What is a Bodhisattva?
In my case it’s a fat I old man with a beard who sits too much… but still hasn’t given up hope he can be free, be strong, and save the world.
A Bodhisattva can be any shape, color or size, any gender and any age. It is simply a person on the path. A person who sees the the inescapable fact that we are all interconnected. My health, happiness, and enlightenment comes from the world I live in, and the people I am with. The bodhisattva saves himself by saving the world.
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The joy of bodhisattva ~ Tai Situ Rinpoche
When you have compassion, a bodhisattva’s compassion for all sentient beings, why you have bodhisattva for all sentient beings is because of your joy, not because of your sorrow. When you see that all sentient beings are suffering, you see that they don’t have to suffer, they can get out of that suffering, but not from somewhere else, the means of getting out of suffering is in them. Buddha-nature is in them, primordial wisdom is in them. When you see that then you get the natural aspiration, “May I reach liberation so that I can liberate all other sentient beings who are suffering absolutely unnecessarily.” You have aspiration, confidence and a destination; it is more than just hope. So that is joy, it is not sorrow. It is not like, “These poor sentient beings are suffering. I have to do something for them.” It is, “These future Buddhas are unnecessarily suffering. They are having a nightmare. Their essence is perfect so they have all the means in them to overcome this suffering. So may I be the aspiration and guide for them. May I have that honor to be the guide and example and giver of that great realization for them, to make them realize who they are,” that’s all. You are not bringing something from somewhere and giving it to them, or cutting something from yourself and sewing it on to them. It is just making them realize who they are. That is what bodhisaittva is. And it is joy, confidence, and an honor. It is not suffering, it is not pain and it is not misery.
– Tai Situ Rinpoche
from the book “Nectar of Dharma: The Sacred Advice, Volume Four”
Train like a Bodhisattva.
Don’t let a single muscle fiber escape
Your attention.
It may contain the biopsychosocial epiphany.
Muscle Meditation: This is Understanding.
Can you do this? If you can do this then you will understand. Reading it is not understanding. Put your feet under you and understand it with the body. Take time and go very very slow. Luxuriate in your own wonderful physical self.
Feel the scapula and the muscles around it to be able to not feel neck and shoulder joint pain. Find power in this major bone. It deepens you.
Feel the groin and the muscles there to balance tension and relieve the low back and hips. Bring active balance to the complex, miraculous pelvis through muscle meditation. Twist the legs in instead of out to create presence and integrity in the area.
Feel and use the big toe to bring power to the groin and the deep core. Open up the tripod of the foot on the earth for better balance, groundedness, and for better detailed adaptive resilience all the way up the system.
Let your active awareness and stimulation of muscle travel from the big toe, though the legs and pelvis, up the front of the spine in the deep core–all the way to the neck and tongue.
Three bones theory. [Cross Reference this with Jim’s ‘Deep Core’ presentation in Care Culture].
Train like a Bodhisattva.
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