Enter a world beyond belief

Can heroes be made from the blind fall?

Forall told us the story of Gautama Buddha’s very first turn toward compassion. Very extremely unfathomably long ago, there was a bad man who abused his livestock. He was reborn in a hell where he was strapped to a plow, and 24/7 was beaten, forced to drag that plow until his feet wore away, his ankles wore away, and he was walking on nubs and bones. There was no escape for a very long time. All was pain, and only pain. But, it happened that he was not the only being attached to this plow. There was someone else beside him in the same condition. For a flicker of a moment, this man hoped the other person might suffer a little less. This was the turning point that would eventually lead him toward a life of compassion (but it would take eons of mistake-making and lesson-learning and falls and graces).

So my answer is Yes, to your question. Because the opportunity to rise up is available even in our worst periods, all states being subject to impermanence, and us always having the power to choose, even if it feels like we don’t.

I’ve been taught that all souls have the aspiration to finding the way out for all.

The big question is: Are you going to do it, even a baby step? The opportunity presents itself many times a day. That “accidental” fall seems to be an escalated wake-up call, but in my experience, even stubbing your toe can be enough of a wake-up call if you’ve learned how to pay attention.

The doorway to this “Hell” is available to us, from hearing an unpleasant comment or making a bad choice or from the numbness of our hearts. This is not some staged attempt at hardship.

Monastic training containers are for facing the fullness of suffering, realizing that all the extremes of suffering are actually present in our own minds, no matter where we try to run or hide. Monasteries might be our last-ditch attempt at hiding, only to find ourselves stark naked, as vulnerable as a newborn. Because we’re naked and vulnerable, the monastery provides safety and care for those willing to go through this.

Once training becomes complacent, that protective structure becomes a staged, fake, irksome thing. If it is the real thing, then we understand why such a structure is unfathomable in its beautiful creative genius, and we weep for the undeserved blessing.

When we offer the truth, people say, “You can’t say that. I understand what you mean, but others may not. If you say that, what will people think?”

But we already know what they think. When the sun shines, they think, “It’s too hot.” When the wind blows, they think, “It’s too cold.” When the rain pours, they think, “It’s too wet.” When they fall on the ground, they think, “It’s too hard.” They don’t understand that their desire to fix things is what breaks things.

The world they perceive is a projection of their own minds. They say it’s too hot because their minds are hot. They say it’s too cold because their minds are cold. They say it’s too wet because their minds are wet. They say it’s too hard because their minds are hard. In this way, they practice avoiding truth and defending lies.

Most people hear honest people tell the truth, and think, “They are a cult. They are colonialist. They trick people. They extract from them.” Why? Because most people are in a cult. Their cult is colonialist. Colonialism tricked them. The trick is to make them extract the truth. They believe that extracting the truth will fix the world. But extracted truth is called “lies.” Lies can’t even fix them, much less the world. But they can’t see this. They are not capable of seeing this because they haven’t walked the path out of delusion. They live in a world of projections that confirms their delusions.

Remember: Avoiding the truth is not heroic. Facing the truth is heroic. Living the truth saves the world. A true life doesn’t fix anything at all.