Monthly Archives: October 2025

Verse 21, Relative Bodhichitta

Leave a reply

Ken McLeod:

Sensual pleasures are like salty water: The deeper you drink, the thirstier you become. Any object that you attach to, right away let it go—this is the practice of a bodhisattva.

Dalai Lama:

The nature of sense pleasures is like that of saltwater: The more we drink, the more our thirst increases. To abandon the objects towards which desire arises is a practice of the bodhisattva.

Good food, good sex and beautiful fabrics are wonderful, but when they become so important that we crave them, we’re in trouble. The experiences pass, and we can’t “get them back, duplicate them, make them happen again.” Do you know that song by Sade? “It’s never as good as the 1st time…” Pretty much that’s the truth.

And, we can’t disavow sensual pleasures either. That kind of ascetism is just as harmful, and just as addictive. It’s not the answer to our suffering.

The Buddha said that the middle way is the answer. Enjoy the wonderful things in life without thinking they’ll always be the same, that they’ll always satisfy us, or cure the suffering we feel. We will be full for a moment, but our hunger will return. “More” is not the answer.

The suffering of craving is in the mind… Obsession is in the mind. So this verse says, Any object that you attach to, right away let it go!

His Holiness the 17th Karmapa briefly discussed interdependence, one of his favorite topics … He said, “Living in this world of the 21st century, which we’ve come to call the information era, we are able to see more than ever before how each and every one of us is interconnected with each other. The intimate and deep connection between every person and place has become more evident than it ever was, due to our technology, social media, and so forth. This enables us to see clearly how much of an effect we have on one another, and how we all rely on each other…. Each person is not really independent because our happiness and suffering depend on the happiness and suffering of others.”

37 Practices of a Bodhisattva

2 Replies

Each of Verses 12-17, begins with “Even if…”

“Even if someone steals everything you own...” ” Even if you have done nothing wrong at all And someone still tries to take your head off…” “Even if someone slanders your name and spreads rumors about you…” “Even if someone humiliates you in front of a crowd of people…” “Even if a person you have cared for as your own child treats you as her worst enemy…” “Even if your peers put you down to make themselves look better…”

Then in Verse 18, we have another circumstance…

“When you are down and out, held in contempt, desperately ill and emotionally crazed, don’t lose heart. Take into you the suffering and negativity of all beings — this is the practice of a bodhisattva. “

And the opposite in Verse 19…

“Even when you are famous, honored by all, and as rich as the God of wealth himself, note that success in the world is ephemeral, and don’t let it go to your head—this is the practice of a bodhisattva.” 

Ken McLeod writes, “In all of these verses, Togmé Zangpo “describes how to practice in the face of injury, insult or the incomprehensible situations that commonly provoke anger and rage. In all these situations you use anger as a basis for taking and sending practice.”

Verse 20, then, gives us the solution to all of these situation…

“If you don’t subdue the enemy inside–your own anger—the more enemies you subdue outside, the more that come. Mastering the forces of loving kindness and compassion, and subdue your own mind—this is the practice of a bodhisattva.“

“Forget metaphors for a moment. If you do not resolve your own anger, you experience the world in terms of opposition and conflict, because that is how anger presents the world to you. No matter how many people you frightened, intimidate, lay into or beat up, all it takes is another disagreement, another vexation, and you are fighting again.

“When you wage war on anger, even with the forces of loving kindness and compassion, you are still waging war. A war on hell means you are in hell. War is not the way out.

“To return to the language of metaphor, your anger is a frightened, scared, hurt and lonely child having a tantrum. Hold that child tenderly holding tension. The tenderness is where the forces of loving kindness and compassion come in. Do not try to make her do anything. Just hold her. Let her cry. Let her rage. Do not react to her pain, distress, fear or outburst. Hold tenderly with loving kindness and compassion.”