Read Q&As
Translators Ari Goldfield and Rose Taylor respond to readers’ questions about topics from the book.
Would you write out Khenpo Rinpoche’s poem that begins “Making mistake after mistake, I walk the unmistaken path?” Such a helpful reminder about how to enjoy and appreciate the learning curve!
A: Sure! Isn’t that a great verse? Here it is:
Making mistake after mistake, I walk on the authentic path,
Confused and confused, I search for the unconfused nature,
Forgetting and forgetting, I rely on unforgetting mindfulness.
If you want to hear the melody, please visit: http://www.bodhionline.org/ViewMedia.asp?id=31
At your course we learned about working with our anger. I guess we can view others anger towards us as being our anger as well. It's a little different though, their anger seems filled with the wish for our happiness at times though arises due to actions I am seen to have done or to have not done. Resting in the natural display of it unfolding and not reacting and maybe even feeling sad I made them so upset is how I handle it most of the time, sometimes I feel the need to respond and justify, and do. It can be weary and one can feel that one has faults that require work. Per your teaching they are not faults only bliss emptiness when viewed as illusory. Do we continue along and experience the unfolding? Abiding in Bodhichitta? Boy that's rough, but is a vow.
A: It seems you have a good way of working with anger directed towards you: not leaping into reactivity but being open and listening to the other person. We can never really know what is going on in another person’s mind but the more we remain still and open, the more likely we are to hear what they wish to communicate. What we can directly know and work with is what arises in our own experience when someone is angry with us. It may also be useful to communicate further when the moment of intense anger has passed.
While on the path, we look at reality in terms of the two truths: relative truth and ultimate truth. Relatively, it is good to examine our faults. Faults are simply repetitive behavior patterns that do not serve us or others well. They are simply causes that result in appearances that do not seem beneficial. So, we may choose to try putting into place alternative causes that result in more beneficial appearances.
Ultimately, the true nature of all appearances is appearance-emptiness, bliss-emptiness. This allows us to have some spaciousness around our so-called faults and to not cling to them as stuck and solid. If we remember the ultimate nature we do not feel weary of working with our faults; we are just an illusory personworking with illusory faults. Then we can have a lighter touch and even a sense of humor with our practice on the path of bodhichitta. Then it’s not so rough!
Considering chapter one’s discussion of direct cognition, could you say a little more about “the mental sense faculty” versus “the mental consciousness.” Being familiar with many Western teachings that say, “there are five senses,” I was surprised to read in some Buddhist texts “there are six senses that perceive specific objects.”
A: This is a subtle topic of the teachings on direct valid cognition. These teachings explain that not only do our five sense consciousnesses directly (meaning nonconceptually) perceive their respective objects, but our mental consciousness does too! However, this mental direct cognition of a sense object only lasts for one moment, and therefore it happens too quickly for us to be aware of it. Only very advanced practitioners can be aware of it during their meditation. So it is not quite right that there are six senses, because there is only one sense consciousness for each of the five sense objects (visual forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and bodily sensations). But the mental consciousness is directly aware, for one instant, of every object that our sense consciousnesses perceive.
