Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 167-minute teaching, Geshe Jampa Gyaltsen introduces the Three Principal Aspects of the Path through a detailed exposition of bodhicitta, the awakening mind that cherishes others. He begins by explaining why the first lunar month is spiritually significant as a period of 100,000-fold merit multiplication, commemorating the Buddha’s miraculous defeat of six non-Buddhist teachers. He then pivots to the core teaching: the interchange of self and others, which Śāntideva identifies as a profound secret for gaining both temporary and ultimate happiness. Geshe-la systematically unpacks how self-cherishing—the deeply ingrained habit of prioritising oneself—is the root cause of all suffering and moral failings, while cherishing others is the source of all virtues and enlightenment. He illustrates the practice through Tonglen, the Tibetan giving-and-taking meditation, showing how practitioners must mentally give all their happiness and virtues to others while taking on their sufferings. The teaching culminates in a brief guru yoga practice. This talk is pitched at practitioners willing to examine the mechanics of their own mind and engage in counterintuitive ethical transformation.
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File: Line in 0100.mp3
UUID: 95831aa5-b71f-4c7e-88d7-46667542dff4
Teacher: Geshe Jampa Gyaltsen
Collection: Three Principal Aspects
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~3,205
So says that this first month of the Tibetan year is an extremely important month in the Tibetan calendar, and it is an extremely important month for practice. It is called a month which is a multiplier of 100,000. What is meant by this is that all virtuous deeds or non virtuous deeds for that matter accumulated during this month we’ll see their karmic impact multiplied by 100,000. So one virtuous deed corresponds to 100,000 virtuous deeds. And therefore, very important for us to practice during this month.
And the reason for which this month is considered to be such a powerful multiplier is because it is during this month that the Buddha performed the feat of manifesting miracles to overcome the six non-Buddhist, the six heretical teachers in ancient India. The account of what happens is as follows. These six heretical non-Buddhist teachers wished to debate and dispute with the Buddha, both at the intellectual level and using their powers of concentration, their Samādhi, to try to overcome the Buddha. And they engaged under the edges of a king of the period in a feat of miraculous manifestations. They tried to compete against the Buddha, and the first feat was a little bit of a failure from their side.
The Buddha manifested through his powers of concentration countless manifestations. They were not able to do so and kept poking at each other and saying, you do it, you do it. It wasn’t very successful. Then the second miraculous manifestation occurred when the Buddha arose in space on a lion throne and caused a huge wind to manifest beneath the throne, which actually threw some of the heretical teachers out of the boundary of the contest. The third one occurred when the Buddha manifested both mundane and supra mundane powers, such as the capacity to lead beings not merely to liberation, but to full enlightenment.
So it’s to commemorate these feats of the Buddha that this month is considered particularly powerful. So in particular, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is considered particularly powerful and uncommon. And it is to commemorate this first month that today we will have a Guru Puja in Lama Chopa, and before this, for the Dependent Origination, we will also have a brief explanation of bodhicitta. So let us meditate one minute on generating the motivation to help all mother sentient beings as vast as space through eliminating all thoughts and attaining all qualities and leading them to a state of perfect freedom from these, and to engage in this through listening the teachings of the three principles of the path, which are the very essence of the Buddhadharma.
Said, both myself and others or both oneself and others abide in a difficult to bear state. The profound secret is the interchange of self and others. Well, the first term refers here to persons or beings in general, and as for the teaching of the interchange of self and others, it is said by Śāntideva to be a profound secret because it is a teaching which enables one to accomplish both the contingent or temporary and ultimate happiness. And its secrecy here refers to the fact that it should not be imparted to those of dull capacities, but only to those of sharp capacities. What is meant here by someone of dull capacities is someone who is faithless, who has no conviction, who has no wisdom, and who has no enthusiasm.
What is meant by someone of sharp capacities is someone who has faith, conviction, wisdom, and enthusiasm. Such a one can practice these instructions. And what is meant here is not that we discriminate based on desire or animosity between those who are of sharp and those who are of dull capacities. The reason for which these teachings are imparted to those of sharp capacities is because they will actually practice them. As for those of dull capacities, they will not practice these teachings.
Therefore, there’s no reason to give them these teachings. So says, since you can all understand, he is glad to announce to you that you are all of sharp capacities. So here the term one of sharp capacities and one of dull capacities refers to the difference between beings with qualities or endowed with qualities and beings bereft of qualities. And generally speaking, there are five powers or five capacities which I referred to. Rinpoche will list the first four, which are the powers of wisdom, of enthusiasm, of faith, and of concentration.
Now one who is endowed with these powers is one of sharp capacity, such that one can practice these instructions. As for one who is not endowed with these capacities, with these qualities, then it’s important that he train in them, create the causes for them to arise through repeated habituation, of the mind, they will increase. For instance, wisdom increases through training. As we try to enhance our understanding, we will become better in understanding, likewise for all the other qualities. So the secret for attaining and enhancing one’s qualities quickly while just remaining seated in a relaxed fashion is to practice the interchange of self and others.
Through practicing the interchange of self and others, qualities would increase rapidly, faults will be abandoned, and the state of enlightenment will be obtained quickly. So what is meant here by the interchange of self and others? Interchange of self and others does not mean that we put ourselves in another’s shoes and they put ourselves in our shoes. This is not at all what is meant by this practice.
What is meant by the interchange of self and others is to interchange the way or to change the way we think. Now if we were to ask how are we thinking at present, if every one of us engages in introspection, we would understand quite clearly just how we think. We can see that we value ourselves above everything, and as far as others are concerned, we couldn’t care less. We just abandon them, throw them out. This is how we look at things at present.
This is a profound mistake. It’s a profound mistake because this is how we have been behaving for countless lives, and this is the actual cause of the infinite suffering we have been enduring. So when something is a cause of such suffering, you can indeed call it a profound mistake. How should we practice? Well, we should practice as the fully enlightened beings do.
The fully enlightened beings cherish others. They have no attachment whatsoever to themselves. They do not cherish themselves. And this is how we should practice. We should actually cherish others as much as we at present cherish ourselves, and cherish ourselves as little as we at present cherish others.
In other words, we should cherish ourselves not at all and discard ourselves and value others infinitely. This is how we should practice. So Śāntideva said, all happiness in this world comes from the happiness of others. All suffering in this world comes from one’s own happiness. The meaning of this quote is that striving for the happiness of others gives rise to all happiness in this world.
Striving for one’s own happiness gives rise to all suffering in this world. Likewise, there is a famous quote by Geshe Chekawa who said, recollect the kindness of others. Why should one recollect the kindness of others? Because all our happiness in this life is contingent on the kindness of others. So there is no greater kindness anyone could show than this.
And I forgot to mention as a quote from Lama Chopa reads, self-cherishing is the root of all faults, cherishing others, so cherishing mother sentient beings is the root of all qualities, therefore bless me to actualize the interchange of self and others. Now Rinpoche says when we analyze the term interchange of self and others, we have two parts here, self and others. And it’s important to
Understand what one is practicing. With respect to others, the second part of the formula, we are cherishing others as much as we used to cherish ourselves. In so doing, we attain all qualities, all perfections, all our goals. And as for the first part, self, in self interchange of self and others, we actually abandon ourselves. We forfeit any concern with our own welfare.
And the importance of this is that in so doing, we crush the self-cherishing, which has been the motor of our activities since beginningless lives, and we eliminate the very root of all the suffering we have undergone. And then if we analyze carefully the meaning of self-cherishing and what it entails, It is not for nothing that in Ratnakīrti, self-cherishing is compared to a pandemic, the worst of all epidemics. And what he says, when these disease these pandemics raged, there was nothing at the worldly or at the supramundane at the level of dharma which could be done for the patient. And the reason for this is that when self-cherishing is powerful within our mind, it acts as the root for all suffering without exception. And it goes hand in hand with this mind which discards or abandons others.
We would say in English, a mind which objectifies others. The other is seen as a tool, and this is a foundation of all of the non virtuous deeds, such as killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, harsh words, divisive talk, covetousness, ill will, and so forth. All of these arise from this mind which discards others, sees others as valueless, and ourselves as supreme. On the other hand, the mind which cherishes others is the root of all qualities. This mind actually is the root of our own happiness.
It is a mind which is cultivated by the bodhisattvas and which eventually leads to full enlightenment. We have to understand that the Buddha’s bodhisattvas actually want their own benefit. Because they want their own benefit, they perform the benefit of others. Through helping others, their own goals, own benefit is accomplished. Through making others happy, their own happiness is accomplished.
We from our sides, while striving for our own benefit, are doing everything not to get it, because focusing exclusively on ourselves, we cause sufferings in others, and these rebound on us. As Buddha said in a sūtra, whatever cause you have accumulated, that will give rise to that sort of effect. If you prefer, as you have done, so you so will you be served. There is great profundity in the law of karma, in which he says, because if we act kindly, if we help others, then it will most definitely benefit us down the line. On the other hand, if we don’t act kindly and don’t help others, it will not benefit us.
So it is therefore critical for us to train in eliminating self-cherishing and train also in actualizing, cherishing others. And with respect to this, there is a famous quote from Śāntideva in which Śāntideva says, there is no need to talk much about these matters. Just look at the childish and their results, and look at the fully enlightened and what they obtain. Now the childish refers to ourselves, to ordinary beings, who under the impulse of self-cherishing and life after life have only undergone suffering. The fully enlightened beings themselves, on the other hand, are purely motivated by that mind which strives to benefit others, that mind which cherishes others.
And if we look at what they have obtained, they have obtained the state of full enlightenment. So Rinpoche says, we just have to compare the results of self-cherishing and the results of cherishing others to see that cherishing others is definitely what we want to generate within our mind stream. It’s a source of all qualities, whereas cherishing ourselves is a source of all faults and all vices. And for this reason, Rinpoche says, it is critical to practice cherishing others and to abandon cherishing oneself, to practice the interchange of self and others, And for instance, to do this in the context of giving and taking, the practice of Tonglen, where we visualize that all our happiness, all our virtues, all our qualities, everything we have which is valuable, is given to others, and that we ourselves take on board all the sufferings, the defects, all the problems of others, which is exactly the opposite of what we try to do now, where we try to keep for ourselves all which is valuable, pleasant, and worthy, and give to others everything which is unpleasant and which we do not value. And this is the profound meaning of the quote in Lama Chopa.
Therefore, glorious, compassionate teacher, bless me to practice the Therefore, glorious, compassionate teacher, bless me so that all beings are placed in a state of happiness, and that all of my virtues and happiness without exception are at present given to them, whereas all of their sufferings without exception are taken upon by myself. Now this quote is very profound in which he says because it’s not merely a quote which indicates the practice of Tonglen. It’s also a quote which indicates that we ourselves at present do not have the capacity to do this, and therefore we request the noble, compassionate spiritual teacher to do this for us because we ourselves lack the strength. So we ask the spiritual teacher to place the sufferings, the problems, and the difficulties of others upon ourselves, and to take away all our happiness, all our joy, and to give it to others. If we practice in this way, then we can hope to attain full enlightenment very rapidly, a little bit like a plane flying to the realm of the Buddhas.
And the motivation here for our practice, for practicing to attain the state quickly, is not one where we think I want to attain the state quickly because my present condition is so unpleasant. We have already agreed that we ourselves are worthless. We have discarded ourselves. We’re not even in the picture anymore. We want to attain the state of full enlightenment quickly for the benefit of others, for the sake of others, and this is why we practice.
So having completely abandoned ourselves, having said that we will attach no importance to our well-being in the slightest, then whatever others people do with us is okay. They can kill us, they can rob us, They can beat us up. That that is perfectly okay. We are the enemy. We are our own enemy because self-cherishing is the enemy.
Others are our friends because cherishing others is our friends. And Rinpoche says, it is because we are unable to distinguish between who is the real friend and who is the real enemy that we are in our present predicament. And therefore, said, I give my virtue and I take the sufferings of other. So it is very clear that these practices go very far back to Nāgārjuna himself. And for that matter, they go back to the Buddha who in a famous quote said, I am my own enemy and I am my own friend.
The meaning of this quote is that when the Buddha said, I am my own enemy, he meant that self-cherishing was what harmed us most, and in that aspect, we were our own enemies. On the other hand, when he said I am my own friend, he meant that through the practice of cherishing others, we were our own friends because this dispelled suffering. So if we reflect carefully about this, we will see that we are indeed our own enemies, because something which is the cause of suffering and only suffering can only be called an enemy, and self-cherishing is the cause of suffering and only suffering. So if we reflect carefully about this, we will also understand that cherishing sentient beings is actually in our foremost interest, and this is what we should strive in. And it is for this reason that Buddha added in a quote quite similar to the previous one, I am my own protector, and I am my own enemy.
When Buddha said that we were our own protectors, what he meant by this, Rinpoche says, is that the Buddha himself has no means to protect us apart from imparting the teachings. The teachings are the actual protector, and it is our practice of the teaching which protects us. Apart from that practice, there is no protection. So, Rinpoche will stop the teaching here, and he has explained bodhicitta and the generation of the mind quite elaborately. He will pass onwards next time to an explanation of the view, so it is appropriate at present to perform an extremely concise Guru Puja, Rinpoche says, since otherwise we will all be dizzy.
So, you know, what he says, we will not recite Lama Chopa. We will just do the torma offering. And as a preliminary, And as a preliminary sorry. As a preliminary to this as one verse about seeing all the objects of offering encompassed in the Guru which we will recite.
Amen.
Okay.
So if you have received initiation, such as initiation of Yamāntaka, then you are entitled to say, to bless the offering after performing self-generation of Yamāntaka. Otherwise, you do not have the right to say this. So we will recite from the stanza
Okay. Very good. So, Rinpoche, some very good news. Please be quiet. Some very good news.
After tomorrow, Geshe la is arriving finally in Australia, and he’s also coming with Tenzin’s nephew. Very good. Geshe la is an excellent scholar. He’s a Larampa Geshe, and he’s a Mādhyamika as well. Okay?
So he’s arriving on a Friday morning, 09:15 nine just around nine. I would like to, you know, request and all the members and the students, you know, if you like to join, you know, welcoming him in the airport, in the international airport in Adelaide. And it’s a SQ. I’m not sure the number, but there’s only one come. From India?
From India. From India. From Delhi, Singapore, Singapore. He’s tomorrow morning, he’s departing, and day after morning, he’ll be here. Time?
Time, 09:00 in the morning. At the airport? In the airport. International airport. How is that?
That? Yeah. Airport, then we come here. Welcome. And but it will be very nice.
You’ll be welcome in the airport. That’d be really fantastic. You know? Thank you very much. It’s fantastic.
You know? I was trying to arrange his air ticket last night, 01:30. But but, however, you know, my nephew, he managed this morning. They reject me, my third party booking. You hear that book?
He’s a very big guy. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you very much.
Yeah. And I really like to thank you for Carol. You know, this kind of application is not easy. You know, it took a long time and effort one after one, and I would really like to thank you for Carol. We made it now.
We succeed. Fantastic.
Key terms in this teaching
- dependent origination pratityasamutpada (Skt); ten drel (Tib)
- Also called dependent arising. The way that the self and phenomena exist conventionally as relative and interdependent. LYWA
- five powers
- The five practices to be applied in this life and near the time of death. LYWA
- Guru Puja Lama Chöpa (Tib)
- A special Highest Yoga Tantra guru yoga practice composed by the fourth Panchen Lama, Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen. LYWA
- puja chö pa (Tib)
- Literally, offering; a religious ceremony, usually used to describe an offering ceremony such as the Offering to the Spiritual Master (Guru Puja). LYWA
- self-cherishing dag che par dzin pa (Tib)
- The self-centered attitude of considering one’s own happiness to be more important than that of others. LYWA
- self generation dagkye (Tib)
- The practice in Vajrayana where the meditator visualizes him- or herself as the deity. LYWA
- taking and giving tonglen (Tib)
- The meditation practice of generating bodhicitta by taking on the suffering of others and giving them happiness. LYWA
- torma balimta (Skt)
- An offering cake used in tantric rituals. In Tibet, tormas were usually made of tsampa, but other edibles such as biscuits and so forth will suffice. LYWA
Definitions adapted from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive glossary, as taught in the Gelug tradition.