Becoming Bodhisattvas Read online

  BOOKS BY PEMA CHÖDRÖN

  Awakening Loving-Kindness

  Comfortable with Uncertainty

  The Compassion Book

  Living Beautifully

  No Time to Lose

  The Places That Scare You

  The Pocket Pema Chödrön

  Practicing Peace

  Taking the Leap

  When Things Fall Apart

  The Wisdom of No Escape

  SHAMBHALA PUBLICATIONS, INC.

  4720 Walnut Street

  Boulder, Colorado 80301

  www.shambhala.com

  © 2005 by Pema Chödrön

  English translation of The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicharyavatara)

  © 1997 by the Padmakara Translation Group, reprinted with permission.

  This book was previously published with the title

  No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

  Names: Chödrön, Pema, author. | Berliner, Helen, editor.

  Title: Becoming bodhisattvas: a guidebook for compassionate action / Pema Chödrön.

  Other titles: No time to lose

  Description: Boulder, Colorado: Shambhala, 2018.

  This book was previously published by Shambhala under the title No Time to Lose.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018015778 | ISBN 9781611806328 (paperback)

  eISBN 9780834841666

  Subjects: LCSH: Śāntideva, active 7th century. Bodhicaryāvatāra. | Mahayana Buddhism—Doctrines. | BISAC: RELIGION / Buddhism / Tibetan. | BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Meditation. | SELF-HELP / Meditations.

  Classification: LCC BQ3147.C56 2018 | DDC 294.3/85—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2018015778

  v5.3.2

  a

  To my teacher,

  Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche,

  I bow down

  Contents

  People Like Us Can Make a Difference

  Developing a Clear Intention

  Preparing the Ground

  Transcending Hesitation

  Using Our Intelligence

  Taming the Mind

  The Three Disciplines

  Working with Anger

  Specific Situations for Practicing Patience

  Enthusiasm

  Heartbreak with Samsara

  Dissolving the Barriers

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Appendix: Study Guidelines

  Glossary

  Bibliography

  Index

  E-mail Sign-Up

  People Like Us Can Make a Difference

  THE WAY OF THE BODHISATTVA was composed in India over twelve centuries ago, yet it remains remarkably relevant for our times. This classic text, written by the Indian sage Shantideva, gives surprisingly up-to-date instructions for people like you and me to live sanely and openheartedly, even in a very troubled world. It is the essential guidebook for fledgling bodhisattvas, those spiritual warriors who long to alleviate suffering, their own and that of others. Thus it belongs to the mahayana, the school of Buddhism that emphasizes all-inclusive compassion and the cultivation of our flexible, unbiased wisdom mind.

  According to tradition, to write a commentary on a text such as The Way of the Bodhisattva (or Bodhicharyavatara in Sanskrit), one must have advanced spiritual realization or have been directed in a dream to compose such a treatise. Since I unfortunately have neither qualification, I simply offer this teaching with the sincere aspiration that it may help new readers to benefit from Shantideva’s text as much as I have.

  My own appreciation of The Way of the Bodhisattva came about slowly, and only after I became familiar with Patrul Rinpoche, the great wandering yogi of nineteenth-century Tibet. From his writings and the outrageous stories told about him, I came to respect and love this man dearly. He had no fixed abode, no belongings, and was very unconventional and spontaneous in his behavior. Yet he was a powerful and very wise teacher, whose spiritual realization manifested in all the situations of his life. He related to people with great compassion and tenderness, but also with ruthless honesty.

  When I discovered that Patrul Rinpoche had taught this text hundreds of times, it caught my attention. He would wander around Tibet teaching anyone who would listen: rich and poor, nomads and aristocrats, scholars and people who had never studied the Buddhist teachings. Hearing this, I thought, “If this eccentric man, this dedicated yogi, loved the text so much, there must be something to it.” So I began to study it in earnest.

  Some people fall in love with The Way of the Bodhisattva the first time they read it, but I wasn’t one of them. Truthfully, without my admiration for Patrul Rinpoche, I wouldn’t have pursued it. Yet once I actually started grappling with its content, the text shook me out of a deep-seated complacency, and I came to appreciate the urgency and relevance of these teachings. With Shantideva’s guidance, I realized that ordinary people like us can make a difference in a world desperately in need of help.

  I also began to wish for a less scholarly commentary than those available, one that might reach a wide audience and be accessible even to people who know nothing of the Buddhist teachings.

  For these reasons, when I was requested to teach The Way of the Bodhisattva at Gampo Abbey’s monastic college, I was eager to give it a try. The transcripts of those talks form the basis of this book. My commentary on Shantideva’s teaching is very much a student’s view and a work in progress. Unquestionably, with the help of my teachers, my understanding of these verses will deepen considerably over time; nevertheless, I am truly delighted to share my enthusiasm for Shantideva’s instructions.

  Shantideva was born a prince in eighth-century India and, as the eldest son, was destined to inherit the throne. In one account of the story, the night before his coronation, Shantideva had a dream in which Manjushri (the bodhisattva of wisdom) appeared to him and told him to renounce worldly life and seek ultimate truth. Thus Shantideva left home immediately, giving up the throne for the spiritual path, just as the historical Buddha had done.

  In another version, the night before his enthronement, Shantideva’s mother gave him a ceremonial bath using scalding water. When he asked why she was intentionally burning him, she replied, “Son, this pain is nothing compared to the pain you will suffer when you’re king,” and on that very night, he rapidly departed.

  Whatever the catalyst, Shantideva disappeared into India and began living the life of a renunciate. Eventually he arrived at Nalanda University, which was the largest, most powerful monastery in India at the time, a place of great learning that attracted students from all over the Buddhist world. At Nalanda he was ordained a monk and given the name Shantideva, which translates as “God of Peace.”

  Contrary to what his later reputation suggests, Shantideva was not well liked at Nalanda. Apparently he was one of those people who didn’t show up for anything, never studying or coming to practice sessions. His fellow monks said that his three “realizations” were eating, sleeping, and shitting. Finally, in order to teach him a lesson, they invited him to give a talk to the entire university. Only t
he best students were accorded such an honor. You had to sit on a throne and, of course, have something to say. Since Shantideva was presumed to know nothing, the monks thought he would be shamed and humiliated into leaving the university. That’s one story.

  Another version presents a more sympathetic view of Nalanda, whereby the monks hoped that by embarrassing Shantideva, they could motivate him to study. Nevertheless, like all sentient beings who are building a case against someone, they probably derived a certain joy from the possibility of making Shantideva squirm. It’s said they tried to further humiliate him by making the throne unusually high, without providing any stairs.

  To their astonishment, Shantideva had no problem getting onto the throne. He then confidently asked the assembled monks if they wanted traditional teachings or something they had never heard before. When they replied that they wanted to hear something new, he proceeded to deliver the entire Bodhicharyavatara, or The Way of the Bodhisattva.

  Not only were these teachings very personal, full of useful advice, and relevant to their lives, they were also poetic and fresh. The content itself was not radical. In the very first verses, Shantideva says that everything he’s about to teach derives from the lineage of the Buddha. It wasn’t his subject matter that was original; it was the direct and very contemporary way he expressed the teachings, and the beauty and power of his words.

  Toward the end of his presentation, Shantideva began to teach on emptiness: the unconditioned, inexpressible, dreamlike nature of all experience. As he spoke, the teachings became more and more groundless. There was less and less to hold on to, and the monks’ minds opened further and further. At that point, it is said that Shantideva began to float. He levitated upward until the monks could no longer see him and could only hear his voice. Perhaps this just expresses how enraptured his audience felt. We will never know for sure. What we do know is that after Shantideva’s discourse on emptiness, he disappeared. By then his disappearance probably disappointed the monks, but he never returned to Nalanda and remained a wandering yogi for the rest of his life.

  The Way of the Bodhisattva is divided into ten chapters. Patrul Rinpoche organized them into three main sections based on the following verse by the great Buddhist master Nagarjuna:

  May bodhichitta, precious and sublime,

  Arise where it has not yet come to be;

  And where it has arisen may it not decline,

  But grow and flourish ever more and more.

  The Sanskrit term bodhichitta is often translated as “awakened heart,” and refers to an intense desire to alleviate suffering. On the relative level, bodhichitta expresses itself as longing. Specifically, it is the heartfelt yearning to free oneself from the pain of ignorance and habitual patterns in order to help others do the same. This longing to alleviate the suffering of others is the main point. We start close to home with the wish to help those we know and love, but the underlying inspiration is global and all encompassing. Bodhichitta is a sort of “mission impossible”: the desire to end the suffering of all beings, including those we’ll never meet, as well as those we loathe.

  On the absolute level, bodhichitta is nondual wisdom, the vast, unbiased essence of mind. Most importantly, this is your mind—yours and mine. It may seem distant but it isn’t. In fact, Shantideva composed this text to remind himself that he could contact his wisdom mind and help it to flourish.

  According to Patrul Rinpoche’s threefold division, the first three chapters of The Way of the Bodhisattva elucidate the opening lines of Nagarjuna’s verse—“May bodhichitta, precious and sublime / Arise where it has not yet come to be”—and refer to our initial longing to care for others. We yearn for this transformative quality to arise in ourselves, and in all beings, even those who have never before concerned themselves with the welfare of others. Chapter 1 offers a rhapsody on the wonders of bodhichitta. Chapter 2 prepares the mind to nurture this bodhichitta longing: as if preparing soil, we prepare the mind so the seed of bodhichitta can grow. Chapter 3 introduces us to the bodhisattva’s vow, the commitment to use one’s life to help others.

  Sadly, we’re usually so preoccupied with our own comfort and security that we don’t give much thought to what others might be going through. While justifying our own prejudice and anger, we fear and denounce these qualities in others. We don’t want ourselves or those we care about to suffer, yet we condone revenge on our foes. Seeing the disastrous results of this “me-first” thinking in the daily news, however, we might long for bodhichitta to arise in the hearts of men and women everywhere. Then, instead of seeking revenge, we’d want even our enemies to be at peace.

  Martin Luther King Jr. exemplified this kind of longing. He knew that happiness depended on healing the whole situation. Taking sides—black or white, abusers or abused—only perpetuates the suffering. For me to be healed, everyone has to be healed.

  The people who make a positive difference in this world have big hearts. Bodhichitta is very much awake in their minds. With the skillful means to communicate to large groups of people, they can bring about enormous change, even in those who never previously looked beyond their own needs. This is the subject of the first three chapters of The Way of the Bodhisattva: the initial dawning of the awakened heart.

  The next line of Nagarjuna’s verse, “And where it has arisen, may it not decline,” corresponds to the next three chapters of The Way of the Bodhisattva and emphasizes the need to nurture bodhichitta. If we don’t encourage it, our yearning to alleviate suffering can become dormant. While it never disappears completely, the ability to love and empathize can definitely decline.

  The same is true of insight. A mere glimpse of the openness of our mind might touch us deeply. It might inspire us to start reading books like this one and awaken a feeling of urgency to do something meaningful with our lives. But if we don’t nurture this inspiration, it falters. Life takes over, and we forget we ever saw things from a wider perspective. Therefore, once we feel the longing of bodhichitta, we need to be told how to proceed.

  In chapters 4, 5, and 6, Shantideva describes how to work skillfully with emotional reactivity and the wildness of our minds. These are essential instructions for freeing ourselves from self-absorption, the narrow-minded reference point that my teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche called “the cocoon.”

  In these chapters, we are also introduced to the six paramitas. These are six basic ways to go beyond the false security of habitual patterns and relax with the fundamental groundlessness and unpredictability of our lives. The word paramita literally means “going to the other shore,” going beyond the usual preconceptions that blind us to our immediate experience.

  In chapter 5, Shantideva presents the paramita of discipline; in chapter 6, the paramita of patience. But this is not discipline and patience in the ordinary sense of restraint and forbearance; it’s the discipline and patience that awaken our heart by dissolving deep-seated habits of negativity and selfishness.

  Chapters 7, 8, and 9 illuminate the last line of Nagarjuna’s verse and contain teachings that encourage bodhichitta to “grow and flourish ever more and more.” Chapter 7 discusses the paramita of enthusiasm; chapter 8, the paramita of meditation; and chapter 9, the wisdom of emptiness.

  In this third section, Shantideva shows us how bodhichitta can become a way of life. With his support, we could eventually enter into even the most challenging situations without losing our insight or compassion. This, of course, is a gradual learning process and we may have some relapses. But as we make the journey from fear to fearlessness, Shantideva is always there with the wisdom and encouragement we need.

  After some consideration, I have decided that commentary on the ninth chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva requires a book in itself. While these teachings on the paramita of wisdom are important to Shantideva’s overall presentation, they are far more daunting than the rest of the text. They present a philosophical debate between Sh
antideva’s “Middle-Way” view of emptiness and the views of other Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools. Because of their complexity, I feel it would be best to present them separately and at a future time. For now, I refer you to the excellent explanation in the introduction to the Padmakara translation of the The Way of the Bodhisattva, and to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s book Transcendent Wisdom.

  In the tenth and final chapter Shantideva—wholeheartedly and with great passion—dedicates the benefit of his teachings to all suffering beings, whoever and wherever they may be.

  I regard this text as an instruction manual for extending ourselves to others, a guidebook for compassionate action. We can read it to free ourselves from crippling habits and confusion. We can read it to encourage our wisdom and compassion to grow stronger. And we can read it with the motivation to share the benefit with everyone we meet.

  This is the spirit: read The Way of the Bodhisattva with the intention of accepting and digesting all that rings true. Not everything will inspire you. You might find the language challenging, and you might sometimes feel provoked or offended. But remember that Shantideva’s unwavering intention is to encourage us. He never doubts that we have the strength and basic goodness to help others, and he tells us everything he has learned about how to do this. Then, of course, it’s up to us to use this information and make it real.

  Personally, I am indebted to Shantideva for his determination to get this message across: people like you and me can transform our lives by awakening the longing of bodhichitta. And I am deeply grateful to him for expressing, unrelentingly, that it is urgent, very urgent, that we do so. We have no time to lose. When I look at the state of the world today, I know his message could not possibly be more timely.