This lecture explores a key theme in Sangharakshita’s teaching: the need for the Dharma to affect the whole of our being – not just the rational, linear aspects of our mind but also the poetic and ‘undefined’ aspects of us too. Exploring the meeting of Vimalakīrti and Mañjuśrī, Sangharakshita encourages us to bring about a marriage between the two, realizing that they are, in a sense, not different.
If you can, make time to read chapters 5, 6 and 7 of the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa during the week.
Suggestions for reflection, research, and discussion

1. “In fact, adhi ṣthe Buddhas and Bodhisattvas all the time, just as light and ṭhāna is flowing from heat are constantly radiating from the sun” (page 85).
   Have you ever had an experience that relates to this adhi ṣṭhāna?
2. On pages 85-86, Sangharakshita discusses the nature of effort in the spiritual life – the effort
   needed to be receptive; the problem of wilfulness; the right kind of effort; and distributing
   your effort over a broad spectrum of interests. What relevance does any of this have for your
   own efforts to practice the spiritual life?
3. Are our friendships like a “cold shower” rather than a warm bath? What does this mean?
4. “Opposition is true friendship.” “One’s enemies are really one’s friends.” (Both page 90).
   What do you make of these quotes from Blake and Nietzsche on friendship?
5. “The nature of our approach to myth is one of the basic questions that have to be faced nowadays”
   (page 93).
   What does this mean and do you agree with it?
6. What are the main differences between the Pāli and Mahāyāna traditions as suggested by
   Sangharakshita in this lecture? Which of them appeals more to you at this point in time? Why
   do you think that is?
7. “We can experience the archetypal realm only because we ourselves are, on another level,
   archetypal beings” (page 98).
   In what ways are we archetypal beings?