Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 24-minute teaching, Ven Jampa Ignyen opens with the example of Dromtönpa, who prostrated to his junior students — a teaching on humility that extends to welcoming criticism and avoiding the pride that comes with praise. He then unfolds the methods for generating bodhicitta, the wish to achieve enlightenment for all beings, drawing on two classical systems: the six causes and one result and the five points of exchanging self for others. He combines these into eleven interconnected steps. Throughout, he addresses the obstacle of self-cherishing and shows how to transform doubt, resistance, and distraction into support for practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 16 LR 2001 09 06.mp3
UUID: f842a034-4c28-4210-a0c7-33943b115acd
Teacher: Ven Jampa Ignyen
Collection: y Lam Rim 2001 Month 07-09 (Ven Jampa Ignyen)
Date: 2001-09-06
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 23.8 minutes
Words: ~2,559
All the scholar adepts of the path occupied low positions and reached Buddhahood. Even Drom Rinpoche, Dromtönpa, who was the chief disciple of Atisha, prostrated himself before his juniors. Other words, Dromtönpa, who was this great lama, who is a disciple of a teacher, chief disciple of a teacher, would prostrate himself to other things who were less knowledgeable, in fact, students of his. So this is a very good practice. And if we act in that way, then it’s easy for us to keep friendship.
Do not be glad when praised. Be happy when censured. Criticism highlights our faults. So another good piece of advice is we should not be glad when praised, but we should be happy when we’re criticized. So we should seek out opportunities for criticism from others.
Thank you, Because, obviously, criticism highlights our fault. So we should be happy when other people are pointing at our fault. And normal reaction for some reason is to be unhappy when other people are criticizing, whether it’s true or not. But instead, we should be overjoyed when they’re criticizing. We should develop this type of mind.
Because then, actually, we can learn more clearly from others what our faults are. In other words, our pride increases enormously when others praise us, but both pride and praise will lead us astray. Yeah. There’s a big fault with pride pride and praise. As I said, pride comes before a fall.
Pride will let us down. You cannot see your own fault. And although being criticized and although being criticized is not pleasant, afterwards, you will examine your actions, and this will make you careful to modify your behavior. So it’s not it’s very true. Criticism is unpleasant.
When people criticize us, we we can feel ourselves getting tense inside and resisting it, armoring ourselves against it, not listening or appearing to listen and whatever. We take it. You know? Whatever. We change the subject.
Ah, we cough. We scratch. We walk out of the room. We just resist criticism. But then later, we stop and think about it.
And we think, oh, maybe there’s a bit of truth there. Not much, but a little bit. Then that’s useful to us because at least a little bit sunk in and we try and modify our behavior. Even though we resist while we’re being criticized, no, it’s not true. I disagree with that.
No. You’re the one that’s got the fault, not me, and so on. Later, it’s true. We stop and think about it. And so there’s benefit in criticism.
And also it is said slander is a favor from the gods. So being slandered is like a boon, a blessing from the divine. Because slander slander is either truth or it can be true or untrue. But when we’re slandered, when our faults are pointed out to others with a view to separating ourselves from others, which makes us very unhappy, whether the words are true or not. Still, that slander directed towards us is like a blessing because it’s undoing our past negative actions.
It’s the only way that that could possibly have come about. We do what we’ve done in the past, maturing in the present, so it’s like a blessing, a favor from the gods. And as says, that is that is slander is a divine boon, divine favor. So whatever we so whenever we get entangled in bad circumstances, we should think of them in this way. When we are happy, feel as though it is the result of virtue, and this will you happy to meditate on Dharma, and so on.
So when people slander us, we should rejoice that they are slandering us. If it’s true, then we should really listen to the words they’re they’re saying. If it’s untrue, then still we can listen and say, well, know, I don’t possess that fault. But the slander itself is coming from other faults that I have. So we rejoice because that action has gone its full circle and finally come home.
So we can welcome back that negative action. It’s returned to its creator. So then converting circumstances through view, our text says, regard all deceptive appearances as being the four kayas. So everything that we see, we can actually take to the the appearance of Buddhas, appearance of the state of enlightenment. So whatever we see around us, whatever we hear, and so on.
All of these can be taken to the the appearance of this state of enlightenment. However However, such a statement follows the old style of explanation from the first turning of the wheel of the teachings. And on examination, we find it to be a little unsatisfactory. When we look into the nature of any suffering that has arisen, we are told it is in the first place dharmakaya, that is the Dharma body, because it was not produced from anything and so forth. But I feel this misses the heart of what is going on with a little bit of a philosophical discussion, which we can read anyway at some other time.
To be brief, our happiness and suffering may have arisen from either good or bad circumstances, but when we examine in nature, these things are found to have arisen out of a mere set of causes, conditions, and mutual interdependence. Thus, good or bad circumstances, suffering, happiness are all merely labeled or imputed, and such things cannot be established by way of their nature. And though they are undeniably although they undeniably appear to be real, when we look at, you know, the way way I and others do not truly exist, this will readily prevent our being unhappy, attached, and so on. In other words, converting circumstances through the view, here, we’re looking at the objects that are around us, and we’re examining their final mode of abiding. And the final mode of abiding is really that of emptiness itself.
So here, when we understand the final mode of abidance of objects, then by that realization itself, then all negative circumstances subside. Because the final mode of abidance that everything is the one taste of emptiness. And within that, there are no negative circumstances. There are no positive circumstances. Emptiness goes beyond both.
So in that in that sense, negative circumstances can be converted by the view that comprehends the final mode of abidance of anything such as negative circumstances. So now after that discussion on some of the modes of converting negative circumstances into the positive, then Pabongka Rinpoche then goes into explaining how we can convert or combine six causes and one result and the five points of exchanging self for others. So this, in fact, is briefly set out on this chart that we’ve had. Why are we doing it? Here, we’re looking at these two methods because they’re two methods for generating great compassion and bodhicitta because they’re the best thing that we can do.
There’s no more beneficial state that we can generate within us than great compassion because great compassion and bodhicitta are simply converting all negative experience into the positive is possible. So in other words, great compassion and bodhicitta are if we could understand clearly how we ourselves exist and other beings exist, we would naturally generate bodhicitta and great compassion. There would be no choice. It would be like simply a a causal process. But once the conditions arise, then the result is.
Once we understand the conditions, then we generate great compassion. We generate bodhicitta. Now the conditions that allow the generation of bodhicitta are just these six from the six causes and one result. That is, firstly, as a preliminary, immeasurable equanimity. So this even handed attitude we have towards others, then understanding all beings within our mothers, remembering their kindness, repaying their kindness.
Then from that generating great love and great compassion, then a superior intention or altruism and then bodhicitta. These seven follow quite naturally one after the other. They cannot function unless they actually reflect how things are. If any of these if immeasurable equanimity is not a correct assessment, then that’s can’t be established. If all beings have not been our mother, then, of course, the first cause can’t be established.
All of these conditions depend on those conditions reflecting the actual way things exist. Then we have a second point, the five points of exchanging self to others. So the equality of self in others. So immeasurable equanimity is our own developing an even attitude ourselves in relation to others that we ourselves should not hold enemies as distant and friends as near and be indifferent towards strangers is the view of immeasurable. Equality of self and others is understanding ourselves to be equal to others, others to be equal to ourselves.
So that’s the first of the five points of exchanging self for others. And then we have the faults of self-cherishing, the qualities of cherishing others, contemplating the exchange of self for others and meditating on giving and taking. So those five also exist in their own system, they also lead to the generation of great compassion. And, really, we have but there’s two lists here. They both lead to the generation of great compassion.
And Je Tsongkhapa has combined the two of these in this third list in eleven points. So then starting with immeasurable equanimity. Recognizing all beings as our mothers remembering their kindness, repaying their kindness, the equality of self and others, the faults of self-cherishing, the qualities of cherishing others. So, really, they’re just a combination of the first sections of the two different systems. Then leaving aside contemplating exchanging self for others of the second system, we then move to taking in the third column and then giving.
So we as we look across, we can see that taking and giving correspond to the fifth stage of the five points of exchanging self for others, which is meditating on giving and taking. So here there’s been a reverse in the order from giving and taking to taking. And then we also see that this corresponds to great love and great compassion. But great love and great compassion also are in a a different order because here, giving giving actually equates to love, doesn’t it? And taking refers to great compassion.
So we’re reversing the order there in this in the eleven points of the combined method. And then we have the same, superior intention and bodhicitta to finish off. So the eleven the eleven points of the combined method simply unite the five the five and the seven together. So this particular method, it said that if we follow this method in generally in general with the guidelines set down, then it definitely will produce the result of bodhicitta. So in order to do this, of course, we need to become familiar with the eleven the eleven points.
And in order to become familiar, we have to think about it. Think about the eleven points and how they fit together, how they one follows from the next, one follows from the previous. And in a way, one acts as the key to opening the door of the next, which are the key to opening the door of the next and so forth. Now but contemplating contemplating these these eleven, of course, means that we’re gonna come up against difficult circumstances. We look at it we think, oh, it’s hard work.
That, oh, it’s it’s gonna take too long. Oh, it may be useful, but I’m too busy doing other things in time. So various negative circumstances arise. So we should also be able able or we should also seek to convert those negative. All the negative conditions that would prevent us from establishing these eleven, we should convert them to positive conditions.
Because in general, what’s preventing us from completing these eleven is self-cherishing, our self-cherishing attitude. And, of course, that’s true because these eleven overcome the self-cherishing attitude. Once we have bodhicitta, we’ve overcome self-cherishing. But this method is the method of converting all our negative circumstances into positive ones. And even if we weren’t to attain bodhicitta, still, that’s something we we need to attain.
We need to convert the negative into the positive. Yes. We can do that. Initially, we could refer back into the text to see the advantages of bodhicitta and just read through those. That we need to do.
Unless we, you know, have a good idea of what the advantages are, then it’s gonna be hard for us to generate enthusiasm for doing this type of meditation. So we need to think about the the positive outcomes, the benefits for ourselves, the advantages for ourselves. It’s a little bit of the carrot and a little bit of the stick in a sense. You know, I think, okay. I’ve accumulated all this negativity.
Purify by generating this bodhicitta and so forth. I purify, you know, like, immeasurable amounts of past negative karma. If I’m not gonna purify these, I’m subject to being reborn in hell because of them and so on. So there’s we need to think of the advantages, and we also need to think of the disadvantages of not generating. Yep.
That’s right. That really all that happiness comes from great compassion. But that’s it. We need that sort of mind. First thing in the morning we wake up oh, what are the eleven points?
Let’s see. Number one is taking meditation. The first breath we have when we get up should be giving, taking. Some resistance first thing in the morning, though. But no problem.
The resistance is usually coming from our old friend, Our old enemy, actually, that this appears to be a friend, so it’s our self-cherishing. So some effort is required for us to do this meditation. The effort will come from thinking about the advantages. So probably for us at present, we should just have a list of the advantages of meditating on bodhicitta. And if we can add to the list, we’ll figure out, you know, there’s eight stuff we mentioned.
About those. They have to penetrate the mind a little bit. For us, it’s a bit like medicine. It’s a bit like ointment. We’ve got if we wanna cure a rash, we’ve to put the ointment on again and again.
Similarly, if we want the mind to change, we have to apply the ointment on a regular basis. Think about the advantages of generating bodhicitta as much as possible. Then it has some that has some chance of sinking in a little bit. And once it sinks in, then the mind is able to change a little bit. No.
No. That that view is held by many. If you go to India, you see people standing on beds of fire or beds of nails. Right? And the view there is that if you suffer if you induce pain yourself, you’re purifying your past karma.
That really is a wrong view. Yeah. One doesn’t seek one doesn’t harm one’s mind or body as part of the practice. Because our our mind and body are precious because they’re a basis for practicing Dharma. But, certainly, yes, one doesn’t.