BRAVE, GENEROUS, & UNDEFENDED: Heart Teachings on the 37 Bodhisattva Practices

By Barbara Du Bois

Brave, Generous, & Undefended is for all who desire freedom from confusion, self-absorption, and suffering. Rich with insight, humor, and fearless love, Barbara Du Bois’s fresh, direct heart-teachings on the timeless 37 Bodhisattva Practices encourage and guide seekers and practitioners at all levels, in any spiritual tradition.

Composed in the 14th century by Tibetan teacher Tokme Zangpo, the 37 Bodhisattva Practices show clearly, and definitely, how to cultivate the expansive, freeing compassion and love that cut the tree of suffering at its root, for the benefit of others and ourselves. This is the way of the bodhisattva—one dedicated to the well-being, happiness, and liberation of all—and Brave, Generous, & Undefended is a profound teaching on living forth in ordinary life this highest of callings.

The author, Barbara DuBois, a contemporary Western Dharma teacher, brings her energetic, penetrating wisdom from the heart to Tokme Zangpo’s classic text. The bodhisattva training contained in this book turn one’s self-absorption inside out, revealing the good heart that seeks ultimate freedom―for all.

As a longtime practitioner, familiar with the tricks of conditioned mind and what it is hiding from, Du Bois includes and embraces us as participants in these intimate, dynamic discussions that vividly demonstrate the transformational power of the bodhisattva intention. Readers may find that arrows of love and truth pierce their illusions of self and separation, showing how, in the ever-present union of absolute and relative, we already are what we aspire to become: embodiments of truth and love.

Her mind and my mind are one; whatever I know, she knows… I am asking all my friends to make sure you read this precious book.

—His Eminence Garchen Triptrul Rinpoche, from the Foreword

This profound yet practical book will inspire, support, guide, and invigorate beginning seekers and advanced practitioners in every tradition, as well as those without a formal spiritual focus or path. The author’s Dharma training and wisdom, together with her psychological, phenomenological, and sociological perspectives, are uniquely angled to illumine our most evident and our most hidden dilemmas and confusions―as well as the gifts we bring to the path of awakening and to all our companions on the way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hohm Press
• Release date: Aug 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9781942493891

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

HOMAGE TO BODHICITTA:

THE OPENING VERSES

Namo Lokeshvaraya! While seeing that all phenomena neither come nor go, you strive solely for the sake of all beings. Supreme guru and protector Chenrezig, at all times, I respectfully pay homage to you with my body, speech, and mind!

The perfect buddhas—source of all well-being and ultimate peace—arise from having accomplished the true Dharma, and since that depends on knowing the practices, I shall explain the way of the bodhisattvas.

The thirty-seven practices of the bodhisattva way are the distilled nectar of bodhicitta, heart essence of the bodhisattva’s aspiration and attainment. This is signaled instantly as our teacher, Tokme Zangpo, begins with homage to Lokeshvara (Avalokiteshvara, Skt.; Chenrezig, Tib.), Buddhist deity of compassion. Homage to great compassion, he proclaims—meaning its full, complete, faultless, absolute realization, and its seed of potential ever present within, source of both aspiration and accomplishment. Homage to compassion tells us precisely what this text is and what it is for.

To compassion’s exemplar Tokme first says, While seeing that all phenomena neither come nor go, you strive solely for the sake of all beings. This line stirs me deeply, standing as my inspiration and instruction for the entire path.

One who realizes the true nature of reality perceives directly the union of being and existence, ultimate and relative, the changeless and the ever-changing—and this direct realization instantaneously, spontaneously, irresistibly gives rise to the limitless compassion, the infinite love, that would bring all beings to this realization and its absolute freedom.

In our conventional minds all phenomena, including material appearances and inner experiences, appear constantly to be coming and going. What sees this phantasmagorical display? It is primordial awareness, changeless natural wisdom, which recognizes both our temporary, ever changing condition of mind and its true nature, awake and unmoving.

Is the arising, dancing, subsiding wave other than the water in which it momentarily swells and disappears? In our natural mind, appearances likewise continually arise and dissolve, so what can be said to have come, what to have gone? Yet something does appear to happen, and we sentient beings are those who fixate to appearances: Something came, I’m happy; something went, I’m sad. Something came, I’m sad; something went, I’m happy. And therein lies the cycle of samsara. The I and the something—subject, object, with grasping and aversion: this is what gives rise to the illusion-like display.

Although there is no solidity or endurance, no inherent existence, to this phenomenal display in which we are sporting and also caught, those who have penetrated this illusion witness and participate in it for our benefit, as bodhisattvas seen or unseen. For our sake the compassionate ones strive to show the way to wellbeing and happiness and to liberate all from ignorance, confusion, and suffering.

Tokme acknowledges this vast, profound, potent compassion and love with deep gratitude and respect: at all times, I respectfully pay homage to you with my body, speech, and mind. In our ordinary lives, we, too, can practice this homage. The physical homage can be expressed through gesture of hand or head or by the whole body taking us to the ground, softening the stiff neck of pride. The verbal homage is our speech, giving reverence, praise, and devotion in formalities or in our own sincere, spontaneous words or sounds. The supreme homage is mind in its natural state, continuously one with love and compassion—never separate from bodhicitta.

The essence of The 37 Bodhisattva Practices is bodhicitta, so we will be learning about bodhicitta in virtually every verse. Here at the beginning of our study together, then, a very brief explanation:

Bodhicitta is the pinnacle of altruism: others-before-self, caring concern for all, for their wellbeing and for their ultimate liberation from ignorance and suffering. In the realms of existence, bodhicitta arising in the mind of a sentient being is transforming, illuminating, and rare. Mind realizing the absolute, the true nature of beings and all created appearances, is naturally radiant and powerful with ultimate bodhicitta, truth-love. Bodhicitta, the seed that has come to fruition as vast, profound, absolute love-wisdom in all buddhas, is the same seed, the same seed, in us. If we water it, how can we fail?

Perhaps you have noticed, when with your teachers, that in speaking of bodhicitta they sometimes weep. They mist. That is bodhicitta stirring. The weeping or misting is not because they are emotionally moved in a personal way; the tears in the eyes when we witness, think, or hear of bodhicitta, that is bodhicitta, moistening, softening, opening. I have heard that His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, speaking to a large audience in Europe, suddenly burst into tears, covered his face with his hands, and wept—then lifted his head up, smiled in his radiant way, and simply went on with his teaching, like the sun giving full light when the little rain ceases. As our awareness opens to bodhicitta, every sign of bodhicitta that we see or hear of, that we notice or taste in the world, in others and ourselves, stirs and quickens that seed within ourselves.

The second introductory verse goes on to say the perfect buddhas—source of all wellbeing and ultimate peace—arise from accomplishing the true Dharma. Accomplishing the true Dharma, or what is often called enlightenment, can be spoken of in many sublime ways, all pointing to this: all confusion and negative potentials cleared away and all positive potentials expanded and fulfilled.¹ We only need to clear away the obscurations to reveal the intrinsic perfection. This is what purification means in Buddhadharma: the process by which already and always existing perfection is revealed. It’s not like scrubbing a greasy cooking pot; it’s more like washing a mirror so you can clearly see your own face.

And what is the wellbeing and ultimate peace for which the perfect buddhas are our source? Absolute truth, beyond concept and change: our true nature and the true nature of all phenomena, all appearances, from which we are never separate and which each of us must reveal within. Our teachers and unfailing spiritual friends are its mirrors, ever shedding blessings and grace to help us realize it. Thus they are the source of our ultimate benefit and happiness by enabling us, too, to secure the happiness of all, by becoming bodhisattvas and buddhas ourselves—thus accomplishing the two purposes, the enlightenment of ourselves and others.

Finally, Tokme Zangpo says that in order to accomplish the Dharma we have to know the Dharma practices. For his explanations, generations and centuries of practitioners bow to him in homage and gratitude. Tokme is spoken of and written about with profound love and respect as a great bodhisattva. His teaching in The 37 Bodhisattva Practices gives the entire Buddhadharma, accessible and practical at the outer level while also imbued with and pointing to the profound inner meaning. Receiving his jewel-like spiritual legacy, we take this text as our roadmap for the bodhisattva way.

What you place your mind upon, that you will become. Never remove your mind from bodhicitta: always keep your mind in bodhicitta, always keep bodhicitta in your mind. It is your most precious possession, your lifeline. Hanging from a cliff high over the sea of samsara, you cannot fall: on bodhicitta belay you are safe.

Discussion: Phenomena, bodhicitta, attachment

What is meant by phenomena?

A phenomenon is anything that can be said to happen, to occur. Phenomena arise from causes and depend upon conditions; they change with changing conditions and cease to exist when their causes are exhausted. Without exception, then, all phenomena are impermanent and interdependent. This is what is being pointed to in the teaching that phenomena are empty. It doesn’t mean phenomena don’t exist; it means they exist relatively but not absolutely—relative to causes and conditions but not inherently, in and of themselves.²

There are inner and outer phenomena. An outer phenomenon is that we are sitting together in a group; an inner phenomenon is a question arising in your mind. We sometimes refer to phenomena as arisings, registering in consciousness as emotion, image, memory, and so on. This is what is happening with our conventional, conditioned mind, which is also habitually perceiving and grasping to phenomena, inner and outer, as solid, real, inherently existent—while the fact that the phenomenal display is constantly changing is an immediately understandable demonstration of its emptiness. Even as all phenomena come and go, what recognizes this display is vast, primordial awareness, which neither comes nor goes. Each phenomenon has a cause, while awareness that sees phenomena, within or without, is uncaused, always already here, as luminosity-presence. We tend to involve ourselves instantly and endlessly with our thoughts and other phenomena; when we refrain from engaging with our mind’s display we gradually become familiar with and able to rest in awareness itself.

I’m unclear what bodhicitta is.

Bodhicitta, sometimes called enlightenment mind, is the altruistic intention, the peak of intentions—to liberate all beings, past, present, and future, from suffering and the causes of suffering, and to establish all in happiness and the causes of happiness. It includes, therefore, the intention to purify, to clear away, all causes of confusion and ignorance in one’s own mind and to establish oneself in buddha mind—in order to liberate others.

Absolute bodhicitta is buddha nature itself, our true nature, present and perfect in every being as primordial wisdom essence and potential, while relative bodhicitta is its reflection and expression in the realms of existence. Its conventional appearance is what we know as relative love and compassion, so we have a reference point for bodhicitta in our ordinary human experience, because we’ve all experienced love and compassion, both in receiving and in giving. All-pervading, like the rays of the sun, ultimate love and compassion are vast, without limit and without reference, rather than being aroused by a particular condition, person, or circumstance. At this time our love and compassion are wavering and conditional, tending to arise for those close to us and whom we care about, or the suffering that we might hear about that stirs our fellow-feeling. We don’t need to develop ultimate bodhicitta, for the ultimate is completeness itself. Our work is to sweep away that which obscures its natural expression, and this we do by actively generating relative bodhicitta, right here in relative reality, where we are ceaselessly rubbing and bumping and scraping up against beings and circumstances that challenge—and thus help us develop—our capacities for love and compassion.

It is our compelling habits and blinding afflictions rooted in the false notion of self which prevent us from recognizing and manifesting bodhicitta. Cultivating caring concern, compassion, and love for others diminishes this self-grasping—so take this now as an essential point for your bodhisattva training: In moments when you experience sincere love and compassion for the particular, the few, extend it—vividly, intensely, spaciously, powerfully—to the many. When you think of one, think instantly of all. Imagine and intend that someday you will effortlessly desire and act for the happiness of all beings. This simple practice expands your attention and your intention: your relative bodhicitta.

Of relative bodhicitta, also, there are two kinds: aspiring bodhicitta and acting bodhicitta. We could say that bodhicitta is inspired by hearing about and seeing examples of bodhicitta in holy gurus, in what seem like ordinary beings, in visual images like paintings and statues, and in natural displays in land, sea, and sky. We aspire to generate all-encompassing, universal love and compassion and we train in that by thinking and acting in ways that place others before self—ultimately revealing original pristine mind, in which duality of self and other is not. Undertaking the trainings that relax our self-grasping, that calm our afflictions and confusions, and that express naturally in the ways bodhisattvas actually live: this is the bodhicitta of action, of application—what we do in mind, speech, and activities to develop, for the benefit of all, our bodhicitta potential.

So now you know how to bring forth love and compassion: inspiration, aspiration, and perspiration. You would not have asked this question if you did not have the seed of bodhicitta already alive within. We don’t even aspire to become bodhisattvas and buddhas unless we have that potential within us, already beginning to whisper, Wake up, wake up! And we begin to pay attention: Oh, there’s a possibility of waking up? Okay, then!

How is compassion different from emotion with attachment?

Emotion with attachment is self-referential, in some degree for and about ourselves, as all attachment is, while compassion and love are for others—with some admixture of self-reference and partiality, in our present state. We start where we are. As we cultivate love and compassion our self-concern and self-grasping diminish, ultimately revealing no I, no other.

Love and compassion are not really emotions; they are aspects or qualities of our true nature. In our relative, conditioned state we experience them emotionally, with all that this implies about self-reference. Emotion with attachment, whether we call it love or compassion, because it is self-referential is also conditional: it will change when conditions change, which they constantly do and always will. And it is partial: it applies to this circumstance and not that one, to this being and not that one—as with the kind rescuer of animals who feels compassion for suffering animals and hatred for the humans who harm them. Also, love or compassion with attachment is wavering and unsteady; it will arise and then change or subside: we will care warmly and then cool, champion and then attack.

Our ordinary love and compassion shine in our experience as the radiance of the absolute. As the butter is already in the milk, the bodhicitta is already in the love. We already are what we aspire to become.

You spoke of misting and tears that can occur as bodhicitta is being stirred; doesn’t that bring bodhicitta back to the level of emotion with attachment?

It can, if we react to it as a personality phenomenon, as in Oh, I’m crying, how embarrassing, or as in reaching over to console someone weeping in the temple. In conventional situations, if someone is weeping you may want to offer comfort and that person may want to be comforted, but in a teaching or practice situation it may be wiser to let your friend weep—because conventional attention, however kindly meant, can distract, bringing mind touching the sublime back to personality level, to self-reference. It is not something conventional happening when that melting is occurring; it is bodhicitta stirring. We don’t want to snatch it back to the limited, limiting emotional reaction: Oh, I’m so sorry, you’re weeping, or even Oh, how wonderful, you’re experiencing bodhicitta. In the privacy of your own mind simply rejoice in bodhicitta.

Conventional behavior keeps us tied to convention. Spiritual aspiration and practice are not about convention. Tokme’s noble text is not about convention. It will turn your life on its head. And your heart inside out.

I’m confused now about the list we keep of specific beings who have requested our prayers; isn’t it limiting to be thinking of a particular person rather than of all sentient beings?

Think of it as both-and, not either-or. Are you embedding your prayers for a particular individual always in the vast intention that this one and all beings may be released from suffering and established in happiness? Whatever prayer you are making, for whatever being or situation, is the point from which you generate the vast intention—so how can it be limiting?

Because it tends to bring my mind back to me. Even though I can say it’s really all who are suffering, when I think of a specific person’s name it brings me back to the personal.

It is this one and all others—including you. No contradiction. On the path of the great love, we are learning how to love the one in the many and the many in the one. The back-and-forth from individual to all and from all to individual: this is a training ground for us. There are many consciousnesses, so there can be many experiences of suffering, but there is only one true nature.

Your excellent question also points to why, in the prayer requests that are sent to practitioners, there is no information about the circumstance—because doesn’t our mind just grasp hold of the drama? Person committed suicide, dog has cancer, friend’s mother lost her job. It would be like reading the temporal tabloids, the Samsaric Times. Our thoughts of good and bad limit our mind’s ability to see things as they are. That is why the prayer requests are sent out with no details—just the name, arising momentarily like a wave in the clear waters of mind and swiftly dissolving, leaving no trace.

Can relative compassion be too discouraging?

Well, we can experience it that way—although it is actually not the relative compassion but our self-grasping that gives rise to discouragement. Relative compassion, because it is still involved with self, is subject to all the kinds of emotions and thoughts that anything tied to self is going to provoke. In relative compassion, you may be exerting yourself greatly to be of help to others, but if there is a thought of I in there anywhere, afflictive emotions are there, too, even if very