Kyabje Do Drub Rinpoche, the second Fourth (quantum counting) Do Drubchen, of the Ancient lineage, was much taken with the Tibetan word mitakpa, and used it effectively during his teaching at the Massachusetts Nyingmapa center he established in 1972. The word means impermanence, and is well-suited, evidently, for describing interpersonal relationships. The comings and goings amongst people. He applied this to how Katayana, Buddha’s disciple, blessed with karmic omniscient, could see that the woman holding a baby and throwing a stone at a bothersome dog was harming her own recently deceased mother or father, and other karmically connected people from her past lives.
Mitakpa means one’s friends will be one’s enemies, and vice versus. ‘Fortunes change,’ I use to say in high school, having recently shifted from a poor parent to a monied one. Rinpoche talked about a poor farmer who later became President. ‘That’s phenomenal!’ I recall saying, after Jimmy Carter got elected President. ‘Phenomenal!’ Well, I was right. At base, things are just phenomena and in that way also seemingly random. But from an existential standpoint, sitting on the fifty yard line, there’s nothing random about the way we smash into each other, physically and mentally. Or the way one of us just suddenly disappears after timing-out. Conditioned existence appears to change all the time in this way, but it has no life of its own. What does have life, and plenty of it, is our karma. Good, bad, and indifferent, it’s seemingly endless.
One of our dogs at the apartments is now very sad because she’s the now the only dog. Also, her master moved away as well. So suddenly, she’s got no close friends. And we don’t let her in the house much. One can tell she has no idea what happened. One day she was happy and frolicking, getting attention from three different people and another dog. Now they’re all gone. They might as well have died. Maybe that’s what she thinks. This is similar to humans not understand the workings of karma, and so misfortune is all just a big surprise—an accident. So we are like dogs to the Enlightened Ones. Quite often we must look so sad. Or worse, thrashing and violent, all because we don’t understand the ramifications of actions good, bad, and indifferent. This is delusion.
If you’ve ever had an alcoholic in your lives, up close and personal, you were to them perhaps how the Buddhas is to us. You probably observed their addiction patterns of bad, if not disastrous, behavior. If you’re a sober person, it’s easy to see where they start to go wrong every time. A call from a drinking friend they haven’t seen for awhile wrecks their two week, or two month, or maybe even two year sober streak. Then there’s days, weeks, or months of constant intoxication and it’s accompanying stupidity of losing things, creating scenes, or maybe ending up in the hospital or drunk tank. It’s disgusting. But, because they’re in your life, you must try to save them from self destruction. Not the ‘destruction of self,’ are they up to, but the prolongation and empowerment of its treacherous dominion. There is no other way than to get them sober and for them to stay sober. This is the same predicament the Bodhisattva faces. Delusion is delusion, great or small, and it’s all a childish suffering because it’s taking place in the imagination of beings who cling to a phantom entity that they think of as themself. Drunks, a forlorn lover, and the ordinary being who understands neither impermanence nor karma, suffer constantly from a perceived attack upon a phantom self. That is mitakpa’s bitter sorrow.
Rinpoche quoted the Lord of Sages, Shakya Muni, speaking from the Sutras, many times. Notably, “If you acquire a complete and true realization of impermanence, that in itself is one of the full paths.” One can by sheer force of will, with diligence, love, and compassion, all as a guiding intention, wish all beings no longer suffered from impermanence and its self-glorifying enabler, delusion—or, again, mitakpa. Let it be your word of the year, or as long as it takes, to become fully enlightened by it. It should also be remembered, this is just one, or two, of four preliminary reflections necessary to begin practicing the main practices. The profoundest teachings come at the beginning, to quote my root teacher, the great attainer of the Two Accumulations, His Eminence Deshung Rinpoche, Kunga Tenpa Nyima whose name I utter in profound gratitude.
“Q: [Dodrupchen] Rinpoché said if someone had a strong realization of impermanence without an understanding of Dharma, he would go crazy. What would be the best help for someone who sees impermanence and gets sad?
A: It is very important and favorable for a person if he has a realization of impermanence or is in touch with impermanence. Once he realizes impermanence, he grasps the fact of living. For us Buddhists, once we feel everything around us is impermanent and know we are under the law of impermanence, we understand we need to seek protection. Seeking protection for us Buddhists is to seek refuge in the three precious ones, Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. These three precious ones taught the doctrines and disclosed Dharma to us.”
“What is the manner of dedicating the fruits of virtuous action? If you do not know, look at how the buddhas and bodhisattvas dedicated, have been dedicating, and will dedicate. In the same manner, I will dedicate the fruits of virtuous actions for the enlightenment of all sentient beings, so they can reach the state of buddhahood. And the recitation will include how Kuntu Sangpo (the primordial Buddha) and Jampalyang (bodhisattva Manjushri) dedicated their merits to the enlightenment of all sentient beings. Likewise, I will dedicate my merits and fruits of virtuous actions for the enlightenment of all sentient beings.”
— Liberation from Samsara: Oral Instructions on the Preliminary Practices of Longchen Nyingthik by Kyabjé Dodrupchen Rinpoché
https://a.co/77rLbnt
Comments
Post a Comment