Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 91-minute teaching, Geshe Jampa Gyaltsen guides students through stanzas 10–13 of the 37 Practices of the Bodhisattva, focusing on the path of great scope and the generation of bodhicitta, or enlightened intent. He begins by establishing three levels of motivation using the foundational text, then explains the sevenfold cause-and-effect method for awakening bodhicitta: developing equanimity toward all beings, recognizing them as mothers from past lives, recollecting their kindness, and progressively cultivating love and compassion. He contrasts this with the faster path of self-other interchange taught in stanzas 11–12. Throughout, Geshe-la illustrates key points with vivid examples—his own father’s rebirth, the courage of Thogme Sangpo the text’s author, and hardship in Tibet—and concludes by fielding student questions on impelling karma, karmic imprints on the clear-light mind, and the stability of prayer at death. Suitable for practitioners with some grounding in Buddhist foundations.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 37 BP 110814 000 – KR.mp3
UUID: 2232df81-0ff0-440c-acd8-c21fd9529e59
Teacher: Geshe Jampa Gyaltsen
Collection: Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~3,675
Since all Dharma practice is rooted in the motivation with which one engages with it, then at present, if we do not want this Sunday, which is the best day of the week on which we have sacrificed our mornings to come to attend the Dharma teachings to go to waste, we must generate a good motivation to listen to these teachings. Geshe-la from his side will impart progressively teachings based on the scriptures of the smaller, greater, and lesser vehicle. And we, from our side, must hold them within our minds and generate strong motivation to listen to them. And therefore, we should meditate for two minutes on the motivation of the beings of three scopes as, elicited in the, stanzas eight, nine, and 10 of the root text of the 37 practices of the Bodhisattvas. The motivation of the being of small scope is explained in the stanza eight.
It has been said by the sage that the very difficult to endure sufferings of the lower realms are the result of negative karma. Therefore, even at the cost of their lives, is a practice of Bodhisattvas never to create negative karma. The practice of the being of middling scope is explained in stanza nine. The happiness of the three worlds, like dewdrops in the tip of a blade of grass, has a nature of perishing in a single moment. Therefore, for the excellent state of unchanging liberation is the practice of Bodhisattvas.
And the motivation of the being of this great scope is explained in stanza 10. What is the use of one’s own happiness when all mothers who have been kind to oneself since beginningless times are in distress? Therefore, in order to ferry all sentient beings, generating the altruistic mind of enlightenment is practice of Bodhisattvas. So we have reached at this point the presentation of the path of the being of great scope in stanza 10 of the 37 practices of the Bodhisattvas. What is the use of one’s own happiness when our mothers who have been kind to oneself since beginningless time are in distress? Therefore, order to ferry all sentient beings generating the mind of enlightenment is the practice of bodhisattvas.
Here, one has to formulate the nature or the essence of the path of the being of great scope. Generally speaking, there are no teachings of the Buddha which are not encompassed within the three paths of the being of small, middling, and great scope. And one starts with the path of the being of small scope moving upwards to that of middling and great scope. So for instance, in this context, practices such as the practice of the ethics of the abandonment of the 10 non virtues or the practice of generosity can be formulated within the context of the practice of the being of great scope. So generally speaking, the foremost practice of the great scope is a generation of that conventional rooted in the interchange of self and others.
Generally speaking, there are two different lineages for the generation of bodhicitta. The first is the sevenfold cause and effect lineage, and the second is a lineage of the interchange of self and others. The first verse in Tibetan of stanza 10, which is your second verse in the English translation, when all mothers who have been kind to oneself since beginningless time are in distress, refers to the generation of bodhicitta in terms of the sevenfold cause and effect instruction. To generate bodhicitta within the context of the sevenfold cause and effect instruction, one must generate before that or previously the supreme attitude.
Before that one has to generate the love which is pleased with beings as well as great compassion. Before that one has to generate the mind which wishes to repay the kindness of beings. Before that, the mind which recollects the kindness of beings. Before that, the mind which understands all beings as one’s mothers of past lives. However, an indispensable preliminary for this seven fold generation is the mind of equanimity which acts as its foundation.
Geshe-la would explain these in terms of his capacity. And in the second verse of stanza 10, the passage which reads, when all mothers who have been kind to oneself since beginningless time, literally all mothers who have had love for oneself since beginningless time, refers not to the partial love we have for the mother of this life, but to a love for all mother sentient beings. Generally speaking, there are two types of loves or empathies. One is a partial love for one’s mother of this life, which remembers the kindness she has had for us. The other is an impartial love for all beings without exception, remembering their kindness for us.
And it is probable that such impartial love is absent within our mind streams. Our mind streams contain only partial love. And if we examine the two forms of love which are probably present within all our mind streams, our self love and love for our mother. In addition to that, other forms of love may be present such as a love for one’s children, love for one’s partners or spouses, love for one’s friends and so forth. But these do not even approach being love since they are based on the appearance of the other person.
And these partial loves, which are loves within one life, are rooted in desire. Desire for the pleasant appearance of another, desire for the money he or she gives us, desire for the benefits or kindness extended to us. This love cannot, this partial love cannot extend to one’s enemies. On the other hand, the impartial and universal love for all beings can extend to one’s enemies. Therefore, this partial love on the one hand and the impartial universal love on the other hand are actually perhaps contradictory.
The first of the sevenfold cause and effect instruction practices, which is recognizing all sentient beings as one mother, one’s mother, one has to generate as a preliminary equanimity. Equanimity refers to that mind which is not attracted to one’s friends, nor which loathes one’s enemies, nor which abides in a state of ignorance and benightedness regarding those who are indifferent to us. It is a mind which can be generated through reflecting on the fact that the desire we have for our friends arises actually on the basis of things they have given us, food, clothing, clothing, money, or on the basis of their pleasant appearance. Therefore, this desire is not stable. It depends on exterior contingencies and can change.
The friend of the morning becomes the enemy of the evening. Likewise, our enmities are not stable either. The enemy of the morning can become the friend of the evening. And taking the instance of animosity, a being towards whom we have strong animosity or hatred, in other words, anger, is to be seen as a being who is powerlessly under the power of these afflictions, and which does not warrant the arising within our mind stream of anger, of envy, or of competitiveness. One of the best ways of doing this is to reflect on the metaphors of someone who is inebriated and whom we do not hold accountable for his deeds because he’s acting under the influence of alcohol, or a dog with rabies whom we also do not hold accountable for what he does because he is sick.
Then if we see our foes in these terms, this will reduce the level of discordance between us and will help us to generate compassion And therefore, to give rise to the following cause with the sevenfold cause and effect instruction, which is recognizing all sentient beings as one’s mother. One must use reasoning, and one can use, for instance, a syllogism. The subject, this being which in this life has not been my mother, is necessarily my mother from a former life because both our mental continuums are eternal. And analyzing carefully the syllogism, we can see that such is a necessary concomitance. In other words, all sentient beings have been our mothers.
We can see the paradox in this situation in an old anecdote from the time of the Buddha, which recounts the story of a mother who was holding her beloved child eating some roast pork. And after eating the bit of roast pork, she cast to a dog who was sitting at her feet a bone. Śāriputra, who was passing by, saw through his presence that the child she was holding to her breast was her enemy from this very life who had died, and that the bone she was casting was the bone of her husband. And regarding the way in or the path one follows after conception, there are two such paths. There is conception within a virtuous realm and conception within a non virtuous realm.
These are the results of past virtue and non virtue. Specifically, in the case of families, because of the extreme desire parents have for their children, mothers specifically for their children, then as a result of this, they tend to be reborn as groups within the same realms. This is something we must reflect carefully about. And one has to reflect carefully about this. So Geshe-la would like to think with us as it were.
In his own case, his father died when he was six years old. His father was some 40 years old when he passed on. And if one analyzes carefully, his father had only one of two possible rebirths when he died. He could be reborn either in the higher or the lower realms. Now there is absolutely no way for Geshe-la to know, There is no certainty where his father was reborn.
And for instance, there is no way to say that Geshe-la’s father was not reborn as Sylvie. We have no way of knowing. No one can say this for sure. Then if we think about it in these terms, we can see that we have no way of knowing where anyone goes. And reflecting on the logical reasons which root seeing all sentient beings as one’s mothers of past lives, one can see that they have to be one’s mothers of past lives because the mental continuum or their mental continuum is infinite, and in addition, because they have taken infinite past rebirths.
So not only can we not say for sure that Geshe-la’s father was not reborn as Sylvia, we have nothing to answer to that sort of doubt. We have no way of clarifying whether or not that was the case, except through rooting our analysis in scripture and reasoning. Thinking in this way, we can see how all sentient beings would have been our mothers of past lives. And then when we reflect on the kindness of mothers to their children, a mother bears her child, a human mother bears her child for nine months, then gives birth to him in great pain. Then when the child is born, the mother clears, cleans the child’s fecal matters and urine with her hand, in some countries with her mouth.
She feeds the child. She educates the child. She holds the child in her arms, and Geshe-la said, my mother holding me would look at me and say, Ilya, my little boy. And with these terms of endearment, the mother basically only relates to the child as to her little child. Everything child experiences, all the sufferings of disease the child experiences are a far greater intensity for the mother than for the child.
Then reflecting in this way, we can move upwards to the next step in this causal generation, recollecting the kindness of mother sentient beings. Having recollected their kindness, we move upwards to the next cause in the sevenfold cause and effect generation, repaying their kindness. Then here, we give rise to love for all sentient beings, a love which is a wish that sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. And on this basis, we give rise to great compassion, the wish that all sentient beings be free from suffering and from the causes of suffering. This is not just a nebulous compassion.
It is a compassion where we ourselves heroically take the responsibility to free all sentient beings from suffering and the causes of suffering. Supreme thought. The supreme thought is a determination to ourselves, free all sentient beings from suffering and the causes of suffering, and to place them in a state of happiness and endow them with the causes of happiness. Having generated this supreme thought, we then ask ourselves, who is able to do this? I, at present, am unable to do this.
Who has this capacity? Only the Buddha, the Buddha endowed with the state of the four kayas, of the four bodies. Therefore, we take the resolve to attain the state of full enlightenment endowed with the four kayas, with the four bodies of a Buddha. And then we ask ourselves, how is it I have not attained that state at present? Upon examination, we find that we have not attained the state because our minds are stained by both kleshaavarana and jneyavarana, both the afflictions of the or both the obstructive afflictions and the afflictions to omniscience.
How does one eliminate these? One eliminates these through eliminating the very core of the afflictions, which is the innate mind apprehending the true existence or the self, the inherent existence of the self. This can only be eliminated by applying its antidote, which is that wisdom which meditates on the non true or non inherent existence of the self. And to applying that antidote, one eventually can attain the state of full enlightenment. Therefore, there are two categories of beings, beings of sharp and beings of dull faculties.
Being of sharp faculties generate the mind realizing emptiness first, progressing upwards from conceptual minds realizing emptiness all the way up to direct perception of emptiness, and then on this basis, give rise to bodhicitta. Then the second category of beings are beings of dull faculties. Beings of dull faculties give rise to bodhicitta on the basis of the sevenfold cause and effect instruction, reaching the point where the supreme thought is generated, and then give rise to bodhicitta, and on this basis, in turn, meditate to give rise to the direct realization of emptiness. And verse 10 of the 37 practices, or stanza 10 of the 37 practices of the Bodhisattva, which Geshe-la has just explained, explains the generation of bodhicitta on the basis of the seven fold cause and effect instruction.
Verse 11, as all sufferings have occurred due to desiring happiness for oneself and the perfect Buddhas have been born from the mind which benefits others, the actual exchange of their own happiness with the sufferings of others is a practice of Bodhisattvas explains the generation of bodhicitta through the interchange of self and others. The first verse of stanza 11, as all sufferings have occurred due to desiring happiness for oneself, refers to the root of one’s suffering and one’s rebirth in the lower realms, which is self-cherishing. For the second verse, and the perfect Buddhas have been born from the mind which benefits others, refers to the generation of the mind cherishing others. And stanza 12, even if others under the power of great desire, should steal or rob, or force others to rob, because violence is involved here, or rob others of their bodhisattvas’ wealth. It is a practice of bodhisattvas to dedicate their bodies’ wealth and virtues of three times to them.
So here this verse indicates that when beings under the power of great desire rob us, the practice of bodhisattvas is to dedicate specifically their roots of virtue for the welfare of these beings. And the author of this beautiful text is 37 practices of the Bodhisattva, the child of the conquerors, Thogme Sangpo, actually was himself, one Bodhisattva who practiced the interchange of self and others. It is said that when he gave teachings in Tibet, as you know, the sponsors of teachings make large offerings in the context of teachings, and the sponsor who had requested the teachings offered everything he could. He offered meat, butter, tsampa, and so forth in great heaps in front of Thogme Sangpo. Tibet is not like Australia.
The conditions are brutal and harsh. It is cold, freezing, and there are a lot of robbers because the conditions are so brutal. So armed men came in to steal the offerings which had been made to Thogme Sangpo. And instead of allowing them to steal them, Thogme Sangpo freely gave them to the robbers and said, take take whatever you need. And as they started leaving with all his food for the winter, they were going in the same direction as the sponsor, the same path.
And Thogme Sangpo said to them, do not follow that path. There is danger for you because the sponsor sponsor is on it. He might retaliate. Follow this other road. He will not meet you.
There are many stories of great hardship from Tibet in 1959, which are almost unbelievable in this country, after the occupation, there was a great famine. And an old lady stole tsampa, barley flour, from two little children who were perhaps barely two or three years old. She didn’t kill them. She bound them up and stole the tsampa. And her name was Kagas, and Kagas in the dialects of Eastern Tibet means little boy.
So one of the little boy little boys mistakenly said referring to himself. And the old lady thinking that he knew her name then suffocated him. Thogme Sangpo was a remarkable bodhisattva, so he spent all his life meditating on love and compassion. And as a result, he was surrounded by Ārya Asaṇga and other great beings. He abstained completely from eating meat as all of the great Bodhisattvas.
And the final stanza for today is stanza 13. Even if others were to cut their heads, while they were not the slightest bit at fault, it is the practice of Bodhisattvas to take on all of the ill deeds of others with the power of compassion. So here, while they were not the slightest bit at fault is self evident. And what Bodhisattvas do is through the power of their minds, the power of intention, they take upon themselves the sufferings of others. So we have stopped for today.
And if there are questions, it can be asked now. I have one question in writing. I’d like to encourage you to put your questions in writing. It’s a very good system. So, Geshe-la, I would like to strongly endorse this system.
It is a monastery tradition that during teachings, one listens carefully at the end of the teachings, one debates, and then addresses one’s questions in writing. If you can do that, that would be very good. It’s a very good question, Geshe-la says, and I will reformulate it for the class. Richard’s question is basically, what is the rationale for having fear for suffering in future lives if it is basically the mind of clear light, the fundamental mind which passes from life to life, and there is not a powerful relation apart from a causal relation between this life and future lives. Then Geshe-la’s answer is okay.
Geshe-la’s answer is that basically, indeed, it is not possible to implant karmic imprints in the coarse minds or at least very difficult to do so. That which bears the karmic imprints into future lives is the fundamental mind of clear light. Now it is not easy to implant these imprints and the best way to do so is with the help of the power of concentration. So for instance, if one has attained śamatha or calm abiding concentration, then such imprints can be powerfully implanted within the mind of clear light. An introduction to your question is to try to understand the process of rebirth and how impelling karma from past lives has given rise to a rebirth within this life.
Now that impelling karma gives rise to a rebirth within this life and this life ceases at the end of the maturation of that impelling karma, then other impelling karmas in turn give rise to future lives. Is that okay? Next question for next week. Are there other Yes, A very good question. Definitely, the thieves accumulated non virtue since they had the motivation of robbing and of killing for that matter to gain what they wanted, irrespective of whether Thogme Sangpo had given the food or not.
Chris, you had a question? So yes, it’s excellent question. This is most definitely possible. As long as as at the time of death, the being has some virtue and has made strong prayers to be reborn, let’s say, within his family of the previous life, then that virtue acts as the motive force for those prayers. However, without that virtue, then those prayers will not be fulfilled, and he will be reborn in the lower realms.
So a good way to look at this is to think that those prayers are not stable prayers. There’s no guarantee, in other words. Yes, please. And here it is similar. I mean, it is because we lack equanimity towards our enemies that the feelings of aversion of competitiveness and of envy arise.
Then if we are able to generate some compassion and some empathy for them, these feelings will decrease and in turn in the future, that relationship will be less present. We can take only one more question. Yes. You can ask your remaining questions next week. Yes?
So in dependence on the karma one has accumulated, the virtuous roots one has accumulated, and on the power of prayer, one has a degree of control. However, this is not separate and unrelated to the power of impelling karma and completing karma. It is part of it.