Be Grateful to Everyone - Story from Buddha’s Life

Now that nobody is responsible for your misery except you, if it is all your own doing,

then what is left? BE GRATEFUL TO EVERYONE. Because everybody is creating a

space for you to be transformed -- even those who think they are obstructing you,

even those whom you think are enemies. Your friends, your enemies, good people

and bad people, favorable circumstances, unfavorable circumstances -- all together

they are creating the context in which you can be transformed and become a buddha.

Be grateful to all.

A man once came and spat on Buddha, on his face.Buddha wiped his face and said to

the man, "Thank you, sir. You created a context in which I could see whether I can

still be angry or not. And I am not, and I am tremendously happy. And also you

created a context for Ananda: now he can see that he can still be angry. Many thanks,

we are so grateful! Once in a while, please, you are invited to come. Whenever you

have the urge to spit on somebody, you can come to us."

It was such a shock to the man, he could not believe his ears, what was

happening.Early the next morning he rushed back, fell down at the feet of Buddha,

and said, "Forgive me, sir. I could not sleep the whole night."

Buddha said, "Forget all about it. There is no need to ask forgiveness for something

which has already passed. So much water has gone down the Ganges." Buddha was

sitting on the bank of the Ganges under a tree. He showed the man, "Look, each

moment so much water is flowing down! Twenty-four hours have passed -- why are

you carrying it, something which is no longer existential? Forget all about it. And I

cannot forgive you, because in the first place I was not angry with you. If I had been

angry, I could have forgiven you. If you really need forgiveness, ask Ananda. Fall at

his feet -- he will enjoy it!"

To those who have helped, to those who have hindered, to those who have been

indifferent. Be grateful to all, because all together they are creating the context in

which buddhas are born, in which you can become a buddha.

THE INSURPASSABLE PROTECTION OF EMPTINESS IS TO SEE THE MANIFESTATIONS

OF BEWILDERMENT AS THE FOUR KAYAS.

Atisha talks about the four bodies. These four bodies are significant to be

understood.

The first is called dharmakaya: the body of the ultimate law. And what is the ultimate

law? Emptiness is the ultimate law: all is empty.

If you really want to grow, you will have to let this insight soak into you: all is empty.

Life is empty, death is empty, all phenomena are empty -- because nothing abides,

everything passes by, all is dream stuff. If this is understood, this will protect you.

How can you be insulted if all is empty? How can you be miserable if all is empty?

How can there be pain if all is empty? You are empty, the other is empty, so you must

have seen a dream that the other was insulting you, that the other spat on you.

If you really want to protect your understanding, this is the first body to grow around

yourself, the body of emptiness, the milieu of emptiness. All is empty. Buddha used to

send his disciples to the funeral pyres to meditate there. The newcomers had to be

there for three months in the beginning. Where bodies are burned, they would just

sit there and watch, day in and day out. People would be brought in, burned, and

then the friends would leave. What kind of life is this? What substance has it got?

Just the other day, the man was so haughty, so proud, so egoistic, that if you had

said anything wrong he would have jumped on you. And now where is he?

Disappeared in the flames. This is what life is. "Sooner or later I am also going to be

on the funeral pyre and all will be burned. So why bother, why make so much fuss? It

is only a few days' dream. And those few days are not much in the eternity of time,

they are just momentary."

The second body is nirmankaya: the first arising of compassion. When all is empty,

when everybody is on the funeral pyre, then compassion arises. It is not to be

cultivated, remember; it arises out of the first body.

Nirmankaya means the body of creation. It is strange -- the first body is the body of

emptiness, and the second body is the body of creation. But this is the insight of all

the great buddhas, that if you become a nobody, a great creation arises out of you.

The whole starts flowing through you; you become a vehicle, a passage, a medium, a

voice, for the whole. And with the second body arising, the first experience will be of

great compassion.

You see an old man dying on the road and compassion arises, you see somebody

starving and compassion arises -- it has a cause outside. If nobody is dying and

nobody is starving, there will be no compassion. In the second body, compassion

comes and goes; it arises in certain situations and disappears in certain other

situations.

The third body is called sambhogkaya: the body of bliss. In the third body,

compassion is unconditional. It does not arise and does not disappear; it remains, it

abides. It is not a question of whether somebody is suffering or not; in the third

body, one simply is compassion. In the second body, compassion is a relationship;

when there is a need it happens. In the third body, compassion becomes your very

state of being: need or no need, it is there. It is like a light burning in the night; it

goes on radiating whether somebody is in the room or not. Whether somebody needs

light or not, is not the point; the light goes on radiating.

Just as you go on breathing, even while you are asleep you go on breathing, a

buddha is compassionate even while asleep. A buddha is simply compassionate.

Compassion is not something that arises like a wave and disappears. Now

compassion is oceanic.

And the fourth body is called swabhavakaya: the body of the ultimate nature, of

spontaneity, of your innermost being as it is. In the fourth body, all distinctions

disappear, dualities are transcended. Good/bad, self/no-self, mind/no-mind,

samsara/nirvana, God/devil -- all dualities are transcended. One simply is, with no

distinctions, with no categories, with no divisions. This is the existential body; this is

the real thing to be attained. Each seeker after truth passes through these four

bodies.

HOW TO ATTAIN THESE FOUR BODIES? There are four provisions.

The first is: OBSERVE. Observe without evaluation, observe everything, don't miss

any opportunity to observe -- because it is not a question of what you are observing,

the question is that observation is growing. Observe everything -- the trees, the

birds, the animals, the people, the traffic, your own mind and its traffic, your own

reactions, others' reactions. Use every situation to observe, so that observation

becomes deep-rooted in you.

And the second is: analyze, but only after you have observed -- don't mix them. At

first, observation has to be simple observation, with no analysis, no judgment, no

evaluation.

When you have observed, then analyze, then go into details, then dissect. Then see

its parts, how it is made, because each experience is very complex. If you really want

to understand it you will have to dissect it into its parts.

And then the third is: choose that which brings more and more bliss, silence, serenity

and calmness to you.

And the fourth is: discard all that which brings tension, anxiety, anguish and hell to

you.

These are the four provisions. If you follow these four provisions, four bodies will

arise in you.