Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 43-minute session, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen teaches the rejoicing branch of the seven limb practice—an approach to accumulate vast merit with minimal effort. He opens by establishing the foundation: cultivating bodhicitta, the aspiration to free all sentient beings from suffering, which requires replacing self-cherishing with genuine concern for others. He explains how to recognise virtue in one’s past lives and present actions, then guides practitioners in celebrating the virtuous deeds of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and all sentient beings, regardless of spiritual level. He illustrates this principle through King Shrichandra, a busy ruler who asked the Buddha what practice suited a governing life—showing that practitioners with worldly duties can still accumulate profound merit through mental practice alone. The teaching emphasises combining bodhicitta meditation, rejoicing, and dedication for triple benefit.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 Lam Rim 1995 09 10.mp3
UUID: ae24c84b-24a0-4c02-a0ce-85502b104392
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Lam Rim 1995 Jan-Dec (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1995-09-10
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 43.8 minutes
Words: ~2,215
For everyone — the Buddhas who have worked or engaged in the work for the sake of others and finally reached the fully enlightened state — which is when one has perfected the two accumulations. So because of that, for us, we should check or see the faults of self-cherishing and analyse or check the qualities of cherishing others. So by contemplating on these two points, then there is this possibility that one can generate this thought known as exchanging self with others. So by accustoming or familiarising oneself with this practice again and again, one comes to know that this mind can be generated. This mind of cherishing others can be generated.
So once one comes to know that, then there is this aspiration for it. So when one has this aspiration for this mind, then one starts doing the visualisation of one’s own root guru inseparable with the meditation deity at one’s crown. And with that visualisation, what one should think is: as one does not wish for suffering, and knowing that the cause of suffering is self-cherishing — and on the other hand, thinking of the qualities and advantages of cherishing others, which is: cherishing others is the source of all high qualities, like the qualities of the Buddhas and the qualities of the bodhisattvas are the result of cherishing others. So with knowing this, one thinks: from this time onward, I will never let myself be under this thought of self-cherishing.
And thinking that whatever thoughts of self-cherishing that one has generated in the past, one brings them to a cessation. And then one makes the decision that one will never generate that kind of thought again in the future. So on the other hand, one should develop those mind-generations of cherishing others which one has already developed as much as possible. And those which one hasn’t generated, one should put effort to generate those minds of cherishing others. So to be able to do this — in order to develop that mind within one — one makes a request to the lama who is inseparable with the deity visualised at the crown.
So with that request, one should imagine that from the body, speech, and mind of the lama, which is inseparable with the meditation deity — waves of light, extra waves of light, come down and enter into one, where they remove all the negativities of one’s body, speech, and mind, together with their imprints, all the negative imprints, thinking that all are completely removed. So then after that, in order to generate that bodhicitta within one — that mind — one meditates on the equalness of oneself and others. Which is thinking that oneself is equal with others — in the sense that as oneself wishes for happiness and not even the slightest suffering, the others are equal in that sense: wishing only for happiness and not wishing even for the slightest suffering.
So those other sentient beings are equal and they are similar to oneself — they wish for happiness and do not wish for suffering, but they are unable — they are ignorant about what they need to do at this present time. And oneself is able — at this present time, one knows how to remove the suffering of others, and one is able to do that. So when one has these chances, then definitely one should engage in these practices which bring happiness to others and remove their sufferings. So why do we need to think for others?
Others are many, and working for self is only one person. So even when we think for others, most of the time we want to think for the happiness of those closely related ones. So here, cherishing others means all other sentient beings — infinite sentient beings. So if one is to work for the sake of all of them, then one doesn’t have to work separately for oneself. So if one is able to perform this — freeing all sentient beings from suffering and bringing them into the state of happiness — then one would also be like the other sentient beings: free from all sufferings and having gained all happiness.
So because of that, that is the reason for the need of cherishing others, at least. So when one is able to see the similarity of oneself and others — in the respect that they wish happiness and do not wish suffering — then the exchanging of these two thoughts comes about. So exchanging here is exchanging these two thoughts: instead of cherishing self, we exchange that thought with cherishing others. So when one is able to exchange this thought — instead of self-cherishing, if one is able to bring the thought of cherishing others — then since from that time, whatever one sees, one will generate this wish to bring them into a state of happiness, which is the thought of love.
So then when one generates love towards all sentient beings, that leads to the generation of compassion — the wish to free all sentient beings from suffering. And these two act as a cause for the special insight. And then all these thoughts make it possible for one to generate this mind, which is the bodhicitta, within one. So among oneself and others, I cherish others. And I want to remove the suffering of all others. For that purpose — to remove the suffering of all others — I hear and listen to the Lamrim teachings. And with this thought in one’s mind, we should meditate for sure.
So the teaching today will be explained on the among the seven limb practice — the rejoicing part, the rejoicing. So generally this practice of the seven limb practice is very important. Among the seven limb practice, the first two — the prostrations and offerings — are known as a common practice. It is known as the common practice both to followers of the Mahāyāna and the Hīnayāna. Plus, it’s also a common practice of both followers: the ordained ones or the lay ones.
So whether this common practice becomes a virtuous practice or not, it totally depends on one’s motivation. And if these two practices are conjoined with the thought of bodhicitta, then it becomes a Mahāyāna practice. So then the purification practice — that is the practice common with the hearers and solitary realisers. So the purification practice, the third one, is harder than the first two, but if one puts effort and is to do these practices, it becomes a worthwhile practice. So then the remaining four of the seven limb practices — rejoicing, requesting, supplication, and dedications — are practices of bodhisattvas. The practices which are done by the bodhisattvas. So the last four are more difficult. But if they are done with bodhicitta, then it becomes a great practice.
The seven limb practice, or the seven branch practice, is known as the best practice that one can do for the accumulation of merit. So it is the supreme practice — supreme in terms of the field, supreme in terms of the thought or motivation, and supreme also known as in terms of the base. So it is supreme in terms of the field because the visualisation — the merit field that you visualise in the space before one, which is one’s lama inseparable from the meditation deity — is known as the most powerful object where one comes to accumulate merit. So then the second is the supreme thought — that these seven limb practices are conjoined with the thought of bodhicitta, or are done with the thought of bodhicitta. So because of that, it becomes the supreme or highest intention. So also supreme in terms of the base — that on this base as a human body, if one is to do these seven practices, it completes the accumulation of a huge amount of merit. And on this basis, with taking the Bodhisattva vows and performing these seven limb practices, it is all similar — it perfects one in accumulating a huge amount of merit.
And same thing: on this base, by taking lay precepts and doing the seven branch practice, it also results in accumulating a huge amount of merit. And then on top of that, if one is taking ordinations like a novice monk or fully ordained monk or nun, then the basis again becomes more superior, and one accumulates again a much greater amount of merit. So with this basis, if you want to accumulate merit and virtue, then it gives a huge amount of virtuous result.
At the same time, on the other hand, if one is to commit non-virtuous actions, then the non-virtue is heavier. So for example, if a person — let’s say with the action of killing — killing of a person who has no vows, killing of a person with lay vows, killing of a person with a monk’s vows — the degree of negative actions they accumulate are different. So as Lama Tsongkhapa explained in his teachings, saying that rejoicing over virtue is that by which one can accumulate a huge amount of merit with little effort. So this branch of rejoicing — you don’t have to put much effort physically to perform these actions — one can relax and rejoice in the virtue where one can still collect a huge amount of merits.
During the time of Buddha, there was a king called Shrichandra who went to the Buddha and asked: what practice can I do while I’m doing my job as a king? And for that, Buddha gave these different Dharma teachings, which are: meditating on bodhicitta, rejoicing in virtue, and making dedications. These three practices that he explained. So all these practices — meditating on bodhicitta, rejoicing in virtuous action, and dedications — should be done without the thought of jealousy and without the thought of competing with others.
So when we see someone whom we don’t like doing some good actions, performing some virtuous action — because we don’t like the person — we may, instead of rejoicing in their action, say: he is just showing off doing that practice. We may out of jealousy think in that way — that he is just showing off. So instead of that, if you hear people around you — your relatives or friends — making offerings or giving service to others, then rejoice over their action. It’s like this: if the person who performs this virtue is lower than one, then just by rejoicing in his actions, the person who rejoices receives double the merit. And if the person who does this practice is equal to one, then one receives an equal amount of merit. And if the person is higher than one, then the virtue one receives out of rejoicing in his action varies — like one can get ten percent or thirty percent, and so on, different amounts.
So without expending anything, if we could accumulate merits just by rejoicing in others’ virtue, then that is what we should do. The virtuous actions of the Buddhas, the bodhisattvas, the hearers, and ordinary beings — they are all five categories. So if we rejoice in their virtuous actions — the virtuous actions that they have done in the past, the virtuous actions that they are doing at present, and the virtuous actions that they will do in the future — if we rejoice in their virtuous actions, that is how one accumulates a huge amount of merit.
And similarly, how you rejoice in the actions — how you do this practice of rejoicing — is rejoicing in the virtue of oneself and rejoicing in the virtue of others. It is two ways one can do it. So how one should rejoice in one’s own virtue is: one should, how to say — one should use reasoning to know what virtues one has accumulated in the past. With inferential cognition one comes to know the past virtues and then rejoices in them. So how should one analyse this, or how does one come to know with inferential or logical reasoning? This present body that we have — which is conducive to any practices — didn’t come into existence without any causes or conditions. It came into existence because of our past life engaging in different virtuous actions: the practice of giving, the practice of morality, and so on. And through those practices one comes to have this body.
So then one can also rejoice in the virtue of this very life — which one can have a direct perception of — the virtuous actions that one has done in this life. So what virtuous actions one does in this life — it’s nothing hidden. One can see that. Like the abandonment of negative actions. And similarly, the practice of giving, the practice of patience, and meditation practice, meditating on bodhicitta, and so on. One needs to rejoice in these actions.
So if one meditates on bodhicitta and then rejoices in one’s actions and does dedication at the end, then one will receive three benefits: one, meditating on bodhicitta; second, rejoicing in it; third, dedicating it. So the past masters have said that our past lives have…