Ringu Tulku Rinpoche
Teachings on Bodhicharyavatara
Chapter 8: Meditation
Session 27
Stanzas 101-103
In the first part of this talk, Ringu Tulku reviews the previous verses in which we are asked to expand our attitude to our own suffering and pain––to an awareness of the pain of others, and to begin to consider or meditate upon why we separate those two: this he tells us is caused by an egotistic perspective and the resultant self clinging.
These next three verses start to break down what we consider as ‘self’ and ask us to contemplate the solidness of believing in a self independent of others, to look at why our boundaries are so strongly defined between self and other when we are so dependent on our environment to simply exist. The past, present and future are not the same thing. Our use of a singular word, ‘body’ to describe what is in fact a composite of many things leads us to solidify ego.
The text invites us to see there can be no personal ownership of suffering, and that pain is suffered by no one person. So to prioritise our own problems above those of another person has no basis in reality: this is to be deeply contemplated.
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