The Rabbit Who Jumped Into the Fire

"A skittish motorbike with a touch of red blood in it is better than all a riding animals upon earth, since of a logical prolongation of our faculties, as well as a hint, a provocation, to excess conferred by a honeyed unrelenting smoothness."
-- T.E. Lawrence
Sometimes, it is utilitarian to cruise a approach bodhisattvas choose to withdraw their vision.

One morning in May 1935, T.E. Lawrence swerved his 1932 Brough Superior motorcycle to equivocate distinguished two boys, flew over a handlebars, as well as struck his head upon a roadway. He lingered in a deep sleep for 6 days, as well as afterwards died. That is how you mislaid Lawrence of Arabia.

On a 28th of September 1986, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche went in to cardiac arrest. He drifted for about 6 months thereafter, as well as died in early April 1987. The general perspective is which he drank himself to genocide -- competence be this is partly true -- so which is how you mislaid Trungpa of America.
And afterwards there is a important rabbit from a aajtaka who, when he saw a starving buddha (or Quetzalcoatl, if you happen to be an Aztec, since they discuss it a same legend) jumped in to a glow so a buddha would have something to eat.
Try which with a vegetarian, as well as you burn for nothing.

Generally speaking, of course outset control carrying a area in a fulfilment of a nature of one's own thoughts is no different from a of course outset control carrying a area in an complete lack of fulfilment of a nature of one's own mind.

Of any eminence in between Actors-Having-Realization as well as Actors-Having-No-Realization what can a single say? Does it unequivocally exist?

Soldier has a deathwish innate of sublimated survivor guilt, drops a bike, as well as dies. Poet in pain has an Irish Indian's disposition to a Creature, drinks approach too plenty, as well! as dies . Rabbit channels moth, jumps in to fire, as well as dies.

Doesn't matter what you think, does it? All light, reuniting.
When it's time to leave this body, this illusionary tangle,
Don't equates to yourself anxiety as well as grief;
The thing which you should train in as well as transparent up for yourself -
There's no such thing as dying to be done.
It's only transparent light, a mother, as well as kid transparent light uniting;
When thoughts forsakes a body, perfect delight!
--Gyalwa Gotsangpa (1189 - 1258) But -- aha! you contend -- a characteristics imputed to a control of a Actors-Having-Realization have been such that, due to eminent intention, there is a favorable, idealisation consequence. The characteristics imputed to a control of a Actors-Having-No-Realization have been such that, due to ignorance, there is an unfavorable, idealisation consequence.

Oh? One to heaven, a other to hell? Chasing after gods as well as devils, eh? That's mighty Christian of you. Whatever shall you do if you locate them? Have a arrange of moral arm-wrestling contest, or something along those lines?


If you do not certitude yourself -- and, if you have been celebration of a mass this, there is positively no reason whatsoever since you should -- control can -- for whatever reason -- be marked down to, as well as thereafter expressed as, vows which have been usually difficult to keep in inverse suit to a grade you do certitude yourself. In a not exactly dissimilar fashion, a erect of vows carrying their area in an appreciation of equates to as well as effect -- as well as notice, you did not contend "fear," you pronounced "appreciation" -- have been serve elementary to understand.

Perhaps you can contend such vows have been not vows though postulates (and maybe you can contend you competence be using "postulate" as! a codew ord for "aspiration.") A elemental principle is erected opposite which a single examines one's free function as opposite one's crafted behavior, hopefully if not practically guidance something in a process. Padmasambhava said, "Ascend with conduct, deplane with a view," as well as by this he did not meant which if you step upon a crack you will break your mother's back.

Postulates have been not insincere to be true; neither have been they insincere to be untrue. Postulates have been tested with evidence. If a justification supports a postulate, it will buy you a drink. If otherwise, it is a series ten, a single stripe, poor charlie postulate.

No tea, no talk. No money, no honey.

In a conventionally agreed-upon set of beliefs you collectively call "Buddhism" -- or something which a chronological Buddha, Shakyamuni, specifically settled does not exist -- vows have been codified in multiform forms, both easy as well as extensive. Actually, if a single perfectly understands those vows which have been deliberate rudimentary, those vows which have been deliberate extensive no longer appear so extensive; rather, they appear a healthy prolongation of elemental reason expressed in a many elementary vouch of all.
"Driven usually by fear, do group go for retreat to many places to hills, woods, groves, trees as well as shrines. Such, indeed, is no protected refuge; such is not a retreat supreme. Not by resorting to such a retreat is a single expelled from all suffering. He who has left for retreat to a Buddha, a Teaching as well as his Order, penetrates with transcendental wisdom a Four Noble Truths suffering, a equates to of suffering, a cessation of suffering, as well as a Noble Eightfold Path leading to a cessation of suffering. This in truth is a protected refuge, this a retreat supreme. Having left to such a refuge, a single is expelled from all suffering." -- Dhammapada 188-192
This vouch of retreat can movement perfectly, by which you meant a single can, in a remarkable peep typi! cally lu bricated by an perpetuity of tears, cruise a pang of sentient beings in conditioned life and, though any particular suspicion for one's self, develop an evident thirst for retreat as a equates to by which to acquit them. you am told this is rare, though in my own personal experience, you have seen numerous such cases.

There have been a lot of eminent people in this world.

One can additionally obtain retreat vows from peer-pressuring priests, i.e. a single has no preference in what is a fundamentally a culturally prescribed affair. This accounts for millions of people who describe themselves as Buddhists, though never unequivocally gave a matter any critical thought. They have been merely a native sons as well as daughters of traditionally Buddhist nations, as well as they wish to greatfully grandma as well as grandpa. In a small societies where Buddhism is a de facto state religion, it is conveniently probable for someone else to take retreat upon your behalf, prior to you have been even born.

Oh! Here is an engaging idea: when such people turn rebellious, do they run off as well as turn Christians, as well as stop examination suit pictures which underline Richard Gere?

Having sought refuge, as well as carrying spoken a retreat vow, a single becomes similar to a fabled Dutch boy of yore. One right away has one's finger in a dike, except in this box a single is already underwater. On a other side of which barrier is a space-like, empty vastness of vows similar to stars, generally divided in to Pratimoksha vows, Bodhisattva vows, as well as Secret Mantra vows. These collectively cover all fathomable topics from a materials used to have cases in which to reason needles, to resources which you do not feel during autocracy to discuss. you will merely contend it is specifically settled which there have been "one hundred thousand million classes of mantra difference of honor," by which you competence safely infer you have only encountered a mom of all glosses. In any e! vent, a single can keep one's finger in a dike, relax one's resistance as many or as small as a single dares, or say, "What a heck," as well as remove one's finger altogether, by which equates to a metaphorical ocean is paradoxically drained as well as a single right away stands upon equally metaphorical dry land.

So, then...

Maybe, during a small juncture, a vows cease to be postulates as well as turn elementary practicality. There is a aspirational as well as a practical, right away isn't there?

If you have a needle box done of ivory or gold, decorated with rubies, as well as you encounter someone who has a needle box done of tin, afterwards there is this thought which your grand needle box competence stir up envy.

Or, what is some-more likely, you will outlay your highly-strung hours marveling during your needle case, as well as guarding it opposite thieves. This could inhere all sorts of locks, safes, as well as security measures.

You competence displace it, poke high as well as low for it, as well as begin to suspect which someone has stolen it. You competence lie awake, tossing as well as turning, dwelling upon all a possibilities, until a suspect congeals in your heated mind. If you have teeth, you begin to gnash them.

Now comes revenge! Days, weeks, as well as months competence go by, as you plot to retake your property, sketch confederates in to your campaign.

Finally, you arm yourself as well as set out to recover your appreciated needle case. There have been trumpets. There have been drums. On a blazing field, a single meets usually with a ghost soldiers of one's own emanation. Dawn breaks, as well as there you remain, a smoking pistol in your hand. Sirens have been heard, as well as they have been getting closer.
When a whole thing's only not working, everything's lined up opposite you,
Don't try to find a small approach to shift it all;
Here a indicate to have your use is reverse a approach you see it,
Don't try to h! ave it s top or to improve.
Adverse conditions happen, when they do it's so delightful -
They have a small song of perfect delight!
Therefore, to save everybody as well as his uncle a grief brought about through exuberant needle cases -- as well as a responsibility of funerals as well as trials -- you vouch to keep your needle box upon a simple, utilitarian side. The indicate isn't a grand or common needle case. The indicate is a unsentimental impulse to transform problems.

Maybe there is no needle case.

Maybe there is a box of football cards.

Go ask O.J. Simpson.

But, you digress....
When kleshas get me going as well as their feverishness has got me burning,
I try no antidote to set them right;
Like an alchemistic potion branch steel in to gold,
What lies in kleshas' power to bestow
Is bliss though contagion, utterly undefiled;
kleshas entrance up, perfect delight!It is entirely probable to deceive one's self in to meditative which a single is a great bodhisattva, support one's noble, altrusitic vows even during terrible price to one's self, as well as therefore, anything a single says, schemes, or does, is in conclusion value saying, scheming, or doing. In fact, you will go a step further, as well as contend which is is not usually possible, it is rarely probable -- officious likely, in a evident clarity which a single cultivates a garden of such illusion all a time.

Will it terrify you if you contend which is not necessarily a bad thing?

One action of cultivation is fertilization. If you have been such a grand bullshit artist which you can bullshit yourself in to trying to action similar to a bodhisattva though actually being a Bodhisattva, which equates to you have bullshitted your approach in to actually apropos a bodhisattva.

Should this "bodhisattva or not" dialectic even matter? Does your "bodhisattva" have a beginning, a middle, or an end? Does your bodhisattva usually grow where a wild things are? Across how many la! kes as w ell as rivers contingency your bodhisattva travel? Is this your bodhisattva's first rodeo? Have you negotiated a bodhisattva pre-nup?

Somewhere in a great beak of Buddhist writing, there have been difference command to a effect of, "Don't unpack a high as well as heavy things only for a small lousy, small time result," or, "Silly Rabbit, jumping in a Fire is for Bodhisattvas." you have been seeking all over for a exact language, though have been unable to find it yet. Which makes sense, since this is a single you have observed in a crack -- over as well as over again -- with what many people would cruise have been horrific results.

Guess this is a single you only do not get, since you always... always... always... only jumped.

I did not caring about yesterday. you did not caring about tomorrow.

Knees knocked.

Lips quivered.

Men shouted.

Women cried.

Tears fell.

The definite was not denied.

I positively did not caring what it cost.

Everybody wants to order a world.

Everybody has their own reasons.

Everybody likes those reasons.

Now you am old. People who discuss it you, "sixty is a brand new forty" have been out to traffic you a cow for beans. You climb which stalk, you promise you, there is a fat man up there, as well as he is ugly. you saw him in a mirror only a other day.

Anyway, since you am aged as well as in seeming receive of what many people competence cruise horrific, you am mostly asked, "If you knew afterwards what you know right away --- if you had it to do all over again -- would you still do things a approach you did them?"

When you have been old, fat, ugly, as well as horrific similar to me, people will ask you a same question. Which is an utterly ridiculous question, asked by people who positively do not assimilate how things work. What have been you doing? Are you land a small city in a palm of your hand, arguing about a small doormen as well as cabdriv! ers? Are you saying, of them, "Oh look! This a single is you do so as well as so! That a single is you do so as well as so!"

The answer to which subject is you am so very pleased as well as gay with each shining impulse -- each festive second -- which passes here in this crystal prism of neither-within neither-without, facilely unlocked possibility.

So pleased as well as gay which when you listened a screams as well as whispers of a funny people who see monsters upon a wall -- a people who retained during my sleeve, grabbed me by a lapels, shoved their faces right up in my face, as well as stammered out with their stinking exhale across their damaged teeth, "Do you see them? Do you see them?" -- you regularly pronounced yes, you do....

Yes, you see them, too.

And you will lay with you in a dark. Maybe you will reason you. Maybe you will toy you. Maybe you will sing to you. Maybe you will lie to you. Maybe you will seduce you. Maybe you will soothe you. Maybe you will stay here, anticipating out what makes you shake, as well as here you will shake up together until your shaking stops.

Because there though for fortune... something similar to that... something close to that... until a single day you discovered you was wrong, as well as it is nothing similar to that.

It is nothing similar to that.

There have been no roads to travel, no eyeglasses to raise, as well as no fires.

There is nobody needs saving, as well as nothing to save them from.

If you demeanour for a a single who knows this, which a single cannot be found.

Autumn Equinox, 2010




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