In relation to the observation of interlinked causes of all phenomena, the nature of numbers is that they accrue in succession at a speed tethered to that of one’s realizing the dependent, simultaneous and complementarily, arising nature of all phenomena. Likened to a magic show, all appearance is the illusion of synced causes and conditions. Know as dependent origination, there is no ‘first cause’ but rather endless causes and effects dependent upon each other just as linguistic opposites, like wrong and right, depend upon each other for their relative existence. Related to this, there is no real happy home to which one can ever return. There is always just a gray one where the problems of self involvement—having given residence to the notion of a permanent self, as well family members, and perhaps pets, struggle for hegemonies over and above mannered politeness—that is, unless there are house rules, akin to the Vinaya for monastics that put others before oneself. A happy home then starts with a truly happy person. When the princes gathered around Kung (Confucius)—reported Ezra Pound, a poet of diverse antiquarian interests—they asked him, “How shall we be known?” Kung replied, “First order one’s self, then one’s house, and then one’s kingdom.” The truly happy person is also just such a well ordered person. One who studies and knows the laws, both divine and mundane, and then acts accordingly. Knowing Buddha’s doctrine of Interdependent Origination, the dependent arising of all phenomena mentioned above, is to know the Buddha and his wisdom itself. To realize that wisdom, one must meditate on the true nature of one’s mind until they experience ‘mind-in-itself.’ His Eminence Deshung Rinpoche taught, while walking this earth, that the nature of this mind-in-itself is clear, empty, and unimpeded. He also taught, ‘these words come not from myself but from the sages, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, who taught them to me.’ In other words, it’s not speculative thinking he’s touting, but tried and true wisdom.
I’m reminded of the saga of Bad Will Huntington. Yes, ‘Bad Will,’ last name Huntington. He lived in a basement apartment with his indigent mother and they shared her Social Disability check. She required a lot of care and he had little time to work. Besides he had no real skills except the gift of gab. Tired of their impoverishment, he parlayed that gift by talking poor mouth about he and his poor, infirm mother to other older people living on disability, pension checks, and the occasional well heeled fool who could be easily parted from his money. No fool like an old fool, he’d coo to his mother while fanning her with Jeffersons. One day however, one of these fools set a trap for him and Will Huntington got busted. The media had a field day with his name. Because he had preyed upon people’s good will, they called him ‘Bad Will Hunting.’ His celebrity got him a room in ‘The Tombs’ attached to the courthouse in Lower Manhattan where the docket is full and perps can wait up to a year or longer for a court date. Alas, he also couldn’t make his bail and his elderly mother was failing from lack of proper care. Being of no religion he could remember in this lifetime, he no other recourse but to pray in ignorant payers laced with obscenities. One day after months of feeling buried alive, an ‘engaged’ Bodhisattva of an advanced level showed up in the guise of someone he robbed. Speaking few words, he paid his bail, got proper care for his mother, and lectured him on the virtues of honesty. After awhile, his new best friend said goodbye, and Bad Will, out of bucks again began thinking about how he might ply his crooked trade over the Internet. That night he fell asleep and dreamed he was on an exclusive island in the Bahamas where he met his ‘dream girl.’ In his case this meant she was nothing at all like his mother. It was crazy mad love at first sight and it made him feel he’d finally grown up and away from his mother. He arranged for drinks at sunset on the beach and there they kissed a single kiss deep into the night. It was the kiss of absolute bliss, something few can even imagine. The next day, well before the sun was ready to set, he returned to the same place. But what he found was the same girl already kissing another guy! In a fit of jealousy he uprooted a sharpened tent poll, and with all intentions of impaling his replacement, raced over to them. But when he got there, the man reclined in the sand with his dream girl, looked up and said, “Will, think what you do. I’ve already forgiven you.” Will recognized the man as his former ‘mark’ and stopped in his tracks. “Kill me this time and you kill all forgiveness. Fooled him twice, the jury will say. He’s just bad. Bad Will living up to his name once again.” Overcome by shame and frustration, he threw the pole into the breakers and wept. The Bodhisattva stood up and consoled him. Look he said, and at that Will’s dream girl slowly dissolved, winking at him just before she vanished, like a rainbow in clear sky. “It’s entirely my fault,” said the saint, “you’ve been having such bad thoughts again.” “I forgot to rename you. Hmmm. Good Will Giver. Yes, that’s your new name.” Poof! And he vanished too. But even though Bad Will awoke as Good Will, he still had to face his court date in Lower Manhattan. Such is the persistence of karma. And he was sentenced to jail for a long time. Such is retribution! Such is the infallibility of bad deeds and their result. And in that test of time, his mother pined and died from lack of her son’s loving care. Still, Good Will Giver lived up to his new name as it also lent him a new form. Will, unallied in a kennel of angry dog inmates, was assaulted numerous times but always stood his Bodhisattva ground, and did no harm in return. Eventually, he even began to sort of relish the malicious onslaught as an opportunity to practice forgiveness and loving kindnesses. For he had found through emotive and cognitive purification a transcendence few people in one lifetime rarely achieve, giving him the ability to truly forgive others, and the ‘gift’ to transform all pain into pleasure. The former he credited to his best ever friend, a genuine Bodhisattva. And the latter to his dream lover, who, as a real Dakini, seldom does just one-night-stands. Ever faithful, she continued to nurture Good Will’s Great Bliss after his release from prison. For giving good will in Samsara, nursed on the Dakini’s Great Bliss, gradually arises as phenomena nondually with Nirvana.
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