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What should sentient beings and Buddhas and bodhisattvas do to the ignorant beings who constantly engage in actions motivated by the three poisonous delusions? One very simple way of saying it is that you should name names. For example Ness, who do you know that behaves in such a shocking way?
Now, to avoid engaging in negative actions of body, speech and mind myself, I am writing this post to inform the public of where danger lies. I am also going to say that unless we ourselves protect our body, speech and mind by engaging in virtue and always practicing dharma correctly, we are really ourselves no different from these guilty offenders.
So without beating around the bush I am going to say the Gelugpa school of Buddhism is well known for its ability to emphasise the need and importance of engaging in proper dharma study, and also discusses pathways or methodology for constantly accumulating merit and wisdom.
The reason we practice compassion is to wish for, cut and even cessate from the mind the actual delusions that cause suffering and the cycle of suffering. When you learn with renunciation and the aspirational wish and engaging deed to accumulate the causes for higher rebirth, liberation from throwing karma and even the greatest of goals and meaning, the exalted state of Buddhahood, you realise the need to practice the wisdom realising emptiness. To meditate on the emptiness of a self of persons and of phenomena is the key to overcoming the causes of samsara, however you won’t get very far without a thorough understanding of the small, medium and even great scope stages of the path to Buddhahood.
In my experience, as a Buddhist who at a young age took on the role of managing a popular Mahayana Buddhist Centre I have learnt that many people do not focus upon keeping their commitments and protecting their Buddhist vows. Without pure moral conduct, you cannot build a proper foundation for training the mind. To cut the causes of suffering from the mind and from your internal experience, you need to engage in and understand the small scope practices and pathways. Following that, the medium scope stages of the path, which endeavours to understand the law of cause and effect and the three higher trainings of pure moral discipline, mental quiescence, calm abiding and then special insight.
Vanessa Anne Walsh reciting Lama Tsong Khapa Mantra March 1, 2023
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The Elephant in the Room
This is why I am bankrupt.
A while ago I listened to an advertisement 60 Minutes was running for one of their shows. In this advertisement, the journalist from 60 Minutes discussed the issue surrounding Australia, as a nation, being at war with China. You would have to be more than half asleep if you didn’t realize China is already at war with us. Just look at the way the Chinese Government encourages it’s people to bribe immigration officials and flood brainwashed and poorly educated Chinese citizens into the most prosperous and democratic nations around the world. When China invaded Tibet and massacred its people, destroying and bombing its educational institutions and oppressing the freedoms of this peace loving, gentle nation, the Communist Governments view at the time was that once they gained control over the Roof of the World (Tibet), power around the rest of the world would rapidly fall into their hands.
I guess if doing business with a regime of dull-minded, uncreative people who were happy to force young Tibetan children to shoot their parents and thought nothing of burying Tibetan people alive in coffins doesn’t faze you (as reported by Amnesty International in the early 1990’s), then perhaps you might conclude I am over-reacting, but I hold onto the virtuous and freedom loving idea we do in fact have a responsibility to respect human rights, especially when a greedy power like China marches into a foreign country and invades for the purposes of stealing another nations precious natural resources in order to strengthen it’s own power and oppress the freedoms and liberties of others.
Make no mistake; it is the deep intention of China to dominate the world’s economic and political sphere, whilst using their brutal military might to create a stranglehold on the freedom of all sentient beings. As a brilliant Buddhist master once told me, “China first takes control by getting people addicted to its money.” It is very clear now to see how we as a nation have become hopelessly addicted to the short term economic benefits we derive from giving away too easily, our precious and limited resources to China. This master then went on to say that “once China knows a nation has become addicted to the income they earn from doing business with China, China then seizes the opportunity at hand to take control over every other aspect of the lives of citizens living in such a nation.”
Do we as a country even recognize anymore what it means to be Australian? As you walk down any suburban or city street, it is clear to see we are effectively already living in China. The Chinese have long had the habit of buying up the most highly sought after and valuable properties and moving into the most prosperous regions of any country, once they develop pockets deep enough to steal away our freedom. It is a well known fact that businessmen working in real estate actively seek to sell off the best houses and properties we have in our country to the Chinese. Just look at who owns most of the Golden Mile now down in Brighton. Go and visit Box Hill, Doncaster, Toorak or watch more carefully who is filling the streets of Melbourne or any other major Australian city, and see if you can figure out where we are really living.
We should all know by now, China has an absolutely horrific human rights record. As a nation, and oppressive communist power, they simply cannot be trusted to act in a way that protects the integrity and freedom of any living being. Despite this catastrophic flaw in the Chinese character, we must rely upon diplomacy and a peace strategy that focuses first upon saving rather than needlessly and heartlessly destroying precious lives.
I would be remiss for not mentioning a story recently televised by Four Corners on the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) network, which exposed China’s attempts to hack into a number of major western corporations’ computer systems. On this program, Four Corners revealed not only had China been caught hacking into His Holiness The Dalai Lama’s website and other Tibetan Government in Exile computer systems, but China has also hacked into the computer systems of companies such as BHP, Fortescue Metals, Rio Tinto, just to name a few. One can see from the ruthless way China conducts its affairs that they already assume they are at war with everyone. Just remember, the Chinese Government pride themselves on educating their people into the Art of War. The Tibetan Nation, on the other hand, excelled in it’s ability to prosper a country based on a philosophy of peace, love, liberation and freedom from suffering. Which cause would any rationally minded being choose to support, listen to and follow?
Following is just a brief profile of the methods used by China to destabilize already prosperous nations, which they view as an ideological threat to their own oppressive and freedom hating regime.
The whole global financial downturn can be attributed to the fact that Australia, Europe and other once well developed nations like America can no longer manufacture their own goods, due to the incredible difficulty that has arisen and stems from the Chinese government’s refusal to stop artificially lowering the levels of its currency. Countries like Australia have become virtually incapable of competing with China, due to the fact that the Chinese rely upon slave labor to manufacture all their goods. This has created such a huge economic and moral imbalance, that the entire world is now paying an enormous price for the fact that our politicians refuse address the critical causes for the downfalls in our economies and ability to produce quality goods which will allow us to trade on a more even playing field.
In western countries, we do our best to maintain relatively good working conditions for our citizens, but China has no such concern or philosophy. As a young country, we take too much for granted our liberties and current level of freedom, to the point that we have become blinded by the huge changes and shifts in global power that are rapidly taking place around us. Our major media stations and publications refuse to address these issues, creating a false illusion in the minds of all our people that our freedom and health is not degenerating to the degree and levels to which they currently are.
Look at how when the Burmese Government attacked its own people in order to suppress their rights of free speech and democracy, China funded and supported the ruthless dictatorial Burmese regime while this was going on.
Look at how the problem with plagiarism and pirating have enabled China to steal original designs, intellectual property and products from all other nations around the globe, so that they are then able to infiltrate business and political systems around the world, mass producing cheap fakes, which further impedes our ability to trade and work fairly on a world scale.
As long as the Communist Chinese Government continues to peg it’s currency against the US dollar at a level that is artificially low, Chinese goods and services appear cheaper than they really are when compared to products and services produced in Western nations.
One could go on forever about all the evil that resides in China, taking the form of the Chinese Government’s abuse of the rights and conditions of humans and animals, and the wanton and blatant corruption of its officials.
One could argue the reason the talks in Copenhagen failed was because of Chinese Diplomats blocking and strategically planning for methods and means to cause the whole process to fail.
We all need to become more aware of how the actions of a corrupt, ruthless and oppressive Chinese regime is causing degradation and decline on a world scale, and understand more clearly how we are all now paying a massive price for the corruption and degradation to the planet that is stemming from the actions of the Chinese Government and it’s brainwashed citizens.
China educates its own people into a philosophy and way of thinking and acting that has no respect for the law, for human rights, for freedom, for freedom of speech or for the truth and justice.
I urge everyone to take a deeper look into what is going on in the rapidly changing world around us and look for ways to think about how to protect ourselves and the freedoms and way of life we currently enjoy. Many sacrifices have been made by others in the past to protect the democratic rights of a people. We must never lose sight of this fact or think that just because our economy is currently quite strong, that our way of life and ability to achieve lasting happiness is not at stake. Never think ignorance is bliss and that not knowing the truth somehow makes life a little easier to bear. Lacking awareness of the true causes of suffering is always a recipe for disaster.
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I saw a movie this week. Three times. It’s called The Lincoln Lawyer. It struck some deep notes.
In samsara, when you meet beauty, when you meet true love, things can go awry. This is a story about a young man, a wonderful young man, not rich, but with genuine qualities who meets The One. One night in bar they meet. The sparks fly. He recognizes her beauty instantly and values it. She finds him sexy and drops her price. The chemistry is there. The future awaits.
As samsara would have it, a jealous, uncreative and corrupt man looks on. Seething with rage and hatred, he makes the determination to ruin it all. Unbeknownst to the lovers, he lies in wait, cultivating his evil motivation. In circumstances where sex and love are involved, evil watches on close by.
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I suppose why this movie hit such a deep note is because I can draw so many parallels with events that have taken place in my own life. This movie focused upon a deep psychology, a psychology common to samsara, however this subject lies in a field of vision the ordinary person most often doesn’t recognize. The rich lay idly complacent, and the poor, wholesome ones unfortunately get lost in their naiveté and innocence. Really?
When a common, uncreative and flawed ordinary being witnesses the play of true love and wisdom, their mind begins to spin out of control. Unable to contain their hatred, jealousy, fear and competitiveness, the wretched determine a plan that attempts to undermine such love and innocence and does its best to make the whole system fail. This of course will only further prolong the suffering of all concerned, but the evil mind never pays heed to that. Too ignorant to fathom the true depth of the consequences of an evil act, the uncreative mind is unrelenting in its inability to face up to the shallow nature of its own focus.
When you see others succeed, when you witness true love, don’t try to destroy it and take it away. Rejoice and recognize that by supporting such a rare event you create the causes for your own future happiness and success. Anything else is but a folly and a play of the unoriginal.
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Shakespeare’s Sonnet CXVI
Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle’s compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Yesterday I was blessed along with more than one hundred other kindred spirits, dharma brothers and sisters, to be invited to the Afternoon Tea of all Afternoon Tea’s, at Tara Institute, in East Brighton. There, we were blessed and lucky enough to listen to the remarkable words of the great master, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, whose profound insight and compassion transported each and every one of us into a sphere of peace and happiness that can only be described as truly inspiring.
Although ordinarily, when one thinks of afternoon tea, biscuits and cake come to mind, at this afternoon tea, such delicacies, although offered, one could almost say, were not required. When you attend an afternoon tea hosted by such remarkable beings as Geshe Doga and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, food and drink become virtually irrelevant, because due to the great skill of the Buddha, ordinary life just fades into insignificance as one is treated to a genuine Dharma teaching that enables one to contemplate the great truths, which although simple in both practice and theory, are taught in the most exciting and uplifting of ways by a great mind that is really like no other.
Lama Zopa reminded us all that all the teachings of the Buddha fall into two basic instructions:
Do Not Harm Other Beings, Benefit Other Beings.
Within those two pieces of advice lie a vast spectrum of understandings, interpretations, rules and possibilities, however for me, Lama Zopa’s key advice was crystallized when he said that the moment one gives up desire, is the moment one begins to experience real contentment.
He also joked about how it was really Mick Jagger who gave the best teaching in his song, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, through his ability to enumerate upon the downfalls of the desirous and attached state of mind.
It is funny how in life, teachers can appear to us in both virtuous and non-virtuous aspects. Lama Zopa is a true example of someone, who having overcome desire and all faults of the mind, shows others how achieving a state of liberation, peace and perfection is really possible. Not so long ago, I had an encounter of an entirely different kind, with a man full of desire, who in full flight, was able to make me realize just how damaging and disastrous the states of desire, dishonesty, manipulation and attachment can really be. Even those who appear to harm us, also have a teaching of their own to impart.
Although I appreciated the timeless and insightful truths written about love, by the western literary genius, Shakespeare, in his Sonnet CXVI, when they were read at my wedding, nearly twenty years ago, it was the great masters from Tibet who really were able to impart to me, the deeper meaning behind what it means to love another being and how important it is to ensure all our actions are imbued with a positive and virtuous state of mind.
To all my precious and dear teachers who have forever changed our world, our destiny, our karma and our minds, I offer to you my deepest gratitude and pray that one day I am able to repay your limitless kindness, which like time and space, has no beginning and no end.
Yesterday Geshe Doga said to Vanessa, “Money enough.” What does this mean? Well, on the positive side, maybe I won’t end up begging on the street, or isn’t this what many Buddhists are doing these days? How are Mahayana Buddhists doing well financially? If you put ethics first, you really need to work with a culture of people who value ethical conduct over materialistic, and selfish, or destructive motivations. Geshe Doga suggested “Computers?” Vanessa thought, OK and what about investigating science even further?
Buddhist science is way more advanced than western ideology (philosophy, psychiatry and psychology). Mind scientists study the mind. Many people don’t even recognise the Hum, the mind, the heart. They, Mahayana Buddhists, study the heart, (meaning, the mind). Now, even though the mind has an interconnection with the brain and the other organs of the body, the mind, is clear and knowing. Psychiatrists study the brain. Buddhists study the body, speech and mind.
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Enjoyment arises from practicing ethical conduct correctly and rejoicing in virtuous deeds.
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As a mind scientist and philosopher, the study of Lo Rig, Mind and Mental Factors, is essential to working out how to abandon negative states of mind, the six primary delusions and the secondary delusions, (see Alexander Berzin Archives). Buddhists must also focus on how to cultivate Bodhicitta; the bodhicitta motivation, aspiring to and engaging in the deeds of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, to progress along the path to the cessation of suffering and to eventually attain the cessation of suffering, liberation – (freedom from throwing karma, (meaning action)), and Buddhahood.
Commentary on the Simpsons – The problems with ordinary appearance and self grasping
In this episode, we look at how Bart is just so distraught because Homer and wifey wifey have decided to go out to some sort of gala event, and they have decided that Lisa is to babysit the children. So, Bart is just outraged and ready to play up. What’s the problem Bart? Samsara is just so annoying! Here we see the bane of meeting with what you do not want and being separated from what you like. The bane of moving from high to low over and over without choice. What’s up Bart’s nostril? Well, I’d say, wrong view.
So what exactly is wrong view, and how does it create sin and negativity, black seeds and negative instinct within the mind? Wrong view imputes inherent existence, it thinks, I inherently exist and so do you, etc. However, that is incorrect. All phenomena lack inherent existence, whilst cause and effect and dependent arising are unfailing. So, the person, the five aggregates are empty of inherent existence. The selflessness of person is that you understand, see and realise the emptiness of the self of person. The selflessness of phenomena is that you don’t grasp at things as being inherently existent in any way at all, you see the emptiness of all phenomena. Even emptiness is empty of inherent existence.
Bart looks at Lisa like she’s the problem in his life and Lisa is looking all good and ready to boss Bart around. What hell! The thing is Lisa is still suffering and also imputing wrong view, so Bart thinks, Lisa, you are no help and just go away and leave me in peace please. The ignorance of a self of person and phenomena is to blame for the misery portrayed and discussed in The Simpsons.
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Buddhists alone understand what the mind is. In Australia, this multi-cultural society that we live in, in India, what is that without the Tibetan Buddhist and His Holiness, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet? Britain, what are you doing? Well, Her Royal Highness the Queen Elisabeth of England is religious, right? Queen Elisabeth has an understanding of the path to Buddhahood, yes or no?
What is this democracy we live in? Is it run by the pig, the chicken and the snake? Or do Buddhas and Bodhisattvas rule the world?
The Australian Government has come up with this foul act, the mental health act, yet it does not acknowledge what the mind actually is and how it functions. The mind, indeed all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, whilst cause and effect and dependent arising are unfailing. So psychiatrists are non-Buddhist. They do not accept the ultimate achievement of the Buddha. The Lord Buddha conquered suffering and it’s cause and the Lord Buddha and his lineage of Lamas perfected virtue or the qualities of the body, speech and mind.
I am going to sit here and discourse on why you shouldn’t let the animal rule. Western scientists think they can be called doctors without having actually realised the enlightened state of mind. This is where they are unheroic. They input an inherently existent self of person and of phenomena. They have ego. They are still partially, if not fully governed by the unruly state of mind of the three poisons; attachment, aversion/hatred/anger and ignorance/wrong view.
The mind is the hum at the heart. The ah is at the throat and should be enlightened speech. The body is the om at the crown. We have three channels. The right, the left and the central channel. Only Buddhists with a precious human rebirth can understand the speech and discourse of the Lord Buddha, the turning of the wheel of the doctrine. The right channel is white, the left channel is red and the central channel is blue. The mind has six chakras. The secret place, the stomach, the heart, the throat, the forehead and the crown. The mind rides the subtle wind which should reside in the central channel. All appearances to the mind and the six senses come from this mind.
Copyright Vanessa Anne Walsh 2019
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Vanessa went to school training as a private school student in Anglicanism, in Melbourne, Australia. Vanessa studied the Bible when she was just young, memorizing verses to read at recital. We received religious instruction and in many ways, Her Royal Highness, Queen Elisabeth is a very good teacher and guide.
Vanessa used to win gold in the recital and when Vanessa was about eight years of age, and the junior private school she attended asked her to read at Saint Pauls Cathedral in Melbourne for the end of year Christmas prayer and blessing. The Head Mistress praised me and said Vanessa did very well.
Vanessa felt very privileged to attend a private Anglican School. Vanessa used to sit quietly at lunch however, aghast at the bitchiness of other students. Vanessa’s father, Graeme, worked in the poorer suburbs of Melbourne to the north, delivering medicine to the newly settled Australian immigrant community. In Toorak, no-one really appreciated how a Brighton boy, who topped his years in medicine at Melbourne University, could suffer or maybe even bear doing that job. What snobs and narrow minded atheists humans can be.
Sadly, as my father worked a seven day week, over the years the stress became too much. In Vanessa’s later years she realised it was because her family, so keen on the worldly viewpoint, and even atheism, never dedicated time for rest and relaxation in a meditative understanding of the Lord or his word.
As a senior school student, Vanessa was to prepare for a career as either a doctor or lawyer. It was just expected of us to achieve those sort of results, having realised our parents worked hard to give us a good start in life. Appearances, however, are deceptive, and many wealthy families that Vanessa knew in the 1980’s, were in the throws of experiencing the demolition of getting blown apart by acrimonious argument and bitter divorce. Vanessa used to wonder what role did God play in all of this? What was the cause of so much unhappiness, suffering, uncertainty and upheaval?
Vanessa thought to herself, pondering and contemplating, should Vanessa commit to the vows of an Anglican, whilst many wealthly families were experiencing so much hatred, anger, unhappiness and failure? Vanessa looked at Lord Jesus, up there on the cross, being crucified, taking on the suffering of others, and subduing the poor and the wretched, and asked, what is wrong with life, with my life, so fragile and uncertain?
Vanessa was taken on a pilgrimage through Sri Lanka when she was thirteen years of age, visiting several big Buddhas and a cutting grown large into a tree, from the original Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya, India. Maybe this left some sort of blessing or impression, because Vanessa thought, God isn’t really answering her questions concerning suffering and it’s cause. Vanessa determined to become a Buddha for the sake of all living beings, to solve life’s biggest questions and work out the to cessate the ignorance of a self, which is most surely the cause to all sin, negativity, delusion and non-virtue. Vanessa thought, only by achieving enlightenment, can one really solve, and cessate suffering and it’s cause. Vanessa thought, I need to tread and traverse the path to the cessation of suffering and purify my delusions and negative karma and to accomplish the perfection of virtue in order to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. That, to transcend suffering, the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change and all pervasive suffering; that, is a meaningful goal and the meaning of life, and that is how I want to work to overcome the misery of the human condition and all six suffering realms.
Contemplative
The saddest reality in my life is I did not know at the age of sixteen how to find a teacher in Buddhism, that is safe, reliable, valid and wise Guru. As I was living in Melbourne, Australia, Queen Elisabeth taught the Melbourne Girls Grammar School students British history, not the history of Asia, and in my early years, I was not fortunate enough to hear of Buddhim or the culture of Tibet. I basically knew nothing of Tibet, or the horrid invasion by the Chinese communists of this peaceful land, that occurred due to corruption in the Buddhist culture. As horrid as the Chinese communists are and of course how shocking the genocide, we didn’t hear of His Holiness, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso, until I endured a long seven and suffering years from the age of 17 to 23 years of age. Such was the non-virtue in the culture and of course due to my poor karma.
Twenty seven years on and many stories later, I have no regrets having made my decision to accomplish Buddhahood and find a safe, reliable and valid qualified and authentic spiritual guide. This guiding and teaching by the power of good example, His Holiness and his retinue do very well. I love Queen Elisabeth also. We are all spiritual practitioners with some good to offer. I oppose sectarianism and wrong view. It would be nice to accomplish a better understanding of what proper religious practice can achieve for oneself and one’s life.
Vanessa has been meditating on the emptiness of a self now and the bodhicitta motivation for over twenty years. For the past twenty years, this meditation has been conducted in silent retreat. Vanessa is in need of some new pillows for her residence. So we are sending out a request to the public for funding. Vanessa always recommends using a firm pillow, to give proper support to the neck, head and back.
Giving to support authentic dharma practice creates great merit. By thinking, may I too overcome the causes to samsara, cyclic existence, may this act of giving and love serve to create the cause for my own release from the miserable cycle of suffering. You can begin by taking refuge and generating bodhicitta, reciting the following prayer three times.
I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha
From the virtuous merit I create from the practice of giving and other perfections
May I attain the state of a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings.
To conquer the three poisonous states of mind of attachment, hatred and the ignorance of a self of persons and of phenomena, you need to train in the three scopes of the path to Buddhahood. Obviously training in the six perfections is best, setting the bodhi mind as the motivation for aspiring to and engaging in the path to Buddhahood. Vanessa works long hours, and does quite a bit of community service. Please support this dharma project by clicking on the PayPal link below.
Request for new pillows
Give kindly and generously to this dharma project. All help is greatly appreciated. Create merit today and support authentic Buddhist dharma practice.
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To complete, dedicate the merit by reciting:
May I quickly become Lord Buddha and lead each and every sentient being to his enlightened realm because of these merits
May the precious bodhi mind not yet born arise and grow
May that born have no decline, but increase for evermore.
Which can be caused by the unleashed elephant of my mind.
But if the elephant of my mind is firmly bound
On all sides by the rope of mindfulness,
All fears will cease to exist
And all virtues will come into my hand.
To my heart now these words have been for a while, so satisfying to my mind. It’s good to get things correct. What What?!
Moving right along. I forgo or donated $80,000 per year for four years of a graduate salary to work for on a pension allowance for my teacher, a qualified, authentic spiritual guide and doctor to understand and master Buddhist training, the training of the heart and mind, the body, speech and mind, to avoid and abandon the causes of suffering and to master the causes of happiness, and health.
These are the jobs I performed as Centre Manager of a very excellent Buddhist Institute:
Following on from the 1992 tour of His Holiness to Australia, I began working as a Kitchen Manager at Tara Insitute, in Melbourne, Australia. This is the way I practiced generosity. The Buddhist Centre at the time had many commitments and I agreed to volunteer much of my time, seven hours a day to complete the work necessary as kitchen manager to that Buddhist Centre.
I woke up early at four or five am. Then I would focus on generating the bodhicitta motivation as a reason behind all my actions of body, speech and mind. One needs to look at the seven fold cause and effect method to understand why it is so worthwhile to generate the bodhicitta motivation as the reason behind each action of body, speech and mind that one both aspires to and engages in.
I will discuss this now. Firstly beings need to be recognized as having been like kind mothers. All beings are like this, kind mothers. Then you think of the ways in which these beings are kind. We are fortunate to be in receipt and prescence of such a holy, and pure spiritual, religious, scientific and medical tradition, that is uncorrupt. There are so many ways to recognize the kindness that is on display around us. We can’t really get anywhere without this kindness.
Then we consider repaying this kindness. How wrong to take kindness for granted, or to be greedy with it. Then we develop loving kindness, the wish for oneself and others to have happiness and it’s causes. We need to deeply feel this way at all times to oppose anger and hatred, which is is the wish to cause harm. You need to apply the antidote of loving kindness to oppose and cessate the harmful negative states of mind of anger and hatred. Hatred and anger are always wrong states of mind.
Then you generate compassion, which is the wish for oneself and others to be free of suffering and it’s causes. After this you generate altruism and then you develop the mind wishing to, aspiring to and engaging in the path to Buddhahood or enlightenment. You also need to recognize that all phenomena lack inherent existence, whilst cause and effect and dependent arising are unfailing.
Now, having done this, I worked on preparing the weekly menu. So I would shower and dress thinking this way.
I prepared a three course vegetarian meal for the residents of Tara and the public, over forty people, five evenings a week.
The meal would begin with soup, then a main course, and finally desert. I had to arrange a meal design that offered different meals for about two weeks in a row. Then I did the ordering, keeping within a strict budget. All the meal planning and menu design and ordering was done in my own time, unpaid as a volunteer. I turned up for some paid work five hours a day, five days a week to actually prepare and cook the meals.
My meals were quite well received. People generally liked the soup, which was good. As I was a bit new to vegetarian cooking, I had quite a bit to learn. After four months on the job, the executive committee advertised the Centre’s position of Centre Manager. After consulting with Geshe Doga, I was advised to apply for the position.
