Enlightenment: The Solution For Suffering

 How needing of compassion are suffering sentient beings, right here, who are driven on through cyclic existence by delusion and confusion-because they do not understand that their own mind is the Buddha-body of Reality, free from extremes! May they all actualize the Buddha-body of Reality....

How needing of compassion are mistakenly  prejudiced  sentient beings, right here, who are driven on through cyclic existence by attachment and craving-because they do not understand that their own awareness is the Buddha-body of  Perfect Resource, imbued with supreme bliss! May they all actualize the Buddha -body of Perfect Resource!

How needing of compassion are sentient beings with discordant views, right here, who are driven on through cyclic existence by aversion and dualistic perception- because they do not understand that their own mind  is the Buddha-body of Emanation, arising and subsiding[naturally]! May they all actualize the Buddha-Body of Emanation

How needing of compassion are all unenlightened human beings, right here, who as a result of grasping, are obscured by dissonant mental states and [subtle obstructions to]knowledge-because they do not understand[that their own mind] is indivisible from the three Buddha bodies! May they all actualize the three Buddha-bodies! 

Tibetan Book of the Dead, page 27-28

That above prayer has great meaning in it for all of humanity, even if one does not ascribe to Buddhist teachings. Let's break it down so as lay people, "common householders," we can understand it. 

• The buddha body refers to...."the varying dimensions in which the embodiment of fully enlightened attributes are present" (page 450).  In other words, the buddha-bodies refer to ways enlightenment is present and expressed. 
• "The Buddha-body of  Reality is the ultimate nature of essence of the enlightened mind, which is uncreated, free from the limits of conceptual elaboration, empty of inherent existence, naturally radiant, beyond duality and spacious like the sky." (page 452) This buddha-body represents the pure and empty mind, the spacious blue sky of consciousness upon which concepts, thoughts etc are created and placed. It is that which lay beneath the thinking, unclouded and pure.
• "The Buddha-body of Perfect Resource  refers to the luminous, immaterial, and unimpeded reflection-like forms of the pure energy of enlightened mind...at the point which the duality between subject and object disappear. "( page 451).  I see the Buddha-body of Perfect Resources as the highest level of enlightenment where we realize the Oneness of everything.
• "The Buddha body of  Emanation is the visible and usually physical manifestations of fully enlightened beings." (451). These are the fully enlightened beings who walked the earth...like the Buddha and Christ. 
• Duality, of course, is this tendency we have to bounce between the perceptual and cognitive extremes of "good and bad, right and wrong, black and white, desirable and undesirable " etc
• Cyclic existence is a Buddhist expression reflecting the nature of rebirth but it also includes all the changes, dying and being reborn, we do in this life time as well .

So what is this all saying crazy lady? 

It is simply a prayer, a wish that all sentient beings be freed from suffering by realizing  their capability to be enlightened, to realize who they truly are beneath the delusions, the extremes in thinking and feeling, the craving and attachment to worldly things that will never sustain , the lack of awareness of how pure and blissful  the mind actually is beneath all  mental formations, the aversion and the dualistic perceptions. Compassion is called for ...for all who suffer because they have yet to realize the truth.  It is a wish that all sentient beings will see that all three buddha-bodies...possibility for enlightenment... lay within them so that they  actualize that enlightenment.

Enlightenment is the only true solution for suffering. 

Thinking of that prayer and the poem I added to yesterday's entry, I realize that I am looking for wholeness in the "whole -mess". Not only do I have, like all human beings do, 'my own' sense of "suffering" to transcend or at least accept, 'my own' traumatic wounds to heal and 'my own' broken bits to somehow put together or transform, I am surrounded by the "suffering" of others that I so want to "do" something about. I feel very strongly the suffering of others and want to relieve the weight of that suffering for their sake as much as I do for 'my own'.  I know I can't  'fix' people and their problems...I can't even fix myself through any particular 'action'. ..so what part do I play in relieving suffering in this world?  And the only thing that comes to me, as an answer, is, "Wake up! Wake up to the truth...be present, here and now...and the rest will take care of itself!" 

That is why spiritual practice is so important to me, that is why I 'seek' the wisdom from great teachers and ancient texts, that is why I meditate and write what I write here.  I am hoping to do 'my small part' to transform 'suffering' in myself, in those I love and in the world. 

Does that make me crazy? Possibly...but here I am anyway. ..learning, healing, loving, sharing. For whatever it is worth.

All is well in my world

Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation ( 2005) Penguin: London, England