Bodhisattvas Ease The Way

Andrew reflects in his post Easy And Pleasant Work on the matter I spoke of back in February in a post titled Give It Up.

And what I have realised is that I so often approach life expecting it to be so hard. Which is why the ‘looking up’ has always appealed – but it has still felt like it was a ‘hard’ effort to look up and not be dragged down by the seeming inevitable difficulty of life and the sense of loss foreseen with ‘letting things go’, ‘offering them up’ or even until now with ‘give it up’.

Yes, there is the refraining. The denying oneself the full range of things one desires. Undoubtedly there is the refraining from indulging in greed, hatred and delusion. Undoubtedly this is a level of keeping to the Precepts which continues day to day. And there is give it up where it is the struggle. Not give in, give up. Give up the struggle AND continue to be the best person you know how. Struggle need not be part of this so simple Way. As the quote at the end of the articles says:

I should not like to have the bodhisattva think this kind of work hard to achieve and hard to plan out. If he did, there are beings beyond calculation, and he will not be able to benefit them. Let him on the contrary consider the work easy and pleasant, thinking they were all his mother and father and children, for this is the way to benefit all beings whose number is beyond calculation.

From The Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines.

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