The Vajra Parrot Squawks!

We all enter this world as babies (those of us didn't miraculously manifest on self-arisen lotuses, at any rate) and hopefully die as adults, in our dotage, after some quality of life and happiness.

When we're little kids we gradually learn to feed ourselves, with someone's patient help; similarly, we take our first steps and gradually learn to walk, often falling over and hurting ourselves many times in the process.

When we're older we look back at all the memories of youth with a mixture of bemusement and nostalgia; by that time we're usually self-sufficient adults who have often forgotten the wonder and adventure of childhood.

Isn't our Buddhist practice like this?

(In the Vajrayana tradition) we find a teacher, take empowerment from him/her and the instructions necessary to perform the accompanying practices ... and we begin to learn how to walk.

Thus we practice.

We mess up. We fall down. We pick ourselves up again. We walk further. Gradually, we can walk longer without assistance and if we're energetic we may even learn how to run ...

And all the time we're watched over by spiritual friends who sometimes have to pull us out of the way of oncoming traffic when we wander off, scold us if necessary, wipe our behinds when we have accidents, and feed us when we can't open the fridge door on our own. These same teachers patiently listen to us bleat about how difficult everything is when we reach our 'adolescent phase' and think we're 'it' and know it all, until we notice our temper tantrums and our antisocial behaviour, and our sheer lack of consideration for anyone (ourselves included), and the effect this has on ourselves and others ... and we start taking responsibility. We begin not only to look like adults but to *act* like them.

The goal of Buddhist practice of any Yana, really, is to learn how to stand on one's own two feet and become the very person who enables someone else to do the same. It's repaying a debt of kindness; something which is only now becoming clearer to me.

Even when our teachers are far away, or have moved on from this reality, the truth is, they're never any further away than our own heart beat and the momentary, naked glimmer of recognition when one looks into a mirror and sees the reflection staring back.

Yet we start off with baby steps and we're spoon fed to begin with. Everyone is, without exception. With this basic fact in mind we have to show ourselves compassion and understanding every time we fall over and graze a knee because we think we can run before we can walk.

It's human nature to make mistakes, but wisdom comes from making them. learning from them and moving forward. Every day we should be making an effort to walk a bit further on our own legs, to put away the baby spoon and learn to feed ourselves, to realise that our destiny is to become adults who can help other children learn how to take responsibility for themselves, too.