Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 44-minute session, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen teaches the mind training verses on transforming criticism and harm. He opens with a Nāgārjuna quote on three stages of practice: listening, contemplation, and meditation. The teaching focuses on the “contaminated body”—shaped by karma and delusion, unable to give us what we wish—and insists genuine practice must aim beyond this life with bodhicitta. The main instruction covers handling criticism without retaliation: take the loss upon yourself, redirecting your force toward your own anger and clinging. Through the example of Langri Thangpa falsely accused of breaking a vow, and the Atisha-Atara relationship, he shows how one who harms you becomes a spiritual teacher offering the most merit-generating practice: patience.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 ToM.mp3
UUID: 441f7614-f262-437c-b796-0c42945cd65d
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Training of the Mind (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1996 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.6 minutes
Words: ~2,190
So quoting a line from Nāgārjuna’s text, known as the Friendly Letter. In that text, it says that one should have extensive listening or hearing of the teachings. And after that, one should put it in practice. One should contemplate it. And as a result of that, one can easily, in this very short life, become free from saṃsāra.
So for one who is really committed to Dharma practice, among these three — first, listening, then thinking and contemplating, and then meditating on the Dharma teachings — first, what we need is the hearing. So first, one listens extensively to the teachings, and then as a result of listening, one comes to understand the meaning of the teachings. And after knowing the meaning of the teachings, one puts it in practice at the level of one’s understanding, or at the level of one’s ability or capability. Putting it in practice — like slowly putting it in practice, little by little — one improves, and as a result of improvement, one comes to leave this contaminated body; or one becomes free from saṃsāra.
So as those Kadampa masters advise, one should look far ahead and one should be, I would say, broad-minded. And what we tend to do is want to do very little practice of Dharma and want quick — what do you say — liberation. So it’s like there’s a saying in Bhutan, among the people of Bhutan, that if you go fast, you won’t reach there faster. But if you go slow, you reach there fast.
So similar to that — if we little by little improve our practice, then as a result one can become free from this contaminated body. So this body that we have is known as the contaminated body. It’s because it is the result of karma and delusion. So this body is under the control of karma and delusions. We have no choice about what kind of rebirth we want — it’s totally up to the karma and delusion that we have. So because it is caused by karma and delusions, the cause itself is not a good one. So as for myself — what I wish or what I think — I don’t wish even the slightest suffering, and I want happiness, which I am never satisfied with. So that is what I wish, but it doesn’t happen because what I am is caused by karma and delusions.
So according to what you are, you experience that much — not more than that. So as a sign that this body that we have is a result of karma and delusion: like in the morning, one is feeling fine and healthy. But in the later evening, one is sick. And it all goes the other way around too — in the morning one is sick, but then later in the evening one is feeling fine.
And this is a sign that it is a result of karma and delusion. So similar to the weather these days — sometimes it gets very hot, and sometimes it gets very cold. And what we wish doesn’t come about; what one wishes is a very balanced weather. So all these things happen because all these are results of karma and delusion. So as an example: a poisonous seed can give rise to a poisonous plant, of which not only the trunk, but the whole leaves and branches are poisoned. That is because the cause of it — the seed itself — is a poison.
So if one wishes happiness in the future life, or if one doesn’t want suffering in the future life, then I want you to prepare from now on — which is, I want you to listen to the Dharma teachings, and then try to understand the meaning, and then put it in practice. So that Dharma practice that you do shouldn’t aim only for the purpose of this very life, but should think for the purpose of your future life, and should also be conjoined with these two thoughts: that is, renunciation and bodhicitta. So if one is doing these practices aiming only for the sake of this very life, then even if the practices are very precious — like emptiness or bodhicitta — it becomes only helpful or beneficial to this very life.
It won’t help for the next life. It’s only for this life. So if you want to compare these two practices: if one is doing meditations on emptiness for five to six days, just thinking for personal purpose — for this very life — and if one is doing the practice of giving, which is feeding the birds out of bodhicitta motivation, then if one is to compare these two practices, the virtue that you receive from feeding the birds with bodhicitta motivation is much greater than that of meditating on emptiness for personal purpose. So most of you have already know how to motivate, or how to generate the extensive motivation. But then some of you don’t know how to generate this great extensive motivation. Generate the thought: I will listen to this teaching in order to lead all mother sentient beings — all mother sentient beings that are as vast as space — into the state of happiness.
So with this motivation, we do a short meditation here. So with this motivation, we now listen to this mind training teaching. And that is, Geshe-la will explain today the fifth and the sixth.
So the meaning of the fifth verse is: even if you don’t have any fault in yourself, if someone happens to criticise you — if this happens to you — then you shouldn’t take revenge, but take the loss upon yourself. So the fifth verse, which goes: “When others out of jealousy treat me badly with abuse, insult, and the like, so I should accept their hard words and offer them the victory.”
So if you are doing these prayers as a daily practice, then you should do it in the form of making prayers. So what this line says here is: whether one has fault or one doesn’t, if others out of their jealousy abuse you — or say unpleasant words to you — then you shouldn’t be impatient, but one should be patient. One should tolerate. So whatever they do, whether they abuse you or insult you, one should remain calm, or peacefully, I would say — you should tolerate. So one should remain calmly and peacefully and tolerate whether others abuse or insult. But then if one is to retaliate, or say back to them “I’m not the one who did this — it’s someone else” — if you retaliate in that way, then one increases the quarrel or the fight.
Quarrel or the fight. So this is the mind training teaching which is given to us — that is how we should train. So in the commentary, it says that we should be like — so what happened to Langri Thangpa is that as he was a fully ordained monk, it happened that someone abused him, saying that he had broken some of his vows — that is, like one of the root vows, known as a defeat, which he had broken — they abused him saying he had broken those vows, even though he hadn’t. So the first defeat or root vow is like the act of killing — that he was accused of being a killer. So here, killing means killing human beings — not killing animals. Not the rest of them.
So Langri Thangpa, being a very holy being, took the defeat — took the loss — and accepted the loss and remained calm and peaceful and tolerated those words.
And while at that time he was living in this place called Reting. So while living in Reting, it was known as a holy thing. So he became very famous wherever he travelled. And while he was in Reting, many people came to visit him and came and brought many offerings. So he wanted, like, to stop them from making offerings to him. He went into retreat and did this practice. So that is like taking the loss or defeat upon oneself.
In worldly life, among couples, if one gets angry and criticises the other, the other one — by trying to remain peaceful or calm and trying to tolerate those words — then that is how it will settle. So if you do react in that way, there won’t be a big problem. But then instead of doing that, if you react right away with anger, and because the other one is angry you react with your anger, then it just makes it bigger and bigger. Which means instead one has to live on one side — like in the east — and one has to go to the west to live.
I think it’s all crunchy. Yes. This one is saying — he’s telling me this. So similarly, Langri Thangpa himself says that wherever there is a group which has been criticised, and I am involved in that group — that is how he says it. So remaining in that category — oneself in that group — what the purpose of doing that is to subdue one’s mind, the mental continuum, and perfect the six perfections: like the practice of giving, the practice of morality, and so on. So we engage in the bodhisattva deeds and practise generosity and morality and the rest of the six perfections. The reason is that we engage in these practices to purify negativities and accumulate merit. And similarly, as it explains in this mantra teaching — the same: to purify negativities and complete the accumulation of merit.
So those who have trained in these mind training teachings, who practise these mind training teachings — even that person who is being abused or criticised by others — instead of feeling angry towards the person who does this to one, one should see that person as being one’s spiritual master, or one should see that they show the same kind of kindness as the spiritual masters. So during the time of Atisha, Atisha all the time was always expecting one of these persons — and that person was known as Atara. And usually those persons are like many in India — they do many crazy things and are known as those with bad behaviours. And during that time, Atisha’s disciple asked Atisha, saying: why are you doing that? Why are you respecting that person?
And Atisha said to the disciples, saying that he had been very kind and helped him to practise. What did he do? He helped him perfect the perfection of patience in him. So because of that, he respects him — that is what Atisha explained to his disciples. So if it happens that one is being abused or insulted, at that time, instead of being violent and retaliating to the person with anger — one shouldn’t retaliate towards the person with anger or violently. But if one wants to be violent and retaliate with anger, then one should be violent and react towards one’s own anger and miserliness, which stops one from practising giving, and the anger which stops one from practising tolerance. Towards those things, one should be like being violent and react.
So similarly again, Langri Thangpa explained in his text here that in Tibet, in a place called a temple, where in that village the villagers used to make bottle — offerings of butter — to all the monks, a little bit of butter to all the monks. So at that time, he said that if one is able to remember the kindness of those persons who criticise or insult one, that is what actually makes one complete the accumulation of merit and purify all negativities. Not that of making butter offerings to the monks.
Even in the teachings — like in Buddhism — if one is able to tolerate the one who hates one or brings harm to one, then that person who makes you exercise tolerance is the cause of your tolerance, and should be held dear as the precious teacher. To that person one should show respect like one’s own spiritual master. So the reason that we should look on them as we look on our spiritual master, and respect those persons, is because of these two practices: the practice of morality and the practice of tolerance. The practice of tolerance is regarded as more superior.
Like for these two practices — morality and tolerance — the practice of tolerance accumulates more merit. So the reason that tolerance accumulates more merit is that in the Bodhicaryāvatāra teachings, it says that if you generate hatred towards others, that is the heaviest negative action that you can do. If you practise tolerance, then the practice of tolerance is the most difficult. So what is like stopping your three doors — body, speech, and mind — from negative actions: of those three doors, stopping them from doing negative actions — it is something very difficult.