Whatever you’re facing in life, work with what you’ve got. That’s the essence of the eleventh lojong slogan. It reads, “When the world is filled with evil, transform all mishaps into the path of bodhi.” The path of bodhi, remember, is the path of the compassionate warrior who seeks to make the world a better place. So, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that we run into places where the world really isn’t that great.
We call this life.
Sometimes, though, we wait for the perfect situation. The right circumstances. We want to act only when everything lines up. But what we discover is that there is no perfect time. We will always face a distraction, or a bump in the road, or a complication. Sometimes, an avalanche of bad things hits us. 2020 felt like that, didn’t it?! Just an endlessly growing snowball of stuff we did not sign up for. In the wisdom of this slogan we simply ask: now what?!
Now what?! Now that you’re under the avalanche, what do you choose to do next?
Of course, I realize this slogan can sound like the worst version of self-help hype. Don’t be a victim! Think your way out of this! Just FEEL better! I want to reject all that up front. Easy answers and the search for quick feel-good fixes never helped anyone out of an avalanche. It just makes us feel worse that we’re under there.
In contrast, the wisdom of this slogan asks us to show up. Feel whatever you need to feel. Don’t bypass any of it. And then, realize, this is just like anything else. It is an opportunity to practice.
Everything- every single thing- can support our journey toward more compassion. Just work with what you’ve got.
These lojong slogans are compiled into lists with different focuses and lessons. The eleventh slogan begins a new list, one known in Tibetan as lamkhyer. Lam means “path” and khyer means “carrying.” So the word acts like a container holding everything we carry as we walk this path. Chogyam Trungpa says, “In other words, whatever happens in your life should be included as part of your journey.” He also says patience lies at the heart of this slogan. Patience allows us to proceed with dignity on the path, trusting we can find a way forward.
Certainly, we will always experience some kind of mishap along this path. Evil resides in all seasons. The key is to work with what you’ve got. Transform whatever you find, whatever you’re holding, into compassion practice.
