" Modern Bodhisattva’s Way of Life: Becoming the living, loving Dharmakaya
(3.21) Just like the great elements such as earth,
And like eternal space,
May I become the basis from which everything arises
For sustaining the life of countless living beings;
(3.22) And, until they have passed beyond sorrow,
May I sustain all forms of life
Throughout the realms of living beings
That reach to the ends of space.
If we’re practicing giving like Shantideva then we have a wish to be whatever others need, not simply to do what others want.
We want to be what they need.
We think, “if others want me to be someone other, I’ll be that person for them.”
With total faith and a loving heart like Shantideva, we offer ourself to others pledging to become whatever we need to become for them to be able to provide them both temporary and ultimate benefit.
We have an attitude that is ready to endure whatever we need to endure.
We are ready to go through whatever we need to go through.
For me, the easiest way to do this is to view my ordinary self as like a karmic reflection or echo or synthesis of all the delusions and negative karma of those I love that I have taken upon myself through my previous practice of taking.
When suffering arises within our body, delusions emerge within our mind or negative karma ripens in our life, we strongly believe that this is the suffering, delusions and negative karma of all living beings that we have previously taken upon ourselves.
We then believe that – like Jesus – we work through these things for living beings so that they don’t have to. What do living beings need? They need somebody to do this for them.
This is why Jesus is so powerful in this world – he meets this need.
But so can we, if we train diligently in correct methods for long enough.
With these verses, Shantideva reveals how the truth body Dharmakaya of a Buddha is of the same nature as his emanation body.
Normally we speak of a Buddha’s emanations, as if they are a multitude of individual emanations.
But in truth, all of conventional reality is a fully integrated blanket of emanations functioning as a whole to liberate living beings.
It is only due to our ignorance that we see conventional reality as a samsara instead of as the unfolding of Buddha’s emanations in this world.
The pure conventional nature of all things is a Buddha’s form body, and the pure ultimate nature is a Buddha’s truth body. These two are inseparable, like gold from its coin." Kadampa Working Dad - Ryan
__________________
|