For centuries meditators have been using songs to remind themselves of very important key points. This song is about life and death. It’s especially about how to use every situation and every experience to improve and liberate our minds.
The shieldless naked heart is the amour of the true warrior. The very moment we take a step back from what we call ourselves and allow room enough in the field of experience, this inner spaciousness is the most wonderful medicine against fear, claustrophobia and the timidity of dualistic mind.
In the old Tibetan manuscript from the 12th century, we find this story about Tso Pema, the Lotus Lake, and why the tantric master Padmasambhava allowed himself to be burned alive and then transformed the blazing fire into a lake.
When chanting Padmasambhava’s sacred invocation, it is said that at first dualistic mind needs to approach the awakened state with the graceful bow of inner surrender. In this way the chant is a tool for awakening through song.
Holy anger is a mixture of taking pride in being violent, a distorted version of the brave heart, which intoxicate and entices us to feel: my wrath is just, I’m rightfully allowed, I just have to put things straight, by blowing up, losing my temper, and telling the awful truth, about how wrong you are.
Today we celebrate article number 108 from LEVEKUNST art of life with a reminder of the symbolic meaning of the mala with its 108 beads.
This verse of four lines is the first utterance of Buddha Shakyamuni after awakening to true and complete enlightenment, in the peaceful shade of a large pipal tree. It which expresses the very essence of realization.
Spiritual means more open-minded, sensitive and intelligent. It means combining heart and mind by being willing to allow natural intelligence to coexist with sincerity and honesty. Being this way, we appreciate people’s noble heart and good qualities.
We can test this out at our own pace, that lowering defenses opens up to acknowledging the deeper and more basic strength of this insight: that spaciousness cannot be hurt.
There is a point in meditation training, after having developed a sense of calm and being able to remain consciously present, where the need of yielding personal territory is unavoidable, inescapable.
Space is the most powerful metaphor for consciousness, it’s the fifth elements that accommodates everything. All there ever was and will be is thanks to space. Nothing can move without space, nothing exists outside of space. Within space all worlds and events arise and cease.
It is from here as well that the Buddha’s teachings flow to the rest of the planet, the wonderful teachings on respecting all living beings, on uncovering our humanity and finding the deepest insight possible, the awakened state that is the nature of our minds.