The Vajra Parrot Squawks!

I think many people in our kind of circle try to con themselves into thinking that, somehow, they're in control of themselves. There's little real effort to address their shadow side. Some carry on as if it doesn't even exist, like they're in some kind of Dharmic Denial pureland where everything's just dandy and everywhere it's raining hearts and flowers.

In the real world, if we're going to go anywhere, surely we have first to take a step back and look at the situation which is our 'self'. I mean an honest appraisal, not a cursory glance which fails to zoom in on the really negative bits and focuses instead on the seemingly innocuous 'tut tut' aspects of our personalities which, like a mischievous child, can be ticked off lightly and banished temporarily to a naughty step in the airy confines of the subconscious.

There's a lot of good and a lot of bad in all of us who are still blinded by ignorance. Sometimes these emotions and thought processes are sublimated, and come out in less forceful or direct ways depending on the situation or trigger; on other occasions, we see the smiling or snarling face emerge in all its beauty or ugliness and then we're incredulous or even shocked by it; we may then even deny that such a manifestation really could have arisen from our own mind. "It's just not me!"

I've got news for you: it is.

We need to look at our shadow side straight in the face and accept it unconditionally, without boiling over with shame or aversion. If you think you haven't got a shadow side, you really haven't been looking very hard. It's there. When you see it, remember that compassion and acceptance applies to ourselves as well as others, something often overlooked in the Messianic mind of the modern day Bodhisattva. We have to love ourselves, 'warts and all' as Cromwell put it, if we're going to be of any use to anyone else.

Our plan is to cultivate the good and, through which ever path of skilful means you may follow, uproot, transform or allow the negative to be naturally liberated.

Many of us who call ourselves practitioners, me being a very clear example, are still wrestling with defilements, running wild with negativities, consorting with distractions. Truth is, we probably will be doing the same for a long time. We have to accept this and be comfortable with it. However, we're trying to take ownership of our shadow sides and clamber aboard the slow train back to sanity, and for this reason we should be happy, even though we face difficulties and disappointments and obstacles on the track. We mustn't allow ourselves to become lost in complacency.

If we're travelling in the carriages of the Great Train of the Mahayana, we should also remember that any action we take to address the reality of our condition is ultimately for the benefit of others. It's not just about de-stressing or unwinding after an exacting business deal or heavy week in the office which, sadly, is about the level of the populist Dharma which is being peddled in the marketplace.

The journey itself is a great challenge, but it's also a real privilege. It's all about trying and failing and trying again; about recognising who and what we really are and working with it; not about escapism; nor denial. We're a continual work in progress, subject to constant change and revision, the work of many lives. Maybe one day even the Picassos and Rembrandts of the Dharma world. This is something to be happy about.