Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute session, Ven Jampa Ignyen moves into the Great Scope of the Lamrim, having completed the small and intermediate scopes. Great Scope centers on bodhicitta—the aspiring enlightenment mind grounded in great compassion—and begins by confronting self-cherishing, the deep-rooted self-focused tendency that blocks its development. He traces the logical connection between the three scopes, then introduces Pabongka Rinpoche’s systematic presentation of ten benefits from generating bodhicitta: becoming a child of the victors, outshining liberated beings, rapidly purifying past negative actions, accumulating merit, accomplishing virtuous wishes, overcoming hindrances, completing the entire path, and becoming a source of happiness for all. Understanding these benefits through reflection and discussion helps weaken self-cherishing’s grip. Pitched at practitioners already familiar with Lamrim’s foundational practices.
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File: 05 2001 08 09 LR.mp3
UUID: ab23425e-1d48-42e9-b10c-c6ad13235f11
Teacher: Ven Jampa Ignyen
Collection: y Lam Rim 2001 Month 07-09 (Ven Jampa Ignyen)
Date: 2001-08-09
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.1 minutes
Words: ~4,592
So this term we’re starting with the great scope practices, having investigated the small scope and the intermediate scope. So, really, we should have a good idea now what the small scope is and what the scope practices are. Because it’s only on the basis of understanding what those two scopes are, what those two types of practice are, that it’s possible to generate the great scope. And the great scope gets its name from the great vehicle. And the great vehicle gets its name because of great compassion.
So, this practice, the practice of the great scope beings is really found within great compassion. So, essence, the practice of the great scope is the practice of great compassion. And it’s great compassion that is something that marks the practice of the great scope in the beginning, in the middle, in the end. It’s the mark of entering a great scope practice. It’s the mark of maintaining the great scope practices.
And it’s the mark of It’s also there at the completion of great scope practice. So really it’s a common theme that pervades the great scope. It’s a great scope because it’s a type of practice that includes the great multitude of beings within its sphere, within its view. So therefore it’s great scope. But in order to generate great compassion, one needs to have an understanding of the intermediate scope, which is what we were dealing with last term.
And of course, those are the practices which deal with how we get beyond all the limitations we experience as a human being or as a sentient being in general. And really without understanding those limitations, it’s not possible to generate great compassion. Because great compassion can only be generated when one comprehends what saṃsāra is. And that saṃsāra exists for myself as well as every other sentient being. And understanding saṃsāra itself depends on initially gaining an understanding of what the lower scope practices are, deal with the limitations of the lower migrations, such as rebirth in hell and so forth.
All of these practices then depend on having a degree of conviction in the law of cause and effect. Conviction in the fact that we take rebirth many times over. In fact, they’re based on an understanding or an acceptance of rebirth. In fact, if one doesn’t accept rebirth, then even being a practitioner on the lowest level is not possible. So these three scopes go together.
They’re like a package of practices that reinforce each other. So really in studying the great scope, it’s necessary to study the intermediate scope and the lower scope. Although we have a tendency to want to just go to the great scope, still they rest on the foundation of the earlier practices. Rest on the foundation of understanding what saṃsāra is, being able to pinpoint what saṃsāra is, and then see what the disadvantages of the state of saṃsāra are. If we don’t see those disadvantages, then the thought of getting beyond saṃsāra simply does not arise.
At present, it’s very difficult for us to see the disadvantages of saṃsāra. Our attachment is very strong to saṃsāra. And our appreciation of the faults of saṃsāra is very weak. It tends to be quite superficial. So in order to generate great compassion, we need to reflect on saṃsāra and the nature of saṃsāra.
And to be able to pinpoint what saṃsāra is again. So it’s these three scopes which are very important. And in fact, this came up in the Three Principal Aspects of the Path. There was a statement there by Sakia Pandita, who was a great master within the Sakya tradition who lived in the thirteenth century, twelfth and thirteenth centuries. And he wrote about the four lines.
And that came about because when he was about twelve years old, from quite a young age he had a deep interest in the practice of Dharma. And he went into retreat when he was quite young, around the age of twelve. He was in retreat for some months. After which he had this vision of Mañjuśrī. And Mañjuśrī appeared to him and told him, gave him this particular teaching, which was that if we have longing for this life, there’s no practice of Dharma.
If we have longing for the three realms, there is no renunciation. If we have longing for our own purpose, there is no bodhicitta. If we engage in grasping at a self, we do not have the view. So in a sense that summarizes all of Lamrim. So what of those four lines, we’re really now dealing with the third line.
If we long for our own particular purpose, we don’t have bodhicitta. If we long, in other words, if we have self-cherishing, then bodhicitta is not possible, nor again is great compassion. But even prior to that, we need to overcome longing for existence in the three realms. And also we need to overcome longing for this life. Existence in this life, longing for all the, all the things that we’re attached to in this life.
So even that is difficult to overcome. Of course, we’re attached to many things in this life. So it’s not easy even to be a practitioner on the least level. But still, gradually through investigating these issues, it’s possible. Because it’s possible to develop these practices as they have been developed in the past.
In fact, all the practitioners in the past have generated these practices. And they began in much the same state that we exist in now. So it is possible. The reason that it’s possible is that these practices simply reflect the fact of things as they actually are. And when we come to understand that, then we simply act in that way because we realize that’s the fact.
That’s just things as they are. So when we come to understand the faults of our current life, we begin to overcome our longing for trying to achieve everything, or try to or just focus on this one life in order to establish our happiness. When we begin to understand what this life is, then that quite naturally, the longing for this life will fall away. And when we really begin to examine our existence in the three realms of existence and see what the bottom line is, what the actual fact of the matter is, then longing for existence in the three realms will simply fall away. And then when we see the faults of just seeking our own purpose, When we really investigate the matter, find the actual fact, how things actually are, then simply being focused on our own particular purpose will also fade away.
So we do need to develop gradually investigation of these issues, because ultimately what we want is simply the fact of how things are. We don’t want to add anything more to our preconceptions about how things are. We already have enough preconceptions. When we look around the world, when we look at others, when we experience various things, already there there’s an ocean of preconceptions ready to interpret this and that, that we’ve acquired from here and acquired from there. And most of what we’ve acquired in this way is not very accurate.
In fact, lot of it is completely wrong. A lot of the impressions we have of ourselves and the world are misconceptions. But it takes time to examine these. But when we see something to be a misconception, we give it up straight away. But we do need to examine these issues.
So right now we’re starting with the great scope practices. The practices on a bodhisattva. Bodhisattva simply means enlightenment mind. So a bodhisattva is someone who has bodhicitta, which is enlightenment mind. Bodhisattva is enlightenment being.
So enlightenment mind simply refers to, there’s a statement in the work by Maitreya called the ornament of realization, where it says, which is, the awakening mind, which means bodhicitta, is desiring to attain the state of highest enlightenment for the purpose of other beings. So the brief definition of what bodhicitta is, is this awareness or this type of awareness which aspires or desires to attain enlightenment in order to for the purpose of other beings. Though in many texts, this type of mind is likened to a jewel, a wish fulfilling gem. Something that’s very precious that is able to eliminate all one’s sufferings and all other the sufferings of all other beings as well. And there’s nothing more valuable, more precious, more useful, more practical, more essential then to develop this type of mind.
The root of that mind is great compassion. That also comes from Candrakīrti who said that. The root of bodhicitta is great compassion. And great compassion rises by simply understanding simply understanding the fact of how people exist, how humans, how sentient beings in general exist. Because bodhicitta itself is a mind that comprehends its object.
So therefore it’s based on a valid assessment of the way things actually are. If we understood, in other words, if we understand how things exist and we overcome self-cherishing, then bodhicitta is inevitable. Developing bodhicitta or the mind of enlightenment is inevitable. At present, we have some resistance to developing this type of mind. And that’s through various reasons, but predominantly it’s through having self-cherishing.
And again, cherishing is simply the mind that, or the type of awareness that focuses on our own importance to the exclusion of other beings. It just regards ourselves as important and does not regard other beings as important. Admittedly, we do have a certain level of importance. Each individual being does have a measure of importance. So self-cherishing is not regarded as a right type of awareness.
However, it does obstruct us from developing a sense of concern for other beings. Because it’s a very self centered attitude that simply focuses on our own importance. And this we have at present. And it’s this type of mind that’s always nudging us when an opportunity to help others arises. Oh, what am I gonna get out of it?
Is it gonna benefit me? And so on. All the resistance we have to generating compassion is linked to this self-cherishing. And so it becomes it’s not easy to overcome. We haven’t overcome it.
From a Buddhist perspective, from beginning this time, we’ve had self-cherishing up until the present moment. And we’ve never overcome it. We haven’t discovered a reason why we should overcome it, why we should try and oppose it. But here in the text of Pabongka, then he starts in this section to give to list a number of reasons why we should begin to oppose self-cherishing, why we do need bodhicitta. So we need many reasons.
In fact, we need to discuss this issue at great length. Because it’s actually through investigating this issue from many different perspectives that it’s possible to begin to dislodge self-cherishing. Otherwise self-cherishing is so deeply embedded within us that we don’t have a chance. You know, as soon as we start to think about others, self-cherishing attitude is going to tell us, oh, why bother? What are you going to get out of it?
Is there anything in there for you? Ah, you know, you’ll help them now and then, you know, ten minutes time they’ll start criticizing you. Know, think about yourself here. This attitude is virtually ever present for us. So it’s not easy to dislodge it.
Been there for a long time. But the gateway to the great vehicle is through overcoming self-cherishing. There’s no other way. So initially in this section, Pabongka Rinpoche then talks or gives the heading, teaching that the development of bodhicitta is the solid or the sole gateway to the great vehicle and teaching its benefits as well. And then in this first section, then Pabongka Rinpoche then starts to give reasons why we should start to consider the great vehicle and this mind of bodhicitta, how beneficial it is for us to generate bodhicitta.
And of course we do need a lot of encouragement because otherwise we might be enthusiastic in the beginning, but then, you know, after a few days or a few weeks and someone will start to run out of steam. And I think, God, you know, I’ve been doing this for one month, two months, and I’m nothing out of this. What’s the payoff? What am I gonna get? People don’t seem to be treating me any better.
I seem to be better off before when I just thought about myself at least, you know, so on. So we need in the beginning to develop as much enthusiasm, inspiration as we can, It will carry us through those dark nights when this self concern is very strong and we’d want to put aside any practice of developing compassion. Already we have that, already have great resistance to generating compassion. But we can generate compassion to one or two beings maybe. Those ones that are, you that we get on well with, that we like.
But beyond that it’s not so easy. But this we need to do. So under this heading, then Pabongka Rinpoche gives ten subheadings, and it may be useful just to read them out. Firstly, he states, teaching that the only way to enter the great vehicle is to develop bodhicitta. Anyway, some of these terms are gonna sound strange, enter the great vehicle.
What does that mean? Bodhicitta itself sounds a little bit odd as a term, But it’s become sort of common to use this Sanskrit term. What it means is just mind of enlightenment. But we do need to be comfortable with these terms as well. Otherwise the terms begin to get in the road.
We start to stumble over them and we run out of patience and might go off and do something else instead. And that would be a pity because the words are there really to hold up the meaning, not to get in our way. And so we stumble over them. And then secondly, you gain the name, the child of the victors or the child of the conquerors. By training in the great vehicle, one gains the name of the child of the victors.
Three, you outshine the hearers and the solitary realizers. Are these terms okay? Sounds a bit strange, doesn’t it? Anyway, four, you become the supreme object of offering. By generating great compassion and bodhicitta, one becomes a supreme object of offering.
Doesn’t sound too bad. But even self-cherishing would start to come, would be interested in that option. You amass an enormous accumulation of merit with ease. That doesn’t sound too bad. In a way, almost as if we’ve got to trick self-cherishing into beginning these practices.
And then gradually lessen our self-cherishing until it fades away. Five, are Six, you rapidly purify sins and obscurations. Oh, there’s another advantage. We can rapidly purify this vast accumulation of negative actions that we have. The seen and the unseen accumulation of negative actions.
Everyone has an accumulation of negative actions, true? Actually, we don’t fully see the accumulation of negative actions. Where is that accumulation of negative actions? Sorry? Absolutely, where’s that?
In our mind our mind stream. Where’s our mind stream? Well, that mind stream, we could say, is saṃsāra. Where’s our mind stream? It’s within the aggregates, within our body.
Where’s the seed of the mind? The heart. Often said to be two finger widths to the right of the center of our chest. It’s said to be the seed of consciousness there. In fact, the seed of consciousness is wherever If we point to ourselves, where do we point?
Yeah, that point is said to be the seed of consciousness. In a way, that’s where our accumulation of negative actions exists. I don’t think we can do or we can eliminate those accumulations through an operation either. And the heart transplant wouldn’t take care of it. But by developing great compassion, it’s possible to purify that negative accumulation.
Seven, you accomplish whatever you wish to accomplish. So whatever we want to accomplish, providing it’s a virtuous wish, a positive wish. Perhaps even negative wishes can be accomplished. One accomplishes whatever one wishes. And the eighth here, you are not bothered by harm and hindrances.
One overcomes all obstacles and hindrances. And nine, you soon complete the entire path in its levels. And ten, you become a fertile source of every happiness for other beings. In other words, one becomes a conducive condition for others to be happy. So these ten benefits occur from generating bodhicitta.
So then we need to investigate, do we want these ten benefits? No problem. If we don’t want those sorts of benefits, then of course the way we proceed is up to ourselves. But these types of advantage are established through generating great compassion. So then, Pabongka Rinpoche goes on to explain these ten in some more detail.
And the first point again is teaching that the only way to enter the great vehicle is to develop bodhicitta. Now, again, the great vehicle is a vehicle that has the capacity to carry all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. So therefore it’s a great vehicle. The gateway to that great vehicle is great compassion. One enters that gateway via the path of great compassion.
There’s no other gateway of doing it. No other means by which one can do it. So this is as Nāgārjuna has stated in the precious Garland, if you desire supreme enlightenment for yourself and the world, know that the root is bodhicitta and that bodhicitta is as firm as Mount Meru, the king of mountains. So again, simply that the gateway to enlightenment. Also, we wish to attain enlightenment, it’s through great compassion, it’s through developing bodhicitta.
So then also, if we have a great, if we’re already interested in attaining enlightenment, then we take interest inevitably in generating great compassion. But if we’re in doubt about whether we want enlightenment or not, then we’re probably in doubt about whether we want great compassion or not. But no problem, those doubts can be very useful. And in fact, we should investigate those doubts. And those doubts are always rising.
Do I really need this? Is this really a benefit to me? And so on. All manner of doubts. Can I do it in another way?
And so on. Do I want enlightenment? What is enlightenment? And so on. Various doubts do arise beyond our control.
We can’t just say, I wish I had no doubts and they all disappear. We don’t have any control over them. One minute we’re we fully accept something, ten minutes later, oh, we have a doubt about it. So these occur all the time. Having doubts is just a natural process of existence, but it’s very good to investigate our doubts.
And when they arise, to think them through, not prejudge our doubts, but examine what the doubt is about and test it. Because unless we overcome the doubt, that will remain there. But we need a certain amount of patience because many doubts may take time to overcome, But until they’re overcome, they remain there. So we need a certain amount of patience. And that’s one reason why discussing these issues is very, very important.
Because it’s through discussing these issues, like here we have, you know, with a group here, there’s enough wisdom in a group to overcome many of the doubts that we have. If we pool our resources and discuss these issues, then many of the doubts that we have be crystallized. We can gain a clear understanding of them. And often in just understanding what the doubt is, is enough to eliminate it. It’s almost as if you know the question that you need to ask, then you’re not far from, we’re not far from getting the answer or developing an answer for that.
So initially as Pabongka Rinpoche states, gateway to the great vehicle, the gateway to the state of highest enlightenment is through great compassion. Anyway, at present, we can just store that, put that information to one side and just examine it. Is that true or not? Is that the fact? Then through developing great compassion and bodhicitta, we become what are called children of the victors.
A victor is a Buddha. So a child of the Buddhas. And as it said in Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds, from the moment pathetic beings trapped in Samsāra’s prison develop bodhicitta, they are given the name children of the thus gone ones. They become children of the Buddhas. At present, we’re probably more children of the Lord of death.
But when one generates great compassion, one becomes a child of the Buddhas themselves, a child of the perfectly compassionate ones. So it’s important that we think of this because it’s really through great compassion. And in fact, the Buddhas themselves have taught in the past in order to awaken, awaken the state of great compassion in beings, in order to awaken beings to the need to generate great compassion. They have gone to great lengths to teach about this, to They’ve taken rebirth on earth. They’ve taught for, you know, wandered around India, taught extensively here and there in order to awaken people’s interest in great compassion.
And when beings actually develop great compassion, they are overjoyed. They rejoice. And they rejoice in the fact that actually this, someone has developed this mind. So the purpose is fulfilled when that happens, even if it’s just one person. It’s said that the Buddha’s universally rejoice that they’re a child of the conquerors has been born at that place, at that time.
It’s even said that the earth moves and shakes when that happens. Because the earth, as Pabongka points out, the earth itself is a product of the collective karma of beings that exist here. The physical earth comes about through the collective actions of beings in the past. And when a being generates great compassion, great compassion is the seed for overcoming the whole contaminated universe. So when that happens, the universe shakes a little bit.
Because the very seed for going beyond, for transcending the mundane world has been developed. So one attains the name of the child of the conquerors by generating bodhicitta. So then the third advantage here is, now this is a very traditional presentation. And perhaps some of these advantages may not interest us a great deal. No problem.
This is a very traditional presentation. Now the next one is you outshine the hearers and the solitary realizers. When a being generates great compassion, and from that great compassion they generate bodhicitta, They even outshine liberated beings, beings who have actually gone to the very end of suffering. So, of course, a liberated being is a profound being. Someone that through their meditation, through their practice, they’ve been able to establish the truth of cessation of all suffering.
They’ve been able to completely purify themselves of all afflictive obscurations. They’ve been able to completely destroy the foundation of all contamination. They’ve been able to establish the the mind of which is pacified and pure, and in which no feelings of suffering or negative feelings whatsoever ever again arise. They have great wisdom, great they have compassion and love for all sentient beings. A liberated being is a being who is worthy of respect and have qualities that are very difficult to enumerate.
There’s not many liberated beings around. We walk down the street, we probably don’t run into any. If we did, we would be, and if we had the eye to notice, we would be very impressed. And this is said from the time of the Buddha that disciples of the Buddha who were liberated, of course, would be, wander around India, and they were very impressive. Because they’re beings who are completely tamed.
They don’t have any suffering within their continuum, not even in the slightest amount. They have great patience, insight, compassion, love, all the virtuous qualities they’ve established. They have, and of course, have no dissatisfaction, no suffering in the least, which is, of course, a great and profound thing to establish. And we don’t see this often. There’s not many beings that attain this level.
And in fact, if we did see beings on this level, we would tend to be very impressed. See someone whose faculties are completely tamed. They’ve mastered themselves completely. And there are numerous men and women in the past that have achieved this level, And they’re called foe destroyers. Enemy destroyers, because they destroy the internal enemy of all the afflictions and sufferings that we experience at present.
Completely destroy them. But someone who generates great compassion outshines such being, such a being. Even an ordinary being who generates great compassion outshines a fully liberated being. So as it said in one sūtra, as the jewels from the ocean outshine all the baubles of the southern continent, those who develop bodhicitta in their mind streams outshine the whole group of hearers and solitary realizers. Okay, what are these terms hearer and solitary realizer?
A hearer is one who gains liberation by sitting and listening to the teachings of someone. And whatever is said to them, they go and they practice until they establish that. And they go back for more instruction. Someone who’s hearing instruction and establishing that instruction, they’re hearers. And they require for their development to be in the presence of a realized master.
From their own side, their own steam, they can’t do it. A solitary realizer is someone who has sharper faculties than that, a clearer mind, who’s able to develop the state of liberation without depending on a teacher in that life. So they’re called solitary realizers because they realize nirvana in a solitary fashion without depending on a teacher. So both hearers and solitary realizers refer to liberated beings. One attains liberation by listening to the direct instruction, the oral instruction, for instance, of a Buddha.
And a solitary realizer at any time is able through their past accumulation of merit to take rebirth on earth, for instance. And by those past accumulations of merit are able simply to meditate and attain a state of liberation. But someone who generates great compassion and then bodhicitta outshines those liberated beings. It’s also said in a text called Madhyamakāvatāra. In the beginning it talks about the difference between Buddhas and bodhisattvas and hearers and solitary realizers.
Sorry, there’s a few term. Anyway, we’ll get used, I think, to these terms. There are a few terms there. It said that hearers and Pratyekabuddhas are born of the Buddhas. Meaning that they gain their realization through contact with a Buddha.
A hearer becomes liberated through listening to the instruction of a Buddha. And a solitary realizer in a previous life through contact with a Buddha is able in a future life to generate liberation by themselves. But they’re both born from the instruction of a Buddha. Buddhas are born from bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas are born from great compassion.
So in fact, what is stating there is that all realizations are born from great compassion. In fact, every positive anything positive within the universe is generated from great compassion. In fact, anything positive within our own continuum is generated by great compassion.