Mistakes

"In this sense, the word generosity is the ideal translation of dana, because generosity shares the same root word as generation: the causing to be, the procreative force." - Buddha Is As Buddha Does, Lama Surya Das.

I make and notice my mistakes all of the time. In fact, I fail everyday. I make the wrong choice; I say hurtful words; I damage my body; I see, in hindsight, that I've missed an opportunity. So it is :) Mistakes are a very important part of my life that I hardly write about on this blog. The primary reason that I can write about spiritual lessons at all is attributed to my mistakes. Failure is on my mind because today I made an intentional mistake. It was the wrong choice, yet I made it to benefit from the gift of wisdom that it offered. As years go by it is harder for me to distinguish success from failure.

The above quotation is from a book that I found on Clearance at the bookstore by well-known American Tibetan Lama, Surya Das. It is about the Bodhisattva Vow, a commitment to walk the path of awakening. A Boddhisattva embraces ten transformative practices (paramitas or "perfections"): generosity, ethics, patience, heroic effort, mindfulness, wisdom, skillful means, spiritual aspirations, higher accomplishments, and awakened awareness. Many of us who strive to live ethical lives implicitly make such a vow. I have not formally done so, until now.

Interestingly, the practice is by way of perfections. Living the good life requires, above all, constant failure. It, then, breaks through our outer and inner selves, to re-discover our Buddha-nature. It seems that the paramitas are themselves means to awakening--generosity can also be failure by another name--the mistake of learning selflessness in a tangible self-oriented world. A cause to be (human).