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Practices of Bodhisattvas
reputation. Then someone you know but haven’t gotten along with so well stands up and starts deriding and speaking bad things about you. He tells your faults and brings up your past history, which you don’t want others to know. You watch the bright, eager faces of those whose attention you’re trying so hard to get, who were looking at you before and singing your praises, now going stiff as they hear this person accuse you of being an insincere charlatan. Maybe you aren’t really everything he says you are, but surely some of the traits apply. But you don’t want to admit any of them, especially in front of a group of people you’ve been endeavouring to impress, and whose love and adoration you’re trying to win. You would rather die than go through this. And in fact, some people commit suicide when such things happen. In this terribly embarrassing situation, what does the Bodhisattva Togmay Zangpo recommend doing? Look upon him as a spiritual teacher, and bow to him with respect. Imagine. You put your palms together and say, “Thank you so much for trashing me.” And you mean it. You really mean it. You are not doing some kind of phoney trick to look like a bodhisattva. You are not doing a song and dance trying to impress people what a bodhisattva you are by saying, “Thank you for deriding me,” while you’re thinking, “See what a bodhisattva I am, being so kind and considerate to this idiot here who’s deriding me. I hope these people will see how humble I am and will respect me for it.” Instead, from your heart, you speak of his good qualities and look upon him as your spiritual teacher. How is he a spiritual teacher? He is teaching you the uselessness of attachment to praise and aversion to blame. He is educating you about the 95