The self-caring Bodhisattva

[scott]

Re: The self-caring Bodhisattva

Also, correct me if I am wrong, but there seems to be a lot of self-sacrifice in the Bodhisattva way. But not to an extreme, of course, so what is the relationship between martyrdom and Buddhism or the Bodhisattva way? (BTW, before anyone "suspects" anything, I don't believe I have any designs on being a martyr).

IMHO martyrdom doesn't make sense if you experience it that way. At each step you take care of everything in the way that seems most in line with practice. As time goes on there is less and less to protect, and you provide more and more. But it's painful and sacrifice is an Issue, that doesn't feel right.

[disastermouse]

Re: The self-caring Bodhisattva

Thank you so much Chet for this great reminder.

Why did not you stop there, just at the first sentence? The following sentences about Alanla, your mother, you...




gassho


Taigu

Um, because I didn't?

(het

[Jundo]

Re: The self-caring Bodhisattva

Also, correct me if I am wrong, but there seems to be a lot of self-sacrifice in the Bodhisattva way. But not to an extreme, of course, so what is the relationship between martyrdom and Buddhism or the Bodhisattva way? (BTW, before anyone "suspects" anything, I don't believe I have any designs on being a martyr).

IMHO martyrdom doesn't make sense if you experience it that way. At each step you take care of everything in the way that seems most in line with practice. As time goes on there is less and less to protect, and you provide more and more. But it's painful and sacrifice is an Issue, that doesn't feel right.

I think this is fundamentally right. Sometimes, we can serve the greatest number of people by keeping our own body-mind healthy and fed, getting up each day and working at our ordinary job. Just being a bus driver on the city bus or telephone line repairman is a Bodhisattva's work, for he/she carries all the people who could not otherwise get where they are going and contact who they need to contact. I believe that, in modern society, we are all interconnected, and one does not need to only be a Gandhi or Mother Theresa to have impact on countless lives. In many ways, the receptionist for the pharmaceutical company that will invent the drug which cures leprosy is doing as important work to ease the suffering of the victims of the disease as the nurses who volunteer with Mother Theresa to bathe and comfort the ailing leper. All are needed, everyone has their role ... all Bodhisattva's work if undertaken with the correct spirit and eye.

(That is not to say, of course, that both are not needed ... nor is it to say that everyone in life, I think, would not benefit from a "hands on" period in life bathing the sick, cleaning their dirty sheets, holding their hands and the like. I think we should --ALL-- volunteer for that kind of service too ... WEEKLY for a few hours if possible, for longer periods if possible. We must do this kind of "hands on hands" work).

On the other hand, I like to think that there are times to be martyrs too ... to be a fireman who runs into the burning World Trade Center to save hundreds of lives, to be a soldier who jumps on the live grenade to save his brothers. I like to think (we will never know for sure until the time is right) that we all have that within us when called for.

Yes, there are times when circumstances may call for a Bodhisattva's martyrdom.

Gassho, Jundo

[AlanLa]

Re: The self-caring Bodhisattva

Did I really say self-sacrifice? ops: ops: I wish I could say that was a mistake, but I meant it when I said it, even though it contradicts self as other used earlier in that same post and contradicts the whole regular guys as saints thing I wrote in another thread. I was clearly confused :!:

Let me try again. I think a better way to say it might be that the Bodhisattva way calls for ego-sacrifice and self-discipline. Ego-sacrifice means to give up that what about meeeeee whine while also having the self-discipline to be consistent over time and effort/non-effort.