Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 92-minute teaching, Geshe Jampa Gyaltsen presents the foundation for Mahāyāna Buddhist practice: the cultivation of bodhicitta, the determination to attain full enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. After establishing the critical role of correct motivation, he walks through the preliminary mind-training steps that precede bodhicitta—first equalizing your view of all sentient beings by recognizing their kindness, then deliberately generating love and compassion through repeated meditation. He then shifts to the philosophical underpinnings of the path, following Khedrup Gelek Pelzangpa’s Opening the Eye of New Awareness: why study dharma (to eliminate suffering and its mental causes), what counts as genuine happiness (mental rather than fleeting sensory pleasure), and—most substantially—a detailed logical defense of past and future lives. Using examples of infant instinct, birthmarks from previous injuries, and the case of the Dalai Lama recognizing his former possessions at age three, Geshe-la systematically refutes materialist objections and demonstrates why belief in rebirth is both rationally sound and essential to making practice meaningful. The talk ends with a Q&A where he addresses self-perception, motivation across lifetimes, and how ignorance obscures innate mental clarity. Aimed at practitioners beginning formal dharma study.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2013-02-10 – KR.mp3
UUID: 5c07388f-d15f-40ce-99cd-6dffcfe49023
Teacher: Geshe Jampa Gyaltsen
Collection: Awakening Heart
Date: 2013-02-10
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~5,809
Oh, yeah. It is most important if one wishes to engage correctly in the study of the Mahāyāna to understand fully the preliminaries, the body of the practice, and the conclusion of the practice. Among the preliminaries, the foremost is motivation. Therefore, we shall address the issue of the motivation at present. Generally speaking, there are three stages of motivation, refuge, renunciation, and bodhicitta.
And as much as at present, we are focusing on teachings of Mahāyāna, the motivation of bodhicitta is the most important. Within our mental continuum, is one specific or particular type of mind which can be transformed into bodhicitta. It is difficult for us beginners to transform this particular mind within our mental continuum into bodhicitta. There are means of training the mind into transforming this specific mind within our mental continuum into something of the nature of bodhicitta. As a preliminary, as was explained in Kamalaśīla’s Bhāvanākrama, if we wish to generate bodhicitta, we must first meditate on equanimity towards sentient beings.
Through training in equanimity, which takes sentient beings as its object of observation, we will be able to counter the attraction towards those sentient beings we see as friends and the enmity towards those sentient beings which we see as enemies. We experience great suffering ourselves through seeing some sentient beings as friends and having attraction to them and some as foes and having enmity towards them. There are numerous reasons for which one should see all sentient beings as one’s friends and one’s benefactors. I have already explained previously the reasons for which from a mundane standpoint, all sentient beings are benefactors and likewise from the standpoint of the dharma why there is not a single sentient being whom we have not experienced as being our mother. As I said in the first stanza of the eight verses of mind training, bless me to see all sentient beings as a wish fulfilling jewel and to actualize their will.
All sentient beings are seen as immeasurably precious and one tries to actualize their benefit. Therefore, it is extremely important to see all sentient beings as of the type or the category of one’s friends without discriminating between them. Then through seeing all sentient beings as equal and being of the type or the category of one’s friends, the love which wishes to place them in a state of happiness and the compassion which wishes to free them from suffering will spontaneously arise. That wish to place all sentient beings in a state of happiness, viewing them all as of the category of one’s friends is called love and that wish to free them from suffering is called compassion. Therefore, when we train in equanimity, we train in an equanimity of the nature of compassion.
Through over and again training in compassion, the power of compassion will increase ever more. Through the power of the increase in compassion, the thought may all sentient beings be free of suffering will transmute into the thought, I will definitely free sentient beings from suffering. And then in dependence on this, the thought, I, my self alone, will free all sentient beings from suffering will eventually arise. However, even though this powerful thought arises, at present, we lack the capacity to do so. In as much as at present, we lack the capacity to do so, undertaking analyses, we can see that we must attain the state where all objects of abandonment are abandoned and all realizations are attained.
In other words, the state in which all thoughts are abandoned and all qualities are attained, which is none other than the state of full enlightenment. And in turn, we need to give rise to the thought. I myself must attain this state of full enlightenment for the sake of others, and I take the oath to do so. That thought, I must attain full enlightenment for the sake of others, I will attain full enlightenment for the sake of others is called bodhicitta. If today I explain the dharma with the motivation, I will attain full enlightenment for the sake of sentient beings, then that will have been explained with the motivation of bodhicitta.
Please at present try to generate this motivation of bodhicitta as was explained during one minute or so meditating on it. We will move onwards with the presentation of Opening the Eye of New Awareness written by Khedrup Gelek Pelzangpa from where we stopped last time. And as you remember, Geshe-la started by presenting the reason for understanding and studying the dharma. If one understands well the reason for understanding the dharma, one will put effort in doing so. Why should we understand the Because all of us wish to be free from suffering and to attain happiness.
Wishing to be free from suffering, we must find a means through the dharma to eliminate the waves of suffering which overwhelm us and find likewise a means through the dharma to actualize the causes for the happiness we wish for. What are the causes of suffering within our mind? They are the afflictions such as desire, hatred, pride, competitiveness, envy, and so forth. These afflictions arise spontaneously and naturally within our minds out of great previous habituation. Precisely out of this great habituation, it is not possible for us to oppose the arising of these afflictions easily.
Specifically, we must oppose the arising of these three root afflictions. Likewise, we wish to attain happiness and for this we must give rise to the causes of happiness which are love, compassion and bodhicitta and generate these through numerous years of practice. Because we did not train in these previously and at present, are beginners in our training in these states of mind. There is some difficulty in doing this. Even though there is some difficulty in doing this, this is difficulty we should take on board thinking that through training our minds in this way, let alone for this life, but over future lives, large waves of suffering will be eliminated.
Check for yourselves when you give rise in your mind experimentally to desire or to anger towards other sentient beings. How do you feel after that? On the other hand, when you give rise in your mind to compassion and to love for other sentient beings, how do you feel after that? When we speak of eliminating suffering and giving rise to happiness, we are not talking of the short term suffering and happiness of this life alone, but of the suffering and happiness of measureless future lives. It is for this that we should put effort.
Happiness can be subdivided into two, physical and mental happiness. Physical happiness is intimately connected to the experiences of the five senses and is cognate with the experiences of the five sensory consciousnesses from the eye consciousness to the bodily sense consciousness, the tactile consciousness. The happiness which arises from this is a very coarse type of happiness. Let me give you an example. Let us take observing a pleasant shape with our eye consciousness as an example.
The happiness which arises in our eye consciousness through observing a pleasant shape is only present for as long as the present shape is actually there. The moment we eliminate it, that happiness disappears. So this is very short term in course. Likewise, with the gustatory consciousness, we experience happiness as a result of the gustatory consciousness while enjoying a good meal. But as soon as a stream of good tastes stop, that feeling of happiness which arises from the gustatory consciousness disappears.
The same thing can be said for pleasant smells experienced by the olfactory consciousness, pleasant sounds experienced by the auditory consciousness, and pleasant bodily sensations experienced by the tactile consciousness. These are transient and ephemeral, do not last and disappear swiftly. However, most of us strive for a happiness which is cognate to that generated by these sense consciousnesses. Such a so called happiness is not stable or permanent. And as soon as its cause disappears, it instantaneously vanishes.
So what is a happiness we should strive for? It is a mental happiness. Because once this mental happiness is generated, it will be stable and we can enjoy and experience it for a long time. Such a mental happiness is not only of benefit for this life, but for life after life in countless future lives. So to think or to strive only for the happiness of this life is to strive for a very paltry type of happiness.
Instead, we should have a broad view and strive for the happiness of measureless lives. However, to have such a viewpoint, we must acknowledge or accept the existence of future lives. And for this reason, this treatise explains the positions regarding future lives. There are still some points to present. Regarding the existence of past and future lives, there are only biased and partial reasons which can be given for their nonexistence.
So you for yourself should examine carefully whether the reasons which are advanced for the existence of past and future lives in this text are valid or not. And if they are valid, then you should accept them, otherwise not. Please set aside the bias which thinks I don’t like this concept of past and future lives and therefore I don’t plan on accepting it. And try to think of past and future lives positively at least because if past and future lives exist, then we have hope after death to return in a human form. Otherwise, it will all cease when we die.
Clearly, if we don’t accept the existence of past and future lives, then any striving for happiness in past and future lives is totally meaningless, isn’t it? On the other hand, if you are able to generate conviction in the reasons for the existence of past and future lives, you will put effort in obtaining a good future life such as a human life in Australia with all of the requisite conditions. Well, it is certainly not the case that in future lives we will necessarily experience suffering. I must say that if we are not careful, there is a risk that we will experience suffering in future lives. It’s a bit the same thing as when you have to travel abroad by plane.
When you board the plane, you are told not to talk at certain moments and to put your safety belt on. It is not up to you whether you choose to put your safety belt on or not. It is obligatory because everyone can see the benefits in this. So Geshe-la will present at present some of the lines of reasonings invoked by other schools to counter the idea of the existence of past and future lives. So the last time Geshe-la presented the views of the ancient Indian materialist school, the so called Cārvākas or Lokayatas, the three examples which according to them counter past and future lives.
These are wrong examples. Some people think that since we can see in this life that there are extremely stingy people who nonetheless remain rich or people who have committed murder in this life who nonetheless lead a long life, it means that karma and causality does not exist. The reason for which the first example is a wrong example or a wrong line of reasoning is because if someone is stingy in this life, the karmic result of that stinginess will mature in a future life. Or if someone is rich in that life, the karmic cause for that wealth comes from having practiced generosity in previous lives. These are two different sets of causes and conditions.
The second example of a murderer who leads a long and happy life is likewise fallacious because although such people do exist, the murderers leading a long and happy happy life is a result of the past karma of helping others in previous lives, while his having committed murder in this life would give rise to karmic results in future lives. Therefore, these two lines of reasonings are incorrect reasons. There is another criticism of karma and causality from those who, through practicing in previous lives, have attained the clairvoyances through, for instance, calm abiding and so forth. And through the clairvoyances, or we would say the paranormal powers, they actually can see their own previous lives. And while they can see that previous lives exist, they see that in a previous life, stinginess was present, yet in this life they are wealthy and conclude from this that karma and causality do not exist.
Without understanding that the wealth which they experience in this life comes from the karmic imprints of practicing great generosity in a former life, a generosity which was of greater weight than the stinginess which they practiced later. Such a line of reasoning can therefore not be presented to say that while past and future lives exist, karma and causality do not. Others through the practice of calm abiding and insight, śamatha and vipassana, attain rebirth in one of the higher divine realms, the form and the formless realms, and become convinced that they have thereby attained moksha or liberation even though they have not. Such a being will, through being reborn in the form and the formless realms, have attained a state in which the manifestation of the afflictions has been eliminated. However, the afflictions themselves and their root has not been eliminated.
When as a result of previous karma, that being falls back down to the lower realms after this high rebirth, he or she will think there is no such thing as liberation. His view or her view that there is no liberation is fallacious since it is rooted in a misapprehension of what liberation is, seeing non liberation as liberation. This is an explanation of the reasons advanced by those who say past and future lives do not exist. At present, Geshe-la will give the reasons for which past and future lives do exist. The first thing we must examine is whether at present as adults we have all our memories from early childhood or not.
If at present we can still recollect how we thought when we were a child, This means that our present mind is of a concordant type or a similar category to the mind which we had when we were infants. Is that the case Now to give a closer example to us, you all, Geshe-la hopes you remember what you did the day before yesterday. The reason we cannot with our present mind remember what we did the day before yesterday is because our present mind is of one substantial continuum with the former mind. It is of one continuum with it. Let us take at present the first moment of our mind in this life.
The first moment of our mind in this life must arise from a cause. That cause can either be permanent or impermanent. If it were permanent, numerous faults would ensue. Therefore, it must be impermanent. Now this impermanent cause, in addition, must be able to give rise to this mind.
Therefore, it must be of a similar type to this mind. We can understand directly that all impermanent phenomena necessarily arise from causes and conditions. Likewise, this first instant of mind during our life is itself something which is changeable or transient. Therefore, it must necessarily arise from a cause which itself is also changeable or transient. Therefore, an impermanent cause, not a permanent cause.
Finally, this first instant of mind must, as Geshe-la explained, arise from a phenomenon of similar type. In other words, from another mind. It cannot arise from a phenomenon of dissimilar type such as, for instance, the material brain. Then if the very first instant of mind in this life of ours, that was at conception, right, arises from a previous instant of mind that we have demonstrated its existence, then that previous instant of mind can only be in the former life. There is no other place for it to be.
Let us analyze this carefully. The first instance of our mind in the womb of our mother. Should we say that this first instance of mind actually arises from our mother as a substantial cause or from the four elements of our mother, then there would be numerous logical faults. Therefore, the previous cause of this first instance of mind must necessarily be a mind. If the mind were the result of the bodily elements then at the time of death when the bodily elements decay, so would the mind.
Likewise, if the body were the result of the physical elements, if the mind was the result of the physical elements, excuse me, then as the body grows, so would the mind. And as the body declines, so would the mind as well. However, the path of development of the mind and of the body are different. When we speak of the substantial cause of the mind, which is a mind as opposed to a body. This substantial cause of the mind which is a mind is actually something which is of the nature of the mind which it causes.
So, whereas this physical body which is constituted of various elements is a condition for the mind. It is not the substantial cause of the mind. Therefore, it never happens that something which is non mental gives rise to a mental phenomenon or that something which is mental gives rise to a non mental phenomenon. Some counter this by saying, after all, it does happen for material phenomena to change. However, it is inappropriate to assert that what is nonmaterial becomes material or what is material becomes nonmaterial, in dependence on the fact that things change.
While the mind which is formless can change into other formless phenomena, Form, which is material, can only change into phenomena of the nature of form. For instance, space is a nonmaterial phenomenon. Space, which is nonmaterial, never becomes something material nor does something material become space. Likewise, it simply never happens happens for mind, which is nonmaterial, to become something material or for something material to become mind. Therefore, it should be quite clear by now that the cause of this first instant of our mind within the womb has to be a mind.
Now in our cases, we are constituted of both body and mind. Our bodies are caused by the sperm and the egg of our parents. So our body arises at the instant of conception when one spermatozoa from the father conjoins with the egg from the mother giving rise to the embryo. At this instant through the power of past karma, a mind enters this embryo and is linked to it by past karma. So it is clear that our own body arises independent on the physical components of the bodies of our parents.
However, our mind does not arise dependent on our father or mother’s minds as substantial causes. An obvious counterexample for this is that if one’s mother’s mind was a substantial cause of one’s own mind, then should the mother be wise and educated, so should the child. However, it is absolutely obvious that even if the father and mother are learned in any of the five sciences, there are many cases of very dull children from those unions. So we can see directly that the fact that our mind does not arise as a result from the substantial causes of the minds of our parents is evident. So Geshe-la senses an anxiety in the temple.
The student’s wondering just where precisely does my mind come from. And he’s gonna clear that doubt very quickly by saying that one’s mind does not come from the bodies of one’s parents or their elements, but one’s mind actually comes from a previous lifetime. It does not happen that the components of the parents’ bodies or minds turn into our minds in this life. So what is the actual state of affairs? The actual state of affairs is that our mind from previous lives becomes a cause for the first instance of our mind in this life.
Or the bodies of our two parents, our father and mothers, are the substantial causes of our physical body in this life. Then for this reason, since our bodies are the results of the substantial causes, the bodies of our father and mother, indeed, we can see that our bodies tend to resemble that of our father or our mother. They are linked. However, you will all have noticed if you have children that it is very rare for your children to have the same outlook on life as yourselves. Why is this the case?
This is the case because the minds of your children come from their minds previous lives, whereas their bodies come from the spermatozoa and the ovum of yourselves, their parents. So to be really precise about how this process occurs, at the time of conception when the spermatozoa fertilizes the ovum, the mind from the previous life of that child to be enters this fertilized egg, this embryo, and the fertilized egg and that mind enter into a relationship of what is based and what is based upon. The mind is based upon the egg, and this is a karmic relationship. Those first instance after conception, the union of the spermatozoa and the ovum is milk-like. Then during the second week, it solidifies and becomes yogurt like.
Then during the third week, this yogurt like substance solidifies and becomes globular. Then from the fourth week onwards, it solidifies evermore. From the fifth week onwards, the preliminary signs of a head and of limbs start to appear. All of these features of the body arise in dependence on the bodies of the parents. And when these are complete, we say this is a human being.
Then this the embryo keeps on going month after month and eventually is delivered by his mother. This has been analyzed in great detail in some commentaries, but we don’t have the time to enter into it. There are five states within the womb of the mother and five states out of the womb of the mother. In other words, there are 10 states of the growth of a being from conception to death. And we can see in the behavior of infants and cubs after birth the impact of karma and causality because a small human being knows naturally the necessity to suckle and the motions to make to suckle his mother’s breast.
Likewise, if you have seen puppies being born, puppies are blind at birth. Yet even though they are blind, their eyes are closed, they actually go naturally to their mother’s teats and suckle from it. This can only happen through karma and causality. There’s no other explanation. So the infant suckling its mother’s breast, the cub suckling on the teat of its mother, or a child starting to eat are all mechanisms which can only be understood in terms of these beings having practiced or engaged in this in previous lives.
Otherwise, since they are not mechanisms they trained in this life, there’s no explanation. This is why Acharya Matrceta on page 27 of the English translation of your text says that one just born, its mind without strength, with senses dull, seeks breath to suck and food to eat, untaught by anyone is clearly due to being used to these in other lives. So Acharya Matricheta indicates thereby that the child’s suckling without being taught how to suckle, the cub suckling a teat without being taught how to suckle it, the child eating without her being taught being taught how to do it can only be results of habituation from former lives. It is impossible to advance as a reason for the nonexistence of past and future lives, the viewpoint of the materialists or the Cārvākas who say they don’t exist because we can perceive them directly. How could a line of reasoning which says it doesn’t exist because I can’t see it be valid?
For instance, it will be the same as saying, my grandparents don’t exist because I neither saw nor heard them, my forefathers of yore. We do know they existed. Likewise, it would be ridiculous for our ancestors to say that things which exist nowadays would never exist because they can neither they could neither see nor hear them. So it is obvious, isn’t it, that my not seeing things doesn’t mean they don’t exist? In your opinion, if Geshe-la were to say, I have only been to China, Tibet, Nepal, India, and Australia, Therefore, no other country in the world exists because I haven’t seen it.
Is that a valid line of reasoning? Sorry. Gishlad also saw Singapore Airport. It’s obvious that if Geshe-la were to say, they don’t exist because I didn’t see them, then that is incorrect, isn’t it? It’s similar to this line of reasoning.
So how can we experience past and future lives? Well, one way to do so is actually through the training in meditation. Among the non-Buddhist schools of ancient India, apart from this very small sub school called the materialist or the Cārvākas, almost all Indian schools accept the existence of past and future lives. And it is clear that there are non Buddhists in India who, through training in concentration, attain Samādhi. And through their Samādhi can clearly see the karmic connections between past and future lives.
Also, there are those who are able to recollect and infer the existence of their own past lives through observing their karmic imprints in this life and their predispositions. There is a very beautiful story of the great practitioner, Chandragomin, who was debating with a materialist in ancient India. And to prove to him that past and future lives did actually exist, he died after predicting his own rebirth and was reborn with those signs. Likewise, in Tibet, there were numerous cases of beings who recollected their past and future lives, recollected the places they had lived in, and recognized their possessions from previous lives. In the case of his holiness the fourteenth Dalai Lama, when his holiness was being chosen at the age of two or three, a large series of objects which belong to him mixed with objects which did not belong to him were presented to him in pairs.
One was a true position, one was spurious. And his holiness at the age of two or three faultlessly identified all of the possessions of his previous life during the thirteenth Dalai Lama. Likewise, in Tibet, there were numerous cases of great lamas who had what we would call nowadays near death experiences. They would die and after a long period of death would return from the realm of the dead. So clearly, if one accepts that the mind is a byproduct of the body or the brain, then there is no such thing as somebody who dies, is physically dead, and then the mind normally from that viewpoint should disintegrate, and yet the mind reenters the body after a period of time.
This would be impossible. Likewise, there are numerous cases where when someone was killed violently during a previous life, for instance, by a blow from a sword, in their future life, they bear a birthmark on their body where that wound occurred. This would be impossible if there were no past and future lives. Therefore, there are countless proofs based on reasoning that past and future lives exist. Likewise, it can be established based on human experience.
On the other hand, the viewpoint of those who assert there are no past and future lives runs into numerous contradictions based on reasoning and on experience. Isn’t it important for us to accept the position which has the more proofs and the fewer obstacles? Now don’t worry yourselves about the acceptance of past and future lives. In the future, there will be only two paths for us to follow. The white path and the dark path, the black path.
The white path is the one we should tread in in this life. So we should try to understand at present the meaning of the existence of past and future life. And this is for the sake of putting effort from the present onwards into eliminating all thoughts and actualizing all qualities. And it is therefore important to train in this way continuously over numerous lives. And therefore, we need to generate the capacity, the potency to practice in this way continuously throughout cyclic existence, life after life.
Geshe-la has explained the chapter on how to understand the teachings, the first chapter in opening the eye of new awareness. After this, Geshe-la will explain the chapter on the two truths. This is the scientific section of the Buddhist treatises. It is very nice. Then if you have questions, now is the time to ask them.
Thanks. Okay. So you mentioned, our forefathers couldn’t say that things don’t exist today because they couldn’t see them. So is it helpful to think? I’m just trying to think of a way to frame this.
Is it helpful to think of myself as existing as a Buddha, but just not yet? There’s no benefit if you are not enlightened to think of yourself as enlightened. To be frank, it is incorrect. There are in China and in Taiwan force teachers who say they are reincarnate lamas without being so, who say they are Buddhas without being so, then this is not good. Right?
The best way to look at it is to think, while at present we are not Buddhas, for the sake of others, we will become Buddhas through training our minds in all of the stages of the path from equanimity up through bodhicitta. Yeah. I guess how I meant it was, I guess, enlightenment seems so far away and almost, as was spoken about earlier, that it can seem like it could be impossible. If one born in a god realm is reborn in a lower rebirth, and they say that liberation isn’t possible. So I guess what I’m saying is that to keep that possibility alive and open and keep us motivated, Is it helpful to think that that that state exists?
It’s obvious that it is helpful. Yours is a good question. It is true that attaining full enlightenment is very difficult. However, one should point out that through practices of the completion stage in Anuttara Yoga tantra, beings such as Milarepa or Gyelwa Ensapa, the great Geluk Yogi attained full enlightenment in one lifetime. However, we ourselves do not attain these states simply because we are not making the same type of effort as they did.
If we did, we would. However, for us, it is better to train incrementally. First training our mind in equanimity, then giving rise to compassion, then to love, then eventually giving rise to bodhicitta and moving upwards like this life after life. It’s difficult to recollect past lives in dreams. However, some children who have very clear minds and a good karmic background are able to recollect parts of their past lives.
The main benefit, however, of recollecting past lives or generating conviction in the existence of past lives is that if past lives exist, future lives also must exist. And if future lives exist, then the totality of the path training to attain liberation and full enlightenment becomes possible and necessary. Then if one doesn’t accept future lives, the door to Dharma has slammed shut. being a substantial cause for the first instance of mind. Mind and saying that the the wisdom and knowledge would otherwise be in that first instance of mind in that demonstration.
If my previous life was a human or a desire realm or a form realm, then that last instant of mind from the previous life would be often have a knowledge and and wisdom, then why is that not carried on to the first Yours is a very good question. Basically, why indeed if in a previous life one has a rebirth which enables one to train in wisdom, doesn’t one have high levels of wisdom from early childhood onwards in this life? First, it does happen, that one does. Secondly, it doesn’t happen in most cases because the component of the afflictions connected with ignorance increases and this prevents this wisdom from manifesting. If we take the case of animals or for that matter other sentient beings, all sentient beings have this component of clarity within their minds.
This clear component within their minds is universal. However, it is obscured by ignorance and the afflictions which are connected to ignorance in the case of animals to an extreme degree. However, in our case, as human beings, if we apply the antidotes to ignorance over a lifetime, then the ignorance within our mind will decrease and this clear component of the mind will increase. If we take the case for instance of forms and objects which we can see clearly by day, these forms and objects may still be in front of us but as evening falls and night sets in, through exterior conditions we are no longer able to see them through the setting of the darkness. And therefore, for ourselves, if we can eliminate this inner darkness, which is ignorance, not training over one day or one week, but month after month, year after year, life after life, there is no doubt that we will eventually attain the state of complete light illumination.
Okay. So it is 11:00. Then so as not to give you any hardship for your family meals. That’s all. Thank you.
The end of the teaching, it is extremely important that in our minds we dedicate all the roots of virtue which we have accumulated to attaining the state of full enlightenment for all sentient beings. If we do this, our roots of virtue will not be destroyed until we have attained full enlightenment. So Buddha Śākyamūni gave an example for this when he said, if a drop of water falls in the ocean until the ocean is extinguished, we can say that drop of water is still in existence. This is extremely important. Otherwise, it is very possible for us to destroy our merit.
So the goal of dedication is to avoid the destruction of merit. So as to enjoy it as much as possible. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.
Just a couple of announcements. Just following on from Geshe-la’s presentation of his Holiness’s reasons for past and future lives, Ilya will be touching on this from a western point