you look so devout, and you’re practicing so well, and you sit in the front row. You have this on or that on, and the benefactor thinks, “Wow, this person’s really good. I want to help them in their practice.” But then when the benefactor’s not there, you’re sleeping until eight o’clock. You’re not concentrating on your practice, and you’re hanging out talking. There is a story, I think it was from one of the Kadampa geshes. One day, the geshe’s benefactor was coming to his retreat place, so the geshe made a very beautiful altar with nice offerings so that his benefactor would be very impressed. When he realized what his motivation was, he took dirt and threw it all over his altar. His lama, who had psychic powers, said that was the purest offering he made. He was really practicing the Dharma at that moment, he was combatting his selfish, greedy mind. 

We should look at how we act sometimes to impress people, and ask ourselves, “Do I only behave in a certain way when I’m around certain people?” Because they’ll give me something or be impressed, or they’ll do something for me. So, I make special efforts to look good in front of them, to look very pious. Or maybe I look very well-connected or very astute and erudite. It is some way of presenting ourselves that isn’t how we normally act but is done through manipulation. It is hypocrisy to get something from somebody.

Can you think of some examples? 

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: The whole thing of giving somebody a very nice gift, and then afterward asking for them to contribute money. This is the standard way of doing business in some countries. My friends who do business in China tell me that this is how you do business. You must give people gifts according to their rank and what they can do. The only way to get business done is to give gifts. In India, we call it “Baksheesh,” bribery, corruption. But some people call it being polite. 

If you really have a sincere mind, and you sincerely want to give somebody a gift, that’s a totally different thing. I’m not anti-gift-giving. It’s nice to give people gifts with a sincere mind. But when we’re looking for something it’s different. Your example was quite good. 

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: So, you’re in India or one of those countries where baksheesh is the way things are done, and you want to accomplish a Dharma activity. I will tell you what I’ve observed. Most of the people give the baksheesh. One thing I noticed with Venerable Tenzin Palmo when she set up Dongyu Gatsal Ling, she did everything completely above-board so that it was legal for her to bring the money in the country. In some instances, people don’t do that, but she did everything completely above-board. In the end, this saves you from a lot of headaches. But I’ve also seen many people just give the baksheesh. 

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: When you’re having an event with His Holiness and need benefactors to sponsor it, you offer them front row seats. Or you offer a special meal with His Holiness for all the benefactors. Some websites do it quite overtly. They have different levels of donors: “If you give this, we’ll give you that gift,” and, “If you give that, we’ll give you this gift.” At least they’re being direct. They’re saying if you want this, this is how much you must pay, but we’re calling it a donation. But also, people are very kind, because otherwise it’s very difficult to have the money to sponsor something for His Holiness. 

I know that’s something that we’ve run into here at the abbey. Some people have told us that we should have different levels of donors and put people’s names on things according to how much money they’ve given us, stuff like that. It’s not something that I’m into at all. I really appreciate and want to thank people, but I don’t want to do this thing of, “You give us so much money, we’ll name something after you.” If somebody gave us a lot of money, we might be very grateful and name it after them, but that’s something different than, “Give us this, and we’ll do that.”

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: When you’re applying for college admission or college scholarships, you make yourself look good. And that’s expected. I remember when one of my nieces was applying for college, she had to write an essay about herself. I said, “Write about your good qualities, but also write about your faults.” And the family was shocked, “No, you can’t do that. You just can’t do that.” And I said, “Actually, I would be really impressed if an applicant told me what they weren’t so good at, because then I know it’s somebody who will be straightforward and honest.” But people said, “Oh, don’t even think of doing that.” They were very upset. 

Look back and think of examples of techniques you use or how you’ve gotten certain things. 

13. Being over-excited, roaring with laughter and so forth.

Next is number 13; Chandragomin says, “Being over-excited, roaring with laughter and so forth.” Sounds like me. Here it says, “Being distracted by and having strong attachment to amusement; or without any beneficial purpose, leading others to join in distracting activities.” There’s two parts of it. One is being distracted by and having strong attachment to amusement and having a good time, so that your mind really is into that. The second part is bringing everybody else along with you so that it becomes a party, or what everybody calls a good time. 

The misdeed is incurred by the attraction to excitement, singing, shouting, talking loudly, dancing and so forth or by encouraging others to behave in these ways. For this reason, just wanting to engage in these activities or to make others do so is sufficient to commit the secondary fault. It is described as deteriorated behavior. 

The first part of it, you don’t have to do anything. It’s all happening in your own mind. You’re planning the party, you’re planning this and that, you’re going to go here and there, “I’m going to visit my family. We’ll go out to the movies, and we’ll go there, all these things I don’t get to do at the abbey. Oh boy! We’re going to have such a good time! Or we will just wait until the abbess is gone.” 

An important topic of study in Buddhist philosophy, mind and cognition, or lorig, treats different kinds of perceptions in the various aspects of our consciousness – notably what are known as main minds and the mental factors that accompany them.

Excitement is a secondary disturbing mental factor when we talk about lorig; it’s not a main mind, it is a secondary mind. 

[Excitement] is defined by Arya Asanga in his ‘Compendium of Knowledge’ as a state of mental agitation that derives from attachment and is drawn to familiar attractive objects. It has the function of hindering the attainment of a high degree of concentration called meditative serenity. It differs from distraction, which does not imply mental agitation, and may derive from anger or ignorance as well as attachment. Distraction is characterized by mental wandering but does not necessarily entail attraction to pleasant objects.

Here in talking about concentration, we’re differentiating between excitement and distraction. Distraction is when you’re going off on the object, or mental wandering. It may be by attachment, even some mild form of attachment. It could be by ignorance. It could be by boredom. It could be by anger, like if you spend your whole session getting mad at somebody. There are many kinds of things that can take you away and make you wander. 

Excitement is pointed out specifically because it regards attractive objects that we have some contact with already or have had some contact with in the past. The mind is really drawn to the attractive object. You’re sitting and meditating, and you think about lunch, about the boyfriend you had 25 years ago, about anything, going out and lying on the beach. You think about all these fun, attractive, pleasant things you can do. This is one of the main things that makes us go off the object of meditation. This mind of excitement that’s either longing to recreate the past pleasure or looking in the future. “Oh, the retreat’s going to be over soon, all our friends are going to come, we get to sit and talk with them. I wonder what they’re going to bring. And then they’re going to tell us how wonderful we are for doing three months of retreat.” 

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: Just this mind of excitement. 

It is important to determine the exact nature of excitement because we will inevitably be confronted by it in our meditation. Learning to recognize it when it arises and to treat it with the appropriate antidotes will bring tremendous improvement to the quality of our meditation. Excitement is one of two main obstacles to concentration, the other being laxity. 

Why is excitement significant in the present context? Because it is this state of agitation deriving from attachment that leads to carelessness.

You’re excited, you’re attached, you’re really looking forward to something, you’re going to go somewhere and be with people that you really like and have a good time and see all these old friends and do things that you don’t normally get to do, and it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s this kind of attachment that leads to carelessness:

…Shouting, loud laughter, and to the desire to amuse ourselves and others.

This is what’s called being a normal human being who is fun to be with, isn’t it? This is what normal people do – you look forward to something that is going to be so exciting, so much fun, and you’re going to do it with all your friends. You’re all going to have a good time. You laugh, you drink, you go to the movies, and you hang out and talk. It’s like we all did, didn’t we? 

Okay, what’s the problem with doing that? What’s wrong with doing that? 

Audience: The carelessness part really gets you into trouble.

VTC: What do you mean the carelessness part gets us into trouble?

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: Oh, that story you told us before! Yes, when you get excited, especially with another group of people, you become careless, your wisdom goes down, and you went out and stole a road sign. We all probably did some stupid things when we were young because we were under the influence of excitement.

Audience: Speech is uncontrollable.

VTC: Speech is uncontrollable, what do you mean?

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: So, to be part of the party, part of the group, part of having a good time, our speech gets very, very reckless. We can exaggerate things; we can make up stories. 

Audience: Trash the Republicans,

VTC: Trash the Republicans, what’s wrong with that? You know, equal time, trash the Democrats, too.

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: Well, there are some exceptions. We’ll come to them. But yes, it is hard when you have a very active social life. Because this is what’s expected. And this is how people have fun. This doesn’t mean we need to be overwhelmingly serious all the time. We’re not talking about that, but we’re talking about just letting our mind get out of control. 

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: Singing, whistling, humming—look to see if you’re doing it out of joy. But only you can look in your mind and see what your motivation is.

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: Well, just look and see. Does it have this excited quality that leads you to do things that are quite reckless or careless? Look and see what the situation is. If it’s just joy, nothing wrong with that. But look and see if the mind’s excited. You’re the only one who is going to be able to determine that.

The thirteenth secondary misdeed consists of attachment to the excitement we feel when daydreaming, for example, about various distractions such as parties, games, festivities, and entertainment.

“Oh, the next video game, the next iPhone, the next widget or electronic thing that I can get, I’m going to hook it in here and do that with it.”

Therefore, when we contemplate attending parties and other social events, we have to carefully check our motives. Since the behavior in question is prompted by excitement, it is a misdeed associated with an affliction. We already commit a misdeed when we simply have the strong wish to get involved in any of these activities, whether we act upon it or not.

Just the mind being aroused, looking forward, and excited, that already is a transgression. 

In a state of excitement, we may, for example, long to sing. Because of the desire for that form of amusement, a misdeed occurs even if we do not sing. If we want to indulge in any of these forms of behavior simply because we have forgotten that we should not do so, and no excitement is involved, then it is a misdeed dissociated from affliction.

For example, we’re laughing, joking around, or whatever, but we’ve totally forgotten about the precept, and we’re not especially interested or excited about it. In that case it’s just regular wasting your time.

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: You’re asking is it the same being attached to a Dharma book as it is to a video game or some electronic equipment or something? I think it’s very different. Just the thing of wanting something is not necessarily negative. We want liberation, we want enlightenment, we want a precious human life. We want good conditions to practice Dharma, we want a Dharma book so that we can learn. Those kinds of things are fine. There’s nothing wrong with wanting things. Wanting itself is not necessarily attachment. 

Attachment is when we’re exaggerating the good qualities of something, and our mind is sticking to it. “I’ve got to have this. I really got to have this. I really want this. This thing is going to bring me pleasure. Being with this person, getting this object, this is really going to make me happy.” That’s the attachment. “I want to be at a retreat, I want to see my Dharma teacher, I want to see my Dharma friends,” that’s not necessarily attachment. 

This is something that people often do, especially when we hear the word desire. In English, with the word desire, there’s two different kinds of desire. One is like a virtuous desire that’s an aspiration for something worthwhile. That’s good. There’s also the desire that’s like, “I’ve got to have this, I want this.” That’s something that we want to avoid. At the beginning of Dharma practice, people say, “Oh, I really want to go to retreat, but that’s so selfish of me.” No, I don’t think so. It may depend of course on what your other options are, but just wanting to do something virtuous is not selfish. 

There are several exceptions, first from the angle of the basis: If we try our best to counter excitement, make a real effort to do so, apply the antidotes and nevertheless fail because our disturbing mental factors are too strong, it is not a misdeed.

That’s the same as we encountered with number two of the auxiliary precepts. You try and counteract the affliction in your mind, but the affliction is too powerful. In that kind of case, it’s not a break. This one is you don’t even try to counteract. 

The following five are exceptions due to necessity: (1) We may joke or laugh in the interests of others, particularly to calm down somebody who is highly irritated or to cheer up someone who is depressed.

So, being relaxed, being personable, singing or doing something fun with somebody who is depressed or somebody who is sick or somebody who is stressed out, this is very nice; it’s something that lightens their heart and takes their mind off what they’re doing. That’s not a transgression.

(2) We want to get closer to people who are very fond of this kind of amusement in the hope of one day being able to have a positive influence over them and guide them towards virtue.

Let’s say some teenagers come up to the abbey with their parents and we’re personable, we’re fun, we sit and laugh and joke with them or talk about whatever because they’re young and they don’t want to talk about Dharma. But if they see that monastics are nice, kind, relaxed people, then maybe when they’re older they’ll have a favorable impression and may want to learn something about what we do. Again, this whole thing is that we mustn’t just be horribly serious all the time. 

(3) We do so to maintain good relations with old friends, relatives, or colleagues by conforming to their wishes.

You go to visit your family, and it’s a holiday season or something, so you do what the family does. Hopefully not fight, but you join in the activities because you want to keep connection with those people. Or you work in an office, and to have a good relationship with your colleagues you joke, talk about different things, laugh, and so on. That’s not a transgression. All of these things, what we must be very clear about is that we know what we’re doing when we’re doing it. We know why we’re doing it. It’s not just, “Oh, I’m being with my colleagues,” laughing and joking, and then afterwards I go, “Oh, that sounded like breaking this precept, but it wasn’t because I was keeping a good relationship with my colleagues.” No, because at the very time you were doing it your mind was out of control and you were overtaken by excitement. But if when you’re doing it, you’re quite aware of what you’re doing and you know why you’re doing it…

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: Can you invite us to go to the beach or a swimming pool? At the abbey we have our monastic precepts to be concerned about. I remember this came up with Venerable Wu Yin when we were talking in Bodhgaya, because one of our precepts is to not to play in water. Sometimes people go swimming for health reasons because it relaxes the muscles, helps your back, and so on. In that kind of situation, if you go to a private swimming pool where it is only with people that you know and you won’t be sexually attracted to each other, you’re doing it purely for exercise, then I think that’s fine. Going to the beach is a different story. It’s hard to go the beach and not look at other peoples’ bodies and have them look at your body. I think that’s a little bit different. But if you’re going to exercise, I think going to a private swimming pool would be okay.

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: You went to visit family, you had dinner, but then they went out to roast steaks and marshmallows, drink beer, talk about sports, and stuff like that. Are you obligated to join them to maintain a good relationship? For that kind of thing, you’ve already had dinner, you’ve spent time with them, so I would say no on that one. And your family gets used to it; you just say “Oh, I have to do my practices,” or, “I’m going to bed early,” or whatever, and they get used to it. With that kind of thing, I think it’s okay. If you hadn’t had dinner together before and that was the only time you were going to see them, then maybe you go for a few minutes, you don’t have a beer with them, you stay away from the steak, and you chat for a little bit until you get too bored, and then you excuse yourself.

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: You must see what the situation is. If it was only roasting marshmallows without the beer, that is something different. 

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: There’s a wedding, your brother, your sister, somebody’s getting married. Do you go, and what do you wear? When my brother got married many years ago, my parents wanted me to go, and they hadn’t been talking to me for a long time, so I thought it was a good thing to be able to go. And my mother said, “I want you to look normal.” And I told this to Lama Yeshe, my teacher, and he said, “You go, and you be California girl.” I said, “I don’t want to be California girl, I’ve already been California girl, that’s why I became Buddhist nun.” Lama knew what I was doing, so I went to the wedding. My mother was so cute, she got a long maroon dress for me to wear. She didn’t make me get my hair done or put makeup on or anything like that, she was content just to have me there in this long purplish-maroon dress. Lama told me to grow out my hair so that it was a little bit long. I went to the wedding. I didn’t dance. For me, I find those kinds of things very difficult, because the noise level of the music feels energetically unsettling and bombarding. I don’t find it fun or pleasant. 

I must call up my compassion in order to go to things like that, because I don’t instinctively find big parties where people are drinking and the music is loud and they’re all screaming to have a conversation, I don’t find that enjoyable. But on that occasion, I went. For me it’s something that I must talk myself into, I must arouse my compassion to go, and then leave as soon as I possibly can. I went to a niece’s wedding a couple of years ago, and the music was so loud. If it had been something quiet where I could have a good conversation with people, that would be fine. Because I feel good making contact other people who don’t know anything about Buddhism, that would be fine with me, but with the places where you can’t hear each other talk I find I’m exhausted afterwards.

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: I don’t remember that.

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: It’s coming back now, yes. They were having the auction for a charity reason, I’m remembering now. I went for a short time to do that and then excused myself. People understand. I think they don’t expect you if you’re a monastic to stay the whole time of the party.

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: “I’m getting up at four in the morning, I’m going to sleep!”

The next one is:

(4) We laugh and smile to show our good feelings towards certain people who we suspect would otherwise be very angry or displeased with us and might turn from us. 

In these various situations, the well-being of others is our main concern, and our inner motivation is not in any way tainted by excitement.

This fourth one, you’re just being a pleasant person because you want to connect with people, and you don’t want to upset them or make them angry. But at the same time, being a monastic, you’ll do so much, but then you must draw the line. Otherwise, like the one with invitations, people invite you here and there, and you can spend your whole time ostensibly keeping those two bodhisattva vows and have a tremendous social life. So, it’s about really watching your motivation and doing what you need to do to connect with people, but not from a place of, “Oh, this is going to be so much fun…”

The Tibetans laugh a lot, and I think it’s quite nice. I’ve found some people are surprised because in some traditions you’re not allowed to smile and show your teeth. That’s the way they keep the precept. But the Tibetans are much more relaxed, with a feeling of, “Let’s have good rapport with people.” We don’t need to take everything so seriously. But we always need to be aware of what’s going on in our mind, what our motivation is.

14. Thinking only of remaining in cyclic existence.

Number 14, “Thinking only of remaining in cyclic existence.” Another version says, “Believing and saying that followers of the Mahayana should remain in cyclic existence and not try to attain liberation from disturbing attitudes.” This is a wrong conception that many people have. Some people who have this conception are Buddhist. When you have the bodhisattva practice, “I’m going to remain in samsara for the benefit of sentient beings until they’re all liberated,” some people think this means that bodhisattvas don’t try and attain liberation and they deliberately remain in samsara.

What it really means is a bodhisattva’s compassion is so strong that if it would be beneficial for sentient beings, they would remain in samsara. Or it means that they keep coming back voluntarily, or through making emanations they come back to the samsaric world for the benefit of sentient beings. But bodhisattvas definitely try and attain enlightenment and liberation – that’s what the bodhicitta is. But there is this misunderstanding, and several people have asked me about it. They think, “Oh, I don’t know if I want to be a bodhisattva, it means that you just stay in samsara. You don’t try and get liberated.” I say, “No, no, no, that’s not the meaning of what’s being said.” 

The fourteenth secondary misdeed is thinking and saying that bodhisattvas do not seek liberation from cyclic existence or dread disturbing mental factors but that they delight in remaining in samsara for the sake of living beings. This opinion arises from the misinterpretation of certain sutras which say, for example, ‘Bodhisattvas find joy in cyclic existence and are not afraid of it. They do not long for liberation.’

You hear that kind of thing, people misinterpreting the meaning.

That bodhisattvas find joy in samsara in fact means that they delight in taking rebirth in samsara so as to succor living beings, that’s the reason. By ‘not longing for liberation’ we are to understand that they have no desire to pursue personal liberation from cyclic existence and seek complete enlightenment instead.

Audience: When you say complete enlightenment that means Buddhahood.

VTC: Yes. 

The misdeed lies in affirming that bodhisattvas wish to stay in cyclic existence, for this is completely false. In fact, the opposite is true. Driven by great compassion for all living beings, they cannot bear to see them suffer and ardently wish to help them end their misery and find true happiness. Consequently, they strive to free themselves from the afflictions that maintain them in cyclic existence even harder than listeners, hearers, and solitary realizers do.

They know full well that to help others achieve liberation, they must first free themselves and thereby acquire the full capacity to work for the sake of others. To help all living beings gain freedom from cyclic existence bodhisattvas must of course fraternize with them. In their relations with others at times they may need to display afflictions to get in touch with ordinary beings. Although it is not always understood as such, in fact this kind of demonstration of afflictions is an example of skillful means that aim to benefit others.

Sometimes when bodhisattvas take birth in samsara or send an emanation to work for sentient beings, in order to connect with others, they’ll do things that may look like they have afflictions in their mind. But they don’t have afflictions in their mind; they’re doing this as a skillful means to connect with others. For a bodhisattva that’s fine, but this is another one where people use bodhicitta to rationalize their behavior. “Oh, I have so much compassion for all these people who are getting drunk at the pub, so I think I better go hang out with them, and then they can get to know a Buddhist. I’m not going to drink, of course, but I’ll be there, and they’ll get to know a Buddhist. I’ll get them interested in Dharma, and they’ll stop drinking.” Hmm, if you’re a real bodhisattva, yes. But if you’re a Mickey Mouse bodhisattva, no. Because what’s going to happen instead is you’re going to start drinking. And your supposed bodhicitta is just a rationalization. 

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: That’s a very good example. He went as a lay teacher and was very composed during the whole thing but was able to make contact with other people. That was very helpful, and maybe if some of his students were also at the party, it helped them watch their own behavior a little bit better.

15. Not rejecting disrepute.

Number 15 is “Not rejecting disrepute” or “Not abandoning negative actions which cause one to have a bad reputation.” Usually, we’re so attached to our reputation that we’ll abandon anything we must in order to have a good reputation. But sometimes we’re so attached to doing something that we don’t care if we have a bad reputation. And we don’t care if it upsets other people, we just want to go ahead and do it. This applies to that kind of situation. 

‘The Great Way’ describes this fault as ‘not protecting our reputation.’ In short, it is not trying to overcome disrepute. There are two possible scenarios. In the first, bad rumors are circulating about us because we have made a mistake like saying something untrue. Doing nothing to rectify this situation, such as admitting our error and correcting it, is a misdeed associated with afflictions.

We have a bad reputation because we made a mistake, other people are saying nasty things about us, and we don’t bother to correct it. We think, “I made a mistake but I’m not going to apologize, I’m not going to admit it. I don’t care.” We annoyed people, we don’t care, and as a result we have a bad reputation. As a bodhisattva, what’s wrong with having a bad reputation?

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: People won’t want to be around you, so it’s going to be hard to benefit them.

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: In training to be bodhisattvas, we may do bad actions. Sorry for suggesting this. [Laughter] But when we do, it’s important that we acknowledge it. We don’t just say, “Who cares? It doesn’t matter. I have a bad reputation, so what?” 

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: Right, if you are representing the Dharma in one way or another in people’s minds and you misbehave but don’t do anything to correct it, it gives people the wrong feeling about the Dharma. 

That’s one scenario where we made a mistake and we’re just shining it on, ignoring it, avoiding responsibility for it.

In the second case, we are criticized or blamed for something that we have not done. Once again, doing nothing to restore our reputation and correct a false impression is a misdeed for it prevents others from having a good opinion of us. In this case however, the misdeed is dissociated from afflictions. It is not a question of denying the bad habits that we have, and we certainly do not avoid the secondary misdeed by merely disowning them. On the contrary, it is by acknowledging our error that we must try to end others’ blame.

In the second example, we haven’t done something that’s wrong, but people misinterpreted something, made up stories, or who knows what. We know this is going on, that people are telling bad stories about us, but we don’t do anything to correct the situation, we just let it go. He’s saying here that that’s not correct because then people think badly of us, so how are we going to benefit them? If they think badly of us over something that’s untrue, we should correct the situation. If they think badly of us because it was something true, we should apologize. 

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: They have that same story in the Tibetan tradition. The story about there being a great master who is a monastic, and a woman comes up and accuses him of fathering her child. He just says, “Oh really, is it like this?” That is often used as an example to show a story of somebody who is practicing patience and somebody who doesn’t have any attachment to their reputation. That story is very good for showing not being attached to your reputation and not getting angry when you’re falsely accused in front of a large group of people. That story is very good for illustrating that. But we shouldn’t take that story to mean that therefore, whenever we have a bad reputation, we don’t do anything to correct it. 

Stories are told to illustrate certain points, but what often happens is we get another theme from the story that was not told, that wasn’t meant by the teller of the story. If you wanted to tell a story about this one you would say that somebody’s saying bad stuff about you behind your back, so you must go and say, “Excuse me, here are the circumstances, and this information isn’t correct,” and so on and so forth. But that story wouldn’t be nearly as effective for illustrating the point of somebody not being attached to their reputation. We use different stories to illustrate different points.

In certain cases, doing nothing to correct other’s bad feelings towards us is not a misdeed.

So, there are exceptions to this one.

First, when we are convinced that they will not listen because of their strong personal opinions.

If somebody has the wrong idea about us, has a bad opinion of us, and it seems like they’re really entrenched in their opinion and not going to listen even if we try and explain, we just leave it. Because in that kind of situation maybe it’s better just to let things settle down, and eventually the person will see you in another situation where they can see that you’re a different kind of person. There could be a situation like that in which it’s better to handle it that way and not try to correct them.

Secondly, we know they will not believe us no matter what we say.

So, we can talk until we are blue in our face, but they’re not going to believe.

Thirdly, the people criticizing us are so angry that they would not understand what we said to them.

They’re so furious that even if we tried to explain, they can’t let in any new information. In that kind of situation, too, you just let it be. Maybe in the future when things are a little bit calmer you can go back and explain to them.

The whole idea here is that we’re protecting our reputation not out of attachment, but so that we can benefit others. We don’t need to be Mr. or Ms. Popularity, but people need to think well of us, otherwise we’re not going to be able to help them in any way in the Dharma.

It also gives us a good reason to clean up our act. When we’re not acting very well, it’s like, “Oh, this is going to adversely affect other living beings. I really want to benefit these people, but if I keep on acting the way I’m acting, they’re not going to be benefitted. They’ll totally get the wrong idea about the Dharma.” 

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: What’s the strength of the thought for number two and number thirteen? Exactly 14.5 seconds, at level three intensity. I’m kidding. It doesn’t say. I think it needs to be something where you’re cultivating the thought over some period of time and doing nothing to counteract it. It doesn’t say how long, but some period of time in which the thought’s been floating around, you’re getting really involved in it, and you’re making plans already for how to get what you want or planning the party. You’re getting lost in it. That’s what I think it would be. Of course, as we practice more and more, we’re going to get stricter and stricter with ourselves.

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: As we practice more and more, the standard at which we hold ourselves is going to change. Because at the beginning it might be, “Well, okay, if I’m on this thought for fifteen minutes in the middle of my meditation session, it’s a transgression.” But as you begin practicing and become more capable of noticing things in your mind and counteracting them, your own standard for yourself is going to change. It’s not going to be fifteen minutes; it’s going to be five minutes. What I’m getting at is when we’re a baby-beginner, we give ourselves some leeway. Because if we are so strict, we will go crazy. Later, after we’ve been able to deal with those big things, we then start to handle the small ones. That’s what I meant when I said we become stricter – the standard that we hold ourselves to is different because the big things are not problems like they used to be. But in the beginning, it’s best to just look at the things that are the biggest problems, deal with those. Don’t drive yourself crazy over the things that are not huge problems. 

Audience: How do we know that we are not a beginner anymore?

VTC: That’s just what I meant, that you always practice feeling like a beginner, but it’s like if you’re learning to skip rope or something, what you hold yourself to is going to change as you get better at skipping rope. 

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: You’re saying even though you’re not a monastic, you’re still seeing changes in yourself. The things that you used to think were so much fun and exciting, now you just think like, “Ugh, I don’t want to go to those things.” That’s indicative of a change inside of you. You don’t need to be a monastic to have big changes happen inside of you. This is a result of your practice. Good!