Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute talk, Kyabje Rinpoche teaches the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, a Mahāyāna mind-training text on generating bodhicitta—the awakening heart dedicated to liberating all beings from suffering. He presents a seven-step method beginning with equalizing self and others: recognizing that all beings, like ourselves, seek happiness and fear suffering. He analyzes the disadvantages of self-centeredness against the advantages of cherishing others, using a business profit-and-loss framework to ground the argument. He then guides practitioners in cultivating love and compassion by reflecting on others’ kindness across lifetimes and how all our happiness depends entirely on them. Finally, he introduces the practice of exchanging self for others, offering Buddha’s enlightenment as proof that this transformation is possible. Suited for practitioners with foundational Buddhist familiarity.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1992-11-03 – Side 1 – Wheel of Sharp Weapons – KR.MP3
UUID: cc125799-61cd-4d86-97f3-7178dd563668
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Mind Training
Date: 1992-11-03
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~3,116
Whereas all sentient beings do not want to have suffering. We ourselves would very much like to be free of suffering and all the causes of suffering. Likewise, all living beings, whosoever, would very much like to be free of suffering in the causes of their suffering. And all living beings be free of suffering and the causes of suffering. I myself will free all living beings from suffering and the causes of their suffering.
In order to bring that about, I will practice well mind transformation by means of which I will be able to eliminate all my various thoughts and bring to consummation all my excellent qualities. The text that we’re discussing is the the universal vehicle mind training text of the Wheel of Sharp Weapons. And why is it in the classification of universal vehicle or the Mahāyāna? It is because it is intended to train the mind in the generation of the awakening heart. And to develop that awakening heart which has not been developed, if we have developed the awakening heart, to cause it to remain and to increase it higher and higher.
What do we mean by the awakening heart or bodhicitta? In a definition set forth by Ārya Maitreya, where he said the awakening heart, it is the intention, the aspiration to achieve awakening for the benefit of all living beings. And that is to say that we are committing ourselves, that we’re making a determination to free all living beings from suffering and to establish them in complete happiness. And the means to do that is by awakening, that is to say the elimination of all our various faults and bringing to consummation all excellent qualities within This is an extremely precious attitude of mind, the awakening heart. If we were to develop such a mind as the awakening heart, in one instant we can remove all the various faults from our mind.
We can bring about waves of excellent qualities to develop within our mind. But as a result of developing the awakening heart is that we are empowered to bring about the ultimate welfare of both ourselves and others. Initially we are making a commitment, the determination to to establish all living beings in a state where they no longer suffer, where they have an ultimate happiness. In order to do that it’s necessary that each of us individually remove our various faults and bring the consummation of our excellent qualities. But the initial stage of this commitment is an aspiration.
We are simply wishing it, wishing to achieve this end. But we have to begin to express this wish in practical terms. We have to, in order to actually bring that about, have to take up the actual practices. We have to engage in various activities. And if we were to condense those activities, they would be such practices as the practice of generosity, the practice of ethics, tolerance, joyous effort, meditative stabilization and wisdom.
It is by means of these practices that we can bring to fulfillment our initial commitment. So this extremely precious attitude of the awakened heart is something that we have not developed as of yet. And it is by means of mind training that we are seeking to actually generate it in fact. And the mind training acts as the means, the method whereby to develop the awakening heart. And as the method that we can make use of, that understanding that we have the potentiality to develop and now we’re going to actualize our potentiality to develop by means of a sevenfold practice, which is called the equalizing and exchanging self for others.
And here we begin by developing initially a sense of equality between self and others. And on the basis of that sense of equality, we go on to reflect upon the disadvantages of self centeredness, the advantages of other centeredness. We go on to engage in the actual exchange of self for others. Then we engage in the practice of taking and giving. In the context of the development of compassion, observing sentient beings who are undergoing suffering, we take on their suffering upon ourselves.
And in the context of the development of love, in the context of love we give them our happiness. And then as a result of that we then go on to generate an exceptional resolve. That is to say that I myself, not imaginatively but in actual fact, will free all living beings of their suffering and bring them to happiness. And then as a result of that we finally develop what is called mind generation or in fact or the actual awakening heart. So initially it’s necessary to gain a sense of equality of self and others.
And understanding that just as we as individuals do not want even the slightest of suffering. We don’t even want the most minor suffering, like a toothache, we don’t want that suffering. And on the other hand, we want however much happiness we can get, however much that’s what we want. Likewise, taking these as examples, every living being is exactly the same as we ourselves are. That they are the same in wanting as much happiness as possible and not wanting even the most slightest of suffering.
That we are equal to all living beings in this respect. That they just like ourselves want to be happy, that they don’t want to suffer. It’s extremely important that we develop this sense of equality between ourselves and others. That as a means to overcome our attachment for those that we like and our aversion and hatred and anger toward those we don’t like, It’s necessary to develop a sense of equanimity. Just as in the case of if we want to plant a crop, it’s necessary that we level the field, that it would make it smooth.
We remove all the various stones, wood, and rough ground and make it smooth in order that to plant a crop. Likewise, we are trying to grow the sprout of the awakening heart within our mind. And it’s necessary to level our minds in the sense of gaining a sense of equanimity and equality, of a sense of equality between self and others in terms of they just like ourselves want to be happy, they just like ourselves do not want to suffer. They are all equal in that respect. Out of this sense of equality that that others or other living beings are just like ourselves, that they want happiness, they don’t want to suffer.
We develop a sense of equanimity, which is a sense of freedom from either attachment or aversion toward others. So if in developing a sense of equality amongst all living beings, that all living beings are just like myself and wanting happiness and not wanting to suffer, that we develop a sense of sameness, that all beings are equal, the same in this respect, then who are we to cherish amongst living beings? In terms of are we to cherish ourselves or are we to cherish others since we’re exactly the same? Who are we to be concerned with predominantly? And this kind of qualm or this doubt may arise in your mind.
In terms of the mind training, we are trying to develop the attitude of cherishing others, becoming other centered as opposed to self centered. When we practice the Dharma, we should be looking at our practice in terms of profit and loss. Just as if we were carrying on business. If we saw there was a great profit in one area, we would quite naturally want to engage in that. If we saw that there was going to be a loss, we would withdraw from engaging in that area of business.
Likewise in our practice of Dharma, looking at the various advantages and disadvantages of way of our approach, of our various attitudes in terms of self centeredness and other centeredness, looking at the profit and loss margins. Beginning to see all the various faults of self centeredness, looking to all the various benefits of other centeredness. So we begin to see that there are tremendous advantages in the development of other centeredness and there are many disadvantages in maintaining our self centered attitude. Beginning to investigate the false self centeredness. What is the evolution of self centeredness?
It has its genesis in self grasping. That is the root of all afflicted emotions, all suffering is self grasping. Under the influence of self grasping, we go on to develop an attachment to the self. This leads to a sense of self centeredness or a cherishing of the self. Under the influence of self centeredness, we go on in wanting to bring ourselves happiness, in trying to bring this self happiness, we engage in various types of actions, unskillful actions.
For example, we engage in activities of killing, stealing, sexual impropriety, lying. All the various unskillful actions of body, speech, and mind have brought about under the influence of self centeredness. All the various afflictive emotions are developed out of the root of ignorance, self grasping. And out of this arises attachment, and out of this all the various unskillful actions that we engage in, all the various negative activities that we involve ourselves in. And engaging these actions, we bring harm to others.
And in dependence upon that harming of others and these various negative actions, we experience a resultant suffering. All the suffering that we now are undergoing is a result of the previous activities engaged in under the influence of self centeredness in previous times. And all the various negativities that we engage in at present will bring about a future result in suffering. But not only do we experience, does it act to bring about our various experiences of suffering, but all those, let us say all that is undesirable is brought about under the influence of self centeredness. Not only that, but even those things that we do desire, all the qualities that we seek to develop, are hindered by the force of our self centeredness.
So it is the root cause of all that is undesirable and acts as an obstacle to achieving all that is desirable. This self centeredness is our main foe. Not understanding the various disadvantages and the faults of self centeredness, we have perpetuated this attitude under its influence that we now undergo all the various difficulties and sufferings that we presently experience. But beginning to understand through the discussions of thought transformation, mind training, the disadvantages of self centeredness on the one hand and the advantages of other centeredness, that other centeredness is the means by which we can bring about all desired happinesses and eliminate all undesired suffering. And beginning to distinguish the differences between these two.
Though we have from beginningless time until now, we have engaged in activities which were mistaken, which were not in our best interest, we can begin to carry on an unmistaken or a correct way of acting to actually bring about the happiness that we want. Mainly other centeredness is constituted of the attitude of love and compassion. In general, we have love and compassion for ourselves. Here in the context of mind training we are seeking to develop love and compassion for others. So in terms of the generation of love and compassion we are observing other living beings other than ourselves.
And the development of compassion is having as a basis a liking for sentient beings. We go on to develop a longing, observing how they are troubled by all the various sufferings that they experience and develop a longing that they be free of that suffering along with all its various causes. And then the development of love. Again observing other living beings and seeing that they have no happiness. And developing a longing that may they have happiness and the causes of happiness.
But here by happiness we simply don’t mean various types of simply having nice food or good things like that. But these are all what are contaminated happinesses. We’re talking about an uncontaminated happiness. That is to say a stable, unchanging happiness. And developing the longing which is expressed in the thought may all these living beings have happiness and all the causes of happiness.
We have a liking for others. And in that context develop a sense of love and compassion for them. But why are we to do this? Why are we to develop this love and compassion? On the one hand, we are able to develop such a love and compassion when we look at the fact that all living beings have been our mother.
That we have prior to our present birth taken rebirth. And prior to that rebirth we took a rebirth. And prior to that a rebirth. That this process has been going on since beginningless time. And that we have not only experienced the birth of this life, but we have been born numerous times.
And all these rebirths over the course of numerous rebirths, we have, these living beings have been our mother and have treated us with the same kindness as our mother of this life reflecting in this way. Not just our mother, but also they have been our fathers, our sisters, our brothers, our children. This is one way in which we can begin to reflect upon the kindness of living beings. We not only can we reflect upon kindness in that way, but in terms of previous existences, but even over the course of this life. All the things that we the various things that we are able to enjoy, the food, the drink, clothing, shelter, all that these these various enjoyments are all dependent upon living beings.
If if they weren’t if we didn’t depend upon living beings for these things, we wouldn’t have them. We wouldn’t be able to make use of them. Not only that, but even our body is dependent upon others. It arose from the sperm and ovum of our parents. And all whatever qualities we may possess, all have arisen in dependence upon others.
And that we at one point we were just like a little a bug. We couldn’t even say ABCs. Gradually as we grew we went to school and teachers imparted their understanding and we developed understanding and we developed all our various qualities. Whatever qualities we have, however important we may have attained, even our own body has arisen in dependence upon other people. All the most excellent qualities of which are developed within the context of the universal vehicle, qualities such as love, compassion, exceptional resolve, and the awakening heart are developed in dependence upon, relying upon living beings, upon people.
By observing these various living beings and meditating and cultivating these attitudes, we are able to develop them. And all our various practices such as the practices of generosity, ethics, tolerance, etcetera are only able to be engaged in in dependence upon, relying upon living beings. If there were no living beings then there would be no one who we could practice generosity towards. If there were no living beings, then there would be no one who we could practice ethics with respect to. If there were no living beings, would be no one who we could practice tolerance with.
And therefore all our abilities, our eventual ability to remove all our various faults and to bring to consummation all our excellent qualities rely upon other living beings. We can also think of happiness beyond this life and think of it in terms of future lives. That the great benefit of living beings who bring us happiness in the future. The very fact of having a healthy body is dependent upon other living beings. And having all the various objects of enjoyment, wealth, prosperity is dependent upon others having food and drink.
Through our practice of generosity, through the practice of giving, will have various objects of enjoyment. We will have prosperity. Having a beautiful body, having harmonious friendships arises in dependence upon tolerance. And then having this well endowed human existence, in dependence upon which we can practice joyous effort and develop wisdom and gain the ultimate welfare of ourselves and others. So all happiness whatsoever is established in dependence upon other living beings.
So if all our happiness comes about through living beings, by gaining that happiness we don’t experience suffering. Therefore all that is undesirable is eliminated, is inhibited in dependence upon living beings. So reflecting upon the great kindness of living beings and bringing about all our happiness and eliminating all our suffering, we should develop a sense of cherishing, a quality of cherishing of sentient beings. So looking at the various faults of self centeredness and the benefits of other centeredness and seeing that previously we have mainly concerned ourselves with ourselves, a sense of exaggerated self concern and beginning to recognize all the various faults which are entailed in such a way of acting and all the various advantages of other centeredness. We should now try to exchange those two attitudes.
Exchanging self centeredness for other centeredness. Before we mainly concerned ourselves with ourselves and we left others aside. But now we should try to exchange that for mainly concerning ourselves with others and as it were leaving ourselves aside. So appreciating the advantages of other cherishing and disadvantages of self centeredness, though we may be able to see this, the question may arise, well, you know, can I actually exchange this attitude of self centeredness for other centeredness? In fact we can if we are willing to engage, to cultivate such an attitude, can train our mind in such a way of thinking.
By way of illustration, Śākyamūni Buddha, at one time he existed with us, within cyclic existence, experiencing all the various sufferings that we ourselves likewise experience. But he met with the spiritual friend of the universal vehicle, and he put into practice the exchange of self centeredness for other centeredness, and by means of which he removed all of his various faults and brought to consummation all his excellent qualities. And he went beyond cyclic existence. But we, on the other hand, still mainly concern ourselves with just ourselves. We are still bound up in self centeredness and therefore we still circle within cyclic existence.
So looking at that way of reasoning it becomes clear why we should try to make this adjustment to bring about this exchange. We can practice this way if we’re able to because we can take as an example Śākyamūni Buddha