Guru Swami G - Vajra Nirvana Marg

Namaste
i welcome you with Great Love and Respect.
This teaching has come to my attention - I would like to address it - as many are coming across such teachings and then have a false view of what a spiritual person or teacher should be. How they should act and interact. What should be the mindset of one on the path ? Let's go through this text. Om

This comes from the book wriiten by The Dalai Lama. "THE EIGHT VERSES ON TRANSFORMING THE MIND" by Geshe Langri Thangpa.

1. With a determination to achieve the highest aim
For the benifit of all sentient biengs
Which surpasses even the wish-fullfilling gem,
May I hold them dear at all times.

G: On the surface this sounds noble and grand. i am doing my path for the benefit of All sentient beings. May i hold them dear at all times. OK fine - but recognise that while one may give what they have to give, you cannot give more than what your level of wisdom is. Do the path to enter into Liberation - What is found is the Great Ground of Being which is ONE. Then there is the map to pull others out. It is a bit grandiose to say i am doing this for others - are you not a one in suffering? Are you above that which you seek ? This mindset of doing it for others can create and sustain an elitest mind. A false grandiose sense of compassion.

On this note will say why did this text come into being?  The buddha gave 8 ways to walk the path. i will place these along with this text and if one reads the Dhammapada - it will be found to be differing than the mindset that is being put forward in this transforming of the mind offering. i find the Dhammapada much more as Buddha stressed the *Middle* way - where is the middle way in this text being commented on ? it has left the middle way for left field.
(1) 1st stage 4 virtues: Maitri, Karuna, Mudita, Upeksha, Maitri :
 G: Friendliness, good-will, benevolence, love, loving-kindness to all. Karuna is compassion, pity, sorrow for the sufferings of all, Mudita is joy in the good of all, Upksha is forgiveness, overlooking the faults of all. (note these are being given from the Dhammapada forward translated by Juan Mascaro for Penguin books) I recommend this one - it is a well balanced pointing for the path.

2. When ever I interact with someone,
May I view myself as the lowest among all,
And, from the very depths of my heart,
Respectfully hold others as superior.

G : There is nothing beneficial in developing this type of mindset. The path is to reach Realization wherein there is a natural humility of Knowing that All from the highest in society to the lowest have at the core that Ever Present ONE - Divine Essense. It is quite humbling within itself to see others as self. This again can create the opposite mindset than that to which they are aspiring and this is also far from the middle way - or 0 point Balance. in the enthusiasm to excel the middle way has been pushed aside for extremism. This presents and enforces another type of conditioning. One that others will see to be falsely garnered as humble. Humility has no need to be lessor than another - humility is in the graciousness of equality. Christ was a servant of all but he did not advocate a mind of groveling. In this look to Christ's example. Being on the path does not mean developing the mind or the actions of being a door mat in order to be percieved as being humble.

(2) The second stage is right determination. from the Upanishad - A man comes with his actions to the end of his determindation. Also the words of Jesus may be quoted, "No man having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God.
G: in other words hold steady - walk the walk - do what is needful in an appropriate way, step by step to the goal of Realization or finding the Liberation which is the pre-birth right.

3. In all my deeds may I probe into my mind,
And as soon as mental and emotional afflictios arise
As they endanger myself and others-
May I stongly confront them and avert them.

G: This is fine - be willing to Stop and see what is coming up. Be willing to
go through and challenge it's core. While they are pointing towards not following through the negative ones - still it takes sitting with the rising emotional upheavels that result in less than stellar actions. Sit with it - be an observer of the emotional and mental processes and then use them as a platform to question deeply. What is mind - what holds these thoughtforms in place ? What gives reality to them? How do emotions emerge and what gives them substance, etc.

(3) Third stage is right words. - Buddha defines right words as words at the right time, true, profitable and kindly. The ideal of truth is Absolute. Only Truth can save a man.

4. When I see beings of unpleasant character
Oppressed by stong negativity and suffering,
May I hold them dear-for they are rare to find-
As I have discovered a jeweled tresure.

G: A jeweled treasure? No, one has discovered a rare hard to find Jeweled Treasure when one encounters a beacon of Truth. The negative - suffering - and unpleasant is everywhere. While one should not react nor be drawn in by others drama, see it for what it is - have compassion for their suffering. If they seek aide then give what may be given. But there is no need to mistakenly honor such a mentality. Buddha does not give the admonition to worship such a thing and hold it dear as a gem. Again they have left the middle way - and the mindset develops not a healthy view of the path but a skewed version that will lead to confusion.

(4) Forth stage of path is Right Action - Karma Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita: good and pure work as an offering of Love. Or as Christ said do good to them that hate you.
G: One may use every day and interaction as a moment of Seva or selfless action. This does not mean that one holds up the negative as a treasure.

5. When others out of jealousy,
Treat me wrongly with abuse, slander, and scorn,
May I take upon myself the defeat
and offer to others the victory.

G: you are defeated by this and offer others the victory ? whatever you say is right. i am worthless - if you say it it must be true and i am so humble so beat me please. There is nowhere that Buddha would ever hold this up. Yes in the bible it says to offer the other cheek.

Recognise that others lash out - out of ignorance and out of pain - attempting to keep the walls of safety they have constructed - the velvet walled jails which are not safe nor free. When others are negative - reactive - slanderous my reaction to this is a saddness. They are obviously in pain - suffering - and reacting to some real or imaginary event. To them it will seem quite real within thier mind and world and to another it doesn't even exist. Everyone has experienced when out of the blue comes a judgement - a reaction - anger - about something that was taken and blown out of proportion. Or that within anothers mind a huge drama and story has grown to monumental proportions out of nothing - some consruct whole soap operas with a cast of characters that bear little resemblance to what is here and now. This is the reactive mind in motion - the mind of dreaming and nightmares - maya - illusion - illusions of truth which have little if any validity on what is taking place now.

(5) 5th stage of the path is right livelyhood -
G: Earn your money by ethical means - Honesty & Integrity need to be kept in all actions of life.

6. When someone whom I have helped,
Or whom I have placed great hopes,
Mistreats me in extremely hurtful ways,
May I regard him still as my precious teacher.

G: Sometimes those whom we help - whom we give the best to - simply aren't at a point to hear and their minds are circling around in past negative dramas. OK - this takes place. But what are they teaching you ? If it is something that has you going in a circle then look at what is coming up in the mind and emotions? This can be a jumping off point into deeper enquiry. As a Guru this happens as a matter of course - people will be going along ok - until a beief system get's challenged - or they may come in and who knows what is going to push a button that they are not ready to look at earnestly. Then a whole story and drama get's created in their minds and what comes forward bears little resemblance to what one is trying to impart.

OK - so they blow out for a time - perhaps a seed has been planted and they will come back to make another effort at forward motion. This is fine - we can only give - but it is up to the saddhaka to look within and to challenge the negative mindsets and dramas as they arise. Not every person that one helps or one places great hopes in that blow up is going to be your precious teacher. See it for what it is - there is one lesson in it sometimes which is no matter how great the intentions people are where they are for a reason. Some may be willing to move forward and may be grateful and others may be users and abusers and no matter how much hope you have in them they are simply not ready to make a change in their life. In this sometimes the best course of action is to realise and recognise they have a right to their suffering and will continue in it until they choose the time to make progress to be free of it. You cannot save a world that doesn't want to be saved.

(6) 6th stage of the path is : Right Effort -
G: steady and relaxed - middle way.

7. In brief may I offer benefit and joy
To all my mothers both directly and indirectly,
May I quietly take upon myself
All hurts and pains of my mothers.

G: We cannot carry anothers pain - no matter how magnaimus that sounds it avails nothing. Each must do the work to release their pain we may aide them in this. What pain is there is an opportunity and a window to dig deep in self discovery. If you take this away then you are taking away an opportunity. We come to these pains due to the choices we have made - --- there is a difference in being an aide versus being an enabler. We do what we may to help alleviate and to stand with someone as they work through their hurts and pains. But again you Cannot take on someone elses pain and hurts as you have enough of your own burden to handle. This can again create a false sense of superior humilty. it is a dangerous tripping stone on the path.

(7) the 7th stage of the path : right rememberance or right mindfulness. It is an ever-remembering of the Path, a quiet watchfulness of Life. The spiritual path is a watching, an equiring and a returning.
G: witness - enquire - cut the knots.

8. May all this remain undefiled
By the stains of the eight mundane concerns;
And may I, recognizing all things as illusion,
Devoid of clinging, be released from bondage.

G: this comes as one progresses - in Realization the Truth is Known the the illusion of maya is at an end. Recognizing all things as illusion see that all within the mundane part of existance is transient - always in flux - always in change. Come to a center point - the middle way.

(8) 8th part of the path - Samadhi - communion - It is the final communion of the finite with the Infinite, the end of the journey mentioned in the Dhammapada: The traveler has reached the end of the journey.

The word Sam-a-dhi comes from the root Dha which means to hold in a place. With the prefix sam and a , Samadhi suggests a union, a communion: the union with Brahman or the Upanishads, the union with God of the Christian Mytics, the union with Nirvana of Buddha.

The four stages of Samadhi metionined in the buddhist scriptures remind us of the four stages of prayer of St Teresa. The first stage of Samadhi is pure thought, recollection and meditation, and this is followed by the stopping of thought, contemplation. In those two stages there is a deep consciousness of joy and peace. In the third stage of the Buddhist Samadhi, the prayer of quietness of St. Teresa, the consciousness of joy which was common to the first two stages disappears; but there is still a consciousness of peace, a remnant of the consciousness of the "I" in time. The burden of the ego at that stage is very light, but it is still with man; until the forth stage Nirvana is attained, the burden of the ego, the burden of life, has fallen forever, and man is free.

The last is a quote from Dhammapada 82:

"Even as a lake that is pure and peaceful and deep so becomes the soul of the
wiseman when he hears the words of the Dhamma."

G: There is nothing that needs be added to this. The above quite well states the
passages of the journey.

Maha Shanti OM
enjoy and be happy
Be a Great Existence
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