When it comes to generating bodhichitta, this is the opening line of the Longchen Nyingtik version of the prayer. Beings are mesmerized by their own perceptions, and hence fail to see the Dharma.
So what generated this for me you ask? Well, aside from reciting this prayer during my prostrations, I also am reading Patrul Rinpoche's Words of My Perfect Teacher. I am in the very beginning of the book, and there he is covering the four thoughts that turn the mind to Dharma. The first is that of precious human birth. Considering all the advantages and freedoms we practitioners have, (all our faculties, living in a time of the Dharma, having a teacher, a propensity to practice, etc.) , and his list is longer, I got to realizing that there are family members who don't practice Dharma. They are still mesmerized by their own perceptions. And the variety of those!
People develop perceptions throughout their lives. At some point they tackle the metaphysical realities, but essentially everyone comes up with a perception of reality that to them explains the material/non-material phenomena they experience. Interestingly, they leave room for unanswerables that defy their ordered belief system. They perceive, using the senses and mind, and develop a perspective, which is the important data (filtered) and how it all fits into a meaningful relationship.
And then the unthinkable happens. Their child dies. Then their spouse. Their business fails. Heck, they didn't have the energy after two deaths. And lo and behold, it turns out their spouse was adulterous with their business partner, and they siphoned off all the money. And to top it all off, in all this pain and suffering, the local church they attended decides that the best counsel, after having not attended the funerals, is to tell the victim that they lack faith.
Too much you say? Ha! This sort of thing happens every day to someone. Or a picking of one or two of them. Regardless of the circumstances, everything that they thought was real, what they trusted, turned out to be unreliable because of it's impermanent nature. They were mesmerised, and then caught unawares. So being a bit more current, how about a layoff and a foreclosure? No job, no place to live, and a Congress that decides that certain folk on Unemployment Insurance don't deserve to have their benefits extended. And the church, rather than helping, tells them that the road to prosperity is to continue donating. Never mind that every Sunday there is close to $2 million dollars worth of vehicles in the parking lot.
And consider the variety. Alienism (I made this up I think), Baha'i, Confucianism, Christianity (remember all the sects among this one, including Scientology), Deism, Druidism, Hinduism, Islam (and it's sects), Judaism, Jainism, Native religions, New Age (I include here Eckanar and the like), Taoism, Sikhism, Wicca, and Zoroastrianism. This planet has an unbelievable smorgasbord of spiritual perspectives, and then there's the atheist/agnostic perspectives as well as schools of philosophy. Oh my.
It can get rather dizzying and daunting to try and figure out the truth, when so many claim to be so. And maybe because it's tiring to do all that looking and investigating we just pick one that either titillates us or appeals to us and we surrender.
All these perspectives are like the reflection of the moon in water: illusory. Unreal, misleading, deceptive, in many ways in fact. We consider many things permanent, and they aren't. Nothing is. This planet, our sun, all the species on this planet, are all impermanent. Death is a huge area where we harbor many illusions, and we strive so hard in the West to avoid old age and death that a multi-billion dollar industry has emerged around maintaining something impermanent. That tells me we are afraid of it. And of course, there are many illusions about what the "self" is. Spirit, soul, body, electro-chemical amalgamation, heart, feelings, thoughts, mind; again, oh my. The jillions of definitions and perspectives. And it seems quite ironic that with all these different perspectives, that suffering seems to not have lessened on this planet one little bit. We all suffer death. Usually, we suffer the sickness that causes the death. Or the pain of an accident. Or war. And then there is the suffering of abuse, and how we treat one another in relationships.
What is needed is the generation of bodhichitta, which is what this prayer is all about. The last section sums it all up: "I generate the immeasurable love, compassion, joy and equanimity of the Awakened Mind, the heart of bodhichitta."
Three points to close. First, these qualities of bodhichitta are inherent in it, and they are immeasurable and over time extend to all beings. Which means simply that as I develop my practice, my reaching out with these immeasurables begins with those closest to me, and then to my co-workers and and then to my neighborhood, region, well, I hope you get the picture. The emptiness of Buddhism is precisely that: immeasurable love, compassion, and joy for and towards all. Second, it is because of the suffering of beings in the vicious cycle of samsara that we learn to generate these innate qualities until they are completely revealed. If one reads in The Words Of My Perfect Teacher, by Patrul Rinpoche, the descriptions of the hells and the other realms, and the fact that it is our decisions that cause us to experience them, you'll get a clear understanding of the suffering of samsara Third, it's all up to you.
Yup. You saw that right. It does not say "The Lama" generates, or Dave, or Val, or Diane, Bruce, Jeanne, or any of the sangha members. It says "I." I take that burden of releasing all transmigrators from the ocean of suffering in which they are drowning. I'm sure that you still remember that this little fire that is growing in you is being fed carefully, and will in time spread to greater numbers of beings. The reason it's critical is because you possess the precious human form. If you look into the 18 benefits of being human, you begin to realize how fortunate one is to not only be human, but to have entered the Dharma, and have a teacher to teach you. It's like the dust on the head of a pin compared to all that on the planet. That's the comparison of how many people with all their faculties have entered the Dharma as to how many beings exist in the suffering of samsara.
I hope my words are beneficial . Tashi Deleg!
