Q: What is the easiest way to liberate for a layman?
A: That is one thing you need to stop thinking. Like “I am a layman, therefore I’m a lesser being, therefore I’m a lesser, I have a” how do you call it? “A less potential” or “I have a, a less chance”, you know? “To succeed or to be liberated”. First, that is one thing you have to stop thinking.
Long as that you have a bodhicitta in mind, and with the right intention. The right intention is very simple. The right intention is seeing the suffering as it is. Not just thinking “Oh, this is suffering”, “oh yes, everything is impermanence”, “everything is suffering”, “oh the cycle of life” and “all the three poisons, and, you know, everything that is born has a death!”
Not, not the classical, not the classical way of reflecting to oneself, but really examining in, in oneself, really, truly examining in one’s own suffering. What you have suffered today?
Don’t look at the painting on the wall of the temple and saying “oh, these are the, the cycle of suffering”, “oh these are, how do you say, the, the pig is the symbol of ignorance”, “the, the, how do you call it, the, the bird is a, signify as a, how do you call it, desire”, “the snake is a, how do you say, signified as a, how do you say, anger or jealousy” and so on.
Don’t just try to reflect your mind on the painting on the wall of the temple, but what did you suffer today?
That is the question we have to ask. Not what you have heard from other people, not what other people told you to think, not what you have read in the book. What have you suffered today? What caused that suffering today? What made you terrible mood today? You know? So, what happened today? What made you miserable? What was the cause of that? By whom? And who was that whom? You know? And if that was you, and then how did you project it into that reality? Then if there’s a projection towards the, you know, with the anger, what is the existence of the anger? You know? What is the origin of the anger? What is the, what is the origin of the jealousy that comes from the anger? What was the sense of discontent from the state of mind? You know?
Try to analyse like that. It’s much better.
Because when you look at the temple, of course these are all example. Doesn’t mean that you have to think it like that. You don’t have to be so boring. Just spice it up little bit. Right? Spice it up little bit. It’s little bit like cooking, you know? When you go to restaurant, you pay, you eat what they serve, it’s boring. You make by yourself, you make a mistake, sometime you put too much butter, you put too much oil, you put too much salt, then over the time, again and again, and then you, you know, you become a good chef, you know?
So [haha] because I, I cook for my lamas and my guest, whenever I’m around the world. I like to do that. Then we socialise, we make a meeting together, so there’s a little bit of a, less hierarchy, less layers of illusions, you know? So, so that’s that.
Kalu Rinpoche
FB Livestream – 19th December 2023 (30′ 20”)
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