Source and licence: Translation by Ilia Durovic. Oral commentary © Khensur Rinpoche and Tibetan Buddhist Institute 2011. The whole TBI booklet, including its index (its page numbers refer to the printed booklet). The root verses are quoted within the commentary and are not numbered in the booklet, so they carry no verse anchors.
A COMMENTARY ON
Dharmarakshita’s
THE WHEEL OF SHARP WEAPONS
Kyabje Khensur Kangurwa Lobsang Thubten Rinpoche
October 2010 – April 2011
Tibetan Buddhist Institute
Thekchen Shedrub Choeling
A COMMENTARY ON
THE WHEEL OF SHARP WEAPONS
Composed by Dharmarakshita
Kyabje Khensur Kangurwa Lobsang Thubten Rinpoche
October 2010 – April 2011
At Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide, South Australia
Translation by Ilia Durovic
Oral commentary © Khensur Rinpoche and Tibetan Buddhist Institute 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced without the written consent of the directors of Tibetan Buddhist Institute. Disclaimer: This commentary is a first draft of the oral translation made of Khensur Rinpoche’s teachings. It has not been checked by the translator and is provided for student use until a fully corrected version is available.
Table of Contents
Introduction 2
Preliminary Explanation of the Text 7
The Meaning of the Title 15
The Meaning of the Treatise 20
General Explanation of the Text 21
Bodhisattvas 24
The Three Poisons 30
Training in Bodhichitta 39
How To Practise 48
Concluding Remarks 106
Acknowledgements 108
Index 109
Notes
Notes
Introduction
At present we will generate the motivation to listen to these teachings, the fact that we must free all mother sentient beings as vast as space from suffering and the causes of suffering and place them in a state of unalloyed bliss and happiness. To do this we ourselves will eliminate from our mindstream all of the faults and actualise all of the qualities, and with this as a motivation we will engage in the three activities of hearing, thinking and meditating.
As Je Tsongkhapa the Glorious said:
Fortunate are we to have obtained this precious human rebirth, which is fleeting and appears only as briefly as a bolt of lightning in the dark sky.
We have at present obtained both a basis for the practice of the Great Vehicle and a basis for the practice of the holy dharma. ‘Basis’ here refers to a body which is suitable for such practice, and this precious human rebirth we have, is endowed with the famous eight freedoms and ten endowments. This precious rebirth of leisure is said to be superior to a wish-fulfilling gem. One does not see nowadays wish-fulfilling gems often, and therefore it might be easier for us to understand if we said this precious human rebirth, this rebirth of leisure and endowments, is more valuable than hundreds of thousands – millions – of dollars. A monetary image is more meaningful to us.
What is the benefit of this precious human rebirth? It is because if this human rebirth is fruitful, if it leads to a result, then in future lives we will not be reborn in the lower realms and we will, for that matter, actualise a higher state of rebirth, which is a perfect human rebirth. We can then hope to attain liberation from cyclic existence in this very life if we strive, or even the highest goal of all, which is attaining the state of perfection, of full enlightenment in which we fulfil both our own and the welfare of others. We can also hope to rely on the practise of Secret Mantra and attain thereby the state of Guru Vajradhara, endowed with the seven kisses. Such a state, it is said, can be attained in a mere twelve years through effort. So, if we think of it in these terms, a precious human rebirth is far superior to a wish-fulfilling jewel.
The precious human rebirth, is therefore, not only profoundly meaningful; it is only something which could have been created in previous lives through relying on the instructions of one’s spiritual teacher. Now, generally speaking, when something is difficult to obtain it is said to be hard to find, and indeed is also said to be something which is difficult to realise. We say this of material things. If they are hard to get and very important, they tend to be very expensive and one has to create the causes to obtain them. If we do not create the causes to obtain what we want, we cannot hope to achieve the result. So, generally speaking here, regarding the precious human rebirth, in the self-same way as the result is hard to obtain, the causes which lead to that result are both difficult to practise and valuable. Without obtaining these causes we cannot hope to give rise to their result. The specific causes which are difficult to practise for a precious human rebirth are threefold:
The first is the ethics which abstains from the ten non-virtuous deeds. This is foundational and akin to the earth, which is the foundation of all things and supports crops. If we want to grow crops or flowers we need earth to do so otherwise it is impossible for them to germinate or blossom.
The second cause is the practice of the perfections of giving, of patience, of enthusiasm and also of concentration.
The third cause is pure prayers, which connects these first two causes to the intention of the result, which is a precious human rebirth.
There is no such thing as a result whose causes have not been created, and therefore to obtain the result we must first create its causes.
Now, regarding the first cause which is listed, which is the ethics of the abandonment of the ten non-virtues, the ten non-virtues are subdivided into the three non-virtues of body, four of speech and three of mind. The three of body are abstaining from killing, abstaining from taking what is not given (in other words, from theft) and abstaining from sexual misconduct. These are rare in this world of ours, since we can see around us killing is rampant, theft is rampant and so is sexual misconduct. Most do not understand how to abandon these three initial non-virtues.
The four non-virtues of speech which are to be abandoned are lying, divisive speech (which is speech which separates people who used to live in harmony), harsh words (which occur through the non-practise of patience) and idle talk, or gossip. This is talk, for instance, about the situation in China, the situation in India, and all the meaningless talk which is related to this and then we have the three non-virtues of mind – covetousness, ill will and wrong views.
Covetousness is a mind which desires what we at present do not have, or a mind which also desires that which we at present own, going over it again and again and allowing desire and lust for it to increase in the mind. The second mental non-virtue is ill will. Ill will is that state of mind which wishes to harm another being through uttering, for instance, harsh or injurious words, criticising or deprecating them. Any such mind which wishes harm to another is a mind of ill will. The third mental non-virtue is the non-virtue of wrong views. Wrong views, in a nutshell, are asserting that which is real is not, or what is not is, that what does not exist exists or what exists does not exist. For instance, in Buddhist teachings it is clearly taught that past and future lives exist. To assert that they do not exist is a case of wrong views. Likewise to assert that karma and causality do not exist is also a case of wrong views. To assert that liberation does not exist is a case of wrong views and to assert that full enlightenment does not exist is wrong views. In any case, such activities lead to the accumulation of great non-virtue.
What is referred by the ‘practice of ethics’ is the actual abandonment of the three non-virtues of body, the four of speech and the three of mind, in other words, the ten non-virtues as a whole. One who has ethics can obtain a worthy, a good rebirth and one who lacks ethics will not obtain a worthy rebirth, but will obtain a lower rebirth. So, if we try to formulate the relation between virtue and non-virtue, virtue is the sum-total of those deeds which are beneficial to beings and non-virtue is the sum-total of those deeds which are harmful or deleterious to beings. If we abandon deeds which are harmful or deleterious to beings, this helps them and therefore this is called virtue. For instance, if we take the three non-virtues of the body – let us take killing for instance – this is a non-virtue. The abandonment of killing is a virtuous deed. If we take stealing this is a non-virtue. The abandonment or the forsaking of stealing is a virtue. Likewise, for sexual misconduct, which is a non-virtue, abandoning it is a virtue. We can say in a nutshell that ethics is the foundation, the principle cause, for all happiness. Therefore, if we want to obtain the result, which is a precious human rebirth, we must create its causes, the foremost of which is the practice of ethics. Without the practice of ethics we will face rebirth in the lower realms. So, it can be said that ethics is the uncommon cause for higher rebirths in general, such as the human rebirth, but also for that matter, rebirth in the divine or celestial realms. In addition to ethics we have to train in the five other perfections, because even if through the training in ethics we were to obtain a precious human rebirth, if we do not train in the first of the perfections, which is the perfection of generosity, we will be reborn as a beggar. We will be reborn destitute and poor. To avoid hardship in a future human life we must train in generosity in this life, so as to obtain wealth in the future.
Likewise, if we do not train in the perfection of forbearance, or patience, then even though through ethics we obtain a precious human rebirth we will be quick to anger and have ugly and unappealing features. Those whose physical bodies are infirmed in this life are facing this as a result of a lack of the practise of forbearance and patience in former lives. The same can be said for training in perseverance or enthusiasm. To obtain a precious human rebirth much effort must be undertaken. Without the perfection of perseverance or enthusiasm, one will not do this. Then, if one lacks the latter two perfections, the perfection of concentration and of wisdom , then one will be reborn as an imbecile, as one who, although he or she has a human rebirth, lacks understanding and knowledge. Specifically, if one does not train in the sixth perfection, of wisdom, one will not have an understanding of dharma. So, the perfection of ethics is necessary foundationally to obtain a precious human rebirth and then we must train in the other five perfections of generosity, patience, forbearance, concentration and wisdom, to obtain the attributes of this precious human rebirth, which are wealth, a fine appearance, a sharp mind, and so forth.
Therefore, we must actualise the three causes for the precious human rebirth, which are the foundation – the ethics which abstains from the ten non-virtuous deeds. In addition, we should have its cooperative conditions, which are the five remaining perfections, which have been mentioned, and we should conjoin this with powerful prayers. These are prayers of dedication to obtain a precious human rebirth, thinking, “May I, as a result of these virtues, obtain a precious human rebirth in the future.” If we do not dedicate, if we do not make powerful prayers, to obtain a precious human rebirth, then the karmic causes we have obtained for a precious human rebirth may go to waste. They may mature as something else. So, this process of dedication is extremely important and beneficial. If we have accumulated these three causes for a precious human rebirth, then there will be no difficulty whatsoever in obtaining such a precious human rebirth. In the self-same way as if we plant a seed in a field and the sun shines on it and we water the seed and provide it with manure, it will naturally give rise to a crop. Therefore it is in this very life of ours that we have to create the causes for a precious human rebirth in future lives. If we do so it will arise effortlessly, without any particular effort from our own part. Otherwise, since there is no such thing as a causeless effect we do not have any hope to accumulate the precious human rebirth. If we do not accumulate the collection of causes for such a rebirth, the result cannot arise. This is the case irrespective of what we do. In the self-same way as if a farmer does not plant seeds in a field, irrespective of how many prayers and prostrations he makes in the field there will be no crop. The seeds have not been planted. So, if the causes have not been created, irrespective of the number of prayers we make we will not obtain a precious human rebirth. In this world of ours, precious human rebirths are rare indeed. They are rare because living beings do not understand the causes to obtain them and do not generate these causes. We at present, through the kindness of a spiritual teacher in a past life, created the causes to obtain this precious human rebirth in this life. We are very lucky indeed!
So, it is not sufficient to say that we are fortunate. That is of limited benefit. We have to do something with the situation we have obtained. In the self-same way as if one wishes to obtain something rare and precious then one must, having obtained it, put it to good use. So, we say that dharma is beneficial. Why do we say that it is beneficial? Why do we say that one must practise dharma? It is because in dependence upon dharma one is able to become happy. If one does not rely on dharma, then one will only face suffering. If we reflect on it we can see that that which causes happiness is dharma and therefore dharma can be said to be the reason which causes happiness. So, this provides a justification for the practise of dharma in the self-same way as it provides a justification for the abstaining from non-dharma, since the result of non-dharma (the result of not practising dharma) is suffering.
Having therefore gone to the effort of having obtained something that is rare and difficult to get, it behoves us to use it, to put it to good use. This is the reason for which it is said that dharma practice is fundamental. Dharma practice is fundamental for the simple reason that it is the means to create happiness. We are not talking here of the happiness of this life. This is occasional, transient happiness. It is unstable and does not last. What we need is durable, permanent happiness, unchanging happiness. The cause of unchanging happiness is dharma. It is not the transient happinesses of this life which arise through, for instance, gaining our livelihood, which can cause an endurable state of happiness. For instance, if we experience cold in the morning we will then experience heat in the afternoon or the opposite. These are feelings which are transient and which do not last. What we need instead for ourselves is a durable state of happiness. So, from within the twofold division of happiness into durable happiness and transient happiness, we have to create for ourselves the causes of durable happiness. One could put this in the form of a syllogism:
The subject [you] must train in dharma because: a) you wish to be happy, and b) you do not wish to be unhappy.
As was stated previously, it is not this transient state of happiness such as gaining one’s livelihood which is referred to. What is being referred to, is lasting and durable happiness. Therefore the preceding syllogism is a syllogism which relies on pure logic (pramana). The subject – ‘yourself’ – must practise dharma because you wish to be happy and you do not wish to be unhappy. In addition to this one must practise dharma in this life and not think, “I will wait until later on in life or I will wait for future lives to practise dharma.” The reason for this can also be put in the form of a syllogism:
The subject (yourself), it is necessary for you to practise dharma in this life because: a) all of the favourable conditions in this life have been obtained, and b) in the future it will be difficult to obtain these conditions again
Within the first reason which is given in this syllogism, all of the favourable conditions have been obtained. The favourable conditions which are referred to are the three causes, which have been referred to, therefore we may continue this line of reason by saying this is the case because the three causes have been established. Now, if we should ask ourselves, “Why should I put effort in doing this?” and we check carefully we can see that at present it is easy and in the future it is difficult. Therefore in this life we should practise in dependence on the two reasons which have been given, and we should investigate this for ourselves now and not wait for some future date where the only way we can express ourselves is by barking.
Not only must we practise dharma in this life, in addition, we must practise dharma now. The reason for this is because this life is impermanent. It changes instant by instant. As a matter of fact, it changes second by second. We see around us the young who die, the elderly who die, we see the sick who die and then we see sick people who do not die. There is no certainty in this matter. So, our bodies, our lives, are akin to bubbles of water. They are constantly changing, ephemeral and transient and change instant by instant, disintegrating instant by instant. It is at present in this very moment that we are talking that our life is flying by, and when it will end for any of us, nobody knows. The causes for our death are numerous. We may die from disease, we may die in car accidents, we may be bashed or beaten up. It is well known that we meet people today and then tomorrow we do not see them. They are dead. Or, we meet people this year and the next year when we try to meet them we cannot see them anymore. They are dead. Some people die while they are eating. Some people die at work. Therefore, reflecting in this way it is at present – immediately, instantaneously – that we should practise dharma, since death does not wait, and our body is akin to a water bubble. In the West we are sorely afflicted by the view of permanence of phenomena. We believe that, “Since I am here this year, I will be there next year as well.” This is nonsense.
Generally speaking, there are numerous causes for one’s death. Death can occur through the simple end of the lifespan. It can occur through exhaustion of merit, or it can occur through both. For instance, it is possible when the lifespan is exhausted that the karma that was accumulated to live that long has ceased. There are several means to try to lengthen the life of a person. One can, for instance, abandon killing, or one can give medicine to the sick to try to lengthen the lifespan. One can make prayers to the Triple Gem, or try to generate an increased wisdom to increase merit. However, there is no certainty regarding the duration of this life. There is only certainty regarding the fact that we will die.
We have to ask ourselves after death where exactly we will go, and who will be our protector, our helper. Who will accompany us? If we analyse carefully we will see that we go alone and it is not the case that after death there is nothing because if that were so then dharma practise would be of no benefit whatsoever. The body is indeed destroyed. It decays, but the mind continues and it continues alone. If virtue has been accumulated then the mind moves towards happiness and if non-virtue has been accumulated the mind moves towards ever-greater suffering. There are no other paths but these two paths – the paths of virtue and non-virtue, of happiness and suffering. Understanding this clearly, we must try to travel on the path of virtue and try to abstain from non-virtue. So, if we ask ourselves where we are going, we can see that are going alone. We are traveling alone. Our fathers, our mothers, our children will not go with us. Our friends will be of no help. We, ourselves alone, will travel, and will travel on one of two paths: the white or the black path. The white path is the path of life, the path of happiness, and in future lives we will have not only happiness, but friends, a good dwelling, teachers, and we will receive dharma teachings. The black path, the evil path, is the path of suffering, of fear and of hardship. There are no other paths but these two.
Alone, it will make no difference which path we travel. We must create the causes for them. Buddha-dharma is nothing else but the teaching of cause and effect. From good causes good effects arise and from bad causes bad effects arise. The good causes we generate are the causes which can lead us all the way up to the state of an arhat, a bodhisattva or a buddha. It is exactly the same thing in worldly matters. In this world of ours a good person, an honest person, is trusted and moves upwards in society. A cheat, someone who falsifies documents, moves downwards in society. In the same way if we sow a good seed we will reap a good crop, and if we do no sow it we cannot hope to reap such a crop. So, it is up to us to decide that we will not be reborn in the lower realms. Have we decided not to be reborn in the lower realms? It is evident by our behaviour we have not. So, we must decide to do so and having decided this, we must accumulate good causes. This will be the sign that we have achieved this goal. The teachings of the buddhas, the bodhisattvas and all the holy beings are identical in this matter. There is no difference in their teachings. They differ only in their explanation of the view.
This was an introduction on the practice of virtue and abstaining or abandoning non-virtue, and leads us into an explanation of The Wheel of Sharp Weapons, this magnificent treatise on mind training (Lojong) composed by the glorious Dharmarakshita. This is a teaching which does not entail any initiation, does not call for any particular commitments on the side of the students and therefore all students – both the new students and the older more experienced students – are welcome to come for this profound oral transmission on karma and causality.
Preliminary Explanation of the Text
There are some words of praise at the beginning of our text, the praise for the guru, which will be recited and after this an explanation of the teachings will commence. The first sloka starting with “Namo Gurubhya” are verses of praise of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama and prostration to His Holiness. The following slokas are verses of praise of the teacher of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang. The following sloka refers to the countless learned teachers, of which Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang, whose qualities could not be described, so great they are. The final sloka gives the reasons for which these teachers are worthy of praise. (These are not in the root text. This is in a Tibetan commentary by the author of the text.)
Then Garjensawa’s commentary on The Wheel of Sharp Weapons reads:
Here is being presented the seed syllables of The Wheel of Sharp Weapons, which was conferred to Jowo je Atisha by his guru Dharmarakshita.
Dharmarakshita was the imparter of this teaching to Atisha himself. The commentary continues:
This has a twofold division into a general explanation…
The general explanation is an explanation of the broad import of the text as well as an explanation of the specific words. Khensur Rinpoche himself received this teaching from Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche at Ganden Monastery, and during this teaching the compiler of this commentary, Garjensawa Geshe Sonam Gyaltsen actually transcribed the varied teachings of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, so this can be said to be Trijang Rinpoche’s commentary. Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche was a being of inconceivable qualities, whose understanding of Lam Rim and lojong, as well as the tantric path was unexcelled and who was the junior tutor and teacher of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. Therefore, it is appropriate to rely on his commentary of The Wheel of Sharp Weapons to teach The Wheel of Sharp Weapons.
Within the teachings of the Buddha there are two broad divisions into the Paramitayana and the Tantrayana, or the Sutrayana and the Mantrayana. These teachings belong to the first division, to the Paramitayana. So, when we speak of the teachings of the Buddha, or the dharma we have to ask ourselves what is the origin of dharma or the teachings of the Buddha? The origin is our teacher Buddha Shakyamuni himself, who generated bodhichitta in past lives and then engaged in the vast accumulations of merit and wisdom before attaining full enlightenment and becoming a universal teacher. It is said that Buddha Shakyamuni taught 84,000 bundles of dharma. This is the case because traditionally it is considered that sentient beings suffer from 84,000 different afflictions and each of the dharma teachings of the Buddha acts as an antidote that targets one specific affliction.
Therefore, as the commentary reads onwards:
In general, the teacher Buddha Shakyamuni imparted 84,000 teachings of dharma, specifically to target the 84,000 delusions of the trainees, and he did this for this purpose only, thus training the minds of the trainees.
The term ‘lojong’ which is sometimes translated in English as ‘mind training’ may better perhaps be translated as ‘mind purification’. The mind which is to be purified is to be purified by the dharma, which is to be taken within the mind. Now, generally speaking, when we speak of mind purification it can be seen from two standpoints: form the standpoint of what is to be purified, which are the afflictions, which are within the mind and which are, as it were, the target of the process of purification; and from the standpoint of the purifier. The purifiers are such practices as the generation of bodhichitta, the view of emptiness and so forth.
This is a teaching of mind training, but specifically mind training of the Mahayana, of the Great Vehicle. Therefore the trainee or the person is a Mahayana practitioner and the criteria or the gateway of the Mahayana is bodhichitta, the cause of which is the generation of great compassion. Now, to be able to enter into such training of the Mahayana, the preliminary practices must first have been engaged in. These are specifically the preliminary mind trainings of the beings of both small and middling scope, which lead up to the practices of the Mahayana. It is only on this basis that one is able to engage in the mind training of the Mahayana. Otherwise, if we do not engage in these preliminary practices, we will not be able to engage correctly in the mind training of the Mahayana, in the self-same ways as in worldly matters, when we want to engage in a work of large import, we must first engage in the preliminaries, otherwise we cannot achieve the result. So, here, if we do not engage in the preliminary practice that we share with the being of small and of middling scope, then not only will we not achieve those practices, but we will also not be able to achieve mind training of the Great Vehicle and then we will have been left without having achieved anything.
In the self-same way as in the Lam Rim we have the division of the practitioners into the beings of small, middling and great scope, and of the practice which is shared with the being of small scope, shared with the being of middling scope and the practice specific to the being of great scope, here we have a presentation exclusively of the practice of the being of great scope, which however presupposes as a preliminary the practices of the beings of small and middling scope, in the self-same way as the Lam Rim. In the same way as if you intend to come to Australia for instance, you must first engage in the preliminaries to be able to come here, only then is it possible to do so, in the self-same way, to engage in mind training of the Great Vehicle, one must first engage in the preliminaries of the beings of small and middling scope. This is the reason for which it is to be said in The Verses of Mind Training:
In the beginning, train in these.
‘These’ (in Tibetan de dag) is a dual, which means actually ‘these two’, and ‘these two’ refer specifically to the practices shared with the beings of small and middling scope. On this basis and on this basis alone is it possible to enter into the mind training of the great scope. Now, when we speak here of the foundations of training, one actually refers to reliance on the spiritual friend, and reliance on the spiritual friend, which is the foundation of spiritual training, is engaged in because it is only with the spiritual friend that we can understand what to practise and what not to practise, what to engage in and what not to engage in. The spiritual friend points to the elements of the path and says, “Do this, abstain from that.” So, to do this, we need a spiritual friend in whom we have faith, whom we rely upon. What is referred to in worldly terms as love and affection as far as dharma is concerned is actually faith – faith in a spiritual teacher whose qualities we have examined and who is fully qualified. Otherwise, if we rely on a spiritual teacher who is not qualified, then it is a case of collective idiocy, of the blind leading the blind. Then it is as if we all become like dogs, who are completely ignorant.
When we refer to the practice of the being of small scope, what are we referring to? – fundamentally to four practices: meditation on the fully endowed human rebirth, on death and impermanence, on refuge and on karma and causality. Now, a human rebirth of freedom and leisure is a human rebirth which is endowed with the eight freedoms and the ten endowments. This is a perfect human rebirth. This is necessary for us to be able to practise dharma. So, if we want to practise dharma, we have to understand clearly that dharma is the means whereby suffering is eliminated, and whereby happiness is established or created and we have to understand in turn that it is through practising what is to be practised that happiness arises and through abandoning what is to be abandoned that suffering is dissipated. This we can understand only through relying on the spiritual teacher.
Therefore, understanding clearly that both happiness and suffering are results, we can understand clearly that if we want happiness we must create its cause and if we want to eliminate suffering, we must eliminate its cause. For this we need to have a precious human rebirth with the eight freedoms and the ten endowments, which enables us to practise. When we speak of a human rebirth with the eight freedoms and the ten endowments we are referring to a human rebirth which has no interfering factors and which has all of the cooperating conditions. The freedom from interfering factors is the eight freedoms and the presence of the ten cooperating conditions is the ten endowments. This is a fully-endowed human rebirth.
The advice of the teachers to one who has obtained a precious human rebirth is as follows:
You have obtained freedom from the interfering conditions. You have the eight freedoms. You have obtained all of the cooperating or favourable conditions, the ten endowments, therefore you have a bodily basis for the practise of dharma. You must practise dharma. If you do not practise dharma, the teachers say because you are impermanent, then this freedom from the interfering conditions and the presence of the favourable conditions will dissipate and you will die.
It is not the case at the end of such a precious human rebirth that when we die that we are extinguished or that we disappear. The Buddhist teachings are that we have to take rebirth and take rebirth in the higher or the lower realms. For most of us we will probably be facing rebirth in the lower realms since we are accumulating the causes for such a rebirth. These lower realms are realms of great suffering. They include the hell realms, the realms of the pretas and the animal realms. All the higher realms to which we aspire include rebirth as a human being, a demi-god (asura) or a god. So, for us to try to attain rebirth in the higher realms, we need a means to attain such a rebirth and this means is taking refuge, taking refuge specifically in the Buddha, the dharma and the sangha. However, it is not refuge in and of itself which protects us. Refuge does not have from its own side this capacity. It is practising the teachings of the Buddha which are to practise virtue and to abstain from non-virtue which alone can protect us from the lower realms.
On the basis of this precious human rebirth, becoming aware of the fact that we are facing impermanence and death, if we practise sincerely and authentically, it is certain that we will gain a higher rebirth. So, taking refuge, we should reflect on what is to be practised and what is to be abandoned. What are to be abandoned are the ten non-virtues: the three non-virtues of body, the four of speech, and three of mind. The three non-virtues of the body are killing, stealing and sexual misconduct. Killing is obviously killing another being. Stealing is taking what does not belong to us. Sexual misconduct is adultery and so forth. The four non-virtues of speech are lying (telling untruths), harsh words, which is telling words or saying things which hurt the feelings of others, divisive speech, in other words separating others, and idle talk or gossip. The three mental non-virtues are covetousness, which is desire for possessions, ill-will which is desire to harm another being and wrong views, such as disbelieving in the Triple Gem, disbelieving in karma and causality and so forth. If we abandon these ten non-virtues then we can be sure to gain a better rebirth.
Regarding The Three Principles of the Path, when one trains on the path of the being of small scope first and foremost one tries to eliminate attraction to the figments of this life. This is the foremost training of the being of small scope. Regarding The Three Principles of the Path, when one meditates on renunciation, as is said in The Three Principles of the Path:
Turn away from the figments of this life.
refers to renunciation of this life. Then, in addition, one turns away from the attraction to all future lives. As is said in The Three Principles of the Path:
Inasmuch as there is no duration to a precious human rebirth endowed with the freedoms and the endowments, turn away from the figments of this life.
So, these two verses both refer to eliminating attachment to the appearances of this life. Reflecting on the one side on the fact that this precious human rebirth has no duration worth talking about and on the other hand, that one should turn away from the figments of this life, one gives rise to renunciation of this life. When one speaks of a rebirth with the endowments and freedoms, such a rebirth has both endowments and freedoms and yet does not last. This is why one must turn away from the figments of this life. How does one practise turning away from the figments of this life? One does this through taking refuge and meditating on karma and causality. Then, in dependence on turning away from the figments of this life and taking refuge and meditating on karma and causality, one can then start training in abandoning future lives. This is a good way of practising and if you would recollect this it would be helpful.
The totality of Lam Rim is summarised within the presentation of The Three Principles of the Path and in the context of The Three Principles of the Path the practice of refuge encompasses the practice of the being of small and middling scope. Turning away from the appearances or figments of this life is the practice of the being of small scope and turning away from attachment to all lives is the practice of the being of middling scope. What is the focus of the being of small scope? It is focus on training in the precious human rebirth, and one practises mainly meditating on death and impermanence, taking refuge and meditating on karma and causality. Then, through practising ethics, practising generosity and practising patience, it is definite that one will attain a precious human rebirth in future lives.
We have finished in the presentation of turning away from the figments of this life. Regarding turning away from attachment to all lives, this is covered by the verses in The Three Principles of the Path:
Inasmuch as karma and causality are incontrovertible, turn away from all lives.
In keeping with the quote on page 2 of the commentary:
First train in the two preliminary practices.
as was explained previously one must first train in the practices shared with the being of small scope and then in the practices shared with the being of middling scope. The practices shared with the being of small scope are understanding the precious human rebirth, death and impermanence, karma and causality and refuge, and the practices shared with the being of middling scope are first and foremost training in renunciation. Now, one can also understand the practices shared with the being of small scope as that component of training in renunciation which turns away from this life and the practices of the being of middling scope as those practices of training in renunciation which turn away from all lives. Without these two preliminaries it is not possible to practise.
The path shared with the being of middling scope focuses mainly on an understanding of the Four Noble Truths – the noble truth of suffering, the noble truth of the origin of suffering, the noble truth of cessation and the noble truth of the path. Of these four, the first truths – the noble truth of suffering and the origin of suffering – are in a causal relationship. The noble truth of suffering is the effect and the noble truth of the origin of suffering is the cause of the first noble truths. These Four Noble Truths were taught by the Buddha at Varanasi when he turned the wheel of the law for the first time. Specifically, the noble truth of the origin of suffering, the second noble truth, is itself subdivided into two: It is subdivided into karma and causality, or karma and afflictions. Karma, in turn, is subdivided into two broad categories: afflicted virtuous karma and afflicted non-virtuous karma. Afflicted virtuous karma (and here ‘afflicted’ or ‘contaminated’ refers to karma which is accrued in company with some type of affliction) gives rise to rebirth in the three higher realms, of the gods, demi-gods and human beings, and contaminated non-virtuous karma gives rise to rebirth in the three lower realms, the realms of the animals, the preta and the hell realms. So, this encompasses the totality of the six realms of cyclic existence. This is the first subdivision of the noble truth of the origin of suffering. The second is afflictions, of which there are many, however the principle ones are the three poisons of desire, hatred and ignorance, and of these ignorance is foremost as a means whereby karma is accumulated.
Therefore the rebirth in the three lower realms is a direct result of non-virtuous karma. Now, generally speaking, for a result (an effect) such as a lower rebirth, both a cause and a condition are necessary. The cause is karma and the conditions are the afflictions. We might wonder whether there is such a thing as lower rebirths. There definitely are. Of the three lower rebirths (lower rebirth as an animal, a hungry ghost or a hell being) we can see animal rebirths. As for rebirth as a hungry ghost we can see the result of the existence of the hungry ghosts, or the pretas, through the existence of diseases which are caused by spirits. These spirits are pretas. There are pretas (hungry ghosts) of various types, some of which for instance have blazing fire in their mouth and are unable to eat or to drink. This is the result of karmic non-virtue. Finally, regarding the hell realms we do not fully understand them, since they are at the very bottom of this world of ours and are not accessible easily to our perception. Nonetheless, all of these three of these lower realms exist and they arise directly through the result of the three types of non-virtue.
For great non-virtue one incurs rebirth in the hell realms, for middling non-virtue rebirth as a preta, and for light non-virtue rebirth as an animal. What is meant here by great non-virtue is a deed which causes great harm to another living being. This is a great sin, a great fault. For instance, if when killing an animal one inflicts tremendous suffering and for instance through the wish of eating the flesh of that animal one slices flesh away from it while it is alive bit by bit, this is a tremendous non-virtue, since out of desire one has caused great suffering for the animal. As a result of this, a rebirth in the hell realms is possible. To give an example, in Australia for instance if a man has committed heinous crimes and has not only stolen but killed, then these are very great crimes and he may very well be put away for life in jail. However, if somebody has committed a middling crime, stealing alone for instance, then he may be put away for a couple of months and then will be free. It is the same thing at the level of dharma with the lower realms. Deeds committed through great anger which cause great suffering lead to rebirth in such realms. We can all understand that a deed, for instance, such as killing a small insect is not karmically as heavy as a deed of killing a more conscious or larger being. Therefore, as a result of the three categories of karma (great non-virtue, middling and lighter non-virtue) one incurs rebirth in the three types of realms – the hell realm, the realm of the hungry ghosts and the animal realm.
In turn, for a higher rebirth there are three categories of higher rebirths: a higher rebirth as a human being, a rebirth as a demi-god (Skt. asura) or as a god. We ourselves understand human rebirths since we ourselves are human beings. Rebirth as a demi-god, or as an asura, is a rebirth which lies in between a human rebirth and a divine rebirth. Asuras, or demigods, are neither gods nor human beings and finally, above them there are the gods. So, there is a hierarchy of human beings, demi-gods and gods, and each of these rebirths is a result of a proportionate amount of virtuous karma. For small virtuous karma one is reborn as a human being, for middling virtuous karma one is reborn as a demi-god, and for great virtuous karma one is reborn as a god. So, one has to understand therefore, that it is through the practise of virtue that one can obtain these states and it depends on the greater and lesser virtue one has accumulated that one will obtain one or the other of these rebirths.
To be reborn, for instance, as a human being one must protect ethics well. Specifically, one should abstain from the non-virtuous deeds such as killing, stealing or sexual misconduct. If one abstains from these non-virtuous deeds one will be reborn as a human being. In the case of human beings there are two categories: There are human beings who are destitute, who have very poor conditions. They have no dwelling, they are homeless. They are penniless, they are often starving. These are human beings who have created as a cause, the abandonment of only one non-virtue of the ten non-virtues. Then there are better human beings who have abandoned all of the ten non-virtues and who not only have a human life, but have all the conditions which go with it. As for a demi-god, rebirth as a demi-god above the human rebirth, one must engage in greater abandonments, abandonment specifically of various forms of desire. Finally, there are the extraordinary rebirths as gods, some of which experience no tangible suffering which we can understand.
Among we human beings we have human beings who have varying degrees of shape or attractiveness, varying emotions, varying levels of wealth and so forth. These greater or lesser qualities are all the result of karma. However this may be, it is this twofold subdivision of the second noble truth, the noble truth of origination, into contaminated virtuous deeds and contaminated non-virtuous deeds which in turn give rise respectively to the three higher rebirths and the three lower rebirths which constitute the six realms of cyclic existence. So, although one speaks of the result of virtuous and non-virtuous karma, this karma is actually impelled by the afflictions, and therefore, one can see these as identical to the motivation. When we speak of cyclic existence, the body of the beings of the higher realms and the bodies of the beings of the lower realms constitute cyclic existence. Circumambulating through these six realms, the beings experience cyclic existence in the higher and lower realms. It is through reflecting on the horrific sufferings one undergoes when through karma one is reborn in the lower realms, sufferings of heat and cold and so forth, that at first the wish to be free form cyclic existence which is the beginning of renunciation, dawns. Then, reflecting on the sufferings of the three higher realms, specifically the suffering of change and all-pervasive suffering, the sufferings we experience in the form of death, degeneration and so forth, then when the mind which wishes to be completely free from all of this has arisen, renunciation has arisen. This mind is a mind which wishes to be free from bodies, which are nothing else but cyclic existence, which wishes to abandon the physical state. When this mind arises spontaneously and in an uncontrived way, then renunciation has dawned.
Generally speaking, it is easier to generate the wish to be free from the suffering of the lower realms when one meditates, since we understand them clearly, and when we check our minds we can see that we have many, many cases of the karma which leads to such rebirth, present within our mindstream. So, it is quite easy to understand that if karma necessarily matures and is of an increasing nature, there is a very great risk for us to be born there. While it is possible for a degree of definite emergence, or renunciation, to arise when reflecting on the suffering of the lower realms, it is not full and complete renunciation. Authentic renunciation will arise when we reflect on the sufferings of the higher realms. In the higher realms we encounter difficulties in suffering with respect to our abode, to our wealth, to our entourage, and when reflecting on these, pure renunciation will arise. In turn, when we speak of the higher rebirths, which are the result of virtuous karma we are referring, for instance, to our very human rebirth and we can see in these higher rebirths that there is suffering. We have desire for human bodies, we have desire for human abodes, human possessions, we suffer from our emotions, from our feelings. These sufferings of the higher rebirths are difficult to understand and it is only when we have understood them that we can generate a mind wishing for liberation, wishing for freedom. This is the mind of definite emergence, or renunciation, a mind which understands that all of the higher realms, all of their bodies, possessions, wealth and so forth do not go beyond being of the nature of suffering, because we do not understand this, we do not understand that in the higher realms we are living as if in a pit of fire, and because we do not understand this, we desire these realms and are unable to allow renunciation to arise within our mindstreams.
As is said in The Three Principle Aspects of the Path of Je Tsong khapa:
If one lacks pure renunciation, one will strive for the fruits of happiness within the three realms.
The meaning of the first part of this stanza is that if one lacks the pure renunciation which sees even the happiness of cyclic existence as suffering and if one is therefore unable to abandon the happiness of the cycle of lives, then one will not be able to rise above cyclic existence and one will search for the fruits of happiness of the three realms. The ‘three realms’ here refers to cyclic existence in general. Therefore, if we lack renunciation we will constantly be afflicted by craving for the objects of the three realms and will again and again strive for happiness within cyclic existence. Tsong Khapa adds:
Hence, totally bound up by this…
Totally bound up by what? – by karma and delusion. This refers to the situation of the beings in cyclic existence.
…at first search for renunciation.
‘Search’ here refers to ‘meditate’. We should meditate on renunciation because if we lack renunciation we are bound, we are condemned, to cycle within cyclic existence, specifically in the lower realms, the realms of the hell realms, the pretas and so forth. Hence, renunciation is the most important of the qualities to be developed, because it is when we develop renunciation that we can escape cyclic existence. As Arya Manjushri said to Je Tsong Khapa (We ourselves cannot see Arya Manjushri because he was an enlightened being, but Je Tsong Khapa communicated with him):
Totally bound up by this they are. Hence, strive to find initially renunciation.
Without renunciation we cannot hope to attain liberation, nor can we hope to attain compassion or for that matter the Great Vehicle. Hence, without renunciation we can attain neither the Lower Vehicle nor the Greater Vehicle. We are condemned to circumambulate in cyclic existence. Therefore, definite emergence, sometimes called renunciation, has two components: the renunciation of this life and renunciation of future lives. The renunciation of this life is that mind which turns away from the dwellings, body and wealth of this life and sees them as exclusively as of the nature of suffering. Renunciation which turns away from future lives sees all future lives, rebirths as gods, demi-gods or as human beings, as also cyclic existence, hence of being of the nature of suffering. If we have these we will then be able to realise the cause of cyclic existence, which is the second noble truth, the noble truth of the origin of suffering.
So, what we need at present is to give rise to this pure mind which is striving for renunciation, which understands that all of cyclic existence is of the nature of suffering. If one understands that something is of the nature of suffering, desire does not arise in one’s mind for this. So, turning our mind away from the ephemeral appearances of this life and turning our mind away as well from the ephemeral appearances of future lives, abandoning them, one then in turn generates renunciation. We do not understand this and for this reason we continue to live in an existence which is of the nature of the three sufferings – the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change and all-pervasive suffering – and which can be compared to staying in a blazing fire. If we understood the nature of the suffering of existence, then we would want to escape, both from this life and from future lives, and would give rise to the mind wishing for liberation, which is renunciation. It is because we do not understand what suffering is, because we do not reflect on what suffering is, that we do not understand this.
If we reflect on the eight sufferings of cyclic existence – the suffering of birth, the suffering of aging, the suffering of disease, the suffering of death, the suffering of encountering what we do not want, of not encountering what we want, the suffering of not getting what we wish for and the suffering of the contaminated aggregates in general – we will be able to understand this. It is precisely because all of these are born from karma and affliction that they are of the nature of suffering. These aggregates of ours, this body of ours, is not of the nature of happiness. It is actually suffering in its essence. When we speak of the body or the aggregates, this is cyclic existence. It is through the power of this body or these aggregates that suffering arises, and from a human body arises the suffering of a human being. From the body of a preta arises the suffering of a preta, heat, cold and so forth. So, if we can abandon the cause for these bodies, then we will experience freedom from cyclic existence and pure bliss. Therefore, this is the meaning of this quote on page 2:
First train in the two preliminary practices.
One must first train in the practice of the being of small scope, which is to reflect on the suffering of the beings of the lower realms and the wish to abandon them, and then to reflect and then to reflect on the practice of the being of middling scope, which is to reflect on the totality of the sufferings of cyclic existence and to wish to abandon them, through training in the various stages which are described on page 2, relying on the spiritual friend and so forth. Otherwise, if one has not generated renunciation, or definite emergence, then it is not possible to give rise to great compassion, and without great compassion it is not possible to give rise to bodhichitta. Then, if bodhichitta is not present, then one cannot in any way practise the Great Vehicle. So, for us it is necessary to lay karmic imprints, to become familiar with this. It will become very difficult for us to realise these, however, if we are serious about meditation, then we should start by meditating on the practice of the being of small scope, then of middling scope and then move upwards. Otherwise, without renunciation there is no great compassion, without great compassion there is no bodhichitta, without bodhichitta there is no such thing as abandoning self-cherishing and training in cherishing others. The practice of the being of small scope has now been explained and the practice of the being of middling scope. These are the preliminary practices to the practices of the being of great scope. If one trains well in the preliminaries, the practices of the beings of small and middling scope, then eventually it will become possible to give rise to great compassion in one’s mindstream. Otherwise, if from the inception one tries to train in great compassion, one can indeed from one’s own side meditate on it, but it is doubtful that any such compassion will arise in the mind. So, if we were to say tomorrow that we were going to go for an excursion in the park and we do not prepare the picnic or anything, it is going to be a grim excursion!
Some explanations have been given regarding the Four Noble Truths It is important to understand clearly that they are divided into two categories. The first two truths (the noble truths of suffering and the origination of suffering) are the foundation of cyclic existence, the path of cyclic existence if you want, while the two latter truths (the truth of cessation and of the path) are actually the means out of cyclic existence, which were taught by the Buddha.
We have at present finished explaining the verse quoted on page 2 of the commentary: “First train in the two preliminary practices.”
The Meaning of the Title
At present we will pass on to the second outline on page 2, the specific meaning of terms in this mind training treatise, which is subdivided into two: Outline (a) ‘The Meaning of the Title’, and outline (b) further down, ‘The Meaning of the Treatise’. This title we will be studying as in the name: The Wheel of Sharp Weapons, and the first outline covers the actual meaning of this title.
When we speak in this context of mind training, one has to understand mind training in the light of studying, which is also a form of mind training. In worldly matters we train our minds in the self-same way as in dharma matters, and this mind which is to be trained has two aspects: a good or worthy mind, and a harmful mind. So, the worldly mind has to be the target – that which we train and try to generate. On the other hand, the harmful minds are the minds which must be abandoned, since they give rise to suffering. This is in a nut-shell the meaning of the title of this treatise, The Mind Training Wheel of Sharp Weapons. ‘Mind training’ has been explained. As for ‘sharp weapons’ – the weapons technically here are actually swords. A sword is used to cut, to destroy, to cut through what? To cut through harmful minds.
In this context, the main evil mind which we have to overcome is the mind of self-cherishing, or the mind cherishing the ‘I’. This mind of self-cherishing is a mind with which we have been accustomed to since beginningless time. It is a source of numberless faults and defects, and precisely because we have been accustomed to having such a state of mind of self-cherishing within our continuum since beginningless time, it is extremely difficult to eliminate it. We need, therefore, an extremely sharp sword, an extremely sharp weapon to do so. Here, when one speaks in this context of a weapon or sword, this is not a weapon or a sword in the worldly sense of the term, rather, this is a state of mind which is extremely powerful to counter this state of self-cherishing, and this very powerful state of mind is ‘other cherishing’ – which is the quality whereby we counter the fault of self-cherishing. In the self-same way as when it is very hot, to reduce the temperature we use a direct antidote to heat, we turn the air conditioner on. In the self-same way, the mind of other cherishing acts as the antidote to the mind of self-cherishing.
We are at present at the level of the small 3 on page 2. The title of this treatise of mind training: The Wheel of Sharp Weapons – mind training’ is given which has great meaning as the powerful wheel of weapons. Here, there are two types of enemies which are referred to. In a worldly sense, when we speak of an enemy as ordinary beings, we are speaking of someone who has harmed our bodies or who has harmed our possessions and so forth, but there is also a dharma meaning of the term enemy. In worldly matters, there are for instance, or it is what it is believed there are, invisible beings which can be harmful such as spirits, but we do not see them and, therefore, cannot fully understand the harm they inflict, however, this is not what is referred to in this context by the term ‘enemy’. What is referred to in this context by the term ‘enemy’, is that enemy which has inflicted since beginningless time various sorts of sufferings on us without our being able to control this in the slightest. This enemy which has harmed us since beginningless time is none other than self-cherishing from the standpoint of dharma. Generally speaking, dharma practice entails striving for virtue, striving for happiness through virtue and striving to avoid suffering through abstaining from non-virtue, and the foremost foe to this practice is self-cherishing. The key element for bodhisattvas is the practice of dharma. They cherish dharma, and their main practice is, therefore, to train in the cherishing of others. The main enemy to this training in cherishing others is self-cherishing. So in our own case, we know very well that if we want for instance, to slay an enemy is this world there is no point in striking at the peripheral limbs. We have to strike at the vitals – strike at the heart where the life-force is. The life-force here, of the enemy, is self-cherishing. It is his very heart, and therefore we must become acquainted with this enemy we are striving to defeat and know where to strike him. It is true that all of the afflictions – the mental afflictions arise from the various poisons such as ignorance, hatred, desire and so forth, but the foremost of these is self-cherishing.
Then the homage of the root text on page 3 of the commentary:
Homage to the wrathful slayer of the lord of the dead.
This homage was composed by Dharmarakshita, who was one of Atisha’s gurus, and generally speaking here, there are two meanings, or two understandings of the wrathful slayer of the lord of the dead – the definitive meaning where he is seen as a non-dual union of bliss and emptiness, and the interpretative meaning where he is seen as arya bodhisattvas. The arya bodhisattvas manifest in this wrathful form to overcome self-cherishing. The definitive meaning of ‘wrathful’ in this context will not be glossed since that leads us into a commentary on tantra; instead we will focus on the interpretable meaning, which is that the bodhisattvas manifest in a wrathful form to slay self-cherishing which is the motor of cyclic existence.
From within Atisha’s teachers there were two of note: Suvarnadvipa who was a bodhisattva practising Chittamatra who lived in Sumatra, and the guru Dharmarakshita one of Atisha’s Indian gurus who lived in India and who belonged to the Vaibashika school. Generally speaking, the Vaibashika school is a school of the Lower Vehicle, and therefore does not accept the existence of the wrathful slayer of the lord of the dead which is a specific practice of the Great Vehicle. However, within the Vaibashika school which in general does not accept these teachings, there are some Vaibashika practitioners who nonetheless do. An alternative reading here is that Dharmarakshita was in the first part of his life a Vaibashika practitioner, and in the latter part of his life became a bodhisattva and a Mahayana practitioner who obviously then relied on the wrathful slayer of the lord of the dead.
It is worthy to mention at this point teachings which Ayra Manjushri gave to one of the great Sakya lamas of yore – the teachings of Parting from the Four Attachments. The first teaching is that one who values this life has no dharma, so is not a dharma practitioner. The second is that one who values future lives lacks renunciation. The third is that one who values the self has no bodhichitta, and the fourth is that one who values the true existence of phenomena has no understanding of the view. These teachings on the four attachments are very profound, and the first of them indicates clearly that if we are attached to food, our garb, conversation, wealth, happiness in this life, then we lack dharma and we cannot call ourselves a dharma practitioner. Many people are like that, who have great desire and cannot really be said in any sense of the terms to be dharma practitioners. So if one is a dharma practitioner, one views this life as an enemy. Many of Atisha’s students asked him what the boundary was between non-dharma and dharma, or what the boundary or frontier was between a non-dharma practitioner and a dharma practitioner, and Atisha answered succinctly: non-dharma is this life. In other words, all pursuits which are related to this life, whether one is striving for clothing, food, wealth, relations, friendship, all of these are by definition non-dharma and these can best be obtained through worldly matters. They can best be obtained through money, through connections and so forth. Dharma begins with the next life onwards, and dharma practice therefore, is practise which is focused on the next life and on future lives. Dharma is of no use or no relevance for this life. Therefore, it is not the case.
One has to be clear here that one who is striving for future lives abandons completely this life. One does need food and clothing in this life, and it would not be possible for us to live like Jetsun Mila, however, one must not be focused on this life, instead one must be focused on future lives, meditating and reflecting on death and impermanence and the various aspects of the path. However, obviously to do so we need the necessities, the basics of this life, however, we should not generate attachment to them and we should perform whatever we have to do in this life so as to be able to reflect on future lives.
The second parting from the four attachments is he [or she] who is attached to future lives lacks renunciation. What is being said here is that he who is attached to cyclic existence lacks renunciation. One has to understand clearly here that cyclic existence refers to contaminated existence. However, what one must put an end to is attachment to the necessities of future lives. We do, however, clearly need in future lives to have a modicum of prosperity and to have a modicum of ease. For that matter, we need to obtain a human rebirth in future lives, because it is with such a human rebirth that we have the means to escape from cyclic existence. So what is the correct approach here? The correct approach is not to allow desire or craving to arise with respect to the happiness and prosperity of future lives, and instead to strive for liberation. We do need a human rebirth to be able to practise in future lives, however, we should not allow either desire or craving to arise with respect to this; and, likewise we do need prosperity, we do need a modicum of comfort in future lives but we must all the time be aware of the fact that these are in the nature of suffering. What is the fault of desire or craving? It’s fault is that through desire or craving we will be reborn in the lower realms.
Regarding the third parting from the four attachments, one who cherishes himself lacks bodhichitta. What is referred to here when one speaks of cherishing oneself, one’s self-cherishing, is thinking only about oneself and not thinking about others. Such a one does not have bodhichitta, since one can say that self-cherishing is directly opposite or completely incompatible to bodhichitta. So, the self-cherishing which is referred to here is that mind which wishes happiness, comfort and well-being for one’s own self and for one’s own self alone, and such is directly opposite to the generation of bodhichitta. In this context, in the mind training context, one must train and reflect on benefitting others. Here we are speaking, if we look at the division between the lower and the higher vehicle, between the Hinayana and the Mahayana. The Hinayana practitioners have strong self-cherishing; they only think about themselves because they are striving to escape from cyclic existence for their own sake. They lack great compassion. They have, however, a very sound and solid love for their own self since they wish to be themselves free from suffering and obtain happiness for themselves. This is not the road of the Mahayana, in which the generation of bodhichitta is indispensable. If bodhichitta is present one can say that this is the Mahayana, and if bodhichitta is absent this is not the Mahayana. Therefore, the practitioners of the Lower Vehicle in general engage in practice which is worthwhile, since for their own sake they are striving to obtain happiness and to free themselves from suffering. When they obtain complete happiness and eliminate all suffering they become arhats, so one can say Hinayana practitioners, Lower Vehicle practitioners have great self-love. From within the two-fold division of love for others and love for oneself, the self-love is very pronounced. Since they fully understand the scale of their suffering and they wish to eliminate it, and they fully understand the potential for happiness and wish to realise it, however, they lack compassion and they lack specifically great compassion for other sentient beings.
On the other hand, in the Mahayana, one reflects exclusively on the welfare of other beings and tries exclusively to help other beings, understanding that sentient beings have been one’s own parents, one’s own fathers and mothers in past lives, so we well know the kindness of our parents to us in this very life. How much suffering they have endured for us, and we well know that for our parents to spare us the slightest discomfort do not hesitate sometimes to engage in grievous non-virtue which will impel them in future lives most certainly into the lower realms. This if for our benefit alone; then reflecting on this one can say how awful, how untenable it is that they should be experiencing suffering and to generate a strong wish to eliminate completely their suffering and to place them in a state of complete and unalloyed happiness, and this is what is referred to as bodhichitta which arises on the foundation of great love and great compassion for other beings.
For instance, if we were to take a particular example, let us take the case of birds. There are numberless birds, and when we look at the amount of effort which a bird engages in to feed its chicks, we begin to understand the kindness of sentient beings for us. How many insects, how many worms does a bird slay to feed her chicks and how much effort does she undergo to do this? She has done this life after life, and the clear result of such non-virtuous deeds of slaying will be for her, rebirth in the hell realms. The predicament of that bird is the predicament of all sentient beings, so from our side we must take the strong resolution to place all sentient beings in a state of happiness and to free them from suffering, and through relying correctly on a spiritual friend, progress all the way to the state of full enlightenment where we will have completed both our own welfare and the welfare of others. Understanding clearly that mother sentient beings are exclusively our parents from past lives, who have accumulated inconceivable non-virtue for our sake, we must completely abandon any thought of our own welfare. It is base and vile to think of oneself in these cases and, therefore, one must meditate on bodhichitta and overcome self-cherishing.
Finally the fourth of the parting of the four attachments, is he or she who has grasping to the self, lacks the view. Generally speaking, both method and wisdom are necessary to progress on the path, and here it is the wisdom aspect, the view of emptiness, which is referred to. If one has a view of emptiness, then one will not apprehend the self as inherently existing and one will not apprehend all phenomena as inherently existing. Then in dependence on the inseparable union of method and wisdom, one can progress to full enlightenment.
Therefore, these four partings, the parting from the four attachments are extremely important. The first defines clearly the boundary between dharma and non-dharma, or dharma practitioners and non-dharma practitioners, which is this life. The second defines clearly the concept of renunciation, saying that he who is attached to cyclic existence lacks renunciation. One who lacks renunciation does not see the faults of cyclic existence, but sees cyclic existence as endowed with qualities and does not understand that cyclic existence itself in as much as it has arisen from karma and klesha is actually of the nature of suffering. The lower realms are in the nature of the suffering of suffering; the higher realms excluding the concentration realms endure the suffering of change, and the formless realms are pervaded by all-pervasive suffering. Then, the third parting from the four attachments is a definition of the practice of the being of great scope. He who has self-cherishing lacks bodhichitta.
Since the very foundational practice of the great scope is cherishing others and there is no self-cherishing in the Mahayana, and the fourth parting from the four attachments refers to the view. The view is understanding that phenomena lack inherent existence. Phenomena lack existence by their own characteristics; phenomena lack own nature and it is in dependence on this that we can attain the state of full enlightenment, the reason for us to strive for the state of full enlightenment is for the sake of all father and mother sentient beings – to free them from the suffering they undergo. As there are numberless sentient beings; not tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands let alone millions, but billions, only a Buddha himself can place them in the state of full enlightenment. Therefore, for this reason we strive for the state of buddhahood.
[We are now at present on page 5 of the translation of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche’s commentary towards the bottom of the page after the little 6.]
Hence, since this is necessarily profound, it would appear that one must judge (carefully).
The Meaning of the Treatise
At present, entering into the actual body of the treatise, as explained previously, this preliminary praise after offering homage directly to the non-dual wisdom of bliss and emptiness, the definitive Slayer of the Lord of the Dead, and offering homage interpretably to the Wrathful Slayer of the Lord of the Dead appearing in the aspect of (a deity with) face and limbs is a homage to the Buddha Shakyamuni”
I pay homage to the Wrathful Slayer of the Lord of the Dead
is actually what is called a preliminary homage which is a homage to the deity in which one has faith. With the goal of specifically eliminating all of the interferences or the obstructions to the composition of the text in question which is: The Wheel of Sharp Weapons, and this homage does this through enhancing one’s accumulations of the two collections.
Generally speaking as you know, Atisha had one hundred and fifty seven different spiritual teachers, but of the one hundred and fifty seven, two were foremost in their kindness to him: Guru Serlingapa from Sumatra and Guru Dharmarakshita from India. Guru Serlingpa was a Chittamatra when Atisha met him, although it seems that he may have become a Madyamika later on, and he basically was considered foremost by Atisha amongst his teachers since he taught Atisha the vast aspect of the path which is the practice of those aspects of the path leading to the attainment of bodhichitta. He was a great practitioner of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras. The second teacher which Atisha held in the highest of esteem, was his Guru Dharmarakshita who initially was a Vaibhashika, although he later on became a Bodhisattva and adopted the Madhyamika – for that matter, the Prasangika view. He was an exceptional scholar, since it is said that he imparted to Atisha eight hundred sheafs, eight hundred ‘bum po in Tibetan of the Great Treatise on Abhidharma. Each sheaf contains a large number of stanzas, so he had an extraordinary level of scholarship. After this, upon entering the Mahayana, the praise or the homage at the beginning of this treatise: ‘since it is a homage to the Wrathful Slayer to the Lord of the Dead’ clearly indicates that Guru Dharmarakshita engaged in the practice of secret mantra since this homage refers to the practice of Yamantaka.
Atisha received both instructions regarding the generation of bodhichitta; he received the seven-fold cause and effect instruction, as well as the instruction of the interchange of self and others. The seven-fold cause and effect instruction Atisha received from Guru Dharmarakshita and trained under his aegis, and as for the interchange of self and others, he received this in the form of an experiential commentary from Guru Suvarnadvipa in Sumatra. An experiential commentary is one in which the teacher imparts a small point of the teaching; then the student meditates on it and only after he has attained achievements or realisations, is the next point of the teaching imparted. Atisha followed the aegis of Guru Suvarnadvipa for twelve years.
The name given to Guru Serlingpa is actually the name of the country he lived in, Sumatra. Pa here indicates a guru who is from that country. His actual name was Chökyi Dragpa and whenever Atisha heard the name of his Guru Serlingpa, he made the gesture of prostration and tears flowed down his face. When his disciples asked Atisha why it was only when he spoke of Lama Serlingpa that tears flowed down his face and he put his hands in the gesture of prostration, and he did not behave in this way when he spoke of his other one hundred and fifty-six teachers, Atisha said: “it is because of the kindness of Guru Serlingpa that I have a good mind.” This ‘good mind’ here is the mind of bodhichitta generated through the interchange of self and others.
Here, on page 5 of the text where it is said that homage is offered,
…directly to the non-dual wisdom of bliss and emptiness,
this is,
…the definitive Slayer of the Lord of the Dead,
the definitive Yamantaka, which will not commented upon since that will lead us into a tantric commentary and interpretably, homage is paid to the rupakaya, the body of form of Yamantaka which is the body of Yamantaka with his various faces and arms. In the self-same way as if we were to take the example of Avalokiteshvara, the definitive body of Avalokiteshvara is empathy, but the interpretable body is Avalokiteshvara with one-thousand arms and so forth. Here, therefore, the principal homage is offered to the definitive Yamantaka, the interpretable homage is offered to his rupakaya, and moving to the bottom of page 5, this
…is a homage to the Buddha Shakyamuni, to the Children of the Conquerors, the Great Beings as well as the Bodhisattvas of that mental continuum and the minds which cherish others.
This final line indicates the homage which is paid to Buddha Shakyamuni and the bodhisattvas from the standpoint of the Paramitayana. Here, homage is paid to Buddha Shakyamuni and to his disciples the Children of the Conquerors because the foremost attainment within their mindstream is the mind of bodhichitta which is an interchange of self and others. In Tibetan, the term ‘I prostrate’ or ‘I pay homage’ is phyag btsal. The two syllables have the following meanings: phyag actually is the honorific for the two hands which are put in a gesture of veneration, and btsal means ‘to beseech’ – what is beseeched or what is requested is an increase in one’s own qualities.
General Explanation of the Text
Generally speaking, this treatise is divided into two, first a general explanation and then an explanation which is contingent on the context of the passages concerned. So at present, on page 6 of the commentary, section 2.2.2.1 we broach the general meaning of these treatises and we start with the verse from the root text of The Wheel of Sharp Weapons.
When peacocks strut in forests of aconite,
this is a simile or an example.
Even though fine gardens of medicinal herbs beautify [the area],
Not only do ostentations of peacocks take no delight [in them],
But peacocks thrive on the elixir of aconitine.
The second section of the stanza is the meaning of the simile.
Likewise, when the Heroes enter the forest of cyclic existence,
Even though gardens of glorious happiness beautify [the area],
The heroes would not [know] desire,
And the brave will thrive in the forest of suffering!
The meaning of the words of the verse of The Wheel of Sharp Weapons.
When peacocks…
peacocks are abundant in India. They are magnificent birds with these gorgeous tails of variegated colours,
…strut in forests of aconite,
aconite is one of the fiercest poisons known from among the numerous alkaloids known, and peacocks not only are not harmed by aconite, they actually feed on aconite and on poison and it benefits the freshness and lustre of their feathers. They become more beautiful in dependence on this, and they actually enjoy feeding on this.
Even though fine gardens of medicinal herbs beautify [the area],
these are medicinal herbs which are non-poisonous flowers and so forth. These do not delight the peacock because peacocks do not thrive on them.
Therefore, in the first stanza the peacock refers to bodhisattvas, actually to arya bodhisattvas, so in the mantra, the dharani of the Perfection of Wisdom:
Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha
The first two ‘gates’ refer to a lower level of bodhisattva, whereas ‘paragate’ and ‘parasamgate’ refer to the very, very good bodhisattvas, the arya bodhisattvas; these are the bodhisattvas referred to here. In the second part of the stanza,
Likewise, when the Heroes enter the forest of cyclic existence,
‘entry in the forest of cyclic existence’, is entry in cyclic existence for the sake of sentient beings. Following in the root text:
Even though gardens of glorious happiness beautify [the area],
these gardens of glorious happiness refer to the blissful areas which are a result of contaminated virtuous karma – happy dwellings, happy abodes and happy countries within cyclic existence and the final verse:
And the brave will thrive in the forest of suffering!
The forest of suffering refers to the bodhisattvas, out of cherishing others, and for the wish to dispel their suffering, entering happily in realms of great woe and great hardship in which there is no food and nothing to drink just exclusively for the sake of dispelling the suffering of others.
Here, to analyse the meaning of the metaphors, the ‘peacock’ refers to a bodhisattva; the force of ‘aconite’ or poisonous plants refers to the great sufferings which sentient beings undergo, whereas the ‘gardens of medicinal herbs’, flowers, fruits and so forth refer to the places, bodies and objects of enjoyment within cyclic existence. Bodhisattvas, just like the peacocks, thrive on poison, they thrive on suffering and they are disinterested in happy abodes since they, out of great empathy, out of other-cherishing, wish to place suffering sentient beings in a state of happiness and, therefore, they search out suffering sentient beings to place them in that state of happiness.
When one speaks of bodhisattvas as peacocks liking aconite, ‘liking’ here refers to enjoying or desiring actually aconite, desiring the poison, and this is the case because the bodhisattvas are animated by a wish to fulfil the weal, the purpose of others and completely discard their own wellbeing. Training in the interchange of self and others the bodhisattvas put great effort into seeing self-cherishing as their foremost foe, their foremost enemy and aim for the areas where beings undergo great suffering under the force of desire or under the force of hatred, so as to be able to help the beings in those areas and to clear their sufferings.
In the verse in the Guru Puja on the practice of forbearance in which it is said:
Bless me to be able to practice forbearance, and to be able to stay for the sake of merely one sentient being for countless eons in the lowest of the hell realms,
The practice referred to is the practice of the perfection of forbearance, and this is the foremost practice of the bodhisattvas in this context who have extraordinary forbearance, and the wish to endure limitless suffering for the sake of others, for that matter for the sake of one single being. Hence, these great bodhisattvas have not only other-cherishing, the mind that cherishes others but also great forbearance or great patience, and in dependence on these are able, for just one sentient being to stay for one hundred eons in the lowest of the hell realms. In dependence on patience and this tremendous empathy, bodhisattvas are able to stay for countless eons in hell realms which we would not stand for a mere five minutes. Not only are they not only able to stay there, but they rejoice and are profoundly happy in that state since they swiftly complete the collections and attain rapidly full enlightenment in dependence on this.
Therefore, the great Tibetan geshe, Gehse Chekawa’s foremost prayer was:
May I go to the hell realms myself, taking upon my shoulders the sins and obscurations of all sentient beings.
It is said that when Geshe Chekawa was approaching death, he had visions that indicated where he was going to go after his passing. He was very disturbed by these visions, and he called his attendant and said to him: “My dear friend, I have failed in my purpose, I have had visions which indicate that I am not only not going to the hell realms but I am actually going to be reborn in a pure land. Please make torma offerings to make sure I am reborn in the hell realms”. For us it is exactly the opposite is it not? Not wishing to fall in the lower realms we have committed gigantic amounts of non-virtue, which precipitate us down below. So it is sin and non-virtue which we have to eliminate, otherwise if we have accumulated a huge amount, a huge body of sin and non-virtue then however much we pray to not be born in the lower realms, it will have no effect whatsoever; since karma is incontrovertible, we are certain to be reborn powerlessly in the lower realms.
Bodhisattvas
On page seven of the commentary, we move on to the root verses in the middle of the page:
Hence, the cravenness which accepts happiness
Bear suffering [with it]!
These two verses can be subdivided into two: the first part is the term ‘hence’, and the second part is the remainder of the two verses. The term ‘hence’ here gives a reason which is explicitly stated in the following paragraph:
The Children of the Conquerors who accept suffering thrive in the forest of cyclic existence through cherishing others, thus…
The ‘thus’ here refers to ‘hence’’.
…even in the context of cyclic existence, [they will] experience happiness as those able to accept suffering for the sake of others.
This refers here to those bodhisattvas who have entered or have remained in cyclic existence, not under the power of self-cherishing but under the power of other-cherishing. Having abandoned their own self, allowing their own self to fade, they, through the power of other-cherishing alone, cycle in cyclic existence. Those who behave in this fashion experience only happiness. On the other hand, we who are in cyclic existence, through the power of self-cherishing, experience a very different situation altogether – pure suffering. On the other hand, those who are unable to take upon themselves the suffering of others, those who are obsessed with their own self, who are obsessed with self-cherishing, who think only of their ‘I’, of themselves, they have experienced since beginningless time and experience still at present, the beginningless suffering of cyclic existence through their incapacity to abandon their own self and to allow their own self to fade from their vision.
We experienced in the past, suffering, and at present are experiencing a large amount of suffering. The suffering we experience at present is a direct result of not cherishing others in former lives, and exclusively thinking of our own self. In dependence on this, in past lives, we in present lives experience suffering and in dependence on our lack of other-cherishing and our cherishing ourselves in this live, we will experience suffering in future lives.
As is said in the Guru Puja, the Lama Chöpa:
Self-cherishing is the gateway of all vice, and cherishing mother sentient beings is the doorway of all qualities, therefore, please bless me to practice the interchange of self and others.
In addition, in another verse in the Guru Puja in the Lama Chöpa, self-cherishing is compared to an epidemic disease. Epidemic diseases are grievous diseases which only give rise to suffering, and which are extremely difficult to eradicate. Self-cherishing is compared to an epidemic disease for this reason, because it is extremely difficult to be free from, and if we are not free from it, it is impossible to be free from suffering since it is at the root of all suffering. Self-cherishing and other-cherishing, or cherishing others are directly contradictory, they are opposite, where cherishing others increases, self-cherishing abates. Where self-cherishing increases, cherishing others decreases. They are contradictory. In the self-same way as it is hot and you turn the air conditioner on, the coolness of the air conditioner’s air brings the temperature down, and if it is cold outdoors and you turn the heater on, then the heat is a direct antidote to cold air. Therefore, it is capital for us to find the means to destroy self-cherishing, and this is first and foremost cherishing others.
As Shantideva says in Bodhisattvacharyavatara:
Whatever happiness arises in this world, arises all of it from performing the welfare of others, and whatever suffering arises in this world, arises entirely from seeking one’s own welfare.
‘In this world’ here refers to put things more precisely to sentient beings. In other words, to the collection of the five aggregates which is changing instant by instant. For sentient beings, whatever happiness they can obtain is directly the result of other cherishing, and whatever suffering they experience is exclusively the result of self-cherishing. Therefore, we can see clearly that the root of all suffering is self-cherishing, and the root of all happiness is other-cherishing. We, under the force of self-cherishing have experienced since beginningless time until at present, purely suffering, and this is a situation we can only understand in dependence on the great treatises composed by the Buddha, by Shantideva and so forth which teach this to us, since until now we were completely unaware of this. So, since we want to eliminate suffering we must eliminate self-cherishing, and since we wish for happiness we must train in cherishing others. This we are aware of through the kindness of the spiritual teacher who teaches us the difference between other-cherishing and self-cherishing, and how self-cherishing is the root of suffering. These two are incompatible in the self-same way as hot and cold are incompatible, and once we are able to see self-cherishing as our foremost enemy, then we will be able to overcome it and train in the interchange of self and others. What this means is that we must cause our self-cherishing which has until the present been very powerful, to decrease, and we must cause our other-cherishing, our cherishing others which until the present has been very weak, to increase. We should expel, we should throw out, self-cherishing and allow other cherishing in. The key of all of these instructions and transmissions comes from the Buddha, Shantideva and Atisha onwards.
Generally speaking, if we compare the Lower Vehicle and the Greater Vehicle, the Lower Vehicle is the vehicle of practitioners with strong self-cherishing and the Greater Vehicle is the vehicle of practitioners who strive to abandon self-cherishing. The bodhisattvas for instance, try to generate cherishing others within their mindstream and to abandon thinking of themselves alone. When a bodhisattva starts thinking of himself alone, he falls back into the Lower Vehicle, therefore, bodhisattvas meditate exclusively on cherishing others and, thereby, eventually reach the state of complete cherishment of others which is full enlightenment, and the practitioners of the Lower Vehicle, of the Hinayana train in one of the two forms of self-cherishing, and in so doing are never able to rise above the Lower Vehicle. Generally speaking, the practitioners of the Lower Vehicle through that self-cherishing which thinks ‘I’, ‘I’, wish to be free of their own suffering, fearing their own suffering, and wish to give rise to their own happiness and in so doing they can reach the state of an arhat, a foe-destroyer, but cannot rise above this. They do this through meditating on the Four Noble Truths and abandoning the kleshas, the afflictions, gaining liberation from their own suffering.
In general this is a good thing, but it is a liberation which is qualified by self-cherishing. There are different ways of explaining self-cherishing – there are two main divisions; there is that self-cherishing of which we suffer under the power of which desire and anger arise within our mindstream and which is our foremost foe and causes only suffering, and there is that self-cherishing which leads one to wish for freedom for oneself from suffering, which leads to the state of a foe-destroyer or an arhat. Bodhisattvas do not have any self-cherishing since from the very first instant in which bodhichitta is generated within their mindstream, self-cherishing is eliminated. Bodhichitta is the antidote to self-cherishing.
Until present day we have been led, our minds have been led, by the power of afflictions and they have been led astray- very much astray. Through studying the scriptures and through a connection with a spiritual teacher, we understand that we have been led astray and we understand that we were wrong. Understanding mistaken as mistaken or what is wrong as wrong is the beginning of the change within us. In the self-same way as someone who awakens from a deep sleep and sees the actual mode of existence of phenomena as opposed to a dream. This, and nothing else but this, is what is meant by practice.
The hero who takes on suffering,
Will always be happy by the force of heroism!
The verse in the root text
The hero who takes on suffering,
can be glossed as follows: Taking on suffering here refers to taking on the boundless sufferings of sentient beings upon oneself and through the condition through the power of this for happiness and bliss to arise within one’s mind. Who engages in this process of the taking on the suffering of others? The hero. In Tibetan the term used is sems pa. This refers to the bodhisattvas, in Tibetan byang chug sems pa. Now, if we analyse the syllables which constitute byang chug sems pa there are two broad divisions: byang chug, which refers to buddhahood or full enlightenment, and sems pa, the being who engages in this. Byang chug is in turn divided into two syllables, byang and chug. Byang has the same meaning as sangs in sang rgyas. It means to eliminate all faults, and chug has the same meaning as rgyas in sangs rgyas, means to develop or enhance all qualities.
Specifically, chug here means to generate. So, byang chug – enlightenment – is the process of nothing else but the acquisition of all qualities and elimination of all faults. The being who engages in this is the sems pa, the bodhisattva, and he does this with the motivation of helping beings understand fully that if he himself does not gain a state of full enlightenment and does not understand the constitution and the goals of all beings he or she would be unable to help them and then in turn would be unable to dispel their suffering. Hence to understand this constitution and goals of all beings it is necessary to strive for this state of full enlightenment and then in turn to work to benefit them. So a bodhisattva, a byang chug sems pa, is a being who is striving for the state of full enlightenment for the sake of others. For this he obviously needs to obtain enlightenment itself as this is the state he strives to establish. Therefore, he is called the being who is striving for full enlightenment, the bodhisattva.
To analyse more carefully the etymology of the term sems pa which is translated in English as ‘the hero’, this has two syllables: the syllable sems and the syllable pa. The syllable sems in Tibetan refers to mind. It actually refers here to sems pa, which means ‘the thought’ of such a hero, and the syllable pa actually refers to dpa’ bo or to ‘the hero him or herself’. So this is a mental hero, a hero of the mind. This mind itself is heroic because it is a mind which wishes to save all sentient beings from the ocean of suffering of cyclic existence and which to do so, is ready to engage in tremendous hardship over three countless eons. In colloquial Tibetan one speaks of ‘tremendous hardship’. This actually refers to engaging in great perseverance, the fourth of the six perfections, with the aim of placing all sentient beings in a state of full enlightenment through engaging in this hardship for three countless eons. This is actually what is referred to in the dharani of the Perfection of Wisdom, the terms GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA refer to the three countless eons, the two first GATEs to the first countless eon, then the following ones refer to the stage from the second to the seventh ground, and the final countless eon is covered during the eighth, ninth and tenth grounds. Such a heroic being, a sems pa chen po, is one who wishes to free all beings from suffering and to place all beings in the state of unalloyed happiness. Irrespective of what suffering arises, such a being takes it upon him or herself. This not only does not cause any suffering to him or her personally, but is a source of joy and happiness – joy in this life, joy in future lives and such a being progresses from happiness and joy to happiness and joy, all the way up to full enlightenment.
The verse in the Heart Sutra which reads:
byang chub sems pa sems dpa’ chen po ‘phags pa spyan ras gzigs
actually refers to a being which in the first verse, the sems pa, is indicated to be a bodhisattva, whereas the second verse, sems pa chen dpo’ in other words ‘great heroic being’ is indicated to be a fully enlightened being. The being which is referred to in these verses is Arya Avalokiteshvara, ‘phags pa – Chenrezig. Now, Arya Avalokiteshvara’s goal was to attain the state of full enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, but first to push or to impel all beings in front of him and only after this he himself would obtain the state of full enlightenment. Such is indeed a very rare type of bodhisattva. This is an extraordinarily difficult vow. Perhaps this may not even exist. However the second type of practice is evidenced by Buddha Shakyamuni, who practiced king-like practice of bodhichitta. In other words, he himself strove for full enlightenment and then after attaining full enlightenment tried to help other sentient beings in the self-same way as a king can benefit his subjects and therefore one who wants to help the poor and then the afflicted first strives for kingship then helps others.
What is the source of this great force, this great power of the bodhisattvas? It is the process of training of the mind from love through compassion, the supreme thought and finally bodhichitta. So, within the fivefold division of the paths – the path of preparation, accumulation, seeing, meditation and no more learning – there is a fourfold presentation of the various types of bodhichittas and one travels through each of these levels of bodhichitta. It is important for us to understand that at this level of training one dispels any thought for one’s own happiness and focuses on establishing the happiness of others. The supreme thought which is the thought which accompanies us throughout this process of training is a resolution to establish others in definite happiness ourselves, and we say, “I myself will do this”. With this supreme thought one in turn practises for three countless eons on the bodhisattva path accumulating merit.
So, the path of the bodhisattvas is an extraordinary one since through creating or establishing the happiness of others they actually establish indirectly their own happiness. Through dispelling the suffering of others they dispel indirectly their own suffering. From the happiness of others their own happiness arises and from eliminating the suffering of others the elimination of their own suffering in turn arises. So, actually in this training process when one fulfils the weal of others one will have fulfilled one’s own weal. Thereby both one’s own weal, one’s own purpose, and that of others will be fulfilled simultaneously. We on the other hand who are not bodhisattvas practise only for ourselves wishing to establish our own happiness and wishing to dispel our own suffering. We lack courage, and are perhaps unable to practise at this level. Practising together with the other beings is perhaps the way to go.
Therefore, bodhisattvas need this mind which aims to benefit others. If one is thinking only of one’s own happiness and thinking only to eliminate one’s own suffering, then let alone the fact that one has not even entered the Great Vehicle, one has not even turned in the direction of the Great Vehicle. One’s own focus is one’s own personal welfare. One is a practitioner of the Lower Vehicle, of the Hinayana. One’s own focus is on one’s exclusive personal welfare. One wishes to establish one’s own happiness and to dispel one’s own suffering. There is no Great Vehicle practice in this context. A Great Vehicle practitioner is one who gives up thinking about himself and strives only for the welfare of others. In so doing he or she can progressively attain full enlightenment.
Without a fully enlightened being there is no possibility for sentient beings to be benefited. If we reflect for instance on the extraordinary deeds of Buddha Shakyamuni who benefitted countless sentient beings placing then in a state of arhathood, of bodhisattvahood, of full enlightenment, we can see this clearly. If we ourselves, one individual man or woman, become a fully enlightened Buddha then just as Buddha Shakyamuni we can benefit countless, measureless sentient beings. If we take case of the Buddha himself, the Buddha did not only manifest in this world in this universe of ours – there are one billion universes around our universe, one billion worlds. Buddha manifested through emanations in every single one of those worlds. Even though the Buddha helped countless sentient beings, nonetheless the total number of countless sentient beings was even greater than this.
Shantideva famously said,
There are countless sentient beings. Countless buddhas have come, yet how is it possible to exhaust such numbers?
So, we ourselves are those who have not had the good fortune to encounter a fully enlightened being, a buddha. When the Buddha came we were in the lower realms. We were in the hell realms, we were hungry ghosts or we were animals. Buddhas came and came and came, yet we never met them. So, if we at present engage in the practice of dharma then in the future it is certain that we will be able to meet a buddha. Actually, we will meet the next universal teacher, Buddha Maitreya, because Buddha Maitreya took the pledge, took the vow that those who practise purely during Buddha Shakyamuni’s time would become his students when he turned the wheel of law. In the self-same way as Buddha Shakyamuni turned the wheel of law three times, the first second and third turning of the wheel the law, in the self-same way, Buddha Maitreya will turn the wheel of law three times.
If we engage correctly in the three activities of hearing, thinking and meditating there is no doubt whatsoever that we actually will meet, encounter, Buddha Maitreya. These three activities must however be conjoined by the power of prayer. There is no doubt in the slightest that if the cause is established the result will arise. However, it is impossible for a result to arise without a cause. In the past we ourselves did not practise this way. Others did and they attained their results. At present, we are the left-over, we are the remainder, those who failed. It is up to us to practise at present and there is no doubt that if we meditate on bodhichitta on emptiness and so forth one will reap the results.
We now pass on to page 8 of the English translation after the first paragraph:
The meaning of [the stanza]:
This, here, is akin to the forest of aconite of desire,
The peacock-like hero will subdue [it].
While the crow-like craven one will lose his life,
How could the egotistical subdue such poison?
So, here ‘the aconite’ refers to desire principally. Then, moving onwards to the commentary on this verse
…is that in this context,
‘in this context’ here is the context of mind training:
…within the cycle of Dharmas of the beings of great scope, those beings who have not first trained their minds in the understanding of any of the paths shared with the beings of small and middling scope,
here we have a presentation of the path of the beings of small scope
…relying on the Spiritual Friend, the great meaningfulness and difficulty in obtaining a human rebirth of leisure and endowment, death and impermanence, refuge,
and at present, a presentation of the path of the beings of middling scope:
…causality, definite emergence and so forth, will have difficulty of the practice of the being of great scope of taking as a friend, for the sake of others, the contingent sufferings of cyclic existence through that intent [seeing] self-cherishing as faulty.
Here, the craven crow-like beings who are not able to practice as bodhisattvas, and who do not initially train in the practice of the beings of small and middling scope, when they try to meditate in this fashion not only do not give rise to bodhichitta, but give rise to desire within their mind streams and fall in the lower realms. They are unable to actualize the goal of the mind training of the bodhisattvas which is to eliminate self-cherishing on the one hand and to actualize cherishing others on the other hand. In the self-same way as a crow, who eats aconite, or poison, will die, in the self-same way those who have not trained in this fashion will fall in the lower realms, while the bodhisattvas, which are peacock-like will not only not die, but in the self-same way as when a peacock eats poison, it beautifies its plumage, in the self-same way the bodhisattvas, the arya bodhisattvas, will thrive on this desire because they engage in this path for the sake of others, and are therefore able to utilize it soundly. Therefore, it can be said that they actually like this.
Now, if we interpret the stanza on page 8 in detail, this has already been explained. The term ‘aconite’ refers to a fierce vegetal poison and is a simile of desire here at the end of the first verse. Then in the second verse ‘the hero’ refers to the bodhisattvas which are peacock-like because they are able to subdue (this is the verb at the end of the second verse), subdue what? – subdue desire through the force of other-cherishing which not only does not harm them but actually benefits them. In the third verse the craven on the other hand, the cowardly in other words, are the beings of lower, the beings who have not trained in the mind training of the beings of lower, middling and greater capacity and they are compared to crows because if they try to eat aconite, in other words desire, then they will lose their lives. In other words, beings who have not trained in the paths of the being of small, middling and great scope and who behave in this way will follow the lower realms.
The Three Poisons
Generally speaking, there are three poisons – desire, anger and ignorance – which are the motors of cyclic existence. This will be explained in the context of desire. As said in the Three Principal Aspects of the Path:
Without pure renunciation there is no hope for liberation from the happinesses of cyclic existence.
Here, what is referred to by desire is not just ordinary sexual desire, but is all the various forms of desire – desire for money, desire for food, desire for objects – these are all various varieties of desire and these various forms of desire are greatly feared by the beings of the small and the middling scope, since desire is one of the motors of cyclic existence. Now, while generally speaking it is ignorance which is the very root of cyclic existence, nonetheless none of the afflictions is comparable to desire in the difficulty there is in eradicating it. As Dharmakirti says in Pramanavartika:
Ignorance I do not fear, but craving I do fear.
‘Ignorance’ here refers to the cause of cyclic existence and this Arya Dharmakirti does not fear, but craving in other words desire, is what he fears, because from craving arises in turn desire, from desire karma is accumulated and from karma, in turn, suffering is accumulated. So, we will skip sections in the commentary, and in the middle of page 8 towards the bottom, we have the line:
Likewise, since desire is both very widespread in the context of cyclic existence which is akin to a forest of aconite…
So, here the term ‘forest of aconite’ refers to the fact that in the self-same way as desire is compared to aconite the poisonous plant, since there are various forms of desire this is said to be akin to a forest. Then, moving onwards to page 9:
In general, although there are numberless afflictions, in this context, desire is explicitly said to be explicitly akin to aconite since, to take another example, the meaning is similar to that of the verse:
I take refuge in the supreme Dharma of those bereft of desire.
Somewhat further down in paragraph, desire is compared to a stain of oil spreading on a cloth. This is a very powerful simile, because in the self-same way as it is very difficult to eliminate a stain of oil once it has work its way into a fabric, in the self-same way once desire has impregnated the mind it is very difficult to eliminate it. Under its power, one circumambulates again and again in cyclic existence.
At present we are towards the middle of page 9, under the small 10 to the left:
Those who when referring to “Great desire” understand only the likes of copulation are mistaken. One must understand that desire, which is this context is compared to a forest of aconite…
aconite is a poisonous plant referred to. A forest is a place where there are numberless plants of aconite in the self-same way as there are numberless forms of desire.
…is as boundless as a forest. One must understand that in the self-same way as, in the world, one will in no way refer to an area in which there are no more than one or two tree seedlings as a forest, one will refer to an area with a large collection of trees as a forest. Let alone this, we ourselves, common and ordinary beings, may look back at those when we have strong love and empathy: our parents, friends, relatives and to [those whom we are] close, although there is an excellent simile of great affection, upon analysing carefully, since it can be clearly established that:
i) those towards whom we have greater desire are also those towards whom we have greater love and empathy and
ii) those toward whom we have less desire are also those towards whom we have less love and empathy.
Such a love and empathy is like desire, wearing a mask resembling love and empathy. To generate from that a pure love and empathy which is uncontaminated by desire is extremely difficult.
That which was referred to is desirous love and it is a love which is contaminated by desire. It is a wrong love, a mistaken love. It is not love in the slightest. It is actually desire, and what we ourselves call love is none other but this lustful or desirous love. For instance, when people become close, at first this feeling of desirous love arises, and then all it takes is for a minor disagreement to appear and it escalates and then the two parties quarrel and separate. Not only is love absent, but hatred becomes present. This is a clear indication that this was not love from the beginning but was mere desire. So, from desirous love, from this false love, anger will arise, whereas the characteristic of authentic love is that it never gives rise to anger.
Then, at the bottom of the page:
Therefore it would seem that, in the world, that it is common in the world to mutually mistake love and empathy with desire, inner strength with pride, and perseverance with fortitude.
Here, the first of each pair is a virtuous state of mind. ‘Love and empathy’ are virtuous, while desire is non-virtuous. ‘Inner strength’ is virtuous, while pride is non-virtuous. ‘Perseverance’ is virtuous while fortitude is non-virtuous or neutral, it is just putting effort, ‘du ri in Tibetan. These are the modes of generation of desire which observes being as its object, however many forms of desire arise with respect to other objects, from good food and tasty tea upwards. Nonetheless after saying, “I like tea”, or “I like mo mos”, we never say that desire has arisen with respect to them. Actually, ‘like’ here is desire. When we say we like tea, we desire tea, or Tibetans desire mo mos. They desire, they like, mo mos just as Australians desire cake, for instance. Now, this is a mistaken state of mind. This is a response of craving, to that craving for the colours, taste and so forth of food. One can understand this through thinking that even a dog and so forth will bark at each other for even a smidgen of decaying flesh. So, our foremost practice is to block, to prevent desire from arising, since this is the main motor for rebirth in the lower realms. One should therefore put an end to all forms of desire. Food, meals and for that matter desire for friends and so forth.
[We are on page 10 of the English text.] These are the modes of generation of desire which observe beings and objects. However, many forms of desire arise with respect to objects, from tea and tasty food upwards means that nonetheless after saying “I like tea” or “I like mo mos”, we never say that desire has arisen with respect to them. Although “I like these” is a response to craving, to the craving for the good taste of the tea or the mo mos for the flavours, colours and so forth of food. So, we have an introduction to dharma. What the introduction to dharma is, is an explanation of what is to be practised and what is to be abandoned. Many of us in this room are unacquainted with the teachings. We wish nonetheless to practise the dharma so it is important to differentiate clearly as Avalokiteshvara has done, between what is dharma and what is non-dharma, and to do this one must make a clear difference between the faults and the qualities – faults of what is to be abstained from and qualities of what is to be practised.
We often say that we ‘like things’. We say that we like our parents, we like our friends, we like certain foods or certain beverages. Now, what exactly is meant by liking here? What is it we like and what is it we do not like? Generally speaking, when we refer to liking our spiritual teacher, the Buddha or the sangha, this actually is none other than faith. Faith means liking the spiritual teacher. When one likes the spiritual teacher, when one has faith in the spiritual teacher he imparts blessings on one’s self. In dependence on these blessings, one can progress. Without faith, one does not receive these blessings. The Buddha, the sangha and so forth are objects of faith, so there is benefit in having faith in them. On the other hand, the objects which we like as worldly beings such as our parents, our friends, husbands or wives or for that matter horses or dogs are all objects for which this liking means none other than desire, and in dependence on this desire we accumulate karma and through this karma fall in the lower realms. Generally speaking, all of the realms one can be reborn within are divided into the happy or the upper realms, and the lower realms. The number of beings in the lower realms is said to be comparable to the number of atoms, particles in the great earth – it is well nigh infinite. On the other hand, the number of beings in the higher realms was said by the Buddha to be comparable to the number of motes of dust on his thumbnail. Far smaller indeed. Beings are born in the lower realms through the power of desire. To put things simply as an introduction to liking, in dependence on powerful liking, powerful fondness, desire arises; in dependence on this one is reborn in the lower realms.
Therefore, liking and desire have a very strong connection within the three categories of beings, those who are close to us such as friends and relatives, those who are indifferent to us and our foes and our enemies. We like those who are close to us very much and in dependence on this desire arises. With respect to our enemies and those who are indifferent to us, however, no desire arises because we do not like them. One could say, actually that the indifferent are those which we do not like in dependence on the reason that no desire arises towards them.
When we speak of liking, we can like tasty tea or beer, meals, mo mos, and it is even rumoured that we like cake. In every single case this is desire which arises with respect to the taste and the colour of these objects. Desire can also arise with respect to fabric. The smooth sensation of the fabric gives rise to desire, however, in reality all of these do not go beyond being the truth of suffering since all of these sensations are none other than the product of the contaminated karma of beings. If we analyse what happens, we can see that through the five sense organs; the eye, ear, nose, tongue and bodily sense organs, their respective sense objects appear. These are apprehended by the sense organs as ‘likeable’, and in dependence on this, desire arises. With respect to a pleasant shape, upon seeing that shape desire arises. Likewise, upon tasting tasty food, desire arises for the food, (the Australian nemesis ‘cake’), and the same, regarding smooth fabric. In the context of secret mantra, one speaks of ordinary appearances and conceptions. Here, the term ‘ordinary’ in this context would be understood as what appears to the sense consciousnesses such as forms and so forth. Conceptions on the other hand, refer to what is activated or seized by conceptual minds. Generally speaking, sensory conceptions cannot conceive phenomena, they can only perceive them and in dependence on this perception of phenomena, conceptuality arises and the mind in turn grasps the phenomena. In the context of secret mantra it is said that appearance is weak whereas conceptuality is much stronger. For example, when we meditate on deity yoga it is conceptuality which is the strongest issue. Then, in dependence, in this context on both appearance and conception, the appearance and conception of the object desired, we circumambulate in cyclic existence.
It is famously said that cyclic existence is pervaded by desire. We see desire all around us. We see for instance, when we look at a fish in the pond seizing an insect and eating it, that it performs this deed out of desire. Hence, it is said in The Three Principals of the Path by Je Tsongkhapa:
Inasmuch as beings are fettered by desire in cyclic existence, initially search for renunciation.
The foremost motor of cyclic existence which leads us to the search for happy places, bodies and objects of enjoyment is the generation of desire. Without renunciation, automatically craving arises and increases evermore, precipitating us into the lower realms. Hence, the ultimate antidote to craving is renunciation. There are other antidotes, however, contingent antidotes to desire. First and foremost, meditation on the skeleton in keeping with the teachings of Heruka Tantra, where the guardians of the graveyards are animated skeletons. Vasubandhu himself says:
Meditation on the skeleton is the foremost antidote to desire for all five objects of the senses.
It is an antidote to desire for form, because the skeleton is completely bereft of any flesh, it is mere bone, there is nothing left to desire. It is an antidote to beautiful sounds because the sound of a skeleton dancing is a mere creaking and gnashing. It is an antidote for desire for smells, because a skeleton in the nature of bone has no smell. It is an antidote to desire for pleasant taste because bone has no taste, and it is an antidote to desire for pleasant feelings, because bone is rough. If, in dependence on this we can generate, when desire arises a fleshless zone, a small area of bone, and then allow this to expand progressively, allow the bone nature to pervade our body until all flesh has completely disappeared and all that is left is pure bone (very contentedly), then we will have no desire whatsoever. If we have desire with respect to an object, let us say a pretty girl, and we visualise her as a skeleton no desire whatsoever will arise in the mind either. This is the first antidote to desire. The second is visualising whatever is a pleasant colour as black and rough; black in colour and rough in texture and some again visualise whatever object of the senses as seen as attractive as covered with pustules and permanent pimples, bleeding and excreting pus. These are the three antidotes to desire.
The bodhisattvas for instance, practise by allowing initially desire to arise, meditate then upon the faults of desire and then destroy it through the application of the antidote. In the self-same way as when we want to clean a piece of cloth which has a stain on it, first we have to bring the stain out, make the stain clear so we know where it is and then using soap we can clean the piece of cloth. This is how the bodhisattvas practise, and they practise in the same way with respect to anger, desire and so forth.
So, we cannot practise as bodhisattvas, but we can strive to emulate them and learn their techniques.
As Arya Shantideva said:
We wish to eliminate suffering and to actualize happiness.
Why is it that we listen to the teachings and that dharma is explained? It is because first we come here experiencing suffering, great suffering and secondly because we wish to dispel this suffering. So, wishing to dispel suffering is the first reason for which one attends dharma teachings, and the second reason is that one wishes to be happy. To be happy one must create the causes for happiness, and these entail practise. Dharma alone is that whereby this happiness arises. It has the capacity, the potency to do this. It is the means to lead us to this state. One must therefore eliminate suffering and disease. The means to eliminate suffering and the numerous diseases which we experience is dharma. Dharma is compared to medicine. In the self-same way as when we have an ailment of the nervous system, the channels and the winds, we take medicine for this. In the self-same way also as in worldly matters, when we are sick, when our body is sick, we go to a doctor. In the self-same way, we need a dharma.
There are two places in which we can experience suffering and disease: the first is the body and the second is the mind. When bodily suffering and disease is experienced we consult and rely upon a physician who will prescribe the appropriate medication to clear this disease. For instance, one may have specific diseases which call for moxibustion or whatever, but when mental diseases occur, one needs another approach. It is possible, therefore, to eliminate bodily diseases through operations or through the application of medicine. Dharma itself is of limited benefit for bodily diseases. It is difficult to say it is of benefit. When Shantideva says that dharma is the sole source of all happiness, he refers to the elimination of mental diseases and the creation of mental happiness. Mental diseases are by far the harsher and the harder diseases and they can only be eliminated through the application of dharma.
Therefore, we have to apply the appropriate remedies to both bodily and mental ailments. Now, while bodily ailments can be cured contingently in the short term through an operation, through the requisite drugs and prescriptions and so forth, this is only in the short term since if we ask what the actual cause of bodily suffering is, it can ultimately be traced back to the mind. Until one has cut to the root of the cause, which is mental suffering, at its root, then it is impossible to eliminate durably bodily suffering. So, we have to investigate what this mental suffering is. A mental illness one is dealing with are illnesses such as the afflictions – desire, anger, ignorance, competitiveness, envy, jealousy, and so forth. These are mental diseases. In the self-same way as bodily diseases, which are physical, must be treated by physical drugs or by physical means such as by operations, injections, antibiotics and whatnot, in the self-same way mental diseases must be treated by non-physical means, by mental means. So, the mental antidote to the respective mental affliction must be applied.
Now, if we take for instance the case of anger, anger is a disease. It is a mental disease. It is a mind, in the self-same way as desire is a mind, ignorance, competitiveness and so forth, and anger can be eliminated if the antidote to anger is applied. The antidote to anger is forbearance. It is also love and compassion. These are directly opposite. They are contradictory. If you want, forbearance, love and compassion target anger. They are contradictory in the self-same way as hot and cold are contradictory. So, as one generates love, forbearance and compassion, anger abates. The antidote to ignorance, which is also one of the root afflictions, is the wisdom which realises emptiness. Likewise, the antidote to self-cherishing, which has accompanied us from beginningless time, is bodhichitta.
This does not mean that when we are sick we should not take medicine. If we are physically sick we should take medicine because we need a sound body to practise the dharma. Otherwise, if our body is unsound it is impossible to practise the dharma. Then, once we have returned to health, we return to our practice. Now, here we are addressing the issue of how to obstruct or how to eliminate mental diseases. Mental diseases are eliminated through their respective antidotes. For instance, if we were to take anger, as has been mentioned, the antidote to anger is the practise of love and forbearance – specifically love. Now, at present, because of long-term habituation, the force of anger is tremendous within our mindstream. Anger may be compared to an adult, and whatever love we have within our mindstream can be compared to a little child. When a little child tries to struggle with an adult, he is bound to lose. However, over time if we train every day in love, then the little child which is love increases in potency and power and eventually becomes able to overcome anger. Through daily practice, through daily habituation, through love we can overcome anger.
Likewise, if we were to take desire, at present most of us do not practise dharma sincerely, so we do not put forward any particular effort in eliminating desire, but if we were to do so, then through meditating on ugliness or through meditation on the skeleton, which was explained last time, then progressively the force of the antidote becomes greater and greater, and whereas up til now desire has led us by the nose because of long-term habituation, when the antidote becomes powerful enough we can overcome it.
What is meant by the Tibetan term ‘mind training’ – lojong – or for that matter, study? ‘Lojong’ (Wylie blo sbyong) means ‘to purify the mind’. What is purified within the mind? What is purified are the mental diseases, the non-virtuous states of mind, and what exactly is meant by purification, or the process of dispelling? What is meant is that the opposite of these non-virtuous states of mind is generated, and as the opposite of these non-virtuous states of mind is generated, and as the opposite of these non-virtuous states of mind increases in force, the non-virtuous state of mind (the diseased state of mind) decreases in strength and eventually disappears. This is what is meant by ‘mind training’. It is nothing else but this. If we were to take, for instance, the case of anger, at present through habituation anger is very powerful within our mindstream. However, if we apply the antidote to anger, which is both love and forbearance, then if we apply that every day and our mind becomes accustomed every day to love and forbearance, then every day love and forbearance become very powerful within our mindstream and anger becomes weaker, until it is completely eliminated. This is what is meant by the purification of anger.
Likewise with desire, if we were to meditate and reflect every day on ugliness, then eventually since ugliness is the opposite of desire, we would purify and eliminate desire. Likewise for ignorance, the antidote to that ignorance which apprehends self as truly existing is the wisdom which realises the selflessness of phenomena. Through meditating on this every day, progressively this ignorance disappears. Likewise for self-cherishing, the antidote to self-cherishing – the opposite mind to self-cherishing – is bodhichitta. Through habituating our mind daily to bodhichitta, the power of self-cherishing will disappear.
How do the bodhisattvas train, then? They initially generate love and compassion within their mindstreams and in dependence on this give rise to bodhichitta. Then through the combined forces of bodhichitta and of the view, as they progress upwards on the paths, the power of the afflictions within their mindstream is progressively dispelled and eliminated. Bodhichitta and the view act as the opposite or the antidote to the afflictions. In this context, bodhichitta and the view actually subsume the afflictions. Since the main focus of the bodhisattvas is the branch of benefitting others, or helping others, then even when afflictions arise within the mind of a bodhisattva, they are subsumed by the bodhichitta of the bodhisattva and themselves become of benefit. For instance, bodhisattvas who are married and who in dependence on desire eventually have children, actually perform activities which are of tremendous benefit to others. Since their children are born within bodhisattva families and do not cause the slightest harm to their parents or the slightest interference, far from that, they are of benefit to them. This is a classic case of how desire would be taken on the path by a bodhisattva and how the bodhisattva, peacock-like, would flourish in the jungle of cyclic existence.
We, however, not having developed the qualities of bodhisattvas such as bodhichitta and the view, are incapable of doing this and are akin to the crow in the verse on page 10 of the text:
Should one use the other afflictions as well in this way,
Like crows the life of [their] Liberation will be extinguished.
Like crows in this case, if we allow desire to arise within our mindstream, it destroys the collection of ethics, and without the collection of ethics there is nothing else but rebirth in the lower realms.
The bodhisattvas who have generated within their mindstream bodhichitta and the view which realises emptiness in addition are attracted to beings who suffer greatly from the afflictions in the self-same way as a peacock is attracted to a garden infested with poisonous plants because the bodhisattva from his side has the capacity to benefit them. He or she is attracted to these beings and tries to dispel their suffering – the desire, the anger, the ignorance within their mindstreams. Let-alone that these afflictions within the mindstreams of the sentient beings do not harm the bodhisattva, in addition, because the bodhisattva himself has generated bodhichitta and the view, this process of eliminating them within the mindstream of others is something which he not only is capable of, but which benefits him.
However, in our case we are not at that level of practice and if we allow the afflictions to arise within our mindstream then they will only cause harm to us and suffering. Therefore, we have to be careful, specifically if we have vows. It is said one should protect one’s vows at the cost of one’s life. The vows are compared to the life-force of a person. So, clearly if the afflictions become powerful within our mind, then they can cause us to break these vows which we should be protecting at the cost of our life. Once our practice is bereft of its life, then we can be said to be dead indeed. This is the death to which the text alludes. In this case rebirth in the lower realms is the only eventuality we can face, and in the lower realms suffering is not counted in years – tens, hundreds or thousands of years – but in tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and millions of years. So, we must be careful, and until we have reached a point in our practice where it is possible, having developed the qualities of bodhichitta and the view, for the afflictions to be both of benefit to ourselves and others, we should curtail them and eliminate them.
So, in our case this will have been the final part of the presentation of the advice which Khensur Rinpoche passes on from Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche’s text. In our case, we eat three meals a day, and during each meal strong desire arises for food. In dependence on this strong desire for food, rebirth in the lower realms is a very high probability. Although we ourselves are unable to practise at the level the bodhisattvas practise, nonetheless Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche is proposing means for us to practise in a similar way and to reduce the desire associated with food. One of these is to think when we eat, “I need to practise pure dharma and to practise pure dharma I need a sound and hale body. Therefore, I will eat to keep my body sound and hale.” If we eat with this motivation, then the desire for food will be reduced.
How do the bodhisattvas practise in this respect? The bodhisattvas eat meals, but they eat with the sole intention of benefitting countless mother sentient beings and placing them in a state of full enlightenment. We are unable to practise at that level at present – completely unable – but we can try to practise in a way which is partially commensurate with this, which leads us to that. How should we do this? We should think, “I must practise pure dharma, and to practise pure dharma I will eat this food to be hale and hearty. Then, if in future lives I practise pure dharma, then that pure dharma I practise will not only be of benefit to myself, but it will also be of benefit to others.” As it will also be of benefit to others, there is a component of this motivation which is commensurate, which is connected to practising for the sake of others. This is not practising for the sake of others, but it is connected, and it can lead to that.
In the self-same way, for instance, when we practise generosity or giving for the sake of ourselves, attaining wealth and prosperity in future lives, the wealth and prosperity we attain in future lives will actually be a shared wealth and prosperity. Our friends, our relatives, fathers and mothers, will actually share in our prosperity. So actually, there is a partial benefit for others. In the self-same way here, when one eats food for the sake of practising pure dharma and having a hale and hearty body so as to do so, then this pure dharma which will enable us to get a human rebirth in future lives and to practise pure dharma ourselves in future lives is also of benefit to others. So, there is a component which is commensurate with practising for the sake of others. Arya Nagarjuna, somewhat further down in the commentary, says:
Food should be eaten just as medicine.
In other words, it should be eaten within a state of pure indifference. It is only when you are very sick that you take medicine and it is doubtful in the light of its awful taste that you have great desire for it. Likewise, few of you get angry when you take medicine. You take the stuff because you have to. So, this is the motivation we should have to take food. Therefore, although we cannot practise completely like bodhisattvas, we should practise partially like bodhisattvas with, on the one hand, the training which has only benefits, and on the other hand the training which has no faults, and with the case of food this would mean that we would eat food with the motivation of having a hale and sound body to practise pure dharma. So, here there is only benefit. From the standpoint of having no fault, we would eat food while viewing it as medicine, without desire or hatred towards it. From today onwards you can practise like this with regard to food. With only benefit and no fault, this would be very good.
Buddha Shakyamuni imparted the following advice:
The teachings of the Buddha are to abstain from even the slightest vice, to practise virtue to perfection and to tame one’s mind.
Inasmuch as we want to be free from suffering and we want to be happy we must first eliminate the cause for suffering, and the cause of suffering is vice or non-virtue. At the same time, in as much as we want to be happy we must create the cause for happiness and the cause of happiness is the practise of virtue.
What are these non-virtues which are to be abstained from? They are the non-virtues of the three doors of body, speech and mind. There are three non-virtues of body, four of speech and three of mind. The three of body are killing sentient beings, they are stealing, in other words taking what does not belong to oneself, and they are engaging in sexual misconduct or adultery. The four non-virtues of speech are first and foremost lying, which means saying an untruth or intending an untruth. Secondly they are divisive speech; divisive speech here refers to speech which either separates people who were living in harmony with each other or pushes even further apart, people who were already in disagreement with each other. The third category of non-virtue of speech is harsh words. These are offensive words which create a sentiment of mental unease or unhappiness in the ears of those who hear them and for whom they are intended, and the fourth category of non-virtue of speech is gossip or idle talk. This is talk about politics, about the relation between states and kings and all meaningless talk.
Then the three non-virtues of mind are first covetousness. Covetousness is that state of mind which has desire for an object, whichever it is. Then, ill-will or animosity, which is that state of mind which wishes for harm to befall another person, whether it be harm in the past, the present or the future; and, finally wrong views. Wrong views are that state of mind which believes that an existent is a non-existent and for instance that the Triple Gem, the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, which exist and which are objects of refuge do not exist, or that past and future lives do not exist even though they are existent phenomenon, or that karma and causality do not exist.
These ten non-virtues: killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, divisive speech, harsh words, idle gossip, covetousness, ill-will and wrong views are all motivated by a violent state of mind. So one must reflect on the faults of violence and this violent state of mind and realise that these violent states of mind are states which harm us, and cultivate non-violent states of mind, and non-violence in general which is both beneficial to oneself and not harmful. Through understanding that violence harms ourselves in the short-term and harms us as well ultimately in the long-term, one must train in the cultivating forces which are the minds of empathy, of love and of non-violence. In dependence on these one must pledge not to kill, not to steal, not to commit sexual misconduct, not to lie, not to engage in divisive speech, not to use harsh words, not to gossip, not to practise covetousness, ill-will or wrong views. Such a motivation is a virtuous motivation. With this motivation we must bind our deeds, we must pledge ourselves not to engage in these ten non-virtues. In so doing we will train in virtue which is of benefit both for ourselves and for others and should this virtue be dedicated for our own welfare and that of all sentient beings, that would be the perfect virtue as alluded to previously.
The third verse of the stanza quoted from Buddha Shakyamuni is:
Thoroughly tame one’s mind
‘Thoroughly tame one’s mind’ here refers to training in virtue and abstaining from non-virtue in as much as both virtuous states of mind and non-virtuous states of mind arise in dependence on the mind itself. So our goal is to eliminate non-virtuous states of mind and to do so through applying their antidote which are the virtuous states of mind such as love, empathy and so forth. Beneficial states of mind and harmful states of mind are contradictory. In other words, when the beneficial states of mind such as love and empathy increase, the harmful states of mind decrease, (harmful states of mind such as violence and so forth), and when the harmful states of mind increase, beneficial states of mind decrease. ‘Taming the mind’ is nothing else than leading to this increase in beneficial states of mind and decrease in harmful states of mind and this leads to the fourth stanza which I translated as first:
This is the teaching of the Buddha.
The teachings of the Buddha are none other than to train in beneficial states of mind and to abstain from harmful states of mind. Therefore, the dharma of the Buddha is compared to medicine for the mind. When our mind is not at ease and is troubled, it is a sick mind, it is a diseased mind and this diseased mind gives rise to non-virtue which in turn gives rise to suffering. So in worldly matters when we are ill we consult a doctor and we take medicine. Here, the mind which is diseased, which is afflicted is a rough mind, it is an unsuitable mind which is troubled. This mind has to be targeted by the medicine, the antidotes for this mind which are love and empathy. Love is that wish for others to be happy, whilst empathy is that wish for others to be bereft from suffering. As these increase the non-virtuous minds such as violence and so forth decrease since their main wish is for others to be unhappy and to suffer. As these non-virtuous minds, these violent states of mind decrease, all ten non-virtues progressively disappear.
Therefore of these ten non-virtuous deeds, the three first of the body and the four of the speech belong to the category of karma, whereas the three latter of the mind belong to the category of afflictions or kleshas. So in dependence on karma and the afflictions together, suffering is generated since non-virtuous karma arises from this. Impelled by the three non-virtuous states of mind, covetousness, ill-will and wrong views as a motivation, we accumulate karma of body and speech. These three non-virtuous states of mind are kleshas, they are afflictions. Their main goal is to harm others, and therefore, this is why the Buddha said in his third stanza in the third verse of this stanza,
Therefore, tame thoroughly your mind.
‘Tame thoroughly your mind’ here refers to taming the afflictions.
Therefore, regarding the three last of the non-virtues, the non-virtues of mind, covetousness from one standpoint is of the nature of desire, animosity is of the nature of desire, and wrong views are afflicted views which can be sub-divided into four: the wrong view of disintegration, wrong view in general, the wrong view of permanence, and taking the supreme as a view.
Training in Bodhichitta
Here, we now pass directly to the commentary on page 12, the commentary on the Wheel of Sharp Weapons and sub-section 2.2.2.2. We have: An explanation of the manner of training in the two aspects of bodhichitta; training in conventional and training in ultimate bodhichitta. We will first approach training in conventional bodhichitta and we have here a stanza from the root text. Atisha’s Guru, Dharmarakshita who was a great Indian yogi composed this text, this is The Wheel of Sharp Weapons:
At present, powerlessly transmigrating [under the aegis of]
This herald of the demon, self-grasping
Separating from egotism, the desire for wellbeing and happiness,
I will take on hardship for the sake of others!
So, if we analyse this verse of The Wheel of Sharp Weapons, the first words, ‘At present’ refers to our present situation in cyclic existence, in samsara. ‘Powerlessly’ refers to the fact that it is involuntarily, not under our own power, that we transmigrate through the six realms of cyclic existence, the three higher and the three lower realms, in the self-same way as if we were cycling through a wheel. ‘Transmigrating [under the aegis of]’, and here the question is asked under whose control, under whose power do we transmigrate?. The answer is:
This herald of the demon of self grasping…
So, here ‘the demon’ which is referred to in this text is actually self-cherishing. and self-cherishing’s representative as it were, is self-grasping or grasping to the self as being inherently established. So, foremost in this text, self-cherishing is seen as impelling us through cyclic existence and self-grasping functions as its servant, specifically, the self-grasping which apprehends the person as inherently existing.
Moving onwards with ‘The Wheel of Sharp Weapons’:
Separating from egotism, the desire for well-being and happiness,
these three are the direct result of self-cherishing. Self-cherishing wishes for our own well-being and for our own happiness, and this is what we have to eliminate. How do we eliminate this? The fourth verse indicates it:
I will take on hardship for the sake of others!
‘For the sake of others’ here means that one will work for the wellbeing of others, putting the wellbeing of others ahead of ours and ‘hardship’ here indicates that indeed at the beginning, there will be difficulty. It will be difficult for us to do this. To engage in what practice? To engage in a practice where we renounce our own self cherishing and we train in actualising the welfare of others.
In the stanza on page 12, verse 2 of the stanza:
This herald of the demon, self-grasping…
Here, ‘the demon’ which is the root of cyclic existence refers to self-cherishing, and ‘the herald’ which is its envoy which acts for it, refers to the ignorance which apprehends the self as inherently existing. It is in dependence on these that we wish for our own wellbeing referred to in verse 3, and in dependence on this wish for our own wellbeing, our individual, egotistical wellbeing, that in turn we accumulate the ten non-virtuous deeds: killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, divisive speech, harsh words, idle gossip, covetousness, ill-will or animosity and wrong views.
Through wishing to be happy ourselves we harm others, and engage in these ten non-virtuous deeds. It is actually as if these ten non-virtuous deeds were the means for us to mistakenly try to actualise our own happiness. However, in dependence on them we only accumulate non-virtuous karma and through this non-virtuous karma in turn we accumulate suffering. We are, because of our self-cherishing, bereft of both liberation and full enlightenment and are, instead enthralled, controlled by the mind which apprehends the self as truly existent. So, we are completely controlled, therefore, by self-cherishing, and in dependence on this accumulate only non-virtue. At present if we examine our situation, we can see that we have transmigrated in the lower realms, we have not attained liberation nor have we attained full enlightenment exclusively because of this demon of self-cherishing. This self-cherishing which leads us to say ‘my friend’, ‘my hand’, ‘my relatives’, and then to generate attachment or anger with respect to those who help them and those who harm them. Self-cherishing, therefore, in this context gives rise to the ignorance which apprehends the self as truly existent and in dependence on this, non-virtue and non-virtue alone is generated.
Therefore, this self-cherishing must be abandoned, must be evacuated. We must reflect that others are greater in numbers than us. We are alone, others are many, therefore, we should value others principally and we should focus on the happiness of others. Through this, we can hope to attain both our own liberation and full enlightenment. Through actualising the happiness of others, we realise our own happiness. Through trying to actualise our own happiness, we will not only not actualise our own happiness, we will not actualise either that of others. So this is the foremost practice of the bodhisattvas. The bodhisattvas focus on the welfare of others and in so doing, realise both their own welfare and that of others; this is the very essence of the Mahayana. The teachings of the Mahayana are that, through harming others we harm both others and ourselves, and through helping others we help both others and ourselves.
Therefore, cherishing is divided into two: self-cherishing and cherishing others. In the self-same way as if we look at beings and in general they are divided into oneself and into others. Regarding cherishing others, Shantideva said:
There is nothing which through habituation does not become easier; nothing through habituation becomes harder.
This is why, even though it is very difficult to generate initially cherishing others, the bodhisattvas train in it for three countless eons, first to give rise to cherishing others, then to lead it to increase and finally to lead it to fruition. The fruition of cherishing others, is none-other than the state of full enlightenment, of buddhahood. There is no buddhahood apart from the elimination, the complete elimination of self-cherishing.
On the other-hand, self-cherishing itself is very easy to generate. We have been accustomed to it since beginningless time through our numerous lives; putting an end to it is extremely difficult. It is since countless eons that we have been accustomed to the nefarious impact of self-cherishing. If we compare the two, we can see that it is difficult to give rise to cherishing others, and it is difficult to lead it to fruition. On the other hand, it is very easy to succumb to self-cherishing. This is the root or the raison d’être for the distinction between the Lower and the Greater Vehicle. The Buddha taught three vehicles; the vehicles of the shravaka, the pratyekabuddha and the bodhisattva, and the two first – the vehicle of the shravaka and the pratyekabuddha are the Lower Vehicles. These vehicles are called lower exclusively because their practitioners do not train to eliminate self-cherishing. As a matter of fact, an arhat who is a hero, a shravaka, and an arhat who is a solitary realiser or a pratyekabuddha is someone who has abandoned completely the ignorance which apprehends the self as truly existing, but even though such a being has attained liberation, because they have not abandoned self-cherishing, they are not counted within the Great Vehicle. They have attained liberation, they have eliminated all afflictions and eliminated suffering, yet they have not entered the Great Vehicle in dependence on the reason of self-cherishing.
On the other hand, practitioners of the Great Vehicle, are said to be Great Vehicle practitioners because they focus on eliminating self-cherishing. Therefore, if we consider arhats of the Lower Vehicle, the sole reason for which arhats of the Lower Vehicle who have eliminated all afflictions, eliminated all suffering and attained liberation have not entered the Great Vehicle, is self-cherishing. Therefore, it is through the power of self-cherishing that we circumambulate in cyclic existence, and we must strive to eliminate both the desire for wellbeing and the desire for happiness (which are mentioned in the third verse of this stanza) through engaging in the activities of hearing, of thinking and of meditating on cherishing others. That there will be difficulty in this matter is undeniable, however, through habituation, the difficulty, the hardship will recede.
It is clear that at the beginning it is difficult for us to wish to realise the wellbeing and the happiness of others, yet this has to be what we target and for this we need determination and will-power. So, once we have determination and will power, then there will be no difficulty from our side in actualising the wellbeing and happiness of others. Let alone this, when we put effort in this, we ourselves will feel at ease and happy, and there will be no hardship for us in the slightest. In the self-same way as when a hero goes to war there is no particular hardship for them. For that matter, they are looking forward to it. Whereas when a slack coward goes to war then he can only envision fear.
So, we have to generate within our minds a heroic state of mind, not a slack state of mind. It is through understanding that we actualise our own happiness indirectly through actualising the happiness of others, that we will put effort in actualising the happiness of others. At present, what we have done is we have put great effort in trying to fulfil our own purpose and we have been totally unable to do so. For that matter, all the efforts we have put have actually harmed us. Our so called wellbeing, the efforts put into our own wellbeing have actually been causes for our own harm and our own suffering. For this reason it is said in Lojong, in Mind Training:
He who wishes to improve his lot, must first focus on improving the lot of others and not harming them.
As it is said in Panchen Lobsang Choekyi’s Lama Chöpa:
The childish establish only their own benefit, whereas the Munis put effort only in the weal of others; comparing the qualities and the defects of each, bless me to actualise the equalisation and interchange of self of others
The commentary on this stanza runs as follows, ‘the childish’ here refers to ourselves, ordinary beings who have been experiencing all of the sufferings of cyclic existence in the past and present and will experience them in the future in dependence on self-cherishing. On the other hand, the munis, which refer to Buddha Shakyamuni, not only Buddha Shakyamuni but all of the buddhas have only practised cherishing others. In contrast to the distinction to ourselves who have only practised self-cherishing, and the Buddhas through practising cherishing others, have attained the goal of full enlightenment; we ourselves are still mired in the suffering. So Panchen Lobsang Choekyi then asks “have you understood this?” If you have understood this, then you must abandon self-cherishing and you must strive to practise cherishing others. This is the meaning of the final verse of the stanza:
Bless me to equalise and interchange self and others.
What is referred to here is an equalisation and an interchange not of the persons, but of the minds of self-cherishing and of cherishing others. So, it is not the case that I become another person and they become me. Instead, the self-cherishing which I have had for myself, I actually transform into a cherishing of others and the state of indifference I had for the state of others, becomes a state of indifference towards my own welfare. So, we interchange the modes of thinking; this is how, not only Buddha Shakyamuni, but the countless Buddhas of all time have practised, and this is why further on in the Lama Chöpa, it is also said:
Self-cherishing is the root of all vice.
As Shantideva said in Bodhisattvacaryavatara:
In the world, all that is good, all qualities, arise from striving for the weal of others, and all evil arises from striving for one’s own goals. Why say much about this, examine carefully the results of the behaviour of the infantile and the buddhas.
This quote is very clear: everything which is good arises from putting effort into the welfare of others, all harm arises from egotism – there is no need to say a lot about this. Therefore, here the interchange of self and others is not something which happens in terms of one’s exterior behaviour, one’s body, it’s an inner transformation. It is a mind which cherishes others more than ourselves. As Buddha Shakyamuni said in the stanza at the beginning of the teaching which was quoted:
Abandon vice and train in perfect virtue, tame your minds, this is the teaching of the Buddha.
Think carefully about this and meditate about it. Analyse carefully.
We are now on page 13 of the English translation of the root text and the commentary. The stanza reads as follows:
I will heap upon the self that wishes for happiness
The sufferings incurred by the totality of beings of similar type
Which have been driven by karma and by becoming accustomed to the afflictions.
Here the final verse is,
Which have been driven by karma and by becoming accustomed to the afflictions.
This is the situation we are in. We are in a situation where having accumulated karma, and the delusions which accompany karma, having become accustomed to those delusions, we transmigrate in cyclic existence endlessly experiencing the countless varieties of suffering. So, this is alluded to by the last verse of the stanza. In the second verse,
The sufferings incurred by the totality of beings of similar type,
‘the sufferings’ here are sufferings which we share with all other beings of similar type of ourselves. This means all beings like us, all sentient beings. Now, here the ‘totality’ in Tibetan reads ‘the nine classes of beings’. This refers to the sum-total of sentient beings. This suffering we experience because of a combination of self-cherishing and wish for our own happiness. It is in dependence upon this that both our own suffering and the suffering of others arises. Therefore, we have to abandon both this self-cherishing and the wish for happiness. In turn, in doing so, we can abandon suffering.
Here we are talking of practices which are connected with mind training or lojong. Lojong, or mind training, are the practices which are focused on the elimination of self-cherishing and the elimination of the apprehension of the true existence of the self, which jointly are the cause for the accumulation of all non-virtue. Specifically, lojong can be said to be that inner crux of practices connected with tong len, or with ‘giving and taking’, which are practices engaged in by the bodhisattvas, aiming at on the one hand, taking upon themselves the sum-total of all of the sufferings of all sentient beings without exception, as well as their own individual sufferings, using the taking upon themselves of all these sufferings to annihilate the self-cherishing at their heart, which is the root of cyclic existence. For this, great courage is needed. This is the taking aspect of the practice. The giving aspect of the practice is for the practitioner to give all of his happiness, all of his roots of virtue, to other sentient beings without exception. So, through initially taking upon oneself the suffering of all beings, all of the sufferings beings had has been eliminated, so they are at present in a neutral state. In addition, we raise them from their neutral state to a state of infinite happiness through giving them all our own happiness and roots of happiness. This practise of tong len enables a tremendous purification of non-virtue and a tremendous accumulation of virtue, and the accumulation of large collections of merit. Therefore, elaborating somewhat on the second component of this practice, which is giving one’s happiness to others, even beginning bodhisattvas are aware of the fact that aiming for their own happiness is mistaken and it is wrong. One should aim for the happiness or the welfare of others. Reflecting on the fact that wishing for one’s own happiness is wrong, they then give this happiness of theirs to others and in so doing lead others to a state of complete happiness. As is explained in the commentary:
Since this is how it has become, it is said that from now on I will heap upon the self-cherishing which wishes for bliss and happiness for myself alone, the sufferings incurred by myself and the totality of beings of similar type since it must be overcome.
This covers the following verses on page 14:
If selfish craving arises in my mind that time,
Opposing it I will offer my happiness to migrators.
also the following stanza:
Likewise, when my relations rebel against me satisfaction will rise in my heart,
I will think that it is an answer to my own wandering.
This refers to situations where, for instance, if one is a teacher one’s students do not listen to one’s advice or if one is a parent one’s children rebel against oneself, or for that matter one is in disharmony with one’s friends. In every single such case we should think that this is actually not the responsibility of the students, of the children or of the friends, but it is actually a result, an effect, which arises in dependence on a past cause. The past cause is that we ourselves in past lives were disobedient towards our spiritual teachers, rebelled against our parents and lived in disharmony with our friends, and as a result of this and as a result of this alone, in this life there are difficulties with the spiritual teacher, with the parents or with friends. So, it is not a fault from the side of the teacher, the children or the friends, it is actually from our side that the fault exists. Thinking in this way, we should realise that if we do not take on board the advice of other sentient beings, the advice of our teachers and if hardship is inflicted to us, if we do not practice patience then we will experience difficulties from them later on.
Moreover, we can see in our daily experience in life that there are people who lead rather horrific lives, who perform all of the non-virtuous deeds in the book and who yet seem to be very happy, very wealthy, very fortunate and to succeed in everything that they do; and others, on the other hand, who are excellent dharma practitioners, humble, quiet, and who nonetheless experience only hardship and suffering. Upon seeing this we might wonder just how precisely does karma and causality operate? One who does precisely what he should not do is happy, whereas another who is quiet, humble and practises, is unable to accomplish his or her purposes, suffers, experiences diseases in his body and a troubled mind. This is something which we do see in daily life, and it might lead to our conviction in the effectiveness of karma and causality to dwindle. When we see that someone who is forceful and pushy, nonetheless attains his goals and someone who is quiet and humble suffers from disease and so forth, so here, one must analyse very carefully karma and causality to understand precisely how it operates, so that one’s conviction in karma and causality does not abate.
What does Buddha say about this? On page 15 of the commentary we have a quote from sutra:
The karma of the foolish,
Will not be exhausted in one hundred aeons,
And when the collections [of conditions] and the time is right,
The effect will reach maturation.
This stanza refers to the fact that karma, whether virtuous or non-virtuous, can abide indefinitely within the mindstream. Virtuous karma can abide for eons within the mindstream unless it is destroyed by anger. Anger has the potentiality to destroy virtuous karma from its very roots. Great anger will destroy great virtuous karma, middling anger will destroy middling virtuous karma, and weak anger will destroy the smaller virtuous karma. Likewise, non-virtuous karma can dwell for eons in the mind stream until it is brought to maturation by an affliction, such as desire. This is the meaning of the two verses:
Will not be exhausted in a hundred aeons,
And when the collections of conditions and the time is right,
The effect will reach maturation.
So, what we consider for instance the life of a human being who at present is experiencing great happiness, is wealthy, is in great health, who is powerful and yet engages constantly in non-virtuous deeds, and we wonder how it is possible in the light of karma and causality. This arises from our misunderstanding of karma and causality. The human rebirth that person has obtained at present is the result of virtuous accumulated in a past life which has come to maturation at present. What that person is doing at present – the non-virtuous deeds he or she is doing at present – they will not probably mature in this life. They will mature in a future life. Likewise, if we were to take the case of the humble dharma practitioner who nonetheless experiences great physical and mental hardship, disease and mental disorder, this physical and mental hardship as a result of past non-virtue which is maturing in this life and is in no way connected to their dharma practice in this life. This practice, the humility and meditation they practise, will lead to results in future lives. So, reflecting on this we will understand that it is not the case that karma and causality are non-existent, instead they are extraordinarily subtle and in dependence on this our faith and conviction will increase.
Some might think “I myself am a very fine character and I have done nothing wrong and when disease befalls me it is not my fault. I am really an outstanding person.” This is a completely wrong view. Such people often think that disease befalls them because of spirits, or for that matter attempts to harm them from others, through witchcraft and so forth. This is completely wrong. What actually is the case is that it is the fact of having harmed another person in a previous life which leads directly to this. As a result of this, it is necessary for us to understand carefully just how karma and causality function. When one accumulates non-virtuous karma in a past life it leads to suffering in a future life. That non-virtuous karma which one has accumulated does not disappear. The disease one experiences in this life is the result of non-virtuous karma which comes from a previous life. If we do not understand this correctly we are not able to modify our behaviour in the light of karma and causality. So, for instance, if we engage at present in non-virtuous deeds such as killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, divisive speech, harsh words and so forth, harming others in the present, we ourselves in the future will be harmed and we ourselves in the future will be killed, will be stolen from, will be the victims of the sexual misconduct of others and so forth. Therefore, benefiting others is to benefit oneself since in the future we ourselves will experience benefit from having benefitted others at present. Harming others is to harm oneself, since in the future we will experience harm from others. Understanding this, we should abstain from harming others in the short-term, since harming others in the short-term leads to our long-term suffering, and we should put effort in helping others in the short-term since this leads to our happiness in the long-term. So, the bodhisattvas understand that through giving happiness to others they themselves reap happiness and that through inflicting suffering on others they themselves experience suffering. If one abandons the ten non-virtues, in turn one will experience happiness and bliss in the future. On the other hand, if one engages in the ten non-virtues one will experience suffering oneself in the future. We ourselves do not understand this and because we do not understand this we cannot practice in keeping with karma and causality.
We can see, for instance, in this very life of ours that if we are short-tempered, when we get angry with others sometimes our anger comes back into our own face and we experience the full consequences of the wrath we have unleashed upon others. This teaching is called The Wheel of Sharp Weapons precisely because karma functions in the self-same way as a wheel of sharp weapons. When a wheel of sharp weapons was thrown outwards by the ancient warriors in India, it would cut the enemy but it would then come back to them. Likewise here, when the wheel of sharp weapons of the non-virtuous deeds, such as the deed of killing and one inflicts harm onto another sentient being, it eventually circles back upon our self and causes suffering to us. So, karma and causality function as a circle, as a wheel. We can see very clearly in this world that there are people who initially are indeed fairly good practitioners but who progressively see their collection of merit decay and degenerate in their practice, whereas there are others who move upwards in their practice and through engaging in activities to benefit others are evermore happy.
So, the sole practice of bodhisattvas is to benefit others, and in dependence on this they move upwards, all the way to full enlightenment. The sole practice of buddhas has been to benefit others, and in dependence on this they have attained full enlightenment, whereas the sole practice of sentient beings, ordinary beings such as ourselves, has been to harm others through self-cherishing, and in dependence on this we have moved downwards evermore.
As he said in the bla ma mchod pa [Lama Chöpa], in the Guru Puja:
The childish only practice their own welfare,
Whereas the Lord of the sages has trained in benefiting others.
Compare carefully the faults and the qualities and
Thereby bless me to interchange self and others. [Verse 93]
It is through cherishing others as this quote from the Lama Chöpa teaches that full buddhahood is attained, and it is through that self-cherishing which tries only to accomplish one’s own welfare that one cycles endlessly in cyclic existence. This is something which we have to understand clearly. We have to understand clearly why we have been transmigrating in cyclic existence, and we also have to understand clearly why buddhas have attained full enlightenment. This has occurred by the power of karma and causality. Karma and causality is an extremely profound topic. The buddhas alone understand it fully, whereas for instance non-enlightened beings such as arya beings understand emptiness. So, how should we practise? At least, we should abstain from harming others. This means not inflicting suffering on others and not engaging in the ten non-virtuous deeds. If we do this, we ourselves will not experience suffering in the future. Ideally, however, the best is to benefit others. If we do this, we will experience happiness in the future.
So, we must understand the means to abandon the process of harming others and there are two principal means for this: they are training in empathy which is the wish for others to be free of suffering and the causes of suffering, and training in love which is the wish for others to have happiness and causes of happiness. Why is it that training in empathy or compassion and is the means to eliminate suffering? It is because if we wish others from our side to be free of suffering, then naturally we will not inflict suffering on them. So, compassion or empathy acts as a direct antidote to suffering inflicted on others. Likewise, if we wish others to be happy – in other words, if we train in love – then obviously we will not inflict suffering on them since this destroys their happiness. It is not just a matter reflecting on this. One must again and again meditate upon this. It is through the constant increase in empathy and compassion within our mindstream that suffering will be eliminated, and through the constant increase of love that happiness will be realised.
Through understanding clearly that harming others is something we engage in with a strong sense of ‘I’ thinking, ‘I want, I need, I must have’ and in dependence on this we engage in deeds such as killing others, stealing from others, beating others, seducing others and so forth, then we understand that we should abstain in engaging in this and generate the causes to eliminate this. The causes to eliminate this are these twin feelings of love and of compassion for others which arise through seeing others as one’s parents. All of us within us have such feelings of love and compassion. All of us have love and compassion for our parents. We have love and compassion for friends and relatives, but these feelings of love and compassion are weak. We have to increase them. To do this, we must meditate, but because we do not meditate, these feelings of love and compassion are not able to influence powerfully our mind. The bodhisattvas meditate day and night on love and compassion, and as a result these become very powerful within their mindstreams.
We can see, for instance, that animals for that matter have compassion. Tigers, ferocious tigers which kill to feed themselves nonetheless when they are full, lie down and play with their cubs and give them actually flesh. Likewise, birds will give the little ones food first before feeding themselves. This is the case with elephants too. So, we can see that even animals have compassion, let alone us. However, we should train in love and compassion so that they become more powerful within our mindstream. There is no means otherwise for them to become more powerful than if we meditate upon them. We will meditate for one or two minutes on generating the motivation to listen to these teachings, the supreme means to listen to Mahayana teachings, which is to generate a good motivation; a motivation which is impelled by love and by empathy to listen to these teachings, and for these teachings to be explained. This motivation is one where we wish from our side to eliminate all our faults, and to attain all qualities – actually, to lead all of our qualities to perfection and to lead all beings to this state, and with this as a motivation we will meditate for one or two minutes before listening to the teachings.
How To Practise
The theoretical aspect of the teachings have been explained in detail, and we now enter into how one should practise these teachings, and so we will pass onto page 16 of the commentary of Trijang Rinpoche on this text, the bottom third of the text:
If one can, it is best to practice, first, an extensive Guruyoga, either the extensive preliminary rites or the Lama Chöpa.
‘Extensive preliminary rites’ here refers to the so called Jor Cho practices which are engaged in the six preliminary practices of the Lam Rim. Alternatively, one can perform Lama Chöpa guru yoga, or if such is not possible, after visualising either on one’s crown or in the space in front, the guru deity with the field of merit. So here, one can visualise one’s root teacher on one’s crown or directly in front of oneself, either in his own aspect or in the aspect of Buddha Shakyamuni. Upon offering concisely or elaborately seven limbed prayer and as appropriate, offer mandala.
Then, as the commentary says, one should perform the seven limbed prayer should one so choose. These include the limbs of prostration, of offering, of confession, of rejoicing, of requesting the turning of the wheel of law, of requesting the teacher to abide for long; and, of dedicating the merit thus accrued. One can do this in an elaborate or a concise form. If you wish to do the seven limbed prayer elaborately, you should do it in keeping with the Royal Prayer or Prayer of Samantabhadra and you might want to look into it. There is tremendous benefit in the practice of the seven limbed prayer in terms of purification of obstructions, accumulation of merit and so forth. After this, one should offer mandala, offering mandala to request the blessings from the spiritual teacher to be able to realise the practices one is engaged in.
Inasmuch as this teaching, The Wheel of Sharp Weapons is a Mahayana teaching, as a preliminary one should train the mind in the practices of the being of small and middling scope, and then only upon this basis, using them as a preliminary, can one enter in the practices of the Mahayana. Otherwise, if one does not train the mind in the practices of the being of small and middling scope, as was explained, and one tries to enter directly in the practice of the being of great scope, then should one be a bodhisattva one would be able to practice as a peacock in the garden of poisonous plants, but otherwise one will be in the situation of the crow who dies from the poison.
The practice of the being of small scope starts with reflections on the difficulty of obtaining the precious human rebirth, which has the eight freedoms and the ten endowments, in other words, eighteen main characteristics. This human rebirth which is so hard to obtain must be meditated upon slightly, and then after this one should reflect that one must practice dharma because this human rebirth is impermanent – in other words, we will die. While the body itself is destroyed at death, the mind itself moves on eternally and the mind as a result of the karma which is accrued can either move upward to higher rebirths or downward to lower rebirths. It is difficult for us to accumulate positive karma, and probably because of the non-virtuous karma already present within our mindstream, there is great danger that we will be reborn in our next life in the lower realms. So, searching around for who can protect us from this, we can see that the Triple Gem, the Buddha, the dharma and the Sangha are authentic protectors – authentic refuge, and then we generate both faith and veneration within our mindstream and request them to protect us from the lower realms.
After addressing these powerful entreaties, in other words these powerful prayers to the Buddha, praying that we may not be reborn in the lower realms, the Buddha himself will give us advice or teachings, and this advice is two-fold – to practise virtue and to abstain from non-virtue. This is nothing else than the teachings on karma and causality. These are teachings we have to practise: we have to train in the ten virtues and we have to abandon the ten non-virtues, and as a result of this we will not be reborn in the lower realms. Here, when we refer to practice, we refer to practice as the Buddha taught it, so we have to understand clearly what the Buddha taught – to train in the ten virtuous deeds, and to abandon the ten non-virtuous deeds. For this, we have to understand what these virtuous deeds are and what these non-virtues deeds are. Otherwise, there is no practice. There is no practice in which we do not train in the virtuous deeds and we run around engaging in non-virtuous deeds. Then, if we have trained correctly, after death things will go well for us. Otherwise, if we have not we will fall in the lower realms and after death we will have gained no benefit.
This is a presentation of a path of the being of small scope, which includes reflecting on the precious human rebirth of leisure and opportunity, reflecting on death and impermanence and reflecting on karma and causality. The practice of the being of middling scope entails general reflections on the nature of cyclic existence. Cyclic existence is pervaded by suffering, and for an understanding of this we must understand what suffering is, and we must also understand the causes of suffering. Then, since we do not want to suffer, we want to abandon suffering – we must eliminate the causes for suffering. Likewise, since we want to be happy, we must create the causes for happiness. To do this, we have to understand the four noble truths, and in dependence on this through understanding that karma is fundamentally bad, is fundamentally evil, we will train in the three trainings: the training of ethics, of concentration and of wisdom. The training of ethics is the training where body, speech and mind are restrained and subdued. The training of concentration is the training where the mind is in turn focused on a virtuous object, and the training of wisdom is the development of that wisdom which realises the selflessness of persons and phenomena. For this, it is necessary for us to understand what the selflessness is. In dependence on this, one can attain liberation from cyclic existence.
At present, these were the preliminaries for the being of small and middling scope which lead to the practice of the being of great scope. This practice of the being of great scope is mind training or lojong which focuses on training in bodhichitta. For this, it is indispensable to train in the preliminaries. If one does not train in the preliminaries it will be impossible to generate bodhichitta, in the self-same way as if one does not train in preliminaries in general, it is impossible to accomplish one’s goal. On the other hand, if one trains carefully in the preliminaries, then most definitely it will be possible to generate bodhichitta. This is similar to when we want to cook a really fine meal we start by going shopping, and if we shop for really good food we can hope to have a good meal, otherwise it is not possible.
For the Great Vehicle we must train in love and in compassion. However, as a preliminary for training in love and in compassion we must generate equanimity, which is a mind which has neither desire nor hatred towards beings. This means that with such a mind, we have neither attraction nor animosity to beings and while in general it is very difficult for us to place all beings themselves in a state where they are free from attraction and animosity, it is definitely possible for us from our own side not to allow attraction or animosity, desire or anger to arise from within our mindstream towards sentient beings. This is called ‘equanimity’, in other words, all beings are seen as equal, as identical. There is no desire whatsoever towards anyone, and there is no anger or hatred whatsoever towards anyone. If we are able to put an end to both desire and hatred, then this is an extraordinarily powerful practice. This is a source of great virtue. On the other hand, if we are unable to do this, then anything that is motivated by desire or hatred is necessarily non-virtuous. With a mind which is troubled by desire and hatred, it is impossible to generate compassion well.
After generating equanimity, which is the state of mind which has neither attraction nor animosity towards beings, since we are actually entering into the Mahayana, it is necessary to see all sentient beings as one’s mother. To do this one must reflect on the fact that in this life we have a mother and we have had beginningless lives in the past. There is no beginning point to our lives. We cannot point to one life and say ‘this is where it started’, therefore, our lives themselves are numberless, are beginningless. In this life we have a mother. In every single human life we have had in the past, we have had a mother. Therefore, we have had countless mothers as well as countless lives. One can say that there is not a single sentient being which has not been our mother; whether we were in human form, in animal form as a horse and so forth. Therefore, we train to view all sentient beings as our mothers, and then in dependence on this one recollects the kindness of one’s mother. In this very life our mother bore us in her womb for nine months undergoing tremendous physical discomfort in the process. She was never one moment without thinking of us, and whatever she ate, she only thought, “Will this help my little child or not?” She was completely powerless. She lost her independence, and at the time of our birth she underwent tremendous suffering. However, as soon as we were born, she took us in her arms and she smiled and laughed at us and looked at us, and then placed us on her breasts and fed us with the very substance of her body. If we reflect on the fact, we can see that if she were to have abandoned us for just one hour, we would not have survived.
We can subdivide thinking on the kindness of one’s mother into two parts: her kindness to us when we were in her womb, and her kindness to us after we were born. Her kindness to us when we were in her womb has been covered. After our birth, we can see that she not only fed us with her own milk, she dressed us, she constantly kept an eye on us, making sure that no harm befell us, and that we only had pleasant experiences. If she had some money of her own, then she managed to take care of us. If she was pore and destitute, then she engaged in great non-virtue to be able to get food for us, to get clothing for us and so forth, and this continued for as long as we depended on her. Therefore, we should reflect that as a matter of fact, our parents of this life were our parents not once but many times in past lives, and that there is not a single life in which we were not protected by mother sentient beings. Reflecting in this way, we can see that our parents of this life were our parents in past lives not one time but many, many times over, and for that matter there is not a single being of whom we can say that he or she has not been our parent in past lives. They have, therefore, shown tremendous kindness to us, giving medicine, clothing, money, whenever we required. We ourselves, at present are unable to extend even a fraction of the kindness they have shown to us to other beings. Yet, this is what we have to train in. We have to train in giving food, in giving drink, in giving everything beings need, to them. There is no such thing as Mahayana dharma without the practice of repaying the kindness of father and mother sentient beings. Fundamentally, whichever sentient being one is dealing with, one should at least not harm them. A child who harms his parents is a vicious child, but in addition one should try to help them. Helping them is virtuous; therefore, the best of practices is to help others, but at least one should not harm them.
We train as follows; initially we recollect carefully the kindness of our mother in this life, how everything we have we owe to her. From the moment we are born to the fact we were dressed, the fact that we know language, the fact that we know how to function – we owe all of this to our mother, and then reflecting that all sentient beings have been our mothers, we extend this sense of gratitude to sentient beings through recollecting the fact that their kindness is similar to that of our mother, and at this point we give rise to empathy and to love. Both can be generated quite easily if one reflects carefully on these points. So, one sees that all these mother sentient beings suffer because they do not know how to practise virtue and do not have even one iota of happiness, and then reflecting upon this, one wishes out of empathy to free them from suffering, and out of love to bestow happiness on them. It is at this point, naturally to proceed upwards to the generation of bodhichitta, which arises from empathy and from love.
At this point, one visualises all mother sentient beings in space in front of oneself either in their natural appearance or in the appearance and shape of our mother in this life, and reflecting on the fact that all of them suffer and are totally bereft from happiness, one then imagines that one inhales all of the sufferings within them and one takes them all into ourselves, they enter into our nostril and they impact both the self-cherishing and the conception apprehending the inherent existence of the self which dwell in our innermost heart, and completely destroy them. At this point, through this visualisation, both mother sentient beings will have been benefitted since one would have taken all their suffering upon ourselves, and we ourselves will have been benefitted since we will have eliminated both self-cherishing and the conception which apprehends the self as truly existing. Then, having taken upon ourselves all of their sufferings, this is the first branch of tong len’. gtong is ‘to give’; len is ‘to take’, so this is len, ‘to take’. Then one gives from one’s side all of one’s happiness to mother sentient beings.
If we were to take the example of our mother in this life and imagine that she is afflicted with horrific pain, and that wishing to help her we cook a very fine meal for her, she will be unable to enjoy that meal because of the great pain that she is in. Therefore, the first step is to give her medicine to clear the suffering, to clear the disease she is suffering from, and once she is hale and hearty, then we can give her a very fine meal and she will enjoy it – it will be of help to her. Likewise here, the first step in the practice of tong-len, of ‘giving and taking’, is to actually take the suffering of mother sentient beings. One could not give them initially happiness, since they undergo such suffering at present that they would be unable to experience the happiness we gave them. Therefore, at first one takes upon oneself their suffering. One does this through imagining initially that beams of light akin to hooks emanate from one’s heart, and they hook the sufferings of sentient beings which is then drawn back within us with our breath, and when it is drawn back within us, this suffering then impacts both the self-cherishing and the conception apprehending true existence of the self at our heart, as well as all our non-virtues and completely destroys them. In so doing, we will have eliminated all of the suffering from mother sentient beings and enacted their weal, and we will have also eliminated the causes of suffering at our heart, and created the causes for eliminating our own suffering. Then, having eliminated the suffering from the minds of beings, we in turn can give them happiness.
We therefore, visualise love and compassion emanating from our heart, entering into the minds of mother sentient beings and destroying all the self-cherishing and the conception of true apprehension of the self within their minds. At this point, we will have eliminated all the causes of their suffering and given them happiness. Having given them happiness, it is natural that we as their children should experience happiness. Therefore, we ourselves will also experience happiness. It is the key of Mahayana practice that our own happiness is automatically and powerlessly created through enacting the happiness of others. As Buddha Shakyamuni said:
Just as the cause you have created, likewise will be the effect.
In other words, one who harms others will himself reap harm, whereas one who helps others will himself reap happiness.
Therefore, the core practitioners of the Mahayana are buddhas and bodhisattvas. These are the ones who practise Mahayana and what they practise is this practice of taking upon themselves the suffering of others, and of giving to others their happiness. Therefore, they engage in this practice of tong len, of giving and taking, and how they do this is since others do not understand in the slightest how to eliminate suffering, they explain to them individually for each event of suffering what the cause of the suffering is, and since they do not understand in the slightest how to create the causes for happiness, they explain to them for each instant of happiness what the actual causes of happiness are. Engaging in this way, in the practice of taking upon oneself the suffering or others and giving them one’s own happiness is how the buddhas and bodhisattvas practice.
In the very instant when, within the mind of the practitioner, the thought arises “I want to be free from my own suffering and I want to be happy myself” – at this very instant, this practitioner has fallen from the Mahayana into the Hinayana – he ceases to be a Mahayana being. This is the sole thought of Hinayana practitioners, to be happy themselves alone, and to eliminate their solitary suffering. They have no thought whatsoever for others. Buddhas and bodhisattvas on the other hand do not think at all about how to eliminate their own suffering; nor do they think at all about how to create their own happiness. They only think about how to eliminate the suffering of others, and how to create the happiness of others. Oddly enough, as a result of eliminating the suffering of others, they themselves experience tremendous happiness. It is strange is it not?
So, if we were to take the example of farmers for instance, the foundation for the wealth or the prosperity of farmers is their fields. It is in dependence on the fields of farmers and the quality of their crops that they will do well in a year or not, and in turn be able to buy clothing for themselves and so forth. Now, sentient beings are the field of buddhas and bodhisattvas. It is in dependence on sentient beings that bodhisattvas accumulate merit. Therefore, bodhisattvas strive to eliminate the suffering of sentient beings because in so doing they eliminate their own suffering and they strive to enact or to generate happiness within sentient beings, because in so doing they enhance their own happiness. This is how buddhas and bodhisattvas practise. There is no such thing as a practice which harms others. When one harms others, let alone not being able to attain the state of full enlightenment or becoming a bodhisattva, one will never be able to become for that matter an arhat or a Hinayana practitioner.
If we were to take another example, we might take the example of a child which is offering food to his mother. When the child offers food to his mother which was been well obtained the mother is happy and satisfied, but otherwise if the child has engaged in criminal activities and in dependence on this tries to please his mother through making her gifts of meals and so forth, the mother will not be happy because she wants the welfare of the child and she knows very clearly that these gifts were badly acquired. In the self-same way, there is no such thing as offerings to the buddhas or the bodhisattvas which are acquired through harming beings, for instance through killing, through stealing, through dishonesty and so forth – this cannot satisfy the buddhas and bodhisattvas in the self-same way as an ill earned money cannot satisfy a mother. The term for worship in Sanskrit is puja. ‘Puja’ means ‘to please’, ‘to satisfy’.
As Nagarjuna says:
The cause of both worldly virtue and happiness and worldly non-virtue and misery is none other than helping or harming sentient beings.
In other words, generally speaking we understand that there are two possible destinations – the higher and the lower realms, and the cause for reaching the higher realms is none other than benefitting beings whereas the cause for being reborn in the lower realms is none other than harming sentient beings. Therefore, the cause of higher or lower rebirths is none other than other sentient beings.
As a preliminary to Mahayana training it is necessary to train in equanimity, which is the preliminary training to generate the awareness of all mother sentient beings as one’s mothers in past lives. The equanimity which is referred to here is the same as the immeasurable equanimity, where we pray that all beings be endowed with the equanimity which is free from closeness and distance. Closeness and distance here refer respectively to desire and hostility. We are aware of who our mother in this life is and the kindness of this mother to us in this life is that she has given us a body which is this precious human rebirth which is the foundation for dharma practice. So, we owe this to our mother in this life. However, let alone this, she did not merely give birth to us and then abandon us. She took care of us after. She nourished us with her own milk, she clad us with clothes, she fed us, she taught us everything we know. Reflecting on the kindness which our mother has bestowed upon us, we generate in turn in dependence on this reflection the wish to pay back this kindness. The wish to pay back this kindness arises through reflecting on the kindness we have received, through the love and the empathy of our mother in this life, and then by extension to the love and the empathy of all mothers in all lives. If we do not reflect on the kindness which we have received it is not possible from our side to wish to pay back the kindness of mother sentient beings.
It is through reflecting in this way that we can give rise to cherishing mother sentient beings which is the wish to benefit mother sentient beings and which leads us to try to find a means to eliminate their sufferings. Without this other-cherishing there is no Mahayana. There is no such thing without other-cherishing as the authentic view, as love, or as empathy. Reflecting this way, we can see that we must discard self-cherishing from which we have been afflicted since beginningless time and which has only caused suffering, and lead other-cherishing to perfection. It is actually through perfecting other-cherishing that in turn we can destroy completely self-cherishing and destroy our own suffering. This is the supreme means for this. This destruction of self-cherishing occurs in dependence on the enhancement of other-cherishing. It is through practising in this way that we can lead all of the effects to their fruition.
Therefore, one should reflect on the fact that mother sentient beings are unaware of what to practise and are unaware of what to abstain from. They are unaware of how to abandon non-virtue and how to practise virtue, and on this basis allow love and empathy to arise within our mind, and then practise giving and taking, or tong len. At the beginning one practises this through setting aside other sentient beings and just focusing on one’s own mother. As long as one has a close relation with one’s mother, this is a very powerful practice. One visualizes one’s own mother in front of oneself and then thinks, she does not know what to practise, she does not know what to abstain from. She has accumulated great non-virtue and no real virtue. She will suffer greatly in the future. In dependence on this one allows great compassion to arise within one’s mind stream – the wish to free one’s mother from all suffering. At this point, one imagines that one’s mother’s suffering is entering within oneself. It is being drawn into the force of one’s breath, and it hits the self-cherishing at one’s own heart, completely destroying this.
As a result one has taken all the suffering from one’s mother and one has destroyed the suffering within one’s own mind. There is suffering neither in one’s mother’s mind nor in our own mind. Therefore, there is no suffering whatsoever. One meditates on joy upon this. One rejoices in this. Then in turn one thinks that one has to give one’s mother in this life happiness because she is bereft of happiness. One gives her all the happiness that one has and one places her in a state of complete and unalloyed happiness. Then, in dependence on that, in turn we ourselves become happy, because our mother is happy. Then one generates rejoicing upon this. After training in this way, when one’s own love and empathy becomes more powerful, one extends this to one’s father, then to one’s sister, then as it becomes even more powerful, to one’s friends, people who are indifferent to us, and eventually to all sentient beings.
Rinpoche has seen with his own eyes in Australia the very low esteem in which children hold their parents. He has seen children who do not even call their mother by the name ‘mother’ or by her name. They just say, “Hey! Hey! Bring me this, do that.” This is ghastly behaviour. This is extremely poor behaviour. It means that the child is completely unaware of the kindness of his parents. Then, it is impossible to generate on this basis, recollection of the kindness. To call one’s parents in that way is the sign that one thinks one has arisen independently. People who behave in that way will find it extremely difficult to generate either love or empathy for other sentient beings since they lack love and empathy for their own mother who has been so kind to them. So, if one cannot recollect the kindness of one’s own parents then it will be impossible for us to generate the wish to repay this kindness, let alone the wish that one’s parents and then, by extension all sentient beings, be free of suffering and be placed in a state of happiness.
The Mahayana is rooted in love and empathy. Without love and empathy there is no Mahayana. However, at the beginning we are unable to practise love and empathy towards all sentient beings. Therefore we practise it with respect to the one we are closest to, our mother, and then we extend it progressively from our mother to other sentient beings. At present, we are completely unable to think, may all sentient beings be free of suffering and the causes of suffering. May they have happiness and the causes of happiness. When we think in this way it is just to train our minds so that we become familiar with this because there is benefit for us. So, the way to practise therefore is initially to listen to dharma, and we listen to the dharma with actually the intention to practise. To practise what? – to train in empathy and love, and then having trained in empathy and love, in turn over time, we can train in the more advanced practices such as bodhichitta or emptiness, which at present we have no access to.
Therefore, at present when we attend teachings and we pray for the four immeasurables – immeasurable compassion, immeasurable love, immeasurable joy and immeasurable equanimity – to be frank, it is very difficult for us to generate this. We are unable to think of all sentient beings to start with, and therefore it is perhaps preferable for us when we utter the prayer of the four immeasurables, which is of great benefit, to think first and foremost of our parents, because if we think of our parents and we pray, “May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. May they have happiness and the causes of happiness. May they have immeasurable joy and may they not be afflicted, or may they have the equanimity which is a non-separation from non-animosity and non-desire.” In every single case we should try to reflect on our parents. In doing so, we can in turn make these four immeasurables more stable. Otherwise, at present we do not really understand what they mean and therefore when we utter the four immeasurables, to be frank, this is empty talk. We do not understand exactly what suffering is, we do not understand what happiness is since we are bereft both of liberation and non-contaminated happiness. So, what exactly do we mean when we pray in this way? Therefore, it is important for us to pray that those beings which are at present suffering be free of suffering and the causes of suffering. Arya beings, arhats for instance, are already free of suffering. They do not need for us to pray for then in that sense. It is also important for us to pray that beings which do not have happiness at present be endowed with happiness and the causes of happiness. Arhats again, have already happiness. Now, we might wonder if we take our parents as a basis at present, sometimes our parents do not have explicit suffering. Even though they do not have explicit suffering, they nonetheless have implicit suffering since they have already accumulated the causes for suffering in the future.
At present we have obtained a human rebirth and this rebirth is free of interfering conditions and we have all of the favourable conditions. In this rebirth when we listen to dharma we have to listen to dharma with the intention to practise. Otherwise, at the time of death if we have not practised, our listening to dharma will not have been of any benefit to us. We have to put effort in this, otherwise we will not achieve our goals. So, just to listen, listen, listen to teachings and never to practise, this is meaningless. There are many listeners of dharma and many dharma teachers who are born in the lower realms, who are born as hell beings, as pretas or as animals, and this is a direct result of not having practised the dharma they listened to or the dharma they taught. So, we have to practise as much as we can, as often as we are able to. If today we can say, “Today I will take the vow not to harm sentient beings,” then on this basis we accumulate virtue. It is not sufficient to know, for instance, what the act of killing is. If we know what the act of killing is but do not abandon it, then there will have been no benefit for us. So, first we study to understand precisely what killing entails and then we abandon such a non-virtuous deed. It is the same thing for theft, or for sexual misconduct. If we are able to abandon one of these just for one day and say, “Today I will not engage in this,” then there is benefit. Then if we can abandon them for one week, let alone one month, then the benefit increases, and as the power of our practice increases we abandon these for ever-longer. It is exactly the same thing as accumulating wealth. You accumulate wealth penny by penny. If you never accumulate any pennies then there is no wealth which is ever accumulated. So, initially one must train in empathy and love and if we reflect on the foundation of our training, the foundation of our training is refuge, since it is refuge which closes the door to lower rebirths. So, we must reflect on this.
Therefore, a Mahayana being is a being who vows to practise until he or she has attained full enlightenment, and he or she starts by saying, “This is a deed which I will not engage in, and I will not engage in it today.” Then, if things work out well, if I abandon it for one day, then one does not engage in it for the following day, and in this way day after day one’s practice increases. So, saying, “Today I will not engage in this,” and seeing that things have gone well for today one then says, “Tomorrow I will not engage in this,” and moves upwards ever more. For this one has to generate a good motivation. This is a motivation which reflects on the advantages of such practice, and the disadvantages of not engaging in this practice. Otherwise, if we never practise, thinking always, “Oh, I will practise tomorrow, I will practise later when I have more time,” and then as impermanence comes, then on the basis of impermanence, we may die when we are old, we may die when we are young. We do not know when we will die, and at that point all is over.
We should realise that after death it is not the case that we become non-existent. The mind moves on and the question has to be where do we go? Now, we might assert quite casually, “I for one will not be reborn in the lower realms” and if we say something like that we have to think quite carefully, these lower realms what are they? What are the causes of being reborn there? Then, after investigating what the causes are we should check in our own continuum: Are these causes present or not? The odds are we will find that they are heavily present. Basically, there is no such thing as not being reborn in the lower realms if one has not abandoned the ten non-virtues. Abandoning the ten non-virtues – in other words ethics – is the main source of protection against being reborn in the lower realms. If we have not abandoned the ten non-virtues, most probably, even certainly we will be reborn in the lower realms and we will stay there for countless eons because once reborn there it is extraordinarily difficult to get out. Then, how would we rise up from the lower realms?
So, it is important at the beginning to have pity, to have empathy for oneself. It is on the basis of pity for oneself, of empathy for oneself, that progressively we can understand other sentient beings are in the same predicament as us and we can extend this sense of empathy and pity for others. Otherwise, there is no way to do this. So, Shantideva says:
To pray, may all sentient beings be free from suffering.
Without having the wish to abandon one’s own suffering is akin to praying in a dream. At the beginning we must understand our own suffering. We must meditate on our own suffering. Only then will we be able to think on the suffering of others and wish to free them from this.
How should we practise? When we rise in the morning after washing we should pay homage to the supports of the body, speech and mind of the Buddha on our altar. If we meditate a bit, meditate at this point. Then, before going to work, we should generate the correct motivation for working, a good motivation. One can either think, I am going to work for the benefit of others, for the sake of others. Or, alternatively one can also think, I am going to work because I am a dharma practitioner and I need the conditions to practise dharma. We should not think about money. Money is of no real benefit, so we just put it aside. Then, during the day we try to work with this motivation, and when the evening comes when we have returned to our home then we should check how we’ve done during the day regarding our motivation. If our motivation was good then we should rejoice and we should say, “Tomorrow I will practise in the same way.”
If, on the other hand our motivation was bad, and we accumulated non-virtue and sin, then we should become aware that we have accumulated sin and we should engage in confession, using either the recitation of the Vajrasattva mantra or the sutra of confession. There is no such thing as a non-virtue which cannot be purified by confession, and by forceful confession and purification it can be completely eliminated. By middling confession and purification it can be greatly reduced and with small confession and purification at least it will be prevented from increasing. Otherwise, non-virtuous karma doubles in potency every day. So after one day it is two times as powerful, after two days it is four times as powerful, and so forth.
We are all similar in wanting happiness and we are all similar in wishing not to experience suffering. We are all similar in not knowing how to obtain happiness and we are all similar in not knowing how to eliminate suffering. So, it is capital for us to understand what is to be practised and what is to be abandoned. The Buddha from his own side cannot cleanse our sufferings by himself. All he can do is teach what is to be engaged in because by teaching what is to be engaged in he teaches the road to happiness and to teach what is to be abstained from which leads to the elimination from suffering. So, it is through listening to the advice, to the teachings of the Buddha, that we benefit. If we do not listen to this then we will not benefit. Dharma, therefore, is meant to be practice. Dharma is nothing other but the twin collection of what is to be practised and what is to be abandoned. If we engage in the practice of this advice then we can be said to have taken refuge in dharma. In turn, through respect for him who teaches this we have taken refuge in the Buddha, and through respect for those who accompany us we will have taken refuge in the sangha. There is no other refuge than this. The Buddha said:
I do not take the suffering of beings with my hand. I do not cleanse their faults with water. I do not transmit my realizations to them. It is through teaching suchness that I benefit beings.
Here in the broadest sense of the term, teaching is to be understood as a teaching of the four noble truths. The two first truths – the truth of suffering and the cause of suffering – are what is to be abandoned. The two latter truths – the truth of cessation and the path, the noble path – are what is to be practised. It is in dependence on the two later truths that one can attain liberation. So, there is no other means but this for the Buddha to benefit us.
Buddha has infinite compassion and would not abandon one single sentient being, unlike some versions what has been told of the Christian God. So, in this case it is through teaching that the Buddha helps and it is through this connection of the blessing of the Buddha and the capacity of beings which is necessary. They are of equal potency. Both are necessary. We ourselves can be understood as sick. Someone who is sick receives two categories of advice from his doctor. The doctor here corresponds to the Buddha: The first category of advice is what is to be engaged in. The doctor will say you should take this and this medicine. The second category of advice what should be avoided. Our doctor will say you should not eat this or that. If we are serious about getting well then we will follow the advice of our doctor. In other words, to use the Buddhist version of the metaphor, we will practise.
Likewise, diseases are of two categories: bodily and mental diseases. Bodily diseases can be treated by the doctor and we take physical medicine for them. Mental diseases cannot be treated by doctors and can only be treated by the Buddha. For them we need mental medicine. For that matter, a doctor cannot even eliminate physical diseases, since the root of physical diseases is mental. The roots of mental diseases are the three afflictions – of desire, anger and ignorance. The antidote or the medicines against these three afflictions are renunciation or definite emergence, which is the antidote against desire; bodhichitta, which is the antidote against anger; and the view of emptiness, which is the antidote against ignorance. In dependence on these three we can eliminate completely mental afflictions and mental diseases. If we actually understand that mental and bodily diseases both arise from the mind, we can see how through training in these three principals of the path, increasing them ever-more, we can eliminate totally all the diseases of the body and all the diseases of the mind. Then, on this basis we can become arhats or eventually buddhas. So, this is why the main practises of the arhats and the buddhas are practises to eliminate mental ailments.
As Je Tsong khapa said:
Fortunate are we to receive these teachings which can transform our minds.
At present, it is important to understand how to listen to the teachings and how the teachings are to be listened to. Generally speaking, if the teachings are listed to appropriately or correctly, then our minds will be transformed, otherwise there will be no benefit for our mind. So if one understands clearly how to listen to the teachings, then in turn one will be able to foster good qualities within one’s mind and to eliminate the wrong ones. At present, we are extraordinarily fortunate because we have obtained a human rebirth in which dharma can be practised, we are able to listen to such dharma, we have teachers who explain the dharma, and we actually have the freedom to engage in dharma practice. This is a sign of great good fortune, and we can practise whichever dharma we choose to practise, whether it is the Sutrayana or the Tantrayana; we can listen to whatever we choose to listen to in function of our wishes. This is a sign of great good fortune. This center at present is close to us, the dharma taught here is pure dharma, and we have good dharma friends, so instead of going far away and undergoing great hardship, we can with great ease listen to the teachings.
The dharma to which we are listening is that dharma which is taught by the Buddha Shakyamuni, which was examined using reasoning by the great pandits of ancient India, and which was realised and actualised by the great yogis. This is a dharma which is unmistaken and authentic, and very fortunate are we indeed to listen to these great teachings of Je Tsong khapa. Reflecting on the fact that all of these teachings have been assembled and we are on the receiving end of such an extraordinary transmission, we should become very joyful, and instead of being annoyed or irritated, we should smile and laugh and sit at ease. So, if both the teacher and the students smile and laugh at each other during the teachings, then their minds will be at ease and the students will understand with great facility the dharma – it will enter in their minds. On the other-hand, if the students are dull, depressed and upset, then nothing is going to enter into their minds at all.
Regarding the way to actually listen to the dharma, there are three faults from which one must abstain. Generally speaking, a person who listens to the dharma can be compared to a vessel – they are the recipient of the teachings, and if any of these three faults are present then the dharma is of no benefit to them. The first of these three faults is the fault of being a filthy vessel. In the self-same way as if a recipient for food is contaminated by something which is very dirty and very smelly, then whatever food we pour inside, however good the food might be, will also be contaminated. Likewise, using this as an example, we can see that if our minds are contaminated by anger or by desire, then the teachings are of no benefit to us and, therefore, we must have an upright, an honest mind which is not contaminated by desire or by anger, or for that matter by any worldly thoughts.
The second fault is the fault of a vessel which is placed upside down. In worldly matters we know that if we take a receptacle and we place it upside down, whatever food we try to pour inside will never even enter the receptacle, and there will be no benefit in trying to pour the food inside. Likewise, if when we attend teachings, instead of concentrating on the teachings, listening carefully and then allowing the teachings from our ears to penetrate our minds and to be held by our minds, we are absent-minded, we think motivated by desire or by anger or worldly matters so that teachings do not even enter within our ears, then the teachings do not have a chance to reach our minds, and in turn cannot be practised. Since the goal of attending teachings is to practise, there will be no point in coming to teachings in the first place. Therefore, we must listen carefully, retain within our minds and practise.
The third fault is that of a vessel which is pierced. We know very well that if we try to pour nutrients in a vessel which has a hole in its base, then however much we pour in the vessel, it does not accumulate and just flows out through the base of the vessel. This is a metaphor for what happens when one attends teachings and does not retain the teachings. Then, however much one attends and however many teachings one listens to, they do not accumulate in the mind, they just flow straight out and, therefore, it is capital when one attends teachings to retain carefully what was taught and if possible to enumerate them: ‘this was taught first, this was taught second, this was the third topic’ – if one is able to enumerate them in this way, then one will be able to remember the teachings. If one does not remember the teachings, it is impossible to practise them and then there will be no point in attending the teachings in the first place. One encounters, for instance, sometimes people who after attending teachings are asked ‘What did Geshe-la teach? and they say, ‘Well, he taught a lot of things, but I do not remember anything’ – then there is not a lot of point for having gone there in the first place.
So, these three are faults to retaining and practising the dharma and, therefore, they must be eliminated. We can eliminate them if we understand the benefit of the teachings. In the self-same way as in worldly matters most of us understand clearly the benefit of money. We can see that with money we can have good food, we can go on vacations, we can have a nice house and, therefore, most of us are engaged from morning until evening in the accumulation of money because we love money and we understand its benefits.
It is not the case that money is useless. Money is very useful. In this life money can buy us most of the things we need; unfortunately money is useless beyond this life. At the point of death, we leave our body behind and it is not the case that we go into nothingness. Instead, what happens at the time of death is that our body and mind separate and we leave our old body behind and our mind moves onwards; then, where the mind goes has to be very much the question that we ask ourselves. There are only two directions in which the mind can go at the time of death – the mind can go up or it can go down, there is no third alternative. Going upwards, the mind basically moves to the higher realms – the realms of the human beings, of demi-gods, of gods or for that matter for the Hinayana practitioners it can move upwards through the status of an arhat, or for the Mahayana practitioners via the path of the bodhisattva, all the way up to full enlightenment, while moving downwards the mind sinks into the bodies of animals, of pretas or even into the hell realms.
Whether the mind moves upwards or downwards – whether our next body is a body of the higher or the lower realms depends exclusively on whether virtue or non-virtue are present in the mind. If virtue is present in the mind, the mind will move upwards; if non-virtue is present, the mind will move downwards. Virtue in turn means that we experience happiness in future lives, and non-virtue means that we experience suffering. Dharma is nothing else but the means to give rise to virtuous, worthy states of mind, whereas afflictions are nothing else but those non-virtuous states of mind which lead us to the lower realms.
We are very lucky because we accept the Buddhist teachings, the dharma; many do not accept the dharma. For instance, there are many that do not accept the reality of reincarnation, of past and future lives. Then, someone who does not accept reincarnation does not have the beginnings of the dharma – there is no place in that person’s mind for the dharma – they do not have a clue what the dharma is about. Then, such beings basically get caught in the affairs of this life; they are worldly beings – they are totally preoccupied with worldly affairs in the self-same way as an animal for instance who does not understand anything, who is basically stupid, is preoccupied exclusively with food and water, and if we were to give this animal money, the animal would not know what to do with it because he does not understand the benefit he could derive from money. In the self-same way, someone who does not believe in past and future lives does not understand the benefit which he could derive from dharma and, therefore, attaches no value to it. So, Je Tsongkhapa says:
We are very fortunate indeed to have met the teachings and it behoves us to practise them.
Therefore, these are the three interferences to hearing the dharma; there are also in addition three favourable conditions; actually, technically six favourable conditions which should be present – these so called six recognitions, but when they are subsumed, they can be subsumed into three which are capital. These three which must be present for these teachings to be of benefit for us is first the recognition of ourselves as a patient; second, the recognition of the teachings or the dharma as medicine, and third, the recognition of the teacher of the dharma as a doctor. The first recognition, the recognition of ourselves as a patient is fundamental because if we say we are sick then we will naturally try to find a doctor to heal the disease, otherwise if at the beginning we do not recognise that we are sick then we will not even bother to try to find the doctor. The doctor in question can give medicine to eliminate the disease. A wise doctor, a learned doctor, will understand clearly the disease he is trying to heal and will prescribe precisely the appropriate medicine; however, it is incumbent upon the patient to take the medicine. If the patient does not take the medicine which is prescribed, however good it is, it will be of no benefit whatsoever. So this is the lay of the land for worldly diseases – here we are speaking of dharma diseases – the diseases of the mind.
To start with we do not recognise that we are mentally ill; it is clear that without this, there is no practice. In this world of ours, cancer is probably the worst disease – there is no real treatment. If you have cancer you will eventually die. Our mental diseases are of this order; these mental diseases are anger which is a disease, envy which is a disease, competitiveness which is a disease; desire which is a disease. Here we are using bodily diseases, which are worldly diseases as a metaphor for the mental diseases, however, as long as we say ‘I am not ill; I am not sick’, the buddhas can be of no help. The medicine the buddhas prescribe is the dharma, it is medicine for the mind. When we are angry, we can see just how ill we are – our face goes red and flushed and we lose all control over what we say. When desire arises we cannot sit still. When envy arises we turn green and look at people askance.
Once we have these diseases, from a dharma standpoint they must be eliminated, and once we eliminate these mental theses, the bodily diseases will eventually disappear. An arhat is none other than a being who has eliminated all mental diseases, all mental afflictions; therefore, dharma is what puts an end to mental diseases, and the doctor can in no way do so. He who is able to eliminate mental diseases, to teach the way to be free from mental diseases is the Buddha, hence, the meaning of the mantra or the dharani of the medicine Buddha. “TAYATA”, which means ‘This is the one’, or ‘This is the one who can heal’. “BEKANDZE BEKANDZE”, ‘BEKANDZE’ means ‘Doctor’, so hear one is saying ‘Doctor, Doctor’ two times. “MAHA BEKANDZE” means ‘Great Doctor’. “RANDZA” means ‘King of the Doctors’, “SAMUDGATE” is a term of entreaty in Sanskrit, it means ‘Please heal me from the disease’, and, therefore, in dependence on the Buddha we are able to eliminate the diseases of desire, of hatred and of ignorance which are the mental diseases. (TAYATA / OM BEKANDZE BEKANDZE / MAHA BEKANDZE / RANDZA / SAMUDGATE SOHA)
So, there are many physical or bodily diseases. We have the so-called ‘cold’ diseases in Tibetan medicine – wind diseases, bile diseases and so forth. In the self-same way there are countless afflictions, all perhaps can however be subsumed within three main afflictions which are the worst afflictions – these are respectively desire, anger and ignorance. The antidote to the mental disease of desire has to be a mental phenomenon. It is a mental disease and it can only be countered by a mental phenomenon and, therefore, the antidote is definite emergence or renunciation. Through meditating on definite emergence it is possible to completely uproot desire. Regarding the second affliction or mental disease which is anger, the antidote or the medicine for anger is love or bodhichitta. Through meditating on love or bodhichitta it is possible to totally destroy anger. The third mental disease or affliction is ignorance (or nescience in Skt.). To uproot this from the root, one must meditate on the view of emptiness. Through meditating on emptiness, it is possible to uproot it. Ignorance is the root of the other two afflictions – desire and anger; and therefore, ignorance is the worst of all afflictions in the self-same way as it is said that diseases of the blood are the worst of all diseases. All of the afflictions rest upon desire and for this reason it is said that the arhats, in Tibetan dgra bchom pa, ‘those who have destroyed the enemy’ – the enemy here refers to the afflictions and to ignorance. The arhats, therefore, do not experience any suffering since they have eliminated all diseases. So the dharma doctor eradicates the diseases from the very root, whereas worldly doctors are unable to eradicate even bodily diseases from the very root.
Therefore, there are two categories of diseases – bodily and mental diseases. We can now see that mental diseases are the worst, and we suffer as we understand, clearly from the lot of them. We suffer from desire, from anger, from ignorance, from competitiveness, from spite and envy and it is capital for us to understand that we have mental diseases – that we are mentally ill. Once we understand that we are ill, we will turn to a doctor and seek for his or her help. So, here the mental doctor, if you want, the psychiatrist is the Buddha, however, we have not had the opportunity to meet with the Buddha, we have met with his surrogate, with his representative, with the spiritual teacher and through understanding that we ourselves are ill, we will understand that we must ask for the dharma – that we need the dharma, and without this it is impossible to eliminate mental diseases. However, it is not just enough to have the dharma, the dharma must also be ingested as we ingest the medicine. It must, therefore, be practised. If we practise renunciation we can eliminate desire; if we practise love and bodhichitta, we can eliminate anger, and if we practise the view of emptiness, we can eliminate ignorance. Otherwise, if going to a doctor we just receive the medicine and put it on a side table, it will be of no benefit to us at all. If we practise, it is definite that we are able to eliminate the mental diseases which afflict us. In the past many great beings and arhats have done so and this is something we should plan on doing slowly not only in this life but life after life until we reach the goal.
Both listening and explaining the dharma has a great goal, a great objective; it is none other than eliminating both afflictions and their karmic imprints from the very root. Afflictions are akin to a foul substance which is poured within the mind, and even when it is removed, the scent of this foul substance still remains, this is what are the karmic imprints, of the afflictions. Both of these, both these foul substance and the afflictions must be eliminated from the root and he who eliminates these from the root is the Buddha. Through understanding that all sentient beings are none other than our fathers and mothers of past lives, one gives rise to the wish to eliminate completely suffering and having attained the state of full enlightenment oneself, one can then place millions and millions of beings in a state of liberation. This is a great goal indeed.
So, we have obtained a very valuable human rebirth, and for it not to go to waste, for it to be meaningful we should practise dharma, otherwise this rebirth is a waste. If we want to accomplish our own goals, our own benefit we need the dharma, and if we want to accomplish the benefit of others we need the dharma too. Therefore, both for our own welfare and that of others we need the dharma. As for worldly matters, they cannot accomplish our ultimate benefit in any respect. Therefore, we should practise in this way to help all sentient beings, understanding that it is the dharma and the dharma alone which can lead to our true and ultimate happiness and goal and eliminate completely from the root, suffering. Worldly activities and worldly matters can in no way lead to our pure true and ultimate goal, nor can they eliminate from the root, suffering. In the past, buddhas have practised in this way and this is how we should practise. If every morning when we wake up we say to ourselves for days, weeks, months and years: “Today I will do my best to accomplish the welfare of all sentient beings”, then we will have led this human rebirth to its true fruition. Even though at present we are unable to benefit all sentient beings, through every day generating this motivation, the capacity, the force of our mind will increase over time until we are able to do so.
So, since we have covered the three interfering conditions, the three faults of the vessel; we have also covered the three discriminations and the purpose or the reason for listening to the dharma. The purpose for listening to the dharma is to eliminate all afflictions from our mind, and it is possible to do so if we meditate – this is proven by past practitioners. If on the other hand we do not meditate, then it is impossible for this to happen.
As the dharma which is being presented is Mahayana dharma, then one has to train in bodhichitta as the antidote to self-cherishing. In this context it is self-cherishing and the ignorance which apprehends the self as truly existent which are the objects to be eliminated. So bodhichitta targets, is aimed, at self-cherishing and can destroy self-cherishing which is a fierce enemy. Likewise, the mind which realises emptiness is targeted or is aimed at the ignorance which apprehends the self as truly or inherently existent and once these two are destroyed – once self-cherishing and the ignorance which apprehends the self as truly existing are destroyed, then we will have attained full enlightenment. So, a lot of work has fallen on our shoulders, and we should generate joy with the thought that we are aiming at attaining full enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is not easy!
It is beneficial if we listen to and have the teachings explained to us in a meaningful fashion. It will only be meaningful if the teachings impact our minds, and if progressively the worthy, the virtuous states of mind increase and if the vicious, the evil states of mind decrease. In past lives we have been overwhelmed by the evil and non-virtuous states of mind, and the virtuous states of mind have been very weak in their capacity to manifest. Now the time has come to smash the evil states of mind, this is the opportunity to do so, and to allow the virtuous states of mind to increase. The more we become accustomed to this, the easier it will become. There is nothing which becomes harder as one becomes accustomed to it. Instead, as we become accustomed it becomes easier and easier and we will reach our goal. All sentient beings will reach full enlightenment. Many eons ago Buddha Shakyamuni was just like us, transmigrating through cyclic existence under the power of his delusions, and yet he met a spiritual friend, a spiritual teacher, he relied upon him, he trained his mind and he obtained full enlightenment. We ourselves can also do the same thing. This is definite.
We should keep this in our minds, to fuse our minds with it, and then our minds will improve. Otherwise, if we just put it aside when we leave the teaching there will be no benefit. Most definitely our minds can improve. If we think of a child who attends school, the child progresses almost imperceptibly from class to class, and suddenly he has grown up into a university student.
Geshe Chekawa who was a great bodhisattva in Tibet had a marvellous expression. He said:
Regarding this afflicted mind, the vase has one great quality: whatever it wants to attain, it understands how to attain.
As Buddha Shakyamuni said in a famous quote of which we will translate the first verse at present (which is an oral instruction regarding karma and causality):
The embodied are affected by the twofold categories of karma.
Now, in this verse the term ‘the embodied’ actually refers to sentient beings. Sentient beings are said to be embodied. In general sentient beings have body and mind, and sentient beings can be imputed on either. When the concept is imputed on an entity with a body, it is said to be an embodied creature, and this is the term which is used here. While in general, sentient beings are said to have five aggregates, and sentient beings can be imputed on any of the five aggregates, in this specific context they are imputed on the basis of the form aggregate. The term ‘the embodied’ does not apply for sentient beings of the formless realms, who do not have a coarse physical body, although they do have subtle bodies. In this context, Buddha is speaking of interdependence – dependent origination. What is interdependence? Interdependence is the arisal of an effect in dependence on a cause. We have to make a distinction between karma and causality on the one hand and interdependence on the other hand. Karma and causality are included within interdependence, which has a larger scope, while karma and causality have a smaller scope. For instance, karma and causality can be understood to refer to new deeds which are performed under the impulse of a motivation by one actor. This is something which refers specifically to karma and causality, but we have many instances for instance of dependent origination or interdependence which are not karma and causality. For instance, a seed can give rise to crop, or to a tree. This is a case of interdependence. This is not a case of karma and causality.
A famous example one could give of karma and causality in operation would be when an actor, a subject, under the influence of faith in the Buddha makes a prostration to the Buddha. In so doing so, he or she accumulates virtuous karma. An example of non-virtuous karma would be, motivated by the desire to eat fish, to kill a fish, and then eat it. This will be a case of non-virtuous karma. Likewise, motivated by the desire to eat fowl, to kill a bird and then to eat its flesh would be a case of non-virtuous karma. There are three different categories of karma: virtuous karma, non-virtuous karma, and neutral karma. The two first categories are powerful. The third category, neutral karma, is not able to give rise clearly to an effect. When we say that the two first categories – virtuous and non-virtuous karma – are powerful, we mean that they give rise to powerful effects, which in the case of virtuous karma are happiness, and in the case of non-virtuous karma are unhappiness. Therefore, all virtue without exception gives rise to happiness, and all non-virtue without exception gives rise to suffering. As Nagarjuna said:
From non-virtue arises suffering and thereby all of the lower realms.
The lower realms here refer to the three lower realms of the animals, of the pretas, and the hell realms. The quote continues and reads:
From virtue arises all of the happiness of the higher realms.
This refers to the higher realms of human beings, demigods and gods.
There are in addition three divisions of karma from the standpoint of how the effect matures. These can be understood as the mode of maturation of the effect in which the effect matures within this life. This is said to be karma which is seen within one lifetime; then, karma which does not mature in one life but matures in the following life; and the third category of karma is karma which matures in some future life other than the immediately following life. The first category of karma is karma which arises from deeds performed with respect to the heaviest objects. For a worldly being, this would be one’s parents, whereas for a dharma practitioner this would be one’s spiritual teacher or the Buddha. One’s parents for a worldly being are the heaviest karmic object because it is thanks to the kindness of one’s parents that we have obtained this body, that all interfering conditions have been eliminated, and all beneficial conditions have been created. It is actually thanks to the kindness of our parents that we survive. Without this kindness, we would not be here.
If we were to harm, let alone to kill our parents, then the non-virtuous deed would be extraordinarily heavy, and would lead to karmic maturation within this very life. Likewise, for a being who is a dharma practitioner, any harm inflicted to the spiritual teacher or the Buddha would have the same type of result within one lifetime. The second category of karmic deeds are deeds which are not able to mature within one lifetime, but which would mature in the following life. This would, for instance, be cases of virtuous deeds which have been accumulated and which in the next life will lead us to obtain a human rebirth. Third category of deeds are deeds which are too weak to mature in the following life, but which will most definitely mature quietly over time in future lives. It is not a case they will not mature. We will definitely experience them at some point in the future.
Therefore, it is not the case that when karma has been accumulated its effect does not arise. Its effect will arise eventually, after numerous years, even after eons. If the cause has been accumulated, it will not be destroyed, and it can give rise to an effect. So, here when we speak of karma we are speaking of causes. For causes to give rise to their effects, both the cause itself and the conditions are necessary. If both are absent the effect cannot arise. However, once the cause is created and the conditions have been assembled, then the effect will necessarily arise. If we take the twofold division of karma into virtuous and non-virtuous karma, virtuous karma can actually be destroyed through powerful anger. Anger, therefore, is extremely powerful in this respect. Non-virtuous karma, on the other hand, can be destroyed by the powerful application of its antidotes. Otherwise, if it is not actually destroyed it will survive for countless eons.
If we were to take the example of a field in which seeds have been planted, the seed are actually the cause of the crop. However, without the conditions of water, of warmth, and of manure, in other words, among others, of rain, then even if the seed is present it cannot give rise to a crop, to its effect. However, it will stay in the ground for centuries and when the conditions are assembled the seed will give rise to a crop. So, the conditions which lead to the maturation of virtuous karma are, for instance, faith or conviction. The conditions which lead to maturation of non-virtuous karma are, for instance, anger or desire. Therefore, it is capital for us to understand clearly karma and causality, from which all arise, and specifically from which all events in future lives arise. This is the core of the Lam Rim presentation. For instance, we very casually commit minor infractions, minor non-virtuous deeds without reflecting that a minor non-virtuous deed can give rise to a huge result. This is something we do not understand. Likewise, very small virtuous deeds can in turn give rise to a huge result. So, when we accumulate small non-virtues it is capital to confess them. Otherwise, when they grow important, they can impel a rebirth to the hell realms or a preta realm. We talk frequently and casually about bodhichitta and about the view of reality. It is difficult for these, however, to be generated independently of karma and causality. In ancient India one of Atisha’s gurus was Avadhutipa, and when Avadhutipa and Atisha were traveling together as guru and disciple, Avadhutipa addressed Atisha, whose view was a Prasangika view. He said to him, “Atisha, in dependence on a space-like view, many scholars and noble ones were reborn in the hell realms. They were reborn in the hell realms in dependence on karma and causality. ”
We now continue on page 17 of the English text in the middle, the meaning of the stanza:
When suffering arises in one’s mind,
Since, it is definitely through having troubled the mental continuum of others,
That the sword of evil karma has circled [back] upon me,
At present, may I take all duhkha without exception upon myself!
It will not be possible to go into detail through Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche’s commentary, which would be extraordinary, but it is very long. Trijang Rinpoche taught from experience. Therefore the focus will be mainly on the root text, which is in bold letters here.
When suffering arises in one’s mind,
The first verse, ‘suffering’ here refers to a feeling of discomfort or unease. ‘One’s mind’ is the mind of oneself, the ‘I’ which is referred to here.
Since it is definitely through having troubled the mental continuum of others,
‘Others’ here refers to the guru – to one’s spiritual teacher, to one’s parents, to one’s friends, or to sentient beings in general. Generally speaking, whatever suffering arises within our mindstream – and as we know we experience a lot of mental suffering – is not causeless. This suffering is an effect, and there is no such thing as an effect which does not have a cause. What is pointed out here in verse two is the cause of the effect which was indicated in verse one. So here, the effect is one’s own mind being troubled, and we experience these extreme mental sufferings ourselves through having troubled the minds of others.
The third verse:
That the sword of evil karma has circled [back] upon me.
The term ‘the sword’ actually refers to the effect which we are experiencing. This is the non-virtuous karma which strikes at us as a result of what we it have inflicted upon others. It is akin to terrorists who plant bombs and then themselves are the recipients of an explosion. Moving onwards to the fourth verse:
At present, may I take all duhkha without exception upon myself.
‘Duhkha’ refers to suffering. What is said here is that whatever suffering others are experiencing we take upon ourselves, and upon taking upon ourselves it actually destroys our own suffering.
In this context we are studying Lojong or mind training. What is meant by Lojong? The core practice of Lojong is giving and taking, or tong len. Generally speaking, we are afflicted by two main sources of problems: self-cherishing and the ignorance which apprehends the self as inherently existing. Self-cherishing refers to that mind which wishes for us and us alone to be happy. It is that worst of all minds which wishes us and us alone to be peaceful, happy and contented. Under its influence, we have been revolving in cyclic existence from beginningless time. So, this is the mind which we must eliminate, which we must purify. How do we do this? We do this through purifying it by other-cherishing, which acts as the means whereby self-cherishing destroyed. This is why in the Guru Puja, in the blama mchod pa (in Tibetan), self-cherishing is referred to as an epidemic. It is an epidemic because this is really the worst of all diseases, which destroys everything on its passage. Therefore, it is the principal cause of all suffering. In dependence on it, all suffering arises.
So, in our cases what do we want? We want to be happy and we want to eliminate suffering, or pain. To be happy, we have to cultivate other-cherishing. We experience suffering and pain under the impulse of self-cherishing. Now, self-cherishing and other-cherishing are directly antithetical. They are antidotes. If you want, self-cherishing is the target of other-cherishing. It is what other-cherishing is aimed at and what other-cherishing destroys. Since we have been afflicted by self-cherishing from beginningless time, it is very powerful within our minds, and it is difficult to destroy. It dwells within our minds in harmony with the ignorance which apprehends phenomena as inherently existing. So, all of Lojong, all of mind training, is nothing else but this training in other-cherishing and abandonment of self-cherishing, and for this we start training in the practice of giving and taking, of tong len. Tong len is a practice where we take upon ourselves the totality of the suffering of others and we use it as a bomb, if you want, to destroy the suffering within our own minds.
What is the other-cherishing we are talking about here? This other-cherishing is a cherishing for all other sentient beings, who are our mothers. If we reflect on the fact that all sentient beings are our mothers, then it is obvious that we must love and cherish our mothers, since the kindness of our mothers is inconceivable, and that actually, if we make our mothers happy, if we made in this life our mothers happy, all would be fine. So, if we made all our mothers happy, the situation is extraordinary. This is why is said in the Guru Puja, that even if all sentient beings rose as my enemies, seeing them as my mother, I will not harm them, and even though they arise as my enemies, I will cherish them.
As Shantideva says:
Whatever happiness there is within this world arises from others, and whatever suffering there is in this world arises from cherishing one’s own self.
Shantideva adds:
I need not say much about this. Merely observe the buddhas act endlessly for the weal of others and as a result have become enlightened. Ordinary beings focus only on their own weal and as a result remain mired in suffering. What need is there to add anything more?
Just look. Then, people who do not look and just sleep, do not understand anything. Then, to will conclude with another verse on the middle of page 18:
When afflicted by fierce [pangs of] hunger and thirst,
Since [it is] from having swindled, stolen, plundered and from being tight-fisted,
That the sword of evil karma has circled [back] upon me,
At present, may I take on all [the pangs of] hunger and thirst.
In this stanza, the first verse
When afflicted by fierce [pangs of] hunger and thirst,’
refers to the experience we are undergoing. We all have experienced hunger and thirst to a degree. We know what it means not to have enough to eat, to feel the pangs of hunger, or not to have enough to drink and to have a dry mouth. Vasubandhu famously said:
Beings are afflicted by the disease of lack of food. When food is completely insufficient they die.
This first verse as we said, refers to the effect which is experienced. Now, ourselves generally speaking in a country such as this one, we are not fully aware of the extent of hunger and thirst. There are in Australia people who suffer from extreme hunger and thirst, but in our case this is not really something we understand. This effect, with the first verse, which is ‘experiencing the pangs of hunger and thirst’, as an effect, necessarily has a cause. It arises from causes and conditions. No effect arises spontaneously. It arises in dependence on a cause, and the cause is given in the second verse. The cause is, in past lives, to have
…swindled, stolen, plundered and having been tight-fisted,
Here, the Tibetan word used for ‘swindled’ implies an element of violence applied to it, whereas the verb used for ‘stolen’ implies using deceit and deviousness. ‘Plundered’ implies the use of extreme violence and being tight-fisted refers to situations where we ourselves are well-off but we turn our heads away from the needs of others and refuse to help them. In every single case we accumulate thereby non-virtuous karma. The effect of that non-virtuous karma is referred to in verse three. It is ‘the sword of evil karma’ that revolves back upon us and that sword which revolves back upon us inflicts upon us a result similar to the cause, which is that we experience karma of thirst. Therefore, to eliminate this we take the resolve in the fourth verse to engage in the practice of tong len, and giving and taking, ‘At present, may I take on all the pangs of hunger and thirst.’ This refers to taking on the hunger and thirst of others which is thereby used to eliminate our own hunger and thirst and therefore to eliminate both our own hunger and thirst and that of others. Therefore, here since both our own experience of hunger and thirst and the experience of hunger and thirst of others arise actually from our own self-cherishing and from striving for our own happiness is in turn gives rise to other’s experiences of being swindled, of being robbed, of being plundered for that matter. Then, we can see that this self-cherishing which we have for ourselves is the worst of all possible enemies, because not only is it the cause of our own hunger and thirst, it is also the cause of the hunger and thirst of others.
The bodhisattvas understand clearly that self-cherishing is the enemy, since it is through self-cherishing that not only we ourselves are harmed but others are harmed as well. They understand clearly that others and cherishing others is the ultimate friend, since it is in dependence on others and others alone that we can give rise to our own happiness and eliminate our own suffering. These are the deeds of a friend. In dependence on cherishing one’s own self, on self-cherishing and egotism only suffering arises. Therefore, this can truly be called an enemy. Obviously, we are small so we do not really understand these things and when we hear that we ourselves are our own enemies, we bonk ourselves on the head and say, “How can I be my enemy?” but when we grow up we will understand better.
So we have reached this life through the impetus of karma and we are subject to impermanence. As Shantideva says:
When impermanence strikes what can we hope to do?
Therefore, understanding clearly that all will go to waste, all will be abandoned – our friends, our relatives, our body and our wealth – we have to put effort into practice. In the context of this verse of Shantideva, one refers both to friends who are parents, relatives, sisters and so forth who are generally beings whom we like because they have benefitted us and for whom we have love, compassion and empathy, which are actually of the nature of desire and can be classified under the category of desire. In dependence on this in turn we accumulate a large amount of karma. The second category of beings is beings which we dislike – these are enemies, beings who we conceive as harmful with respect to whom we give rise to anger and animosity. Giving rise in dependence on these to hatred for them and accumulating large amounts of non-virtue.
The non-virtue which is accumulated with respect both to those with whom we are close – our friends and those whom we loathe, our enemies however, is a non-virtue which will accompany us and us alone because all our friends and enemies will die – we ourselves will remain. The desire and the hatred of this life will soon seem to us akin to a dream. However, the results, the effects of the karma which has been accumulated is something that we will have to necessarily experience. There is no one else but ourselves who will experience these karmic results. Both the friends and the enemies with regard to whom we have accumulated this karma themselves will not experience it. Therefore, it is ideal to generate equanimity or indifference with respect to both friends and enemies. This is a very good way to proceed since we and we ourselves will experience alone whatever non-virtue has been accrued with respect to them. They themselves will not. The best approach is to meditate on an equal mind with respect to all, and in dependence on this, a mind which lacks desire and anger will arise. Such a mind is a foundation for the uninterrupted generation of virtue. We ourselves have been under the influence of desire and hatred since beginningless time and we can say that the result of desire and hatred is exclusively suffering and is exclusively harmful. Therefore, looking at it in this way desire and hatred have on the one hand no purpose and on the other hand they have only faults. Therefore, it is imperative to destroy them, and in destroying them all qualities will arise.
On page 19 of the English translation, verse 21:
When powerlessly enslaved to others and tormented,
Since [it is] from loathing [one’s] inferiors and reducing in servitude,
That the sword of evil karma has circled[back] upon me,
At present, may I put mt body and life at the service of others.
Here ‘powerlessly’ refers to our situation when we are enslaved to others – when we are subservient to them, under their control, under their power. Others lord over us, they rule over us and the verb ‘tormented’ refers to the suffering which is inflicted upon us in this life by others – when we are killed, when we are beaten, when what we own is stolen from us not once but again and again. Now, this refers to a result and the result is a result of a cause which is explained in the second verse.
The second verse is:
Since [it is] from loathing [one’s] inferiors and reducing in servitude,
this here refers to having in a former life gathered under oneself others and lorded over them, inflicted suffering upon them, and as a result of this in this life we experience serving others and being tormented by others. Hence, in former lives we gathered others under our control and these include friends which we turned away from the virtuous path, beings whom we harmed in general, as well as the harm inflicted to our teachers or those striving for virtue. This refers to, having in former lives gathered others under our power and as a result of this in turn, being oneself under the power or the control of others. This does not refer to sentient beings who are sick and so forth.
The meaning of this verse is that whatever suffering we experience is not meaningless or causeless, it is the result of having done something similar to others in former lives. As the Buddha himself said:
As is the cause which you have created, or the effect, likewise will be the result.
Hence, when we create causes of inflicting harm or tormenting, controlling others in past lives, we will experience the same thing in this life.
Moving onwards to the following stanza at the bottom of page 19:
Upon hearing unpleasant words,
Since [it is] because of the faults of speech, such as divisive speech and so on,
That the sword of evil karma has circled [back] upon me,
At present, may I revile the faults of speech!
This is something all of us have direct experience of – we have direct experience of hearing harsh words or offensive words, and whenever this happens,
Upon hearing unpleasant words,
in the first verse, this happens as a result of ourselves in former lives having used offensive speech towards others, calling others thieves or murderers, saying ‘such and such has killed another’ and addressing this offensive speech to one’s teachers, to one’s friends. Then, as a result of this in this life we would experience a result thereof, which is hearing ourselves unpleasant words. Therefore, realising this we take the resolution expressed in the final verse,
At present, may I revile the faults of speech!
Which is that we will never use harsh or offensive words to our teachers, to our friends, to our parents, to our relatives and so forth.
Moving onwards to the following verse on page 20 at the bottom of page 20:
Upon taking birth somewhere in an impure land,
Since [it is] through continual meditation on impure appearances,
That the sword of evil karma has circled [back] upon me,
At present, I will exclusively meditate on pure appearances!
Here in the first verse ‘in an impure land’ refers to a land in which numerous sources of harm are present in the form of diseases, of epidemics, of civil war, of conflicts, of economic crisis, failing crops through drought and so forth. This is a result. It is the result of what is explained in the second verse, which is exclusively seeing faults in others and in one’s environment. When one exclusively sees faults in others, when one is consistently negative, then as a result of this one is reborn in an impure land. Therefore, as a resolution the fourth verse we resolve to exclusively meditate on pure appearances, in other words see others as pure, meditate on faith, conviction and so forth.
Then, on page 21, the stanza at the bottom of page 21:
When separated from beloved and helpful friends,
Since it is from luring others’ circles [of friends] to oneself,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
At present, I will not separate others from their circle [of friends].
The first verse refers to the result we are experiencing, when our own close and intimate friends leave us or we are separated from them and this is a result which is a result of the cause explained in verse two,
Since it is from luring others’ circles of friends to oneself,
this refers to friends, people we like, our beloved – in every single case these are people with whom we are extremely close and harmonious and in past lives we ourselves under the faults or under the power of envy or jealousy, separated others from those who were close to them – their boyfriends, girlfriends and so forth. As a result of this, in our life we in turn are separated from beloved and helpful friends. Therefore, in the final verse ‘at present’, from now on, ‘I will not separate’, in other words, ‘I will do nothing to alienate people from each other’. Instead everything I do will aim to make people remain in harmony with each other.
On page 22, the stanza:
When all the Holy Ones dislike me,
Since it is because of relying on evil friends after abandoning the Holy Ones,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
At present, I will give up evil friends.
Here, the terms ‘Holy ones’ refers to beings who are completely pure, completely virtuous, such as the guru, such as tulkus, nirmanakayas, such as spiritual teachers who are completely faultless. When the term ‘dislike’ is used, this does not refer to any anger in their mind, it refers to a manifestation of discontent – discontent, irrespective of what we do. Whatever offerings we make, however hard we try to serve them, nonetheless we do not seem to be able to do so. This is a result of the situation explained in the second verse, ‘
Since it is because of relying on evil friends after abandoning the holy ones,
this refers to our behaviour in past lives when we relied not on ordinary evil friends but impure teachers, those who actually taught us wrong behaviour such as stealing or killing, and when we actually have faith or respect or veneration for them, then in dependence on the non-virtuous karma which was accumulated which is referred to in verse 3, we then became at odds with our spiritual teacher. Therefore, it is said in verse 4, ‘at present I will give up’, literally ‘abandon evil friends and any relation with them’.
Now on page 23 the verse in the middle of the page:
When abused by others, defamed and vilified,
Since it is through debasing the Holy ones
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
At present, I will neither debase, nor misrepresent, nor vilify others.
So here in the first verse,
When abused by others, defamed and vilified,
the Tibetan term which is used is gros ‘khu. Gros actually means ‘to assert that something which was not done’, was done, and ‘khu refers to ‘khu ba dad pa to ‘assert that something which was done was not done’. They seem to correspond broadly speaking to misrepresentation and defamation. When either of these is present or is experienced in this life, and this is something which we can see for ourselves, it is not causeless, it is the result of past karma which has been accumulated, specifically what is explained in verse 2:
Since it is from debasing the Holy Ones
This can occur either in this life or in former lives and refers to debasing not only one’s teachers but also one’s parents, saying that they have done things which they have not done, or that they have not done things which they did. In turn,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
‘the sword’ here refers to the ‘effect’ – this is the effect of evil karma we are experiencing. At present one should read this as
From now onwards I will neither debase, nor misrepresent nor vilify others.
‘I will neither’ here means we should put an end permanently to this behaviour – this behaviour of asserting that others have done things which they have not done or not done things which they have done. In a nutshell, this is how one should understand karma and causality. In dependence on past behaviour we experience a result similar to the cause in this life and then realising that this is to be avoided we put an end to such behaviour for the future.
As was explained previously regarding karma and causality, karma can mature if it is powerful in this very life, if it is less powerful in the following life and if it is even weaker then that in some future life. Regarding the difference between virtuous and non-virtuous karma, non-virtuous karma which is accumulated under the power of desire and hatred, will give rise necessarily to a result unless it is purified, otherwise it abides indefinitely within the mind. As for virtuous karma, virtuous karma will necessarily give rise to a result unless it is destroyed by anger. Anger has the power to destroy virtuous karma. Anger will transform a powerful virtuous karma which would have ripened in this life, into a weak virtuous karma which will ripen in the next life. It will transform a weaker virtuous karma which will have matured in the next life into an even weaker virtuous karma which will mature in some future life, and it will transform a weak virtuous karma which would have matured in some future life into a karma which will no longer mature. Therefore, it is capital for us to dedicate our virtues to prevent them from being destroyed by anger.
Therefore, whatever happiness or suffering we experience at present is something which is not caused by others, by other human beings, nor is it caused as some believe by spirits or gods; not in any way at all – it is exclusively caused by the karma which we have accumulated. Others can in no way ultimately inflict suffering upon us. It is said that others, actually the Buddha himself, said famously:
Others can not harm us with earth and stones – it is only what is within our minds that can harm us.
So, it is the karma which we have accumulated ourselves which gives rise if it is virtuous karma to happiness, and if it is non-virtuous karma to suffering.
Faith in karma and causality, conviction in past and future lives is extremely rare. The conviction that virtue gives rise to happiness and non-virtue gives rise to suffering is rare to see. We see and hear in daily life and in the news all the time that people say ‘such and such harmed him’, ‘such and such slew him’, ‘this horrible event happened’ – this is a clear indication of absolute lack of conviction of karma and causality. If one is convinced of karma and causality, one understands clearly that these results are the results of the karma accrued by both the victim and the culprit. Who teaches karma and causality? The Buddha is the teacher of karma and causality – the Buddha teaches clearly ‘this, this and this give rise to this, this and this’; therefore, we have to have faith in the Buddha otherwise it is impossible for us to give rise to faith in karma and causality.
The Buddha said, ‘abandon all faults and lead all qualities to completion’. This is the path that we have to follow, and the Buddha understood clearly the full scope of karma and causality, examining the karmic causes of beings in the self-same way as if he held them in his hand, seeing them most clearly. Why was this the case? It was because the Buddha had abandoned all non-virtues, particularly he had abandoned both ‘kleshavarana’ and ‘jneyavarana’ – the obstructions of the afflictions and the obstructions to omniscience. In addition, the Buddha’s speech is honest, authentic speech – it is speech which is no way affected by dissimulation or lying under the influence of desire or hatred. This is the case because the Buddha has eliminated all faults within his mindstream, unlike ordinary beings, who when they teach for their own benefit, encouraging students in one direction and discouraging them from another direction for their own sake. As is said in Dharmakirti’s Pramanavarttikakarika:
Because there is no result thereof, the Buddha in no way can utter a lie.
Ordinary beings are not at all in this situation. The Buddha himself understands the sum-total of phenomena – the actual situation of all phenomena – and has a love for sentient beings which is immeasurably superior to that of parents for their child. The love of the Buddha for sentient beings is like that of space, whereas the love of parents for their children can be compared merely to a hand. So, not only does the Buddha himself wish exclusively the well-being of sentient beings and in no way wishes to harm them, in addition he put tremendous effort to achieve his state of full enlightenment and it is in dependence on this that the Buddha teaches karma and causality. Dharma is nothing other than the practice of karma and causality – the teachings which were taught by the Buddha that ‘this cause gives rise to this effect’, and ‘that cause gives rise to that effect’.
The path of the being of three scopes – the path of the being of lesser, middling and greater scope – is nothing else but a practice of karma. The practice of the being of lesser scope is the practice of lesser karma; the practice of the being of middling scope is a practice of middling karma or middling result and the practice of the being of greater scope is the practice of greater karma or greater result. There is no such thing as a dharma which is not connected to karma and causality.
Scientists talk about interdependence, and the interdependence they are talking about is broadly speaking included within the one which we refer to. It is a dependence of phenomena on conditions, specifically interdependence rten ‘brel in Tibetan, means to depend on another – gzhan dag rtan las byung ba. Now this is sub-divided into three – coarse, subtle and very subtle interdependence. Coarse interdependence is cause interdependence – phenomena depend on their causes. Subtle interdependence is interdependence on parts, and the most subtle interdependence of all is the interdependence on nominal imputation. In this context we are speaking, however, of a very specific form of cause and interdependence, which is karma and causality. Karma actually refers to deeds, new deeds which are accumulated in dependence on a motivation by a single actor. In this case, such deeds are necessarily accumulated by beings since beings and beings alone can give rise to a motivation without which karma cannot be accumulated. So, inasmuch as the being itself or the person is an actor, is a subject, then it can give rise to a motivation and in turn act. In dependence on a virtuous motivation virtue will arise. In dependence on a non-virtuous motivation, non-virtue will arise. Therefore, one actor giving rise to one motivation in-turn generates one action. This is what is understood by karma. Referring to virtuous karma, one engages in addition to this, relying on conditions such as hearing, thinking and meditation, in activities which lead the virtuous karma to fruition. Non-virtuous karma is karma which is impelled by desire and by hatred.
Buddha himself manifested tremendous kindness to us in teaching karma and causality. If we reflect on the totality of the states of beings whether they are human beings, arhats, practitioners of the Lower Vehicle, of the Greater Vehicle, bodhisattvas or for that matter practitioners of Secret Mantra – in every single case their state of being is the result of the Buddha’s teachings. Being a human being is something which arises in dependence on karma and causality. It arises through abandoning the ten non-virtuous deeds, protecting ethics and making strong prayers to attain a human rebirth. Likewise, becoming a bodhisattva is the result of karma; specifically it is the result of the karmic cause of bodhichitta, and the practices of guru yoga and highest yoga tantra are also the result of karma and causality. All of these were taught without exception by the Buddha.
We, therefore, have to have faith in the Buddha. Having faith in the Buddha in turn we can have faith in karma and causality since the Buddha’s speech is faultless. The Buddha’s speech is faultless precisely because he gave up all faults and as such becomes an object of faith. Without faith there is no benefit whatsoever to practice. It is very difficult to consider any real benefit to practice if we lack faith in the dharma we practise. Therefore, we need both faith and conviction in the dharma, otherwise why bother? What is the point? If we practise on the other hand with faith, then most definitely there is benefit. Therefore, irrespective of the dharma we practise, it is imperative that we have faith and conviction that this dharma can eliminate suffering and give rise to happiness, otherwise there is no practice. Specifically, we must have profound faith in the spiritual teacher, in the guru, in the deity or the yidam, the tutelary deity which we practise and whichever dharma or ritual we engage in. Moreover, we must actually see the dharma and the books which carry this dharma as teaching the path to liberation, and have faith in them. This is indispensable for us. In dependence on this, we can progress. This is something which we lack. When we see how we treat books, we place them anywhere, we have no respect whatsoever for the written word of the dharma. Moreover, if we can practise seeing the guru, the deity and the path as one, then we will progress very fast. So, to do well in our practice we have to collect all of the requisite conditions, the harmonious conditions, then the result will arise. Otherwise, if we do not collect the requisite conditions, no result can arise. We should reflect upon this ourselves, and see whether we agree or not.
Nagarjuna said:
The root of liberation is wisdom. Likewise, the root of higher states, the states of god and man, is faith.
The root of liberation is wisdom because without the wisdom which realises emptiness there is no liberation; likewise, the root of higher states is said to be faith because higher states – human rebirth, divine rebirth – depend on karma and causality, and without faith in karma and causality there is no such attainment. Therefore, we also need faith. In a nutshell, for practices of the method component of the path, faith is principal. For practices of the wisdom component of the path, wisdom is principal.
As Chandrakirti says in Madhyamakavatara in a quote that will be fleshed later:
Beings are powerless…..
and so forth. Reflecting on this quote, we must understand that at present we have obtained a human rebirth which enables one to practise dharma, a good human rebirth. In dependence on the kindness of Buddha Shakyamuni we received stainless dharma teachings, faultless dharma teachings which we are able to practise without interference or difficulties of any type. Therefore, the first verse which means ‘having the capacity to practise whatever dharma we choose to practise’, refers here to the fact that whatever dharma we wish to engage in, whether it is the Lower Vehicle or the Greater Vehicle, or for that matter sutra and tantra, and within the Lower Vehicle reflection upon the four noble truths and so forth – whatever dharma we wish to practise, then, we have the capacity, the power to do so. We can therefore accomplish whatever we choose to accomplish in dependence on this human rebirth which enables us to practise whichever dharma we choose to practise. Whichever dharma is of benefit to us, we can engage in.
Since we have different mental dispositions, we must examine carefully our own mental disposition to see what is of benefit to us and then practise forcefully, put effort into this. In dependence on this we can obtain the result of our practice. If however, we do not put effort, if we do not practise forcefully, since a human life is fleeting and passes quickly, we will not accomplish our result, and there would not been any major benefit. On the other hand, if we are fickle in our practice – on one day we practise this form of dharma, and the second day another form of dharma, and on the third day yet another, and pass from one to the other – we will not be able to reap benefits. It will not be appropriate to say this practice is meaningless, but there is a component of meaninglessness to it, because we practise dharma to gain results. So, if we practise one form of dharma forcefully we will gain results. On the other hand, if we do not practise any form of dharma forcefully we will not gain results and there will not have been a lot of point.
As Atisha said:
This life is short, there are many realms and we do not know its duration.
In this world of ours, a human life is very short indeed, and it is very fleeting. Whatever our wish is, whatever our goal is, we have to accomplish it quickly. Therefore, at present we have all of the favourable conditions for accomplishing our dharma practise. If we do not accomplish it at present, then since when we die, which will happen to every one of us, apart from dharma nothing is of benefit. Then, our lives will have been, broadly speaking, wasted. At the time of death our body has to be left behind and our mind, our continuum, moves on. It moves on in function of only two factors: the virtue and non-virtue which have been accumulated. The mind moves on in function of virtue and non-virtue, impelled by its karma, in the self-same way as the shadow follows the hand. Wherever the hand goes, the shadow follows as well. In the self-same way the karma we have created, virtuous and non-virtuous, follows us through life after life like the shadow follows the hand. From virtue arises happiness, and from non-virtue, rebirth in the lower realms. Everything, therefore, depends on these two. Our destiny is akin to the two arms of a scale: When virtue is dominant one of the arms rises and the other sinks, but when non-virtue is dominant, this first arm then sinks in the lower realms and the other arm rises. So, once this has been accumulated, we have no power, no control left.
We ourselves at the time of death will have to leave alone, completely alone, our parents, our father, our mother, our friends will not be able to accompany us, and the road forwards at that point is a long and hard road, with great difficulties. On this road there are only two options: we either will have the resources, the means to eat, or we will lack the resources, the means to eat. Here when we speak of a long road we are referring to future lives; and the resources, or the means to eat, refers to dharma. If we have dharma we will have food. If we lack dharma we will lack food. This is a road on which there is great fear and anguish and on which we need a protector. Apart from the dharma there is no protector, and on this road beset with enemies and harm this is the only thing which can help us. Our helper on this road can only be the dharma. There is nothing else which can help us. Without the dharma we fall under the sway of sin, of the delusions. In the self-same way as the two arms of a scale, once one of the arms is weighed down, it sinks into the lower realms and there is nothing else for it to do. In the self-same way, having ourselves sunk in the lower realms, what can we hope for? So, if we do not find a means to be liberated from the lower realms we will most definitely sink into them, and having sunk into them we should ask ourselves who will we turn to? Who will we rely upon? We have no dharma. Then, we have no connection with the Buddha because of that, and there is no sangha. Then, who will protect us?
Once one is fallen in the lower realms beings of the lower realms accumulate almost exclusively non-virtue in huge amounts. Animals, for instance, are completely unable to practise any type of virtue. They only engage in non-virtuous activities such as fighting, stealing, devouring each other and so forth. Moreover, they have no understanding whatsoever, and whatever one tells them it is of little or no benefit. So, having fallen in the lower realms, since we continue accumulating non-virtuous karma continuously we will be reborn there for eons on end. Therefore, at present, while we have the possibility to protect ourselves, we should generate a good mind, we should abide or live in keeping with karma and causality, take refuge, practise virtue, abandon non-virtue, and in this way we can hope for a better rebirth. Therefore, when we rise in the morning we should generate a good motivation and think, “I will make this human life meaningful”, abandon the ten non-virtues, practise the ten virtues, resolve not to harm others and then behave in this way every single day. In this way, we will improve continually. Since the very essence of the Buddha dharma is bodhichitta, then with the resolution to lead all sentient beings to a state which is endowed with all happiness and bereft of all suffering, if with this as a goal we abandon non-virtue and practise virtue, the benefits are immeasurable.
Now with the stanza on page 24 of the English translation, the middle of page:
When the requisites go to waste,
Since it is through having been contemptuous of the requisites of others,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me.
At present, I will fulfil the needs of others.
Here, ‘requisites’ refer to whatever we need and we go to trouble to obtain, and having obtained it when we are unable to use it because it is gone to waste, in other words, another steals it from us, takes it from our hand or we are unable to use it, then, this actually is the result of either in this life, or in former lives, having been contemptuous of the requisites of others. In other words, having stolen the requisites of others, having plundered what they own ourselves and in dependence on this and this is indicated by the third stanza which refers to the result:
…the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me.
Here, this refers to ourselves in this life being plundered by others, having our possessions stolen. Therefore, we take the resolve indicated in the fourth verse,
At present, I will fulfil the needs of others.
In other words, at present I will not steal other’s valuables, I will not damage in any way the substances which they hold precious, I will restrain from this behaviour.
As the Buddha said:
As we have acted towards others, karmically likewise will we experience.
Buddha was talking about this in the context of karma and causality. Karma, or deeds, give rise to results or effects in the self-same way as a cause gives rise to a result. For instance, the cause of plundering, or stealing with violence, gives rise to a result. We ourselves, because we have accumulated these deeds in the past, experience these results at present. So, if one were to summarise Buddha’s teachings, they are quite straightforward: If we have benefited or harmed others, we ourselves, in turn, will be benefited or harmed.
The following stanza on the bottom of page 24 and the beginning of page 25, reads as follows:
When my mind is unclear and my heart unhappy,
Since it is through accumulating sins with respect to other beings,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me.
At present, I will abandon being a condition of sin for others.
Here, the first verse:
When my mind is unclear my heart unhappy,
refers to, for instance when we meditate and our mind is dull and obscured, or we try to recite our commitments and we are unable to do so or do not understand our recitations, or for that matter whenever we try to engage in whichever virtuous practise and we are simply unable to mentally do so, and in dependence on this, anger and irritation arises. Then, this is a result which arises from the cause explained in the second verse:
Since it is through accumulating sins with respect to other beings,
this refers, for instance, to accumulating sins with respect to others who are trying to practise virtue. These may be beings such as our teachers, they may be other monks, they may be our parents, our grandparents, and when they are trying to practise virtue, we talk, we deceive them, or for that matter we get angry with them and create obstructions to their own practise of virtue. As a result of this, ‘the sword of evil karma’ revolves back upon us, and as is said in the final verse,
At present I will abandon being a condition of sin for others.
In other words, I will not cause interferences for others and will not hinder their practice.
For instance, this arises when one does not understand what dharma is and one cannot stand others practising. So, one interferes with their practice. One talks to them while they are reciting their commitments or trying to concentrate, or then when they are trying to sleep after working hard, one interferes with their sleep and keeps them awake talking to them, behaving literally like a donkey or like an ass. This is extremely poor behaviour, and one sees this frequently in the West. One sees, for instance, people who have to study or who have to do recitations, who are put outside because it is said they are noisy, and others who do not do anything sit inside royally on seats and cushions. This happened in Tibet as well, and this is very poor behaviour indeed. One accumulates great non-virtue when one does this.
Moving on to the stanza on page 26:
When tasks are not accomplished and [one’s] mind and nervous system are perturbed,
Since it is through having interfered with the actions of the Holy Ones,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me.
At present, I will abandon all interferences.
Here, the tasks which are not accomplished refer either to worldly tasks or to dharma activities, and one’s mind is perturbed when however hard one tries one is unable to accomplish one’s goal. One’s work does not come to fruition. In dependence on this, anger and irritation arise. This is the result of what is explained in verse two,
…having interfered with the actions of the Holy Ones,
having interfered, for instance, through deceiving them, or through talking inappropriately, and as a result of this, whatever one tries to accomplish oneself will not be accomplished. Therefore, we take the resolve explained in line 4, to abandon all interferences, not merely to abandon, but actually to benefit them. These interferences refer both to worldly matters and to the dharma activities of others.
The following verse on page 27:
When irrespective of what I have done, the Gurus are displeased,
Since it is because of having been hypocritical towards the Holy Dharma,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me.
At present, I will reduce my hypocrisy towards the Dharma.
The first verse here means that when we are in the situation where whatever we do, irrespective of what we do we cannot please our teacher, then this is a result. It is the result of having been hypocritical with respect to the dharma as explained in line 2. In other words, when our teacher explains the teachings to us, to say, “Yes, this is exactly how I behave,” and to make a big show of it, when in fact we are not doing this at all, or on the outside behaving as if we were meditating and as if we kept our commitments, we recited our commitments, whereas in actuality neither meditating or keeping our commitments. There are such persons, and these people cannot please the teacher in the slightest because the spiritual teacher knows this for a fact. Then, as a result of this verse three says,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me.
Then we take the resolve,
At present, I will reduce my hypocrisy towards the Dharma.
The use of the verb ‘to reduce’ here indicates that probably we have all engaged in great dharma hypocrisy. Let us just try to bring it down a little bit.
The following stanza at the beginning of page 27 and the beginning of page 28:
When people talk back systematically,
Since it is because of having been bereft of shame and embarrassment,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me.
At present, I will refrain from the inappropriate!
The first verse,
When people talk back systematically,
refers to the situation where we help others, and even though we help them – for instance we help our students, our disciples, or for that matter our servants – then from their side there is only talking back, rebelliousness and obduracy. When we tell them to do something they say, “I won’t!” What we tell them to not behave in a certain way they say, “I will!” Now, this is a result. It is a result of what is explained in the second verse,
Since it is because of having been bereft of shame and embarrassment,
Here, the two terms ‘shame and embarrassment’ (In Tibetan ngo tsha and ‘bral yus) refer to very different states of mind. Shame arises with respect to oneself. For instance, if one is ordained and one has the thought of behaving badly, then with shame, or with ngo tsha, one thinks, “In light of my ordination, how could I do this? This is inappropriate.” Therefore the reference is ‘oneself’, ngo in Tibetan. On the other hand, ‘embarrassment’ refers to a feeling we have with respect to others. It arises in dependence on others, such as our spiritual teacher, our parents, our friends and so forth. Reflecting on the fact that our behaviour will cast us in a very bad light in their eyes and that they will no longer like us, but will dislike us, whereas we would like them to like us, this gives rise to suffering or to pain within our minds. Then, we think of ourselves, “I will not behave in this way. I cannot,” and we cease and desist from this behaviour. This is what is referred to as ‘bral yus, or embarrassment.
Now, the second verse refers to having been bereft of shame and embarrassment. This means someone who is completely shameless. There are such persons and this is very bad. It actually is an extremely heavy non-virtue and as a result of this we experience the results explained in verse 3. Therefore it is said in the final verse:
At present I will refrain from the inappropriate!
On page 28, the stanza at the bottom of the page:
When contention arises as soon as one’s dependents gather,
Since it is through having dispensed one’s detestable disposition all over,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me.
At present, I will maintain an excellent disposition wherever I am!
This refers to situations which we see in which we gather a group of dependents, friends or disciples, and as soon as they are gathered they start quarrelling with each other, and eventually depart. This is a result, which is the result of what is explained in verse 2,
…through having dispensed one’s detestable disposition all over,
this refers to oneself formerly when one had gathered disciples, friends, relatives and so forth to have both physically and mentally been unpleasant, that is mentally, to have had the attitude, “I am the only one who matters,” and to have been disliking towards others, or even choleric; and bodily, to have shown them an angry and dark expression. As a result of this, still in verse 2, in past lives others ceased liking us and eventually left. The sword of evil karma has thereby revolved back upon us, and
At present, I will maintain an excellent disposition wherever I am!
Obviously, if we behave in this way, having a very ugly expression and a hurtful mind towards others, there is a very high risk of our ending up all alone.
Therefore, this is at the very root of the Buddha’s instructions because what we do to others comes back to us. Therefore, when we harm others then in turn we ourselves are harmed, whereas when we help others then in turn we ourselves are helped. This is the main reason for which we should help others and we should abstain from harming others, and this is why the Buddha said:
The totality of my teachings is benefit others and do not harm them.
Through benefiting others we ourselves are benefited. Although not harming them we ourselves are not harmed. For instance, it is the same thing as saying if we are harsh or sharp then we will experience on the return something harsh and sharp, whereas if we are sweet or kind then on the return we will experience something sweet or kind. As the cause, so the result. Therefore, when we benefit others we ourselves will experience good effects. As a matter of fact, when we benefit others, others themselves will benefit and without any particular effort we ourselves will benefit as well. On the other hand, under the influence of self-cherishing, thinking only I, me, myself, my own goals, my own furtherance, not only will we not be of benefit to ourselves in the slightest, in addition we will harm others. The very root of all of the ten non-virtues is self-cherishing. It is self-cherishing which leads to killing, to stealing, to sexual misconduct, to lying, to harsh words, to divisiveness and so forth. The result of this self-cherishing and of these non-virtuous deeds is exclusively suffering, which is ourselves experiencing on the receiving end, those ten non-virtues. Therefore, self-cherishing is the root of suffering and cherishing others leads only to happiness. This is why it is the foremost practice of the bodhisattvas. Other-cherishing therefore, is great in its qualities, advantages and the happiness it leads to, whereas self-cherishing has only faults. Therefore, the very foundation of practise is to cherish others.
The method aspect of the path comprises both short-term or contingent, and long-term or ultimate benefits. Here we are focusing on the ultimate benefit of beings, and combining this with the pure view of emptiness. Through combining these two, one will attain the goal through training, through hearing, thinking and meditating. Hearing carefully or listening carefully to the teachings, then thinking is reflecting on their meaning and meditation has two components: the first is a careful analysis of what has been explained which is akin to thinking, and the second is single-pointed concentration on what has been taught.
One must train in both love and compassion to give rise to the mind which wishes to benefit others, because there is no such thing as an effect which arises without its cause, and specifically one must train in empathy, in compassion and in the supreme mind to give rise to bodhichitta. In turn, from the wisdom aspect of the path meditating on emptiness, which is none other than interdependence which gives rise to an unmistaken, non-erroneous view of emptiness, is meditating on the pure view. Without this meditation on the pure view, inasmuch as ignorance is at the root of cyclic existence, it is impossible to sever ignorance at the root and in turn it is impossible to get rid of suffering. Therefore, one must combine and fuse both the method and the wisdom component of the path. If one meditates on this very essence of the practice which is the fusion or the linking of the method and wisdom aspect of the path for one’s own sake, then one will not have even entered the gateway of the Mahayana. Therefore, one must meditate on this for the sole benefit of others. For this reason it is capital to understand the meaning of the benefit of others.
As Shantideva says:
All happiness arises from virtue, and the lower realms in turn arise from not practising virtue.
At present we have a body which enables us to perfectly practise dharma. It is a perfect body for dharma practice. This dharma which we practise was initially taught by the Buddha. It was ascertained by the panditas, and it was realised or meditated upon by the great yogis. So it is a fully authentic dharma. We, at present, are in this situation where we have many dharma friends and students, we have all of the necessary facilities, and we are not in countries where the practice of Buddha-dharma is forbidden, so we have all the conditions to practice.
If, in the state we are in at present we do not practise the dharma, then this human life will be empty and wasted. We have everything we need. We have the friends we need to practise dharma, and it is up to us whether we do so or not. If we do not, and again and again defer our practice, then this human rebirth is transient – it does not abide and we will have to die. At the time of death it is almost certain we will be reborn in the lower realms. Once we are reborn in the lower realms, the situation is very different. In this country animals do not experience a lot of direct suffering at first, but animals by their nature are completely ignorant. When suffering eventually arises, inasmuch as they have no dharma at all, no means of mental protection, and in addition they have no abode, they have no friends, they often have no food, then one can only imagine what their suffering must be like. Once reborn as an animal, definitely all one will accumulate is non-virtue, and under the weight of the non-virtue accumulated in previous lives and the weight of the non-virtue accumulated as an animal, it is unavoidable to fall ever-lower in the lower realms. The beings in such states have not even heard the names of the higher realms, and dwell in these lower realms for eons. So, reflecting upon this we do not want to be in the situation of one of who it is famously said ‘at first he had merit and was wise, then later on he became dull and ignorant’.
Depending on dharma it is possible to put an end to non-virtue and to sin. It is possible to take refuge in the guru and the Triple Gem and in dependence on this to practise virtue and to abstain from non-virtue. We do not have a lot of time, so if we do not practise this now it will be difficult to do so in the future. So it is, therefore, important for us to think that we have to practise these things. We can be very learned and know all sorts of things, but if we do not put them into practice there is no benefit. If we, however, practise one item of practice there is benefit.
We are at present on the verse in the middle of page 29 of the English translation:
When all those who are close rise up as foes,
Since it is through having harboured evil thoughts within,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
At present, I will reduce deceitfulness.
So in verse one,
When all those who are close rise up as foes,
‘close’ here refers to one’s parents, one’s father, one’s mother, one’s friends – those who actually like us, those who we have helped and who have helped in return. However, whereas formerly they liked us, at present they do not like us. They actually dislike us actively and are trying to harm us. The first verse refers to ‘the effect’, the effect of a certain cause. There is no such thing in the Buddhist teachings as a causeless effect, and the cause, therefore, is given in the second verse,
Since it is through having harboured evil thoughts within,
So the ‘evil thoughts’ referred to here are black thoughts – non-virtuous thoughts such as anger, envy and so forth which lead one to wish to harm another person, and in dependence on these evil thoughts we had formerly, the first verse explains that all those who are close rise up as foes. Then the result of the evil thoughts is given in the third verse as well,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
at present I will reduce deceitfulness’. In other words, at present I will reduce these evil thoughts and if possible eliminate them from the root, striving to help others.
Then on page 30, the stanza in the middle of the page:
When laid low by phlegm diseases, cancers and edemas,
Since it is through heedlessly and illicitly partaking of offerings,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
At present, I will abstain from stealing from the Sangha and so forth.
So here the ‘phlegm diseases’ which are referred to in the first verse are actually a very specific category of disease which can afflict various parts of the body and give rise to yellow phlegm, to dark brown phlegm and so forth. They correspond quite well to cancer in the West. This was the worst category of diseases and, just as with cancer, there were many types of this disease. The second category of diseases which we translated as ‘cancers’ (skran nad in Tibetan) is a wasting disease of the flesh which leads to a complete wasting of the body and the third category of diseases – ‘edemas’ are actually a disease due to water retention; so it is a disease connected to the excess of the water element. In every single case these diseases are results, they are the results of a cause, the cause is given in the second verse:
Since it is from heedlessly and illicitly partaking of offerings,
so this refers to partaking for instance of those substances which are offered to the Sangha without the right or the permission to do so, and this gives rise to the result given in the third verse which is the effect of the non-virtuous karma accumulated,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me.
So, in this case it is basically a case of, from one’s own side, behaving badly and being on the receiving end of bad behaviour in turn, whereas if we ourselves had behaved well, we would have been on the receiving end of good behaviour. So, this functions basically a little bit as a process of circumambulation or of cycling. Finally, the result in the last verse
At present I will abstain from stealing from the Sangha and so forth.
This means that one will abstain from consuming the dedicated offerings to the Sangha. In the self-same way as the Sangha has its own specific substances, lay people have their own specific substances, and when lay people consume substances or offerings which are dedicated to the Sangha without permission, then the fault which was explained occurs – they may actually even steal these substances or rob them from the Sangha, and as a result of this they experience diseases such as cancer and so forth. On the other hand, it is also possible for the Sangha to consume shamelessly or heedlessly these substances, and they will experience the same diseases. In a nutshell, these diseases occur when one consumes or takes what belongs to another without shame.
Then the following verse on page 32:
When suddenly felled by infectious diseases,
Since it is because of having damaged commitments,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
At present, I will abstain from non-virtuous deeds!
So here the term ‘suddenly’ refers to being felled by an infectious disease without any obvious reason, just out of the blue as it were, and when this happens or for instance, when oneself is trying to practise dharma or trying to meditate and up to that point one had been healthy and hale, but suddenly as soon as one tries to meditate or to practise, one gets sick, one’s head hurts and so forth, then as a result of this one is unable to do what one wanted to do. Then this, which is a result, is the result of the cause explained in the second verse,
Since it is because of having damaged commitments,
‘Commitments’ here refers to not protecting what we had pledged to protect, not abandoning what we had pledged to abandon, not engaging in what we had pledged to engage in. In every single case these are commitments. If these are damaged, then as a result in the third verse:
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
and, therefore,
At present, I will abstain from non-virtuous deeds!
‘Abstaining’ here means to stop, to cease; I will abstain from non-virtuous deeds such as damaging my commitments because they lead to disease, to headache and so forth.
On page 32 the following stanza:
When intelligence is in a daze regarding all objects of knowledge,
Since it is through having engaged in things which should have been put aside,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
At present, I will meditate on the wisdom [born from] hearing and so forth.
The first verse here,
When intelligence is in a daze regarding all objects of knowledge,
‘objects of knowledge’ refer to all phenomena which can be known; in other-words virtuous phenomena, non-virtuous phenomena, the grounds and paths, past and future lives and so forth. ‘Intelligence’ actually refers to one’s own wisdom – one’s own understanding is in a daze. This means that one’s understanding, both of worldly and of dharma activities is insufficient, is obscured. This verse refers to the result – it is a result of a cause explained in the second verse:
Since it is through having engaged in things which should have been put aside,
Here, we refer specifically to dharma practitioners. Dharma practitioners have many things they have to do in addition to practice. When they are overwhelmed by their worldly activities at the expense of their practice, and they engage in conversation, chatting, working, cooking meals, playing, hanging around on a daily basis, then as a result of this their minds are totally occupied with these activities and they put their dharma practice to the side. The result of putting their dharma practice to the side is that they are unable to accomplish anything as far as dharma is concerned and their intelligence becomes stultified, stupefied. As a result of this, their dharma practice goes nowhere and they eventually, because they do not study do not understand the dharma. Then, inasmuch as they have not put effort into understanding the mode of abiding of things, the nature of things, their wisdom does not develop, and since the cause has not been created, the effect can in no way arise; therefore they become ignorant and unintelligent. As a result of this in the third verse, the result is explained:
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
and the resolution,
At present, I will meditate on the wisdom [born from] hearing and so forth.
This refers to the three wisdoms – the wisdom born from hearing, from thinking and from meditating.
So, at present if we are in the situation of one who does not understand dharma, and one who for that matter does not have pure appearance with respect to dharma and lacks faith or conviction in dharma, it is simply because we lack the karmic imprints for pure appearance and for faith. When we say this dharma is not good, it is not of benefit, when we entertain these wrong views it is simply because we have not created the karmic imprints in the past. So, in the future as a result of this, we will not encounter the teachings and for that matter we will not even hear the sound of the dharma, and we will be in this state for eons after eons. On the other hand, there are some who naturally have pure appearance of dharma and naturally from their own side enjoy receiving teachings. This is a sign of having had karmic imprints connected with the dharma, specifically under the power of hearing in the past. As a result of this, in this life they enjoy receiving teachings. When we are, however, in the situation of one of whom it is said ‘even though they try to memorise they cannot even remember one word, and when they meditate they gain no realisations’ – this is very clearly a sign of lacking any karmic imprints at all.
In the case of Jetsun Milarepa, Jetsun Milarepa attained full enlightenment in one short lifetime because of extraordinarily powerful karmic imprints. It is actually not the case that he attained full enlightenment in one lifetime exclusively; he attained them in dependence on very powerful imprints arisen from hearing and so forth, accumulated over many lives. So, in our case, we have to at present accumulate karmic imprints based on hearing, thinking and meditating so that in the future we can become either wise lay holders or wise monks or nuns, and so that when we meditate we can hope to gain realisations. Without the cause it would be impossible to give rise to the effect, so for ourselves we have to put effort in now so that we can become ordained in the future, and we have to put effort in now so that eventually we can become buddhas. To say that we want to become a buddha just in this life is difficult. If like Jetsun Mila, one has obtained a sound human body and if one relies on an extraordinary teacher such as Marpa who was a fully enlightened being, then with the backing of Jetsun Milarepa it is possible to obtain full enlightenment in one life, otherwise it is very difficult.
So, we can see for that matter, in this life, we make a very clear difference between those who behave very foolishly and when they have received a little bit of money instead of putting it aside immediately spend it on food without thinking at all about their future, and people who are more careful and who when they are young, realise that eventually they will grow old and want to plan for their retirement and put some money aside so that they will not face great hardship when they retire. The second type of behaviour from a worldly standpoint is better than the first one, it is preferable. However, compared with these two types of behaviours which focus on this life, the best behaviour of all is one which understands that this life is coming to an end , it is going to waste, and that there are many future lives and one wishes not to experience hardship in their future lives. This viewpoint is the best way of looking at things, this is actually what is called wisdom, and one then says to oneself, “Well, as far as this life is concerned, whatever comes will do, whatever comes is ok.” There are future lives. We must go there. We have no choice in the matter and when we go there, it is our mind which goes, led by the black and white deeds we have performed, by the non-virtuous and virtuous deeds we have performed. If one has accumulated a lot of virtuous deeds, then there will be no suffering and no hardship in future lives, otherwise there will be great difficulty and hardship. Looking at it in this way, one sees that this life is basically nothing else but a set of clothes which are frayed and which will just eventually have to be thrown away. Inasmuch as whenever we have a body it is always accompanied by feelings, whether they are happy or unhappy feelings, then it is up to us to privilege the happy feelings at the expense of the unhappy ones by training in virtue and abstaining from non-virtue.
Someone who lacks any virtue cannot be helped even by the buddhas themselves. All they can do is reflect with compassion on them. So in a nutshell, in this life if we protect virtue then we will be sure to have a good rebirth in future lives and specifically to obtain a good body. If we train in generosity then we will have wealth in future lives, if we train in forbearance or patience then in future lives we will have good friends and associates. On the other hand, if in this life we do not train in morality, then we will fall in the lower realms in the next lives. If we do not train in generosity, we will be poor and destitute, and if we do not train in patience and forbearance then we will be bereft of any friends and all alone.
Therefore, one who on the basis of refuge trains in generosity, ethics and in forbearance is practising the path of the being of small scope and in dependence on this will attain a human rebirth or a higher rebirth in future lives. However, this human rebirth still has suffering and, therefore, thinking about this, someone of greater capacity will think that he or she does not want to attain a rebirth with suffering in future lives, and since there is such a thing as liberation from suffering, will strive for liberation and to do this will engage in the three trainings: the training in ethics, in concentration and in wisdom. However, there are beings of even greater intelligence and capacity; greater scope, greater view who do not want to attain liberation just for their own sake, but reflecting on the fact that there are boundless, measureless sentient beings and that they are all similar to us, wishes them to give rise to that ultimate mind, that peerless state of mind which wishes to attain the state of full enlightenment for all sentient beings, and giving rise to bodhichitta, this measureless mind, then strives to place them all in this state. This is the best motivation, number one.
One who gives rise to this mind which wishes to place all sentient beings in the state of full enlightenment called bodhichitta, is a being called a bodhisattva and there is no greater being then one such.
As it is said:
All of the teachings and all of the shastras were uttered for the sake of taming beings.
This refers to the fact that the teachings, gsung in Tibetan are actually those utterances which are directly attributed to the Buddha, whereas the ‘shastras’ are the commentaries by the great Indian pandits such as Nagarjuna or Asanga, whose sole goal or sole intent was to tame the minds of beings, and with this as a motivation, they uttered these shastras. All activities of the body, speech and mind can eventually be subsumed within mental activities. If the mind is untamed, then whatever one does with one’s body, one’s speech does not lead to any benefit. For instance, if one were to accumulate let us, say hundreds of thousands of prostrations with one’s body or hundreds of thousands of manis with one speech, with an untamed mind this would not act as a cause for liberation even if one did this for countless eons. This is the case because the tamed mind is actually what gives rise to renunciation, and renunciation alone is the cause of liberation.
Generally speaking, it is said we have three doors – the body, speech and mind. They are, however, not equal. The body and speech are secondary, the mind is foremost. This is the case because whenever a virtuous mind is generated, happiness follows from this. If the mind is tamed, then whatever activities of body and speech one engages in act as a cause for liberation. For such is a mind in the nature of renunciation; on the other-hand, if the mind is of the nature of bodhichitta, then whatever bodily or verbal deeds we engage in act as a cause for full enlightenment. However, should we act with a non-virtuous mind, then whether we recite verbally manis or for that matter read Lam Rim Chen Mo, not only is this not virtuous it is actually non-virtuous. So everything depends on whether the mind is tamed or not.
Therefore, a virtuous deed depends exclusively on the motivation. If we are motivated by renunciation or definite emergence everything we do acts as a cause for liberation, even reciting manis. If we are motivated by bodhichitta, everything we do acts as a cause for full enlightenment – reciting manis for instance. Without this, whether we engage in recitations, prostrations or in purification, this does not act as a cause for liberation, nor does it act as a cause for full enlightenment. It may remain virtuous, but it exclusively acts as a cause for leading the wheel of cyclic existence to circle. Therefore, for instance we offer mandala, however, we must offer mandala meaningfully. If we offer mandala motivated by renunciation it acts as a cause for liberation. If we offer mandala motivated by bodhichitta, it acts as a cause for full enlightenment. We do not have to offer lots of mandalas, quite a few is more than enough. Otherwise, if we offer them without any of these two motivations it is only a cause for cyclic existence, so we must be very careful with our minds and whatever virtue we generate, we must do so with a good motivation.
To give an example, regarding the seed of a tree, if the seed is good, then it will blossom, if the seed is bad it will lead to nothing. Likewise, from virtuous deeds with a good motivation, virtue and happiness arise and from non-virtuous deeds, non-virtue and unhappiness. Therefore, we must practise perfect virtue and generate a good motivation first.
Then on page 33, the stanza in the middle:
When oppressed by sleep when engaging in Dharma,
Since it is through having accumulated obscurements with regards to the Holy Dharma
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
At present, I will undergo hardship for the sake of the Dharma.
In the first verse what is being referred to here, is a situation we all know. We engage in dharma practice, whether it is reciting our commitments, or meditating or for that matter entering a retreat, and all of a sudden we are crushed by fatigue, exhaustion and sleep, whereas when we are having fun we open up and relax and are delighted. This is the result of having accumulated obscurements in regards to the holy dharma. ‘Obscurements’ here refers to sins. The holy dharma is of two types, it is scriptural dharma and the dharma of realisation. Scriptural dharma is the books, the texts of the dharma, and the dharma of realisation are for instance the three trainings and so forth. Accumulating sins with regards to dharma texts is for instance by mistreating Buddhist books, by putting them in dirty places, throwing them away, by selling them or for that matter by transporting books with dirty things like one’s handkerchief and so forth, whereas on the other-hand, accumulating faults with respect to the dharma of realisation is for instance not protecting ethics correctly: If one has lay vows, breaking lay vows; if one is a novice, breaking novice vows; if one is a bhikshu, a fully ordained monk, breaking bhikshu vows; if one is a bodhisattva, breaking the bodhisattva vows; if one has tantric vowels, breaking the tantric vows. In every single case one accumulates faults with respect to the dharma. So, we behave ourselves in a very childish and immature way in this respect.
We have, or we say we have, respect for the Buddha. We should have even more respect for the dharma since it is in dependence on the dharma that we obtain both liberation and full enlightenment. The Buddha himself obtained full enlightenment in dependence on the dharma and, therefore, the Buddhist books contain the totality of the teachings, they contain explanations on emptiness, on the view, on bodhichitta and so forth, so we should have respect for these books. Actually, we should make offerings to these books. We should prostrate to them because it is in dependence on them that we ourselves obtain full enlightenment. Therefore, to carry them together with one’s drinking cup in their bag in any which way, is not a minor fault, it is an extremely heavy sin. To treat them in any which way is an extremely heavy fault. We should have respect for these texts because they lead us to full enlightenment. Therefore, through thinking, no understanding arises; through meditating no realisation arises. This is a direct result of having committed faults with respect to the dharma in past lives and we should at present have faith in the dharma and practise it.
The following Stanza on page 34:
When greatly negligent in my delight in afflictions,
Since it is from not having meditated on impermanence and the defects of cyclic existence,
The sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
At present, I will increase my horror at cyclic existence.
‘The afflictions’ here in the first verse refer to our foremost enemy. We ourselves see them as friends but they are enemies because they are the cause of suffering. Precisely because we do not understand that they are enemies, we delight in them and we see both desire and anger as friends. Delight in them arises because we do not understand the true nature of the aggregates.
The aggregates have four characteristics, which are misunderstood by ordinary beings. Ordinary beings apprehend the unclean aggregates as clean, impermanent aggregates as permanent, aggregates which are of the nature of suffering as of the nature of happiness, and aggregates which are of the nature of selflessness as having a self. They apprehend the first misapprehension – they apprehend the aggregates which are filthy by nature as clean – and under the power of karma and afflictions they apprehend the aggregates which are impermanent as permanent, seeing aggregates which are changing instant by instant as something permanent, and they apprehend all aggregates as having a self. In dependence on these four misunderstandings, in turn all of the afflictions arise. In this very life we can see for instance that great attachment to food, to clothing and to the valuable things of this life arise in dependence on the afflictions. Therefore, these can only lead to suffering precisely because they have arisen in dependence on the afflictions.
The term ‘negligence’ in the first verse, snang blas in Tibetan, refers to disregarding mental training and not being careful. Then, the second verse indicates that these afflictions arise because we have not meditated on impermanence and the faults of cyclic existence. If we do not meditate on impermanence and the associated meditations, which are the meditations on the fortunate human rebirth with the eight freedoms and the ten endowments, as well as meditations which are more elaborate on the suffering of cyclic existence, then we will be unable to eliminate our attachment to the afflictions. Specifically, when we meditate on the sufferings of cyclic existence we have to meditate on the three types of suffering: the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change; and all-pervasive suffering. It is only through doing this, that as the final verse says we are able to ‘increase our horror at cyclic existence’ through meditating on the totality of the faults of cyclic existence.
The following stanza on page 35:
When I sink lower irrespective of what I have done,
Since it is through having had contempt for karma and causality
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] up on me,
At present, I will put effort in endurance, karma and so forth.
In the first verse,
When I sink lower irrespective of what I have done,
this means that whether in this life or in future lives we should choose to become ordained or we should try to practise dharma or engage in business, we find that when we become ordained we disrobe, when we practise dharma we gain no realisations, when we engage in business not only do we not become rich we loose everything and eventually we incur debt. When this happens and we experience what we do not wish, this is directly the result of having had contempt for karma and causality in former lives. Having had contempt for karma and causality in former lives means having said ‘there is no such things as virtue and non-virtue’. ‘Karma and causality’ here refer to the notion that virtue leads to happiness and non-virtue leads to suffering. Through understanding this clearly we abandon non-virtue since we do not want to experience suffering. The wrong view in this matter is to think ‘there is no such thing as virtue and there is no such thing either as non-virtue, then when one becomes ordained one is unable to keep the vows and returns ordination; when one studies, one is unable to finish one’s studies and one gives up one’s studies; when one enters business, one is unable to succeed in business and one incurs debt. As a result of this
…the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
therefore, the final verse says,
At present, I will put effort in endurance, karma and so forth.
This refers to abandoning non-virtue and putting effort into virtue, and in addition, trying to help sentient beings as much as we can.
The following stanza on page 36:
When averting rituals go awry,
Since it is through having relied on the dark side,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
At present, I will turn away from the dark side.
This stanza refers to the situation where for instance we are sick or have health problems and we do everything we can. We make long-life offerings, we offer Tara rituals, propitiatory rituals and so forth, and yet not only do these rituals not help but our situation keeps deteriorating and gets worse and worse. When we are involved in a business venture and the venture turns south and we offer numerous pujas and rituals and yet there is no benefit whatsoever, let alone this, we incur ever greater debt and eventually go bankrupt. This is the result of having in former lives relied on the dark side. ‘The dark side’ here refers to both at the mundane level, evil lords and dealers engaging in dark deeds as well as on the supra-mundane level evil gods, ghosts and elementals which are spirits from the dark side, and through relying on these and not relying on the dharma, making offerings to these evil entities and not making offerings to the Triple Gem, the sword of evil karma eventually revolves back upon us. Therefore, in conclusion at present one resolves to turn away from the dark side since these dark entities are of no benefit in eliminating disease and moreover to help sentient beings, one must rely on beings and entities of the white side.
So, there is an example which is a bit of an anecdote to illustrate this. Once in Tibet, there were two ladies, an older mother and her daughter, and the old mother had to have some rituals recited, so she asked a yogi, a tantric yogi, to come and recite the rituals. When he came and he settled down in the bedroom to do the rituals she said to him, “I have so much faith in you, I believe in you more than in anyone else, I will never entrust myself in any other being but yourself”, and whilst the tantric yogi recited she had work to do, so she said to her daughter on the side “I will go outside to work – you just stay here and keep an eye on him to make sure he steals nothing”. Then she went outside and the daughter stayed inside keeping an eye on the venerated tantric yogi and she looked at him and he was just doing his recitations and the daughter was getting tired, so she shouted to her mother who was just outside: “Mother, can I come out?”, and the mother said “No no, you stay, you stay”, and then it went on and on, and finally she was so tired she said: “Mother, let me come out! He doesn’t steal anything!” So this is a classic case of entrusting oneself verbally, but having no faith within one’s heart and we see this a lot. This is how one accumulates obscurations with respect to the dharma.
The following stanza on page 37;
When one’s requests to the Triple Gem go unanswered,
Since it is through having lacked conviction in Enlightenment,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
At present, I will rely only on the Triple Gem!
So we see this very frequently. We see people who just recite verbally ‘I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the dharma, I take refuge in the Sangha’, going on and on and on, and it has absolutely no benefit for them, actually their prayers to the Triple Gem go completely unanswered and this is the case because these recitations are purely made verbally – there is absolutely no conviction or faith within them, it is merely talk. Then obviously, if it is merely talk, then it is not an entreaty to the Triple Gem since an entreaty or a supplication requires faith to be authentic. So, this faithless, convictionless entreaty cannot be an entreaty, and in turn does not give rise to a result and, therefore, such entreaties cannot protect us from rebirth in the lower realms, cannot protect us from any type of suffering and so forth.
Then, when people make these insincere prayers to the Triple Gem which are not fulfilled, they then become very sceptical and negative about the Triple Gem and think ‘perhaps this Triple Gem does not really exist’ and their lack of faith increases. Then, in dependence on this, a lack of faith in the dharma as well increases, and they say ‘people are talking about practising this virtue and it leads to happiness, is that true? They say from non-virtue there is suffering – is that true?’ and in-turn they doubt both the Buddha’s word and the totality of the dharma. They doubt that non-virtue gives rise to suffering, that virtue gives rise to happiness, they have no conviction in dependent origination and end up entrusting themselves to channelers, seers and astrologers – old ladies who claim to see the future and instead of relying on the speech of the Buddha, they go to these diviners and these astrologers and then they are amazed by what the astrologers say instead of relying on pure dharma.
One must generate strong, incontrovertible conviction within one’s mind. So, what do we mean here when we say ‘I take refuge?’ We have to take refuge as the Tibetans say, ‘with one’s heart, one’s mind and with one’s breast’, in other words with the very totality of one’s being and this means to single-pointedly, with single-pointed focus generate faith and conviction in the Triple Gem; faith and conviction in the Buddha, faith and conviction in his teachings the dharma, faith and conviction in the Sangha. When this happens, there is refuge in the Buddha, refuge in the dharma and refuge in the Sangha and then when we say ‘From the depth of our being, for as long as there is cyclic existence I will not seek for any other refuge then you’, then we find protection from cyclic existence, we find protection from the lower realms, we find protection from suffering.
Therefore, irrespective of the dharma we practise, one must have faith and conviction in this. It is through single-pointed faith and conviction that the act of refuge occurs. We see this for that matter in world affairs. We know very well that if in worldly matters we meet someone who actually never means what he says, if his or her talk is all sweet but deep down he has completely different intentions, then even if he says he is going to help us, we do not trust him, we do not rely on him. This is just an example. On the other hand, if we meet someone who from the very depths of his or her heart likes us and who says he will help us, then we trust him and we feel that he will help us. In the self-same way, the Buddha from his own side is extraordinary in the blessings he imparts on beings. Therefore, from his own side, the Buddha will benefit beings. However, what is capital from our own side is to give rise both to faith and conviction in dependence on which we can receive these blessings.
There is a quote from the Buddha which says:
Without faith in the guru, the dharma and the Sangha, there is no generating the white dharmas; in the self-same way as without a seed, sprouts cannot arise.
In this quote, the ‘white dharmas’ refer to generating for instance the Three Principles of the Path such as renunciation, bodhichitta and the authentic view of emptiness, and faith is compared to a seed. Without a seed there is no possibility for the sprout to arise. As is said also:
The greater or lesser blessings one receives does not on the guru depend, on oneself and oneself alone do they depend.
The meaning of this quote is that there is no difference in the blessings extended by the gurus and the buddhas to sentient beings. However, it depends exclusively on the conviction and faith of sentient beings whether or not they receive these blessings. Otherwise, one who has no faith in the buddhas and the gurus, even as he or she meditates on emptiness or bodhichitta will gain no attainments and will just be sitting around.
Over countless eons the buddhas trained in their qualities and they developed the hook of empathy and love, but this hook of empathy and love which is so sharp, which is so powerful from the buddhas’ side, must connect with the ring of faith in the trainees or the disciples. If there is a ring of faith, then the hook connects and draws the disciple upwards towards full enlightenment, towards the state of a bodhisattva, towards liberation and so forth. If, however, the disciples’ hook of faith is absent, if the disciples’ ring of faith is absent, then the hook of compassion of the Buddha can in no way connect with the disciple however hard the Buddha tries. So, it behoves the disciple to create a strong, firm and stable hook of faith so the buddhas can help them.
It is said:
Countless buddhas came and yet I was not able to meet one single one of them through the power of my afflictions.
So, it is not the case that the buddhas have not worked for our benefit. The number of buddhas is immeasurable, infinite in number. Infinite great beings have attained full enlightenment, and they have worked to extend refuge and protection to sentient beings. However, sentient beings from their own side, were unable to meet with these great beings and were unable to receive refuge from them. For instance, when the Buddha himself came to Bodhgaya and Varanasi and taught there, we ourselves through the power of our sins and our non-virtues were not there. It is not the case that the Buddha did not take care of us. It is the case of when he came we were not there, and when we came, he was not there. Therefore, from our standpoint what has been lacking throughout has been faith and purification.
We at present are born as human beings and this is most fortunate for practising dharma. Generally speaking, in the West we like to have children and we enjoy the idea that children will be born. This was not at all the viewpoint among the scholars of Nalanda Monastery in India, because in India in those days having children was dangerous, both for the mother and for the child. The viewpoint of the scholars of Nalanda was that the very instant of birth actually is an instance of aging. From that instant onwards aging starts. Therefore, in dependence on birth, the sufferings not just of birth itself, which was awful in those days, but of aging, of sickness and of death, arise. The great Tibetan practitioners and scholars adopted the view of the masters of Nalanda. Therefore, they considered initially that to put an end to suffering one had to put an end to birth. Having put an end to birth, one put an end to aging, then in turn to sickness, then in turn and an end to death. Otherwise, if one does not put an end to birth, then birth leads to aging, aging to sickness and sickness to death. This refers to ordinary beings.
We as ordinary beings when we are born, experience such suffering because our birth occurs under the power of karma and affliction. It does not refer to arhats and such beings who do not experience suffering. In Sutra it is said, that to put an end to suffering, one must put an end to ignorance, since from ignorance arises karma and affliction, from which sufferings arise. So, putting an end to ignorance through meditating on emptiness enables us to put an end to suffering. On the other hand, if we do not meditate on emptiness then we cannot put an end to ignorance and we cannot put an end to karma and affliction. Therefore, by extension we cannot put an end to suffering.
As Arya Nagarjuna said:
He who has not understood emptiness, for him the meaning of liberation does not exist.
So, one might ask the question, “If one is born, is it necessarily the case that one will die?” For ordinary beings such as ourselves who are born under the power of karma and affliction it is necessarily the case. This is a given. On the other hand, the holy beings such as the buddhas and the bodhisattvas or the arhats who were not born under the power of karma and affliction, then it is an open question. So, ordinary beings like ourselves experience birth in dependence on karma and affliction. This is not the case for the holy beings. The twelve links of interdependent origination are actually the foundation of cyclic existence and the first of these twelve links is ignorance. It is through ignorance that one accumulates karma. Therefore, if we are unable to put an end to the first of these links, to ignorance, we are unable to put an end to the whole cycle of the twelve links of dependent arising. To put an end to the first link, which is ignorance, one must meditate on emptiness. Meditating on emptiness is therefore fundamental. If one has realised emptiness, one is able put an end to cyclic existence. If one does not understand emptiness it is not possible to put an end to cyclic existence.
Regarding death and what happens at the time of death, at the time of death we leave our old body behind. It is akin to throwing it away. The mind moves on, in the self-same way as someone driving in a car walks out of the car, walks into another car and drives on. In the self-same way the mind moves on in another body. It is not the case that at death one ceases to exist. Mind, the mental continuum, proceeds on until the state of full enlightenment. It is eternal and infinite. After dying, one can move either up to the higher realms or down to the lower realms. One moves up to the higher realms in dependence on practising virtue, abstaining from non-virtue and purifying previously accumulated non-virtue. It is through this that one prevents lower rebirth. Therefore, one must engage in practices such as taking refuge, because through doing this progressively over time one’s sins or faults will decrease and eventually, one will be purified. One will be pure.
The signs and dreams which indicate a higher rebirth are, for example, dreaming that one drinks milk, or that one washes one’s body or that one overcomes or slays an evil person, or that one encounters one’s spiritual teachers. In every single case, these are signs one will not be reborn in the lower realms, and one should rejoice. The cause for not being reborn in the lower realms is relying on the Triple Gem – the Buddha who teaches the dharma, the dharma which is the actual refuge and the Sangha who are the companions who practise the dharma. When we speak of dharma, what is meant here? We mean, practising virtue and abstaining from non-virtue, and it entails practices such as practicing the Lam Rim and practising as much as we can. Therefore, one must go for refuge to the Triple Gem, and to do this one must have both wisdom and faith. One must have the wisdom which understands the qualities which are infinite as space as the Triple Gem, such as the wisdom, the love and the power of the Triple Gem, and one must also have faith in the Triple Gem. So, if one goes with a single-pointed mind for refuge in this way, then one has refuge. Otherwise, as has been previously explained in the story of the old lady who said to the wandering yogi, “I will rely only on you and I only have faith in you. You are my refuge among all beings,” and then on the sly turned to her daughter and said, “Keep your eye on him. He just might steal something while my eyes are turned,” this was a clear indication that the old lady lacked faith. So, in the self-same way, if we make prostrations to the Buddha and we say we have refuge but it does not come from the depths of our heart, then we lack refuge. So, what we need is to depend simultaneously on wisdom and on faith and to address the Triple Gem and say, “Whether I myself move upwards or downwards, whatever happens to me, I will rely on none other than you.” Then, in dependence on this we accumulate virtue and purify all faults.
As is said in the Abhidharmakosa:
To summarize this, from within karmic deeds there are ten.
Now, this is a very concise presentation which is designed for practise and is a matter of making the vast concise and understandable. It refers to the ten virtuous deeds which are to be practised and the ten non-virtuous deeds which are to be abstained from. There are principally ten non-virtuous deeds – three of the body, four of the speech and three of the mind – which are to be abstained from. This is the very essence of the Buddha’s advice – to practise the ten virtuous deeds and to abstain from the ten non-virtuous deeds. In dependence on this, one will not be reborn in the lower realms. Otherwise, if one does not behave in this way there is great risk of being born in the lower realms. Therefore, this practice of engaging in the ten virtuous deeds and abstaining from the ten non-virtuous deeds is said to be the means to be freed from the lower realms.
Therefore, a being of the small scope practises the ten virtuous deeds and abstains from the ten non-virtuous deeds to be freed from the lower realms, but that very self-same practice – abstaining from the ten non-virtuous deeds and practising the ten virtuous deeds with the motivation of being freed from cyclic existence in general is none other than the practice of the being of middling scope. That very self-same practice of engaging in the ten virtuous deeds and abstaining from the ten non-virtuous deeds, with the motivation of leading all sentient beings to the state of full enlightenment is none other than the practice of the being of great scope. Therefore, this practice of practising the ten virtuous deeds and abstaining from the ten non-virtuous deeds is the essence of the practice of all three vehicles. This practice of karma and causality is the essence of the practice of the being of small, middling and great scope. Therefore, one must not just practise one day and put one things aside, one must practise every single day, and then progressively one will move upwards over time to the state of an arhat, a bodhisattva and a buddha. Otherwise, there is no means to progress upwards. So, wisdom must increase incrementally. Otherwise, if we do not practise there will have been no benefit from these teachings, in the self-same way as there is no benefit from a meal which is not been eaten.
Will now pass onwards to The Wheel of Sharp Weapons in the text on page 37 at the very bottom line of the root text:
When fancies arise as defilements and demons,
Since it is through having accumulated sins regarding deities and mantra,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
At present, I will crush all evil fancies.
Here, the term ‘fancies’ refers for instance to when we are reciting our commitments, when we are meditating or trying to engage in virtuous deeds, to the arisal of evil minds, sinful motivations, a wish, for instance, to steal something, to fight with someone, to engage in sexual misconduct, this is a very big obstacle for dharma practice. When these fancies arise as defilements and demons, in other words, when they manifest as defilements, ‘defilements’ here refer actually to diseases which are defilements, such as certain forms of paralysis and stroke, in which as a result of these past deeds we are partially paralysed, we limp, we hobble – or demons. ‘Demons’ here refer to worldly and supramundane gods manifesting under the power of our own non-virtuous karma as demons or as our enemies. They manifest in this way and give rise to various non-virtuous minds within us which trouble us.
Then, on page 38,
Since it is through having accumulated sins regarding deities and mantra,
here ‘deities’ refers to deity practices and mantra does not refer to reciting mantras, like OM MANI PADME HUM. It refers to the practice of Secret Mantra and sins accumulated with respect to the vows and the pledges.
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
so, this happens as a result of deed in past lives or in this life.
At present, I will crush all evil fancies.
This means that one must generate here good faith in the dharma.
Moving onwards to the next verse of the root text on page 38 the very bottom:
When sent impotently a’wandering,
Since it is through having chased Gurus and so forth from their abode,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me.
At present, I will expel no one from their land!
Here, when we are ‘set impotently a-wandering’, this means that we are without any power, powerlessly set adrift and in our own land we lack any freedom or authority. We lack a place to live and we wander expelled from place to place, evicted from house to house, on and on.
Since it is through having chased Gurus and so forth from their abode,
this actually is very much the experience of the Tibetans to the present day, who have been expelled from country to country. They have fled their own country. India is not their country. They have no power, no authority, no freedom, and they have to do the worst of jobs and again and again get expelled and expelled. This is ‘through having chased gurus and so forth from their abode’ in this life or past lives. This can refer to chasing not only gurus but one’s parents, one’s friends, acquaintances, other sentient beings, even animals such as dogs. Then, moving onwards to page 39:
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me.
This is the result experienced.
At present, I will expel no one from their land!
So, at present I will not expel not only the teachers, but also no parents, no friends, no sentient beings from their land, precisely because otherwise I myself will later on have to wander homelessly.
The following stanza on page 39, the middle of the page:
When unwanted frost and hail occur,
Since it is because of not having protected correctly pledges and ethics,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me.
At present, I will purify pledges and so forth.
As you know, lay people have to pay attention to crops and so forth and should frost occur, for instance, the crop will not give its expected yield. Likewise, should hail occur it can totally destroy the crop. Hail is the work of, or it is precipitated by, spirits – very powerful pretas, who reside in space and who cause the precipitation of rain as huge chunks of ice, which can not only destroy crops completely, but for that matter they are so large sometimes that they can even kill human being. So, this causes tremendous hardship to lay people and to farmers, and this is the result of what is explained in the second line,
…it is because of not having protected correctly pledges and ethics,
These are pledges and ethics which the lay people have taken.
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me.
At present, I will purify pledges and so forth!
Here, the meaning of ‘purify’ is actually to protect and to keep pledges and so forth.
Moving onwards to the stanza on page 40:
When bereft of wealth despite strong desires,
Since it is through not having practiced generosity and having made offerings to the Triple Gem,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me.
At present, I will put effort in both generosity and offerings.
This refers to people who have strong desires. These are people who lust for everything. They want money, they want also to eat well, they want to own their own business, they want to own their own house. Everything they see they desire and yet, they are never able to get what they want, and they eventually end up as beggars, facing tremendous hardship as a result. This is the karmic result of the non-virtuous karma explained in the second verse,
Since it is through not having practiced generosity and having made offerings to the Triple Gem,
Generally speaking, both practices here are part of the practice of generosity, but the first ‘not having practiced generosity’ refers to practising in generosity towards sentient beings. When one practises generosity towards the Triple Gem, that is referred to as ‘making offerings’. So, this refers, in the case of sentient beings, to not giving things to sentient beings, to not helping sentient beings and, in the case of ‘making offerings to the Triple Gem’ this refers to the sort of behaviour which we see very often, where one eats very good food oneself but does not make any particular offerings to the Triple Gem, or just offers a bit of water to the Triple Gem saying, “This will do the job just fine.” One eats fancy food and offers nothing of value to the Triple Gem. It should be exactly the opposite. One’s self should eat the poor bits, the worthless bits, and whatever is of value, that one should offer. This is the case because the Triple Gem has space-like qualities. Therefore, one accumulates tremendous virtue if one is able to offer things to the Triple Gem. Therefore, the behaviour engaged in here, where one does not practise generosity, does not make offerings to the Triple Gem, matures in poverty in this life. In the monasteries in the old days when Rinpoche was there, they were very poor and had nothing to eat, and yet they made offerings to the Triple Gem. In the self-same way as a peasant understands or a farmer understands that he cannot get a crop if he does not sow the seed, likewise we should understand that without offering there is no wealth.
On page 40, the bottom stanza:
When vile of body and abused by my companions,
Since it is because of having poorly [made] representations of the Buddha in thrall to anger,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me.
At present I will make deities with long-suffering patience!
All of us know that we like people who are handsome and hale, strong of body, they please all. However, when we ourselves are small and swarthy, we are crooked, we have a long nose and an ugly face, and we are as a result of this abused by our companions – our companions here refer to our parents, to our friends, who say “What an ugly character, what an ugly man or woman!” and criticise us as a result of this, then this is the karmic result of what is explained in the second line,
Since it is because of having poorly [made] representations of the Buddha in thrall to anger,
This refers to making statues badly and it is a big risk for statue makers when they make statues which are too small, or they make statues which are crooked, and they do this generally because they lack patience, lack forbearance to make a beautiful shape for the statue. We can see for ourselves that when we are angry our faces are ugly and unpleasant to look at. So, in dependence upon having poorly made representations in anger, the sword of evil karma revolves back upon us. Therefore we take the resolve at present to make deities beautifully and well with long-suffering patience, in other words, without any anger.
There is an account in Lam Rim which says of the karmic result of this sort of deed. It is the account of Nyipa Dorde, which means ‘melodious, but of hideous face’. This was probably one of the architects or a worker for a great Indian king of yore who wanted to perform a vast deed of generosity and said he would build a stupa as large as the land an elephant could drag a cord around. Elephants can travel far and wide, and this was a huge stretch of land, and the worker said to the king, “This is absolutely impossible. There is no such thing as building a stupa of that size.” The king started the job, though, and the worker eventually finished the stupa. Standing on top of the stupa he thought to himself, “The king was right. We finished the stupa and I accumulated great non-virtue by telling him this was impossible. So, to purify my non-virtue I will place a silver bell on top of the stupa.” So, he made a beautiful silver bell and placed it on top of the stupa so that it would ring when the wind passed. In his next life he was reborn as a hideous dwarf, black of complexion, who could only walk crouched over, and who was so ugly people could not stand to look at him. However, as a result of having offered the bell, he had the most beautiful voice and beings would just come and close their eyes and just listen to him speak.
As the great Aryadeva, who was Nagarjuna’s foremost disciple, was an inconceivable scholar and on an equal keel with Nagarjuna, said:
Rare indeed are the hearers. Rarer again is that which is heard. Yet again rarer is he who utters. For that reason it cannot be said whether cyclic existence has an end or not.
This beautiful quote of Aryadeva refers in the case of’ the hearer’ to the Sangha. These are those who actually hear the teachings, in the case of ‘that which is heard’ to the dharma, and in the case of ‘the utterer’ to the Buddha who utters the dharma. Now, while those who actually hear or listen to the dharma, the Sangha, are rare, rarer again is the dharma which is listened to. Yet rarer again, however, is he who utters this dharma, the Buddha. For this reason, we refer to the Triple Gem in Tibetan as dkon mchog gsum – dkon means ‘rare’, and mchog means ‘supreme’. Now, dkon refers to the rare objects from within this world such as gold, jewels and so forth, but within these rare objects there is one supremely rare object, and this is the Triple Gem. Precisely because the Buddha is supreme among rarities, he is referred to as one of the Triple Gem. Therefore, in this world of ours rare are the listeners to the teachings, rarer again are the teachings, rarer yet again are the buddhas who utter these teachings. As a result of this, Aryadeva says it is not possible to say whether cyclic existence ends or not. While indeed cyclic existence has ended, has a boundary or limit for arhats and buddhas who have put an end to their own cyclic existence through great effort, nonetheless it has not had an end so far for sentient beings. Therefore, it is not possible to say whether cyclic existence has an and or not. As to cyclic existence or samsara, what is it precisely? In the context of pramana, or debate, the great Dharmakirti says:
Samsara are the suffering aggregates.
In other words, samsara is nothing else but this process of cycling within the six realms of cyclic existence, the three happy realms and the three unhappy realms, which are none other than a result of virtuous and non-virtuous karma.
Then, to understand in greater detail what are these three higher and three lower rebirths, we have to understand that they arise respectively from virtuous and non-virtuous karma. From virtuous karma arise the higher rebirths – the human rebirths, the rebirths of the demigods and the gods – and from non-virtuous karma or black karma arise the rebirths of the animals, the pretas and the hell beings. Therefore, all six realms of cyclic existence are the result of virtue and non-virtue. Now, there are some nowadays who think that this simply is actually not the case, that we choose our rebirth, we choose to be reborn in the higher realms or we choose to be reborn in the lower realms. This is not the case at all. We have absolutely no choice, no independence in the matter. We are impelled there by the karma we have accumulated. The lower realms are characterised by various types of sufferings, such as the six sufferings, the three sufferings and so forth. Arya Nagarjuna, the great being in this respect said:
From non-virtue arises suffering, hence the lower realms. From virtue arises the happy realms, and thereby beings progress ever-upwards until they attain felicity.
A Buddhist is one who accepts karma and causality, in other words one who accepts the existence of virtue and non-virtue. Now, if we enter into detail in the presentation of these realms, the lower realms are the result of three different levels of intensity of non-virtue. As a result of great non-virtue one experiences in turn later on great suffering, and this refers to the hell realms. As a result of middling non-virtue one experiences middling suffering, which corresponds to the preta realms. As a result of small non-virtue one experiences small suffering which corresponds to the animal realms. So, the rebirth is contingent on the greater or lesser strength of the karmic imprints. To give an example in worldly matters, when a criminal is tried and the judge has to decide the sentence, for a great crime, he will condemned or sentenced to a lengthy stay in jail and great suffering. For and middling crime he will be sentenced to a middling stay, and for a lesser crime he will be sentenced to a short stay. So, in general in this matter worldly affairs and the dharma are identical.
As for virtuous or happy rebirths, from a high level of virtuous activity one experiences rebirth as a god, from a middling level rebirth as a demigod, and from a small intensity of virtuous activity rebirth as a human being. While gods themselves have not attained liberation, nonetheless they experience great happiness, long lives and extremely pleasant sensations. So, the six series of lives or cycles of existences are what is referred to as the experience of migrators. Migrators are beings who circumambulate in cyclic existence under the power of karma and afflictions. They circumambulate in the self-same way as the twelve hours of day which correspond to the happy realms are succeeded by the twelve hours of night which correspond to lower realms and again and again. Therefore, the rising upwards and the following downwards are decided exclusively by karma. We have absolutely no control in the matter. Someone who has accumulated great non-virtuous karma, cannot be protected by the Buddha, will have to experience it. Likewise, someone who has accumulated great virtuous karma cannot be prevented by the Buddha from experiencing its happy results. Therefore, from virtuous karma happiness arises, and from non-virtuous karma unhappiness arises.
It is exactly the same thing as a scale. If we have a scale, if the virtue is dominant in our lives, the branch of a scale will rise up and we will be reborn in one of the three higher realms. On the other hand, if non-virtue and sin are dominant in our lives then one of the branches of the scale will sink and we will fall into the three lower realms. It depends exclusively on the respective weight of the karma we have accumulated. So, in the self-same way as a mirror reflects everything which appears in front of it, the good and the bad and is perfectly honest, if there are those among you who say that they have committed no sins, that they have committed no faults, then check your minds with the mirror and examine carefully and you will probably find that there are many faults, such as killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct. These all appear in this mirror. It is said of someone in a sutra who had to recite some commitments that he actually sold the sutra he was supposed to recite on the market, and then denied selling it. When confronted, his confronter was able to point out quite clearly to whom he had sold it and he had no way to deny this.
Regarding the respective weight and lightness of karma, in other words virtue and non-virtue, it is said that there has to be someone who inspects this, someone who verifies this. This is the manifestation of Manjushri – Yamari or Yama – who verifies this and when, upon examining the dead person’s record, he sees that the dead person has accumulated much virtue, then he stretches out his hand to him and congratulates him. On the other hand, when he sees great sin in the mind and the dead person, then he calls his savage helpers and they first start flaying and then beating the dead person.
If we were to examine carefully a representation of the twelve links of dependent origination such as The Wheel of Life we see in monasteries and thangkas, then we would understand this better. We can see that one can move upwards in cyclic existence or downwards, and within the centre of the wheel of life we see the representation of three animals – a pig, a cockerel and a snake. These three symbolise respectively: in the case of the pig, ignorance since pigs tend to be officially very stupid animals; in the case of cockerels and hens, this symbolises desire because as you can see they peck at food all the time; and finally in the case of snakes, snakes symbolise anger. So, it is through the power of the three poisons that we circumambulate, or that we travel within the twelve links of dependent origination impelled or motivated by them. These three poisons, of desire, anger and ignorance, are afflictions, and it is impelled by them, motivated by them, that we accumulate karma. However, the very root of karma is nescience, or ignorance. This in and of itself is neutral. On the basis of nescience, of ignorance, it is possible to accumulate everything, both virtuous and non-virtuous deeds. When regarding the two other poisons, desire and hatred, they mainly if not overwhelmingly lead to the accumulation of non-virtue. Perhaps on the basis of desire one can only accumulate non-virtue, and on the basis of hatred or anger one can only accumulate non-virtue, whereas when one refers to ignorance, one is referring to that ignorance which apprehends phenomena as truly existent.
Cyclic existence is akin to a watch which is constantly moving, whether it wants to or not. We ourselves like to think that we are here and we will stay here. This is not the case at all. We will necessarily have to travel on, to migrate. We belong to the realms of the migrators. The six realms of cyclic existence could be seen, on the face of a clock, as corresponding to two hours each. Every two hours one has to move onto another realm, and we are called migrators precisely because we migrate, we have to leave. We have no choice in not migrating and migrate under power of karma and affliction. To give an example, if we were to take a factory, for instance, a factory and factory machines can only work under the power of electricity. So, when there is no electricity they simply do not work. If we ask what basically makes the factory machines work it is electricity, or power. This corresponds to karma and affliction. Now, Australians like to believe that they have a lot of independence, that they are very independent and autonomous people. This is absolute nonsense. There is no such thing.
Therefore, cyclic existence can be understood as the continuum of suffering aggregates in keeping with Dharmakirti’s explanation. This cyclic existence is composed of six realms, as has been explained, the three higher realms and the three lower realms. The ‘continuum of the suffering aggregates’ refers to the continuum of the four or the five suffering aggregates. We ourselves have five aggregates: the form aggregate – our body in other words – feelings, discrimination, volition and consciousness, whereas gods of the formless realms have only four aggregates. They lack bodies, or they lack the form aggregate. In our cases we have five aggregates and it is the five aggregates to which the Heart Sutra refers in the famous passage:
These five aggregates are to be understood as lacking inherent self-existence.
These five aggregates in detail are first and foremost, the form aggregate which is our body, secondly, the feeling aggregate which is subdivided into happy, unhappy and neutral feelings. Happy feelings are for instance feelings we have when we eat a good meal and enjoy it and say, “This is really tasty!” Unhappy feelings, or suffering, arises when we are pinched and we say, “Ouch! Ouch!” Neutral feelings are feelings which are neither happy nor unhappy. The third category of aggregates is the aggregate of discrimination. We all have this, we recognise things and say, “This is this and that is that, this is a man, that is a woman, this is my husband, this is my wife, this is a horse, that is a cup.” This is all the activity of the aggregate of discrimination. The aggregate of volition is that aggregate containing mental factors which are not included within the two first mental aggregates, which are feelings and discrimination, and this includes such mental factors as bodhichitta or for that matter, the view which realises emptiness. Finally, the last aggregate is the aggregate of consciousness, whose relation to the previous four is like that of a king to his servants. Consciousness cognises – recognizes – feelings and discrimination. All beings have these five aggregates.
So, we have to therefore ask ourselves what precisely cyclic existence is, and cyclic existence is none other but the five or the four suffering aggregates of beings, the five aggregates for beings of the desire and form realms, from the form aggregate to the consciousness aggregate, and the four aggregates of the gods of the formless realms. So, when we refer to migrators of the six classes of beings we are referring to persons. They have five aggregates if they are in the two realms of form and desire. This is what circumambulates. These five aggregates are the product or arise from karma and affliction, and they are what experiences suffering. They are actually the bases for the experience of suffering. Persons actually are the transmigrators in cyclic existence. It is their bodies and their minds which experience sufferings. So, we have to ask ourselves is cyclic existence, is samsara, a good thing? This is something which we can only know if we understand what actually are the six realms of cyclic existence, of the migrators, and their specific sufferings. Once we understand this we will see it is not.
The aggregates, which are the foundation of cyclic existence, in turn are that which experiences suffering. If the aggregates were not there, there would be no experience of suffering. If we take for instance the body of a human being, of a horse, of an animal or so forth, if this body is not there the experience of bodily suffering of a human being, an animal or a horse does not arise. When we start reflecting on the suffering of the lower realms we will be very humbled because what we call suffering for ourselves in this human realm such as heat or cold is actually bliss for the beings of the lower realms. For the beings of the hell realms and the pretas, our suffering is great happiness compared to the agonizing suffering they have to experience. Pretas, for instance, live 500 years or more in bodies which are thin as twigs and which crackle when they move. They can never find neither food nor water as sustenance. If we were to be reborn in this way it would be extremely hard for us to support it.
So, when we have no understanding of what the sufferings of cyclic existence are, it is ridiculous and pathetic for us to say that we have renunciation. What renunciation, let alone bodhichitta? What bodhichitta? We do not understand anything about this. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has said, “My main practice is bodhichitta and the view of emptiness.” Deity yoga, mantra recitation, looking grand and impressive are of no benefit at all when there is no real difficulty. It is through meditating on bodhichitta and the view, that we are able to benefit when we face difficulty. So, we should adopt for ourselves the Dalai Lama’s prayers:
For as long as there are sentient beings, may I be a bridge for them.
This is something actually we might want to recite on a regular basis. Otherwise, there is no foundation, there is no basis for the practice of deity yoga. Therefore, this practice of bodhichitta and of the view is fundamental. We ourselves should focus on this as our meditation. Otherwise, to sit back and say, “I have recited one million manis!” and to be filled with oneself at the thought of this puts us in the situation of someone who has not even recited one single mani.
Rinpoche says in his personal opinion he has himself received many initiations, given many initiations, done many retreats, completed the approximation retreats and so forth, and while it is true that the very essence of the Buddha’s dharma is Secret Mantra and it is worthwhile to implant karmic imprints in this matter, nonetheless he feels that we do not understand the very basis of this, and because we do not understand the very basis, there is very limited benefit. We are unable to protect the ethics which is the foundation of practice, specifically the ethics of Secret Mantra, which includes protecting the root tantric vows and preventing from falling in the remaining faults and so forth. Now, inasmuch as we do not even know the root tantric faults or understand the remaining faults, it is very difficult for us to prevent from falling into them. Likewise, we have no bodhichitta and no understanding of emptiness. So, the very root causes for a practice of Secret Mantra are absent. This, therefore, is an extremely dangerous situation. We can see when we practise in this way, that within our minds, a lot of rlung, a lot of mental energy arises and our minds become like whirly gigs, just running around left and right. We ourselves, being unable to hold within our minds – literally to memorise these vows – are incapable to protect them.
As Shantideva said:
What is not held by the mind, how could it be held by the hand?
He likewise added:
The mind is more dangerous than a wild elephant, since it can precipitate us into the Avici hell.
A wild elephant can only harm our bodies, but our mind can harm us durably by causing us to accumulate great non-virtues and fall in the lowest of the hell realms. So, having many commitments and not bothering to keep our commitments we only generate for ourselves the causes for ever-lower rebirths. Instead, in our cases we should be realistic about who we are, and we should start by focusing on the practice of the being of small scope. This is a very good thing. One thinks of future lives, and a true practitioner of the small scope will not experience lower rebirths. Then, in dependence on this, one moves upwards to the practice of the being of middling scope who is afraid of the sufferings of cyclic existence in general, and then in dependence on this alone can one move upwards to the practice of the being of great scope, who trains in bodhichitta. Otherwise, all this talk about arhats and bodhisattvas has no meaning.
There is an antidote, translated as best as possible. The concerns of famous character called Akwor Tönpa. In days of yore Tibetans were very naïve, actually, very dumb. They believed what they were told. So, Akwor Tönpa walked around making believe he was an emanation of Avalokiteshvara and he withdrew his chu ba a certain way over his shoulders and say, “It was empty down here and empty back behind as well”, which everyone thought was very profound.
Therefore, within the two categories of love, love for ourselves and love for others, we have to start by having love for ourselves since this is what will protect us from the lower realms through wishing, by being protected ourselves from the lower realms, in turn we can wish to protect others from the lower realms. Otherwise, if we do not have good self-love, then, how can we hope to love others? Any talk of others at this point is empty talk. It is meaningless. Therefore, we first have to want to eliminate our own suffering. On this basis alone can we wish to eliminate the suffering of other sentient beings. We ourselves are heading straight to the lower realms. This is our destination. The only means to be freed from this, to eliminate this, is the practice of virtue. Money, wealth, health and so forth will be of absolutely no benefit at this time. It is only virtue which is of benefit. Therefore, we have to take refuge in the Triple Gem, abandon the practice of the ten non-virtuous deeds, practise the ten virtuous deeds, and on this basis alone can we hope for a higher rebirth. Not understanding what are the ten virtuous deeds and what are the ten non-virtuous deeds is the surest way to lower rebirths. So, this practice of taking refuge, abandoning the non-virtues and practising the virtues is what it means to be a dharma practitioner. There is no such thing as a dharma practitioner who does not do this.
This body of ours is actually the very foundation of our own cyclic existence, of our own suffering. All beings, all migrators, whether they are human beings, fish, horses and so forth transmigrate through the power of karma and afflictions and experience their own cyclic existence within their own bodies. If we were able to eliminate cyclic existence we could eliminate suffering, and this is what the arhats have done. They are no longer born under the power of karma and afflictions. The same is true for the buddhas and so forth. They have put an end to their own cyclic existence through putting an end to the cause of suffering. As a result of this, they experience only happiness and do not experience even the slightest suffering. We therefore must practise, otherwise there will be no liberation and there will only be the experience of the lower realms, which will be very difficult. So, since beginningless time we have been circumambulating through the lower to the higher realms and back, and this has been going on and on under the power of karma and afflictions, from which we must strive for liberation. Foremost, as things to be eliminated, are the afflictions. These are the three afflictions symbolised by a pig, a cockerel and a snake, symbolising respectively ignorance, desire and hatred at the centre of The Wheel of Twelve Links. These must be destroyed.
It is not enough to understand or to reflect what is said. If we practise it, it will protect us. If we do not practise it, it will not protect us. It will not help us, in the self-same way as just making a meal and not eating it does not protect us from hunger, we must eat it to the protected from hunger, or by just putting a glass of orange juice on the table and not drinking it does not protect us from thirst. We have to understand that when we harm others, we harm others and then ourselves the same time, because as a result of harming them we ourselves will be harmed in the future. When we help others, we help them and we help ourselves at the same time. It is as a result of helping them that we ourselves will be helped in the future. This is the very essence of Buddha-dharma. What we do to others, we ourselves experience. When we help, we are helped, when we harm, we ourselves are harmed.
As we remember from the quote of Aryadeva which was given last time regarding the increasing scarcity of the teacher of the dharma, the dharma heard and the hearers of the dharma, leading to the question whether cyclic existence has an end or not, we will address the issue at present of the beginninglessness and endlessness of cyclic existence or not. As was mentioned last time, there is a preliminary introduction to cyclic existence, which was given. Cyclic existence is presented in terms of the six realms. These are the beings which circumambulate in cyclic existence – the circumambulators. These are persons. Then, the aggregates of these beings are actual cyclic existence – that is what is called cyclic existence. The question which arises is whether this cyclic existence is bounded, is finite or is infinite. Buddha himself said that cyclic existence is finite, in that there is an end inasmuch as all sentient beings will eventually reach enlightenment. For that matter, when one becomes an arhat cyclic existence has ceased for oneself. However, Aryadeva says that it is difficult for cyclic existence to end – it is difficult because if you remember in the quote, the ‘hearers’ are the Sangha, the ‘heard topic’ is the dharma and the ‘utterer’ is the Buddha. All three of these are rare within this world of ours, therefore, it is difficult for cyclic existence to end. How could it end? Buddha himself said:
I do not cleanse sins with my hands nor do I cleanse them through bestowing my blessings. It is through the practice of dharma that sins are cleansed.
The meaning of this quote is that unlike some tirthikas – some non-Buddhist practitioners, who believe that through bathing in the Ganges for instance, it is possible to purify even karma and unlike those who believe that through the power of prayer and blessing alone it is possible to purify non-virtue, the teaching of the Buddha is that sentient beings must purify their non-virtue through the practice of dharma. This is what leads to the end of cyclic existence. If, in this context, buddhas themselves are rare in this world, and dharma is rarer and the sangha rarer again, how is it possible for cyclic existence to end? If we reflect on the cycles, the cosmological cycles, we can understand this better.
The cosmological cycles are divided in three: we have first twenty eons of destruction, then twenty empty eons and finally twenty eons of abiding. During the first twenty eons of destruction of our universe the buddhas do not come; likewise, during the first twenty empty eons in which there is nothing the buddhas do not come either, so this makes forty eons which are called the eons of obscuration in which the buddhas do not manifest. They do not manifest because the buddhas manifest to benefit beings, and during these forty eons there would be no benefit. The buddhas only manifest in the twenty last eons, the twenty eons of abiding which are also called the twenty eons of liberation. During this period, however, during the first phase, which is one of increase of life span, the buddhas do not manifest because again there would be no benefit. Therefore, the length of time during which the buddhas manifest is very small, and the odds of meeting a buddha are very small indeed. If one does not meet a buddha it is impossible to practise the dharma he taught, so it is very difficult, therefore, to practise the dharma. The dharma which is the abandonment of the ten non-virtues, training in the ten virtues and so forth can only be practised through receiving teachings through a buddha. Therefore, many sentient beings will be unable to encounter these teachings and, therefore, unable to practise them. The dharma and, therefore, the practice of the dharma, can affect only a very small number of trainees. Of these, the supreme, the best trainees will attain full enlightenment; middling trainees will attain liberation and the lowest trainees will attain again a human rebirth.
Shantideva compares samsara to a jail,
…it is a jail in which we move through the power of karma and afflictions.
So through the power of karma and afflictions we pass from old aggregates which are abandoned to new aggregates which in turn are abandoned, to other aggregates which are also abandoned. Passing from these aggregates to each other is akin to being changed from one cell in the jail to another, we remain in jail throughout. The only way to be free from jail is the practice of dharma. For this we need a buddha who imparts dharma.
Regarding the practice of dharma, there are practices central to lay people and practices for those who are ordained. For lay people it is the practice of lay vows, for those who are ordained it is practising the novice vows or the vows of a fully ordained monk. Without this practice it is impossible in the future to meet with a buddha, and without meeting in a future with a buddha it will be impossible for us to attain liberation.
As Shantideva said:
Countless buddhas came in the past and through our own faults we did not meet them – we did not encounter to them.
The buddhas are akin to the sun which shines equally on all, in the self-same way as the sun views all beings as its children, in the self-same way do the buddhas. Unfortunately, beings from their own side can erect obstacles which prevent the light of the sun from shining through. At this point there is no light under the obstacle but only darkness and shadows. From the standpoint of the buddhas, all sentient beings are equal, and from our standpoint, however, not encountering a buddha is a direct result of our own faults.
As Shantideva said:
In the self-same way as in a dark night briefly for an instant a flash of lighting illuminates all.
This quote is to be understood as follows. At present, imagining that we are in a situation in which heavy rain is falling and this darkness which surrounds us is eliminated for a slight instant by a flash of lightning, that slight instant of time is the duration of time in which a buddha manifests when compared with the total darkness surrounding it. So, it is very difficult to meet with a buddha because of both our extreme states of abasement, the sins we have accumulated and because of the very great poverty of virtue we are in.
Therefore, it is difficult to say that cyclic existence has an end. One can say that buddhas and arhats have put an end to their own cyclic existence, but the fact that buddhas and arhats have put an end to their own cyclic existence affects in no way other sentient beings. The other sentient beings in cyclic existence still abide, and buddhas and arhats have put an end to their own cyclic existence through the wisdom which cuts through ignorance. It is, therefore, through one’s own dharma practice that one can overcome one’s own ignorance and be free from cyclic existence. We should reflect on our own liberation and should not preoccupy ourselves with how others practise or do not practise. Precisely because we ourselves do not practise, we are not liberated, so it is because of our own faults that we at present experience this state of affairs. The question has to be whether there is an end to our own cyclic existence or not, and this is a question we alone can decide. It is within our own hands. If we abandon ignorance there is an end to our own cyclic existence, otherwise there is not.
We ourselves must therefore practise, and instead of this we engage in constant hearing of dharma, we listen, we listen, we listen, we attend teachings and we never practise. This does not lead to any liberation. If we do not practise, then it is very difficult for us to progress. We do not understand what suffering means and, therefore, do not believe that we suffer, we do not understand what it means to practise virtue and what virtue is and, therefore, do not practise virtue. If one does not practise virtue, there is no attainment of liberation, and then if one behaves in any which way, then one can only experience rebirth as a dog or as an animal. Once reborn as a dog, what hope is there to practise any type of dharma? The body we have for the establishment of dharma is destroyed. Once reborn as an animal, as a dog or cat, what hope for us is there in any respect? If we practise dharma well, then in future lives there is hope for us to get a human rebirth, otherwise it will not happen. At present in this world of ours, we have not only obtained a body for the practise of dharma, but dharma itself is present, there are teachers, there are friends in the dharma, Sangha who can help us. Whether or not we will encounter these conditions in the future, it is very difficult to say. Then, there will only be suffering, raw suffering.
As Shantideva says:
If I do not practice, then what? I will only be obscured by suffering, and the sound of dharma will not even penetrate my ears for countless eons.
If we do not practise dharma, if we do not practise virtue, then we will experience inconceivable suffering, and once we are stupefied by suffering for countless eons, what hope is there to understand any dharma? At this point, we can only experience being reborn for eons in the lower realms. Someone who understands the dharma and who does not practise the dharma will be reborn in the lower realms. Someone who has no understanding in the slightest of the dharma and does not practise, does not do virtue will also be reborn in the lower realms, so as far as our destination is concerned they are exactly identical, both will be reborn in the lower realms. However, the first, the person who attended many teachings and who never practised the dharma, and he or she never put in any effort, this person is worse off than the second, because they knew what to do but would not engage in practice. As for the second? What can one say? This person never had a chance. So we are in the case of the first person. We go to teaching after teaching, we never practise anything, and we prepare ourselves a future in the lower realms. What can be said?
There was a man in Tibet called Tashi, who was what we would say in English a rascal. He was loved by all running left and right, people said “Tashi is such a nice man, Tashi is doing this, Tashi is doing that”, he was a very busy man by all accounts and one day he fell terribly ill and facing death he realised that all his life running around had been completely wasted. He had had no dharma of any type, and he collapsed and burst into tears tearing his hair out and cried out loud: “I am not Tashi, I abandon being Tashi”. Therefore, there was a monk who was asked once: “What exactly are the results of running around gathering money, doing business and so forth in this life?” He said the results of running around in this life are more running around in this life. The results of running around in the next life are rebirths in the hell realms, as a preta or a rebirth as an animal. The reason for this is that running around, trying to get food, get money and so forth is actually a set of activities ruled by desire. In dependence on desire, one is reborn in the lower realms; therefore, it is not that we should not engage in the necessary activities of this life, but for instance if we take one day, it should be divided into three parts, one part dedicated to worldly affairs, the second part we have to dedicate to sleep and the third part we should dedicate to dharma. If we do this, then this is a reasonably well spent life. A life which is totally spent running after food, money and the affairs of this life is truly a wasted life, it is of a life like Tashi, just referred to.
So we are on page 41, the middle stanza and this is a collection of advice, which is given by the great bodhisattvas to the lesser bodhisattvas. We ourselves our unable to practise the practice of the great bodhisattvas; for that matter it hurts our ears to hear about it because it is so profound and so difficult for us to practise. Nonetheless, in the past we never encountered such great teachings, we never heard them. Therefore, at present it is appropriate for us to listen to them and to try to implant karmic imprints within our mind.
The verse on page 41 reads:
When troubled by desire and anger, whatever I do,
Since it is because of stubbornly engaging in unsuitable, evil traits of character,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
At present, I will expunge you “I” from [my] presence.
So, here it refers to the situation where following our teacher’s advice, his instructions, we are trying to practise virtue. We are reciting our commitments and so forth and yet, we are unable mentally to practise. Our mind is troubled when we practise by desire, by anger and so forth. This is the result in the second verse, ‘of having in this life and in former lives, engaged in unsuitable evil traits of character, dark and evil aspects of the mind’, such as desire, hatred, the ignorance which apprehends the true existence of phenomena, self-cherishing and so forth. Through habituation with these we have in turn experienced the result expounded by the third verse, in other words,
…the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
Therefore, we take the resolve in the fourth verse at present, from now onwards,
At present, I will expunge you ‘I’ from [my] presence.
Here the reading must be broader than this. We must expunge also desire, anger, self-cherishing in all its forms, the mind which apprehends the ‘I’ as inherently existent and so forth, so that we no longer experience mental disturbance when we try to practise sincerely such as reciting our commitments and so forth.
The stanza on page 42:
When, whenever I practice, the goal is not attained,
Since it is through having been possessed by wrong views,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
At present, whatever I do, I will do for the very sake of others!
This stanza refers to situations where whenever we practise, in other words we meditate, since practise here is meditation. This can refer to meditating in long retreats, the three year and three month retreats, in shorter retreats or just in meditation sessions, while engaging in mantra recitation and meditation on oneself as a deity. Therefore,
…whenever I practice the goal is not attained,
‘the goal’ of practice is the elimination of the afflictions within our mind. When that goal is not attained, in other-words, the afflictions are not eliminated. Let alone this, when as a result of practice not only are the afflictions not eliminated but they actually increase and desire and anger increase within our mindstream, this, in other words completely defeats the purpose of practice. Then, what is explained in the second line is the cause of this state of affairs, since it is through having been possessed by wrong views. This is the situation in which in past lives one was possessed by wrong views such as apprehending the self as truly existing, self-cherishing, wrong views in general or the view of the permanence of phenomena. When our mind was pervaded by this and we asserted ‘there are no such things as past and future lives’, ‘there is no such thing as karma and causality’, ‘I believe in a truly existing self’, then as a result of this in the third verse,
…the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me,
therefore, one takes the resolve in the fourth verse to do whatever we do no longer for the sake of self-cherishing as formally but for the very sake of others, in other words, for other-cherishing.
The stanza at the bottom of page 42:
When even though practicing virtue, one’s continuum remains untamed,
Since it is because of thinking of the vanities of this life,
That the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me.
At present, I will focus on the wish for liberation!
The first verse,
When even though practicing virtue,
refers to both practising virtue and abandoning sins and non-virtues, one engages in the practice of virtue as a whole of taming one’s continuum. However, when even though practising virtue one’s continuum remains untamed, in other words, self-cherishing, competitiveness, spite, envy and all evil thoughts increase in one’s continuum, then this is the result of what is explained in the second verse, of having in a past life thought of the vanities of that life, having thought in a past life of the importance of being learned, of being wealthy, of being famous, and having as a result of having become accustomed to that in a past life, thinking in this life as well of becoming famous, learned and wealthy, in other words, practising in this very life under the influence of past lives’ karmic dispositions with a bad motivation. As a result of this in the third verse,
…the sword of evil karma has revolved [back] upon me.
Then, in the fourth verse we have the resolve ‘at present’, in other-words ‘from now onwards’, having understood it is inappropriate to behave in this way, ‘I will give up thinking of the vanities of this life and I will focus on the wish for liberation from cyclic existence’.
This verse clarifies the fact that in dependence on non-virtues, in dependence on envy, in dependence on competitiveness from past lives and this life as well, our mind naturally gravitates in the same direction. This is called the result, which is concordant with the cause karmically and, therefore, for that reason, however much hardship we engage in in this life, we are unable to attain results in our practice. The remedy to this is to create a good state of mind, and then in dependence on a good state of mind in this life, in future lives a good state of mind will naturally arise. In dependence on creating in this life a mind which wishes to help others, in future lives as well, such a mind will spontaneously arise. In dependence on giving up the mind which wishes to harm others, in future lives such a state of mind will not arise. In turn, if in this life we are constantly negative and critical and see thieves everywhere and are hostile to all, then in future lives as well this will carry over. Therefore, we should create a continuum of goodness within our minds, a continuum of cherishing others and this will carry through to future lives.
Concluding Remarks
So, as Buddha Shakyamuni said:
Such is the karma, like is the result.
This is the very crux of the Buddha’s teachings. Whatever we do to others is in turn done to us. Therefore, when we harm others, we ourselves are harmed down the line. When we help others, we ourselves are helped down the line. Therefore, if we analyse, we can see that if we harm others, two persons are harmed, others are harmed and we ourselves are also harmed. Likewise, when we help others, two persons are helped, others are helped in the short term and we ourselves are helped in the long term. Therefore, the key practice of bodhisattvas is exclusively to help others and not to harm them in he slightest. In so doing, bodhisattvas accomplish their own goal. That is why Je Tsongkhapa said:
The Buddha himself attained full enlightenment through practising only for the sake of others.
Practising for the sake of others alone, the Buddha fulfilled his own goal, his own aim. We ourselves do not understand this and we think that actually taking care of ourselves, protecting ourselves and harming others is the way forward in life. In so doing, not only do we not help ourselves, we harm ourselves.
We have been behaving in this way since beginningless time, and we have absolutely nothing to show for it. On the other hand, if we were as the buddhas and the bodhisattvas exclusively to practise for the sake of others, exclusively to help others, then we would experience from our side only happiness and only help. There are some who only harm others, they not only do not experience happiness, but they in return will only experience suffering and harm. Therefore, in a nutshell the crux of the Buddha’s teachings is at least do not harm others, and if in addition to that one can help them so much the better, one should help them as much as possible. Otherwise, if one cannot help them, at least one should rest on this foundation of not harming them, because everything we inflict on others, everything we throw out to others comes back to us.
Rinpoche would like to ask you to keep this in your mind and to please practise. He is an old monk in his upper eighties and he only taught this because he thought there would be benefit, that it would be of benefit. If we practise it will be of benefit; if we do not practise it will not be of benefit.
Acknowledgements
Recording and Compilation: Malvin Artley
Transcription: Malvin Artley, Shaya Nettle
Formatting: Adrienne Barkla
Index
84,000 bundles of dharma, 8
84,000 different afflictions, 8
Abhidharmakosa, 91
aconite, 21, 22, 23, 29, 30, 31
afflicted non-virtuous karma, 11
afflicted virtuous karma, 11
afflictions, 61
aggregate
discrimination, def., 98
feeling, def., 98
of form, def., 98
aggregates, 14, 25, 63, 86, 96, 98, 101, 102
Akwor Tönpa, 100
all-pervasive suffering, 13, 14, 19, 87
anger
antidote for, 60
effects powerful karma, 64
animal realms, 10, 96
animals
three, 97
antidote, 8, 16, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 47, 57, 60, 62
arhat, 6, 52, 59, 60, 92, 101
Arya Manjushri, 14
Aryadeva, 95, 101
Atisha, 7, 17, 20, 25, 39, 64, 74
Avadhutipa, 64
Avalokiteshvara, 21, 27, 32, 100
goal of, 27
being of small scope
def., 9
benefit others, 28, 46, 47, 79
bikshu, 86
bodhichitta, 8, 15, 20, 21, 26, 29, 39
as basis for Mahayana, 18
method of generation, 21
bodhisattva, 6, 17, 26, 27, 28, 36, 48, 52, 59, 62, 73, 84, 86, 89, 92
derivation in Tibetan, 26
Bodhisattvacharyavatara, 25
bodhisattvas
manifesting as wrathful forms, 17
path of, as extraordinary, 28
bodily basis
as foundation for dharma practise, 9
bodily diseases, 34, 57, 60
buddha, 6, 28, 41, 83, 92, 101, 102
Buddha Shakyamuni, 8, 20, 21, 27, 28, 37, 38, 42, 43, 48, 51, 58, 62, 73, 106
Buddha’s teachings
very crux of, 106
Buddha-dharma, 6
def., 6
buddhahood, 19, 26, 41, 47
buddhas, 7, 28, 43, 46, 47, 52, 60, 61, 66, 83, 84, 89, 90, 95, 100, 101, 102, 103, 106
Buddhist teachings, 3, 9, 59, 80
cancer, 60, 81
causeless effect
no such thing as, 4
causes, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 26, 34, 42, 46, 47, 49, 51, 52, 54, 55, 64, 67, 69, 72, 93, 99, 100
celestial realms
as higher rebirth, 4
Chandrakirti, 73
Chittamatra, 17, 20
Chökyi Dragpa, 20
Christian God, 57
circumambulate, 14, 33, 42, 96, 97, 101
cockerel, 97, 100
compassion, 14, 15, 18, 27, 35, 36, 47, 49, 51, 54, 57, 67, 79, 84, 89
concentration
perfection of, 4
consciousness
aggregate of, def., 98
conviction, 45, 64, 69, 71, 73, 83, 88, 89
cooperative conditions
as remaining perfections, 4
cosmological cycles
divisions of, 101
covetousness, 3, 10, 38, 39, 40
crow-like beings, 29
cyclic existence, 2, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 27, 29, 30, 31, 33, 36, 40, 42, 43, 44, 47, 49, 62, 65, 79, 85, 86, 87, 89, 90, 92, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 103, 106
motor of, 17
Dalai Lama, 7, 99
daze, 82
death
causes of, impermanence, 6
definite emergence
see renunciation, 13, 14, 15, 29, 57, 60, 85
delusion, 14
demons, 92
desire
antidote for, 60
compared to oil-stained cloth, 31
dharani, 22, 27, 60
dharma
as cause of happiness, 5
dharma practice
as fundamental for happiness, 5
def., 17
Dharmakirti, 30, 72, 96, 98
Dharmarakshita, 3, 7, 17, 20, 39
disease, 6, 14, 25, 34, 35, 45, 46, 51, 60, 66, 81, 82, 88
diseases of the blood, 60
divisive speech, 3, 10, 38, 40, 46, 69
edemas, 81
eight freedoms, 2, 9, 48, 87
eight sufferings
defined and categorised, 14
empathy, 21, 23, 31, 38, 39, 47, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 67, 79, 89
enemies
types of, 16
enthusiasm, 3, 4
epidemic diseases, 25
ethics, 2, 3, 4, 11, 12, 36, 49, 56, 73, 84, 86, 93, 99
what is referred to as, 3
excellent disposition, 78
faith, 9, 20, 32, 45, 49, 63, 64, 69, 70, 71, 73, 83, 86, 88, 89, 90, 91, 93
five aggregates, 63, 98
delineation of, 98
produced by, 98
five perfections
other perfections, 4
foe-destroyer, 26
food
as medicine, 37
forbearance, 4, 23, 35, 84, 95
four attachments
enumeration of, 17
four immeasurables
delineated, 54
Four Noble Truths, 11, 26
divisions of, 15
four non-virtues of speech, 3
freedom from interfering factors
as eight freedoms, 9
full enlightenment, 2, 3, 8, 19, 23, 26, 27, 28, 37, 41, 42, 46, 47, 52, 55, 59, 61, 62, 72, 83, 84, 85, 86, 89, 90, 91, 92, 102, 106
future lives, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 14, 17, 18, 24, 27, 37, 38, 45, 59, 64, 71, 74, 82, 83, 84, 87, 100, 103, 105, 106
Ganden Monastery, 7
Garjensawa, 7
Gehse Chaekawa, 23
generosity, 4, 11, 37, 84, 94, 95
Geshe Chekawa, 62
Geshe Sonam Gyaltsen, 7
gossip, 3, 10, 38, 40
great compassion, 8, 15, 18, 53
great scope
being of, practices of, 8
Great Treatise on Abhidharma, 20
Great Vehicle, 8, 14, 15, 28, 41, 42, 49
basis for, 2
Guru Puja, 23, 24, 25, 46, 65, 66
hail, 93
harsh words, 3, 10, 38, 40, 46, 69, 79
hatred, 16, 23, 31, 37, 49, 60, 67, 68, 71, 72, 97, 100, 104
Heart Sutra, 27, 98
hell being, 11
hell realms, 10, 11, 12, 14, 19, 23, 28, 59, 63, 64, 96, 99, 100, 104
hero
derivation in Tibetan, 27
higher realms
def., 10
higher rebirth
causes for, 12
higher rebirths, 4, 12, 13, 48, 96
Hinayana, 18, 25, 28, 52, 59
horror
of cyclic existence, 87
human being
cause for rebirth as, 12
human rebirth, 2, 4, 5, 9, 11, 12, 13, 18, 29, 37, 45, 48, 55, 57, 61, 64, 73, 80, 84, 87, 102, 103
hungry ghost
(preta), 11
preta, 12
idle talk, 3, 10, 38
ignorance
antidote for, 60
as foremost means of accumulating karma, 11
ill will, 3
impermanence, 9, 10, 11, 17, 29, 49, 55, 67, 86
infectious diseases, 81
interchange of self and others, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 43
interdependence, 63, 72, 79
def., 63
Je Tsong khapa, 2, 13
Jetsun Mila, 17, 83
karma
classes of, maturation, 63
effects always arise from, 64
the three classes of, 63
karma and afflictions, 11, 86, 96, 100, 102
karma and causality, 3, 7, 9, 10, 11, 38, 45, 46, 47, 49, 62, 63, 64, 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 87, 92, 96, 105
karmic imprints, 15, 61, 83, 96, 99, 104
killing, 3, 6, 10, 12, 38, 40, 46, 47, 52, 55, 70, 79, 97
klesha
def., 19
kleshas, 26, 39
Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche
see Kyaje Trijang Dorje Chang, 7, 19, 37, 65
Lam Rim, 7, 8, 10, 48, 64, 85, 91, 95
Lama Chöpa, 24, 25
liberation, 2, 3, 13, 14, 18, 26, 30, 36, 41, 42, 49, 54, 57, 61, 73, 84, 85, 86, 89, 90, 96, 100, 101, 102, 103, 105, 106
life
as impermanent, 6
lengthening, means of, 6
Lobsang Choekyi, 42
lojong, 7, 8, 35, 44, 49
as mind purification, 8
love
desirous, 31
lower realms, 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 36, 37, 40, 41, 48, 49, 53, 55, 59, 63, 74, 75, 79, 80, 84, 88, 89, 91, 92, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 103, 104
def., 9
Lower Vehicle, 14, 17, 18, 25, 28, 42, 73
lust, 3, 94
lying, 3, 10, 38, 40, 46, 72, 79
Madhyamakavatara, 73
Maitreya, 28, 29
making offerings
def., 94
mandala
offering, 48
manis, 85
Manjushri, 14, 17, 97
Mantrayana, 7
meditation, 9, 15, 27, 33, 35, 45, 69, 72, 79, 99, 105
mental diseases, 34, 35, 57, 60, 61
mental factors, 98
method and the wisdom
aspects, fusing of, 79
method aspect, 79
middling scope, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 29, 30, 48, 49, 72, 92, 100
migrators, 44, 96, 97, 98, 100
mind
as foremost door, 85
mind training
lojong, 7
lojong, specific to Mahayana, 8
mindstream, 2, 13, 15, 21, 26, 35, 36, 45, 47, 48, 49, 65, 72
misapprehension, 86
motivation, 2, 13, 26, 37, 38, 39, 47, 55, 56, 61, 63, 72, 75, 84, 85, 92, 105
munis, 42
Nagarjuna, 37, 52, 63, 73, 84, 90, 95, 96
Nalanda Monastery, 90
negligence, 86
nescience, 60, 97
noble truth of the origin of suffering, 11, 14
nominal imputation, 72
non-dharma, 5, 17, 19, 32
non-dharma and dharma
distinction between, 17
non-dual union of bliss and emptiness, 17
non-virtue
defined, 3
types of, rebirths resulting from, 12
Nyipa Dorde, 95
obscurations, 23, 88
obscurements, 85
offer mandala, 48, 85
other cherishing, 16, 25
other-cherishing, 23, 24, 25
pandits, 58, 84
Paramitayana, 7, 21
parents, 18, 19, 31, 32, 36, 44, 47, 50, 54, 55, 63, 64, 65, 67, 69, 71, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 93, 95
Parting from the Four Attachments, 17
paths
fivefold divisions of, 27
patience, 3, 4, 11, 23, 45, 84, 94, 95
peacock, 22, 23
perfect human rebirth, 2, 9
Perfection of Wisdom
dharani of, 22
Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, 20
permanent happiness, 5
phlegm diseases, 81
physical bodies
infirmed, 4
pig, 97, 100
pledges, 92, 93, 94
poison, 22, 23, 29, 30, 48
poisons
three, def., 30
powerful prayers, 4, 49
practice
for dharma, practice of, 2
practice of the perfections, 3
pramana
def., 5
pratyekabuddha, 41
prayers of dedication, 4
precious human rebirth, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 48, 49, 53
preliminary practices, 8, 11, 15, 48
pretas, 10, 12, 14, 55, 59, 63, 93, 96, 99
described, 12
prosperity
correct approach to, 18
psychiatrist, 61
pure prayers, 3
purifier
the, 8
renunciation, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 30, 33, 57, 60, 61, 85, 89, 99
authentic, 13
two types of, 14
requisites, 75
Royal Prayer, 48
rupakaya, 21
Sakya, 17
Samantabhadra, 48
samsara, 40, 96, 98, 102
Secret Mantra, 2, 73, 92, 99
self-cherishing, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 35, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 47, 51, 53, 62, 65, 67, 79, 104, 105
as evil mind, 16
self-love, 18, 100
sentient beings, 2, 8, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 36, 37, 38, 43, 44, 46, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 65, 66, 68, 72, 75, 84, 87, 88, 89, 90, 92, 93, 94, 95, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103
Serlingapa, 20
seven kisses, 2
seven limbed prayer, 48
seven-fold cause and effect, 20
sexual misconduct, 3, 10, 12, 38, 40, 46, 55, 79, 92, 97
Shantideva, 25, 28, 34, 41, 43, 56, 66, 67, 79, 99, 102, 103
shastras, 84
shravaka, 41
six realms of cyclic existence, 11, 13, 40, 96, 97, 98
Slayer of the Lord of the Dead, 20, 21
small scope, 8
small, middling and great scope
beings of, 8, 30, 92
snake, 97, 100
solitary realiser, 41
spiritual teacher, 2, 4, 9, 25, 26, 44, 48, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 70, 73, 77, 78
kindness of, human rebirth, 4
stealing, 3, 10, 12, 38, 40, 46, 47, 52, 70, 75, 76, 79, 81, 97
stupa, 95
suffering
as result of non-dharma, 5
suffering of change, 13, 14, 19, 87
suffering of suffering, 14, 19, 87
sufferings
of three higher realms, 13
six, the, 96
three, the, 96
sutra, 45, 74, 97
Sutrayana, 7, 57
Suvarnadvipa, 17, 20
sword
as sharp weapon, as method, 16
syllogism, 5
taking refuge, 10, 11, 91, 100
taking what is not given, 3
Tantrayana, 7, 57
tantric path, 7
Tara, 87
ten endowments, 2, 9, 48, 87
ten non-virtues, 3, 10, 12, 38, 39, 46, 49, 55, 75, 79, 102
defined and categorised, 3
thangkas, 97
the childish, 42
the perfections, 4
the result, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 13, 25, 29, 45, 46, 68, 69, 70, 73, 74, 75, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 85, 87, 88, 93, 96, 104, 105, 106
the spiritual friend, 9, 15, 29
as foundation of spiritual training, 9
The Verses of Mind Training, 8
The Wheel of Sharp Weapons, 7, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22, 39, 40, 46, 48, 92
as treatise on karma and causality, 7
three causes
for human rebirth, defined, 4
three discriminations
the, 62
three doors
the, 38, 85
three faults
of vessel delineated, 58
three non-virtues of body, 3
three non-virtues of mind, 3
three poisons, 11
Three Principles of the Path, 10, 11, 89
tirthikas, 101
tong len, 44, 51, 53, 65, 66, 67
transient happiness, 5
Triple Gem, 6, 10, 38, 48, 88, 89, 91, 94, 95, 100
twelve links of interdependent origination, 90
Vaibashika, 17
Vajradhara, 2
vice
root of, 43
view of emptiness, 8, 19, 57, 60, 61, 79, 89, 99
virtue
defined, 3
volition
aggregate of, def., 98
vows, 36, 55, 86, 87, 92, 99, 102
weal
fulfilling, of self and others, 28
wealth, 4, 13, 14, 17, 37, 52, 55, 67, 84, 94, 100
welfare of others, 2, 19, 25, 28, 40, 41, 43, 44
wisdom, 4, 6, 8, 19, 20, 21, 35, 49, 73, 79, 82, 83, 84, 91, 92, 103
perfection of, 4
wisdom aspect, 19, 79
wish-fulfilling gems, 2
worldly affairs, 59, 96, 104
wrathful slayer of the lord of the dead, 17
wrong views, 3, 10, 38, 39, 40, 83, 104, 105
Yama, 97
Yamantaka
as Slayer of the Lord of the Dead, 21
Yamari, 97
yidam, 73