Becoming Bodhisattvas

by Pema Chodron

  Maybe this is where the expression “you’re full of shit” comes from! One has to have a sense of humor about Shantideva’s arguments. Here he’s saying that we contain plenty of unclean stuff ourselves, so why hanker after other’s impurities!

  8.54

  “But it’s the skin and flesh I love

  To touch and look upon.”

  Then why do you not wish for flesh alone,

  Inanimate and in its natural state?

  Verse 54 begins a classic analysis done to expose the nature of emptiness. The traditional example is a chariot: Where do we find the chariot’s true nature? Is it in the left wheel, the right wheel, or the seat? We can ask these same questions using the example of the body.

  Shantideva is questioning where the object of our lust resides. Is it in the flesh or the perfume? If so, then why don’t we lust for raw meat or pleasant smells? If it’s the sandalwood smell that turns us on, we’d be foolish to confuse that smell with the body.

  In the same way the Buddha analyzed the chariot, Shantideva analyzes the body to find out where “it” is. Where is this “self” or other? He then goes on to describe how we not only imbue these dreamlike lovers with desirability, we then covet them, long to copulate with them, and so on.

  8.55

  The mind of the beloved you so much desire

  Eludes your touch; this mind you cannot see.

  Nothing that the sense perceives is mind,

  So why indulge in pointless copulation?

  If I say it’s my lover’s mind I’m attracted to, well then, where exactly is that?

  8.56

  To fail to understand the unclean nature

  Of another’s flesh is not perhaps so strange.

  But not to see the filthy nature

  Of oneself is very strange indeed!

  8.57

  Why does the mind, intent on filthiness,

  Neglect the fresh young lotus blossom,

  Opened in the sunlight of a cloudless sky,

  To take joy rather in a sack of dirt?

  If it’s beauty we want, why don’t we lust after a lotus blossom?

  8.58

  And since you’re disinclined to touch

  A place or object grimed with excrement,

  Why wish to touch the body

  Whence such excrement has come?

  8.59

  And if you have no craving for impurity,

  Why will you now embrace and kiss

  What comes from such an unclean place,

  Engendered likewise from an unclean seed?

  The unclean place referred to here is the womb, and the unclean seed is semen. In our culture, many people don’t have aversion to these things, but in India in Shantideva’s time, apparently everyone did. This, in fact, proves Shantideva’s point. Aversion and attraction are frequently based on cultural bias and are not in any way absolute realities.

  8.60

  The fetid worms that live in filth—

  You have no love for them, not even little ones.

  And yet you’re lusting for a human form,

  From filth arisen and replete with it!

  8.61

  Toward your own impurity

  Disgust you do not feel; but what is more,

  Attracted to the ordure of an unclean sack,

  You long to touch the body of another!

  In our low-self-esteem culture it’s not helpful to encourage disgust for our own body. Nevertheless, Shantideva continues to do his best to deflate the irresistible urge of lust. It is lust, not sexual passion, per se, that he hopes to undermine with his logic and reasoning.

  8.62

  Pleasant substances like camphor,

  Rice, and fresh green herbs—

  Put them in your mouth and spit them out:

  The ground itself is rendered foul with it!

  8.63

  If still you doubt such filthiness,

  Though it is very plain for all to see,

  Go off into the charnel grounds, observe

  The fetid bodies there abandoned.

  8.64

  If when their skins are peeled away,

  They make you feel great horror and revulsion,

  How, having seen this, later on,

  Can you desire and crave for such an object?

  The basic point is this: once we’ve seen a dead body, how can we become so obsessed with a live one?

  8.65

  The scent that now perfumes the skin

  Is sandalwood and nothing else.

  Yet how is it that one thing’s fragrance

  Causes you to long for something else?

  8.66

  Surely it is best to cease to long

  For what by nature gives off evil smells.

  Yet worldly people’s lusts are all confused—

  To what end do they daub the flesh with perfumes?

  8.67

  For if this scent in fact is sandalwood,

  How will we now describe the body’s odors?

  And how is it that one thing’s fragrance

  Causes you to long for something else?

  8.68

  With lanky hair, with long nails overgrown,

  With dirty teeth, and reeking with the stink of slime,

  This body, naked, as it is, untended,

  Is indeed a nightmare to behold!

  8.69

  Why go to such excess to clean and polish

  What is but a weapon that will injure us?

  The cares that people squander on themselves in ignorance

  Convulse the universe with madness.

  Looking good isn’t the problem. Getting caught in hope and fear about our appearance is what fills the universe with madness.

  8.70

  Did you see the heaps of human bones

  And feel revulsion in the charnel ground?

  Then why such pleasure in your cities of the dead,

  Frequented by such skeletons that live and move?

  Shantideva repeats his question: If dead bodies in the charnel ground freak us out, why aren’t we repelled by whole cities filled with bodies walking around?

  8.71

  What’s more, possession of another’s filth

  Is not to be acquired free of charge.

  All is at a price: exhaustion in this life,

  And in the next, the sufferings of hell!

  8.72

  To pay the bride-price young men are unable.

  So while they’re young, what joy is there for them?

  Their lives are spent to gain sufficient wealth,

  By then they’re old—too old to satisfy their lust!

  In eighth-century India, it was not uncommon for lower-caste men in certain tribes to borrow money to get married. They then became indentured to the lender. To gather enough wealth to attract a bride, whole generations of a family could become indebted. The son inherits the debt of the father, and so on; and in this way they became slaves. By the time the poor man gets his bride, he might be too old to satisfy his lust.

  In these and the following verses, Shantideva’s main concern is how we get completely hooked and distracted by our cravings. Since his audience consisted of celibate monks, he has spent a long time trying to deflate their sexual fantasies. In monasteries, working sanely with sexual energy is often a hot topic.

  8.73

  Some are miserable as well as lustful.

  For worn out by their day-long work,

  They go home broken with fatigue,

  T
o sleep the slumbers of a corpse!

  8.74

  Some, obliged to travel far abroad,

  Must suffer separation from their wives,

  From children whom they love and long to see.

  They do not meet with them for years on end.

  8.75

  Some, ambitious for advancement,

  Not knowing how to get it, sell themselves.

  Happiness eludes their grasp, and pointlessly

  They live, in bondage to their masters.

  8.76

  Some completely sell themselves,

  No longer free, in slavery to others.

  And, destitute, their wives give birth

  With only trees for shelter, in the wilderness.

  We have an idea, a dream, of what would bring us comfort and pleasure, somehow missing the point that what we go through to achieve that dream is painful and absurd. The goal of happiness eludes us despite all our worries and toil.

  Next Shantideva discusses the futility of obsession with wealth and possessions. The craving that these things generate in us gets us in a lot of trouble.

  8.77

  Fools ensnared by craving for a livelihood

  Decide that they will make their fortune

  In the wars, though fearful for their lives.

  And seeking gain, it’s slavery they get.

  People often join the army for money and other benefits. But once you sign up, there’s no way out. If you’re sent to war, off you go.

  8.78

  Some, as fruits of their ambition,

  Have their bodies slashed, impaled on pointed stakes.

  Some are wounded, run through by the lance,

  While some are put to death by fire.

  Dealing drugs may seem like an easy way to get rich. But it soon turns out to be a very dangerous lifestyle and not so easy after all.

  8.79

  The trouble guarding what we have, the pain of losing all!

  See the endless hardships brought on us by wealth!

  Those distracted by their love of riches

  Never have a moment’s rest from sorrows of existence.

  We experience this pointlessness constantly. The anguish we go through to get our wealth—our livelihood, good circumstances, and possessions—doesn’t make us happy in the end. We buy a beautiful silk shirt and accidentally splatter it with salad dressing. We save up money and buy our dream car; but when it’s parked on the street, we worry ourselves sick that someone might scratch it. Of course, having no money is also extremely painful. But unfortunately, it’s rare for any of us to be content with just enough to meet our basic needs.

  8.80

  They indeed, possessed of many wants,

  Will suffer many troubles, all for very little:

  Mouthfuls of the hay the oxen get

  As recompense for having pulled the cart!

  8.81

  The cattle’s fodder!—not so very rare—

  And for the sake of such a petty thing,

  Tormented by their karma they destroy

  This precious human life so hard to find.

  We’ll go through great discomfort to get a raise or an extra week of vacation. To get on the boss’s good side, we’ll work overtime without pay or whatever else it takes. Isn’t this similar to the ox that pulls the cart, sweating and miserable, only to be rewarded by a mouthful of hay? This is Shantideva’s analogy for the pain we cause ourselves for even the smallest of pleasures. Meanwhile, we’re wasting the precious opportunity of this fleeting human life.

  8.82

  All that we desire is sure to perish,

  And afterwards we fall to hellish torment.

  The constant, minor troubles we endure

  Are all for what amounts to very little!

  This refers to the pain of samsaric existence. As one Buddhist verse says: friends, wealth, homes, and other transitory comforts are like a banquet before the executioner leads us to our death.

  We may get everything we want, but the pleasure is fleeting. What’s more, if we harm anyone in the process, the end result will be pain. Even if we harm no one, we still strengthen our craving habit, which is never in our best interest.

  8.83

  But with a millionth part of such vexation

  Enlightenment itself could be attained!

  The pains the lustful take exceed by far the trials encountered on the path,

  And at the end the fruit is very far from buddhahood!

  This is so painfully true. With a fraction of the time and effort we spend on our worldly existence, what tremendous progress we could make on the bodhisattva path. I remember hearing one teacher say: “If I gave you all a pack of cards and a case of beer, you could stay up—enthusiastic, alert, and energetic—for days on end. But ask you to sit for a couple of hours in the evening, and you all fall sound asleep!”

  8.84

  Reflect upon the horrors of the states of sorrow!

  Weapons, poisons, fires, and yawning chasms,

  Hostile foes—these worldly pains are slight

  Compared with what we get as fruit of our desire!

  8.85

  And so, revolted by our lust and wanting,

  Let us now rejoice in solitude,

  In places where all strife and conflict cease,

  The peace and stillness of the greenwood.

  These verses refer again to the genuine heartbreak and revulsion we may come to feel for our repeating samsaric patterns.

  8.86

  In pleasant dwellings formed of massive stone,

  And cooled by sandal trees beneath the moon,

  In woodlands wafted by the gentle breeze,

  Our minds intent on bringing good to others,

  8.87

  In caves, beneath the trees, in houses left abandoned

  May we linger long as we might wish.

  Relinquishing the pain of guarding our possessions,

  Let us live in freedom, unconfined by cares.

  8.88

  To have such liberty unmarred by craving,

  And loosed from every bond and tie—

  A life of such contentment and such bliss,

  The gods like Indra would be pressed to find!

  8.89

  Reflecting in such ways as these,

  Upon the excellence of solitude,

  Pacify completely all discursiveness

  And cultivate the mind of bodhichitta.

  With this beautiful and peaceful rallying cry, Shantideva reminds us again of the benefits of solitude and concludes the first section of this chapter on the paramita of meditation.

  Dissolving the Barriers

  Meditation, Part Two

  WITH VERSE 90 of chapter 8, we enter one of the most famous sections of The Way of the Bodhisattva. Here Shantideva talks about the equality of self and other, and gives us specific practices for standing in another person’s shoes. These instructions are antidotes for the narrow, confused perspective of “me” and “mine.”

  8.90

  Strive at first to meditate

  Upon the sameness of yourself and others.

  In joy and sorrow all are equal.

  Thus be guardian of all, as of yourself.

  We begin by contemplating the sameness of ourselves and others. Philosophically, we might discuss the insubstantiality and false security of a separate “self.” But, when it comes to actually dissolving the illusory barrier between this self and others, we work on a practical level and keep it real.

  The myth of separateness is very convincing. Even though it causes us enor
mous pain, it’s definitely not easy to shake. This myth is addressed very directly by the practices and teachings on the equality of self and other. They expose the agendas and strategies of self-importance, and change the way we see one another.

  Simply put, if you’ve ever lived on the streets, you can never look at a panhandler the same way again. You’ve been there; you know what it’s like to be down and out and to ask for money. This experience automatically brings down the barrier. Likewise, if you’ve ever been hospitalized with a serious illness, you know how people can pass in and out of your room without seeing you or treating you as a person. In the movie Wit, the dying heroine is seen vomiting into a basin while a staff person asks, “How are we feeling today?” Having experienced this kind of depersonalization yourself, it’s difficult to relate superficially to someone else who is very ill.

  Imagining ourselves in another person’s situation shakes up our indifference. We begin to realize that in joy and sorrow, we are equals. Our suffering and happiness are the same: misery is misery and joy is joy; therefore, whether we feel sorrow or relief, we understand how others feel.

  Understanding the equality of our joys and sorrows widens our perspective. Somehow staying caught in the web of self-centered thinking is not as easy as before.

  8.91

  The hand and other limbs are many and distinct,

  But all are one—one body to be kept and guarded.

  Likewise, different beings in their joys and sorrows,

  Are, like me, all one in wanting happiness.

  The analogy of the body represents one whole with many unique parts. The ear is not the toe, the tooth is not the eye, yet these individual parts also aren’t separate. If our toe hurts, our whole body feels it; if our leg is cut, our hand reaches out to help. We don’t experience our leg as “other” and say, “How interesting, look at the blood pouring out.”