Seven-Point Mind Training — 1984-11-14

Seven-Point Mind Training (Geshe Doga)

Seven-Point Mind Training — 1984-11-14

Play EpisodePause Episode

Mute/Unmute EpisodeRewind 10 Seconds1xFast Forward 30 seconds

00:00/

RSS Feed

Share

Link

Embed

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

About this talk. In this 43-minute teaching on the Seven-Point Mind Training, Geshe Doga systematically walks through six fundamental disadvantages of cyclic existence that motivate practitioners to seek liberation. He illustrates how friends become enemies and enemies become friends across lifetimes and even within a single lifetime, showing that no relationship is permanent. He then explores saṃsāra’s unsatisfactoriness, explaining that contentment is more important than possession, offering the story of a poor man who found a jewel and offered it to the most discontented king. Geshe Doga covers the other four sufferings: repeatedly abandoning the body, powerlessness in rebirth, the instability of high and low positions, and isolation. Having established renunciation as the foundation for all Buddhist paths, he then opens the second point of the Seven-Point Mind Training: generating bodhicitta, the awakening mind. He emphasizes that all virtuous actions joined with bodhicitta lead toward enlightenment, and briefly introduces the two traditional methods for cultivating this mind, to be discussed in detail next week. The teaching concludes with a clarifying question about the different motivations of hearers and solitary realizers on the path.

So this story show that there is no certainty about the relatives and friends like the previous enemy becomes friends in this lifetime. So so all this show that there is no guarantee. I mean, there’s no definite of one’s own friend. So one can’t think that one’s friend will be friend forever and one’s enemy will be enemy forever. So the uncertainty of that friends and enemy is not only in the past lifetime, seen in the past lifetime in this life.

So even in this lifetime, as the the Śāntideva has said that in a very single moment, the the enemy once only enemy will turn into friend, and friend may turn into enemy. So there’s no definite about this in even in this lifetime. So in this lifetime, the one’s own dearest friend may become the number one enemy. So in such changes, sometimes, once on maybe the process of that sudden changes. So in sometimes the due to others’ acts of slander and such disparagement, these changes took place.

So since the one’s own friends or relatives, they are also samsaric beings. So the their nature is also changing, never remaining without change. So due to that, the the once friend in former lifetime I mean, the becomes the enemy in the end of one’s life. And one’s one’s enemy in the moment time becomes one’s friend. So there is no certainty.

Not only this, the the heaviness and unhappiness in the saṃsāra also has nature of uncertainty. So so one must know the reality of saṃsāra that the that there is no definite about the friends, relatives, and wealth and things. So this changing of of friends into enemy and the wealthy wealthy people to become poor. So all these are mainly due to the nature of their being saṃsāra. So if you understand, if you know that the there’s such uncertainty about the relative and friends are the the are the being the aspects of saṃsāra, then this, to some extent, help you if if your friend or little turn into enemy.

So there is nothing to worry about this since it is the nature of saṃsāra. So, secondly, the saṃsāra has the nature of unsatisfactoriness. It means whoever is born in has no satisfaction of his happiness, of his wealth and things. For instance, if a person if anyone had a things if anyone had had a I mean, possessions of all the all the worldly things, still he may not be satisfied. So the the contentment is very important.

So if one have the if one is contented with his possessions, his friends, his relatives, or his personal happiness, then he is rich in the real sense whether he enough things or not. Because if one doesn’t have the contentment, then how much one possesses things or how much one has developed, he is not called a rich in the real sense because he is not satisfied in So in connection with this point, if I relate our way of stories, so once there was a very poor man in India. But one day, he fortunately found one precious jewelry, and he offered that to the the to their to his king and said that the in our country, you are the most most discontented person. So therefore, I’m giving this I’m offering making offering this to you. And also, the saṃsāra has a nature of leaving the body again and again.

So so to be to speak in an easy way, so whoever, I mean, born in saṃsāra has come, I mean, can’t keep his keep his body keep his physical body forever. He can’t think that he could use this, just present physical body forever. So he is subject to new, the present form of body and has to live in another form. And again, there is again he has to live in a new body. So this so that there is no body that we could use forever.

Then the saṃsāra has a disadvantage of going alone again and again. It means that the after one after one leave this body, one has no control of one’s own. One has no power to to born according to one’s own wishes in next lifetime. So one has to leave this body and go to the next life, whether one wish or not. Samsāra has the nature of the indefinite the positions high and low.

So it means the high position can’t remain high forever and in the same case the low positions. It is noticeable from the fact that a very small child with a low person who may become conqueror of a nation of all the world. Or a person who holds a very high position would go into jail and has no power. So there’s no definite on the positions. Samsāra has also the disadvantage of being loneliness.

It means the all the samsaric being are subject to be born alone and leave this body and go alone. So all altogether, there are such such general disadvantages of saṃsāra saṃsāra. So one must know these six disadvantages as the disadvantages and then one could develop the a wish to to free from these these saṃsāra. So after developing that wishes, that wish to free from the entire saṃsāra, then what one have to do is to to practice the threefold training or the threefold training. Morality.

Concentrations and wisdom. So the the wish or the aspiration to free from the the saṃsāra is the the the very basis of basis, very the best to attain the liberations. And the the path to attain the liberation is the the threefold training. So that wishes or aspirations is the basis for all the to all three I mean, persons three persons. I mean, the Śrāvaka or the Hīnayāna or the Mahāyāna practitioners.

So the renunciation is the basis based on their more their respect to liberations. So since the Hīnayāna practitioner has a strong care on one’s own liberation, concern more about himself or herself. So he developed that wish mainly for his own purpose. So what up to now in the past few sessions and up to now we talked about the preliminary practice of the starting point thought transformations. So now we reach to the point, the renunciation, which is the base base of the practice of all the, I mean, Mahayanas or, I mean, Hinayanas.

I mean, the Sarvaka, the Pratyeka Buddha, and Mahāyāna. So this is the basis. So the if that wish to get the true to attain the liberation is directed to a directed mainly to one’s self, then and follow the path. Then once one reaches to the the liberation of the Hīnayāna or the Sarvaka or Pratyeka Buddha. So if one thinks that this is not sufficient or not enough, since even if we attained liberation of the nirvana of or śrāvaka is not sufficient because still there are many things.

There are many object of knowledge that one is obscured by. Still there’s many obstructions, an obstruction to know the the reality of things. And also, the it is not sufficient that to to liberate just oneself. One’s own, the other sentient beings who is very grateful to one to one in countless years are still in the saṃsāra. So by thinking in such way, then our wish for the renunciation should be directed to the other sentient beings and effort should be made to go to the Mahāyāna path.

So the among the seven points, the seven point thought transformations, in brief in one way. We finished the first one, the preliminary practice. So now the second point is the training the awakening mind, Training in awakening mind. So if one has gone to those preliminary practices well, then there is no much problem on training our mind on the awakened mind or the bodhisattva. One becomes a bodhisattva.

Only if one has generated that awakening mind awakening mind of the bodhicitta. So if if one has not generated, not produced that that mind, No matter if one have any other qualities, still one is not called a bodhisattva. And also the the the every virtuous actions, if that is conjoined with the the bodhicitta or that sort of mind that sort of mind, then then only that virtuous action is directed to the the Buddhahood or the certain enlightenment. Anyone, anybody who has generated the bodhicitta, It may be any persons, any caste or any sex, any sex. So he becomes the worthy person.

Even the deva and asura, they will pay homage to him. So since from since from the very day, if a person’s generated the bodhicitta, he becomes the the bodhisattva’s you know, he becomes the Buddha’s son or the son of Buddha. So so every so our virtues, actions, which is conjoined with the bodhicitta will not exhaust until and unless they want to have attained that the the highest enlightenment. It is like pouring a drop of water in the oceans. So the regarding the, I mean, instructions with how to develop that bodhicitta has two lineage of traditions, two have two lineage of tradition or has two systems.

They are to develop that through the seven cause and effect method and the thought of exchanging oneself with others. So we shall discuss this in detail in next week. If Yes. This this solitary realizer realizer is much I mean, intuition, more intuition. Has a more wisdom power than the hearers.

They have a difference in their motives. The hearers’ determination to attain their liberation at least within three lifetimes. Three lifetimes.. So they make some specific times to for their liberations. On the on the other side, the the solitary realizers has such a strong determination that he that he that he thinks that he would struggle hard for countless eons.

I mean, how long it takes on huge struggle to understand the achievement of liberation. So like, I mean, the solitary realizer doesn’t think about the limited time. I mean, how long it takes the however long it takes. So he had such strong determinations. Their lifestyle is also a bit different.

You know? Because the the solitary realizers have such they used to make such promise that first, they would study all their I mean, about their path, every stages of their path. So then they make the determination after they have, I mean, studied or listened each and every path, then they won’t, I won’t rely upon any persons, any teachers. I will go to the very solitude place and I won’t be mixed with the peoples. So that is their nature.

So attain at the end of my life, without relying upon any teacher or any persons, I will attain my liberations. So they used to make such promise. From the the the literal term in Sanskrit, Pratyeka Buddha. So in English, solitary realizers. So that solitary sense that they made such promise that at the end of their life, I will attain the liberation in a place where there is no Buddha, where there is no any other persons.

So this is just a literal meaning of that solitary.

Translation / 翻译 / བསྒྱུར།

These translations were generated using Gemini Pro 2.5 with a curated Buddhist terminology glossary and verified for register, glossary use, and absence of English leakage. The English transcript above remains the authoritative source.