correct order of conversation is established. It is achieved only due to the fact that we ourselves feel the desire to establish it, and not by virtue of copying some other person's example. Neither asceticism nor any preconceived way of thinking will give the correct answer. We need to give the first push ourselves and not expect it from the phenomenal world or from other people. If we meditate and live on a busy street, we will not be able to stop moving along it just because we need peace and tranquility. However, we could stop ourselves; we could take this noise. For noise also includes silence. We must dive into it without expecting anything from outside, as Buddha did. And we need to accept any situation that arises. As long as we do not deviate from it, it will always present itself as a means; and we can use this tool. As the scriptures say, "Dharma is good in the beginning, dharma is good in the middle, dharma is good in the end." In other words, dharma is never out of date, because fundamentally the setting is always the same.

Chapter 2

How to generate bodhi? How to generate a state of awakened mind? When you don't know how to start, there is always a lot of uncertainty; and besides, you seem to be constantly carried away by the flow of life. Constantly arises and continues the pressure of thoughts, their deviation; all sorts of desires also arise. As far as the average person is concerned, it seems that he will never have a chance to think about the awakening of boddhi, unless he may have read some book on the subject and wished to lead a disciplined life; but even then there seems to be no possibility, no way for him to begin. People tend to make a very sharp distinction between spiritual life and everyday life. They label a person as "worldly" or "spiritual" and usually create a quick and hard division between the two. So if someone talks about "meditation", "awareness", "understanding", then the average person, who has never heard of such things, obviously does not understand what is being said here, does not even feel enough interest to properly listen. And because of this separation, he will find it almost impossible to take the next step, and therefore he will never be able to establish true communication in this special way, either with himself or with others. Teachings, instructions, mystical literature - they can all be very profound; but somehow he is never able to penetrate inside, into their very essence; thus, he again finds himself in a dead end. So, a person either has "spiritual inclinations", or is a "worldly personality"; then it is not clear how a bridge can be built over this abyss. I believe that here lies one of the greatest obstacles to the birth of boddhi. It also happens that people who have entered the path have doubts and want to know whether it is better to leave Perhaps they think they will be happier if they drop the whole thing and remain just agnostics.
So there is something that is not quite fluid; there are also barriers to giving one thing to someone else; and this prevents us from generating boddhi. Therefore, we should study this problem. It is necessary to give an ordinary person some key, some way of finding out the truth, some concept that he will be able to understand, and which will still be connected with his life, will remain a part of this life. Of course, there is no magic word or miraculous phenomenon that can suddenly change his mind. I would like to be able to give someone enlightenment with just a few words; but even great teachers such as Christ or Buddha were not able to perform such a miracle. They always had to find the right opportunity and create the right environment. If we examine the character of a given person, study the obstacles and difficulties, then we simply go further and further, trying to unravel the already existing knots; and it will take an eternity to untie these bonds and remove the confusion. Therefore, it is necessary to approach this issue from a different angle; Let's start by simply assuming the character of that person; perhaps he has a purely worldly mind. Then we will select one particular aspect of his activity or his psyche and use it as an anchor, as a tool, so that even this ordinary person can generate boddhi through it. All these phrases are very good - arguments that the Buddha was awakened, that he continues to live, as long as it is about the essence of the Buddha and his teachings, about the universal law that pervades everything, about the sangha, the highest and most open community that can influence to events. But most people are still incapable of even occasionally thinking about seeking refuge along this line. Therefore, you need to somehow find the right approach for them. And we always find that this person has his own special inner character. It can be considered that it does not have a mind and individuality at all - but in In fact, each person has his own, special quality. It may be a high degree of violence, a great laziness; but you just need to take this special quality, do not necessarily consider it a mistake or an obstacle, because it is the boddhi that exists within him; it is a seed, or rather, a full potential for birth; such a person is already, as it were, pregnant with boddhi. As one of the Scriptures says: "Since the Buddha nature pervades all existence, there is no such person who would not be a suitable candidate for enlightenment."
This text was composed after the death of the Buddha, after his parinirvana. In the world of gods and men, everyone began to doubt whether the teachings of the Buddha would remain; for it seemed to everyone that now that this wonderful teacher was gone, all that remained after him was only a group of mendicant monks; it seemed that they would not, and could not, do much. And then one of the students began to complain, saying that from now on the world of samsara will continue to move with waves of passions, desires, hatred and delusion; we will never again have the opportunity to hear the teachings of the Buddha, his instructions; here we are again plunged into darkness! So what are we to do?! When he complained like that, answers came to his mind - that the Buddha never died, that his teaching is always present, that the death and birth of the Buddha are just concepts, ideas. In fact, no one is excluded and all beings, any of them with consciousness, mind or unconscious mind, are all candidates for the state of the bodhisattva; each of them is capable of becoming an awakened person.
In this sense, there is no such thing as a "secret doctrine" or a teaching meant only for the few. As long as it is a question of teaching, it is always open; in fact, it is so open, so ordinary and simple, that it lies within the character of that individual. He may be a man accustomed to drunkenness or violence; but such a character represents its potential. And in order to help the birth of boddhi, one must first of all respect the character of this person and open the heart to the violence contained in him. Then it is necessary to enter fully into it, so that this energetic, dynamic aspect of violence can be made to serve as the energetic aspect of the spiritual life. Thus the first step will be taken, it will be established first link. Maybe this person feels very bad, feels that he is doing something wrong, maybe something is wrong with him. He may feel significant difficulties, he may have a problem that needs to be resolved. But he is unable to resolve it; probably, in his search for a solution, he simply replaces other activities with the one he allegedly abandoned. Therefore, it is precisely through the simple, direct and ordinary phenomena of the mind and behavior of this person that one can come to understand the awakened state of mind.
Of course, this approach cannot be applied in all cases. There is no point in engaging in general reasoning or explaining philosophical concepts to a person in such a state of mind. It is necessary to study this special moment of the given individual, the moment of the immediate present. And we always find a kind of spark, a kind of light. His character is not a simple and homogeneous phenomenon. Here active behavior alternates with passive; they constantly replace each other; the first moment creates and generates the next. Therefore there is always a gap between these two periods; and this is what we must take as a starting point. Perhaps at the beginning it is necessary to state in some form a theory, because without respect for samsara, for the world of confusion, it is impossible to discover the state of the awakened mind or nirvana. Because samsara is the entrance gate, samsara is the instrument of nirvana. And therefore it must be said that a stormy character is good. It's a wonderful thing, it's something positive. And then a person begins to show understanding, although at first he may be in difficulty, he may not see the good side of his