Without reservations
Robert: You've mentioned saints and sages 'chillin in the pure lands' and not necessarily working to liberate samsara, that it's quite common. I have a problem with this, like I can see that one would take a break one or two kalpas to gather knowledge or skills elsewhere to serve the cause, but to sit around or play cards or whatever, I don't get it. Everyone wants to get back to dharmakaya, that seems the highest purpose available in all of existence, and we are cells in the same organism, we are all the trikaya just with differentiated points of view. In the analogy mahasiddhas are like the white blood cells. But you don't see white blood cells loitering about when there's an ongoing infection.
Yes all will be healed in time, that seems a natural fact, everything sooner or later returns to its natural state, why would minds be any different. But we can spare so much needless pain and shorten the process exponentially with the aid of mahasiddhas and the holy dharma. All mahasiddhas have my reverence and I wouldn't speak I'll about someone, ever, this phenomenon can however be discussed in general terms I think, shall it hurt to talk about then so be it. Have been meaning to ask your view on this and the OP kind of goes in line with this question. Thank you, it is my wish is that this will help with deepening my devotion and subsequent service to the jewels. May all beings be free!
Baba: Laziness is common, as is lack of commitment and effort due to insufficient understanding of compassion. If you take a look around at all the dharma activities of teachers and their sanghas, what do you see? I don't see that many compassionate individuals who really take it as their bodhisattvic duty to bring dharma to others. I don't see that many dharma heroes around. Do you?
However, all dharma teachers and practitioners create fortunate karmic connections for themselves, and in dependance to their chosen vehicles and merits, access the chillin' in pure lands, like you say. In one sense this is merely cause and effect because it is as promised: practitioners are saved from the endless transmigration in the six realms or at least committed practice alters it greatly.
Having said that, just like there aren't dharma heroes here walking around, there is no place in common pure lands where heroes gather, except in places like Guru Rinpoche's Pure Land. Most pure lands, like most ashrams and training centers, are easily accessed. But in Guru Padma's Zangdok Palri, there are no unprepared or lazy individuals because they are not granted access there. But even then, master's pure land is there only to offer a place for karmically connected individuals to finish their practice of two stages: emptiness and light body. Pure lands are not more special in that sense. Guru Padma's pure land isn't any different in terms of purpose than our sangha is.
If individuals want to take it easy and relax, and not worry too much about furthering dharma whether in this or other worlds, it is their own choice. They have the freedom to do so but if you ask me, I think this does not indicate true understanding of the nature of mind and the nature of samsara. Like you say, white cells don't chill and take it easy when there is an infection in the body.
Many take dharma too lightly, as a hobby or something like that but it boils down to being a matter of life and death. It is not a game or a play, or to make one's life 5% happier because for those who suffer, the suffering is real. This is where Shakyamuni Buddha's teaching starts, from suffering and without it, there is no becoming free from it. Only those who start from suffering, having understood that self-based existence is actually a hell, can truly understand what dharma is because to them it is not a game or a small bonus on top of everything else but like a lifeline that keeps them alive. Are you such a person? I think it is from this real, felt suffering where the true understanding of reality and development of human character grows from.
Having found dharma, the medicine that heals our existential illness and pain, we are fortunate to keep paining. That might sound a bit strange but you see, many start dharma because they recognise their suffering and the medicinal benefits of dharma but then, somewhere along the way, their pains are alleviated enough and as they are unable to see how much more causes of pain are still yet to be liberated, they lax their efforts and commitments, and start taking it easy. I can't tell you how many people like this I've seen along the way but it is OK too.
It is a blessing to keen paining all the way until light body because it keeps you in the move and you don't start chillin' too early. Like I have explained many times, this is the gift of tantra because it doesn't allow you to bypass your blindspots. At the same time, if one doesn't have the need or resolve to go all the way, tantra can add to one's pain by revealing the darkness within too much. I've seen people like this too, even asking my permission to not practice. Silly! Whether you practice or not is nobody elses business than yours, so don't ask me and please don't bother me with your reasonings about such matters. My job is to help, instruct and lift those who want to commit to practice.
Even those who have realized the full scope of emptiness and have become first stage buddhas, according to the mahayana buddhist model, can be very ignorant. From one perspective, this is an outrageous statement but it is true. Buddhism emphasizes and relies on emptiness so much that it is both its strong and weak point. Fact is that emptiness is only one stop on the way to the real, full enlightenment, also known as light body or rainbow body. How many buddhist traditions teaches about both emptiness and light body? Only few. How many other religions?
Part of the reason why we see so few adepts attain small or full rainbow bodies is because of the above mentioned reasons. Also, methods vary greatly.
In principle, dukkha - existential pain and suffering - is optional but not all people of the world are karmically ready to attain full enlightenment or even much lesser attainments in this life, even if there were conditions to make it happen. Most people, incl. most of those who are already associated with dharma or practice it, are taking mini-steps to create karmic causes for their liberation some time in the distant future. Such people are like amateur athletes, they don't need professional coaches or high training methods.
If you ask my opinion, based on my own life experience, I can say loud and clear that suffering is real and that life can be hell. Mine was and still is a little bit. Having had the fortune to meet the dharma, to learn and practice it extensively, I feel it is my duty to spread the dharma. I don't chill. I can't because I know there are thousands and thousands of people out there who live in hell when they needn't to. If you think of the history of dharma, buddhist or otherwise, can you say that the past generations of teachers have been succesful in bringing the dharma medicine for those who need it? No, they have utterly failed. I know there are countless people out there just like the younger me who was eaten alive by one's self-delusion. I can't ignore the suffering in the world. I am requiring for my students who teach because this is my realization of bodhicitta and the dharma of Amrita Mandala. To me this alone is dharma and if genuine dharma is to have a future, this is the spirit it needs to have.
I work in dharma because I have to, because that's what the natural state is to me. I feel the pain of the world, so I act on it. Because of that I got to do my best and find ways to reach those people. I don't take a second for granted.
I have to admit though, that I rarely have enjoyable days at work. I am a lone wolf, without support from lineage, without support of anyone else in a culture where people don't know what dharma is. The past 15 years of teaching the way I do, has been another form of hell but this time I've had the support of my gurus and the buddha within, so it hasn't killed me, though it came close few years ago. I have thought of quitting for thousand times but never once I lost bodhicitta and it has kept me going. If I die doing what I have sworn to do, I will leave without regrets.
To me, there is no other way to sow the seeds of dharma into this soil, so I do it without reservations.
If
you do the same, the buddhas will come before you and bow their heads
at your feet. Many take Bodhisattva Vows but bodhisattvas are hard to
find.
