Our FBA Dharmabyte today is from the founder of the Triratna Buddhist Order and Community, Sangharakshita. In and#8220;The Bodhisattva at Play,and#8221; he explores how a Bodhisattvaand#8217;s work is like the play of an elephant. Delightful and fun, this talk was given in 1969 as part of and#8220;Aspects of the Bodhisattva Ideal,and#8221; and is titled and#8220;Masculinity and Femininity in the Spiritual Life.and#8221;
Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio
The Bodhisattva at Play
[music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for your life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you, and happy listening. So we refine the energies, we stop waste and so on, and in this way energy becomes available for the living, for the practice of all the parameters, all the perfections, which the Bodhisattva must practice to attain, to realize Buddhahood. So there's no division of energies. The Bodhisattva becomes the embodiment of energy. So at the same time there's no Hari, there's no fuss, there's no restlessness or anything of that sort. There is, we may say, just smooth, uninterrupted activity for the sake, for the benefit of all sentient beings. And Shanti Deva may be quoted here, again, in this connection. Shanti Deva says the Bodhisattva is like an elephant in Indian literature. If you're compared with an elephant, it's highly complementary, by the way. Now they say, for instance, there are beautiful woman that she walks, just like an elephant. And this doesn't mean that she's clumsy or bit well-built or anything like that. It means that she has a graceful, slow, swinging, stately movement. So it's a great complement if you're compared to an elephant. So Shanti Deva says the Bodhisattva is like an elephant. And in what way is he like an elephant? The elephant, I don't know whether you know this, is very playful, especially the male elephant. A very playful beast indeed, and he loves to bathe. He loves to bathe in lotus ponds and to squirt water over himself and trumpets gaily and pluck up great bunches of lotus flowers and washes them carefully. And then he eats them. And this way he passes the day very happily. So Shanti Deva says it's just like the elephant, or the Bodhisattva is just like the elephant. Just as the elephant, as soon as he's finished playing and sporting in one pond, plunges into another lotus pond, in the same way he says with equal happiness, with equal delight, the Bodhisattva, as soon as one work is finished, he plunges into another. Well, I hardly need to remind you, with us it isn't like that. One work is finished, we like to have a good rest, have a cup of tea or something like that. But not the Bodhisattva. As soon as one work is finished, he plunges straight away, joyfully into the next. At the same time, the Bodhisattva doesn't really think that he is doing anything. He doesn't think, well, I'm working on doing this and I'm doing that. His activity, his functioning, his manifestation of energy is selfless. It's a spontaneous activity, just kind of bubbling up, just like a fountain. It's like a flower unfolding. And sometimes the Bodhisattva's activity is spoken of in the Indian languages as a leela, which means it's a game. It's a sport. It's a play. It's a play, a sort of game that the Bodhisattva plays. It's like a child plays spontaneously manifesting energy in the same way that Bodhisattva plays, manifesting the perfections, manifesting the different aspects of the path through enlightenment. And eventually playing the great game of Buddhahood and manifesting enlightenment. So there's no time to dwell upon this idea of spiritual life being a sort of playfulness or sort of bubbling up of spiritual or transcendental energy. This is very prominent in some forms of Indian thought and Indian religious life. In this country we tend to take religion very, very seriously. We've got Sabbath faces and Sabbath gloom and things of that sort. We think the more serious you are, well, the more religious and the more religious, the more serious. You never laugh in church. But the Bodhisattva's life isn't like that. It's a game. It's a play. It's a sport. And in the East religious life, spiritual life is very often compared to this sort of game. Because in a way it's self-contained. It's complete in itself. It doesn't, in a way, look beyond. And it's spontaneous. It's free from ego-tism. It's natural. And it's enjoined. We hope you enjoyed today's Dharma Bite. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donny. And thank you. And thank you. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]