Seven-Point Mind Training — 1984-11-26

Seven-Point Mind Training (Geshe Doga)

Seven-Point Mind Training — 1984-11-26

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

About this talk. Geshe Doga leads practitioners through the preliminary practices and core themes of the Seven-Point Mind Training in this 47-minute session. Beginning with a detailed Śākyamūni Buddha visualization and blessing ritual—white light purifying negativities of body, red light purifying speech, blue light purifying mind—he establishes the foundation for the teaching. He then explores the central logic of mind training: that self-cherishing is the root of our suffering and obstacles to others’ happiness, while cherishing others naturally fulfills our own aims. He distinguishes between destructive self-interest and the wholesome self-interest that generates renunciation. Moving into practice, he explains bodhicitta as the aspiration to attain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, then introduces the meditation of giving and taking, which embodies this commitment. The talk emphasizes that training the mind through these methods directly addresses why our lives remain difficult despite material equality with others: happiness depends on our thinking, not external circumstances. Suitable for those engaged in structured practice.

So without the distraction distracting your mind to to anywhere else motivate that for the benefits of all other sentient beings. I am receiving these teachings and doing this short practice. So so hold these motivations and then visualize the Śākyamūni Buddha very clearly on the crown of your head, sitting on the cushion of lotus and moon disk. So so the as we mentioned as we mentioned before, in his inner mind, he has pure love and compassion too, to you and all other beings. And and he is gazing toward you with happiness.

And imagine that Śākyamūni Buddha as the real Buddha and regard him as the essence of all refuge, essence of all Buddhas and yidam and so forth. And as your reliable, your dearest friend, reliable, the the Śākyamūni Buddha. Regard him as your temporary and the ultimate refuge. Yes. Having these visualizations then makes supplication to Śākyamūni Buddha that may all misconceptions, delusions, and such mental afflictions be eliminated from their very roots.

Then may I receive all your blessings so that so that the all the pure wisdoms may generate in my mind. Then may I be not separated from the bodhicitta and compassion in this lifetime and in the intermediate state and in all future lifetimes. Then, by making these supplications from your heart, visualize that the the white ray of light emanates from the crown of the Śākyamūni Buddha, And it absorbs into your crown and that purifies all your negativities of your body. And then the red ray of light which comes from the throat of Śākyamūni Buddha, and it absorbs into your throat and purifies all your negativities of speech. And then the blue ray of light, which comes from the Śākyamūni Buddha’s heart and it absorbs into your heart and that purifies all your negativities of mind.

And at the same time, receiving all the blessings of his holy mind. After that, the different types of lights emanates from the every part of Śākyamūni Buddha, and they all absorb into your every part of the body and purify And then visualize now the Śākyamūni Buddha. Transform into a pure light, and that light is absorbed into your heart. And then you so you visualize that the the your heart, your mind become indivisible as it becomes one entity. So So meditate on this one.

So in the previous sessions, we discussed about the bodhicitta, So which is a very special mind. Which seeks the highest enlightenment in order to free all sentient beings from their from the saṃsāra, from suffering. So it would so it would be very, very good if we generate that mind no matter whether you can’t generate that actual one. But still, if we keep if we maintain the similar to that mind in all the time, then that will be very, very remarkable. If you if you if you can’t do that, then at least you must start with that mind, motivate with that mind whenever you engage in such Dharma practice, meditation, or any such practice.

At the same time, you must finish conclude your such practice with that mind so that it will be so that your practice will be very beneficial and very strong and complete. So as we as I mentioned in the last session that in every aspect, one should see the realize the self-cherishing. As I mean, the most serious disadvantages of self-cherishing and realize the advantages of cherishing others. Because it is that such cherishing which makes us to harm others even for a very tiny advantage for oneself. In fact, it is that which brought us to not do the pure practice and which command us to, I mean, harm other people.

The the self-cherishing that that we have is completely useless. Yeah. There are one another kind of self-cherishing, which is not so bad. I should say it is good. Like, do that kind of self-cherishing.

One strongly disliked the sufferings, every type sufferings. Disgust with this saṃsāra world. Because that self-cherishing would lead one to generate renunciation. So that is not bad. But that is completely different from the self-cherishing that we have.

The bodhisattva, a person who generate this, the bodhicitta or the mind generation concern more about the welfare of other sentient beings. Because he thinks that he is only one person. If he gets happiness, that happiness can be experienced by only one person, only himself. And if he experiences suffering, that is also experienced by only one sentient being. But the other sentient beings are limitless.

So the welfare of other beings are far more important than just one being himself. Given this sort of conviction, the bodhisattva concerns Although it is very hard for ordinary being like us to to concern more about other beings. Because we have very strong self-cherishing. But that since that is the the main source of our unhappiness, So we need to at least bring it down. We need to train our mind to bring that down.

Because because Because due to some reasons, life would be easier, our life would be happier, I mean, make become happier and easier by other people. For other people to make you happy, One must decrease that self-cherishing. Only then the other people would cause you to have more happiness. So everybody wants happiness and doesn’t want unhappiness. But that happiness should be sought.

From one’s own mind. It can’t be get from the external things. But it’s the only method to seek happiness. So that method is what we call dharma. For example, two persons may be equally in money, possessions, all such things.

But still we would find the difference in their mental happiness, find a difference in their life. Perhaps in some cases it is due to their previous karma. But the the main cause is is the the difference in the way of thinking. So, this proves that the main cause of happiness is the one’s own way of thinking. So what we have been discussing till now is that the the self-cherishing has more shortcomings, also has more disadvantages.

And we’re talking about the advantages of cherishing others. Because if I give you another reason, Every people, every persons are trying to fulfill his own purpose, his own aims. Everybody has his own such purpose or aim. But if we had a very strong self-cherishing, there’s danger of not fulfilling our aims and purpose. Although we may think that the we are doing something to fulfill that purpose.

On the contrary, if you concern more about other sentient beings, more about the welfare of others, then There’s no doubt about your fulfillment of your own purpose and aims that comes naturally. You can’t lose your purpose and aims by concerning more about the welfare of other people. So in the last sessions, we also discussed about the two points: the wish to attain the awakened mind and aspiration to help other sentient beings. So the actual practice of the latter one, the aspiration to help other beings, is one starting the meditation of giving and taking. That is the actual practice.

Keeping in mind theory of exchanging self with others. So with regard to that meditation of giving and taking, in the text, the So So in the text, the giving was mentioned before and then the taking. But while doing the actual meditation, one should do the taking first and then the practice of giving So while doing that So while doing the giving meditation, while we visualize the giving of one’s own virtues of such things. At that time, we were meditating on the aspects of love or on the object of love. And while doing that taking meditation, the taking meditation is equivalent to the object of compassion.

Translation / བསྒྱུར།

This translation was 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.