The Compassion Project: 2008

Namo Lokeshvaraya,
Or homage to Avalokiteshvara,
And Chenrezig,
And GuanYin,
And all avatars of compassion,
By whatever name you call them.

As Rinpoche prepares to teach the 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas,
I have prepared a simple English version of the text.
Without pluperfect tense or ablative absolute,
It is riddled with flaws.
These flaws are my own.

I hope that they, too, might help lead the reader toward enlightenment.

1.
You have been born in a rare vessel of freedom and fortune.
Listen to the teaching. Think about it. Make up your mind.
Do not waver, day or night.
Free yourself and others from this cycle and ocean of existence.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

2.
Attached to your loved ones, the mind wavers like water.
With hatred for enemies, your mind burns with fire.
Dark and confused, ignorance forgets what to keep and discard.
Cast off your homeland.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

3.

Avoid bad people and places. Your afflictions gradually decrease.

Without these distractions, virtuous activities naturally increase.
When the mind is free and clear, understanding arises.
Cultivate seclusion.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

4.
Life-long loves, friends, family, will part.
Hard-earned wealth you can't take with you.
This body is a guest-house, consciousness the guest.
Do not cling to this life.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

5.
Bad companions help your three poisons to grow.
Listening, thinking, and meditating decline.
Love and compassion disappear.
Give up such so-called "friends."
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

6.
When you rely on your spiritual friends
Your faults are exhausted.
Your virtue waxes full like the moon.
Cherish them even more than your own vessel of fortune.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

7.
A deity imprisoned in worldly existence
Cannot protect you, or free you, or save you.
Seek refuge in the Three Jewels.
They will not betray you.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

8.
The unbearable burden of bad rebirths,
The Buddha said,
Is fruit from the seed of bad deeds.
Don't do wrong, even if it costs you your life.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

9.
Every pleasure of the three worlds,
Like dew on the tip of a blade of grass,
Shines for awhile and then--poof!--vanishes.
Aspire for the supreme state of never-changing liberation.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

10.
Since time unbeginning your mothers have loved you.
Now they are suffering.
What use is your own selfish happiness?
Generate bodhicitta! Liberate all mother sentient beings!
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

11.
All suffering comes from the wish for personal happiness.
Perfect Buddhas are born from bodhicitta.
Trade your own happiness, then,
For the suffering of others.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

12.
If a thief, inspired by a strong desire, steals all your money,
Or conspires with others to do so,
Give him, or her, or them, your body, your things, your virtue,
Past, present, and future.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

13.
If you are innocent and still being punished,
Even if they are cutting your head off,
Have compassion and give it, too:
Take the misdeed upon yourself.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

14.
If someone is saying all kinds of nasty things about you,
Spreading lies and rumors that aren't true,
Say nice things about that person,
With a smile and a loving mind.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

15.
Maybe someone says bad things about you in public.
Maybe some of those things are true.
Be humble. Pay homage. Bow down in respect.
She might be your teacher of virtue.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

16.
What if a person you love as your own child
Turns against you and treats you with spite?
Like a mother whose baby is stricken with sickness
Cherish him or her especially dearly.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

17.
What if someone below you in rank,
Or even your equal, puffed up with pride,
Puts you down? Lift him or her up, just like your guru,
To a place at your head and your crown.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

18.
You might be poor, mocked and made fun of,
Sick with disease and evil spirits.
Don't be discouraged.
Take on the misdeeds and suffering of beings.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

19.
Maybe you're famous and everyone loves you.
Maybe you are richer than the Goddess of Wealth herself.
Realize that the world and fortune are each without essence.
Do not be conceited.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

20.
You might defeat and destroy external enemies,
But if you do not subdue your own internal anger
You will be beset by foes all over.
Array the army of love and compassion against your own mind.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

21.
Sensual pleasures are like drinking salt water:
The more you indulge, the more you are thirsty.
Whatever breeds clinging attachment
Abandon immediately.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

22.
If it appears it is your mind.
From the start the mind is free from made-up extremes.
Knowing this, do not engage
In subject-object duality.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

23.
A rainbow in summer is gorgeous.
When you meet with such things and beauty,
Do not be fooled: They are not real.
Abandon clinging attachment.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

24.
Suffering is like the death of a child in a dream.
If you think illusions are real you become weary.
When you meet with circumstances that disagree,
See them as illusions.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

25.
Do you want enlightenment? You must give up your body.
What need we mention external things?
Practice generosity.
Don't hope for fruition or positive karma.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

26.
If you have no ethics you won't achieve your own goal.
It's a joke to speak of accomplishing others'.
Be ethical.
Forget your worldly ambitions.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

27.
For bodhisattvas who desire virtue's pleasure,
Those who do harm are like a precious treasure.
Cultivate patience for all
Without hostility.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

28.
Even those who seek only their own enlightenment
Go about it as if their hair were on fire.
What about you, for the sake of all sentient beings?
Diligent effort is the source of all good qualities.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

29.
Tranquil abiding destroys disturbing emotions
With insight. Do you understand?
Cultivate concentration, then,
And surpass the four formless absorptions.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

30.
The five perfections cannot bring perfect enlightenment
Unless you also have wisdom.
Cultivate skillful means with wisdom.
Do not conceive the three spheres as real.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

31.
Examine your errors.
Are you a practitioner? Or do you just seem and not act like one?
Examine your errors, then,
And get rid of them.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

32.
What if disturbing emotions influence you
And you point out the flaws of another bodhisattva?
Then you yourself are diminished.
Don't pick at the nits of one in the Great Vehicle.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

33.
Under the influence of reward and respect we quarrel.
Listening, thinking, and meditating decline.
Abandon attachment
To the households of friends, family, and patrons.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

34.
Harsh words disturb others' minds.
This causes a bodhisattva's conduct to decline.
Abandon harsh speech.
It is unpleasant to others.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

35.
When afflictions become habits they are hard to break.
Mindfulness is the antidote.
It destroys afflictions like desire
As soon as they arise.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

36.
In short, whatever you do, you should ask yourself,
"What is my state of mind?"
Constant mindfulness, mental awareness,
Fulfill the good of others.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

37.
Do you want to dispel the suffering of ALL sentient beings?
Understand the purity of the three spheres.
Dedicate the virtue of effort
To enlightenment.
This is a practice of bodhisattvas.

This is a poor translation.
It is not even a translation.
It is a hodge and a podge
And a patchwork from others.
Even so, the teaching of bodhisattvas
Is less in their words and more in their deeds.
May this work be a seed for the liberation of mothers.

Visualize the Medicine Buddha sitting above your crown on a moon disc rising out of lotus blossom. Above the Medicine Buddha sits the root guru. Above him sits one on top of another five more Buddhas. As you pray to the topmost Buddha he dissolves into the one below him. Each in turn dissolves into the one below until the Medicine Buddha himself dissolves through your crown and into your heart, purifying all impurities. The mantra (Om bikensa bikensa mahabikensa bikensa ran sa samugati soha) rotates clockwise like a rosary or mala around the seed syllable in the center of the heart of the teacher. One by one the beads of the mala flow like seeds of bodhicitta up his central channel and through his throat chakra and out of his mouth as he recites the mantra, entering the initiate through the crown in her head. One by one like drops of bodhicitta the syllables of the mantra descend to the heart, where they once again rotate clockwise around the seed syllable. The Medicine Buddha and the initiate are now one for the benefit of all mother sentient beings.