Seeing more and more of what we are not


[Students were not recorded]

Ken: You do enough of the mantra, things will come. You do the mantra enough, things will come while you’re saying the mantra too. But you’re right, it does generate energy. Yes, it does generate energy, That’s one of the other functions in it. [Unrecorded] It generates energy. It’s a way of resting when you’re worn out doing something else. It’s a way of resting. It’s a way of replacing the subconscious gossip that I was talking about this morning. And also, as you say, it does generate energy.

[Unrecorded] Basically, yes. I would refine the vocabulary a little bit. When this happens, you experience directly that the nature of pattern is emptiness. Now, initially, it’s as you say, sitting there and it arises, and if we don’t mess with it—as I was talking about a couple days ago—then it arises and plays itself out. If you can actually hold attention, don’t get distracted, and then it subsides, it returns to its nature, which is empty.

Now, there are some very important understandings, and they’re not intellectual understandings, but they’re direct understandings that come out of that. One is that the arising was impermanent. And, very often, we get fixed on things because we feel that they’re very solid. And we don’t want to experience them, so we get into this big fight with them. We don’t trust their impermanent nature, as it were. Another thing that we get out of that is we get a direct experience, because we’re in attention, that it’s suffering.

And third, we have the direct experience that whatever that was, it is not what we are. Why? Because it came and went. And you might say that one way we progress in our practice is, we learn more and more of what we are not. It’s not clear that we ever know what we are, but we learn more and more of what we are not. And so there’s less and less to fixate on, and less and less points of fixation. You follow?

So, then another point here is that when you know something completely, you know even in its experience, its nature. Initially we experience something arising and subsiding, but when it’s arising and subsiding, it feels pretty solid. But when you really know it completely—that is you’re in awareness—then even as it’s arising, you know that it is no thing. You know that its nature is empty. And that’s what complete knowing means, complete awareness means. And now even as it arises, there’s no possibility of confusion because you know its nature.

That’s not something you can say, “I’m going to do this.” It’s not that kind of knowing. It’s the kind of knowing that you actually uncover through practice. And it’s one of the reasons why we do such practices as awakened compassion, or Chenrezi. Because by moving more into some of the visualization aspects, by actually imagining all of this stuff and this world, we actually gain experiential knowledge in this possibility, and it paves the ground for that kind of direct knowing to arise.

[Unrecorded] They’re just arisings, you know, that’s nice. The opening passage of one of my favorite books … The head cook was stirring this large cauldron, soup or something, at the monastery. Manjushri appeared above the cauldron and he beat him with a stick and said, “Go away! I’m cooking!” and he went back to cooking. [Laughter] And he said afterwards, “Even if Shakyamuni had appeared, I’d still have beaten him.”

Feeling that you are awakened compassion


Ken: This afternoon, I’m going to introduce another element, and this is where things may get a little more complex. And I want to introduce this element as an extension, as it were, of feeling that you are awakened compassion. So, when you have a very clear feeling that you are awakened compassion—we touched on this the other day—how do you feel physically?

Student: Warm. Light.

Ken: Yeah, mm-hmm. Okay, going to leave that one for a minute. But warm, light, expansive, transparent, anybody go for radiant? Yeah. Okay. So to enhance the sense of being awakened compassion, take those qualities. Radiant, radiant light, light actually radiating from your form. Or, maybe not just light, but all kinds of things: loving kindness, compassion, whatever. But radiant, warmth and tenderness in the heart, a feeling of transparency. So, your body isn’t this solid, corporeal lump to use a technical term.

Color? Traditional color is white. So why white, for those of you for whom white popped into mind? [Unrecorded] Don’t look the answer up, I want it from your experience. How do you get there? [Unrecorded] So maybe just thinking of yourself as having a transparent, white, radiant form will enrich or enhance your experience of feeling that you are awakened compassion.

And what’s your relationship with the four immeasurables when you’re awakened compassion? Janneke, anybody else? She said they arise spontaneously altogether. Anybody else? We talked about love, compassion, joy, and equanimity, for those of you who are madly looking at your crib sheets.

[Unrecorded] But what’s your experience when you feel your awakened compassion? What’s your experience? [Unrecorded] So, you have a more powerful experience of loving-kindness. I’ll come back to that point in a minute. Are you all agreed that the four immeasurables are there? And how available are they to you? [Unrecorded] How available are the others to you? [Unrecorded answer] They’re right there. As close as your hands? Yeah, so maybe you would think these are like having four arms or four hands.

[Unrecorded] Yes, timelessness. Well, it’s just that, isn’t it? Do you exist in time? No. Fine. We could take that one on a little bit, you’re in a kind of special place, right? That’s Chenrezi’s Pure Land. That’s the domain that awakened compassion defines. I hadn’t planned to go there but since you raised it, here we are. It’s known as the Potala. That’s what the name of the Dalai Lama’s palace is, but it’s named after Chenrezi’s Pure Land, or domain of awakening is what I like to call it. Maybe not as poetic as Pure Land but still more accurate.

Van was saying that loving-kindness is kind of special emphasis here. What’s the quality of loving-kindness? When you’re feeling loving-kindness, how do you feel? Like this? Soft? How soft? [Unrecorded] Very tender, yeah. Chenrezi wears the pelt of a deer over his left shoulder. How soft is a deer pelt? And that carries the quality of loving-kindness.

Let your heart smile


Ken: When you are awakened compassion, what’s the expression on your face? Peaceful, yes. So he’s smiling, remember that. [Unrecorded] It’s very important. I know. It hits right on the material. Thich Nhat Hanh talks about this quality quite a lot, then he says, “Let your heart smile,” or something like that, right? You haven’t heard him say that? [Unrecorded]

But you are awakened compassion! She gets the point, this is very good. Now there’s a couple of things here. I have a story to tell and practical instruction. You’re quite right, Catherine, there’s nothing more horrible than people going around like … You get this in salespeople all the time, right? [Unrecorded]

What if you feel the smile in your heart, what happens then? Right. So maybe you start there. But what happens when you let yourself feel a smile in your heart? What actually happens? Yeah. What happens in you? [Unrecorded] Significant softening takes place. So start with a smile in your heart. That’s the practical instruction.

Now, the story. San Francisco Zen Center has a long tradition of serious practice, and everybody there, Kathleen knows all about this, is pretty serious. I think it was back in ’76 or so, somewhere around there, one of Thich Nhat Hanh’s first visits to North America, he was invited to speak at San Francisco Zen Center. Everybody’s very serious. I translated there with Rinpoche once, it’s a very serious place.

They’ve got this rock-like quality down. And there was Thich Nhat Hanh saying, “Smile when you practice.” And apparently, as Arnie Kotler told me, the results were just hysterical. You had all of these people with absolutely rock hard faces going … [Laughter] [Unrecorded] Interesting, I didn’t know that.

Okay, so start with a smile in your heart, because when you’re awakened compassion, that’s where you are, you’re right in your heart. And even when there’s a great deal of pain and suffering [unclear]. This came up in a couple of the interviews. What’s another quality that’s required if you’re going to be awakened compassion? Sense of humor, definitely. Also courage or bravery because you’re going to meet anything, literally anything, with compassion.

We talked this morning about this quality of acceptance and letting go. Well, when you had these really horrific situations, that’s a pretty frightening thing to do. So it’s quality of bravery. In fact, right here at Mount Baldy, 1990 I guess, Jamgön Kongtrül was teaching a retreat. And somebody asked him, “What is compassion?”

And without any hesitation, he said, “Fearlessness.” Just like that.

So, there’s that quality as well. Now, when you are awakened compassion, how do you feel as a person? [Unrecorded] Confident, yes. Do you feel poor, poverty-stricken? How do you feel? Yes. [Unrecorded] Don’t you feel rich? You may have nothing, but you feel very rich. You with me? Okay.

So if you look at Chenrezi’s picture, you see that he’s clothed in finest silk, embroidered with gold, he’s wearing jewelry. It’s very, very rich. The traditional garb is of the Gandharan princes and princesses, fourth to eighth century, around there. But there’s this sense of extraordinary richness. So that’s another thing you might have [unclear].

Exploring Chenrezi’s form


Ken: So, what I’m introducing you to here is that there are these different aspects of Chenrezi’s form, that every aspect is an expression of what it’s like to be awakened compassion. There’s some symbolic expression and trying to connect you with the symbol or the symbolic value so you can start working that into your practice. So you need to learn a few things here and it’s going to cause you to think a little bit, but that’s all right. But you can also do it as an exploration.

If we had an infinite amount of time, then I would do all of this in individual interviews, coaxing each one of these out of your own experience. We don’t have that amount of time. That’d be an interesting way to do it, right? And it would happen, probably take three or four days, but we have a little more material to cover.

So, when you’re sitting, “I am awakened compassion.” And I’d start off very, very simply, and just feel like you have this really brilliant, radiant form and this extraordinary gentleness and softness, the deer’s pelt or antelope’s pelt. And you explore this a little bit more. And you can feel that slight smile, because of the utter peace in your own heart.

And along with that, total equanimity; you aren’t prejudiced towards one group of people or another. And you feel this loving-kindness, compassion and joy, the joy and the possibilities of life for yourself and for everyone. There’s no limit. And you know that through your own experience as awakened compassion; there is no limit. And these four qualities, you might think, “It’s like having four arms, interesting.” And then there’s that sense of richness, fullness, vitality, and utter peace.

In India, the days are very, very hot, particularly, well actually, anytime after February. The first week of February, the sun is just brutal, and I remember being in New Delhi in May once. You get up before sunrise, because things are kind of okay then, and the sun starts to peek above the horizon and it immediately starts to feel warm. Because it’s so far south, the tropics, the sun rises very quickly. So it just goes pop. And now you’re staring into a blast furnace, even just after it’s arisen, it’s this intense heat.

So the sun is not associated with peace, and things like that. The image for that in Indian culture is the moon. We had this here last couple of nights, the full moon. You look out, and there’s this wonderful silvery quality to the light of the moon, especially the full moon at this altitude. And in India, on some nights you can actually read by the full moon light; it’s that bright. But the night is cool, so refreshing, and you feel so much peace.

Well, what does Chenrezi have right behind him? Full disc of the moon. And it’s got that quality. The coolness, in a sense, not a coldness, but the refreshing coolness of compassion after the heat of reactive emotion. So you can think of it. It’s mixing metaphors a little bit, but basking in the cool silvery light of the moon, and radiating this out, that kind of peace.

And then we get into things that are a little more difficult. Chenrezi sits in lotus posture. We’ve talked about awakened compassion as being the union of compassion and emptiness, which is the heart of Mahayana, that these just come together and inform the basis for who you are.

And Suzuki Roshi writes, “Our practice is about having absolute confidence in our fundamental nature.” Our fundamental nature is the union of compassion and emptiness. [Unclear] fundamental confidence in it. So, when you’re resting in compassion, if you’re feeling stuff moving around, you just think, “Ah, compassion and emptiness, fundamental nature.” And that may give you the energy, or the strength, or the openness, confidence, whatever you want to say, just to rest with what’s arising, and not to mess with it.

What inspires compassion. [Unrecorded] Anything else? [Unrecorded] What inspired you to pursue the practice of compassion? [Unrecorded] I understand, anything else? [Unrecorded]

And the name Chenrezi, which is the Tibetan, they both mean the same thing, syllable by syllable. Avalokiteshvara, loka is the word for world. And the name means, he who looks over the whole world. And Chenrezi, and zi is the verb to see, chen, eyes, and re has this feeling of totality. So he who sees completely, which is often translated as all-seeing one, sees everything. And you see all of the suffering of the world, all of the pain, difficulties. And that’s another quality: there’s no editing of any kind of experience in awakened compassion.

Experience being awakened compassion in your life


Ken: So, in your meditation, I want you to start working with some of these themes, bringing them out, not so much, I’m not interested in you visualizing these things at this point. Get there. But exploring all of these different aspects of being awakened compassion. What I’ve been asking you to do, up to this point, is to explore what it means to be awakened compassion in the course of actual life.

And the purpose, the reason I was giving you that instruction, is that people have very idealistic ideas about compassion. You’re always kind, and very agreeable, and just a thoroughly nice person. But this is not true. And some cases I gave you scenarios where it was a little difficult to be a nice person, and yet, it was quite clear in that how compassion could manifest. And then sometimes there’s a directness, and a clarity, and a cutting-through quality, and we’re not talking about wrathful energy. It’s just facing what really is.

Susan, your example about some of the graduate students or junior professors, whatever, it’s a very good one in that sense, that being nice actually is the uncompassionate thing. And this isn’t a means of justifying one’s irritation with the world as the expression of compassion. We have all kinds of that nonsense going on, we don’t need to add to that.

But, through these reflections, you take this ideal of compassion, and actually put it right into your life, so you get a visceral sense of what it is. And the other thing that happens when you work that way is you also get a very direct sense of what prevents you, in any given situation, from actually expressing compassion appropriately. Because you’re trying to control the situation, trying not to feel something, which is painful or unpleasant in you, or because you want a certain kind of result, which is unattainable, but you want it anyway, and you’re just going to try to make it happen. And all of these things lead to problems.

So, now we’re moving into a different aspect of the practice, in which I want you to explore the actual experience of compassion in you very, very deeply. That’s why I’ve been introducing these different aspects, the physical, how you experience compassion, the body’s radiant form, which most people would associate white, but the quality of gold, which was also mentioned, that conveys the sense of richness in it. And it’s not about material richness, but rich is the right word. It feels that way.

And the accessibility, the immediate accessibility of the four immeasurables, you don’t have to do anything. They’re just like arms you can use, things you can use in situations. You don’t have to cultivate them, or develop them, or train them, or anything. They’re yours; they’re just there. And this warmth, and gentleness, combined with this extraordinary clarity. This gentle smile, which just arises quite naturally. This confidence in the base of our being, which is the union of compassion and emptiness, we can just rest there with total confidence. The peaceful quality which radiates a refreshing coolness, compared to the heat of reactive emotions, just to everyone.

Phil’s point about this, how did you put it? Stepping out of time. And that’s a very important point, because many of you have experienced, I’m sure having a conversation with someone who’s experienced a great loss, a tragedy. And it becomes something quite magical, because any sense of helping them just drops away, and you’re just there. And this conversation takes place, and your experience is, it takes place out of time. It has a timeless quality to it. One can go on and on, and that’s basically what I want you to explore. How is this? Very, very intimately so you really get a deep feeling for it.

[Unrecorded] Well, I don’t think there’s anything to reconcile. If you’re really there, you do what needs to be done. There’s nothing which stops you from acting.

Okay, Arlene? Yeah. Well, you were just mentioning a situation to me about this psychoanalyst group, who are all studying Buddhism but not practicing it. What would awakened compassion do? Awakened compassion has been invited to talk to this psychoanalyst group. [Unrecorded] Well, what would happen if you were awakened compassion? What would you do? [Unrecorded] Now, what’s happening in you right now? Yes. Right now. What’s happening in you? I’ve given you this question, something is coming up in you. What’s happening? [Unrecorded]

Right, what are you trying to hold on to? [Unrecorded] Okay, so is this an issue for you? Or is this an issue for awakened compassion? [Laughs] Okay. [Unrecorded] So, it’s an issue for you. Okay, let go of it. Just drop the issue. Right, that’s it exactly. What would you do in this situation? Forget the issue. What would you do? [Unrecorded] Okay, and what’s the truth? Yep. There! What happened right there? [Laughs] There you go. So, I’m going to suggest the passivity is your projection, because it’s right there in you, isn’t it?

[Unrecorded] I already did. Did you miss it? I already did. Drop the issue. Drop it. That’s what you do, you drop the issue, drop what you’re holding onto, because it’s holding onto that, that prevents you [unrecorded]. Feel fearless and hold onto this issue? No, you don’t get a choice. You either be fearless, which means you hold onto nothing, and you go. Right, yeah. And does awakened compassion experience fear in this way? Does it? I’m asking Arlene. Does awakened compassion experience fear like this? [Unrecorded] No. Okay. So that’s what you work on in your practice. When you are fully awakened compassion, then you have this fear coming up, right? You do. Okay. Now, how would awakened compassion work with that fear?

[Unrecorded] And you’re not going to stop there. Yes. Just say, okay, this doesn’t have anything to do with the situation. No, this doesn’t work like that, you just let it go. And when you let it go, what do you feel? It’s kind of open, isn’t it? Like scary open? Yeah. And that’s awakened compassion. That’s a good example.

[Unrecorded] That’s right. More than that. They pursue this kind of study, they are suffering in the process, and they are compounding their suffering in the process, as you and I were discussing. So letting them do this is totally the wrong thing. [Laughs] I think this one’s on you. I wasn’t invited. It only takes a moment. Okay. The point that Arlene raises here is very important, and we tend to think of compassion as being passive. It is not.

Emptiness and compassion


Ken: In Buddhism, we describe nature of mind: nature of mind is empty, and at the same time, nature of mind is clarity, and these cannot be separated. The emptiness is the clarity. The clarity is the emptiness. The clarity manifests as compassion, and it manifests in a lot of different ways.

When you are really clear about a situation, you see what can be done, and what can’t be done. In some situations, at the moment, nothing can be done. It’s locked, and compassion can accept that. In other situations, there is something to be done, and you see. Then all of this stuff comes up, “I can’t do that. What will they think?” And all of our own conditioning sets in. And that’s what induces the passivity. It’s not inherent in the compassion. The clarity allows compassion to see very deeply. So it doesn’t do things that aren’t going to work. But that’s not the same as being passive.

[Unrecorded] Well, I think the two principal exponents of just that perspective are Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King. Now, Mahatma Gandhi drove Churchill nuts because he always seemed to be changing his mind, at least that was Churchill’s perspective and the British cabinet. But what was going on in Gandhi was that every action that he considered, he reflected very, very deeply to see if he could do it without any sense of personal aggrandizement. And if there was any vestige of that, he didn’t do it. So there were a lot of strategically important things that he never did, because he couldn’t do them from the right place.

But the courage of the person, he inspired people. In the case of trying to break the picket of a salt manufacturing company, hundreds of Indians walked up to these British or Indian army troops who were armed with batons, and entered the barricade. And were beaten one after the other, after the other. Now, how many of you could inspire people and live with doing that? It was totally non-violence, and yet people were getting hurt, and getting hurt badly, broken bones, things like that—not just bruises—concussions. And yet it was absolutely an expression of compassion.

And the same thing with Martin Luther King, and these people thought very, very deeply. Gandhi said something that’s very, very important. “If violence isn’t an option for you, you don’t know anything about non-violence.” So he was working very completely with the person. And, I don’t know, some of us may find ourselves in situations where we are directly confronting abusive or highly damaging systems. And how does compassion manifest in those circumstances? These are very, very deep questions. But even internally—just as this interchange I had with Arlene—we are right up against it in ourselves, in exactly the same way. And that is our work, is to become that clear, to get rid of all of the stuff that prevents our nature from actually manifesting in our lives.

Yes, it’s all the cliches that we all talk about. It’s becoming no one, that’s terrifying. There’s nothing to hold on to, nothing to say, “This is me.” And when you’re like that, you know that when you encounter certain situations, you’re just going to do what needs to be done. That can be a little intimidating. Okay, this answer your question? So, we’re talking about an esoteric practice from the Tibetan tradition, but it does have very, very real life consequences. Yes, Robert?

[Unrecorded] You’re serving what is true. That’s your intention. Because again, the fundamental nature of mind is emptiness and compassion. There are other descriptions, but for our purposes this one’s most useful. When we talk about compassion in this context, it’s not compassion at the level of the four immeasureables, which is the desire that others not suffer. And at the level of the four immeasureables, compassion is an emotion. It’s not a reactive emotion, it’s a non-reactive emotion, it’s a higher-level emotion, but it is still an emotion. It has the same quality of energy at a higher level, but same quality.

When we talk about union of compassion and emptiness, we’re talking about compassion that is mind nature. Unlike an emotion, there is nothing to decay, there is nothing to be corrupted. It is just what is. It doesn’t depend on any reference, it arises directly as a response to the destructiveness of suffering. It is the manifestation of the clarity aspect of mind.

[Unrecorded] Yes. Some people find it easier as we introduce more of these things, to work with the eyes closed. That’s a good practical point. So just to review quickly before we close for dinner. In this discussion I tried to bring out some of the qualities inherent in the experience of being awakened compassion. Radiant, transparent form, accessibility of the four immeasureables, confidence in the basis, in our fundamental nature, which is the union of compassion and emptiness, a sense of richness, the extreme gentleness and softness, which is the smile, and joy inherent in compassion.

And I want you to shift the focus of your practice more towards really feeling compassion in this way with these different elements, and beginning to think of some of the symbolism. The basis of Chenrezi’s seat has formed vajra posture, it’s something really solid and provides support. That’s the basis of a way which is the union of compassion and emptiness. The radiant white form is just an expression of that quality of compassion. Four arms—the expression of the four immeasurables. One face, the one nature of all reality is another one.

A couple more, just to enrich. One right hand holds a crystal rosary, and for some reason, Chenrezi is holding a rosary in his right hand, totally against all tradition, but there we are. As he counts the beads it symbolizes drawing sentient beings out of samsara. And left hand holds a lotus, which is a symbol of purity because lotuses grow in swamps. They don’t grow in nice, neat gardens, they grow in fetid swamps—all the muck and rot and things like that. And out of that this beautifully pure flower emerges. Well, in the muck of our own emotions, where do we find this possibility of compassion? Just what Shantideva writes about the Bodhicaryavatara. And the two hands that are joined at his heart hold a jewel. And it’s the wish-fulfilling jewel. Why? Because compassion grants all wishes. Through compassion, all aspirations, wishes for all beings, are fulfilled.

[Unrecorded] Yeah, to give you a very practical sense of it, yeah. No, no. Make a transition. Because as you do this meditation, other stuff is going to come up. So any time that reactive material has come up, work with it so that you see through it and are no longer limited by it, that’s important. Don’t push it aside and get on with meditation. That actually is not a very constructive way to do it, so thank you for bringing that up. It’s important. Okay? We’ll break for supper now, and meditation at 7:00. I did it, only four minutes over.