Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 104-minute teaching, His Holiness the Dalai Lama uses Śāntideva’s metaphor of covering one’s feet with leather rather than the earth to frame the practice of emptiness and compassion. He establishes emptiness as a shared foundation across all Buddhist vehicles—hearers, solitary realizers, and bodhisattvas—before turning to bodhicitta and altruism as the distinctive path of the Mahāyāna. The core teaching focuses on self-cherishing in four forms: the self-cherishing rooted in permanence (illustrated vividly through the example of tigers, real estate planning, and our contradiction between knowing death is possible and planning for eighty years), self-cherishing born of ignorance, self-cherishing from the conception of self, and self-cherishing from karmic imprints carried even by Arhats. He then moves into the preliminary practices, walking through the fourth through seventh limbs of the path: rejoicing (in others’ virtues and one’s own), requesting the turning of the wheel of dharma, requesting the guru not to enter parinirvāṇa, and dedication. Throughout, he emphasizes practical application—rising early, blending mind with practice, daily confession and assessment—and fields questions on rejoicing, karma, the power of prayer, and purification. Suited for practitioners with foundational Buddhist background and serious interest in the Lamrim path.
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File: 2012-05-09 – KR.mp3
UUID: 89bd9aa1-c946-474c-ab80-b8f304024d02
Teacher: HH Dalai Lama
Collection: Emptiness
Date: 2012-05-09
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~4,413
As Śāntideva says in his Bodhicaryāvatāra, is preferable to cover the soles of one feet one’s feet with leather than to cover the entire surface of the earth. This quote is a metaphor or an example. It means that even should we wish to cover the entire surface of the earth with leather, we would be unable to do so. It is however sufficient to protect the soles of our feet to cover them with leather. The meaning of this example can be applied either to bodhicitta or to altruism in general or to great compassion or to love or to forbearance for that matter.
All of these are mind trainings which amount to covering the soles of one’s feet with leather. In this context, is important to point out that the meditation on emptiness, on selflessness is a common practice of all three vehicles, the vehicle of the hearer, of the solitary realizer and of the Bodhisattva. To attain the enlightenment of a hearer or a Śrāvaka, one needs to meditate on emptiness. To attain the enlightenment of a solitary Buddha or a Pratyekabuddha, one also needs to meditate on emptiness and to attain the enlightenment of a Bodhisattva, one also needs to meditate on emptiness. It is therefore a shared practice.
However, bodhicitta is not a shared practice and it is specific to the vehicle of the bodhisattva. It is the uncommon cause of full enlightenment. And generally speaking, to generate bodhicitta, one needs its cause, which is great compassion, not mere compassion. And to generate great compassion in turn, which is a wish for all sentient beings to be free from suffering and the causes of suffering, one needs love, which is a wish for all sentient beings to have happiness and the causes of happiness. And therefore in keeping with Śāntideva’s quote, it is preferable to cover the soles of one’s feet with leather than to cover the entire surface of the earth with leather.
When we wish to train in the practice of a bodhicitta which extends to all sentient beings as vast as space, we obviously must generate a compassion, a great compassion which extends to all sentient beings as vast as space and a love which extends to all sentient beings as vast as space. This, however, does not mean, and it would be almost impossible to do, to generate simultaneously a bodhicitta, a great compassion, or a love towards every single individual being in existence. And therefore here, it is important for us to understand that when we speak of practicing great compassion or love, we have to start by practicing practicing it in the context of the people we meet in everyday life. We know very well for ourselves that when we meet people, tend to relate to them through envy and competitiveness. However, if we try to relate to them authentically, then they from their sides, and this is something we may have the experience of, will relate to us authentically.
Then it is with respect to the people we meet in daily life, in the temple, at home, in the family, that we should practice great compassion and love. And on this basis, indeed, we can be said to practice fully. To speak of practicing love and great compassion towards sentient beings as vast as space, focusing on the infinite number of sentient beings is actually impossible. It is meaningless talk. To say that war being insincere, harsh, envious, and competitive with the people who surround us is verbal Dharma.
It is not true and authentic Dharma. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has emphasized this repeatedly. Now this is something which we for ourselves can practice and will be very pleasant for us to practice. And therefore, training initially our mind in great compassion and in love towards all of the persons we encounter here within this temple. Then in turn, whomsoever we encounter on the outside, whether it be a human being or an animal, will naturally elicit a feeling of great compassion and love.
And practicing in this way, the totality of the path, of the stages of the path in both an unmistaken and a non erroneous way, we will be able to progress towards our goal. As the fourth Pänchen Lama says in Lama Chöpa, his Guru Puja, to seeing this epidemic disease of self-cherishing as a foe. Here in this context, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has pointed out that there are numerous forms of self-cherishing. They are far from being unified. One of these would be self-cherishing under the power of apprehending oneself as permanent.
Another would be self-cherishing under the power of ignorance. A third would be self-cherishing under the power of the conception apprehending the self. And a fourth would be self-cherishing under the power of the karmic imprints of the conception apprehending the self. Now regarding the first of these forms of self-cherishing, self-cherishing which arises under the sway of the conception of permanence, it is probably something which is overwhelmingly present in the higher rebirth and is seldom if at all present in the lower realms. If we speak of those of us in this room, perhaps everyone in this room is under the sway of this form of self-cherishing which is rooted in the sense of one’s permanence.
We all think deep down that we will live to be 18, 90, perhaps even 100 years old. Yeah. And this conception, this form of self-cherishing which arises under the sway of the conception of permanence is beautifully illustrated in the verses of the essence of nectar stages of the path, in which our life is compared to that of a butter lamp in a gusty wind. The life expectancy of a butter lamp in a gusty wind is very slim indeed. Let’s take the example for instance of animals and of tigers in particular.
A tiger, when he is famished, will kill other animals to feed himself on their flesh and their blood. Then as soon as he is sated, he stops hunting other animals and just remains at rest reposing. In other words, the tiger’s appetite for killing and for action is occasional. It arises only as a means to eliminate suffering when that suffering is present. The tiger does not hunt continually.
This is a clear demonstration that the tiger lacks self-cherishing which arises or which is under the sway of the conception apprehending permanence. The tiger does not project himself into a future in which he sees himself as permanent. He only eliminates present suffering. This is not something very profound. This is something we can see through direct experience.
This conception of self-cherishing which is rooted in an apprehension of the permanence of our self is something which everyone in this room has. Geshe-la says, he has it and you yourselves, all of us have it too. There is no difference between us at that level. And we can see it very clearly if we reflect what our answer to the question would be if he asked us, well tomorrow morning, are you looking forward to having a breakfast of jam, butter, pouratas, coffee or tea and so forth? It is 100% sure that we would answer yes, we’re looking forwards to it and we’re planning on doing this.
Yet, it is impossible for any one of us in this room to give a correct and pure reason for which he or she is certain that he or she will be alive tomorrow morning. Very difficult, isn’t it? And if we reflect, we can see that the odds of our not awakening tomorrow are present. The causes for death, the conditions for death are very numerous in our body. We have conditions of death linked to each of the four elements and numerous other conditions of death.
It is perfectly possible that we will not awaken tomorrow morning. This is not something which has anything to do with dharma. This is actually the shared predicament of all worldly beings. It is a viewpoint which can be shared by worldly beings. And we can see that every one of us is afflicted by this self-cherishing which arises under the sway of the conception of permanence and that thinking that we will live eighty, ninety, maybe even one hundred years, that we behave in this way.
Now intellectually, we all understand that we can die at any moment, yet our verbal and our physical actions belie us. They are at odds with this. We invest, we plan, we build as if we would live eighty or ninety years. The self-cherishing, which is referred to here, is none other than the wish for our contaminated aggregates to have happiness and the causes of happiness. Now let us take for instance our own case.
We all know that our maximum lifespan will be eighty or ninety years. Let us look at how we relate to real estate. When we plan on buying real estate for ourselves, first we find a plot of land. And then instead of building a house in keeping with our lifespan, we build a house which may be designed to last for two or three hundred years. There is a huge discrepancy between the duration for which we plan the house and our own life expectancy.
Then to build such a house, obviously, we need money. So we set out in pursuit of money and finally having built this house, we have to leave it behind at the time of our own death. Now if we are dharma practitioners, perhaps we will be able to give it away and relinquish attachment to it. Odds are however that we will be unable to do so and our minds will be devoured by worry about how much a house will cost and how it can be sold down the line. Also, if we say that we believe in the existence of past and future lives, then we do not want to be in the situation where our behavior in this life is at odds with the plans in previous lives which led to this life.
If we have obtained a human rebirth in this life, it is because in a previous incarnation, the karma which gives rise to the human rebirth was created. The projects of that previous life of ours have come to fruition. That person in a previous life has created the causes for this happy rebirth. The goal of that person was that in this life, we train to attain ultimate happiness. Not that we generate the causes for suffering.
If we do so, our behavior in this life is contradictory with our projects in previous lives. And therefore, in this human life, if we are able to train in love, in empathy, in compassion, so much the better. It would however be very sad if this life was purely dedicated to eliminating the suffering of this life. We must to do this be fully aware of the fact that we are impermanent and will die. Meditation on death and impermanence, more specifically meditation on impermanence is something which is shared between Buddhist and non-Buddhist practitioners.
All of us are aware of the impermanence of our situation And once we reflect on the impermanence of our situation and death and impermanence becomes a reality for us, then in turn contentment with our lot, contentment with our happiness becomes very easy to generate. Geshe-la says for instance that he himself is not fully aware of the situation in Australia, but the impression he has is that you have excellent material conditions. They are certainly far better than what he was accustomed to in India. Then this is something which if you are Buddhist as you say you are, should lead you to practice and to meditate in these conditions if you are indeed Buddhist. This is for the first type of self-cherishing.
self-cherishing which arises under the sway of the conception of permanence. The second and third types of self-cherishing, self-cherishing which arises under the sway of ignorance or of the conception of the self is none other than that self-cherishing which arises out of an ignorance which mistaken mind, seeing us as independent or autonomous of our causes, of our conditions, of our parts and of the aggregates which are our basis of imputation. The self-cherishing cherishing which arises in dependence on this mistaken mind is a self-cherishing which leads us to discard, to disregard others and to say they don’t matter, I couldn’t care less about them. And the final form of self-cherishing is self-cherishing which arises under the sway of the karmic imprints of the conception apprehending a self. This occurs after the conception of a self has been abandoned for instance by Arhats who are hearers.
Arhats, Shravakas in other words, who have abandoned the conception of a self but have not abandoned the karmic imprints which give rise to this. Such beings are beings as was your rather straightforward question last time, who have actually entered the path impelled by self-cherishing for their own benefit. The goal they have attained is mixed therefore with self-cherishing since their goal is a permanent happiness for themselves and themselves alone and they will remain therefore in this state for as long as they do not understand the benefits of other cherishing of altruism. In other words for as long as they do not understand the Mahāyāna and the benefits of bodhicitta. So we can understand this quite well if we take our own experience when we are aspiring to buy a new car.
When we wish to buy a new car, the mind which wishes to buy this car is generated quite powerfully within our mind stream and it will be present until we obtain the car, till we get it in our hands. The only way to reduce the power of that mind wishing to buy a new car is for us to start reflecting on the defects of this new car. As we reflect on its defects, the power of this mind decreases. This is only for those who manage to pay. This is only for those of you who have cars and like them.
Those of you who don’t have cars won’t understand. Lily, I think, has no car. And Among the three self cherishings which Geshe-la has explained, the first self-cherishing which arises under the sway of the conception of permanence probably leads to rebirth in the lower realms. The second, the self-cherishing which arises under the sway of the conception of a self leads to reincarnation within cyclic existence. The third, the self-cherishing which arises under the sway of the karmic imprints of the conception of a self leads one to fall into the extreme of peace.
And therefore, what we must focus on is practice. And here when we speak of Dharma practice, what we are speaking about is first and foremost study which is directly related to our life. Study in which we check on the basis of a study how our mind functions. This is extraordinarily beneficial. Generally speaking, to progress in one’s Dharma practice, one needs faith, but not faith alone.
One needs faith conjoined with wisdom. The two must proceed hand in hand and in addition, one needs to accumulate the collections. It is for the accumulation of these collections that one engages in the preliminary practices which Geshe-la has started to explain and one trains for instance in the practices of giving, of making prostrations, of confession, of rejoicing and so forth. All of these must be done ideally, at great lengths while focusing on the precise reasons for which they are done. If one is unable to do this, one can do it in a highly shortened form.
Now if you really want to practice, seriously, the seven limbs for instance, then you will have to get up early in the morning. How early you get up is up to you, it may be 03:00 in the morning, 04:00, 05:00, 06:00. The earlier you get up, the more you can practice carefully and slowly meditating on each point. Geshe-la does not know how early you get up, he hopes it is early and the goal here is to blend one’s mind with one’s practice to connect the two as intimately as possible. It’s going to be rough for you to get up early in the morning.
It’s a matter of habit. At the beginning, you get up one day, two days, one week, one month at these early times. It’s not easy. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, wouldn’t they? Our teacher would go to sleep every night precisely at 09:00 and would rise at three or 03:30.
Likewise, Khensur Rinpoche does the same thing. And therefore, rising as early as we can in the morning is a very good approach. And then it will not be difficult probably to practice carefully these six preliminary practices. And we have now reached the fourth of the seven limb practices, the practice of rejoicing on page one ninety of your English translation of liberation in the palm of your hand. This practice is principally actually a practice of Bodhisattvas.
It is as Je Tsongkhapa says in the Bodhicaryāvatāra, the easiest way to accumulate with facility huge waves of merit. A famous king who lived during the life of the Buddha, King Prasenajit, asked Buddha what form of Dharma practice he could engage in which was compatible with his responsibilities as a monarch. And Buddha Śākyamūni, our teacher said, practice rejoicing, generating bodhicitta and dedication. While it is difficult for us to rejoice in the virtue accumulated by an other because of the power of envy and competitiveness within our minds, it is nonetheless possible if we reflect on the benefits which we ourselves will accrue through this and we can start by rejoicing in the merits accumulated by those in this temple. It is said that if one’s realizations are inferior to that of the person in whose merit one is rejoicing, one will accumulate a greater amount of merit.
If one’s realizations are equal to that of the other party, one will accumulate an equal amount of merit. And if one’s realizations are superior, one will accumulate half the merit of the other party. And this practice of rejoicing in the virtues of others is said to be both a practice which is skillful in means and which is easy to engage in. It is said that the practice of the lamas mentioned in liberation, the palm of your hand, was to rejoice first in the merit accumulated by Buddha Śākyamūni from the period he was on the path all the way up to the time he attained full enlightenment. Then to rejoice in the merit accumulated by all of the Bodhisattvas on the path and finally to rejoice in the merit of all those who surrounded them.
And this is a very important practice because it is said that through rejoicing sincerely in the virtues accumulated by another, envy and competitiveness towards others will decrease within our mind and as a result, our own happiness will increase. There are two types of forms of rejoicing. Rejoicing in the virtue of others and rejoicing in one’s own virtues. Regarding the second form of rejoicing, we have covered the first one already. Rejoicing in one’s own virtues, this is in turn subdivided into two.
Rejoicing in one’s own virtues through inferential valid cognition and rejoicing in one’s own virtues through direct valid cognition. Rejoicing in one’s own virtues through inferential valid cognition refers to rejoicing in the virtues which are inferred as having led to our rebirth in this life. Based on the syllogism, this human rebirth arises necessarily on the basis of causes and conditions because it has arisen from past virtuous karma. We can see that this human rebirth arises from past virtuous karma and this inferential valid cognition leads us to rejoicing in the accumulation of virtuous karma by our predecessor. This is something which we infer.
Now regarding this present life of ours, we know regarding our behavior from the morning moment we rise in the morning, what we have done of virtuous is something which appears directly to direct perception and we can therefore rejoice in this. This is rejoicing through direct valid cognition. And therefore, rejoicing in this way without allowing our practice of rejoicing from being mixed with pride is one step in turning this life of ours into a meaningful life. The other step is every evening to assess as was explained our behavior during the day and to confess our faults. Then if we do this every day, our days become virtuous, in turn our months become virtuous, our years become virtuous and a whole human life becomes meaningful.
Regarding rejoicing in the virtues of others, this can be divided into three, rejoicing in the virtues of friends, of foes and of those who are indifferent to us. Alternatively, it can be divided into rejoicing in the virtues of beings who have entered the path and those who have not entered the path. Those who have entered the path are practitioners of the Śrāvaka, Pratyekabuddha and Bodhisattva path. The goal of rejoicing in the virtues of others is to generate new virtue within our mind whereas the goal of rejoicing in one’s own virtue is to increase already generated And therefore it is very important for us to combine study and practice and to rejoice in our studies. In this matter, we can see where studies lead if we take the example of your translator without whom the teachings could not be transmitted.
So thinking of this, you can clearly see the benefits of study. Generally speaking, this is more important than for instance, buildings such as this temple or even the blessed statues of the Buddha behind us, which are only of indirect benefit to our mind. Now it is true indeed that thanks to the temple, the existence of this building, we can gather twice a week to attend teachings, but what is critical in this matter is the teachings. Likewise, you should rejoice in the virtue of your translator which makes the teachings available. We now have reached the fifth of the seventh limbs requesting the turning of the wheel of the Dharma.
As you know, after Buddha Śākyamūni, our teacher attained full enlightenment, he dwelt for a time without teaching. And he was requested to teach by Brahma at the request of the circle of the five disciples. Of these five disciples, one Kauṇḍinya attained the state of an Arhat, probably a Hīnayāna Arhat, and four became Shrotaapannas, stream enterers. These five therefore gained realizations as a direct result of requesting for the wheel of the dharma to be turned. If you have a mandala base, you perform this request for the turning of the wheel of the law through placing nine heaps on the mandala on the mandala base.
First, four heaps into four directions, one central heap and then yet again four heaps. These nine heaps are to be visualized as the thousand spoked golden dharma chakra or wheel of dharma. Then if one has the capacity to do so, one should visualize oneself as Brahma, the god Brahma offering the dharmachakra. Alternatively, one can emanate Brahmas from one’s own body offering the dharmachakra. Alternatively, one can visualize countless fields in which the dharmachakra is offered.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama has said all of these are appropriate. The sixth limb is a limb of requesting the guru not to enter into parinirvāṇa. This originates in the life of the Buddha with an episode in which the Buddha mentioned to his cousin Ānanda, who was his attendant, that the Buddha’s relied on the four fearlessnesses and the four limbs of miraculous emanation, and therefore could defer indefinitely their passing, dwelling in cyclic existence for eons. Ānanda, however, under the influence of a demonic force, did not understand the Buddha’s intent and did not request the Buddha to remain among us for eons. As a result, the Buddha passed on at the age of 81.
Therefore, to avert this, one offers if one has a mandala base, a mandala base with five heaps upon it, which symbolize the crossed Vajra, which is present on the representation, the silk brocade, which is faced towards one’s root guru during the long life ceremonies, the Tenshug. Alternatively, it is, sufficient when we recite the verses requesting for our teacher to remain within us to focus strongly on the meaning. For this reason, it is critical for us to reflect over and again on the, faults of self-cherishing and the qualities of altruism. Over and again here, literally in Tibetan, through many doors means through many different lines of reasoning until we become convinced of the fact. And we will stop here the teaching at the seventh limb, the limb of dedication.
If you have questions, Geshe-la will take them now. Yes, please. To rejoice here means to meditate on joy. To meditate on the joy, for instance, of another person studying. Joy at the thought of another person studying.
Yes, please. A tiger accumulates causes for rebirth in the lower realms through inflicting violence on other creatures and eventually killing them. If the deed is complete. In other words, if the other creatures die a result of this deed. What you say is true.
It is true that from their own side, His Holiness and Dalai Lama or Khensur Rinpoche have the capacity to stay. However, it is probable that through our prayers, they themselves actually can understand our request for them to stay. Are there other questions? Yes, please. Faith and conviction are indispensable for the purification of non virtue because there is actually a passage in Lamrim Chenmo which indicates clearly that it is in dependence on the signs of having performed purification that we from our sides, from our own side are convinced have faith, in other words, that purification has occurred.
Without faith and conviction, there can be no purification.
Key terms in this teaching
- arhat dra chom pa (Tib)
- The Tibetan translates as "foe destroyer." A person who has destroyed their inner enemy, the delusions, and attained liberation from cyclic existence. LYWA
- basis of imputation dag zhi, tag zhi (Tib)
- Also called “basis of designation” or “basis for labeling”, the object or valid base on which a label is placed as part of the third and most subtle level of dependent arising. LYWA
- contaminated aggregates zagchä kyi phung po (Tib)
- The aggregates of an ordinary being that are contaminated by the seeds of delusion and therefore pervaded by suffering because they are controlled by delusion and karma. LYWA
- mandala khyil khor (Tib)
- A circular diagram symbolic of the entire universe. The purified environment of a tantric deity; the diagram or painting representing this. LYWA
- parinirvana
- The final nirvana the Buddha attained when he passed away in Kushinagar, India. LYWA
- pratyekabuddha rang sang gye (Tib)
- A solitary realizer or self-realizer; a Hinayana practitioner who attains liberation from cyclic existence autonomously, without relying on an external teacher or teachings. Cf. shravaka. LYWA
- preliminary practices ngondro (Tib)
- The practices that prepare the mind for successful tantric meditation by removing hindrances and accumulating merit. LYWA
- self-cherishing dag che par dzin pa (Tib)
- The self-centered attitude of considering one’s own happiness to be more important than that of others. LYWA
Definitions adapted from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive glossary, as taught in the Gelug tradition.