hilitehead

“There are particular ways in which one can practice viewing oneself as lower than others. To take a simple example, we all know from experience that when we focus on a particular object or individual, according to the angle from which we view it, we will have a different perspective. This is, in fact, the nature of thought. Thoughts are capable of selecting only isolated characteristics of a given object at a particular time, human thought is not capable of comprehensively viewing something in its entirety. The nature of thought is to be selective. When you realize this, you can view yourself as lower than others from a certain point of view, even in comparison to a tiny insect.

Lets say that I compare myself to an insect. I am a follower of the Buddha, and a human being equipped with the capacity to think and, supposedly, to be able to judge between right and wrong. I am also supposed to have some knowledge of the fundamental teachings of the Buddha, and theoretically I am committed to these practices. Yet when I find certain negative tendencies arising in me, or when I carry out negative actions on the basis of these impulses, then from that point of view there is certainly a case to be made that I am in some ways inferior to the insect. After all, an insect is not able to judge between right and wrong in the way humans can, it has no capacity to think in a long-term way and is unable to understand the intricacies of spiritual teachings, so form the Buddhist point of view, whatever an insect does is the result of habituation and karma. By comparison, human beings have the ability to determine what they do. If, despite this, we act negatively then it could be argued that we are inferior to that innocent insect! So when you think along these lines there are genuine grounds for seeing ourselves as inferior to all other sentient being.”