Integral Naked 05.07.07 - How to Be a Bodhisattva with Lama Surya Das

Buddha Is as Buddha Does. Part 1. How to Be a Bodhisattva (42:17)
Lama Surya Das and Ken Wilber
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If you had the opportunity to become a bodhisattva right now, would you take it? Would you at least like to learn what being a bodhisattva is all about? If the answer to either is "yes," we have a treat for you! In this week's talk, Ken and Lama Surya Das discuss the essentials of enlightened living, exploring ten key practices to bodhisattvahood....

What is enlightened living, really? To begin, Surya is quick to point out, it's not merely quietistic and passive, which is sometimes how Buddhism is perceived (e.g. just sitting around and staring at your navel). Particularly for the Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist traditions, awakening comes with the spiritual obligation to help others come to that same realization—this is the work of a bodhisattva. In other words, enlightened living is something you do, something you express, something your practice, grounded always in ever-present Suchness and I AMness.

Buddha Is as Buddha Does explores the ten paramitas as the "Bodhisattva Code" for enlightened living. The ten paramitas—or as Surya likes to call them, the "ten transformative practices "—are as follows: generosity, ethics, patience, heroic effort, mindfulness, wisdom, skillful means, spiritual aspirations, higher accomplishments, and awakened awareness (as Ken comments, these can also be looked at in terms of multiple intelligences or developmental lines). Done correctly, the practice and expression of any one of these qualities is to express all ten—and yet, you really must engage each one on its own terms. Surya and Ken go on to talk about the " two truths doctrine," and how absolute truth is that the ultimate goal and ground of all practice is always-already 100% present—whether you practice or not—and relative truth is that if you don't practice, in the words of a great Zen master, "you'll remain an idiot." Together, Surya and Ken walk through the first three practices: generosity, ethics, and patience.

If practice is clearly part of enlightened living, both "pre" enlightenment and "post" enlightenment, what are the essential dimensions of our being that we should exercise? With a truly Integral Spiritualit y (in any tradition), the four basic modules for an Integral Life Practice are body, mind, spirit, and shadow. If abiding by the "ten transformative practices" is your chosen method for engaging enlightened living (in whatever tradition you choose to apply them) we could hardly recommend a better contemporary guide to that path than Surya's Buddha Is as Buddha Does—always keeping in mind the touch-points of an Integral Approach, including states, stages, and shadow (see Scholar's Notes), and embracing body, mind, and spirit, in self, culture, and nature .

keywords: Buddha Is as Buddha Does, Integral Spirituality , Awakening the Buddha Within, Mahayana Buddhism, Vajrayana Buddhism, Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hahn, Amartya Sen, bodhisattva, The Secret, Roger Walsh, Abraham Lincoln, "two truths doctrine," Natural Radiance, Mike Murphy, George Leonard, Integral Life Practice, " What Is Integral Spirituality?," Integral Spiritual Center, Baker Roshi, Ben Hogan, Suzuki Roshi, D.T. Suzuki, "What Is Integral?," A Theory of Everything.

most memorable moment: Ken: "I once heard a paradox defined as 'two truths standing on their heads trying to attract attention.'" Surya: "That looks like us!"

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