To Be a Practitioner

An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love series

If you realize that all sentient beings are suffering, and are then motivated to examine the other side of that law – that enlightenment is the cessation of suffering – and therefore commit yourself to attaining enlightenment in order to end the suffering of yourself and others, then you are a practitioner. Whether you call yourself a Buddhist or not, you are a practitioner.

If you realize the belief in self and in the ego configurations that surround self – the rigidity, the need for survival, the hardening of the mind – are the causes of suffering, and begin to eliminate them by living a compassionate life, purifying your clinging to ego, then whether you call yourself a Buddhist or not, you are a practitioner of the highest caliber.

As a practitioner, you should consider these things: the idea of compassion, of living selflessly, of living an extraordinary life solely to benefit beings, to end their suffering, to bring about a situation in which they can create the cause of happiness rather than the cause of non-virtue. If you can live an extraordinary life, not only are you purifying your mind – because that is the antidote for self-absorption, and self-absorption is the cause of suffering – but you are also a contributor to a very precious idea: the idea of a world, of all worlds, free of pain.

These things you can consider. You can consider them in accordance with Buddhist teaching, or you can consider them separate from Buddhist teaching, even though they are not. You can consider them from whatever angle you wish. But I hope from my heart that whoever you are, and whatever your game plan is, that you will consider these things to the extent that your mind will be softened, and that you can adopt the two ideas that are foundational in the Buddha’s path: renunciation and compassion.