An excellent article to close out our unit on Buddhism: Buddha Nature: 5 Tips in Tibetan Buddhism for Opening Your Heart and Mind, by Tsoknyi Rinpoche
An excerpt:
" We've become so used to the potency, frequency and variety of the thoughts and feelings that course through our awareness throughout the day that it's very easy to identify with and as them. This tendency is built into our very language. "I'm angry." "I'm afraid." "I'm happy. "I'm sad."
We can bring the same kind of attention we brought to our bodies to our thoughts and feelings -- gently noticing them as they arise, abide for a moment and, somewhat to our surprise perhaps, disappear. In so doing, we gently begin to recognize that our thoughts and feelings are only aspects of experience and not the totality. Our identities may be may be influenced by mental and emotional patterns in the subtle body, but we are not those patterns"
Oooh I loved this article! I especially like Tip #1: Remember Who You Are. I want to dwell in my Buddha nature at all times, but I think that sometimes I forget about my Buddha nature. I want my "boundless wisdom, infinite capability, and immeasurable loving-kindness and compassion" to be resonate within me at all times. So is the article trying to say that we are not who we really think we are? For example, if my profession is a teacher, is the Buddha nature expressing that I really am not a teacher? I am a person who leads people out of negativity and out of the darkness?
ReplyDeleteLooked at from an ultimate perspective, "you" are not anything; "your" Buddha nature consists in the potentiality to advance toward full realization of that insight.
ReplyDeleteAlas, on the road to enlightenment, we must unfortunately use pronouns
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