self-motivated kindness generated by ego is self-destructive.
The compassionate luminous mind is without attachment and benefits all. If we
are detached from the view and conduct, then steady love and compassion arise
for all—for parents, relatives, friends, and whole countries—and there would be
harmony in every direction.
Another story: once when a mother and daughter went to bathe in a river, they
were both carried away by a sudden strong current. The daughter thought, “I don’t
mind dying if I could save my mother!” And the mother thought, “If I could only
save my daughter, I don’t mind dying!” Due to their good intentions, the gods
praised them, and both of them were reborn in heaven.
Liberation and omniscience are the unfailing cause establishing the absence of
self-interest that benefits others. It is impossible to attain that absence of self-
interest without abiding in emptiness and sustaining the conduct of reflexive
release. Ordinary beings cannot perform the conduct of the noble ones, whose
actions are not mixed with self-interest. Whatever ordinary beings do, there is
some self-interest involved, either directly or indirectly. Some act out of greed and
some out of pride, and we can see this with our own eyes. If we have the Dzogchen
view so that whatsoever appears is reflexively released, then mean or coarse
emotions, such as hatred of enemies or desire for friends, will not arise. If we can
meditate and practice the conduct of allowing thoughts to be liberated reflexively
again and again, then subtle self-motivated thoughts will not arise later.
If we want to make some great beneficial difference to this world, first we have
to sustain the conduct of reflexive release of whatever arises on the path of
nondesire and nonattachment. Then to engage in the great wave of selfless action
for the sake of others is a great joy.
3.19 WHEN WE KNOW OBJECTS OF ATTACHMENT AS DELUSION, THE FIVE SENSORY PLEASURES
DO US NO HARM
If at present we detach ourselves from our home, wealth, relatives, reputation, and
so on, just by this detachment we will suffer less. Consider the Sahor king,
Indrabhuti, who invited Padmasambhava from Sindu, adopted him as his son, and
gave him royal power and five hundred beautiful princesses. Padmasambhava
taught buddha-dharma to the people of Sahor, but one day, realizing that religion
and politics do not mix, he decided to abandon the life of the palace. Sure that the
king, his adoptive father, would object, he conceived a stratagem. In the middle of
a crowded market place, he took off his clothes and, naked except for bone
ornaments around his body, went dancing, holding a staff and a damaru. Coming
close to a minister’s son, whose reputation was particularly questionable, he
pretended to trip, and his iron staff pierced the boy’s body, killing him on the spot.
This incident of murder was reported to the king, and in order that the law should
be respected by the people in the future, he decided to punish Padmasambhava.
The king knew his son well, but to pacify the people and ministers, he called a
meeting to discuss how to punish him. At the meeting some suggested that he
should receive capital punishment by impalement; some that he should be