My teacher always encourages us to memorize Buddhist scriptures – long, short, medium, whatever we can do. One that I have worked on is the Bodhisattva’s prayer (a section of the much longer Way of the Bodhisattva). And the other day this prayer worked on me by calling these lines out:
Whether those who encounter me
Conceive a faithful or angry thought
May that always be the source
For fulfilling all their wishes.May all who say bad things to me
Or cause me any other harm
And those who mock and insult me
Have the fortune to awaken fully.
My initial and habitual response is to consider offering compassion and loving kindness to those who may wish me ill. The verse seems to be asking us to see in them their potential to awaken, to see them as potential Buddhas, and so to check ourselves when we are treated badly. This is definitely part of the point, but this interpretation also has a lot of self oriented perspective in it.
What if we are the ones doing the mocking and insulting? What if the one we are mocking and insulting is the Bodhisattva or aspirant reciting this prayer? Then we are the ones who should have the fortunate to awaken fully and we are the ones who should have our wishes fulfilled from that mocking and insulting rot of ours.
One of the beautiful things about this prayer is what it is asking of us. It is asking us to be compassionate towards those who hurt us. But it is asking us, “Why do you think you are the Bodhisattva? Why do you think this is all about you? Aren’t you the one mocking and insulting someone right now? May that be the source for fulfilling all your wishes and may you awaken fully out of your delusions of self.”
The prayer is asking us to be both the Bodhisattva and the deluded being. Because we are both. Because Bodhisattvas say bad things too. Because we have the potential to awaken moment after moment, whether we are playing the Bodhisattva or playing the deluded fool.
With(out) Bounds 