Interfaith Insight - 2020
Permanent link for "Looking with an unwavering eye toward compassion" by Kimberley Hillebrand on April 28, 2020
We continue introducing you to some of the
Kaufman Interfaith Institute staff who are working to expand our
programming. Kimberly Hillebrand joined the
Kaufman Interfaith Institute in October 2019 with more than 20 years
of nonprofit work in development and program management, including
experience building spiritually grounded communities within the
workplace. She is an ordained Buddhist Dharma Teacher (Rev. Ai Su)
with a focus on Metta (loving kindness) and Tibetan practices.
Thanks to a collaboration with the Fetzer Institute, Kim is working
to expand interfaith programming in the Kalamazoo area.
When people curious about Buddhism inquire about
my faith tradition, I tend to begin an explanation with the Three
Jewels – the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.
Siddhartha Gautama was a human being of flesh and bone born more
than 2,500 years ago. Even after he reached enlightenment underneath
the Bodhi tree all those millennia ago and was called a Buddha, he was
not a god. He was simply awake. He was a mortal who grew old, became
ill, and died at the age of 80.
If you visit a Buddhist temple or the home of a person who
practices Buddhism, you will likely see a shrine with a wooden or
metal Buddha statue as the focal point. This statue is not an icon
that we worship. The form of the Buddha is a physical reminder of the
importance of the Buddha’s teachings (the Dharma) in our tradition.
The Sangha is the spiritual community of support along the path.
Most times this takes the form of a Temple community, but in this
season of COVID-19 and the emergence of Zoom as a global people
connector, my Sangha has certainly expanded in unexpected and
wonderful ways.
Buddha means “awakened one.” The Buddha who taught the Dharma
that myself and millions of others follow today is not the only
Buddha. There were Buddhas before him and there have been Buddhas
after him. Anyone who can transcend suffering and find the path to
peace as the Buddha did can awaken to the true nature of reality. We
all have this innate Buddha Nature within us.
Meditation is integral to the Buddhist path. We train our minds
to reject the opinions, beliefs, projections, and prejudices that
arise in us due to our interactions with society, individual
histories, and day-to-day experiences. Our aspiration is to liberate
ourselves from these obstructions so that our hearts are free to
fiercely devote love and compassion to all living beings, without
exception. And not simply cultivating love and compassion within
ourselves, but transforming our inner insights into outward actions.
I’ve always told my students that this is “where the rubber meets the
road” in Buddhist practice.
In the school of Mahayana Buddhism, of which I’m a part, we
fervently wish that all beings are free from their suffering. A
Bodhisattva (Sanskrit: one whose essence is enlightenment) is one who
refuses to enter the highest realm of existence, Nirvana, even though
they have become awakened, or are a Buddha. They sacrifice the
culmination of diligent practice through potentially thousands of
rebirths and choose to remain in our realm to help us achieve
liberation from suffering.
During these long weeks of anguish and fear related to COVID-19,
there is one Bodhisattva who relates deeply to our times.
Avalokiteshvara is the Bodhisattva of Compassion. In Sanskrit, his
name means “the one who looks with an unwavering eye.” With the
movement of Buddhism across the centuries from India throughout Asia,
Avalokiteshvara is also called by different names and is known as
Chenrezig in Tibet. To Tibetans, and many who practice Tibetan
Buddhism, His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the embodiment of Chenrezig,
the Bodhisattva of Compassion in human form.
As the story goes, Chenrezig came upon his unique form in an
interesting and instructive way. He decided that he could no longer
bear the immense suffering that living beings were enduring in our
realm. So he worked diligently, with his compassionate heart, to end
all suffering. He thought that he had achieved his goal, but when he
turned around to look at his work, everything had reverted to the way
it was before. Suffering was ever-present. Chenrezig was so distraught
by his failure to bring an end to suffering for all living beings that
he shattered into 1,000 pieces.
Thankfully, another Bodhisattva saved the day. Amitabha, the
Buddha of Boundless Light, transformed Chenrezig’s 1,000 shattered
pieces into 1,000 arms, each with an eye in the center of the palm of
the hand in order to see the suffering of living beings and to help
illuminate all with the light of wisdom. Forty of the hands hold tools
meant to save living beings.
We are experiencing unprecedented times. More than 200,000 people
have died from COVID-19, with people of color affected
disproportionately. Billions of people are quarantined. Millions have
lost their jobs. People are going hungry. Parents are working remotely
while at the same time home-schooling their children. Children worry
about their elderly parents. We are physically, socially, and
emotionally isolated from each other, separated from our communities
and our families and friends. We are grieving.
So what can we glean from the story of Chenrezig’s coming into
compassionate beingness, especially during this time when we feel our
hearts could splinter into a thousand pieces from all the suffering we
and others are enduring?
First, we each have special gifts and talents (tools) in our
hands to help us be in service to others. Utilizing these tools wisely
without depleting our own spirit and causing us to break apart is key.
Second, when Chenrezig couldn’t bear the suffering any longer,
Amitabha showed up not with pity or judgment, but with compassionate
action. We have the capability to hold each other up when times are
tough.
And, lastly, without witnessing the suffering around us, how can
our hands be of any real benefit? Compassionate action flows with
eyes that truly see. It flows through kind words or smiles across a
safe distance that we share with someone who is struggling. It flows
through supporting a local business that is barely surviving.
Compassionate action flows through a loving call or text to someone
who is quarantined alone or a loaf of bread left on an unemployed
neighbor’s doorstep.
Look with an unwavering eye toward compassion, and we will
survive these times together. Chenrezig’s example beautifully
illustrates that it’s possible to break apart into a thousand pieces
and come back stronger, and more than ever before, dedicated to the
well-being of all living beings.
Chenrezig, The Bodhisattva of Compassion