There are fundamental differences between practicing the Buddha Dharma and practicing other religions. While it might seem that the right thing to say is that at the bottom of every faith, there is the same truth that we all share, Buddhists don’t quite put it that way. Buddhists say that no matter what one’s faith is, within each of us is the seed of enlightenment, the Buddha seed. In that way we are completely, absolutely equal in every measurement. It means that each one of us, whether human, animal or unseen beings that we cannot see with our physical eyes because they are other dimensional, has the potential for Buddhahood. Whatever kind of sentient being – a being with senses, that feels and has consciousness – in their capacity to reach Buddhahood is exactly the same. That means that each and every practicing Buddhist should hold every life form in high regard.
Our habitual tendency is to respect people who we are taught to respect. We respect our teachers and our parents, and our family. And we love the people that we are connected with and so forth, but for the most part we feel somewhat alienated from the rest of the world. Certainly in America our culture is such that we feel alienated from other cultures. And so in the Buddha Dharma we begin to break down that kind of divisive separation idea. We begin to understand that no matter how each person appears, they have exactly the same capacity for realization, for Buddhahood.
And yet in Tibetan Buddhism a teacher sits on a throne. If we are all equal, why would a teacher sit on a throne, and others sit down below? It has to do with the degree of awakening and the capacity for Bodhicitta – great compassion – having studied it and given rise to it. And it has to do with one’s past karmic potential and how that has ripened.
For instance, when I first met my guru, he told me, “Oh, you have been reborn as a bodhisattva many many uncountable times. And so the reason why you know the Dharma without being taught is you have that habit in your mind. And so now we’ll teach you more, and you’ll know more.” That was his way of explaining how it is that I am in this position and somebody else might not be. But the truth of the matter is, even though I appear to be sitting on the throne, and maybe someone else is on death row in a jailhouse, our capacity is exactly equal. Our level of awakening is not equal, because a person who is awakening, who is giving rise to the great compassion, would not be capable of killing. They would not have the habit or conceive of it in their mind. It’s not to say that the very same person would not say, “I could just kill my kid today. She’s driving me nuts!” or something like that, but that statement is so thin. It’s utterly meaningless when you realize that there is no habit or propensity for doing harm.
© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo
