We'll now do a meditation on the last three of the nine points in the nine-point meditation on equalizing self and others from Chöchang Rinpoche,
His Holiness' junior tutor.
We already meditated on the first six points and those points are related to conventional truth,
How things appear to exist in our everyday reality.
And the last three points are from the viewpoint of ultimate truth,
How things are empty of inherent existence.
So again,
These points are to help us generate a sense of equality between ourselves and others and stop having biased attitudes of thinking I am more important than others and also thinking certain people are more important than others,
My friends are more important than strangers and enemies and so on.
And instead of that kind of attitude,
Seeing all living beings as equally deserving of our concern,
Compassion,
Kindness and so on.
So the first of these last three points is to contemplate that there are no inherently existing friends or enemies,
Meaning there's nobody who is a friend or an enemy or a stranger from their own side inherently.
If that was the case,
Then the Buddhas would perceive them in that way.
So if our enemies,
The person we dislike,
If that person was inherently existing as an enemy,
Then the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas would see that person as an enemy as well and would feel anger and aversion towards them.
But that isn't the case.
The Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas have equal compassion and love for all living beings.
They don't see anybody as an enemy that they are negative towards.
They also don't see anybody as a friend that they are attached to.
So spend a few moments thinking about that,
How the Buddhas' point of view,
And they understand reality,
They see things as they really are.
And in their perspective,
Everybody is equally deserving of love and compassion.
And it could be helpful to bring to mind a specific person towards whom you do have negative feelings,
Have a hard time feeling love and compassion for.
And it's probably because of seeing that person as inherently bad.
So think about how from the Buddha's point of view,
That isn't the case.
The Buddha sees this person as dear and loving,
Worthy of love,
Deserving of love,
As they see everybody else,
Every other living being.
The next point is that if there were permanent inherently existing friends,
Enemies and strangers,
Then they would be like that forever and would never change.
But in reality,
People do change.
A person who's very negative and harmful can become very positive and helpful and vice versa.
Somebody at one point in time can be a very nice person,
But later change and become very nasty.
So people change and also relationships change.
So someone who we regard as a friend,
Later we may come to see that person as an enemy or as someone we are indifferent to and so on.
So this happens from one life to another,
As Buddha pointed out,
But it can also happen within one life.
But just bring to mind one or more experiences you've had of this where a relationship that you had with someone,
Maybe you thought that relationship would last,
Would always be that way,
But at some point it changed,
Either for the better or for the worse.
And the third point,
The last point here is that clinging to permanent inherently existing friends,
Enemies and strangers is like having fixed ideas about this side and that side.
So for example,
If we're standing on one side of the road,
We call it this side and then we say the other side of the road is that side.
But if we cross the road,
Then that side becomes this side and this side becomes that side.
So we give labels to things depending on where we stand,
Depending on our perspective.
The same happens with people.
For example,
If there's a person who has the same political views as oneself,
We say this person is on my side or this side.
And a person who has the opposite political views,
We say that side,
Them over there.
But these labels are not fixed and permanent because any of us might change our views.
And in a similar way,
We label I onto our own aggregates,
Our body and mind.
So in relation to this set of aggregates,
We say I.
And then somebody else's aggregates,
We say he or she or them or you.
We have other labels for other people's sets of aggregates.
But from their point of view,
Each of those other people,
They say I in relation to their aggregates and they say you or she or he in relation to our aggregates.
So this means that I and other and friend,
Enemy,
Stranger are just labels that depend on shifting circumstances and concepts.
But they don't exist from their own side inherently.
So if these ideas make sense to you,
Then see if you can make a resolution to keep them in mind and use them in your daily life,
In your interactions with other people,
The way you look at other people and feel about other people in order to have a greater sense of equanimity or equality as opposed to clinging to fixed ideas about I and other and also friend,
Enemy and stranger.
