Kadampa Precepts 5

"When the venerable Atisa was staying on Yer-pa-drak, near Lhasa, he gave the following precept to Ye-shay Bar-wa of Olgood:
"I bow down to the Blessed One and to Arya Tara. I bow down to the Holy Lamas." 
"Noble sons, reflect deeply on these words. In the Kaliyuga the lives of men are short and there is much to be understood. The duration of life is uncertain; you do not know how long you will live. Thus you must make great effort now to fulfil your right desires.
"Do not proclaim yourself a bhiksu if you obtain the necessities of life in the manner of a layman. Though you live in a monastery and have given up worldly activities, if you fret about what you have given up, you have no right to proclaim, 'I am a bhiksu living in a monastery.' If your mind still persists in desire for pretty things and still produces harmful thoughts, do not proclaim, 'I am a bhiksu living in a monastery.' If you still go about with worldly people and waste time in worldly, senseless talk with those with whom you live, even though you are living in a monastery, do not proclaim, 'I am a bhiksu living in a monastery.' If you are impatient and go about feeling slighted, if you cannot be even the least bit helpful to others, do not proclaim, 'I am a Bodhisattva-bhiksu.'
"If you speak thus to worldly people, you are a great liar You may get away with saying such things. However, you cannot deceive those who have the boundless sight of clairvoyance, nor can you deceive those who have the Dharma eye of great omniscience. Neither can you deceive yourself, for the effects of karma follow after you.

a Bodhisattva-bhiksu technically is one who has not only received the bhiksu ordination but also the Bodhisattva ordination. In the course of the Bodhisattva
ordination you take the vow to dedicate yourself to Enlightenment for the sake of all and you take upon yourself Bodhisattva precepts. 
I think we have to be really careful about correlating the actual spiritual experience on the one hand and the technical ordination on the other which is supposed, ideally, to be expressive of the inner spiritual condition but which very often isn't and is merely just something that you take. 
Here what Atisa is getting at is the discrepancy that sometimes exists between your religious status and your actual inner spiritual condition. And when these two drift too far apart then the spiritual tradition concerned is in a quite unhealthy state. 

There is this distinction made in the tradition between what they call the intentional Bodhicitta and what it called the actual Bodhicitta. The intentional Bodhicitta is, that without the Bodhicitta having actually arisen, you have a very intense aspiration to
benefit others through your own spiritual development and with this in mind, for this reason,in order to give expression to this, you take the Bodhisattva ordination. This is what usually happens in the case of those who take it with complete sincerity. In very few cases is the ordination an actual confirmation that the Bodhicitta has arisen. 
In the case of the intentional Bodhicitta there has to be a very strong, a very powerful
development of metta and karuna though short of what would amount to vipassana. 
conjoined with the previously existing metta and karuna. It is the sunyata experience
or insight which transforms the mundane metta and karuna into the Bodhicitta, the actual Bodhicitta, which is of course transcendental. 

"Moreover, when generating Bodhi-mind, remember the vows you have taken before the Lamas and deities. Do not say, 'It is too difficult to be patient' when you meet with someone who gives you the opportunity for special patience. Remember that even if it is very difficult there is always something that can be done. Prior to taking a vow, consider carefully whether it is too difficult for you to keep. For if you do not keep a vow once you have taken it, you will be deceiving the Lamas and deities. And again, always remember that even though a thing seems to be difficult, there is always something that can be done." 

You notice that Atisa speaks of meeting with someone who gives you the opportunity for special patience. Suggesting that you should be quite patient with difficult people who are so kind as to give you the opportunity of practising patience, which is one of the Paramitas, the practice of which is going to get you to Enlightenment. So they are helping you to gain Enlightenment. This is a very typical Tibetan Buddhist reflection. Going back to Shantideva of course, after the Buddhist tradition generally but Shantideva gives it rather special, not to say extreme expression. 

Well what is a vow? It is not just a statement, it is also more like a public statement, made openly to yourself in the presence of other people. And from the Mahayana point of view in the presence of the Buddha's and the Bodhisattvas as well. It is like a public undertaking to do something. So the idea is that if you reflect that you have given this public undertaking to so many people, including yourself, that you will do such and such; well this can function as a very strong support to you. Because you can't possibly let down so many people to whom you have promised that you will do such and such thing. Also the public declaration to that effect means that you are totally committing yourself, you are not leaving any loophole. Therefore if you break a vow to do something it is a much more serious matter than simply not doing that thing without a vow. Because where the vow is concerned your total being, or
decision and commitment of your total being, in a very public manner is involved. 
The vow must be an expression of your total being, not just of that particular part of your being which is uppermost at the moment. So therefore, vows mustn't be rash or impulsive. This is one of the reasons why the vows are usually administered by the Lama. If the Lama doesn't have the confidence that you can keep that vow he would advise you not to take it. 

Anyway, the general idea is the more intensive practice of a particular precept by turning it, at least for a day or a week into a vow in the full sense of the term, and observing it as such. 
the vow is an expression of wholeheartedness and it is this quality that one finds lacking, very often. Of wholeheartedness, of doing something or committing oneself to something with ones total being. 
But the private life in a way means that little area which is not involved in the
commitment, which you keep back and which nobody must look at. Because when someone looks at it he is looking at it and saying, "look in that area you are not practising, you are not committing." Then the reply is well that is my business, "that is my private life, no one has got any right to look there and to suggest that I am not practising in that area." 
But you certainly need space, you need privacy, but you can be quite open about it. Why do I want to get away from people or why do I want some time on my own, why do I want a solitary retreat? - so that I can expand within, as it were. I want to get on with my meditation,I want to revitalize myself, I need privacy, I need isolation to be able to do this. This is certainly not a private life in this sense if you just shut your door and want to be alone and make it clear to other people, which you need as an individual. 
It seems as though all these different things are quite interconnected, the vow, the total commitment, the not keeping a little private area for oneself, no private life in the neurotic sense; these all seem very much interconnected. Willingness to share. 

And if you do ask for ordination, if you do say you want to commit yourself and join the spiritual community, you should be quite frank about any debts of any kind that you are likely to be bringing with you. Because you are bringing those along with yourself

"To stay in a monastery it is necessary to give up worldly ways and attachment to friends and relatives. By renouncing these, you are getting rid of all the co-operating causes of attachment and longing. From then on you must seek the precious Bodhi-mind. Not even for an instant should you allow your past obsession with worldly concerns to arise. Formerly, you did not properly practice the Dharma, and under the influence of past habits that sapped your strength, you continually produced the concepts of a worldly person. Because such concepts are predominant, unless you make use of strong antidotes to them, it is useless to remain in a monastery. You would be like the birds and wild animals that live there." 

To live in the monastery and do nothing about developing yourself is of no use at all.

The lotus does bloom in the midst of the mire and one just has to reflect on that. If you can't bloom in the midst of the mire you are not a lotus, you are some other plant and maybe you should change your habitat. Get planted in some nice secluded garden well you will be well watered and weeded and the bugs picked off you when necessary.  It's as simple as that. If one can cope, one can cope, if one can't it is best to withdraw from the situation  

"Do not think, 'It is too difficult to apply the antidotes right now.' If the Wish-fulfilling Jewel should happen to fall from the hands of a blind man, he may never find it again. As you practice, do not count the months and years, but continually examine the strength of your meditation and the extent of your realization. See whether or not your fettering passions are diminishing. Always be mindful. Do not make yourself miserable, nor should you ever even attempt to deceive yourself or the Lamas and deities. Do not do anything that would bring disaster to yourself or others." 

It is very difficult to follow a middle way here between laziness and drifting and forcing and being mechanical. 
Atisa seems to have quite a good psychological insight. As you practice do not count the months and years, it doesn't matter, it's just what you are doing now that is important. 
You are always making a fresh start, it is always new, it is always the beginning, it is
not the same old thing over again, the same old practice that you have done a hundred times. Each time is different, each time is unique. 

It sometimes seems that they try very hard to make themselves miserable. They certainly succeed, at least in that, if not in very much else. ' 

'If the Wish-fulfilling jewel should happen to fall from the hands of a blind man, he
may never find it again'. 
You've got it now in your hand, you have got the opportunity thepossibility, even though you are, as it were, blind. So don't lose it, don't drop that jewel, it is there in your hand. You may never find it again once you drop it. 

Yes, if you develop an affinity for the Dharma in this life through your practice of it then you will tend to be reborn in areas and situations where you will continue to have access to the Dharma. 

"When you diminish the activities of this life, you are only doing what is necessary. If there is a heap of filth in front of you, you have to get rid of it quickly. Should someone help you, why not be happy? In the same way, you must get rid of all your habitual thoughts, using whatever antidotes are available to you. And, if the Lama and your spiritual friends help you to do this, why not be happy?" 
"Having promised before the Lamas and deities to work for the benefit of living beings, do not differentiate between those to whom you give gifts. Although there are differences in people, there is no differentiation in Bodhi-mind." 

This is a quite difficult point, in a way. 'Do not differentiate between those to whom you give gifts.' That is simply on the basis of personal liking and disliking. It doesn't mean that you should give to all indiscriminately, regardless of whether they are going to use those gifts rightly or harm themselves even further, but you shouldn't just follow your own likes and dislikes in giving to people. Which is what we often do, or usually do.

I would say just give, just get into the 'habit' of giving. Habit in inverted commas of course,sort out the motives afterwards. There is a very positive element in giving anyway with awareness and general sincerity. And don't think about it too much. Sometimes people have to weigh it too much, if you feel like giving something, give it. Think about it afterwards, not stopping and "should I, should I not, what are they going to think, do they really want it, what are other people going to think?", etc. If you feel like giving just give, on the spot, as it were. 
Maybe the Tibetan idea is a good one, that gifts should be in constant circulation. Well this is the Mahayana idea, very much. That you should accept whatever you are
given, even a monk should accept gifts. They accept it, they don't refuse it, but then at once they give it away. This seems to be quite a good thing. There is movement and circulation of gifts, 
Accept it, certainly, in the full sense. If it is something for you to use, use it for a while and then give it away, but not just pass it on as though you didn't value the giving. : Yes, people shouldn't be encouraged to be too precious though. You should be very careful of allowing the weak to rule the strong. 
A gift shouldn't have strings attached. That also applies to the gift of ones self. 

Well you give it as an expression of the fact that you don't regard it as yours. Not that you are giving something that belongs to you, but that you see that it doesn't belong to you, actually. Not in any real sense.
I was also going to say that the idea of exchange is important. We mustn't let the idea of  bargain obscure the fact that exchanging is also good. An exchange of gifts is a very important activity in many traditional societies. 

"Do not be angry with those who would harm you. If you allow yourself to become angry, how can you meditate patience? When fettering passions arise you must remember their opposing practice. Otherwise, why bother with religious practice that increases fettering passions? Constantly guarding your precious Bodhi-mind, you should not have the slightest gap in your remembrance. If even a tiny gap should appear, the devil of fettering passions will enter. And when this devil enters, he will obstruct the Bodhi-mind, and you will even be unable to help others and even fall into lower states of being. Think it over." 

In other words in the state of unmindfulness you are just very vulnerable to any hindrance or unskilful mental state that may arise. Continued mindfulness is the best guarantee that those unskilful mental states will not gain entry into you. That they will be kept at bay, that they won't take control of you. 

"Even if you have the thought, 'I have done religious practice,' you will go to death
empty-handed. Noble son, when you die, be careful that your Lama and spiritual friends do not worry or despair."
 That is to say have no good reason for worry or despair on your account.
"Do not bring doubt or despair to laymen who are faithful to the Dharma. You must check yourself again and again by comparing the Teachings of Buddha with your own mind. If you do not do this, even though you think, 'I have done religious practice,' you will stray from the Teaching. Because of this, at the time of death there will be no sign of your having practised Bodhi-mind and when the sign that you will fall into lower states of being appears, others will feel great worry and despair. Therefore, do not be lazy in your practice of the Dharma or let yourself be deceived by the proud thought, 'I have spent my whole life devoted to religion,' and thus go empty-handed into the instant of death." 

This is a general Buddhist teaching that at the time of death as the consciousness begins to dissociate itself from the physical body there are various signs in the forms of images that appear to the mind connected with the previous karma and so on. So if you have developed the Bodhicitta in the course of one's lifetime, then there will be very positive and happy and auspicious images arising and one will feel as though one is going to the pure land and will be quite happy and joyful. But if you have led a quite unskilful kind of life and done all sorts of unskilful things then the memory of all those unskilful things may well come back to you or rise up in front of you in the form of an image. 

"In short, staying in a monastery will not be helpful if you do not reverse your obsession for fine things and do not renounce the activities of this life."