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Pema
Chödrön / Start Where You Are / March 1998
Everybody Loves Something
"Love and compassion are like the weak spots in the
walls of ego. If we connect with even one moment of good heart and
cherish it, our ability to open will gradually
expand."
The Buddhist term bodhicitta means
completely open heart and mind. "Citta" is translated as heart or
mind; "bodhi" means awake. The cultivation of the
noble heart and mind of bodhicitta is a personal journey. The very
life we have is our working basis; the very life we have is our
journey to enlightenment. Enlightenment is not something we're going
to achieve after we follow the instructions, and then get it right.
In fact when it comes to awakening the heart and mind, you can't
"get it right." On this journey we're moving
toward that which is not so certain, that which cannot be tied down,
that which is not habitual and fixed. We're moving toward a whole
new way of thinking and feeling, a flexible and open way of
perceiving reality that is not based on certainty and security. This
new way of perceiving is based on connecting with the living
energetic quality of ourselves and everything else. Bodhicitta is
our means of tapping into this awakened energy and we can start by
tapping into our emotions. We can start by connecting very directly
with what we already have. Bodhicitta is
particularly available to us when we feel good heart; when we feel
gratitude, appreciation or love in any form whatsoever. In any
moment of tenderness or happiness, bodhicitta is always here. If we
begin to acknowledge these moments and cherish them, if we begin to
realize how precious they are, then no matter how fleeting and tiny
this good heart may seem, it will gradually, at its own speed,
expand. Our capacity to love is an unstoppable essence that when
nurtured can expand without limit. Bodhicitta is
also available in other emotions-even the hardest of feelings like
rage, jealousy, envy and deep-rooted resentment. In even the most
painful and crippling feelings, bodhicitta is available to us when
we acknowledge them with an open mind and heart and realize how they
are shared by all of us-when we acknowledge that we are all in the
same boat feeling the same pain. In the midst of the most profound
misery, we can think of others just like ourselves and wish that we
could all be free of suffering and the root of suffering. When we
tune into any of our feelings, become aware any of our feelings,
they have the capacity to soften us and to dissolve the barriers we
put up between ourselves and others. On Cape
Breton Island, where I live in Nova Scotia, the lakes get so hard in
the winter that people can drive trucks and cars on them. Alexander
Graham Bell flew one of the early airplanes off that ice. It's that
solid. Our habits and patterns can feel just as frozen as that
ice. But when spring comes, the ice melts. The
quality of water has never really disappeared, even in the deepest
depths of winter. It just changed form. The ice melts, and the
essential fluid, living quality of water is there.
The essential good heart and open mind of
bodhicitta is like that. It is here even if we're experiencing it as
so solid we could land an airplane on it. When I'm
emotionally in midwinter and nothing I do seems to melt my frozen
heart and mind, it helps me to remember that no matter how hard the
ice, the water of bodhicitta hasn't really gone anywhere. It's
always right here. At those moments, I'm just experiencing
bodhicitta in its most solid, immovable form. At
that point I often realize that I prefer the inherent fluidity of
situations to the frozenness I habitually impose on them. So I work
on melting that hardness by generating more warmth, more open heart.
A good way for any of us to do this is to think of a person toward
whom we feel appreciation or love or gratitude. In other words, we
connect with the warmth that we already have. If we can't think of a
person, we can think of a pet, or even a plant. Sometimes we have to
search a bit. But as Trungpa Rinpoche used to say, "Everybody loves
something. Even if it's just tortillas." The point is to touch in to
the good heart that we already have and nurture
it. At other times we can think of a person or
situation that automatically evokes compassion. Compassion is our
capacity to care about others and our wish to alleviate their pain.
It is based not on pity or professional warmth, but on the
acknowledgment that we are all in this together. Compassion is a
relationship between equals. So in any moment of hardness, we can
connect with the compassion we already have-for laboratory animals,
abused children, our friends, our relatives, for anyone anywhere-and
let it open our heart and mind in what otherwise might feel like an
impossibly frozen situation. Love and compassion
are like the weak spots in the walls of ego. They are like a
naturally occuring opening. And they are the opening we take. If we
connect with even one moment of good heart or compassion and cherish
it, our ability to open will gradually expand. Beginning to tune
into even the minutest feelings of compassion or appreciation or
gratitude softens us. It allows us to touch in with the noble heart
of bodhicitta on the spot. When I was a child
there was a comic-strip character named Popeye. At times he was
really, really weak and at those vulnerable moments, the big bully
Bluto was always standing there ready to reduce poor Popeye to dust.
But old Popeye would get out his can of spinach, open it up, and
gulp it down. He'd just pour the spinach into his mouth and
then--wham! Full of confidence and strength, he could relate with
all the demons. That's what happens when we use our emotions to
touch in with our noble heart. Bodhicitta, it's like spiritual
spinach. But please don't quote me on this!
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