You are currently logged-out. You can log-in or create an account to see more talks, save favorites, and more. more info
Embracing Imperfection Through Mercy
AI Suggested Keywords:
The talk discusses the alignment with Manjushri Bodhisattva, emphasizing a warm-hearted acceptance of human imperfections and challenges. It explores the idea that enlightenment and ordinary life are not separate, and that acknowledging life's fundamental afflictions with compassion is key to accessing Buddha nature. The teachings underscore that the path of mercy encompasses all experiences, integrating both enlightenment and the ordinary into a harmonious existence.
- Manjushri Bodhisattva: Revered as the embodiment of wisdom and compassion, and the enlightening being of sweetness and light, symbolizing the acceptance of human conditions and afflictions as pathways to enlightenment.
- The Path of Mercy: Illustrates that mercy unconditionally embraces all aspects of life, including confusion and ignorance, viewing them as intrinsic elements of wisdom.
- Enlightenment in Everyday Life: Frames enlightenment as inseparable from our day-to-day experiences and struggles, encouraging a shift in perspective to see these challenges as integral to spiritual growth.
AI Suggested Title: Embracing Imperfection Through Mercy
Side: A
Speaker: Tenshin Reb Anderson
Possible Title: One Day Sitting
Location: Green Gulch Farm
Additional text: 1 Day Sit - GG M, Reliable Cassette Mechanism
@AI-Vision_v003
I pay homage to Manjushri Bodhisattva, the enlightening being of sweetness and light. When I pay homage I mean that I want to align this body and mind with this bodhisattva of sweetness and light. And the seat I'm sitting in is not straight in front of Manjushri and it kind of hurts to be not straight in front of him.
[01:24]
But in a way I feel that's good because I feel part of Manjushri's path is to warmly accept such painful differences that we feel. to remember that what this being of sweetness and light is comes from a warm-hearted settling with our human situation, which is that somehow, even though we are perfectly in alignment
[02:40]
with awakening already, somehow it's a problem for us. Manjushri says, I'm a common person and I have all the afflictions of a human being. And I'm not a bodhisattva. And everything in my life is enlightenment.
[03:58]
And I have a problem with that. I must practice in order to settle with my life and with the teaching that everything already is enlightenment. And I can't quite accept that. Enlightenment is not something separate from our lives. Pain is not something separate from our lives.
[05:45]
Can we find the spirit which is gentle enough to show us the way to settle into this life and to drop off our discursive thinking in terms of enlightenment and delusion, good and bad. Can we sit today accepting all that's happening and settle into the deepest place in our being where we don't think of good and bad?
[08:25]
even though thinking of good and bad are flying around us constantly, just like it's raining. Manjushri understands this place and understands that this place is nothing at all. And that's where his sweetness and light comes, even though he's really an ordinary person and has the same problems that we have.
[09:35]
And he's not a bodhisattva. He's just sweetness and light, and so are we. To align ourselves with his great wisdom means to align ourselves with our ordinariness today. to align ourselves with our problems, with our pains, with our questions, with our fears. And by this warm-hearted settling and acceptance
[10:47]
We go deeper and drop more and more. Manjushri says, call me the sweetness and light of hate.
[12:22]
Call me the sweetness and light of lust. Call me the sweetness and light of confusion. These fundamental afflictions of ignorance are themselves the immutable knowledge of all the Buddhas. The path of mercy does not exclude anything.
[15:48]
The quality of mercy is unstrained. The fundamental strain of our life is itself what we mean by awakening. The warm-heartedness with this strain is the basis of Manjushri's path.
[17:26]
I, with all of you, pay homage to Manjushri and I ask Is this ordinary or holy? May our intention...
[17:48]
@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_95.57