Kalu Rinpoche Podcast – Episode 2 – 25 Nov 2020 (9 min) – Is sacrifice devotion? Part 2 / 2
Welcome back to Kalu Rinpoche podcast. This is episode 2 – “Is sacrifice devotion?”
Going back to the topic that I’m talking about is: having a respect is one thing, when you are surrounded in a very peaceful, content atmosphere and surrounded by the enlightened beings, statues, teachings, great practitioners, and genuine practitioners, you get inspired and you get motivated and having a genuine sense of connection and respect is one thing. That is not a devotion.
The true meaning of devotion is that when you don’t have any sensation of grasping, but rather, profoundly grateful to the Lord Buddha, and your guru, and your teacher. Profoundly grateful to the reality, seeing the reality as a reflection and seeing that reflection of the reality of the suffering as a teacher to you, and having that sense of joy and immense gratitude, inseparably combined together, at the same time, without any sensation of expectation in return, without any expectation of seeking for miracle, blessings. Instead, simply grateful, at the same time, inseparable with the sense of joyness and content, and renunciation, a state of mind that is completely renounced, inseparably together.
The state of the mind of renunciation, the state of the mind without any sensation of grasping, the state of the mind that is purely grateful to the masters, to the buddhas, including seeing all the reality as your own teacher, and seeing all the reflection of the realities as a teacher, as a reflecting to the mind, to yourself, seeing that as a teacher. And at the same time, not looking for any achievement, but simply content and being present. And yet at the same time, witnessing everything with a complete joy. And that is called devotion.
Devotion is not something that you mix together with the unhappy feeling, and happy exciting feeling. And with all the different kinds of emotions mixed together with a religious idea that is not a devotion. That is just the illusion of the devotion that you tend to have, that you tend to hold on, that you tend to think that is a devotion, because that makes you feel better. But in reality, that is not devotion.
So the devotion is, like I have told you, the genuine devotion is continuity of a gratefulness to the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and including all the masters, inseparably, equally, seeing all the reality of movement as teachings, as a reflection to the mind, and the guidance to ourselves. At the same time, having a sense of renunciation inseparably together, and sense of contentment and humbleness combined together. So all these positive qualities, inseparably together, and compassionate mindset, with a completely, selfless prayers, with no expectation in between, without any seeking any miracle, rewards in between, and yet simply surrendering, and being completely free, at the same time, completely centered with a sense of content, with a gratefulness, compassionate, renounced and awareness. All these qualities, inseparably combined together, and a continuity of all these qualities together, and that is a definition of devotion, and that is the meaning of true devotion.
If your so-called devotion is distracted, then it is no longer a devotion, because your mind is distracted. So in order to call that you have a pure devotion, you need to have a sense of pure clarity and awareness at all times. Because excitement feeling, sensation, negative sensation, any ordinary can feel it, created with their own experience. But the one thing that ordinary people cannot do is being completely in content without any sensation of grasping, at the same time being completely compassionate and having the sense of renunciation, inseparably together, and then being grateful to all the masters, and the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, including all the reflection of the realities of everything, and seeing that as the teacher, seeing that as a reminder, seeing that as a guideline to the awareness as well.
So all this inseparably combined together is called devotion. Because when you have all these qualities, you don’t seek for approval, you don’t seek for recognition, you don’t fall into the trap of all of the distraction of thoughts, because your mind is genuinely pure by that time.
And then you may ask question about “How can I achieve that state? How can I reach there? How can I achieve that? How can I reach to this destination that I am talking about?” My answer is very simple, and always will be simple. Whatever your social status may be, my answer is always simple.
You do a retreat. It doesn’t mean that you have to do three years, four years, five years retreat. You can do retreat for one year, maybe few months. It’s much more meaningful, and the impact is much more greater than you do practice for twelve to eleven years. It is much more greater impact, a positive impact, if you do retreat for one year, few months, few weeks, few days even. So the retreat is the only option. That is the only answer. Because you cannot have a pure devotion with a mind that is completely distracted at all times. That is just impossible. It doesn’t happen.
So therefore in order to have a pure devotion, you need to do retreat and you need to dedicate yourself. It sounds like old school, but that is the only way. Because all the other easy way is not the real way, because it is combined together with the ego and the illusion. Whenever there is a practice saying that “You can achieve this in a very short time, much more greater than anybody else”, that is the ego speaking, that is not the Dharma speaking to your mind.
So therefore don’t try to achieve something overnight. Don’t try to have that mindset either. Just try to have a simple mindset, that is starting from this morning session, until this evening session, I will continue my practice, four sessions a day. That’s it.
And then when it comes to dedication, when it comes to refuge, make a prayer, until the moment that you are enlightened, or reach to the enlightenment state, you take a refuge to the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Including dedicating all the accumulation of positivity to all the sentient beings. And that is something that you need to keep at all times as a protection and also a guideline to yourself as a practitioner. So that’s that.
And regarding sacrificing, the misconception between the sacrificing and the devotion, this is a brief explanation I can give in this episode, and in the next episode, I might continue with the same topic, and then we will change the topic as we move on.
Thank you for listening and see you next time.
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