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challenging egos
if the ego is something like a monster that occupies the head by force, then drawing the ego from its cave and lighting its fur on fire with the fire of buddha dharma is a bodhisattva's duty! this is such a violent image but the ego beast is set on fire with love, ha ha ha, and the demon which inhabits a being's head is the demon, not the person themself. it is in love for the person that whatever taints them be drawn out and cleansed. what does everybody think of this? we generally interact with the same people from day to day, so we know to some degree their particular habits and character, and thus also what ails them whether ignorance, greed or anger or anything else. this doesn't mean criticizing people obsessively in our head about what's wrong with them and what we think they need, but rationally and compassionately assessing the ways we believe we can help others around us, and taking direct action to confront their problems. the more we know someone, the more we can understand what kind of monster lives inside their head, and finally the more we are able to devise a suitable trap. there are tons of different monsters. some are cyclops, some are yetis, some are chimeras, some are vampires, some are boogeymen . ha ha ha!
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activists are to a government what dharma is to ego.
So, in engaging in this behavior there is always the risk that I, in my deluded (defiled) state, can't really know other's defilements and am simply messing with others heads/emotions based on those delusions (my own defilements).
This is where I need (must have) friends and mentors more advanced in training to help me clearly see when I'm just mucking around in my own crap and when I'm really accomplishing the intention to help others.
I imagine that's why my teachers/mentors often simply tell me to go back to the cushion. It's because I'm not really clearly 'seeing' the other's crap but my own and imagining it as the other's crap cuz I'm deluded and seeing the other through my own crap-filled lens.
It takes a lot of time and effort in concentration and meditation training to even begin to have a very tiny bit of clarity about such things. It then takes a lot more time and effort in the dance with circumstances, including others, to begin to know what's other's crap when we see it, and this is far easier than 'seeing' my own!!
I imagine that's why it's said that only Buddhas and high level Bodhisattvas can do this kind of stuff with any sort of skill, the rest of us are just kinda blindly trying to help others and all to often only succeeding in increasing potential harm.
That being said - I imagine it's important not to give-up. As I've also heard "practice makes perfect" "fake it til you make it" etc, etc, etc. I simply tell myself that I can't know if what I do for other's benefit is really beneficial. I guess the proof of that has to appear in future results, the future circumstances of our relationship.
It's all just a great experiment - don't get too attached!!
Don't know if there was a question or if this blah blah blah answered one!! But it was kinda fun prattlin' on here a bit. Thank You!
You up late too!
That's why I like to visit with people like Kyogen, Roshi at DRZC (on Madison) and Hogen, Sensi at Great Vow out in Clatskanie, they're good at poking holes in delusion.
P.S. Kakumyo at DRZC is also pretty good at this stuff.
:buck::buck::buck:
It don't take no money, just willingness and effort to contact them and show-up!!
Always: Practice first, liberation first. Leave the imaginings aside.
What a sad thing to think
But of course you are most entitled
Especially as words are labels ascribed to ideas.
So how do I interact with you all without imagining?
Oh, of course, it's the direct mind to mind transmission outside of words thing!!!
Ah, Zen