In love with the world - 3. Born with a silver spoon

Contributors

Ann, Bonnie

Reminder of chapter 2 key points

Rinpoche cites how he set out on his awareness retreat by disrupting his life within the monastic enclosure. Since he was born into a privileged life, he has no actual experience in the outside world on his own and chooses to get out of his known 'comfort zone.'

Rinpoche knew by staying with all the unpleasantness of whatever sensations happened to him and by not pushing it away, that his awareness of compassion and suffering would increase his understanding.

Content of the session

In this chapter, Mingyur Rinpoche reflects on his situation.  He says that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth by Nepali standards.  He was raised in materially unpretentious circumstances, rather than palatial residences with the luxurious comforts of a god realm.  However, he enjoyed plenty of food, warm clothing, abundant security and love, plus an unusually protective environment which offered him some of the same isolations and protections of the god realm. 

Realm is the term used to describe negative emotions in Rinpoche’s tradition.  Of these, pride and excessive desire for pleasure and comfort are dominant for the god realm.  With that mindset, we lose the impulse to search for meaning, leaving us with self-satisfied ignorance.  Rinpoche’s monastics training was designed to counter the afflictions characterizing this realm.  Monasteries were spare…no hot water, heat, and a limited diet…but they, too, separated him from the kinds of problems that householders and many people face in today’s world, and not just extreme deprivation.  Everything had been taken care of for him, with extra precautions and more protection than he needed. 

To break the mold of his conditioning, Rinpoche needed to add wood to the fire…do something a little extreme.  His passions were practicing meditation, exploring the nature of suffering and liberation and teaching what he had learned from his lineage and experiences.  There was nothing else he wanted to do except learn how to go deeper with what he was doing:  He had gained a degree of confidence in working with his mind and had overcome the severe panic attacks of his childhood; so he left Tergar with confidence in his capacity to overcome obstacles.

He set out not knowing about things like purchasing a train ticket or standing in line.  These he had managed, and now, alone, in the middle of the night, he sat on the floor of a lowest class train car, being stepped on or fallen into by people moving up and down the aisle of the jerking car.  He recoiled and thought perhaps it was more conceit than aspiration that had prompted his venture.  The wandering retreat was about deliberately making trouble for himself.  He thought perhaps he had underestimated how much trouble he would encounter so quickly.  Further, he had idealized an anonymous life, but was disoriented by suddenly being ignored by everyone around him.  None of the passengers getting on and off had given even a nod of respect for the Buddha’s robes he wore.  This in contrast to the numerous privileges he enjoyed as member of a prominent family, as well as the additional status conferred by his being recognized as a tulku.

“Well” he thought, “this won’t last forever.  This retreat is a precious interlude between monastic responsibilities….”:  he planned to return to his role and responsibilities.  He dismissed the thought that he could get off the train and buy a new ticket for first class as silly and said to himself that he needed to figure out how to deal with the discomfort.

Rinpoche’s education as a tulku concentrated on enhancing the potential for spiritual awakening with intensely focused training of the mind.  He ends the chapter saying that in just the past few hours, he “…had felt rescued by his training more than once….”, adding with characteristic humor, “…even though that same training had ensured the practical life skills of a lapdog.”

Questions

1. How does your feeling of compassion differ based on what you have experienced directly versus what you only have observed, read, or thought about?
2. Can you you have a more compassionate understanding and awareness of others' suffering without venturing out of your comfort zone, or by 'adding wood to the fire'? 

Meditation

Compassion