Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. What does it mean to practice generosity not as charity but as an inner willingness to let go? In this nearly two-hour session, Ven Jampa Gendun works through all six bodhisattva perfections, reframing each as an inner quality: ethics as “cooling the fires of affliction,” patience as reframing situations so the mind stays undisturbed, joyous effort as finding genuine satisfaction in virtue, and meditative concentration as an eagle that glides once it has gained height. The sixth perfection, wisdom understanding emptiness, is the rocket; compassionate merit is the fuel — together the two wings toward Buddhahood. The session then turns to the nine-round death meditation, illustrated by a Tibetan story of a meditator who missed four death warnings sent by his teacher, and grounded by striking quotes from Montaigne and Castaneda. A guided body relaxation and reflection on precious human life are woven throughout.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 14 3PA 2006 11 20.mp3
UUID: fe808792-abac-4bcd-a271-e01c47878db5
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Three Principle Aspects of the Path 2006-2007 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 2006-11-20
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 117.1 minutes
Words: ~11,404
Is everybody okay? Can you hear me okay? Is everybody comfortable? A little bit? Okay.
In the in our refuge prayer, you know, in our just in our motivation, we we often or we usually recite, I go for refuge until I’m awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha through the practice of generosity, and the other perfections may have become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings. So, you know, the the a bodhisattva is someone who has awakened their heart. I have to spell it out, the mind of enlightenment. They have developed an altruistic aspiration to attain the best they can for the sake of others, for the sake of all others attaining enlightenment or awakening in order to bring about be in the the the best position, have the maximum abilities, the optimum situation to bring about the welfare of others. And this this entails by awakening is the Bodhisattva is aspiring to awakening of his total being.
And these are, you know, the totality of who he is and who each of ourselves are in terms of our public self, the social dimension of our being, and the private self, the personal dimension of our of our being. You know, we want to try to fulfill both of those aspects of ourselves that we all that we all express in our everyday life. We have our own inner experience, which is inaccessible to others, which we aspire to find some kind of peace, fulfillment, meaning in our lives in terms of our own personal situation. But, also, we live in a world with others. We are social beings, so finding some way of skillfully being in this world with others, a way of relating with others in terms of love and compassion, fiercely and skillfully benefiting others.
So that’s kind of the best the best thing that we could do for ourselves and others as well. So the the these are and traditionally in the doctrine, these are these are termed the the truth body and the form body of a Buddha. The the the truth body of Buddha, this is a in Sanskrit, is referred to as the dharmakaya. And it is like the the embodiment of truth. It is brings about our complete own welfare.
It is is like space, you know, without beginning or end, without beyond any logical determination, beyond all types of conceptualizations or doctrines, the ways that we think about it. It is the continuous realization of emptiness. The the Buddhist the Buddhist the Buddhist mind continually abiding within a state of emptiness, the ultimate nature of all reality, and its experience is absolute peace. So that that brings that constitutes one’s own welfare. You can’t get much better than that.
But there is an another aspect to ourselves, and therefore, what we mean by a Buddha, this optimum being, and that is the form body. And this is the in Sanskrit, it’s called Rūpakāya. And it is the way it has two parts. One part is the the pure realm of of superiors. That is the other Bodhisattvas who had direct realization of emptiness.
And so it’s a very subtle form of being which is able to which is only accessible to those who have an insight into the deepest nature of reality, and it it it seeks to lead them to the ultimate state of Buddhahood. But there’s another aspect of our social aspect of ourselves, and it’s a grosser aspect, and it’s referred to as the emanation body of a Buddha or the Nirmānakāya. And this this is this is the the domain of this being is the world of ordinary others, ordinary people like ourselves. And it expresses itself in through a variety of ways that tries to inspire beings to to follow a path and gives them the various skills and means to be able to do that. So, you know, we we’ve said a spiritual journey involves a path.
The path is what takes us from where we are now to to our destination, where it is that we want to go to. For the Bodhisattva, the path the the destination is that of complete Buddhahood, the fulfillment of the totality of his being, the best possible thing that we can make of our life. So the way that the the the Bodhisattva actually traverses the path, actually travels the path, is taking the steps of wisdom and method, wisdom and method, wisdom and method. The various practices of wisdom bring about the accumulation of wisdom, which and these have the principal result of the truth body of a Buddha. That means through the accumulation of wisdom, we bring about our own welfare.
The other step that we take is that of method. And the principal outcome of method is the form body of a Buddha. It is the form body of Buddha which works to benefit others. So the way that the Buddha the way the Bodhisattva takes these steps of the accumulation of method, that is to say the accumulation of merit in order to bring about the welfare of others is by practicing these six perfections. So, you know, this is the six perfections are as mentioned in the verse that we normally recite by the practice of generosity and so forth.
So there are six perfections. The first five of these perfections bring about the form body of a Buddha. That is they bring about our ability to be of maximum benefit to others. It brings about the fulfillment of our social aspect of ourselves. The sixth of the six perfections, that of wisdom brings about, as I mentioned, brings about the truth body of the Buddha, that is to say, brings about our own complete welfare, the the experiential nature of Buddhahood, that is to say, fulfillment of my inner domain of my being.
So how does the Buddha how does the these the Buddhists have actually take these steps? You know, the the by the practice of the six perfections. So in Sanskrit, the word for perfections is Paramita. This is normally translated as perfections, but actually, it has an idea of gone beyond or or gone over there. Or another way we can say that is transcended.
So these six primary practices Bodhisattva are said to transcend ordinary spiritual practice through the force of wisdom and through the force of the compassion to which they have enjoined. So we we involve ourselves in various practices like generosity, ethics, and so forth. We’re gonna we’re gonna go through these. And this came up last week, a question that came up. And I thought it might be useful just to give you some overall idea of what these six perfections entail, what they mean, because we’re we’re we’re talking about them all the time whenever we adjust our motivation and recite the the refuge prayer.
So these six primary practices of a Bodhisattva are are able to transcend ordinary spiritual practices due to their being conjoined with wisdom and being conjoined with method, and mainly within method that of great compassion. So having the Bodhisattva has awakened his heart or her heart. Okay? They accept sole responsibility to bring about the welfare of others. So so the implication if, you know, if we actually mean what we’re saying, if it’s something more than just words from our mouth, then then we actually have to do something.
It has to be more more than just a thought or wish. I may I may I be able to benefit all sentient beings. We actually have to translate that wish into some sort of practical reality. We have to actually act. And the way that the the the Bodhisattva translates this, the way that we practically responds to the needs of others is not in terms of our normal way of we operating in the world, in terms of pride, in terms of attachment, in terms of aggression, so forth, but in ways which transcend those normal ways of practice or responding or working or being in the world with others.
And so it our response to others is a primary act of compassion. Response to others is a primary act of compassion. And moreover, that these in order that they’re not only conjoined with the practice practice or the the the quality of heart of compassion, but when we practice these six perfections, like generosity and ethics and so forth, they are necessarily conjoined with wisdom, not just compassion. You know, the understanding that the agent, and I’ll go through these a little bit, this is going to come up a great deal later on. The agent and the object and the practice itself are all empty of true existence.
When when our our various practices, when we ethics, generosity, and so forth, when they’re not only combined with compassion, but when combined with this quality of wisdom, then they transcend ordinary practices, however altruistic they might might they might be. Okay? So when we talk about the six perfections, we’re talking about the the practice of generosity and so forth, conjoined or be under the influence of great compassion and wisdom understanding emptiness. And I know that we’re going to talk a lot about emptiness eventually. What that mean?
It’s important. It’s you know, if if if compassion is the heart of Buddhism, emptiness is the mind of Buddhism. You know? We have to we have to connect these two. We have to have wise hearts and compassionate minds to bring some kind of integration to ourselves, the personal aspect and the social aspect of ourselves to trying to integrate them through wisdom and compassion, and the wisdom is that of emptiness.
So, you know, just going through some of these six perfections, talking about them in a in a in a way to give you some feeling for what what word they’re about. The first of the six perfections is generosity. So generosity is not so much becoming more and more charitable and literally giving away whatever it is that we may have, You know, with whatever it might be. Might be money. It might be material things or time or energy, or it that’s one type of generosity, and it’s actually giving them material things, giving your time, giving your energy, so forth.
Another type of practice of generosity is that of giving protection from fear. If someone has some difficulties, you you you you worked with them in removing those difficulties. It’s just generally turned protecting them from fear of their problems, whatever they might be. And the third type of generosity is the giving of dharma or, you know, the giving of really some sound advice on a deeper, more fundamental level. So it’s just not a matter when we talk about generosity, it’s not a matter of simply being more charitable in giving away things as we just described, whatever those things might be.
The emphasis on the on the on the perfection of generosity is the willingness to give. All of the perfections are qualities of mine. So here, we we are developing the intention to be able to give, to give up what is mine, you know, my possessions, my knowledge, my territory, my privacy, my my my security, being able to let go of that. You know you know, any so so so the practice of generosity lies not so much in the outer act of giving as it does in the interactive letting go associated with attachment or associated with non attachment. The letting go of what we try to hold on to, what we identify with as mind.
You know, be being this kind of centralized approach to our the way that we live our life. You know, whatever it is that we identify with, you know, all of our various a way of a way of communicating and participating in the lives of others. It’s like it’s like generosity. You know, the the sometimes a Buddha this is just a a good an image that and sometimes these images are quite useful to work with. His his likened to a wish-granting tree or to say fruit a fruit tree.
You know? A fruit tree has no particular intention to to bear its fruit and for people to come along and pick it and enjoy the fruit. It’s simply an active environmental generosity on the part of the tree. It’s growing these delicious fruit. And people, according to their disposition to their karma and so forth, their likes and their dislikes, their particular style, they can come along and pick their fruit.
They can they can eat it. They can be nourished by it. They can enjoy it. So you it’s a matter of letting go and simply giving without a sense of having hold on, holding on to oneself or whatever it is that one identifies with. So that’s the notion of generosity.
So the second perfection is the perfection of ethics. So, again, you know, just as we talked about generosity is is simply is not simply literally being more and more charitable, but it’s an inner quality of letting go. Ethics is not really a matter of restraining ourselves, you know, with moral principles or or rules of conduct. The emphasis on the perfection of ethics is aligning ourselves with our own basic sanity. We can talk about three different three different areas of ethics.
First is aligning ourselves with our own basic sanity. Ourselves with our own basic sanity. We can we we so the the we have some kind of decency about ourselves, which is natural to our being. We we we try to secondly, we try to involve ourselves in positive actions, skillful actions. And then thirdly, it involves speaking and acting and thinking in such a ways that are conducive to pacifying our minds.
You know, the word that is normally translated as ethics in Sanskrit is Śīla, and the Sanskrit word Śīla means to cool. So when we talk about ethics, we’re talking about cooling the the fires of afflictions. And by the afflictive emotions, mean attachment, and hatred, and spite and jealousy, pride. So when we talk about the practice of ethics, we’re talking about three things, aligning ourselves with our with our own basic sanity and decency. That is to say, not indulging in in negative states of mind.
Put it precisely. We don’t allow that as best we can. We become aware of it and we begin to oppose it. You know, I think, you know, if someone were to there are many ways to define what we mean by practicing Dharma. But one of the most simple and least perhaps the most useful is simply the actively opposing negative states of mind.
Being able to become aware of them, identify them as negative, and in some manner or other according to your skills, according to your present abilities, opposing them, offering some resistance, not at the at the most, not indulging. And then the second type of ethics is simply acting in positive ways, benefiting in whatever ways that we can. And then thirdly, cooling the afflictions. So this this is and finally, the the bringing about the welfare of others. So aligning ourselves with our basic sanity and decency, cooling the afflictions, and involving ourselves in working with the benefit in order to bring about the welfare of others.
So, you know, you know, basic to Buddhism is is the ethic of nonviolence. That is to to as best we can, and then this has many levels of practice, not harming others. You know, the the the Dalai Lama has said that all of that the ethics of Buddhism that Buddhism can be can be explained in two sentences. If you can help others, if you can’t, at least don’t harm them. That that sort of encapsulate the the practice of the ethics of all of Buddhism.
The third the third perfection is that of patience sometimes or tolerance. So, again, this is something more than than gritting our teeth, you know, struggling on to overcome some kind of challenge, overcoming obstacles, you know, trying to even trying to overlook what’s actually happening to ourselves, you know, smiling even though we’re furious inside, even though we we, you know, trying to repress what it is that’s actually going on for us. It’s something more than that. You know? It means giving up.
There are times when when maybe patience comes down to that, when we simply have to act as we were a piece of wood. So we don’t allow we don’t indulge in the anger which, for example, which might be arising or the or the the inability to deal with the present situation. The perfection of patience has more to developing, has to do with developing the coping skills necessary to to maintain an undisturbed mind. You know, the the near cause of anger is irritation, frustration. And the the the the if we can reframe the situation such that the mind is no longer distressed, then we can that is the practice of patience.
When in the absence of distressed mind, anger will not arise. Aggression will not arise. And all the various emotions associated with the anger and aggression and so forth, they don’t arise. They all arise in dependence upon, simply most, an unhappy mind. Happy people do not become angry.
Yeah. There has to be some some irritation, some frustration. The main cause of of an of anger is a distressed mind. If that’s absent, we are practicing we will not become angry. So if we can if we can look at if we can reframe the situation such that the facts might remain the same, but we’re able to look at them in such a way that our mind is normally distressed with them, then this is the essence of practicing patience.
So it’s not a matter of simply, you know, holding one’s temper or not giving in to one’s temper or giving in giving up the situation and running away from the situation because one one can no longer tolerate it. You know? So in terms of the practice of patience, there are there are three levels of practice or three types of practice of patience. It’s primarily directed toward the ability to to accept harm inflicted upon us by others, you know, to say a patient which does not retaliate. So that takes a lot of work to to be able to reframe the situation such that we don’t wish to to retaliate in some form or another.
The the to be able to endure the hardships of working for others, of serving others, or or just we can say just the difficulties of life in general, being able to tolerate that so your mind no longer is distressed by it. It’s no longer upset or irritated. Being able to develop the skill around reframing the situations, and being able to, thirdly, being able to to bear the legitimate suffering or the difficulties inevitable in traveling the spiritual path and practicing the Dharma. So those are the three areas of patience. So the skill of patience is in our ability to reframe problems in such a way that even if, you know, we can’t and we we don’t have the ability to a large extent, or we have little control over the outside world, that we can change our attitude the way we view that, with the way that the way that we interpret the situation.
And if we can begin to interpret it in a more skillful fashion, such that the the facts remain the same, but it no longer disturbs us. So that’s the that’s the the the the the essence of patience and the the skill of patience. So it’s it’s it no longer the situation no longer disturbs our mind. We we’ve transformed our way of viewing the situation to a more skillful or functional way of looking at it. You know, we we what was once a problem difficult to to bear, find find some kind of natural resolution.
For the bodhisattva, there is no situate there’s no problem. There’s no there’s no person, situation, or task that cannot be tolerated because there’s nothing that a Bodhisattva cannot transform into the path, has transformed into contributor to his or her journey along the path. And this is primary to their life. For for the Buddhist side, all circumstances, whether they’re good circumstances or bad circumstances, assist him in the in attaining awakening through his ability to transform them as part of the path. Everything is incorporated through this skill of being able to reframe as a means of this of helping him her along the path in some way.
So the fourth perfection is the perfection of joyous effort. We mentioned this a little bit last week. And, again, this this is this goes beyond the notion of, like, you know, of diligently keeping your nose to the grindstone. You know, the the or, you know, valuing valuantly struggling against against all odds in in achieving our goals. Maybe at times it comes down to that, but that’s not the essence.
That’s not where the actual perfection of joy is effort. It means that the perfection of effort lies in not only generating the will and the energy to achieve our goals, but specifically toward positive goals and with a mind that delights in doing so. You know, you you have a sense that there’s a lot of understanding going on in all these, in generosity, in ethics, and patience. And here also enjoy effort. It’s it’s a it can’t be done mechanically.
The the practice of joy joy joyous effort consists in learning to persevere and extend ourselves in doing what is skillful and and importantly, to find joy in doing so, to find some kind of satisfaction even though it might be difficult. Over and above the present temporal difficulty, we have a a more general sense of this is worthwhile. To find this taking some kind of joy and happiness in the ultimate outcome of what you’re doing as well. So it it it is said of the Bodhisattva. You know, they talk about the the armor of a Bodhisattva.
The armor of a Bodhisattva is joyous effort. It is, you know, it is this joyous effort which helps us to overcome our laziness, our procrastination, you know, the habit of losing ourselves in distractions, in our habit of losing ourselves in our self defeating attitude. You know, interestingly, the the the the sense of self defeatism or feelings of insufficiency that we have classified as a type of laziness in Buddhist psychology. And it is this joyous effort which helps to overcome those those feelings about ourselves that we just don’t have what it takes. For the bodhisattva, it is it is the light associated with his his his or her joyous effort, which is the protective armor by which he there’s nothing that he or she can’t do.
They’re willing to go into figuratively, but probably literally into the deepest hell in order to benefit others, that they’re able to find joy in that. It’s it’s what lies behind the Bodhisattva’s ability to continually work with others. Sentient beings are difficult people to work with. There’s no one else to work with. I once I once yeah.
I once asked a teacher, I was having a bit of difficulty working with a particular person. He said, boy, what do you expect? What do you expect with sentient beings? Or do you expect something other than that, then you’re misleading yourself?
That’s the nature of our situation. So, you know, joy is effort. So the fifth perfection is perfection of meditative concentration. So it’s a way that we can we can stay focused, you know, on what is important to us, that we can that we can overcome our losing ourselves in in distractions in in becoming it’s a way that, you know, the way that we can see, the it’s very concentration is important. You know, we we part of our our practice, part of our coming together here, we we usually practice some type of analytic or reflective meditation.
We try to, you know, as skillfully as possible using our imagination, our creativity, our experiences, we try to induce particular skillful states of mind. Maybe it’s a maybe it’s a love, compassion. Maybe it’s a sense of forgiveness. Maybe it’s a sense of being identifying with other qualities. And so, you know, we we go to a lot of trouble trying to induce these particular skills skillful states of mind.
Maybe it’s a type of wisdom and so forth. And but having gone through the trouble to induce a particular state of mind, we want to be able to to make to continuously focus to hold on to that state as long as possible. You know? It we we we try to capture and prolong that experience as long as we can. It’s like the, you know, it’s like the the mind is like a like a a a sponge, and it it it absorbs the moisture of these these skillful states that we invoke, that we that we would develop, which you know, the word meditation means to familiarize, to accustom.
So we we in in the process of meditation, through reflection and so forth, we induce particular skills and skillful states of mind, and we try to familiarize our our mind with those states such that they become second nature to ourselves. They become our primary nature. They become us. We change. We grow.
So it’s really it’s important that we be able to build that we develop concentration in order to prolong these skillful states as long as possible. You know, it’s like sometimes it’s compared to like an eagle or the that flies in the sky. You know? It has to expend a great deal of energy to get to a particular height. And then having gotten there, it just it it just it it ceases the the effort, and it simply begins to float in the currents.
And, eventually, it it works its way down to the ground or near the ground, and again, it begins to flap its wings. Likewise, in meditation, you know, you expend a great deal of effort. You you go through the you know, we’re we’re going be meditating on death. We’re going to be looking at nine-round death meditation trying to evoke a sense of what it means to to be living a life which is going to come to an end. And what what does that how does that make us feel in order to evoke some kind of energy to make use of our lives and so forth.
So, you know, we go through a lot of trouble to to flapping our wings to develop as these senses, these states, these skillful states in mind. And then we once having evoked them, we want to be able to hold hold on to them. You know, just like ego, we step we stop flapping our wings. We we we’ve evoked the state of mind that we that we want to achieve. We see we cease analysis.
We we stop thought process, and we try to hold on to that state, that feeling, you know, as long as as long as we can. We simply glide with that as long as possible. And then when that when it fades away, again, we have to flap our wings. We have to, again, go through a process of analysis, again, try to reduce that particular state, whether it’s appreciating our human life, whether it’s just mindfulness of death, whatever it might be. There’s a great number of possibilities that we can we’re we’re working with.
Flapping your wings again, you know, using these methods to invoke these skillful states of mind and holding on to prolonging having captured and prolonging them as prolonged as possible so that they become the mind familiarizes, becomes accustomed to this particular state, these skillful states. So, you know, we we we try to investigate other realities than those which we’re familiar with at present. So the meditative concentration is is a is included with a class of meditation called calm abiding. Having calmed the mind to abiding on a skillful object, having calmed the mind from being distracted to external objects. So calm abiding.
We’re abiding on a particular skilled object that we’ve that we’ve developed, having calmed its its scattering or distraction to other types of objects, external objects. So that’s the class of meditation that we’re working with in terms of the med the perfection of meditative concentration. So the mind is effort lessly in calm abiding, the mind is effortlessly able to be remain focused upon whatever object it is placed for as long as one desires, and it’s accompanied by mental and physical bliss. That sounds pretty good. If if you put if you put your mind there, it will remain there.
So the the the the perfection of meditative concentration, you know, for the for the Bodhisattva is what’s called a supramundane concentration. Mundane concentrations simply repress the disturbing factors of the mind. The mind which with the types of factors which disturb the natural peace of the mind. So mundane concentrations are able, due to the force of the strength of the concentration, able to oppress or exclude those from coming to awareness. And the mind is able to abide on a single object.
It’s at peace. But the Bodhisattva Bodhisattva’s perfection of meditative concentration is a supramundane. That is to say, it simply doesn’t suppress the the disturbing factors of the mind. It actually removes disturbing factors of the mind. You know, for the bodhisattva, the meditative concentration is not seen as simply as a blissful form of escape, you know, from the world.
It’s seen as as a necessary tool of the mind for for being able to gain the the the penetrative insights which are necessary for working most effectively within the world. So it’s simply the the the you know, some people look upon meditation as an escape for the bodhisattva. It’s not at all. It’s a necessary part of this this training in order to be able to benefit others within the world. It’s the opposite of an escape.
So then finally, the sixth of the six perfections is that of perfection of wisdom. So wisdom in in general is is an analytic faculty of the mind. It it’s able to it allows us to to to probe beneath the surface of things, to penetrate into the deeper nature of things. You know, it’s it’s like we have a discriminative awareness that that sees beneath surface appearances, which we’re normally at the level that we we see things at. So there are three types.
In general, there are three types of wisdom. There is wisdom that knows what is called conventionality, And just the just the the mundane wisdom. You know, there there are five areas. Sometimes it’s termed as the five sciences. These are the five areas of wisdom of medicine, art, logic, linguistics, and philosophy.
So these are term where they’re called the five sciences. This is one area of wisdom. This discrimination developing these understandings. The second type of wisdom is wisdom that understands how to bring about the welfare of others in terms of discriminating what is to be adopted and what is to be practiced. You know, what what should what what should we try to stop doing and what on the other hand, what is that we should do in order to to find happiness and remove our suffering?
So there’s a discriminator wisdom there, being able to make the difference between what it is that we should do and shouldn’t do in terms of practice. But mainly in terms of perfection of wisdom, we’re talking about a third type wisdom, a wisdom that realizes the ultimate nature of phenomena, that all phenomena are empty of independent existence. They’re empty of objective existence, of true existence, inherent existence, existence from its own side, Intrinsic existence, lots of lots of there’s lots of synonyms. We all try to get at the same thing, and we’ll spend a great deal of time working with this when we come to the third of the three principal aspects of the path, the correct view. So through the merit of practicing the first five of these six perfections, generosity, ethics, patience, joyous effort, and med and meditative concentration through the merit of of working with those five.
The the Buddha’s practice of the sixth perfection, that is the wisdom, is transformed into a practice of the perfection of wisdom. So so, you know, we we’re trying to all our various practices, all practices in Buddhism are categorized in either wisdom or method. Okay? Here we’re here we’re trying to to conjoin those two. Wisdom brings about the the the ultimate the ultimate welfare of our personal self, merit, or method brings about the ultimate welfare of our social self, so our our public self.
So we want the Buddha the Buddhahood that we’re seeking or the goal that we’re seeking is a is a is an integration of these two aspects of ourselves and bringing them to consummation, totality. So by this is accomplished by practicing the six perfections. The first five perfections are classified within merit or method. By conjoining our practices, our practice of this wisdom with these first five, this wisdom is not simply wisdom. It becomes a perfection of wisdom.
It is able to bring about the complete welfare of our private private self. On the other hand, by by by our practice of the sixth perfection, perfection of wisdom, these other five are then empowered to be able to we’re able to remove all the barriers to the limitless deeds of a Bodhisattva. Yeah. We by a Bodhisattva’s altruistic conduct becomes transcendent conduct, transcendent activities. Activities.
What does that mean to say that, you know, the way that the the various activities of a bodhisattva are transcendent activities? That means that due to the influence of wisdom, that, for example, when the bodhisattva practices generosity, generosity, the the Bodhisattva realizes that what are that are what are they called the three spheres. The giver, the practice of giving, and the object of that gift, recipient do not truly exist. So when the Bodhisattva is giving, he’s he’s he is under the influence of wisdom. You know, some people are under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
The Bodhisattva is under the influence of wisdom. And what and what is this wisdom? That that his his own giving, the the giver, the agent of the giving, the actual giving of whatever it might be, and that the person who is receiving or or whoever is receiving do not truly exist. And by the force of that, this understanding that Bodhisattva is able to give without difficulty all his possessions, all his roots of virtue, even and I think literally literally, it’s not figuratively, but literally, his or her own body in limitless ways, at limitless times to limitless sentient beings. If it wasn’t conjoined with wisdom, that understanding of the emptiness of these three spheres, and the giver of giving and the gift, and and the recipient of the gift, he or she wouldn’t be able to do that.
So it is it is the the wisdom which empowers the the the latter the first five perfections. It makes them perfections perfections of generosity, perfections of ethics, and so forth. And it’s due to the the merit of the first five perfections which empower the wisdom consciousness of the Bodhisattva to remove even the subtlest barriers or obstacles to the achievement of Buddhahood. To be able to remove even the subtlest mind obscuration, the the the subtle most obscuration of the mind is only by means of this the you know, it’s like the way it’s sometimes spoken of is that the wisdom is like a rocket. And the merit or the method is the various activities activities motivated by the awakened heart, great compassion, is like the fuel of the rocket.
Together, you can go anywhere. So so we we we are trying to it’s necessary that we work in both of these areas. It’s a combination of these two, method and wisdom, which which totally remove all the barriers obstructing the bodhisattva from achieving the final goal of awakening of buddhahood. There is for the for the for the Bodhisattva, wisdom without method or method without wisdom is is bondage. But but these taken together, practiced together, conjoin together, are able to liberate the totality of this being.
So, you know, they’re like two are like into the wings of a bird, method and wisdom. That we that we in all of our various practices, we have to consider both of these and work and practice them together, work with them together. You know, with these two wings, a bird can fly, not with either one. We’ve got either one is missing. You know, this is the the more profound our wisdom, the more effective and extensive our activities for the benefit of others can be.
Otherwise, we’re like the blind leading the blind, aren’t we? No matter what’s your intention, no matter how much you wanna give, you have to have wisdom. On the other hand, the more our our various activities which are motivated by compassion, the more that the more that they are affected by wisdom, then we can the more penetrating our ability to benefit others can be. The more profound our wisdom, the more effective and extensive our altruistic activities, and the more our deeds are are motivated by great compassion, the more penetrating our wisdom will be. You know, I guess if we put this more simply, we have to have this is what I mentioned previously.
We have to have compassionate minds and loving hearts. We have compassionate minds with wise hearts and try to integrate these two. You know? Then we can be of greatest possibility possible benefit both to ourselves and to others. Okay?
So, anyway, that’s that’s a little bit on on the six perfections because we repeat that often again and again and again, you know, by the practice of generosity of the perfections. May I become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings? So these are the primary practices of Bodhisattva. And within there are the two wings by means at which we can fly across the sea of our troubles and lead others likewise, you know, to that same distance So in this process, the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha. The development of this wisdom, development of love and compassion, the development of some kind of personal power, which is an embodiment of merit, strength, will, effectiveness.
And we translate these in our everyday life into benefiting others or skillfully and fearlessly working with others working with others in order to help them to experience the same as ourselves. And again and trying to raise the level of our motivation such that what we’re doing, we’re not doing just for ourselves alone. I think, you know, I think probably is this idea of development of kind heartedness, you know, be at least being mindful of it is in practically speaking, is one of the best ways we can be kind to ourselves. There are all, you know, we we we are continually trying to find happiness for ourselves. But a great deal of that effort is is probably unproductive in the sense that we don’t see that that a great when our efforts are in becoming completely absorbed and wrapped up in a in finding happiness for ourselves at the exclusion of others, our efforts become self defeating.
We never see that it is seeking happiness for ourselves alone at the exclusion and expense of others that prevents us from ever finding real happiness. So, you know, keeping that in mind, trying to make this one of the one of the practices of mindfulness so we don’t allow ourselves to fall into that trap. It’s the way that we can practically be kind to ourselves, that we can most practically in our everyday life, be most beneficial to ourselves. I go for refuge until I am awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Through my practice of generosity and the other perfections.
May I become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I’m awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha through my practice of generosity and the other perfections. May I become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I’m awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha through my practice of generosity and the other perfections. May I become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings.
May all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. May all sentient beings be inseparable from the joy that is without sorrow. May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free from attachment for some and aversion toward others. If I can stand up for a minute and stretch.
So in in our discussion of the principal aspect of the developing the will to awaken, we’ve been going through the the way to begin to shift the priorities, get ourselves unstuck, and then that was beginning to appreciate appreciate our human life. And that was explained in terms of freedoms and richnesses. So we can meditate on those again in terms of, you know, just trying to relate in term what is most relevant to ourselves at present, you know. In terms of freedom, it’s looking at the situation, you know, counting our blessings. In terms of freedom, looking at the sit our situation from a negative point of view, in terms of what we’re free from.
We’re free from being beggars on the street of of Calcutta. We’re free from being starving in Ethiopia. We’re free from being shot at in Baghdad. You know? We don’t so we don’t we don’t take our life for granted.
Our this life of freedoms and richnesses which we all have. And then we look at the our richnesses, which are looking at our our blessings in terms of the pot from a positive point of view. You know, that that we all have intelligence. We all have a healthy body, a relatively healthy body. We have our material necessities easily met.
So we begin to appreciate what it is we have, so that we value it. If we understand the fact, we will value it. If we value it, that will cause us to that will lead us to act, to make use of it. It’s valuable. You don’t wanna waste it.
So we’ll we’ll we’ll go through those. Okay? And then no. But we’ll just go through those. So take a comfortable, firm posture.
Okay. Important important, you know, maybe putting your feet if you’re sitting in a chair, putting your feet flat on the ground or flat on the cushion, whatever is comfortable, but keeping your back straight. Okay. We’ll begin with by relaxing the body, starting at the crown of your head, scalp, forehead, feeling the wrinkles of your brow smoothing out the tension at the crown of your head, the top of your head, beginning to dissipate, move downward through your body down into the ground. Pressure in and around your eyes beginning to dissipate.
Feeling your facial muscles relaxing, softening, your jaws relax. Moving down to muscles in your neck and perhaps turning your head gently to the side a few times. Relaxing. Softening. Moving down to your shoulders, perhaps rotating your shoulders a few times.
Keeping your back straight, just allowing your shoulders to drop to the sides. Feeling the burdened attention that we carry in our shoulders moving down through your body into the ground. Relaxing your hands. Allow them to go limp. Your lower arms.
Upper armis. The chest is at ease. Letting go of the tension that we hold in our stomach muscles, allowing your belly to become soft. Relaxing throughout the pelvic area. The buttocks.
Relaxing throughout the upper leg. And the lower leg. On your feet. Bring your awareness to your body in general. Notice any tightness, any tensions.
Bring your awareness to those specific spots, those places. Consciously relax, soften, feeling the tightness begin to loosen, the tensions beginning to dissipate. Body becoming relaxed, at ease, comfortable. It’s a nice place to be in your body. And then bring your mind to the breath.
Just the natural, easy, in and out flow of the breath. Now we’re going to meditate on our precious human life, beginning with its freedoms. So what could you do? What what options would be open to you? How could you learn, practice?
If you were a beggar on the streets of Calcutta, having to beg from early morning till night just to get enough to eat for that day? You’re free of that. What could you do? What options are open to you? How could you learn and practice if you were starving in a famine in Ethiopia?
Imagine such a situation. You are free of that. What could you do if you were living in Baghdad? Bombings going off all around you, people dying, people being killed every day. You’re free of that.
What could you do if you’re dying of cancer and pain, weak, frail. You’re free of that. What could you do if you were intellectually impaired? You couldn’t think deeply or clearly. You couldn’t you had difficulty in learning.
You’re free of that. Let’s look at our blessings, our richnesses, all that we, in fact, do have. Do you have a relatively good mind, a good heart? You’re intelligent, kind person. You have relatively healthy body.
You have a full stomach, comfortable, nice clothes, all your material needs are easily met. You live in a peaceful, free country. You can do almost anything that you want. Compared to all the billions and billions of people on this planet, you have something very rare. You have a precious human life.
Something very special. Don’t take it for granted because it’s not going to last last forever. You’re going to die. Ask yourself, what should I do? And try to be open and quiet to an answer.
What should I do? And then bring your mind back to the breath. And get in touch with your body. Notice the feelings, sensations within the body. Then slowly, in an easy, relaxed, gentle manner, become aware of what’s going on about you.
Just take your time. Freedom and richness are hard to find. Life does not last long. Keeping this always in mind will alter the priorities you give to this life. So beginning to create some kind of shift in our priorities.
We try to appreciate this opportunity that our human life presents us so we don’t take it for granted and allow it to be lost because this opportunity is not going to last forever. It’s definite that we’re going to die and we don’t know when. So we began to look at the reality of that that we’re all going to die last week. We’re trying to develop some kind of mindfulness of that fact. You know, it’s it’s becoming mindful of death is is isn’t not is neither just to become conscious of our fears.
In fact, we are afraid of death, which probably most people are. Alright. Not it’s not really simply to overcome our fears around death. So significance of contemplating death is to appreciate our life, thereby to ensure that we don’t we don’t waste our lives. Maybe we so we we don’t we stop postponing, finding out what we really want from our lives, that we don’t compromise our life, and that we don’t whether we don’t allow our lives to be lived in a kind of impotency or inauthenticity or some kind without pettiness to govern our lives.
And so our life simply isn’t a series of events that are trying to bring some kind of meaning, purpose to our lives. So the the purpose of meditating on death is so that we not allow the opportunity of our precious human life to to, like, slip through our fingers. So that, you know, the through laziness or procrastination, you know, that that we can it helps us to keep our priorities straight, beginning to question, what should I do with this life? You know, we live it our way a type of life which is gonna come to an end. It’s going to stop and make it how do we what is the the felt meaning of that fact, that reality of our life?
So we get our priorities straight in our life that we don’t allow the eight worldly concerns to control our lives, to dominate our lives. So that at the time of the death, aren’t so fulfilled with regret and having wasted our lives. Maybe if if we don’t take our lives for granted and to and fail to notice just how valuable our life can be. So a student went to his teacher and asked his teacher, master, how do I prepare for death? And the master answered, learn to live.
How shall I learn to live? Prepare yourself for death. You know, to to to face and take control of our fear around death is to take is to accept to take control of our life, you know, to to accept to accept death is to begin to accept our life, you know, to always keep death before your mind’s eye is always to keep in mind that I’m still alive, to remember what is you uniquely important to each of ourselves. And no one else can live your life for you because no one else is gonna die for you. It’s something that we we can only do for ourselves alone.
There’s a to become aware that that we are still living, and that we should try to live live this life, you know, however however you wish, but at least come to some kind of perspective on it. And it’s a living it’s it’s some kind of fullness of life after the time that we die. However, you wouldn’t know. I wouldn’t want to you know, sort of has to you know, at the end of our during the course of our meditation, what should I do? It’s something that has evoked out of the depth some depth of your own being.
We can’t we can’t look to the outside world, to our parents, to our society, even to our vision religious teachings to help us to derive an answer for ourselves. It is something that we can only answer for ourselves. But it’s worth the question to, you know, to stay with the question in that silence and trying to develop some gut feeling and answer for yourself. Men come and they go and they trot and they dance and never worried about death. All well and good.
Yet when death comes to them, their wives, their children, their friends, catching them unawares and unprepared, then what storms of passion overwhelm them? What cries? What fury? What despair? To begin depriving death of its greatest advantage over us, let us adopt a way clean contrary to that common one.
Let us deprive death of its strangeness. Let us frequent it. Let us get used to it. Let us have nothing more often in mind than death. We don’t we do not know where death awaits us, so let us wait for it everywhere.
To practice death is to practice freedom. A man who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave. The the our death becomes an ally. It’s like we can become our most trusted adviser, our most honest expression of who we are to give us advice. You know, the thing to do when you’re impatient, he proceeded, is to turn your left and ask advice from your death.
An immense amount of pettiness is dropped if your death makes a gesture to you or you catch a glimpse of it or if you just have a feeling that your companion is there watching you. He loaned he leaned over again and whispered in my ear that if I turned to my left suddenly upon seeing his signal, I could again see my death on the boulder. I don’t know if you remember this. This is some books were written by between Carlos Castaneda and Don Juan. His eyes gave an almost imperceptible signal, but I did not dare to look.
I told him that if I believed him, and he did not have to press the issue any any further because I was terrified. He had one of his roaring belly laughs. He replied that the issue of death was never passed pressed far enough, and I argued that it would be meaningless for me to dwell on my death since such thoughts would only bring discomfort and fear. You’re full of crappy, exclaimed. Death is the only wise adviser that we have.
Whenever you feel, as you always do, that everything is going wrong and you’re going about to annihilated, turn to your death and ask it if that is so. Your death will tell you that you’re wrong, that nothing really matters outside that it’s touch. Your death will tell you, I haven’t touched you yet. One of us here has to change and fast. One of us here has to ask death’s advice and drop the cursed pettiness that belongs to men that live their lives as if death will never tap them.
So in in it said the Buddha said that that that all of our that most all of our experiences are filtered through four misperceptions. There’s the the we we perceive the impermanent as permanent. We perceive the impure as pure. We perceive suffering as pleasant, and we perceive the selfless as is it had an independent self. So, you know, we’re here we’re concerned the first of these of these four misperceptions, which most all of our experiences are filtered through.
That is a perceiving the impermanent as permanent as if it were going to remain last forever unchangingly so. The Buddha, he’s he went on to say that that amongst all of these misperceptions, overcoming the first in terms of the impermanence of death is most fundamental. But in being mindful of death, we are primarily interested not in death, but in life and the opportunity it presents us with. So in cultivating a mindfulness of death, paradoxically, we become more conscious of life. So Pabongka Rinpoche, who wrote the commentary to the text that we’re using, the three principal aspects of the path by Tsongkhapa, in his he mentions in his masterwork, Liberation in Our Hands, Pabongka Rinpoche lists six benefits of keeping your mind on death.
Your practice becomes really pure. It gains power. The thought helps you to start practice. They they help you to strive hard during your practice. They help bring your practice to a successful conclusion.
And in the hour of your death, you go with satisfaction for you know you have spent your life meaningfully. So six advantages of being mindful of death. He also lists six problems that come from not keeping your death your mind on death. You you neglect your religious life. You spend all your days in thoughts of what to eat or wear, this life’s distractions.
You consider death occasionally, but always think it will come later and delay your practice. Or you do practice, but for the wrong reasons, with hope of reputation. You practice, but without enthusiasm and drop it after a while. You get deeper into this life. Your attitude gets worse, and life begins hurt you.
And at death, you naturally feel intense regret for you have wasted all your efforts on this present life. So, you know, as I mentioned, as a means of confronting and challenging our misconceptions and misperceptions around death, our grandiose ideals that we have around death. We’re going to make use of of you know, trying to come to some gut feeling about the basic gut reality of our own death and what that means, what that entails, the magnitude of of this coming to an end. You know, we we probably never thought the thought I’m never going to die, but we do have an innate sense that we’re always going to be here. And this this misleads us into just sense of complacency.
We don’t make use of our life on the basis of that innate sense that we’re always going to be here. We have we have enough time. We can always put it off till later. So in this nine-round death meditation, we’re going to go through three roots. Each of those three roots has three supporting reasons.
And through each of those three supporting reasons, we’re going to come to three conclusions. We’re gonna have a conclusion. So three roots, each having three supporting reasons, bringing about three determinations, some kind of conclusion that we come to. Okay. So the first of the three the three roots is that death is inevitable.
Or we could say death is definite. The first of the three roots, which the first of the three reasons which support this first root is that everyone must die. Okay? And and, you know, again, this might sound simple minded, but we it’s important that we go through it, and it’s important important that you go through it within your own meditation, within your own practice to in order to overcome. You know, it’s a matter of understanding that there is a discrepancy or that there’s a disparity between our our rational thought processes, the way we think about things, and the way that we emotionally relate.
This innate sense that we have in this context, the fact that we’re always going to be here in one way or another. We won’t think that I’m never going to die rationally, intellectually, but we behave. We we emotionally respond and react in a way to life as if we’re always going to be here. So we have to we have to become aware of the sense of how we’re holding ours onto ourself as being permanent and begin to challenge that. You know, it’s not it’s not the reality of our situation.
And as I try to emphasize, the price of unreality, the price of vanity is suffering. That Buddhist practice, Buddhist therapy is truth therapy. This is truth which is ultimately going to make us free. And this is a very basic truth that we have to come to. And then this is going to help us to energize ourselves to get unstuck These out of these these compulsive patterns which much which govern our life.
It’s hard to break our habits and our ways of thinking and behaving, And we it takes a really real determination. If you value your life, you won’t take it for granted, and we’ll make use of it. And if you know this life isn’t going and moreover, this life that we value so much isn’t going to last forever, we’re going to determine to make that bring about those changes now to begin the the type of life that we want to lead now to try to find some of the answers to these most profound of questions now because we don’t know how long we have. That’s our reality. The the other is fantasy.
It’s just simply not correct. We don’t so we don’t draw ourselves into a sense of complacency. But even if we want to practice, we can always practice. There’s there’s a saying the that the the today of your of your death will come before the tomorrow of your when you were going to practice, begin your practice. You know, which is going to come first.
So everyone must die. Kings, presidents, philosophers, writers, musicians, saints, criminals, laborers, students, farmers, secretaries, salespeople, bus drivers, Buddha students, unemployed. Anyway, you find yourself in there somewhere. They they all are going to die. You know?
What’s so special about you that you think you’re not going to die? What’s so special about me? You know? They are all these people, they they they these kings, they rule, the writers, they wrote, philosophers, they philosophize, and salespeople, they sell things, and all the all the various things that that that people do in the course of their everyday lives That and finally, they died. No matter how wealthy, no matter how powerful, no matter how famous, no matter how sincere, no matter how strong, no matter how pious, how how devious, how how inconspicuous you try to make in your like, if I just hide away in this corner, one will notice me.
I can I can escape death somehow or another? You know, even, you know, president Bush can’t order death to go away. He can’t do much of anything, I think. Mhmm. No soldier’s army can overcome death.
No no no rich man’s wealth can buy off death. No scholar’s brilliance can outthink death. And, no athlete can outrun, outswim death, whatever it might. Yeah. You know?
No. No. No matter how beautiful you are, you’re not going to somehow captivate, enchant death so that it will go it won’t bother you, it won’t hurt you, it won’t it will go away. No matter what your charms are, no matter how clever you are, how much money, whatever it is that that you feel is going for yourself, it won’t work. You know, since the beginning of life on this earth, you know, we this single-cell organisms, they evolved into, you know, the fish.
Fish developed into amphibians. Amphibians developed into mammals, then finally, eventually, humans began to evolve. And then all all, you know, all all the billions upon billions of men and women that have inhabit the earth since then up up to now. They’ve all you know, they they each of them was born, each of but each of them died. They they they died because they were born.
So what is so different about each of ourselves? What distinguishes us from them? All billions of life forms which have evolved up on the earth and then have lived up to this present time. They all were born and then they all died. What what what is so different about us?
And in all the billions of all the billions of people that are living on the planet, when we share this planet with their present. You know, the the we all feel some kind of uniqueness about ourselves. And then you’re over there, you’re over there, you’re over there, I’m here There’s always this sense of uniqueness about ourselves. In fact, perhaps we’re all unique in that way. Yet a hundred years from now, all these people will feel so they’re they’re so unique.
And they will all without exception, they will die. They will all be dead. This you know, though we all feel so unique, this is our shared reality. There’s nothing unique about it that we’re all going to die. You know, know, there’s a story about a meditator who was living in in the mountains, say, in Tibet.
And he he went to visit his teacher, and he say he asked his teacher he was quite concerned about his death and eventual eventual death. And he says to his teacher, do me a favor. When you when you know of the approach of my death, will you let me know? Okay. So he went back to his retreat cave.
He was he was meditating, meditating, and he got a message one day. And the message said, oh, there was a villager to the north died today. Okay? And the meditator didn’t take any particular notice of it. He went on meditate, carrying on his practice, and so forth.
And a few days later, another message came and he said, a villager to the south died today. Okay. It’s too bad people died. And he went on meditating, carrying on his practice. And after a few days, another message came that a villager to the west died today.
Another few days in the villager to the east died today. And he didn’t take any particular notice of any of those messages. And then only a few days after that, he himself became terminally ill. He became extremely sick. He became deathly ill.
And he he sent for his teacher and asked him to come. And his teacher came and he said, you know, here I here I am. Here I am by dying. And I ask you when you that when you knew of the approach of my death that you let me know. And and this teacher said, I did not I did exactly as you asked.
I sent you four messages. So, you know, the point is that when we hear that about the death of another, that should be that should serve that should be sufficient to serve as a warning to ourselves as well that we too shall die. You know? When we that the bill tolls also for ourselves. So everyone must die.
All things come to an end. Coming together is the beginning of dispersion. Okay. So we okay. So, anyway, we’ll continue with this nine-round death meditation.
So let’s dedicate the positive energy that we created together. You know, someone I think someone someone mentioned last week that oh, and what the real talk about? This isn’t meant to depress you. Talk about it. May all beings everywhere plagued by suffering of body and mind attain an ocean of happiness and joy by virtue of my merits.
May no living creatures suffer, commit evil, or fall ill. May no one be afraid or belittled with a mind weighed down by depression. May the blind see forms and deaf hear sounds. May those whose bodies are warm with toil be restored upon finding repose. May the naked find clothing, the hungry find food.
May the thirsty find water and delicious drink. May the poor find wealth, those weak with grief find joy. May the forlorn find hope, constant happiness, and prosperity. May there be timely rains and bountiful harvest. May all medicines be effective and wholesome prayers bear fruit.
May all who are sick and ill quickly be freed from their ailments. Whatever diseases there are in the world, may they never occur again. May the frightened cease to be afraid and those bound be freed. May the powers find power, and may people think of benefiting each other. Through these skillful actions, may I quickly become an awakened spiritual master and lead each and every living being to that awakened realm through the supreme jewel of the three principal aspects of the path. May those that have not arisen, arise and grow.
And those that have arisen, may they never diminish but increase more and more. In the land and circled by snow mountains, you are the source of all happiness and well-being. Powerful Chenrezig, Tenzin Gyatso, please remain until the end of cyclic existence. Thank you.