CHANGE THE REFERENCE POINT OF THE BENEFICIARY!, Speaking Tree, 10th Aug 2010

CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE WILLINGLY:

Taking to spiritual development is today seen as a way to stress busting and thus bettering the quality of our lives. This seems to be more relevant in urban living where lifestyle, desires and aspirations is playing havoc in the minds of people. People are getting increasingly edgy, short fused and social grace is taking a beating.

For those who are embarking on this path to tame the mind, to get more calm and composed and therefore lead happy lives, here is a vital tip:

The first mistake that people make is when they embark on this path with an incorrect reference point of beneficiary. Let me explain.

There was a sorcerer in a town in Tibet who used to torment the people with his black magic. Far and wide travelled his stories of how he could bring down hail and destroy villages with his powers. He would rob and kill people at will. He gained great respect out of sheer fear and he revelled in this notorious respect. He would be delighted with his sinister achievements. After few years, a great personal tragedy shook him and he decided he would practice this sorcery no more. In the high mountains lived a lama of repute. He had heard of the deeds of this black magician and was overwhelmed with the suffering the people had to undergo under his ill-used powers. The sorcerer approached the lama and said to him: “Master, I have been a bad man all thee years. I need to redeem myself. Please help me.” The lama suggested: Very well, now that you wish to change, you need to change your attitude first! Just as you did all the evil things to people causing them great suffering, thereby deriving great pleasure from it, you are to exactly reverse the process!” "What do you say, master? I dont understand”, the befuddled sorcerer asked. The lama continued “Well, just as you did harm to others and derived pleasure, now do good to people and derive happiness. Its so simple.” The sorcerer got the message and went on to become one of the greatest masters of our time.

The point here is very simple. We always look at the benefit with this viewpoint: “How will i derive benefit out of my practices and actions”. The shift of this attitude should be in cultivating a mind wherein how others can derive benefit from my practices and actions. The moment shift of the reference point of the true recipient of the beneficiary is made, the pathway is yours for gainful merit. Caution must be exercised to do so with total and happy ‘release’. If we have any restrain within us in doing so, such action will gain us negative karma and push us into lower realm re-births. This is an attitudinal shift which only the person can himself/herself do. The teacher can only suggest, but the work is to be done by the pupil. The awakening of special motivation must arise from within.

Merely, in understanding our suffering and giving us a tip so simple yet profound, the teacher becomes the compassionate one. We cannot expect him/her to physically lift us to better life or out of suffering of afflicted emotions or even rebirth on higher realm. He can only show us the direction. Experiences, we must gain on our own.

Such a shift of attitude, shift of the point of reference of the true beneficiary of actions undertaken, is necessary for all those in public life too. Politicians, Government officials, Social workers for example. Results will be magical, enormous, fast and of great accumulating merit.

Summarizing everything into a single verse by the greatest teacher of Mahayana and Indian scholar, Shantideva:

All the joy the world contains
Has come through wishing happiness for others,
All the misery the world contains
Has come through wanting pleasure for oneself.

Tathagatha realization to you!

['Tathagatha' refers to one who has trod the path to full awakening and so reached the end of suffering and released from life-death cycle. The implication is that the path is open to all who would follow it. In later Mahayana Buddhism, Tathagatha came to mean the essential buddha nature found in every sentient being.]