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This exalted understanding of ''prajñā'', the wisdom which sees through to the lack of an inherent nature in all phenomena, can help us to tackle the afflictions and aid us in destroying them forever. | This exalted understanding of ''prajñā'', the wisdom which sees through to the lack of an inherent nature in all phenomena, can help us to tackle the afflictions and aid us in destroying them forever. | ||
To illustrate how we are often so confused as to where the real problem lies and how correct wisdom is so important in orienting ourselves on the Buddhist path, Khenpo Kunpal cites ''The Heap of Jewels Sūtra'' (Skt. ''Ratnakūṭasūtra'') [LINK to text] | To illustrate how we are often so confused as to where the real problem lies and how correct wisdom is so important in orienting ourselves on the Buddhist path, Khenpo Kunpal cites ''The Heap of Jewels Sūtra'' (Skt. ''Ratnakūṭasūtra'') [LINK to text], which states the following: | ||
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|quote-text=In future times, O Kashyapa, there will be conceited monks who will be like dogs running after stones. Excited by [the throwing of] a stone, a dog will chase after it; it will not chase the person who threw it. In the same way, O Kashyapa, certain monks and practitioners will persistently discriminate between forms, sounds, smells, taste, and textures. They will understand that these are impermanent, deceptive, and liable to destruction, yet they will not know whence they arise…. | |quote-text=In future times, O Kashyapa, there will be conceited monks who will be like dogs running after stones. Excited by [the throwing of] a stone, a dog will chase after it; it will not chase the person who threw it. In the same way, O Kashyapa, certain monks and practitioners will persistently discriminate between forms, sounds, smells, taste, and textures. They will understand that these are impermanent, deceptive, and liable to destruction, yet they will not know whence they arise…. | ||
…In times to come, however, O Kashyapa, there will be other monk-yogis who will not be like dogs chasing after stones. If you throw a stone at a lion, it will know where the stone has come from. It will chase not the stone but the one who threw it, with the result that no more stones will be thrown! In the same way, when monks who practice yoga behold the outer objects of the senses, they know that the latter take their origin in the mind. And having examined the mind, they know that it is not truly existent, and thus they are free.<ref>Fletcher and Blankleder, ''Nectar of Manjushri's Speech'', 162. As the ''Ratnakūṭa'' is a collection of forty-nine sūtras, the actual sūtra cited here is the ''Kāśyapaparivartasūtra'', Toh 87. According to 84000, this work, in its own right, was known as the ''Ratnakūṭasūtra'' in several Indian treatises.</ref> | …In times to come, however, O Kashyapa, there will be other monk-yogis who will not be like dogs chasing after stones. If you throw a stone at a lion, it will know where the stone has come from. It will chase not the stone but the one who threw it, with the result that no more stones will be thrown! In the same way, when monks who practice yoga behold the outer objects of the senses, they know that the latter take their origin in the mind. And having examined the mind, they know that it is not truly existent, and thus they are free.<ref>Fletcher and Blankleder, ''Nectar of Manjushri's Speech'', 162. As the ''Ratnakūṭa'' is a collection of forty-nine sūtras, the actual sūtra cited here is the ''Kāśyapaparivartasūtra'', Toh 87. According to 84000, this work, in its own right, was known as the ''Ratnakūṭasūtra'' in several Indian treatises.</ref> | ||
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His final words to us are an admonishment to practice. | |||
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The Buddha is often likened to a doctor and the Dharma to medicine. Here, Śāntideva likens our condition to that of a patient who has been prescribed a curative medicine by a physician. Who, he asks us, having consulted with a doctor and been prescribed an appropriate medicine for their specific disease, would not then take the actual medicine? We may have been given guidance about following a particular diet or avoiding certain unhealthy foods or habits, but if we fail to follow the doctor's advice how can we ever hope to be cured? | |||
In this last verse Śāntideva summarizes the chapter, saying that we need to develop the conscientiousness which is aware of the preciousness of a human life endowed with the freedoms and endowments and the conscientiousness which is aware of what is to be abandoned, the mental afflictions. | |||
We have taken up the spirit of bodhicitta, the mind wishing to attain the fully enlightened state for the welfare of others. To protect this bodhicitta from declining and to be able to accomplish the trainings of the bodhisattva's path, we need discipline. That discipline relies on the practice of conscientiousness. | |||
Without conscientiousness, we cannot identify which practices and conduct we need to take up and which ones we need to relinquish in order to follow the training of the bodhisattva. Without conscientiousness, we will not be able to maintain virtuous states of mind, and we will not be able to remove the faulty mental states that continually disturb our mental peace. | |||
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