©2020 Bodhicharya Publications CIC - This project is part funded by Bodhicharya Publications CIC
Ringu Tulku Rinpoche
Teachings on Bodhicharyavatara
Chapter 7: Diligence
Session 20
Stanzas 37-39
In these next three verses we are challenged to look at what we have done in our lives that we can be genuinely proud of. Most of us, the text says, have merely paid lip service to the fundamental gift of human life we were given, and we would be hard put to name deeds or influences we have directed towards the good of others.
Even making offerings to the Buddhas – those to whom we could offer gratitude for their beneficial influence and dedication to teaching us what they have learned. Their wisdom is unquantifiable but still we have not valued it as such, or offered thanks. Or to others who need help, how have we moved ourselves to make life more bearable or tolerable, for those who suffer famine, war and torture, how have we helped?
The most we can say we achieved was to cause terrible pain to our own mothers, first through our birth and then by being insufferably difficult as children.
It begs the question, why have we been thus, and why spurn the hands that feed us on a material and spiritual level?
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Dear Rinpoche
In your commentary on stanzas 37 to 39 you stress how we shouldn’t “practice Buddhism”, but “practice Dharma instead” for the good of all beings without tribal favouritism or personal preference.
This week has marked 7 years since Akong Rinpoche’s death. His example of hands-on humanitarian assistance for the destitute, oppressed, and homeless: not only in the Himalayas; but also in the soup kitchens of Europe, Africa, and India; seemed to “walk the walk” of the Bodhisattva, rather than merely “talking the talk”?
However, 50 years after Akong came to the West, rather than his inspirational activity through ROKPA becoming the role model and the norm for every Buddhist organisation worldwide; his example of a relentless determination to alleviate others’ physical suffering and hunger still seems atypical?
Please can you talk a little about this?
The balance between time spent:
in shedras, retreats, and in meditation -to subsequently be of the greatest benefit for other beings, once fully enlightened; and
engaging in altruistic works of kindness to benefit the hungry and sick, irrespective of their beliefs, in the present?
Thank you so much
Conrad