Becoming a Peaceful Warrior

 

"We have to accept inconveniences as part of our practice. Doing so is what roughs and rubs off our ego like sandpaper or a sharpening stone."

 

If we look at this phenomenon labeled Facebook or the internet, it has got us entrapped. First, it hooks us, and then it drowns us. It's a samsaric materialism. That's why we need to have at least a basic understanding of emptiness and dependent arising. It's important because otherwise, we will become totally egoistic. But on the other extreme, having only a spiritual or religious practice as the only focal point in your life is spiritual materialism. So there must always be a balance.

When we do anything, we always tend to use the methods that work best for us. We have gotten used to specific ways of doing things and have become comfortable doing something in that particular way. But if you want to practice dharma, you have to start doing things that don't always make your life comfortable.

Think about living your life as if you are a small enterprise. You are the boss, but you are also the delivery man, the service provider, the front line person. You do the cleaning, take out the trash, and everything else. So there is no set aspect of what you are. Similarly, when we come together to work, we all must be free of our mental dispositions of who we are or who we think we must be. Many of us only want to like what we like. We feel that this is good and that it's normal, but it's not. These are the things that won't kill us, but they will strangle us. We need to stop practicing this selfish ideology and renounce it. When you do, you are ready to offer anything and everything for the service of all beings and offer body, speech, and mind to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Otherwise, you are only creating more samsaric materialism.

Facing the mind is when you come to see yourself and how you can overcome yourself. It isn't easy. You can quickly become tired because of your ego. But don't give up. You have to become a real hero or heroine, a Warrior. We will get thrown off course by other people's ideas of what's right and wrong. These situations will always be there, but we should continue to cultivate and practice growing. Start to release everything. Offer your heart. And your mind. Communicate with skillful means. Skillfulness is a method of cultivation to connect with all beings. It's the cultivation of the activity of the body, speech, and mind of praise. Skillfulness lies in helping and supporting one another and coming together meaningfully with a common goal even though everybody may have a different viewpoint.

A peaceful warrior adopts these skillful means. Internalizes interdependence and keeps ego under check with balance at all times.

Dharma Teaching by Singha Rinpoche and Edited by Sandeep Nath

25 October 2020