Conduct: Becoming A Empathetic Diplomat

A person who can deal with others in a sensitive and tactful way.

Realising our ultimate essence is a piece of cake compared to watching our conduct. We actually ascend the levels – the yanas – through our conduct, knowing the difference between culture, religion, realisation and genuine compassion to advance insight.

We’re either born into a culture, or we adopt its ways. This isn’t the same as the religion of that culture, but they can be intertwined, and twisted together. Most cultures and religions are built on belief to which people become accustomed.

Realisation is different; it’s not part of either a culture or a religion. It is clarity of mind, the essence of mind which is pure consciousness. The teachings of a realised one may be adopted by a culture or religion, but we don’t have to adopt that culture or religion in order to realise the teaching.

Once we know or realise absolute truth through personal experience, empathetic compassion can arise, because we know that all sentient beings have the same essential nature (in the sense that we can all see, but not through the same pair of eyes).

Through this understanding, we become a diplomat, a representative of truth – a Bodhisattva, an ordinary person who moves in the direction of a Buddha. 

A Bodhisattva practises the way of a Buddha through empathetic wisdom,
which means being without bias.