Real Life with Ryuei

Did Luke have to like Darth Vader to save him?

In another forum someone asked, "Does the bodhisattva have to like everyone?Because if that is so than I can't be one." This is a really great question, because there are a lot of unlikeable people out there, and I myself can't say that I like everyone. So this question really gave me pause.

I think part of the answer is in the Diamond Sutra where it says that bodhisattvas save all beings but do not hold the idea that there are beings. In other words, they see people not as fixed static entities but in terms of their emptiness of specific qualities or an underlying substance. They see all things, including beings, in terms of causes and conditions and the underlying unconditioned nature that is the true nature.

When we dislike someone, we dislike them because of certain qualities they seem to have in relation to us or to things and people we care about. I think, though, that if we look more deeply we will see that those dislikeable qualities are not fixed permanent essences and that they have arisen due to causes and conditions - that person upbringing, their environment, perhaps our own bias and misunderstanding, maybe some kind of stress or psychological problem they are having, or perhaps they have a reason for being a certain way that we do not know about. We do not have to approve of certain traits, qualities or behavior, and sometimes it is our duty to disapprove. But the bodhisattva will at least strive to be patient, to get a better understanding, to see that these qualities are empty (that is contingent and not fixed or permanent).

When a bodhisattva feels loving-kindness, they extend it to all beings equally - the likeable and the unlikeable, and this is done with the understanding that the unlikeable are that way because of suffering and their reactions to it and/or because of our own ignorance of the whole situation surrounding them and our view of them. In fact, the unlikeable people are most likely being tormented by their own unlikeable qualties. Afterall, is someone who is perpetually irritated or hostile a happy person? The person who is always looking out for themselves are often lonely and unable to connect with others in a genuine way, and they don't even understand why. So in learning to cultivate compassion and loving-kindness for the unlikeable we are not just being permissive or endorsing bad qualities, rather we are cultivating a deep understanding of bad qualities, how they arise, and how they are a torment to those who have them.

I think that when Christians talk about "unconditional love" this sounds too much like approving of everthing or letting people off the hook. I don't think Christian agape means that. I know that this is not what loving-kindness and compassion is supposed to mean in Buddhism. That would be "idiot compassion" as Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche called it. Rather bodhisattva compassion is about seeing through these qualities and finding a way to heal without condemning the people who have them as incorrigible. It is about seeing that the Buddha-nature (the unconditioned true nature) is the real truth about all of us, and that all other qualities whether likeable or unlikeable or conditional and contingent and not dependable or graspable.

Star Wars is kind of instructive in this - when Darth Vader first appears in Episode 4 A New Hope he seems an incarnation of evil, despicable, unredeemeable. In Episode 5 The Empire Strikes Back, Luke comes to realizes in the cave on Dagoba that he could potentially develop those same qualities and then further finds out that he is causally connected to Darth Vader who is his father. In Episode 6 Return of the Jedi he demonstrates his faith that Darth Vaders evil is not a permanent fixed quality and that the good is still in him (we could compare this to seeing through to the Buddha-nature) and that faith in his father is what helps Darth overcome his own evil tendencies. Then, in Episodes 1 - 3 we are shown what kind of causes and conditions turned the initially generous and brave Anakin Skywalker into the seeming paragon of evil in Episode 4. Did Anakin make some bad causes? He certainly did, and every step of the way he reaped the effects culminating in the death of his wife at his own hands, an act that caused him to despair of his own goodness and put him totally at the power of the Dark Side represented by the Emperor. In this way, Darth Vader become a more sympathetic or at least a tragic character in our eyes, he caused his own downfall and degredation but it was not his intention. We understand, even if we do not then forgive what he has done. And in understanding we can cheer Luke for seeing through the evil to the person beneath the mask and armor and finally freeing and redeeming him. I think that is how bodhisattvas act. Did Luke like Darth Vader? I don't think he did. But more importantly he had compassion and faith that there was more to Darth Vader than his unlikeable even hateful qualities.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

Posted by Ryuei at July 13, 2005 11:30 AM