Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Switching lineages in this 48-minute session, Khensur Rinpoche introduces the sevenfold cause-and-effect precept — the method for developing bodhicitta (the awakening heart) transmitted through Atisha — contrasting it briefly with the equalizing-and-exchanging approach explored in earlier sessions. He maps the seven steps from result back to root: bodhicitta, exceptional resolve, great compassion, love, gratitude, remembering kindness, and recognizing all beings as mothers. Before reaching the first step, however, he dwells at length on equanimity as the essential foundation: examining how attachment colors care for loved ones and hatred distorts our view of enemies, then using reflection on previous lives to dissolve those distinctions and arrive at an even-minded attitude toward all three types of people. Suited to practitioners working through the Lamrim path of the great vehicle.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 7PMT 1990 07 24.mp3
UUID: 6f239a3a-fc66-464b-9249-071076849b29
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 7 Point Mind Training (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1990-07-24
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 48.2 minutes
Words: ~2,757
Begin with adjusting our motivation. Begin with So it’s I’m happy that we could all gather here together, and and I’m happy that you’re all well. So we we are all the same, whosoever it might be that we want happiness. We don’t want to suffer. But I’m one single person whereas others are infinite numberless in number.
If we seek to bring only ourselves happiness and to eliminate only our own suffering, then this is extremely limited perspective. It’s a it’s a very limited type of activities in which we engage in there, and thus our results will be extremely limited. And if we persist in this mode of conduct, then there’s no way that we’re going to develop the qualities of love and compassion, the awakened heart. And, ultimately, we’re not going to be eliminate we’re not going to be able to eliminate all our various faults and to bring to consummation all our excellent qualities. But if on the other hand, if we if we were to develop the sense of altruism with respect to other sentient beings, to hold them, to cherish them, hold them dear.
And by means means of this kind hearted attitude, which employs a vast perspective, we are going to engage in in various vast and profound activities and thereby achieve a tremendous result. So it’s necessary that because we’re seeking to implement the practices of the great vehicle that we hold others more dear than our own self. And there, in order to bring happiness, eliminate the sufferings of others, that we seek to eliminate our own various faults and to bring to consummation our excellent qualities. So thinking in this way, we’re going to meditate for the next five minutes in order to cultivate a kind hearted attitude, the the attitude of the awakening heart as a motivation for listening to this present teaching on the essence of the great vehicle, the means of developing compassion in the awakening heart in order to implement these methods in our practice. Rinpoche is quoting from a verse by the glorious Atisha.
It’s coming from a text called the Bodhipathapradīpa, the light on the path in which it sets out these series practices of the being of great capacity. Practice of the path, if one develops the intention to leave, to be free of cyclic existence for oneself alone, for for oneself alone. This is the development of renunciation. And he goes on to say, and then likewise with respect to others, when one seeks to free others from the from the their tortures of their suffering and to lead them to complete happiness, this is the development of the awakening heart. So it said that the bodhisattva meditates on the awakening heart in order to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of sentient beings.
With respect to the actual methods of meditating the awakening heart, there is is the tradition which flows through Maitreya and down to Atisha Atisha called the sevenfold cause and effect precept. So the sevenfold cause and effect precept is one method of the generation of the awakening heart. The other method for developing the awakening heart is the method flowing down through Mañjuśrī, which is called equalizing and exchanging self with others. So previously, when we were discussing the mind training text, we spoke of the method which passed down from Mañjuśrī to Śāntideva: equalizing and exchanging self for others. Today, we’re going to explain the method flowing down through Atisha called the sevenfold cause and effect precept.
So previous to the actual generation of the awakening heart or bodhicitta, what are is it necessary to develop as a preliminary? And prior to development of the awakening heart, it’s necessary to develop exceptional resolve. So it’s necessary to practice the methods for developing exceptional resolve. So the way I’m going to present the sevenfold cause and effect precepts is in term of the result initially. And the the final result is the awakening heart itself.
And in order to generate that, it’s necessary to have generated the previous cause for it, and that is the ex that is the exceptional resolve. So to generate the result of the exceptional resolve, what do we necessarily have to develop as a preliminary to that? And that is the third of these sevenfold cause and effect precepts, great compassion. And previous to the development of compassion, it’s necessary to develop love. And love is expressed in this in the attitude of may all sentient be possessed possess happiness.
May all sentient beings possess happiness. And as a preliminary to the development of love, it’s necessary that we develop the attitude which is a a sense of gratitude, which wishes to repay the kindness, the gratitude of repaying kindness. And as a preliminary to developing the attitude of repaying kindness, we must actually remember the kindness, all the various kindness which have been shown to us in order to develop the sense of wishing to repay it. Within the particularly within the Tibetan tradition of mind training in the great vehicle. In talking about this life, there are two individuals who bring about our welfare, our welfare.
In terms terms of our spiritual practice, we look to the Lama or the spiritual master who brings about our spiritual welfare. But in terms of the secular, it is our mother who provides for our our worldly welfare. And therefore, the the preceding pre precept which is necessary to develop is the recognition of mothers. This teaching as it’s presented here is it doesn’t have its source in the Tibetans themselves that this particular manner of presentation of generating the awakening heart. It has its it’s also has its roots in the great masters of India such as Atisha.
And so in in meditating and using implementing the the method for meditating the awakened heart, the initial step is the recognition of all sentient beings as our mothers. So this isn’t particularly Tibetan. It very much has its roots in the Indian masters. So we’ve just proceeded through the descending order of the sevenfold cause and effect precepts. Now if we if we go through the ascending order, then we begin with recognizing sentient beings as our mother, remembering their kindness, developing a gratitude which seeks to repay their kindness, developing a pleasant love, a great compassion, an exceptional resolve, and finally, developing an awakening heart.
So in this, as has been explained just previously, we’ve proceeded in descending order moving from the result to the basic cause. And just like an analogy would be that in seeking to grow a crop, a crop is the final fruit. But in the proceeding backwards, in order before we can have the fruit of our efforts in a crop, it’s necessary to go through the process of developing growing the crop. And in order to have that, we have to actually plant the seed. And prior to that, we actually have to cultivate the field.
So working back from the fruit to the actual basis of the first cause. But when we meditate, the actual meditation process involves ascending through these sevenfold cause and effect precepts. But as a preliminary to the first of these seven steps, recognizing sentient beings as our mothers, is necessary to as a foundation to develop equanimity. So the what is the need for equanimity? It’s it’s not mentioned within the sevenfold cause and effect precepts.
There’s a preliminary to those. We we quite naturally have love and compassion, develop love and compassion toward people such as our mothers, our father, our relatives, our friends. We out of mindfulness of their kindness, we don’t need to meditate on in order to develop love and compassion toward these types of people. But toward other types of people such as those who we do not hold dear, such as neutral individuals, enemies, we don’t we don’t develop love and compassion for them. Not only don’t we not only do we not develop love and compassion for such individuals, but in the case of our enemy, we we don’t like it when we see that they’re happy, and we we like it when we see that they’re suffering.
Is that do you think that you’re you think that’s the case or not? So we develop love and compassion toward those we like. So if we question, how does this situation arise in which toward those we we hold dear when they when they’re happy, we like that. When they’re unhappy, we don’t like that. But toward those enemies, when they’re happy, we don’t like that.
And when there’s they’re not happy, we like that. How does this arise? What under what influence? So this situation, this distinction arises under the influence of attachment and hatred. We toward those we who we hold dear, we have attachment.
And under the influence of attachment, when things go well for them, we like that. When things don’t go well for them, we don’t like that. On the other hand, towards those we have aversion for, when things when things go well for them, we don’t like that. When things do not go for well them go for well for them, we like that. And this is due to the influence of hatred.
So under the influence of attachment and hatred, when even those times when we do develop love, it’s love which is under the influence of attachment. In those those times when we have caring, again, it’s under the it’s under the influence of attachment. So what are we to do? We we are going to with these two different attitudes, we’re we’re going to try to to rid ourselves of this attitude of attachment for those whom we hold dear and hatred toward those we have we have aversion for and to to think to develop an even minded attitude toward both. So this is the purpose of meditating equanimity in order to develop an even minded attitude toward those two types of individuals to rid ourselves of attachment toward those who we hold dear and hatred towards our enemy to develop an even mindedness toward these two types.
So it’s necessary to initially develop equanimity. This is because if if we don’t, then we’re going we’re always going to re remain in with an attitude of hatred toward our enemies, and even toward those that love which we generate toward our dear ones, it’s always going to be developed under the influence of attachment. So beginning with a meditation toward a a third type of individual. That is a sentient being who we have neither hatred toward nor attachment, a a neutral individual. And observing this being and and and examining what is our attitude toward this person.
What is our state that we develop with respect to them? So toward if we if we observe that toward this neutral individual, we develop neither strong attachment nor hatred, but we develop we develop the attitude of indifference. So we we are seeking to develop an equanimity which is divorced of attachment and hatred. And having having recognized the the these three types of minds toward toward these three types of individuals, the the hatred toward those we don’t like, the attachment toward those we we like, and the indifference between those we hold we neither like nor dislike, we then observe our attitudes toward these three classes of individuals. So we have three different classes of individuals.
First, in the middle is that person is a neutral individual, someone we we have neither attachment nor aversion toward. Then there is the individual we hold as dear toward whom we develop attachment. And then there’s the the enemy toward whom we develop hatred. So what reason do we have for these various attitudes toward these classes of individuals? Toward that person we hold dear, why did we develop attachment?
It’s because this person has given us some benefit in this life. And out of this and out of this thought of benefit, we develop attachment toward them. When the case of the enemy, this person has harmed us in this life. And out of this thought of the harm arises hatred toward this individual. So we should we should then reflect with respect to the the enemy that simply out of a little harm that this individual has given me in this life, that I have this this extremely negative attitude toward this individual that generating this hateful mind toward them.
That in previous lives, this very person has been my mother, has been my father, has brought me great benefit, has brought my has brought has been of great concern to my welfare. And and just simply because of this life, out of this a little harm that they’ve shown me, I create this very harmful attitude toward them. Thinking in this way, this will begin to you will cease your harmful attitude toward this person. Then we turn to the person whom hold so dear and trying to understand why we have this attachment toward them. It is simply because of the some little benefit that they’ve shown us and that we have developed this great liking toward them out of this small benefit that they’ve shown us.
And but going on to reflect that in previous lives, the same individual has killed me many times, has been my enemy, and has brought suffering to me many over and over again. And this will help to cease our attachment toward this individual. And we turn to the the middle person who is the neutral individual. And we have a sense that we have no relationship toward this person, and out of that sense of indifference. But in fact, reflecting upon the fact that we have this very person has been our mother and father in a previous life, that they have shown us great kindness and benefited us in many ways, but they have also harmed us.
They’ve also been our enemy. That they have and look and seen in this way that that amongst these three individuals, there’s no difference whatsoever. That they’ve all been kind to me. They’ve all been harmful to me. They’ve all been my mother.
They’ve all been my father. They’ve all been my enemy. And we develop a sense of we we no longer hold some as distant and others as close. We develop a sense of equanimity which is divorced from attachment Developing the attitude which looks upon these three individuals, the the enemy, the dear one, and the stranger has essentially essentially the there are no there’s no difference amongst them. Since they have all been of equal harm to me, all have been of equal benefit to me in developing a sense of equanimity.
And this equanimity which is being generated here is the enemy is the equanimity within the four immeasurables: immeasurable love, immeasurable compassion, immeasurable joy, and immeasurable equanimity. And in in the equanimity of immeasurable equanimity, it is equanimity which is divorced from attachment and hatred holding none as near and others as distant. Within the meditation system of the four immeasurables, there are two methods. One is the one initially meditates on the development of development of immeasurable equanimity as the preliminary, and then proceeds to immeasurable compassion, wishing others to wish immeasurable happy love, wishing others to have happiness, and then that they be divorced divorced from suffering, immeasurable compassion.
But then there is another method in which the immeasurable equanimity comes last of these four. Having developed equanimity, we now proceed to recognize sentient beings as our mothers. Reason that we are seeking to recognize recognize sentient beings as our mother is because it will become necessary for us to develop pleasant love. This is the type of love in which sentient beings appear in an aspect which is very pleasing to us. And if we don’t develop this sense of pleasant love, we cannot develop great compassion, and we will not be able to develop the awakening heart.
When in pleasant love, we are we will be we will develop a an attitude which seeks to bring about the welfare of others since they are so pleasing to us. Prior to that, we have to in order to develop this pleasant love, we have to develop this pleasant love, we have to develop a sense of repaying the kindness of others. And as a