Golden Light

I am writing from Adhisthana where I am leading a seminar studying Transformation of Self and World. This is based on talks given by Bhante in 1976 exploring themes from the Sutra of Golden Light. It is many years since I last looked at these talks and I am appreciating delving into them. It’s a small group of us - only 5 - as a couple of people had to back out for reasons of family or health. I was slightly off put by the intimacy of such a small group but it has been fantastic. Everyone is very open and we have been sharing some pretty deep experiences - of both the light and the dark in our lives and in our Buddhist practice.

The theme, as might be imagined from the title is the Golden Light of the transcendental and how being attuned to that light creates a transformation of our very being and can effect change in the world. The talks were given the same year as the talks we are exploring in Mandala night: Buddhism for Today and Tomorrow. I thought these on the Golden Light came first but they came after as Bhante refers to the last two of the Buddhism for Today and Tomorrow talks in one of these. There are some really interesting themes in the talks and it is interesting to see how, 50 years later, some things have changed and yet some haven’t and are still as relevant as ever. The change is not always in a positive sense either. 

Triratna (then the FWBO) was still very young. We still are really but, in 1976, the Order was only 8 years in existence, the movement only 9. In both series of talks we can see the seeds of what became our community. I am enjoying that aspect and also finding some of the themes quite thought provoking in terms of where we are now as a community, as an Order, as a world. I feel sad at some of the things that have arisen in Triratna but are not so present anymore: particularly community living and Team Based Right Livelihood businesses. 

In the talk on Buddhist Economics, we hear

A Buddhist team-based Right Livelihood project has three aims. First, it aims to provide its workers with a means of support – that is, it aims to provide for their needs: not just their need for food, clothing, and shelter, but also their need to go on retreat, buy Dharma books, and so on. Secondly, it aims to provide a working situation that is conducive to spiritual progress. This means that it functions, within that particular economic context, as a sort of spiritual community, inasmuch as its workers are friends with one another and share the ideals of the project. In short, it should provide the people working within it with an experience of kalyāṇa mitratā, spiritual friendship. The third aim is to help finance Buddhist activities: Buddhist centres, publications, and so on. To be considered fully successful, the Right Livelihood business needs to fulfil all these three objectives.

If it does so, Right Livelihood becomes a spiritual practice in itself. It becomes what the Hindus call niṣkāma-karma yoga, unselfish action practised as a means of self-development. Buddhist economics is not only an economics of giving; it is also an economics of the right acquisition of wealth, the right creation of wealth, and it is this that will help us transform the world.

I hope that at some point we can have some kind of TBRL here in Glasgow. I love the hinterland project in Manchester and I know that Sanghadahara whose brainchild that was would love to help us set one up. I think Glasgow could use a sober bar with lots of exciting things happening. Here’s a link to their website: https://hinterland.bar/

And here is Sanghadhara talking about it at a European chair’s meeting. This is 23 minutes long so make a cuppa and settle in. It is worth the watch and very inspiring.

So I am thinking about how we can transform society one non alcoholic drink at a time. Or in whatever ways we can.

Another of the talks we are studying is about Nature. In this Bhante reflects:

‘Use of nature’ means use of natural resources; nowadays we hear a great deal about this. We are being warned that certain natural resources are finite, and that we are using them up at an alarming rate and in a most wasteful fashion. As Buddhists, those who try to follow the Dharma, we should be very aware of this. We should try to use everything of natural origin very carefully indeed, and, moreover, use as little of it as is possible, and in the best possible way – that is to say, for the benefit, the true benefit, of self and others. The same principle applies to our use of the natural environment. We shouldn’t destroy it or spoil it in any way, as, for instance, through pollution; and above all, we should think carefully before bringing about irreversible changes.

This is from 50 years ago but still so relevant now. 

One of the talks is about the Four Great Kings as protectors of the Dharma, of the Golden Light. I hadn’t especially remembered it and, although some of the images don’t particularly move me, the idea of protecting the Golden Light does. Not for its own sake but so that we can help that light to illuminate the darkness of the world. 

The kings therefore also represent the principle of world transformation. The world can only be truly transformed if it submits to the golden light, if it is receptive to the golden light – that is, if it organizes itself in such a way as to assist the manifestation of the golden light in the life of the individual.

I see our centre as being a place where we can ‘assist the manifestation of the golden light’. On that note a quote from another talk jumped out at me:

Sarasvatī promises to bestow a dhāraṇī. A dhāraṇī is a sort of magical spell. It is something to be borne in mind, something to be recited. The word comes from the same root as the word Dharma, from the root dhṛ, which means ‘that which supports or upholds’. The Sūtra of Golden Light, as we have already seen, is a late sūtra. It was written down in the fourth to eighth centuries CE, and at that time the Mahāyāna was being superseded as it were by the Vajrayāna, or rather by the Mantrayāna, which was the early phase of the Vajrayāna. The goddess’s promise of a dhāraṇī therefore … suggests that the preacher of the Dharma needs in their work the special quality associated with the Vajrayāna. They need something magical, something transcendentally charismatic. They needs to be a kind of Padmasambhava figure; otherwise it is very difficult to succeed in task.

I was struck thinking about this in terms of us teaching the Dharma, creating a space to practice the Dharma. Not that any one of us needs to be charismatic. Not at all. Collectively can we create a Padmasambhava like energy? Can we collectively find that something magical so that we can be a channel for the Golden Light? I believe so, I am confident that working together we can transform ourselves and contribute to the transformation of the world. I think we need Padmasambhava’s energy to transform Glasgow.

As Bhante says in the talk on the Great Kings:

If we submit to the golden light, we will be able to transform our own life, our own self, and also co-operate in the transformation of the world. If we do that, in our own small sphere we too shall be one of the protectors of the Dharma.

The Golden Light is the Bodhichitta so...

For now, as always,

May all beings be well, may all beings find true happiness and its causes and may all beings be free from suffering.

Where the Bodhichitta has not yet arisen

May it arise

Where it has arisen

May it flourish

Where it flourishes

May it never die