Lam Rim 1995 Jan-Dec — 1995-09-17

Lam Rim 1995 Jan-Dec (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)

Lam Rim 1995 Jan-Dec — 1995-09-17

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Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.

About this talk. In this 45-minute teaching, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen covers universal compassion and the fifth of the seven-limb practices: requesting the wheel of Dharma. He begins by explaining how to cultivate love toward all sentient beings—recognizing them as past mothers and extending equal compassion to friends and enemies alike. He then focuses on the practice of requesting the Dharma, explaining why Buddha delayed teaching for forty-nine days after enlightenment, then guides students through the visualization: imagining yourself as Brahma making mandala offerings and requesting the Buddha to turn the wheel, with all beings listening to the transmitted teachings. He clarifies the distinction between scriptural teachings and the realizations that arise from practicing them.

Quoting from the teachings of Maitreya Buddha in the Sūtra Ornament, where he explains or where he advises that one should have the loving kindness or the thought of loving kindness towards others while one is training on the bodhicitta. So the thought of loving kindness, which is the meditation practice on compassion. And this is what we need to practice — that is the practice which is beneficial or which helps for others, or which helps one generate the wish to help others. So which is this altruistic mind — the wish to free all sentient beings from the state of suffering. The equal wish that you have towards all of the sentient beings to lead them to the enlightened state.

So to generate this altruistic mind within one, one first needs to train on the practice of love. So how does one come to generate the thought of love within one? So for example, if you want to take out one very big rock. And to take out that big rock, you have to dig around and first take out the small rocks, the small stones.

So similar to the example — before you meditate on love, you have to meditate on those different points, which is recognizing all sentient beings as one’s mother, and their kindness, and so on. So first one has to meditate on recognizing all sentient beings as having been one’s mother and thinking about their kindness and repaying their kindness. So if one wants to do that, then that makes it possible for one to generate this altruistic mind — which is then you generate compassion. With the compassionate eye you see the sentient beings, and you grab them with your loving hand. And then you put them on your shoulder, which is the special insight where you take the responsibility to lead them to the enlightened state.

So this kind of feeling that one can have — this kind of loving thought — for example, a mother will have towards her child. That’s how she picks it up. And just having that to some extent is not the great love. So the great love that one has towards others is not only to a few sentient beings but to all sentient beings — which is that you look through your eyes out of compassion.

And then you generate love to them. And then take the special insight towards them that you yourself will lead them. And that is having this thought towards all other sentient beings — that is the great love. So that is like the wish to bring happiness to all. So if this love — if you are able to generate this love — then the next step is to try to generate compassion.

So then with great compassion, it is also the wish to free each and every sentient being from the state of suffering. So to remove their suffering, first you have to meditate on the gross level of sufferings that they go through. And similarly also the heavier negative actions — first you meditate on that. So then meditating on that — if you see sentient beings engaging in these actions, like having negative actions and so on — then you meditate on compassion. Like, meditating with compassion towards those who have committed heavy crimes or those who have broken their vows and commitments and so on.

So this type of compassion that one should generate — not only to friends but to enemies also — and generating equally towards all to free them completely from the state of suffering. So we have to meditate on compassion towards all those who go through sufferings and to all sentient beings, which means those who are not enlightened — not fully enlightened. And like there are those hearers, the Pratyekabuddha, and Bodhisattvas who are unenlightened. And how we meditate compassion towards them is: to the hearers and Pratyekabuddha, one should meditate on compassion thinking that they have abandoned all the delusions, but they are still separate from meeting the skillful means. They are still apart in peace — thinking that they are still apart from these skillful means — that is what one meditates.

So then for the bodhisattvas, how we should meditate compassion on them is thinking that they are still obscured by the obscuration to omniscience — and meditate compassion towards them. Then like those beings on the tenth ground — how we meditate towards them is that they will be free from the four. And that way we meditate compassion towards them. And same thing, that I will free all those beings like Brahma and Indra from the state of suffering.

And similarly with the hearers and Pratyekabuddha too — not completely free from the obscurations to omniscience. And then even the sentient beings of the three lower realms — they always go through sufferings — may they breathe happiness. So in short, I listen to this Lam Rim teaching in order to lead all sentient beings to the state of vajradhara. So with this motivation, we should do a short meditation.

So today, Geshe-la will explain, among the seven-limb practice, the fifth one, which is requesting to turn the wheel of Dharma. So as it was explained in the last teachings, when Buddha achieved his full enlightened state, for about seven weeks he didn’t teach teachings. He didn’t turn the wheel of Dharma. So then, Brahma and the rest — many others — requested Buddha to turn the wheel of Dharma. So after this request, Buddha first turned the wheel of Dharma — the first turning of the wheel of Dharma.

So as it was requested by Brahma and so on, Buddha would first turn the wheel of the four noble truths to the five close disciples. So the first turning of the wheel of Dharma led the five disciples on the path, which is — one of the five called Kaundinya, Kaundinya — he achieved the Arhant state and the rest four of the disciples achieved the state of stream-enterer. So they gained these different states of realization through listening to the teachings, and they got the chance to listen to the teachings by making request to turn the Buddha Dharma. So that’s how it comes to be counted in this practice as a practice to make the request to turn the Buddha Dharma.

So how should one make this request to turn the wheel of Dharma? One should follow the same procedure like how Brahma did it. Similarly, one should request to turn the wheel of Dharma by making mandala offerings — piling up nine pilings of mandala offerings. So you yourself imagine that you are Brahma and the mandala you are offering, imagine that is the wheel of Dharma that is offered by Brahma. So imagine that and make offerings. So what you visualize there when you’re offering is all the merit fields — like the immeasurable merit field — and that is the infinite merit field where you visualize all the Buddhas actually being there.

So in front of this infinite merit field, with respect, you manifest your body into infinite or many. So then, manifesting oneself into many — to infinite numbers of fields — and then you yourself imagine that you go in front of the Buddha, or those in the merit field, and then once you bow down and with folded hands, that’s what you imagine — and you make the request. So you make the request and then you should imagine that you are listening to the teachings, like hearing the teaching, thinking it over, and meditating on it — together with all other sentient beings. Or you can make this request — you can do it in another way — another way of visualizing: you have to visualize all the merit field in this space before you, actually being there. And oneself imagining as being in the form of Brahma with the full face and holding the thousand-spoke wheel and making offering and requesting to turn the wheel — requesting.

So if you can, then you manifest into many and make offering to each individual refuge of the merit field and in the form of the four-faced Brahma. And if not — if you can’t do the visualization — then just do one: that oneself taking the form of this Brahma with four faces and holding the golden thousand-spoke wheel and request to turn the wheel. And then after making this request in front of the merit field, one should imagine — like as in the past, how after Brahma made this request, how Buddha turned the wheel of the four noble truths — one should at that point imagine that the Buddha has turned the four noble truths and that everyone is listening to it.

Sorry. And then the turning of the wheel of Dharma — Dharma here is of two types, two kinds. That of the scriptural part of the Dharma and the insight or the realization — that part of the Dharma there too. So all the scriptural teachings — they are known as the eighty-four thousand sets of scriptural teachings which Buddha taught, and they are known as the scriptural part of the teachings, and the insight into those teachings — the realized teachings or the insight teachings.

So turning the wheel of the scriptural teaching is that the lama or the master explains the teachings. And as one hears, one also understands the meaning. That is what is meant by the scriptural part of the teachings. So then, after turning the wheel of Dharma — that is, the scriptural part of the teaching — each individual follower, when they think, when they first hear the teachings and then think over the teachings and meditate, and out of meditation when they achieve these different paths or when they come to achieve these different paths — then those different paths are known as the insight or the realized teachings.

So making a request to turn the wheel of Dharma is that: which Buddha turns the wheel of Dharma — that is the scriptural part of the teachings — and in dependence on that turning of the wheel, one comes to gain the insight. And that is the second part of the teachings. So passing the transmissions of the scriptural part of the teachings from one to another — that one comes to gain the realizations. So by turning the wheel of the scriptural part of the teachings, it makes it possible to gain the insight into those teachings. So because of that, making this request to turn the Dharma is a very important part, which makes it possible for oneself and others to generate or gain the realizations.

So one may again generate this doubt — or have this doubt — which is: one may think, Buddha perceives the beings’ needs and their wishes — and why — so because Buddha will know that and he will teach according to that, and why do we need to make this request? One may generate this kind of doubt. So that is true, but what do you say — the Dharma teachings are much more effective when requested. So, for example, Buddha helping sentient beings — the only way, the most important way — I would say the most that Buddha can help other sentient beings is by turning the wheel of Dharma.

So the reason for Buddha to turn the wheel of Dharma is in order to generate interest for the followers — the interest or the respect — in the teachings. So Buddha found this excellent Dharma or the excellent realizations of the natural life teachings and didn’t turn the wheel of Dharma for forty-nine days. So he didn’t turn the wheel of Dharma for forty-nine days. And the reason why he didn’t turn the wheel of Dharma is that it’s not because he doesn’t have the thought of loving kindness towards other sentient beings, and it’s also not that Buddha doesn’t perceive the needs and wishes of the sentient beings. So the one reason that the teachings or the Dharma wheel was not turned is that to turn the Dharma wheel, it has to be requested.

So it has to be requested. And for that purpose, Buddha blessed Brahma to make this request to turn the wheel of Dharma. So why — what do you call — why is Brahma the only suitable one that he blessed to make this request for the teaching? The reason is that Brahma is the most suited one to be blessed to make this request. During that time Brahma is the one who is most respected and who is regarded as the most valid one.

Because of that reason, if Brahma were to pay respect to Buddha and request to turn the wheel, the rest of the people or beings would automatically turn to listening to the teachings. In order for the rest of the disciples to follow the teachings — to fall to follow the teachings — Buddha blessed Brahma to make this request. That is because Brahma is trusted by everyone at that time. So if Brahma pays respect and requests teachings, the rest who trusted Brahma follow that.

So for that purpose, Buddha blessed Brahma to make this request. So another reason for not turning the Buddha Dharma for these forty-nine days is that it shows that the teaching itself is very rare — and in order to generate respect into it. And once one turns the wheel of Dharma, then it increases a great amount of merit. And the teaching or the Dharma itself is very hard to realize. So it’s very difficult to gain the realizations of the teachings.

So one needs a great amount of merit, and to accumulate this great amount of merit, one should engage in the practice of requesting to turn the wheel of Dharma. So Buddha not turning the wheel of Dharma for these forty-nine days — these are the reasons. These are the reasons. So to the request of Brahma and so on, Buddha first turned the wheel of Dharma — the first wheel of Dharma — that is the four noble truths in Varanasi.

Another reason that the Buddha Dharma is turned or taught is that there are also