Lately, at the Thursday morning meditation practice sessions at the Shambhala Meditation Centre of Toronto, he has been giving short talks on a variety of topics.

As Ted is one of my spiritual spouses (please click here for definition), I’d like to pay tribute to him here by intermittenly publishing some of these talks on the Shambhala Buddhist dharma.

On May 24, 2012, he spoke on The Proclamation of  Goodness.

Proclamation of Goodness:

May basic goodness dawn.
May the confidence of goodness be eternal.
May goodness be all-victorious.
May that goodness bring profound, brilliant glory.

(source: Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche on the third anniversary of the Werma Sadhana, 10 October 2010)

Ted and boiling spring, Iceland, September 2012

The proclamation is a statement that basic goodness (please click here for definition of basic goodness on the ultimate plane) is the fundamental quality of reality before any moralistic concept of good or bad. This view is our starting point and begins with the mind of enlightenment.

He then took each line and explained it.

1. May basic goodness dawn.
   Taking the view above as the basis of our own reality and working from that supports us in creating enlightened society. Differing views such as people are bad or sinful and a heavy emphasis on individual achievement lead to much different forms of society.
2. May the confidence of goodness be eternal.
   Working with the view of basic goodness (described immediately above), we develop confidence that we can proceed with our lives and with creating enlightened society
3. May goodness be all-victorious.
   Sense of intent\aspiration that our lives and society can be guided by basic goodness
4. May that goodness bring profound, brilliant glory.
   this line speaks to the bringing about of the state of enlightened society\joining of heaven and earth

Living our lives in terms of basic goodness helps us work with our karma altogether. We begin to develop the courage to undercut our own habitual patterns, the very patterns that both create and maintain our karma. (Please click here for the two components of habitual patterns.)

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