*x-posted from <a href="hfx-ben.livejournal.com">my LJ</a>*

It comes down to this: not only <i>what</i> we do, but <i><b>how</b> we do it</i>. Ultimately, "why" becomes the point. (Which is another way of saying that in the end our actual motive manifests ... it comes to be ... it creates karma.)

The number of "errancy modes" is beyond estimation. Either our motive is some variation of "for the good of all sentient beings" or it's in error. Necessarily. Inexorably. Like physics. You can fly, for a while, in any number of ways, but you will come down at some point.

Gain, or resentment ... passion or aggression ... both entail solidifying concepts, and that puts a spin on things that works out badly because it's out of synch with ?what? ... heh ... the ultimate nature of reality.

If I humble myself and act as a modestly self-interested drone then, well, I end up empowering and enabling the worst oligarch. My web of denial and willful ignorance fosters the worst lies and shelters the worst psychopaths. If, otherwise, I act more assertively and drive for my own fortune and wealth with all the creativity that ambition gives rise to ... well, what then?

<i>Prajna</i> is our very natural intuition concerning what's not "right" ... it can be honed and tuned and nurtured, or it can be muted and dumbed down. When I act deceptively, or act as though unaware of some deception, I detune myself. And more: I encourage others to become as though objects. And in the end my activity obstructs those with the best of intentions. Step by step, day in and day out, I make myself into an agent of entropy. How can I expect any sense of well-being from that? That mode of being is simply unwholesome; it creates conditions quite opposite to "profound relaxation".

It's <i>bodhicitta</i> or it's dis-ease ... there is no way of escaping reality.
<blockquote><blockquote> Do not choose a coward's explanation
That hides behind the cause and the effect.
-- Leonard Cohen</blockquote><font size="-2">*thanks to <a href="barrygraham.livejournal.com/&quo...JUser BarryGraham"</a> for the quote*</font></blockquote>