Emotions
of the Enlightened Mind
”Activities
that are graceful, heroic, terrifying,
compassionate,
furious, arrogant, possessive and
envious
all without exception are perfect
forms
of pure, self-illuminated wisdom.”
-Sahajayoginicinta,
ancient female master of tantric buddhism
The
moment I heard this quote, I jumped at joy! It is so spot on! I had
never heard other scriptures or authors express this point like
Sahajayoginicinta. The vast majority of authors explain how emotions
become neutral. I've never seen any other author say how ”furious,
arrogant, possessive and envious” emotions, that on the surface
sound very samsaric, are expression of ”pure, self-illuminated
wisdom”. This statement is really something else!
I
didn't grasp this point until I ended my purification process. Before
that point I didn't understand how all emotions, including the ones
that used to make me contracted around the notion of self, could be
self-illuminated wisdom. It sounded wonky and strange! But I see now
how a fully enlightened person
is emotionally completely free and actually expresses him/herself
perfectly in response to prevailing circumstances or arising
situations. After all mind phenomena is seen to be without a solid
self, a mahasiddha keeps reacting to external circumstances not based
on a notion of self but as an appropriate response. Both before and
after enlightenment circumstances might be far from ideal and
therefore emotions like depression and frustration keep happening
both before and after enlightenment but... the difference between the
two is great!
I
was never attracted by the idea of becoming an etherically smiling
buddha who was always fine with everything and never raised his
voice. That sort of buddhahood never made sense to me. Perhaps in the
perfect world, where the master in question never needs to worry
about anything and only has kind and well-behaving people come to
meet him, perhaps then it is fitting to have the expression of a
peaceful buddha but to me, and I think to most people, that is an
utopia.
In
the history of vajrayana we have many accounts of wrathful behaviour
of mahasiddhas (and this point has also been purposefully taken
advantage of by bad teachers). In my experience, the life of a modern
mahasiddha is no different.
23.11.2021
