Pāramitā (Perfections) Challenge (Month 7 -- March 2022)

Expediency, supreme enlightenment, service to others, purity/wholeness/wholesomeness, (non-)acquisition, (non-)attachment, momentariness, loving-kindness, goodness, (discerning) Dharma, truth, integrity, helping, self-inflation and disparaging others round out the main topics for March 2022, month seven of “The Pāramitā Challenge"

Transcript

Wholeness and welcome to month seven of the Paramita Challenge for March 2022.

This month,

Going to do it all in one take again.

So only three major sections too.

And this comes from the doctrine of mere consciousness.

The 10 excellent moral exercises are the 10 paramitas.

And this is number seven,

Skill in resorting to appropriate expedience.

And the definition,

Skill in resorting to appropriate expedience is of two kinds.

Skill in turning the mind towards Mahabodhi,

Supreme enlightenment.

And two,

Skill in delivering sentient beings from suffering.

Again,

The language on this,

I find fascinating.

Skill,

It's pretty clear.

Resorting though,

To me resorting means like,

Okay,

This,

This,

And this is happening and I have to resort to something that I normally wouldn't do.

Of course,

Expedience is something that quickens something else.

So first off,

Why would we have to resort to an expedient?

It seems like,

Wouldn't the expedient,

If it was wholesome,

Skillful,

Wise enough,

Be something to just keep in mind,

Aspire to,

Not something to have to resort to.

But the wordplay here is interesting.

So usually when we think of resorting to something,

It's kind of like,

Maybe someone's at their wits end or something they normally wouldn't do.

So maybe the psychology here is that if we find ourselves in that place,

Our people even fear such a place where they have to resort to things,

Instead of thinking that's some kind of,

I don't know,

Hindrance or disadvantage or someplace we'd never would like to be.

But,

You know,

Inevitably we do find ourselves in those types of situations and states.

So until full enlightenment,

Those places and situations,

We're gonna find ourselves and we're gonna have to resort to something.

So,

You know,

It might not be often,

But if we have to resort to something,

Why not kind of flip it and resort to this first one,

Turning the mind towards Mahabodhi,

Supreme enlightenment.

And I think there was a typo in the copy I got.

Pretty sure it's Mahabodhi,

But it was,

I corrected it here and I'm not sure what the misspelling was.

But the key word here to delineate all this or to suss it out is appropriate.

So what's the appropriate skill in any situation,

Whether you have to resort to expedience or not,

Right?

So this supreme enlightenment,

Mahabodhi,

Turning the mind towards that.

And from what I understand at this point,

That's kind of like,

Maybe not kind of like,

But this turning the mind towards the end goal,

From what I understand is the last meditation object before our hot ship.

And so Mahabodhi,

I'm guessing goes beyond that because this is supreme enlightenment.

Bodhi is awakened enlightenment.

And Maha is like the great or the supreme version of that.

So when the mind turns towards this,

So notice the effect for ourselves,

Even if it's just kind of imagination or fantasy even,

Something out of a storybook,

Or if there's closer progress towards this and people have really tasted it or touched into it and noticed the benefits of this.

And yet,

If not fully realized and awakening,

Then the mind will inevitably slip away from this,

Turn away from this or not be turned towards this Mahabodhi.

And why is that?

How does that happen?

I don't know,

But it does seem to take ongoing effort to have this.

It's not like you can just snap your fingers and lock it in a place where the mind is turned towards it unwaveringly,

At least for a decent portion of the path that I'm aware of.

I know in my own experience,

That's how it tends to be now.

And number two,

So this is skill in resorting to appropriate expedience of this kind.

Number two,

Skill in delivering sentient beings from suffering.

So in the past,

Paramita challenge,

Like we mentioned this and Denny and I talked about this in one of the Ask Us Anything's,

How this word delivering is kind of not really problematic,

But it's just kind of a distortion I feel.

Because if we're,

This is like a savior complex or falling maybe into Messiah hood,

If I'm going to deliver someone from their suffering,

Right?

Like this Superman thing,

Hero thing,

The unwise,

Unskillful perceptions of a hero where they do all the work and people rely on them to do everything for them.

So instead of this delivering someone else from suffering,

Look at this more skillfully.

Of course,

This is just my view of being available for teaching and helping and more times than not reserved until someone specifically ask for help,

Teachings and advice and practices,

Or however to ease suffering,

To have suffering come to cessation.

And by suffering here,

I mean,

Dukkha,

Which can also be interpreted probably more relevant to people as stress or even unsatisfactoriness like this just isn't doing it for me.

You know,

This is okay,

But there's gotta be something better.

Oh,

I might've found something better,

But then it's good for a while,

But then this just really isn't doing it either.

So on and on and on.

So that's the,

From the doctrine of mere consciousness,

Number seven,

Skill in resorting to appropriate expedience.

And now onto the 52 stages of the bodhisattva path from the 10 practices.

And it says stages 21 through 30.

These are number six,

Seven,

Eight,

Nine,

And 10.

And this is kind of the bulk of the new material since the next section is pretty much already been addressed in prior Paramita Challenge episodes.

And those will be gone over probably more briefly,

But now to these 10 practices.

Number six,

The practice of skillful manifestation.

And I'm just gonna read these and then come back to them.

We practice purity of thought,

Word,

And deed,

As well as non-craving,

Non-acquisition,

And non-clinging.

Number seven,

The practice of non-attachment.

We practice with minds free from attachment,

Entering in every successive moment into countless worlds with great loving kindness and compassion.

Number eight,

The practice of that which is difficult to attain.

We practice the perfect inconceivable roots of goodness,

Which are difficult to attain,

And having supreme understanding of the Buddha's teaching,

Which is also difficult to attain.

Number nine,

The practice of good teachings.

We practice with a mind,

Both pure and cool,

As a reservoir of truth for the sake of beings of all worlds,

Number 10,

The practice of truth.

We practice perfect true speech and act in accordance with what is said and speak in accordance with what is done.

Okay,

So now back to number six,

The practice of skillful manifestation.

We practice purity of thought,

Word,

And deed,

As well as non-craving,

Non-acquisition,

And non-clinging.

So this word manifestation is interesting here,

Skillful manifestation.

So I'm not immediately saying its relevance to the description other than if our thoughts,

Words,

And deeds are considered manifestations,

I guess our deeds could definitely be.

And our words in a way,

I guess when I think of manifestation,

I think more of bringing something into the material plane,

Creating something,

Or having something come before us in the material world.

So this,

We practice purity of thought,

Word,

And deed.

This part,

What is purity?

I feel it's a pretty important question.

So what one might think of as pure,

One might think that's not very pure.

Or some people might say,

Well,

Some people go overboard on purity.

You know,

Well,

Where's the sweet spot?

I don't really know.

If I had to guess,

I like this word wholesome,

Maybe better,

The word whole is in wholesome.

And so instead of being fragmented and partly this,

Partly that,

Partly defiled,

Partly pure,

What leads towards and what leads away from wholeness and wholesomeness?

Guess maybe another way to look at purity is a goldsmith,

Where when gold's melted down,

There may be some impurities that rise to the top and then that are skimmed away.

And so there's these,

Some people say certain practices can lead to purity.

And then from what I gather,

The more Buddhist understanding is our ethics,

Sila,

Help promote and develop purity.

And we'll get into those ethics in the next section,

Which are the precepts and as a practice,

Not as commandments,

Obviously.

So however you want to take this word purity,

I'm sure it's,

People will know examples and reference points from others or themselves of what thoughts,

Words and deeds seem to be pure and what thought words and deeds seem to be more unpure.

And I feel it's helpful to maybe notice or point out why this might be important.

What's wrong with just living in filth or not wrong,

But like,

So what if I live in filth or dirty mind,

Like a pig in their own excrement,

What's so bad about that?

You see these figures on media and stuff and a lot of them are,

Some are portrayed like that and kind of actually lauded and celebrated for depravity.

You know,

I feel that's maybe different from someone who's actually not so pure,

But is not in denial about it,

Is open to working or going towards a path of purity,

Can see the benefits of it,

Is open to help assistance teachings along the way,

Can see maybe the potential benefits of wholesomeness.

How it does lead towards the benefit and happiness,

Especially long-term of myself and others,

Because we know actions have consequences,

A skillful,

Beneficial,

Wholesome action will tend to have skillful,

Wholesome,

Beneficial results and vice versa.

Maybe not immediately,

But it just seems to be a law of this realm at the moment.

It's like if we throw a ball up in the air,

No matter how much we want to have it maybe launch into space,

It's just not the way reality is structured here now.

And so,

And then also this practice is non-craving,

Non-acquisition,

Non-clinging.

So the non-craving and the non-clinging seems fairly obvious,

Right?

Especially craving towards things that aren't gonna do us any good whatsoever.

And clinging is pretty much,

Not much benefit to that at all,

Except for maybe temporarily clinging on to the Buddha-Dharma Sangha.

But even that is,

Clinging really isn't needed for that.

It's kind of an abiding with and in that.

And so maybe some kind of craving for wholesome things could be a decent counter-action to craving for unwholesome,

Unskillful,

Unwise things.

But on the whole,

Feel into craving,

It just doesn't feel good.

And it's not one of those unpleasant things that will help me grow either as far as I know,

Other than to have the reference point for non-craving,

To have it really sink in how unbeneficial it is.

But this non-acquisition,

It's interesting.

I definitely see this in so much greed in the world,

How this could help people who are just completely deluded and don't even realize pretty much from the moment they wake up to go to bed at night,

Or even then too,

About acquiring,

Acquiring material objects,

Money,

Fame,

Fortune,

Influence,

And sex,

Power,

Knowledge,

Skills,

Although knowledge and skills can be really beneficial if they're those leading towards less suffering and realizing awakening.

So that's the obvious downside of craving,

And we see that,

We can see that play out.

It doesn't take much effort to see that playing out in the world.

It seems like it might have gotten a little bit better with the shutdown,

But in a way that's had a big downside too of just people's livelihood,

And then because of the whole monetary system and the way the economy's structured,

And then the even maybe more unwholesome proposed solutions to that.

So it is really a big mess.

But non-acquisition,

I guess,

I don't wanna completely write off acquisition because the examples I mentioned before are in the context of service to self only,

Right?

So there are things we can acquire wholesomely,

Skillfully,

And we all have to make some kind of living or pay the bills too.

So when we acquire,

I think in and of itself,

Acquisition isn't necessarily a unpure thing.

Again,

We have to look at how things are acquired and what they're going to be used for.

Particular acquisitions can actually be used to help others as well.

Humanitarian,

Service to others.

And even just going to a restaurant,

If it's viewed in the way that,

Okay,

Well,

This restaurant actually has wholesome food.

It's not been corrupted with chemicals,

Pesticides,

Practices that promote the land to be in a state of distress.

We can go there and if it is good food,

Then we're supporting the farmers.

If it's been transported well to the restaurant,

Then that's beneficial for the people who transported it.

If the establishment is doing practices to help others and be mindful of their energy usage and where that comes from and has done what they can in the moment to help that situation.

And then we're helping the employees who cook and prepare and serve the food and clean up and all the other people interacting and supporting that whole interdependent system.

I think that's enough for that one for now.

Number seven,

The practice of non-attachment.

We practice with minds free from attachment,

Entering in every successive moment into countless worlds with great loving kindness and compassion.

So I love this,

Every successive moment.

Most people,

When you hear someone say,

Oh,

I just take it day by day,

Or you have to take it day by day.

And it's almost like a,

I don't know,

Like they really have to give up something to stop their planning or really having everything figured out in the future and be so forward thinking that it's kind of like a,

Just this unfortunate break or check that they have to look at the day by itself.

And so that kind of cliche saying,

I didn't never really knew how to take that,

Take it day by day,

But you know,

This really,

It is this every successive moment because it's,

We just live in moment after moment.

Everything in the future is a thought in the mind.

The concept of a day is that it's a concept,

You know,

It's kind of based on light and time periods.

And I don't know,

Working hour or transitions between conceptions or perceptions of night and day.

And side note here,

I go into some of these perceptions of light and day and night in the series on the Iri Pada,

The Bangasuta.

So if anyone's interested,

They can check that out.

Seven part series.

But this free from attachment.

So it usually goes craving can lead to attachment and then attachment leads to clinging.

Again,

We're not talking about non-attachment.

It's this thing where,

Well,

What are we attached to?

Does that need to be there?

Is it adding extra weight,

Extra burden,

A dependence?

How are we when we're not attached?

Do we go back to craving then attachment?

What would be the benefits,

Danger and escape from whatever attachments we currently have in our lives?

Maybe another word for it is dependence.

And so if there is attachments,

Or even if there's not entering into every successive moment into countless worlds with great loving kindness and compassion.

So yes,

If those Brahma Vihara qualities are called for,

Sometimes altruistic or vicarious joy is more appropriate when we enter into certain worlds,

So to speak.

And equanimity is kind of like the underlying basis for that,

So.

But to have these beautiful expansive boundless qualities going into every moment,

No matter where that moment may be or how that moment may be.

And you know,

The Buddha says in the Mettasūta,

As long as you're not drowsy,

You should sustain this recollection mentioned in the Mettasūta about non-hostility,

Non-ill will,

All beings having this dear quality for all beings like a mother would have for her only child,

Wishing in safety and with happiness,

May all beings be at ease.

And this practice is beneficial for a mind free from attachment.

Also having a mind free from attachment helps increase this boundless,

Beautiful,

Sublime quality of loving kindness and compassion and the others of equanimity and altruistic joy.

And so this is like your ideal living situation,

Right?

There'll never be like a physical ideal living situation.

I mean,

If it gets too plush,

Then there's no room for growth.

You know,

If it gets too shabby,

Then you're not gonna be spending much time in spiritual development,

Just going to be dealing with one thing after another.

And there'll be things either way,

Right?

In addition to that,

But these inner dwelling places,

These vaharas,

Especially loving kindness can actually act as a protector too.

Since we're not a threat to any being,

Beings pick up on that.

And if you only have their best welfare in mind,

Now this is not saying you have to be a doormat and get walked all over,

Have somebody energetically vampire you.

But there is no end to the state,

It's boundless.

There's no end,

So there's no limitations.

And so it counteracts this kind of hostility and fear of not having enough.

And also of,

You know,

I'm gonna be lined out or harvested from,

Taken advantage of.

I'm not saying those things don't happen,

But if there is no boundary,

So to speak,

In the goodness that's available,

Then if we're dwelling in that,

Then anybody that seems to take anything from us,

They can only be taking this goodness that's enveloping us in a certain way of speaking,

Right?

I mean,

That's kind of the,

That's where it can expire.

That's what we can aspire to if we're not already there.

And again,

Yeah,

The expiration,

Until it's completely perfected,

It's not there all the time.

I mean,

That's realistic too,

Right?

It's a practice.

So number eight,

The practice of that which is difficult to attain.

We practice the perfect inconceivable roots of goodness,

Which are difficult to attain,

And having supreme understanding of the Buddha's teachings,

Which is also difficult to attain.

So obviously,

Probably wouldn't be listening to this if you didn't see some kind of value in at least considering some of the teachings of the Buddha.

I know when I first started out and heard some of the Dharma,

Some of the Buddhist teachings,

You know,

They obviously didn't make as much sense now than as they do now,

Excuse me.

Well,

In a way,

There's still,

You know,

A lot of room for really letting them sink in.

And this also speaks to,

You know,

Of this kind of doubt in a way it is,

But it's kind of a skeptical doubt that will lead on to this next one of truth,

That how do we know for sure these things that are written down were actually spoken by the Buddha?

How do we know that they're not really distorted?

What is the veracity of the source?

And all these questions I feel are somewhat important,

But have to just take as a starting point,

At least what we're giving,

What's here now.

And so we can go into that and study that and see if it's helpful,

Useful,

Wise for our benefit and benefit of others.

And we can really hone in on the stuff that really resonates with us,

Especially starting out,

And see the benefits of that.

And then we can have friends and teachers to talk about these teachings with too.

And this is really kind of solidified when we can verify these teachings in our own life,

Have a real lived experience of what's taught there in our own lives,

Clearly seeing and knowing from our own experience what the Buddha has taught.

And this whole notion though of difficult to attain,

In a certain respect,

Yes,

You know,

If waking up and realizing awakening was easy,

Everybody would be doing it.

You could get it done,

You can go back to your Netflix or your video games or whatever's popular of the moment.

We look around the world and you know why we do see some very wise and sage-like beings who really seem to have some kinds of attainment,

Progress,

Knowledge,

Wisdom.

It just seems like the whole society is kind of more inverted,

Regressed,

Reversed.

And so if we frame this as difficult to attain,

I wonder how much that plays into these kinds of perceptions and dharma circles.

At least a few years ago,

Up to a few years ago,

That it was kind of a joke to consider becoming enlightened or realizing enlightenment,

Or even kind of like these entry-level attainments like stream entry.

It was kind of like considered a fairy tale or that's something in a story.

I mean,

It's admirable,

But that's never possible.

And so I'm gonna make a joke about it.

And I would just wanna get together and do this to feel good and have a kind of community where I can get some kind of worldly benefit where I go on and do mainly just kind of run of the mill,

Ordinary things.

And it does sound like a discouragement,

But it's kind of an encouragement though that this is possible.

The Buddha taught that if it wasn't possible,

I wouldn't teach this.

And so I just don't see the wisdom,

The benefit of disparaging oneself,

That it's not possible.

And having this kind of mindset like totally unattainable,

Just have a good laugh about it.

But at the same time,

We'll just go along with what everybody else is doing with this.

And that kind of thing feeds into the next one too,

Where we can help cut through that with truth.

But one brief note before we go on to that is that,

Yeah,

This can also be difficult to attain.

I would use the word challenging because we do not have a living Buddha that I know of that's also a teacher on the world stage,

Right?

In fact,

Our society,

It would be funny I think,

If a Buddha did manifest in the world today that what kind of media spin would be that,

How much would be demonized or overly praised by some of the extremes that we're in in society,

Especially in the United States here.

It would be kind of like a media circus sideshow,

Maybe is what I'm thinking.

That doesn't help much of the perception I just mentioned,

Breaking out of it,

Because we're so conditioned to viewing the world,

At least having some kind of reference point to popular media,

Right?

In the whole world,

Pretty much at least part of it is familiar with what comes out of Hollywood,

What comes out of the media in the United States,

Right?

And as we all know,

It's a little bit different from actual reality.

And yet,

How much confusion there is between the two and how much kind of bleed through,

How one affects the other,

The perfect inconceivable roots of goodness.

I love this phrase.

I don't know much what to say about it,

Other than once we kind of see and know goodness,

It's just kind of like a natural commitment towards it.

However,

We wanted to find goodness.

And there's this saying,

Life is too perfect to be fair.

I guess maybe way to couch that in Buddhist language is everything's unfolding due to lawful causes and conditions or due to causes and conditions and a lawful reality.

But I wonder if the Buddha could conceive of the roots of goodness and what makes these roots perfect.

That's a larger topic and exploration,

I think that goes beyond the scope of this podcast episode.

So number nine,

The practice of good teachings.

We practice with the mind,

Both pure and cool as a reservoir of truth for the sake of beings of all worlds.

So I guess I don't see a absolute link and where pureness and coolness is a reservoir of truth for the sake of beings all over the world.

Now I can see the benefits of purity and coolness as a resource for beings in the world,

But I guess I don't see how pureness and coolness in itself is a reservoir of truth.

I mean,

Obviously there can be true pureness,

True coolness,

And it can be beneficial for beings and it can definitely lead towards more truthfulness and pursuit of truth,

Understanding of truth,

Abiding in truth,

But I'm not really seeing how that in and of itself is a reservoir of truth.

But I don't,

And maybe it's a technicality here.

Sometimes truth though is not cool.

Sometimes truth is hot or evokes heat,

Action.

Sometimes truth is spoken to impure things.

I don't know if truth is either pure or impure.

It just is the reality of things.

What I'm taking from this is that yes,

Being pure of pure mind with a cool,

Calm,

Collective mind tends to be of more benefit for ourselves and other beings.

In many situations now,

Certain situations might call for some heated action.

It's gotta be wholesome and skillful,

Wise and appropriate,

But I don't know how good it would be to just be stand by,

Cool,

And calm and collectively when some kind of dire action is called for to help someone.

But then keeping that state sustained when it's not needed can be unhelpful too.

So truth is a big part of my journey,

And I've done blog posts on this,

One's wisdom snippets on truth,

Done these other wisdom snippets on other topics,

And then also on a full moon gathering about truth.

Anyone interested could probably just search my website for truth and find these.

So number 10,

The practice of truth.

We practice perfect true speech and act in accordance with what is said and speak in accordance with what is done.

This is very important.

When I heard this put this way,

What I'm gonna say next,

Really put things in proper context,

Really explained a lot is why do some people say one thing,

Mean another,

And yet act in an entirely different way?

Or I can kind of tell when somebody will say something but not actually mean what they're saying,

They're meaning something else,

Almost like a code,

And then their action is not even in accordance with what they say or even what they mean as well.

So why is this?

Why do people do this and behave in this way?

Where did this type of conditioning come from?

What are the benefits,

Dangers,

And escape from this?

So this is about keeping true to one's word.

One,

Especially men,

They're not really worth much in a way,

Not really disparaging.

It's just if someone says something and then they don't follow through on it,

Even if they know they can't do that and don't address it and just let it go,

It's just kind of like,

Wow,

Can really see their state of stress and suffering.

This acts as cohesion for society too with someone acting in accordance with their word.

Or even when they can't,

When certain circumstances come up and they can't,

They take an effort to address that.

Or like me,

Sometimes I get a little loose in the lips,

In the gums,

And don't really respect the power of language.

Sometimes loosely say things without sometimes having the power to follow through on them exactly the same way,

Or more than likely kind of forget the exact details of what I had said,

And we'll maybe remember later that I have feared off course slightly from the tea of what I said.

And so it's also about forgiving ourselves and making resolves to act in accordance with what's said and speak in accordance with what's done.

You know,

And the speak in accordance with done speaks to seeing something and then saying something other than what it is to spin it to one's advantage or to the advantage of one's agenda for gain that's not in the best interest of oneself and others and or,

You know.

So this speaks to integrity.

This final section is the 58 bodhisattva vows.

And then within that,

I guess,

The 10 major bodhisattva precepts.

And I'm not gonna go over these again,

Although they're listed here.

Other than maybe briefly or maybe not.

So number one,

Don't kill.

Number two,

Don't steal.

Number three,

Don't engage in sexual misconduct.

Number four,

Don't lie or engage in wrong speech.

Number five,

Don't sell or consume alcohol or other recreational drugs.

Don't discuss the faults of the Sangha.

Number six and number seven,

Don't praise yourself or disparage others.

So the seven is the one that has not yet been addressed.

So that will be the one that will be addressed here.

So this first one and on through number six or their Paramita Challenge months respectively.

So this first one,

Don't kill.

Pretty sure that's month one,

I addressed that.

And then month two,

Address don't steal.

Number three,

Don't engage in sexual misconduct.

Month four,

Don't lie or engage in wrong speech.

And month four might have also included,

Without me checking though,

I don't know for sure,

But also included the first three as well as the fourth one.

Number five,

Don't sell or consume alcoholic beverages or other recreational drugs.

Was addressed in month five,

I feel.

Number six,

Don't discuss the faults of the Sangha.

And went over kind of the analysis,

Criticism and exploration of that.

And month six.

So overall,

Instead of addressing these each individually,

I also look at these as what is the positive upside?

Because it's saying don't do this,

Don't do that.

Oh,

What's the opposite thing that we should do?

And then go over the benefits of these,

Not just like some kind of rote duty,

You know,

Just to say,

Oh,

Good Buddhist,

Bad Buddhist or something like that.

Again,

These are for our long-term benefit and happiness and that of others.

And I know it's really challenging to see this for some people in some of these,

But especially for me with,

It was a drastic change with the alcoholic and recreational drugs thing.

You know,

I would have fought tooth and nail to say,

Oh,

That doesn't matter.

And in a way,

Some teachers say that in and of themselves,

They're not,

It's just the likelihood one has once intoxicated of breaking these other ones.

So it's kind of like an amplifier to the other one.

So I really noticed a big improvement in life from ceasing these,

Ceasing alcohol,

Recreation,

Drugs,

Just do things to get high for the sake of getting high with substances,

Right?

And then,

So this,

Lots of so's.

Number seven,

Don't praise yourself or disparage others.

And this is from a sutra on the Brahmanet Sutra.

And I'll just read the Sutra here.

The seventh major precept prohibits praising oneself and disparaging others.

A disciple of the Buddha must not praise himself and disparage others,

Encourage others to do so or involve himself in the causes,

Conditions,

Methods,

Or karma of praising himself and disparaging others.

A bodhisattva should be willing to stand in for all beings in undergoing slander and insult.

He should accept unfortunate situations and let others receive favorable ones.

Hence,

If the bodhisattva boasts of his own virtue and conceals the good works of others,

Thus causing him to be slandered,

He thereby commits a bodhisattva brajika offense.

I find this one to be challenging for myself and many I interact with.

It really takes a quite an accomplished being to really either not boast of oneself.

What I see more of him when I have more challenge with is disparaging others.

It doesn't have to be even out loud,

Right?

This is a few ways to address this,

But the really challenging one is if you're talking to somebody,

You're having some kind of rapport with them.

And then,

Especially if there's a strong habit pattern to kind of put down others or notice their faults and then find camaraderie and some kind of bonding and connection by that activity.

And it's a habit pattern,

Right?

And part of it is in a good place too,

Which makes it more challenging that a lot of times we're just addressing the behavior and things we see that are not beneficial for the other person or other people they're interacting in with,

But it's their behavior that needs addressing.

And so how do we set boundaries and keep boundaries for ourselves,

Not allow others to do harm to ourselves and others that we love and care about without talking down to them and going into slander and insult?

Yeah,

Slander and insult is a pretty strong thing.

So I feel it should still be okay to call out unwise action,

Unskillful action,

Obviously.

Saying something is not really wholesome and helpful and beneficial,

And it doesn't have to slide into slander and insult because these folks or even ourselves are just kind of doing things that's been done to them,

Been conditioned.

These are habits and patterns playing out.

And then how do we go about doing that without even causing more challenges than we need to or issues than we need to?

How do we address this and not just let it slide off,

But then not going into the other extreme of slander and insult?

It seems to be kind of two types of people that I notice around this.

The one that has more of the tendency to praise themselves,

Kind of boast,

Have kind of a superior ego and kind of lets everybody know it and feels good about themselves and how they build themselves up,

How they find kind of not the best kind of self-esteem this way.

They have to constantly pump up this ego.

Or the other one is kind of more,

Maybe an inferior ego,

But just more,

That's kind of more like I'm not good enough.

But the other one is going into disparaging others,

Always finding fault,

Criticizing,

Blaming,

Shaming,

Guilting,

And not really having much access,

It seems like,

To unless called out on that even,

To uplift people,

To see their good qualities,

To offer words of encouragement,

To see silver linings,

To see where whatever situation it is can be an opportunity for growth and advancement,

Progression,

And so it all depends on how strong this habit pattern is of putting down others,

Disparaging others,

And how much effort it's gonna take to change such a habit and put energy into remedies for that.

It also helps to hang around folks that don't do this,

To make conscious effort to break from this habit when around people that we have to be around,

Call on support to get teachings,

To give reinforcements for such behavior,

Petering out,

And it really next level if you can stand in for beings,

If someone's talking bad about someone,

And instead of either obviously joining in and just ripping them a new one,

Or even just staying silent,

Which can be,

I feel,

Helpful and wholesome to begin with,

Is to actually stand up for them.

What if you're the only person in the group talking about someone else and happen to go against that?

One way I've done this is just,

Oh,

You know,

Remember that time,

Though,

When they did this,

Or trying to,

Also trying to really put yourself in their shoes,

These things like they're doing the best they can,

If they could do better,

They would.

That not necessarily works in all cases around all people,

Obviously,

But this kind of notion that they're doing the same thing that's been done to them that hurt people hurt people,

That one resonates a lot with folks too,

Seems to in my experience anyway.

Accepting unfortunate situations.

Now this,

It depends,

Right?

Okay,

Is there some action we can take to address an unfortunate situation?

If there is,

I would say do that,

Take action,

But if there's not,

Then what good is it gonna do to whine and moan and complain about an unfortunate situation if there's nothing that can be done?

It just makes it worse,

Right?

It's the teaching of the two darts,

The two arrows.

The unfortunate situation,

The painful situations,

The first one,

You know,

That's gonna be kind of unavoidable or so it's happened,

So there's no need stabbing yourself with another dart or arrow.

About complaining,

Woe is me,

Beating your breast,

You know,

Wailing,

Moaning about how bad it is,

How it shouldn't have happened.

Well,

It did happen,

That's the way it is,

And so if there's nothing you can do about it,

There's no need adding extra suffering,

Stress on top of how painful it already is.

And to address it with mindfulness and compassion and kindness and what other beneficial energies and views and responses are gonna help.

Letting others receive favorable situations.

Yes,

This one I find a lot easier because if you can really see the suffering and stress in the world,

Then it's easier to let people receive favorable situations,

Even if just for briefly to relieve some amount of suffering.

Sometimes,

I mean,

Sometimes,

You know,

Certain behaviors and actions are just actually making things worse.

They seem like they are,

But on the whole here,

Yeah,

With that aside,

A favorable situation.

You know,

This comes into the brahavi-hara of vicarious joy,

Being happy for someone's happiness.

So not only this isn't like something we're losing by letting someone else gain a favorable situation,

If we can rejoice in their,

You know,

Their favor,

A really good situation for them,

If we can be happy for their happiness,

Well,

Then that increases our chances for happiness too.

One of the more challenging brahavi-haras for me,

By the way.

So this boasting of one's own virtue.

I really don't see the benefits of this.

I mean,

What and who do we have to prove to who about,

You know,

Who we are,

What we're doing?

A lot of times,

It can be the exact opposite,

Where because someone's doing something unskillful,

They need to do the opposite of,

Or not necessarily the opposite,

Putting aside the unskillfulness,

Not addressing it,

Instead shoring it up with their own virtue and boasting of that to either redirect or feel better about themselves or whatever.

But that's also not to neglect one's goodness as well.

So these can be taken to the extreme too of,

Okay,

If you're totally putting aside praising yourself to the extreme,

Then this could potentially be deprecating to one's self-esteem,

Right?

Have to also recognize our own goodness as well.

Doesn't necessarily have to come up and tell everybody how wonderful I am all the time.

But if that's taken to the extreme,

It could cut into one's self-confidence and one's notion of goodness in oneself and others.

It doesn't necessarily have to be praised all the time,

But it can be recognized,

Acknowledged,

And celebrated in our goodness and our virtue and our ethics as well.

Just doesn't have to involve necessarily a strong sense of me,

I did this,

I'm responsible for this,

Look at me,

I'm so great.

But just revel in the goodness and kind of accomplishments and aspirations to,

Likewise with this disparaging others,

If we just accept everything,

Then there's really not gonna be much chance for discernment,

For action,

For really getting out of this solipsistic motive,

Nothing really matters.

Don't get involved with anything.

Don't discern what's helpful and not helpful.

So taken to the extreme,

If there's no kind of criticalness at all,

Then it can fall into solipsism where there's just kind of this notion of,

Well,

There's no truth,

Nothing really matters,

It's all random,

Who cares what I do or don't do,

Kind of thing.

And so it's just recognizing what's helpful and what's not helpful,

That there is negativity in the world and there is positivity in the world.

So back now to this last section of here,

Concealing the good work of others,

Thus causing them to be slandered.

So yeah,

This is when we step in and this is another challenge of mine,

Actually giving praise,

Honor,

Respect where it's due,

At the very least.

On the higher end of that is honor and respecting everything in life to a certain degree,

Respecting and honoring another,

Because there's always something,

At least it seems that way,

If we look hard enough,

Sometimes I know it's hard to find something honorable and respectable in some folks,

But just if it's their own potential,

Their own Buddha nature,

If you go into kind of metaphysical stuff or at some point back in countless tons and tons of lives ago,

That one act they may have done that really did a lot of good and helped people help themselves.

So this is important to speak up,

Especially for encouragement and empowerment of others.

If in a situation where you know someone's not done something that someone's accusing them of and you could stand up for their goodness so they don't get slandered and their reputation doesn't get degraded,

Then that should be done.

Maybe one of the reasons this isn't done a lot is someone maybe takes one out of their comfort zone,

Have to be uncomfortable for a little bit,

Because there might be a little bit of friction to speak up for someone or kind of go against the flow of what someone or a group is saying about someone.

I think that'll do it for month seven of the Paramita Challenge for March 2022.