Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute session, Lama Lhundup teaches the foundational steps of the seven-fold mind-training practice, a systematic method for developing compassion and the awakening mind. He begins with equanimity toward all sentient beings, then establishes the reasoning that all beings have been one’s mother across countless lifetimes, moving through logic and scriptural authority rather than mere faith. From this comes the cultivation of remembering their kindness through stages—starting with one’s mother in this life, then extending progressively to father, relatives, neighbours, all humans, and finally all sentient beings. He then develops the wish to repay that kindness by bringing happiness and establishing all beings in Buddhahood. The core second half addresses self-cherishing as the root of all suffering and the obstacle to enlightenment, developing a detailed analysis of its faults and the benefits of cherishing others instead. He concludes with the actual practice of exchanging self-concern for others, establishing the resolve to benefit only others from today forward. The teaching is framed as preliminary practice leading to genuine generation of bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 7FMT.mp3
UUID: d27b23f4-7caf-4851-9b50-f5776752b163
Teacher: Lama Lhundup
Collection: Seven-fold mind training (Lama Lhundup)
Date: 1987 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.3 minutes
Words: ~2,850
We have to come to a decision that the determination that all sentient beings have been our mothers. Now, when we say that only this mother of this life has been my mother, and we cannot support that with any type of reasoning, we support that with any type of scriptural authority. But in fact, when we make the statement that all sentient beings have been our mother, We can support that through logic, with reasoning, we can support it through scriptural quotations and teachings because the Śākyamūni Buddha himself said that all sentient beings have been our mothers. So, if we were to try to count the number of we cannot count the number of rebirths that we’ve taken, and therefore it follows that we cannot count the number of mothers we have, and therefore we can firmly come to the decision that all sentient beings have in fact been my mother. So, we should think when we’re trying to determine whether all sentient beings have been my mother and in fact we should have no doubts about this, that we shouldn’t think, we wonder, Well, are all beings my mother, or are they not?
That we should try to come to a single-minded decision that in fact all sentient beings are our mother to the extent that when we see a dog or we see an insect, can think literally, This sentient being has been my mother. Not only have we had a mother, we shouldn’t think, for example, when we see a dog, when we think of this dog as being our mother, of course it’s not the mother of this life, but it’s no doubt that it has been our mother in a previous life. Thinking in this way, though it isn’t my mother of this life, it is in fact my mother. So if we habituate ourselves to this thought, cultivate this thought that all sentient beings have been our mother, then we can actually come to develop the discrimination or the decision that, in fact, all sentient beings have been our mother. In the present, we understand all sentient beings to be our mother, but through this reasoning, cultivating this thought in meditation, we can come to the understanding and know that all sentient beings have been our mother.
Once we’ve come to an understanding that all sentient beings have been our mother, then should then remember the kindness of our mothers, the unimaginable kindness that our mothers have been to us, that they went through unbearable suffering for us for our benefit, they went through suffering at birth, for example, that during the course when we were children they would do whatever was necessary to benefit us, going through any difficulty, and they would even harm themselves in order to help us. They would do whatever was good for us, even at the expense of their own welfare, at the expense of their own health, that in fact their kindness that has shown us was unimaginable. So first, we should cultivate this thought of remembering kindness in levels or in stages. First consider the mother of this life. Review her great kindness that she has shown What the great benefit and the help that she has given you in only this life.
And then remember that the great kindness that she has shown you in previous lives as your mother, And that this is not the only time that she has shown you this same kindness, but she has shown you this same kindness again and again. And then having cultivated this sense of unimaginable kindness that our mother shows towards us, then transfer the same kindness to your father, that the father of this present life was in fact your mother in a previous life, and has shown you this exact same kindness again and again in previous lives. And then go to your relatives, you know, that your relatives of this life have been your mother in your past life and have shown you this exact same kindness as the mother of this life is showing you now and has shown you. Spread this out until you actually, to all the people in the neighborhood, have shown you the same kindness in previous lifetimes when they were your mother. Then keep spreading this out in stages to where you imagine all the people in Australia, the great kindness that they showed you when they were your mother, all the people in the world.
And not only all the people, but even non human sentient beings have shown you this great kindness, the same exact great kindness in previous lifetimes. Until take into consideration all sentient beings which exist anywhere have shown you unmeasurable kindness again and again. So having having remembered the great kindness of all sentient beings, then we should develop the the wish to repay their kindness. Now, how can we repay their kindness? Well, we should repay their kindness by bringing them happiness.
And not only their temporal happiness, we should try to give them the ultimate happiness, that is, we should try to establish them in Buddhahood. So in dependence upon Yes. Cultivating these gradual steps, first we try to develop a feeling of equanimity toward all sentient beings, Then we recognize all sentient beings as our mother. We remember the great kindness of our mothers. We developed a wish to repay their kindness.
And through this cultivation we will actually generate what is called genuine love or affectionate love. It’s like the type of love that a mother feels when she sees her child. We should have we can generate this same type of love towards all sentient beings without any difference whatsoever. This type of affectionate love when we see it like a mother seeing her child. When we see any sentient being, we see them with this same type of love.
So, you know, if we look around us to all the various people, sentient beings, nobody wants to suffer. But in fact, that’s all they’re experiencing. They only experience their unwanted sufferings. If we look, we’re not going to find anyone who doesn’t have problems, difficulties. There’s no one that we can find who isn’t suffering.
Seeing the situation that all the sentient beings are in, that they’re being constantly tortured by suffering, we develop the feeling of not being able to bear, seeing them undergo suffering as being tortured by suffering. Therefore, there will arise the feeling of compassion or great compassion. Great compassion is the thought that I will separate is the wish that they be separated from their suffering. So having having developed this this feeling, developing the feeling of compassion, we see that sentient beings want, what they all want, is happiness. So we cultivate the thought that I will bring them the happiness, that I will join them to the happiness that they want, and this is the development of love.
So we’ve developed these wishes. One is the wish of love that is, one is the wish of compassion, which is to separate sentient beings from their suffering the other is the wish of happiness, which is to bring them the happiness that they want. In order that they experience happiness and be separated from the suffering, they must cease creating the causes for suffering. They must begin to cultivate, they must begin to generate the causes for happiness. That is, they must understand what is to be cultivated, what is to be practiced, and what is to be abandoned.
And therefore, one decides that I myself, I take sole responsibility to sentient beings, I take sole responsibility to bring sentient beings happiness and to help them eliminate their suffering. This thought is sometimes called special attitude. I call it exceptional resolve. One resolves to that I’m going to do this. I’m going to take sole responsibility.
So this in order taking responsibility to eliminate the sufferings of all sentient beings and bring in the happiness that they desire, we have accepted this, we have made the resolve that I alone am going to do this, that I am going to take responsibility for it. Then we question, do I actually have the power, do I actually have the ability to bring this about? And in fact we don’t, but who does have such an ability? Only a perfect, complete Buddha has such the power to benefit all sentient beings in such a way. Therefore, we develop the aspiration which seeks perfect, complete Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings.
And this is the actual mind generation of the mind of enlightenment or the awakening heart. So one question in having developed this aspect. Why why haven’t why haven’t I attained Buddhahood up to now? What’s the fault? What’s what’s wrong?
If when we examine, we’re going to find the reason we haven’t attained Buddhahood up to now is because of our self-cherishing. Haven’t up to this time, why haven’t we been able to exchange this the our the cherishing of ourselves for the cherishing of others, which is in fact that we’ve only been able to cherish ourselves. It’s because up to now we haven’t developed a feeling of equality between ourselves and others. If we look the minds of ourselves and others, there’s no difference whatsoever. We want happiness and we don’t want suffering.
Likewise, others want happiness and don’t want suffering exactly the same. So there’s no difference. Ourselves and others are completely equal. Just like myself, others want happiness. Just like myself, they don’t want to suffer.
So there’s a complete equality between myself and others. So the reason we haven’t been able to exchange self for others, the obstacle is due to our own self-cherishing. And therefore, we have to think about the faults of self-cherishing. All the undesired suffering that we experience arises from self-cherishing. Being harmed by poisons, weapons, harmed by various ghosts, nagas, all the various diseases that we experience all come about due to our own self-cherishing.
So rebirth in realms such as the hell realm, the hungry ghost or the animal come about through the power of self-cherishing. The difficulties between nations, the wars between nations, the fighting between even within the country, the fighting between people and within ourselves, all our difficulties, all arise from self-cherishing. So all the disharmony between nations, within a nation, between a group, between friends, between our Dharma friends, even between two people, arise through the power of self-cherishing. So these faults wouldn’t arise if we thought if we have self-cherishing, we could think, I’m not important, I don’t matter. And then thinking in this way, none of these difficulties would arise.
I’m not important. Whatever pleases you. Right. Whatever you like. Whatever you like.
It’s okay. Now the the reason the reason we can’t say this now, we can’t we can’t actually say, you know, I’m not important, whatever you like, whatever pleases you, is because we have self-cherishing. Likewise, taking rebirth as a hell being, a hungry ghost, or an animal is brought about through the power of self-cherishing. To the power of self-cherishing, we kill other sentient beings, we hurt them, we steal from them. For example, through the power of self-cherishing, we kill others, and this has the result of taking rebirth as the hell being.
Through the power of self-cherishing, we hurt other sentient beings, and this has the result of taking rebirth as an animal. And through our self-cherishing, practice miserliness, The results of miserliness are taking rebirth as a hungry ghost. To the power of our self-cherishing, that we want to catch fish, then we cook them, and we eat them. This is also due to the power of our self-cherishing. And as a result of this, we take rebirth as a hell being.
So it’s pervasive. It definitely follows that by harming others, we are going to be harmed ourselves. So all our suffering up to now has come about through this power of the self cherish, and deep within our mind we have this thought, I want happiness. Under the influence of situation in ourselves, our own happiness, that we engage in actions order to bring this about, to bring the happiness through the power of our self-cherishing, which are going to result in our own suffering. We inflict suffering upon others, and we end up taking rebirth in bad migrations.
Due to the power of self-cherishing, we are continually making effort to bring ourselves happiness, but we have never been able to find the happiness that we’ve been constantly looking for. But in fact, if we were to give up self-cherishing, So we have this thought that I want happiness, from the beginning of beginningless time we have made effort to find only our own happiness, but we have never been able to find that happiness that we’ve been making this effort for from the beginning of beginningless time. So, you know, all suffering comes arises from self-cherishing. All the unwanted suffering that we experience within our mind arise only from our self-cherishing. Therefore, we should see that in fact it is our own self-cherishing which is our number one enemy.
So seeing that all our suffering arises from self-cherishing, we should make From the power of seeing self-cherishing as our enemy. Who is your main enemy? Self-cherishing. self-cherishing is, you know, self-cherishing is my enemy. That we we need realize.
And seeing that, we have to we have to make effort at the methods for abandoning or getting rid of self-cherishing. So we see that self-cherishing is our enemy, but on the other side, all excellent or positive qualities come from cherishing others. The body that we have now, the happiness, the delicious food that we eat, all arises in dependence upon others. Due to having in previous lives abandoned killing others, that we were able to, in this life, enjoy having a human body and a long life. Likewise, having abandoned stealing the property of others, we are able to enjoy in this life possessions and delicious food.
This all comes about through others. Our teacher, the Buddha, was at one time just like us he existed within cyclic existence. But he was able to see that self-cherishing was his enemy, and through the power of that, he only cherished others. And in dependence upon only cherishing others, he was able to achieve the unimaginable qualities that he finally realized. If we were able to do it just as the Buddha did, that through seeing that self-cherishing is our enemy, and to exchange that for cherishing of others, then we would be able to eliminate all our various faults and attain all positive qualities.
But it’s due to this fact that we still cling to our self-cherishing that we haven’t been able to develop these qualities. Through seeing the detriment or faults of cherishing oneself and the fact that all suffering arises in dependence upon self-cherishing, and the benefits of cherishing others in the fact that we can eliminate all faults and develop all positive qualities in cherishing others, and then we seek to exchange self-cherishing for the cherishing of others. So this leads us to the actual exchange of self for other. Through contemplating, considering the benefits of cherishing others and the faults of cherishing oneself, we seek to exchange the object of our cherishing. Whereas previously the object of our cherishing was self, we now make the object of cherishing others.
Where before the object of indifference was others, we now are indifferent to ourselves. We exchange the object of cherishing. Therefore, we determined that from today onward that I am only going to cherish others. From the power of this determination to only cherish others, through this power we make effort to only benefit others. Benefit to others.
We ought to act only beneficially towards others. So we’re going to meditate. We should meditate on what we’ve heard. We should meditate tonight. We should meditate tomorrow morning.
If we don’t meditate on what we’ve heard, we’re wasting our time. Up to this we began with the preliminary practices, and very roughly this was merely the way to develop the mind of renunciation as a preliminary to the actual development of the mind of enlightenment, which was the second point. In developing the mind of enlightenment, first we developed a feeling of equanimity. Then we recognized all sentient beings as our mother, remember their kindness, develop the wish to repay their kindness, develop a feeling of pleasant love, develop the feeling of compassion, then develop love and exceptional resolve. Dependent upon this, we engaged in the practice of exchanging self for others, beginning with remembering the faults of cherishing self and the advantages of cherishing developing the equality of self and others remembering the faults of self-cherishing, the advantages of cherishing others and then the actual exchange of self and others, where we exchange the cherishing of ourselves for the cherishing of others.