Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 24.7-minute teaching, Ven Jampa Ignyen works through Pabongka Rinpoche’s six causes and one result—the framework for generating bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment. He opens with concrete examples: reflecting on the suffering of animals in slaughterhouses, contemplating the kindness of one’s mother and relatives, extending that recognition to all sentient beings. He then systematically covers each cause: immeasurable equanimity, remembering all beings as one’s mother, reflecting on their kindness, cultivating love and great compassion, and the sixth cause—superior intention, a commitment to attain Buddhahood oneself in order to liberate all beings. Only a Buddha, Pabongka emphasizes, possesses the unrestricted capacity to help others. The teaching concludes with practical guidance: move slowly through these meditations with a beginner’s mind free from preconceptions, as rushing only creates strain. For practitioners with foundational Lamrim knowledge.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 11 2001 08 23 LR.mp3
UUID: 562c0f5d-98e6-4701-b4f8-57d9137404dc
Teacher: Ven Jampa Ignyen
Collection: y Lam Rim 2001 Month 07-09 (Ven Jampa Ignyen)
Date: 2001-08-23
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 24.7 minutes
Words: ~2,543
First thing in the morning, you know, a bit cold sitting on the branch or or whatever. It might be cows. It might be cats. It might be mice or whatever. But one can skillfully find those areas where one has a degree of empathy for beings and develop that.
Extend that to all beings. All beings have been in that situation in the past. Has anyone been to a slaughter yard and seen animal slaughter? Yeah. It’s pretty horrific when but whatever means by whatever means, then we should contemplate compassion for other beings.
By whatever means works for us. In India, we used go to the market, and next to the market, there was a place where goats were slaughtered. And that was quite horrific. We just cut their throats and leave them. And As much as possible, if we can think about those beings and what they’re undergoing and just how they feel in that situation, then that’s useful for developing compassion.
And then we can then meditate also on other objects. For instance, meditate on the compassion for our mother in this life. Having a feeling for our mother in this life and then thinking about all the actions that our mother has done in this life that are negative. And that then the suffering that will be undertaken because of those negative actions committed by our mother in this life and develop compassion for our mother. And then of our relations and so forth.
Here in this section, Pabongka Rinpoche is simply going through different strategies on how to generate compassion. Thinking about our relatives, in fact, we may not have much contact with our relatives. Actually, in Tibet, people perhaps it was more a traditional society, and one’s family and family group were perhaps more important than they are in the West. But here, as he says, think about our relatives and the efforts they undergo to earn a living, all the negative they commit in earning a living, and then the suffering that they will undergo because of those negative actions, and so on in the lower realms. And then extend that contemplation to all sentient beings that at present are committing negative actions, and because of those negative actions, then suffering will ensue.
Really, in a way, we’ve got to soften the hardness of our current state of mind. Our mind at present, of course, is not very pliable, and it’s not so easy to see or to put ourselves in other’s shoes. But this we need to do as much as possible. So then in in investigating different ways to generate compassion, then we especially for those that one’s near to, like one’s mother, one’s relatives, friends, and so on, then we take a harder, the more difficult object such as beings who who exist within cyclic existence, such as Brahma, who in fact are living as deities where there’s little suffering and not even the word suffering exists. But we need to develop compassion for them equally because in future they will experience suffering.
So we need to include every being in the universe without exception in our field. And to do this then, if we then contemplate on the intermediate scope practices, which deals with the suffering of the beings of the three higher types, then by contemplating that type of suffering, can develop compassion for beings in the god realms and so on. So here we’re trying to generate a thought that may other beings be free of suffering. That is actually conditioned by the first four causes. It’s a special type of compassion.
It’s not the compassion that we have at present. We have a certain degree of limited compassion which looks at others in certain circumstances and is quite limited. We need to extend this type of compassion to all sentient beings. But then as Pabongka Rinpoche states that the compassion wanting all sentient beings to be free of suffering, however, is not the great compassion that is meant here because that type of compassion is also possessed by liberated beings. And as Pabongka says, only the compassion of actually wishing to save sentient beings from their suffering is exclusive to the great vehicle.
So it’s it’s not only having the wish that they be free of suffering, but also the thought, the aspiration to save them from this suffering is necessary in order for it to be great compassion. So we should develop this later time. So by whatever means we can, we should generate compassion towards other beings. And then if we can develop it in one method towards one being, then we can extend it to every other sentient being, simply reflecting that all other beings have lived in this way in the past or have existed as sheep in the past or and so on. And as Pabongka says, still these are hard things to develop and we must work very hard indeed at these techniques.
If you have had a serious illness in the past, when you see people with that same sickness, you will feel compassion for them since you have gone through the same thing yourself. So it should also be easy to develop compassion after some excellent meditation on the sufferings of saṃsāra and the lower realms that you yourself have to undergo as described in the small and medium scopes. So in a sense, we’re transferring the experience of our own suffering to other beings. We’re extending the understanding of what we experience as suffering both now and in future to other beings, and therefore developing compassion. But as Pabongka Rinpoche says, it’s not easy.
So as Pabongka then continues, love through the force of compassion, through the force of attraction, so strong that it makes you cherish sentient beings and hold them dear, is as much a form of love as the love that wishes them happiness. In other words, there’s various forms of love. This love here, which is the fourth cause, is love just as any other type of love that wishes other beings happiness. However, this general the love that occurs for us from time to time is a general form of love, whereas the love which is the fourth cause here is a very specific type of love because it’s conditioned by the first three causes. So again, what’s being said again is that when we’re studying the six causes and one result, these form a special a causal series that sets them aside from other states of equanimity or love and compassion and so on.
And we need to understand this special relationship that these causes have to one another. Right. So then the next one is what what is the sixth cause. So the fifth cause was great compassion. Now the sixth cause, the last of the six, is here called altruism or superior intention, lhag sam rnam dag.
Lhag sam in Tibetan, it’s lhag sam rnam dag. Lhag sam means superior or excelling thought. Rnam dag is pure, means pure or purified. So it’s the pure excelling thought, superior thought, pure, superior thought.
And as Pabongka Rinpoche says, you have a responsibility towards your mother. Likewise, you should take responsibility for relieving all sentient beings of their suffering and make them happy. You should resolve that you yourself will lead them to Buddhahood. What this thought is, is this thought that it goes beyond great compassion, goes beyond great love for other sentient beings, for all other sentient beings. It’s this thought, this state of mind, which thinks I myself cannot wait for Just having this aspiration that other beings be happy, that they be free of suffering is good, but it’s not actually achieving the result.
Just having that aspiration, having that intense wish of great compassion is not actually achieving the result. At this point, one really having that very strong motivation that’s spontaneous and manifest within one’s continuum, no matter where one observes other beings, one has this spontaneous and strong compassion that they be free of suffering, that they be completely free of all their suffering, both now and in the future. But still having that strong compassion is not actually doing anything for that being. That being is still suffering. Then one examines, what can I do?
What can possibly be done to actually free that being from their current state? That being and every other being. And therefore, one in that stage then looks, what is the state? And then one observes that it’s only the state of Buddhahood which possesses the perfection of wisdom and compassion and potency, those three, in which one has the absolutely unhindered capacity to eliminate the sufferings of sentient beings. And then one observes, is it possible to attain such a state?
Can I do it? And as one observes whether one has the potential to do so, which is really observing that one has Buddha nature, that one has the potential to become a Buddha, one actually has that at the present moment. And it’s only that state in which the benefit of beings, the goal of beings, the wishes of other beings can be established. And that one realizes that just by having the wish that other beings be free of suffering is not going to establish their purpose, then one develops the sixth cause, which is this cause of the superior thought or the superior intention that I myself will attain the state of Buddhahood in order to liberate, free every sentient being from every limitation, every suffering whatsoever. So this sixth one, he called altruism or a special intention.
Then goes beyond even great compassion. Being motivated by great compassion, one then develops this special intention, this superior intention through seeing the potential that one has to generate the state of a Buddha, which is the only state in which which can actually liberate other beings from suffering. It is the supreme state in which that is possible. Even though bodhisattvas have some degree of potential to do that, it’s only a Buddha that has the full unrestricted capacity to help other beings. So those are the six causes.
So first, have really, the preliminary is immeasurable equanimity, then realizing all sentient beings have been one’s mother, thinking about their kindness, the kindness of all mother sentient beings, repaying the kindness of all mother sentient beings, great love, generating great love for all sentient beings, beings, then generating great compassion for all sentient beings, and then generating altruism or this superior intention to attain the state of Buddhahood. So those six, they’re very important. Those are the six causes. They produce bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment as the result. So as Pabongka Rinpoche then continues, after taking on this responsibility, so after having taken on the sixth cause or the superior intention, In this stage, then, Pabongka goes on with a description of just how a Buddha only a Buddha is fully capable of achieving the purpose of sentient beings.
They are incomparable in their capacity to do that. And at that stage, before one generates the state of bodhicitta, one generates this bodhicitta-like sugarcane, which is almost the state of bodhicitta, almost has has the essence of bodhicitta, but it’s still not quite there. Then beyond that, when one proceeds beyond that, one establishes the actual state of bodhicitta. Now initially, for us, it’s we need to understand this causal process, this causal series from firstly equanimity and so forth right on to bodhicitta, just what the causal series is. And then to understand or even memorize what the causes are, and then to contemplate them one by one.
Actually, it’s probably what we’re doing at present is just giving a very brief and rough overview of the process. But underneath, we have to go into the causes at great length. Because we’re in danger actually of just glossing over all these things and not getting much from it. Sort of getting to the end, okay, we’re at bodhicitta now. How did I get there?
Maybe I missed something a bit earlier on and so on. We’re in danger of, of course, just sliding across the surface and not really getting much substance. So for that reason, all of these causes need to be gone into in great depth. And especially for us, the first one, equanimity, immeasurable equanimity is very important. Beginning to generate a sense of equanimity towards others, even an even attitude.
And then also to think about the law of cause and effect and start to develop this conviction that all beings have been our mother at some point. It’s almost we need a beginner’s mind with all of this as much as possible. Because there’s always, always as beings, we’re generating preconceptions about these states. And we think we have a certain understanding of them, but really, we may be quite quite far removed from developing an understanding of these issues. So as much as possible, we need a beginner’s mind that’s able to look beginner’s mind here is like a mind without too many preconceptions.
Because the more preconceptions we have, the more difficult it is to understand things. Less preconceptions, more possibility of understanding. More preconceptions we have than understanding the window of understanding reduces and reduces. And as the Tibetans themselves often say, in Tibetan, the word is namtok. And if a person has lots of preconception, they say namtok sapo.
Sapo means hot. Hot preconceptions, meaning many preconceptions. Probably we all fit into that category. We all have lots of preconceptions about things. Meaning that when we think about something, we already we have many ideas.
Oh, that’s how it is. That’s how it is. It’s like that. Okay. Been there, done that, next.
This type of attitude comes very naturally to us. We look at a situation, we think we’ve understood it. We look at other people, we think we understand them. In general, we don’t understand very much at all. So also with these six causes, we need a general idea of how they’re defined and then to begin to observe them with as few preconceptions as possible.
But slowly, slowly, there’s no rush. We don’t we’re probably not gonna get to number five or six, you know, any day soon. But in a way, doesn’t matter so much. We can take our time. We can sit back and relax to some degree.
Is some importance in getting there in the end, certainly these things do take time. And, of course, if we have the idea that quickly, we’ve got to get there as quickly as possible, that can be the biggest obstacle of all. Because we become very tight and strained inside, and we’re straining a lot to get there very quickly, and we’re not actually getting anywhere. So it’s often easier just to to relax and just observe what’s happening inside. From time to time, recalling what the six causes are and contemplating those issues.
And then also observing what’s a benefit to us when we’re contemplating them as well. What’s a practical benefit to us? Okay. We might just stop there.