Lojong 37) Do everything with one intention.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Patrick C Quinn, PhD, MHA in 7. Guidelines (37-57), Lojong, practical dharma

7. Guidelines (37-57)

37) Do everything with one intention.

The emphasis in this slogan is on the one intention. It makes it so much clearer when we can cut through to a core practice. The one intention is to aspire to practice as a Bodhichitta. The intention of the Bodhichitta is not to win the admiration of others, to achieve enlightenment, to release his or her own suffering, or to obtain any other result, except to simply reduce the suffering of all beings.

The Bodhichitta ideal is based on a combination of wisdom and compassion. Some people struggle with the idea that the Buddhist Dharma is selfish, since the first introduction most of us receive is based on practices that can alleviate our own suffering.

If I am not attached, doesn’t that imply some lack of concern for others? And what about “Acceptance”, doesn’t that imply that I am not concerned to change the way things are either for myself or for others? Neither of these statements are a correct understanding. Releasing attachment and achieving acceptance are about letting go of my demands that things be different than they are.

Have you every heard someone express something like “There are no accidents”? I understand this to be an acknowledgement that it is impossible for there to be situations in which the laws of the universe go astray in an aberration in which impossible things happen. Like this would be the case if gravity stopped, time and space “warped” in some mysterious way, there is no reality of the end of this mortal life, etc. There are no accidents because the laws of the universe operate whether I fully understand them or not. There is no other choice except to release my demand that things be different than they are; because no amount of my demanding will change the laws of the universe. However, I can choose to act in accordance with the laws of the universe (and Karma) to do things to the best of my ability that will reduce the suffering of others.

A correct understanding of the Buddhist Dharma is the intention to release attachment and to accept things as they are, while at the same time displaying wise compassion for all beings.

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