Dependent arising and compassion, continued

Today we’re going to talk about dependent arising in terms of bodhicitta. Before we generate bodhicitta, there are two main things we need to do to generate great compassion. First is to see the suffering of sentient beings, which we talked about yesteray in terms of the 12 links of dependent arising, and then second is to see sentient beings as loveable, kind and worthy of our affection. Dependent arising comes into that meditation, too, because here we really reflect on the kindness we’ve received from other sentient beings.

The kindness of sentient beings

There are two main ways to generate that feeling of sentient beings being kind: first is to see them as our kind mothers and second is to see them as being kind in general, because they work in this society. 

In terms of seeing them as our kind mothers, there are a few things we have to focus on. Fathers often feel left out of this meditation, but it’s not reliant only on mothers. Sometimes people weren’t raised by their mothers or their fathers, so we can focus on whoever raised us. But you focus on your mother as an example of the kindness we’ve received. If you do this meditation and come out with more attachment for your mother then something has gone awry because before you do this meditation, you meditate on how all sentient beings have been your mother. So, you go into the meditation on the kindness of your mother with an awareness that everyone else has also been your mother. If you go into the meditation with that awareness there’s less of a chance that you’re going to come out of the meditation with more attachment. 

Attachment isn’t conducive for bodhicitta. So, if you have an awareness that all sentient beings have been your mother who has been kind to you, then you see them as loveable. When you’re doing the meditation on the kindness of the mother, we use the example of our present mother if that’s the person who raised us primarily—or we use our father, or a babysitter, or an aunt, or grandparents. We use whoever it was who took care of us and got up in the middle of the night and fed us and kept us from killing ourselves all the times when we were toddlers doing dangerous things. You use the person who helped you get an education even though you wanted to play, and who disciplined you so that you got some manners and weren’t completely obnoxious—all the things our parents had to go through to raise us. We really feel that kindness and that appreciation.

We not only look there, but we also look at the examples of mothers across the boards. I remember at Kopan when we did this, and we had a dog named Sasha who was in some kind of accident and her two hind legs didn’t work. She would drag herself along the ground, and she had some kind of injury in her neck. But then she had a litter of puppies, and to watch her take care of them despite her own physical misery was just completely amazing—seeing the kindness of mothers in that way. 

I remember teaching this also at one time at Cloud Mountain and the peacocks had just had their babies, and peacocks make a lot of noise when you’re trying to meditate and jump on the meditation hall roof and squawk. They don’t have them anymore, but they did at this time. I watched the peahens take care of their chicks and protect them from danger and teach them what to peck and gather them all together. And then she’d plonk herself on top of them to keep them warm. It was amazing. I remember just thinking, “Wow, look at this kindness—how she takes care of her chicks unconditionally.”

So often we don’t really think about other people’s kindness to us, so thinking about that kind of kindness we received as a child can be very touching. But then the important part is to generate for all sentient beings that feeling of “I’ve received the same kindness from all sentient beings because they’ve all been my mothers in a previous time,” to look around at all different sentient beings and think, “They’ve all been my mother.” That’s a really important part of the meditation.

You extend that feeling of closeness and appreciation to everybody. And then the heart kind of opens in feeling affection and love for others. From there it becomes much easier to generate the wish to attain enlightenment for their benefit.