Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 107-minute teaching, Ilia S. Durovic guides practitioners through the third stage of the sevenfold method for generating bodhicitta: repaying the kindness of all mother sentient beings. Using verses from a root text, he establishes why this repayment is essential—most beings are trapped by delusions and ignorance, falling toward lower realms without the wisdom to free themselves. He then explores three types of love, focusing on the foundational love that wishes to bestow happiness, before turning to the meditation on great compassion itself. Drawing on detailed examples across all six realms, from hell beings tormented by heat and cold to gods anguished at death, he shows how each class of beings lacks authentic happiness. The teaching culminates in explaining great compassion as the spontaneous, uncontrived wish for all sentient beings to be free from suffering and its causes—the very heart of the bodhisattva path. A Q&A closes the session, addressing prerequisites for developing these realizations and how bodhisattvas serve beings across all four scope levels toward full enlightenment.
File metadata (for organising)
File: Line in 0228.mp3
UUID: c436389c-ea6d-4e88-81aa-2e624f3d32b8
Teacher: Ilia S. Durovic
Collection: Awakening Heart
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~3,460
So as usual, we will generate the motivation for listening to these teachings, which is to attain the state of full enlightenment for the benefit of all mother sentient beings. So as, formally, we will, invite the Buddha, Śākyamūni, surrounded by his entire assembly to settle on our crown. And we must believe that they are in actuality there, not merely visualized. And since one of the main obstacles to our Dharma practice are interferences or hindering conditions, which prevents us from actualizing our goals, We request blessings to eliminate these interferences. So as Geshe-la explained, formerly, we imagine that light and nectar descend from the body of Buddha Śākyamūni within our body, and we perform the three separate processes of purification.
The first known as downward voiding, the second known as upward voiding, and the third known as dissolving in a heap at the heart. And during the first, second and third process, light respectively descends and cleanses our body of all karmic imprints accumulated through the body. They leave through the lower orifices. During the second, leave through the mouth. During the third, they are completely dissolved at the heart.
And we receive the uncommon blessing or karmic imprints for generating within our minds love, compassion and empathy. Yeah. So Geshe was explaining the sevenfold, cause and effect generation of bodhicitta, and we have covered the two first of the sevenfold process, which is becoming aware of the fact that all beings are mother sentient beings and then recollecting the kindness of the mother sentient beings. This will lead us to the third outline we will be approaching today, which is repaying kindness of mother sentient beings. Now generally speaking within the context of the seven fold, cause and effect generation of bodhicitta, the thrust or the key point is to train in love, which is that wish to place beings in the state of happiness.
Introduces one must first become aware that there is a connection between us and them, and then we collect their kindness. And therefore, the two verses on page two twenty nine of your English text verses three thirty two and verses three thirty three refer to this. Thus thus indicates the presence of a reason. This is a deduction based on the previous reflections in the form of verses. These migrators have been extremely kind to me.
This is the reason which is provided. If without repayment, I abandoned them, this is a vile conduct. Tibetan is actually Marap. Marap is base, extremely base conduct towards my former mothers. Therefore, how should I not repay their kindness?
So the verse three thirty two gives the reason for repaying the kindness of mother sentient beings. And then in verse three thirty three, the predicament of mother sentient beings is explained. Their minds crazed by the fierce great demon defilements. The minds of beings are harmed by defilements and all beings are one in that respect, in the respect that in respect of the fact that they are harmed by the defilements, blind to the path of freedom left by their friends and leaders. So actually, the Tibetan reads, blind to or bereft of vision of the path of freedom and oblivious to the spiritual teacher.
Here, sentient beings do not understand the path to liberation, Geshe la says, because they do not have spiritual teachers. They do not have gurus. And therefore, they do not know how to practice. And reeling with misdeeds, they turn towards the abyss. The abyss here is the abyss of the lower realms.
This represents the fact that there is a very real danger for them to fall in the lower realms. How could I forsake them so lost?
And verse three thirty four points out the vanity of Samsaric happiness. However, connection with Samsaric happiness, this refers to the happiness of human and divine rebirth. My mothers haven’t undergone many times before. They have experienced this countless times. Being deceptive, Geshe la says that actually such rebirth cheat or delude mother sentient beings because they are not stable.
They are not reliable. It can’t really repay their kindness. Since it can’t really repay their kindness because it is not an authentic or a stable source of happiness. It is not one which is appropriate to give them to repay their kindness. So I shall accept them in the bliss of liberation.
This is immutable bliss or mere soul bliss. And at present verses three thirty five onwards, how to meditate on loving kindness or in Tibetan on love, on Jampa. So generally speaking, there are three types of Jampa of Maitri in Sanskrit. The first is that love which wishes to please. The second is immeasurable love.
And the third is great love. From within these three, what is referred to here is the love which wishes to please. This is actually a love which realizes that all sentient beings are similar in their attitude in as much as they all wish for happiness. And this love then wishes to bestow this happiness upon them. It is different from the second category of love, which is immeasurable love in as much as true immeasurable love can only arise in dependence on the conjunction of Samatha and Vipassana as its preliminary condition.
And true immeasurable love then arises in dependence on this uncommon cause. May all sentient beings be happy and may they all be endowed with the cause of happiness. It is said to be immeasurable because it’s immeasurable with respect to its object, which is immeasurable sentient beings, and it is immeasurable with respect to the benefit granted, which is immeasurable happiness for immeasurable beings. The third category of love is great love. Great love can only arise in conjunction with great compassion, and actually is the result of the first category of the love, the love which wishes to please, which what which is what we are trying to in that in to create here.
So the power, the capacity, the potency of great love is identical to that of great compassion, and it is incommensurable in its impact. And verse three thirty five reads also. Also, this is an addition to the former verses, three thirty two to three thirty four. Although these old mothers want to be happy, so we are all similar in as much as we do want to be happy. They are divided into two categories.
The first referred to by the following line. Mostly, they don’t understand that the cause is virtue. So this refers to the fact that most beings don’t even understand that the cause of happiness is virtue. And as for the small minority which do understand that the cause of happiness is virtue referred to in the following line, and even those who do, don’t practice it. What if they do try?
It is useless because of defilements. So through the power of defilements, they are incapable of generating uncontaminated virtue, which is the cause for uncontaminated happiness. And then verses three thirty six and, three thirty seven. Therefore, since one does not meet uncontaminated karma, those in bad destinies always are poor in happiness. Refers to the suffering of the beings in the lower realms.
Or even those well born are lacking in genuine happiness, even those in the higher realms lack genuine happiness. Other than suffering that they perceive as happiness. In other words, the happiness perceived by beings in the higher realms actually is of the nature of suffering. And then the verse three thirty seven concludes, there’s a word missing in the English. Therefore, oh, yes, it’s present.
How wonderful therefore it would be if they were all endowed with the supreme bliss of omniscient Buddhas. So in as much as even the happiness of the higher realms is of the nature of suffering. The only authentic happiness which can be bestowed is that of the state of omniscience, which is both supreme happiness and whose cause has to be cultivated. And at present, one reflects on Buddhahood and its causes, the excellent paths, may they have these grant inspiration for this. So one reflects that beings must be endowed with the good paths, and that it is profoundly inappropriate for them not to be endowed with this.
And one requests blessings for this. Now here, generally speaking, requesting blessings means making prayers that beings attain the state. And this entails saying to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, please grant this to be. There is definite benefit in this. The benefit is at first we ourselves will practice the paths.
And secondly, we will, generate the karmic imprints for generating these states ourselves.
And at present, three thirty eight, how to meditate on compassion. Meditating on compassion here calls for the generation as a preliminary meditation on the love which wishes to benefit others, as well as meditation on the suffering condition of beings, which entails meditation on the various categories of suffering. And through meditating on the various categories of suffering, one must actually realize that the very root of the various categories of suffering is actually self grasping, which is the root of afflictions. And it is through eliminating self grasping with the help of great compassion, which provides an uncommon power to the meditation that it is easiest to attain the state of liberation. So the the descriptions of the condition of beings are varied.
There is one which entails a presentation of the four causes and the four effects. The four causes are traditionally present presented by Je Tsongkhapa as ignorance for which the metaphor is the dream or the dream state, the view, existence, and craving. There are various similes given for these four causes for rebirth. As we mentioned, the dream is a simile for, ignorance. The flow of a great river would be the simile for the wrong view and so forth.
And these four causes in turn give rise to the four effects, which are birth, disease, aging, and death. So an elimination of the four causes is necessary to eliminate the four effects. The condition of beings in this context is described by Je Tsongkhapa in one of his works, famous work, as beings being ensnared in an iron net. The iron net, Je Tsongkhapa refers to, is the net of apprehending the true existence of phenomena. This refers to the view of the composite of phenomena or literally the view of the destructing or the destroyed basis.
So it is through eliminating this that it is possible to attain the state of liberation and full enlightenment, and compassion is the, helper or what benefits, this practice. And at present, the explanation at present, the explanation of, great compassion, is to be understood as follows. Generally speaking, we have a sense of what compassion is when, for instance, we visit someone who is very ill, in in a hospital. And when we see someone who’s very ill, we have this natural sense. May he get he or she get better.
May he or she improve. Now this is just an ordinary sense of compassion that we do things like bringing flowers to them and trying to make them happy. This is actually just a preliminary. This is this gives us a sense of what the mind of great compassion is. The mind of great compassion is a mind which through repeated familiarity familiarization with compassion over a long period of time, eventually spontaneously and in an uncontrived fashion from its own side innately without any particular effort from our part, wishes for all beings without exception to be free of all suffering and all of the causes of suffering.
Now when this arises in the mind, such a mind is said to be actually the mind which gives rise to Buddhahood. And this is why Candrakīrti in his prologue to the Madhyamakāvatāra pays homage to great compassion. Because great compassion is the mind in dependence on which one attains full Buddhahood. Actually, it is said Geshe la says that once great compassion is generated, the generation of bodhicitta is relatively easy. And verse three thirty eight then clearly indicates that just as for the generation of love.
Likewise, although none of them wants to suffer, mostly they don’t understand that the cause is non virtue. If they do, don’t abandon it. It’s not avoid, but abandon. Or if they start to abandon it, cannot succeed because they act impurely. So the majority of beings do not understand their predicament and even those who do are incapable to abandon the cause of their predicament.
And then reading onwards, and since created, karma is unavoidable. Hell beings suffer from intense heat and cold. Pretas are greatly afflicted by hunger and thirst. Animals suffer from being killed, used in stupidity. Sufferings of birth, aging, sickness, and death disturb humans.
Asuras are plagued by jealousy and fighting. Gods of the desire realm are grieved by sharp anguish near death. Geshe la says that actually the bliss experienced by the gods of the desire realm is almost inconceivable, yet at the time of death because they realize that their condition is at the point of ceasing, their anguish is extreme. So the suffering of the gods of the desire realm is precisely the fact that their state or their condition is not stable. Form gods and formless gods have sufferings of being conditioned.
There is no explicit suffering in the form and formless realms. In other words, there is no suffering of suffering. But because one is reborn in these realms through the power of karma, once again, rebirth in these realms is not stable, and one will fall out of these realms. How wonderful therefore it would be if they were now free of all these sufferings and their causes, defilements, the cause of defilements, may they be free. Grant such blessing.
So this mind of great compassion which must be generated must arise through repeated reflection on the various sufferings of the beings, and therefore these sufferings are expounded through verses three thirty nine and all the way down to three forty one. What is requested is what your text calls an inspiration, literally a blessing to develop this mind within our mind stream. And this mind of great compassion which must be developed is actually vaster and more powerful than the ordinary mind of compassion which we are accustomed to because this mind actually bears with it the wish to do something oneself one day for the benefit of all beings to lead them to this state. And it is why this mind of great compassion is said to lead to or to impel the uncommon attitude. This is why Candrakīrti himself praised the mind of great compassion as generating all the Buddhas.
So great compassion is the very core, the fundamental practice of, the Buddhist. And it should be the very core of our practice. All other practices are secondary and ancillary. It is through, the generation of great compassion that those with an uncommonly sharp mind are able to understand emptiness with uncommon benefit. And all the other practices are just taking refuge and the various meditations must be articulated around this core practice of great compassion, which Geshe la says really is in many respects almost identical to bodhicitta.
It is a direct cause of bodhicitta. So it is for this reason that the mind of great compassion is praised so elaborately by Candrakīrti and this has to be the very core of our practice. And Geshe-la added, I had forgotten, that one should basically train in method and wisdom conjointly as a two feet of one’s legs with which one walks. Now any practice we engage in in which bodhicitta and the wisdom which realizes emptiness are conjoined is a practice which acts as a direct cause for full enlightenment. Practices in which these two are not conjoined do not act as a direct cause for full enlightenment.
Therefore, we have to put effort in conjoining these two with whatever practice we engage in. So with that, if you have questions, Geshe-la will be happy to answer them now. Yes? I guess, realizations pertaining to the beings of small and medium scope, one would need to develop to realize great compassion.
So the two uncommon causes for the generation of great compassion, are on the one hand, the love which wishes to benefit others, and on the other hand, a profound awareness of the suffering state of all beings. These are the two uncommon causes within the context of the sevenfold cause and effect production of bodhicitta. To generate these in turn, one must, generate at the level of the path of the being of middling scope a wish to be freed of one’s own suffering, to be freed from the bonds of cyclic existence. And to generate this in turn, one must have a clear understanding of the actual sufferings of the lower realms, the sufferings of the animals, which we can see with our own eyes, but also the sufferings of and of hell beings, which even though we cannot see them, do exist indeed. And then, to be able to get this, we have to actually have a basic understanding of what is of benefit to us in this life and what will be of benefit to us in future lives.
Now if we have this, then in this very life we can train in such a way that in future lives, the requisite conditions for generating great compassion are present and then eventually it will arise. So Geshe-la says, Bodhisattvas, actually do not aspire only for rebirth as gods or human beings. It actually is part of their practice to strive for these rebirths, but not just for that. In the same way as, for instance, when a car is going someplace, it happens to pass through various villages, which are not part of its destination of its ultimate goal. So in the same way, Bodhisattvas train on the path, striving for liberation and so forth, but that is not their goal.
So when Geshe-la spoke of the iron net, or the iron bonds in which beings are tied, which he used as a metaphor, it’s a metaphor. It’s an example. It’s an example for the ignorance which apprehends phenomena as truly existent. So the antidote to this is the wisdom of selflessness. And more generally, the causes which Je Tsongkhapa listed, which is overcoming ignorance, overcoming karma, and more fundamentally overcoming the view of the, disintegrating composite or the view of the composite, which is that view which sees one’s own self as truly established.
So this is the view which has to be, eliminated. Yes. There was So there are not individual examples for each of the four causes and the four effects, which constitute what are called the eight great rivers, trapping beings. These four are as mentioned during the teaching, ignorance, the view, existence, craving, birth, aging, disease, and death. Now for ignorance, the traditional example which is given is the darkness of night.
Whereas for the view which actually refers to the view of the disintegrating composite, the example given is iron bonds. All eight of the four causes and the four effects are called great rivers because they drag beings along in their torrent. Please, please.
No. Not at all. Actually, it is what is being said is that bodhisattvas do not offer merely or just worldly happiness simply because it is not stable. It is not reliable. However, there are broadly speaking four categories of beings.
The vast majority of beings think only of this life and couldn’t care less about past or future lives. Then a small minority of beings thinks mainly of a future life as a human being or a god. An even smaller minority of beings realizes that future lives in general are not stable and wants liberation from the cycle of lives. And then even yet smaller minority wants to help all others and wants to place all beings in the state of full enlightenment. Bodhisattvas work for the benefit of all beings, which means they work for all four categories of beings.
So the beings of the lowest category, they give worldly goods. To the beings of the next category, they give what helps for a better rebirth. To the beings of the following category, they give the means for liberation. And to the highest beings, obviously, they keep the means for full enlightenment since the goal of Bodhisattvas is ultimately to place all beings in the state of full enlightenment. We will stop here for today.