Expert: Bodhicitta - 9/26/2004

Question
1) It seem that part of growing in the buddhist way is to learn to do
away with attachments but differing text dispute whether desire is ok
as long as you don't become obsessed. So my question is love in the
romantic sense. I do not see a way to reconcile the buddhist way of
thinking and yet still be able to love someone wholeheartedly. It
almost seems like that would be an attachement of some sort that would
be frown upon. I kinda am trying to see if I can figure out a logical
way of reconciling these two things. Any thoughts?

2) Also, do you think that practiscing buddhism leads to a state of
contentment that reduces a persons motivation to achieve greater
things? The tradition of science and exploration seems to be rooted on
humans interest in understanding but if we were content to see the
world "as is" in its totality wouldnt we not be able to live in a
world with modern marvels?


Answer
Hi Damien
Nice questions!

I should say that I am answering your questions from my own limited understanding as a practioner in one of the Tibetan Schools
of Buddhism.

You might
get slightly different answers from different schools
of Buddhism. My view point is also that of the path or practice rather than an academic one .

I should start with restating the motivation of the Great
schools of Buddhism (Mahayana) which include the Tibetan
schools. Buddha means awake, Buddhism is the path of awakening. The motivation is to awaken ones heart so that
we can free all sentient beings throughout space
from confusion. Its an act of ultimate compassion.It
is ultimate wisdom it leaves nothing out. It is vast and boundless. It defies conceptual ideas which are limited
and dualistic. It defies logic.

So the path is love and compassion and wisdom shining out
equally from out hearts like the Sun to all beings. The
Sun  is a common image for love in Buddhism.

Buddhism often works with what are called the four
stations: love, compassion, joy and equanimty which exist in their pure unconfused states in the
heart of awakening.

So  question 1/...

We  can think of our kindred, our family, our mothers,
those we are indifferent to and those we see as our enemies
and connect to them in a compassionate loving way. It is
easy to think we might love those close to us,  our friends
and family. But it is hard to think how we could love those who
are mass murderers and enemies. The love of Buddhism is
like the Sun it shines out from the heart to everyone.
This is the equanimity aspect.

Love without discrimination and attachement. Love without confusion. love without
polarization to this and that. Love without boundaries.

Interestingly you use the term "whole hearted". Buddhism
talks alot about the heart of awakening. This
is the "whole heart" to love without attachment.

Also you talk of "reconciling logically". Here you have
put your finger on the problem. According to Buddhism
it isnt possible to reconcile truth logically. Thats
why we have the path of wisdom as well as the path of
compassion. It is necessary to lift our experience
beyond concepts, beyond logic. To do this Buddhism
has meditation. Meditation leads us on the the path of
insight and experiences beyond meditation and concepts.
Only through meditation can we link to the truth of
"love" according to Buddhism. We can discuss it, we
can think about it we can speculate on what it all means.
All these things are good preliminaries especially if
this is done in the right way it gives us the starting
point. But it will tell you nothing at all unless
you meditate and follow a path of meditation in order
to understand love, compassion, equanimity and joy.

Hope this helps for question 1.

Question 2/
"
Also, do you think that practising buddhism leads to a state of
contentment that reduces a persons motivation to achieve greater
things?"
In a word No - the opposite is true.

"Buddhism" is awakening the path of awakening. It is also
called the path of enlightenment.It is the path that opens the mind beyond its normal limits and bounds so it becomes
boundless.

I think there is some mistaken view that meditation
leads to some sort of vegetable state or some state
of smiling contentment where the practioner looses interest
in the world. The Bodhisattva or warrior of awakening
who follows the ultimate quest to the the ultimate truth
becomes interested in the world and the universe in a
vast and complete way. What ever is true is interesting,
what ever can lead to awakening is interesting. meditation
itself has often been said to be the method of taking
an interest in experience.

There is no contentment while there are being that are confused and suffering. As the Bodhisattva practices
meditation and experiences love and compassion in
their true forms ones sensitivity is increased. The
pain of suffering of beings throughout space is increasingly
felt directly in the heart. The natural response is
compassion, and the heart is moved to practice more and
to strive to help these beings.

If "achieve greater things" means reenforcing Ego and
fueling greed, hate and desire in order to not see the
truth of the world. Which if we are honest is at the heart
of our mundane society and world
then this is not the motivation of the Buddhist.

If "achieve greater things" means actually finding out the
truth and seeing through the clouds of mundane limited
interets then this is something that the Bodhisattva
or Buddhist is moved to do.

"Concerning science and exploration". There is nothing
incompatible between these and the path of awakening.
In fact if you study the history of meditation, Buddhism
and Hinduism it has embraced every innovation and aspect
of science and exploration. It also has quite a lot to
say about Science.

It seems Buddhism and meditation combined with science is a powerful mixture. Anything that
challenges and sharpens the mind is helpful. The pouring
out of the traditions of meditation from the masters
of asia combined with western science is a powerful
alchemical mixture. There have been many modern day
masters of meditation who have said this and many historic
precedents.

If there is any inconsistency between science and meditation
then it is upto us as modern practioners of both to
expose that and find the truth. There is no dogma in
Buddhism. The Buddha said dont believe something
is true just because I say it is - go and find out for yourself and test everything with your own experience.
This does sound to me completely compatible with the scientific method. In fact maybe these methods can be traced
back to India.

Hope that helps.

I wish you well with your quest and may you ask many more
good questions

Bodhicitta