Bodhisattva Retreat Day 25th Jan — 2015-01-25

Bodhisattva Retreat Day 25th Jan (Ven Thubten Dondrub)

Bodhisattva Retreat Day 25th Jan — 2015-01-25

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Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.

About this talk. In this 61-minute session, Ven Thubten Dondrub leads a structured two-part Sunday meditation combining breath work with loving-kindness practice. He begins with detailed posture instructions—spine straight, hands folded in lap, eyes softly open with gaze directed downward—then emphasizes that motivation matters more than technique: recognizing the mind as the source of all happiness and suffering, and taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The core teaching unfolds through visualization and reflection: establishing the Bodhisattva intention by acknowledging that all beings, including oneself, lack genuine lasting happiness despite external success, then cultivating the heartfelt wish for all sentient beings—friends, strangers, and enemies alike—to experience perfect, everlasting happiness. He concludes with a strong commitment to work on one’s own mind (abandoning self-cherishing, jealousy, negativity) as the foundation for authentic help to others. The final Q&A clarifies that ethical discipline and inner transformation, even modest efforts, directly benefit others by reducing harm. Suited for both newcomers to meditation and those exploring Bodhisattva practice.

That. But as most of you know, the Sunday meditate Sunday meditation is divided into two segments. So the first part, we do some breathing meditation and to develop a calmer, clearer, more concentrated mind. And and we precede that with just checking our posture and particularly our motivation because that is really very vital aspect of meditation that is emphasized by all the great masters that it’s it’s better spending more time on the motivation than the actual meditation because if the meditation doesn’t have the right motivation, there’s not much point doing it. So we really need to work on our our motivation.

So after that session, that or that segment, I’ll ring the bell, and we can take a three minute silent break. Just three minutes. So not enough time to rush out and make a cup of tea or something like that, but just a silent break so people can stand up and relax if they wish to. And then in the second segment, we’ll do this meditation on loving kindness. So we begin by sitting comfortably in the correct posture as much as possible.

So whether you’re seated on a chair or on a cushion, the main part of the posture is to try to have the spine really straight and also one’s upper body position so that one’s not leaning forwards or backwards or to either side. We place our right hand on top of the left, the thumbs are lightly touching, resting your hands in your lap close to your body, but so that your elbows elbows and upper arms are just a little bit away from the sides of your body, not touching them. So one can lift the shoulders up and back a little bit, then relax them, straighten the head so that your head is not tilted down too much, which can tend to make the mind dull and sleepy or lifted too high, which can act as a condition for the mind to become distracted. So have your mouth lightly closed, your jaw relaxed, the tip of your tongue resting at the back of the top row of teeth at the palate. One can meditate with one’s eyes closed, but it’s much better to learn to meditate with your eyes just a little bit open, directing your gaze just a very short distance down in front of you, but without actively looking rather having a a passive unfocused gaze.

So then just briefly check your posture by moving your awareness from the crown of your head down through the full length of your body. So having prepared the body, it’s now important to prepare our mind by working on our motivation. And we can do this by firstly trying to have that clear recognition right now that it is our own mind that is the very source of all our experience, particularly of happiness and suffering. So the more we understand that, the more obvious it becomes that if we want less suffering in our life, if we want more peace, contentment, and well-being, we really have to take care of our mind. And if we start to understand that our mind is something that is not the brain, that our mind is something that goes beyond this life, it never ever ceases, it will always exist giving rise to experience.

Then it becomes obvious that in taking care of with our mind, we need a method that is complete, perfect, unfailing. And such a method can only come from the perfect source, which we recognize as the pure mind of the Buddha. So this is why we entrust ourselves to the Buddha, the Buddha’s teachings, the Dharma, and the great practitioners of those teachings, the Sangha. So it can be very helpful to think or visualize the historical Buddha, Śākyamūni Buddha, directly in front of oneself, thinking the Buddha appears there to remind us of our own Buddha potential, and it appears to inspire us to realize that potential. And then why should we do that?

Well, obviously, for our own sake, but not not just for happiness of this life and to be free of suffering in this life, but we can have that motivation to free our mind completely of suffering, to experience the pure bliss of the mind by seeking complete freedom from cyclic existence. But even more than that, we can begin to recognize that we ourselves intimately interconnected with every sentient being. We totally depend on, always have, always will. So the real purpose of our life is not just to free ourselves from suffering and achieve happiness, but to help every sentient being to become free of suffering and achieve peerless everlasting happiness. This is the most wonderful, most meaningful thing we can possibly do.

So to help generate that thought to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, we try and visualize or have a sense of all sentient beings surrounding us right now, particularly those that we’re most connected to in this life. So our our mother on our left, our father on our right, the rest of our family, all our friends and helpers behind us, those who have harmed us in front, and then as much as possible, opening our hearts and minds to an awareness and concern for all other beings. I think that I I am doing this meditation as part of the whole process of freeing and awakening my mind for them. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and Sangha. By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings.

I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. By my practice of giving and other may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. Go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly. By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit 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 happiness that is free from suffering. May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free from attachment for friends and hatred for enemies. So we can imagine that the Buddha is very pleased with our motivation and shows this by now coming towards the crown of our head. When directly above our crown, we can imagine that the Buddha turns to face the same direction as our self and then remains there for rest of the meditation session, creating a protective environment in which we can meditate and constantly blessing our mind.

So during the session, we don’t have to continue to actively visualize the Buddha above our crown, but just have a sense that the Buddha is there. So having having prepared our mind, we can now direct our mind to the object of meditation, which is our breath. So just let your mind become aware of your breath coming in. Just place your mind in that experience and let everything else which is not your breath fade away. Just let everything else become unimportant.

Stop all thoughts or let go of all thoughts of the past and future, and focus on your breath. Just remaining in the present moment and experiencing the breath coming and going. Particularly, one can focus on that subtle sensation in and around the nostrils as the breath comes and goes. So to help do that, it it can be useful to count each in and out breath or as one complete breath and try and follow eleven or twenty one consecutive breaths. So to do that, one has to be very mindful to detect the different hindrances such as becoming dull and sleepy or getting distracted by sounds, different sensations in the body, particularly one’s own thoughts.

So as soon as those distractions arise, be aware of them, let go of them, and bring the mind back to the breath and start the count again from the beginning. And do this throughout the segment as many times as necessary without any sense of disappointment or expectation. So before we start the meditation again, just very briefly, as most of you probably know or all know, in from Buddhist point of view, the definition or the meaning of of love or loving kindness is is a state of mind which wishes ourselves and others to have happiness. But not just ordinary ordinary worldly happiness, temporary happiness, a happiness that is imperfect and doesn’t last. But it it is basically the the wish for oneself and others to have pure, perfect, lasting happiness.

And the way it is developed to develop that actual state of mind of of genuine love for oneself and particularly for others. The way it is cultivated or developed is from it it comes from realizing that oneself to develop love for oneself, wanting oneself wanting oneself to have happiness, which is love, comes from realizing I don’t have happiness. And to develop love, wanting others to have happiness, it comes from realizing more and more deeply that other people, one’s family, friends, helpers, all sentient beings simply do not have it. When one realizes that because you can’t want someone to have something they’ve already got. Don’t you don’t develop the wish for a millionaire to be rich.

They’re already rich. There’s no point wanting a a millionaire to be rich. You develop the thought of wanting someone to have something that they don’t have. But, of course, we make the mistake in thinking that people are happy because, oh, they’ve got nice clothes, a nice job, this and that. They smile when you and they when you ask them how are they, everyone says, I’m fine.

So they’re happy. But, actually, we’re not. We’re not happy. None of us are really happy according to the Buddha. Even when we’re smiling, we’re not happy.

Not really happy. We’re just entertained for a while. So this is what we have to cultivate in developing real love is the awareness, some deep awareness, a sense of that this myself, this person, all sentient beings, no matter even if they’ve got success, good health, health, this and that, they are not actually happy. Even if they don’t know it, but they’re not happy. They may think they’re happy, but they’re not.

But how wonderful if they could be really happy. So yeah. Okay. So we can begin the meditation again by just reestablishing a good posture, comfortable posture that we feel that we can maintain for the rest of the session. And we reestablish our motivation trying to generate that bodhicitta motivation again.

And it’s also helpful to recall the Buddha on the crown of our head. So then we can begin by reflecting that, being aware that myself and it’s true for all sentient beings because I’m fundamentally not different from all other sentient beings. I want to experience happiness. But what what is this happiness that I want? I’m always chasing after it in some form or other, consciously or unconsciously.

But what is the happiness I really want? So if it was possible to have right now, would I prefer to have some kind of third grade, third rate happiness, second rate happiness, or if I could really achieve it, would I want perfect happiness? A happiness that is completely free of all suffering, all confusion, all pain, all fears, all worry, a state of complete peace, contentment, and well-being. And the point is myself and all sentient beings, what we really want, whether we are conscious of it or not, is a happiness that is complete and perfect. And also consider if I could achieve this perfect happiness, if it was really possible, and the Buddha says it is.

We all have the potential for it. How how long would I want this perfect happiness to last? For a day, a week, a month, a year, all this life, one more life, ten lives, a thousand, a million lives, or forever. And the reality is that deep down, I and all sentient beings want to experience perfect happiness forever. Forever.

It is impossible not to wish that. Whether we are conscious of it or not, that is what I and all sentient beings are seeking, perfect, lasting happiness. So now try to let yourself be aware as strongly as possible, as deeply as possible. That oneself and all other beings, one’s one’s family, friends, helpers, all human beings, all sentient beings, simply do not have this perfect lasting happiness. No matter what good health, good fortune, success, pleasures I or pleasures I or other sentient beings may be having.

That is not perfect lasting happiness. I and all sentient beings in saṃsāra are completely bereft, completely lacking, perfect lasting. So then cultivate as strongly as one can, sincerely as one can, that thought in the depths of one’s heart. Think how wonderful it would be if myself, my family, friends, helpers, all sentient beings without exception could have happiness, genuine, lasting, perfect happiness. Just imagine, consider how wonderful that would be.

Particularly try to come to the conclusion that it would be wonderful not only if all good people could have happiness, perfect happiness, but even the most destructive people, destructive people, the most harmful, negative minded people, it would be wonderful if they too could experience perfect happiness because it would then mean that they would have no hate, no jealousy, no violence, no pride, and they wouldn’t cause harm if they were genuinely happy. So how wonderful that would be. So as a result of thinking how wonderful it would be if all sentient beings could have happiness, generate the thought of wanting them to have happiness, wanting every sentient being, oneself, friends, strangers, enemies, all sentient beings to have peerless everlasting happiness. So then consider that it’s not enough just to sit back comfortably and wish others to be happy even if that wish is sincere. Try and cultivate that thought, the Bodhisattva attitude that I will help all sentient beings achieve this pure and everlasting happiness.

This is the best thing I can possibly do, the most beneficial, the most meaningful. And I need to do it because the sad fact is the vast majority of human beings, the vast majority of all sentient beings are simply not creating the real causes of happiness. In their confusion, they are actually creating the causes of suffering. They try to be happy by following attachment. They try to protect their happiness with anger.

When they’re successful, they develop pride. When they’re not, they’re jealous. So they will never have happiness in this way. So it’s my job to repay the kindness I’ve received from sentient beings by helping them to understand the causes of happiness, helping them to create. And to do that, I have to give up all my negative qualities and cultivate all my positive qualities.

But that’s the best thing I can do for myself. It’s the best thing I can do for others. Try and cultivate that Bodhisattva attitude. And then make a strong request to the Buddha at the crown of one’s head to bless your mind, to be able to follow that Bodhisattva way of life, freeing the mind of all negativities, cultivating all one’s positive qualities in order to help all sentient beings achieve peerless everlasting happiness. So bring the meditation to a conclusion by making the strong decision, a strong determination to be more and more mindful in daily life.

The oneself and especially all sentient beings are really completely devoid of real real happiness. So and therefore, to dedicate one’s life to helping all sentient beings achieve genuine lasting happiness, and at the the very least, to be mindful not to add to the suffering of. So then recall the Buddha on one’s crown thinking that the Buddha is very pleased with your meditation, and the Buddha shows this by now dissolving into blissful golden light. And that blissful light then pours down into you, blessing your mind to be able to generate authentic loving kindness to oneself and all sentient beings. Blessing one’s mind to be able to develop the bodhisattva attitude, So then we can dedicate the merit of of this time that it becomes a cause for us to generate true loving kindness that leads to eventually achieving complete enlightenment for the benefit of others.

Due to the merits of these virtuous actions, may I quickly attain the state of a Guru Buddha and lead all living beings without exception into that enlightened state. May the supreme jewel bodhicitta that has not arisen arise and grow, and may that which has arisen not diminish but increase increase more and more. Thank you very much. Any questions? How do we help others?

There’s a million ways. A million ways. But I but in helping others, what the the teachings are emphasizing is we have to work on ourselves first or at the same time. So the only way we can really help others is with a a mind that is has is freer and freer of all negative qualities, self-cherishing, jealousy and pride, etcetera, etcetera. And we can only really help others when all our our positive qualities are really genuinely functioning.

And when that happens, I think it becomes clearer and clearer how we can help others. Because while we’re caught up in our own self-cherishing bubble, it’s difficult to really see what’s going on in the lives of others and to know what’s best to do. But doing this is helping others indirectly. And the more we do this, that indirect benefit transforms into something really direct. Hopefully, that’s why we’re doing this.

But as his holiness says, you know, if we can’t help others, at least don’t harm them, which is helping them because nobody needs any more suffering and confusion in their lives. We all have enough. So just that is great. So my teacher, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, says, like, for example, he doesn’t speak bad grammar like I do. Speak bad grammar?

That was really terrible. Sometimes sometimes I can speak English reasonably well. It’s the only language I can speak. For example, Rinpoche says by taking vows, however many vows you take, even if you take one vow is incredibly beneficial for others. So if you take the vow not to steal and you keep of course, you keep it, then so many beings benefit because you don’t steal.

If you take the vow to avoid sexual misconduct, so many people can benefit. If you take the vow not to kill, so many beings will benefit. If you take the vow not to, you know, take intoxicants, so many beings will benefit from that because potentially if we don’t have those vows to withhold our negative tendencies, we can cause so much harm. So working on ourselves does benefit others, especially if we’re we’re doing it with the right motivation that we’re we’re offering that. We’re working on ourselves not just for our own sake, but wanting that to be a basis to help others.

Because if we’ve got that motivation, that gives us much more energy to work on ourselves. Now we can work on having a cup of tea or coffee or something. Thank you very much.