Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this two-hour-fourteen-minute session, Ven Thubten Dondrub guides practitioners through core Tibetan Buddhist techniques for developing bodhicitta—the awakened heart that seeks enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. He teaches Śāntideva’s method of equalizing self and others, beginning with the recognition that all sentient beings, from humans to animals, share one fundamental drive: the wish to be happy and avoid suffering. From there, he walks practitioners through reflections on the devastating harm caused by self-cherishing—how it distorts our perception, fuels anger, destroys merit, and obscures the mind—contrasted with the profound benefits of cherishing others instead. The session culminates in a detailed meditation on patience, presenting it not as passive acceptance but as the antidote to anger and a central perfection for anyone serious about the bodhisattva path. Throughout, he emphasizes concrete daily practice: each morning, renew the commitment to let all actions—eating, walking, sleeping, speaking—become causes of happiness for others rather than feeding self-obsession. Pitched at practitioners committed to the bodhisattva way, whether new or returning.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2015 01 25 Bodhisattva Retreat Part 3 25012015.mp3
UUID: 08a36343-8fc7-4d1b-8b84-643a065ec33b
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: Bodhisattva Retreat Day 25th Jan (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2015-01-25
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 134.9 minutes
Words: ~8,080
Not too distant future time. So those those meditations we did on sentient beings as mother and the kindness of mother, as people know, from Asaṇga’s method of generating bodhicitta, the six causes and one effect technique of generating bodhicitta. bodhicitta. What I’m going to do now is do a couple of sections from Śāntideva’s method of generating bodhicitta, which is called the equalizing Self for Others technique. So firstly we’ll do a little meditation in this session on equalizing self with others.
So in order to generate bodhicitta and develop the bodhisattva’s attitude, firstly we have to actually renounce our attachment to this life, our obsessions with the things of this life. We need to renounce saṃsāra altogether. Although we can train in generating bodhicitta before that, bodhicitta will not develop until we’ve renounced this life, renounced saṃsāra. Also to develop bodhichitt, we have to develop equanimity where we equalize our balance, our attitude towards friend, enemy, stranger rather than seeing or putting sentient beings in these categories of friend, enemy, and stranger. We need to develop this basic equanimity towards all beings, seeing them as all equally deserving of happiness and freedom from suffering and wanting them to achieve that.
On that basis one is really able to generate bodhicitta. So in Śāntideva’s method, the first step beyond developing equanimity is being able to equalize oneself with others because even if we’re able to have an equal attitude to beings, whether from their side they’re friendly towards us, indifferent or negative towards us, still because of our self-cherishing and wrong view of self, we put ourselves above everyone else even though we may like think that we have love and compassion for everyone else, still because of self-cherishing, there’s this thought that my happiness comes before everyone else’s, my suffering is more important than everyone else’s. We need to develop this mind of equalizing ourself with others. So this is what we’re gonna do. At least work on it.
So again, we can begin to by sitting comfortably in the correct posture as much as possible. So particularly paying paying attention to the positioning of our our spine and the positioning of our upper body. And then just briefly doing the the nine round breathing exercise or any other breathing exercise just to let the mind become a little bit calmer and more clear and more focused. So then transforming that neutral mind into a very strong positive virtuous mind, firstly, by cultivating that mind of refuge in the triple gem. So visualizing Śākyamūni Buddha in front of us, thinking of the Buddha as the embodiment of the Three Jewels of refuge, and generating that mind of refuge which is committed to taking care of the mind, being determined to protect the mind from disturbing thoughts and cultivate the virtuous qualities of the mind and being determined to rely solely on the Buddha’s methods to do so, having developed that faith that the Buddha is the perfect refuge, the unbetrayable refuge.
At the same time, thinking of all sentient beings surrounding oneself, try and generate strongly, clearly, sincerely as possible the bodhicitta mind that wants to achieve enlightenment in order to be in a position to perfectly repay the kindness of all mother sentient beings. So think that in order to follow the path to enlightenment, in order to fully develop bodhicitta, I I have to first overcome that way of thinking that always due to the self-cherishing thought puts self self above others, somehow grasping at this wrong view that there is something inherently different between myself and others. So while that that attitude, that wrong view controls my mind, there’s no way to generate bodhicitta, no way to therefore, no way to achieve enlightenment, therefore no way to perfectly repay the kindness of suffering Mother sentient beings. So for this reason I’ll put effort into meditating on training to equalize myself with others. I 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? I 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. I 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.
So think the Buddha is very pleased with your motivation and shows this by now coming to the crown of one’s head, turning to face the same direction as oneself, and remaining above one’s crown throughout the session. So one could think that due to my ignorance, self have self-cherishing due to these wrong views. I falsely experience myself as somehow always at the center of the universe, the most deserving of all, somehow inherently different from others. Because of that, I focus on all my effort thoughts and efforts onto myself, continue to follow the disturbing thoughts that cause suffering to myself lead me to harm others. So I really have to overcome that attitude for my own sake, especially in all the benefit of others.
So just check how when when I especially under the control of the self-cherishing thought, relate to others and look at others, I see so many differences between myself and others, and I tend to focus on those differences. And unfortunately, unfortunately, by doing that, this leads to either attachment or aversion, pride, and jealousy. It opens me up to all the negative thoughts. If I’m able to see the equality between myself and others, then this opens up the potential the possibility for all my positive qualities to awaken. Seeing the equality between self and others, I feel a connection.
Tolerance, affection, love, compassion, a sense of connection. But right now, I tend to focus focus on the differences. I focus on the outer behavior, people doing so many different things, different from myself, appearing in different ways, acting in different ways. But just consider that what I should focus on is why do sentient beings do these things? Why do they behave, appear, think in such different ways?
And consider that the the answer is that underlying all that different behavior and so simple wish trying to be happy. They think and behave and speak and so on in different ways, but it’s motivated by the simple wish to be happy. Just like me. And, also, consider this not only applies to human beings, but the only other kind of sentient being that I can see, experience are animals, the beings of the animal realm. And I certainly see myself as vastly different to them.
But, again, if I look at the inner motivation for their behavior, one can start to see that what they do is simply motivated by the wish to be happy. And consider that there although there are people who do incredibly stupid things, incredibly harmful, terrible things, they do those things believing in some way this will bring them some happiness. All the things I do, I do them because I think that in some way, that will bring me happiness. So as a fundamental, there’s no real difference between me and those people. We’re just trying to be happy.
And if we look from another perspective, again, we focus on the difference between ourselves and others, difference in behavior, ways of thinking, ways of appearing, and that convinces us that there’s something inherently different between myself and others. But, again, if one checks, one can begin to see that the underlying motive of other beings’ behavior, not just human beings, but animals, all sentient beings, is everyone is just trying to avoid suffering because all of these beings don’t want suffering just like me. Some beings do terrible, destructive things believing it will free them from suffering because they don’t want suffering just like me. And then consider how we all have such different bodies, human bodies different from nonhuman bodies. And then within human beings, there are male bodies, female bodies, old bodies, young bodies, beautiful bodies, ugly bodies, bodies of different color.
Beautiful bodies, ugly bodies, bodies of different color. But the mind within is fundamentally the same. Conventional nature of the mind of other sentient beings is that it is clear and knowing. And the conventional nature of my mind is that it is clear and knowing. It’s it’s just the same.
No real difference. And the ultimate nature of every mind is that it is empty of true existence, empty of inherent existence. So the ultimate nature of my mind is that it is empty of inherent existence, just like the minds of all human beings, just like the minds of all animals, all beings that exist. There’s no difference. And the very nature of all minds, of each mind, each every mind is Buddha nature.
My mind has Buddha nature. Every human mind has Buddha nature. Every mind of beings in the animal world has Buddha nature. There’s no difference. Every being who’s trapped in saṃsāra has a mind under the control of delusion and karma just like me.
All the faults and mistakes that I find and see in other beings are due to their delusions, And I have those very same delusions myself. If we check the lives of other beings, human, nonhuman, no matter what kind of life other beings are experiencing, whether it’s success or failure, happiness or suffering, no matter how difficult beings’ lives are. Each sentient being holds their life as precious. Just like me. My life is precious to me.
So now just become aware in a very simple way of the sense of I that is existing at the very center of one’s being right now. That in every moment of our existence, there’s this sense of I. Always the thought of I. So as you are aware of that sense of I existing within you, just allow yourself to be aware that the person sitting to either side of you, in front of you, behind you in this room has that same fundamental sense of I, very fragile sense of I, just wanting to be happy and not wanting to suffer. Everyone in this room has that same sense of life.
There’s no real difference at all. It’s the same for everybody in this city, in this country, in the world. It’s the same for every animal on this planet. It’s the same for every So bring the meditation to a conclusion by making a strong determination to be more and more mindful in daily life of that fundamental equality between myself and all sentient beings. To be mindful, to remember that whoever I meet, whoever I see, human, nonhuman, there is one fundamental thing I know about this person, this being, and that is they just want to be happy and don’t want to suffer just like me.
So we can recall the Buddha on your crown, thinking the Buddha is very pleased and showing this by now dissolving into blissful golden light, which pours down into us, blessing our mind to be able to eventually gain a complete realization of the mind that experiences the equality between self and all beings. And then we can dedicate the merit. Due to the merits 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 more and more. So we have a five minute break.
Alright. Ten minute. Ten minutes. I know. I think it’s gotta be five.
Sorry. Five minutes. Five. I’m I’m a bit overtime, so five minutes. So that’s a great bodhisattva attitude to develop of equalizing self with others.
Yeah. Good too. That one. That last thing I said about I wish it was anyway, about when you meet someone who you don’t know, you’ve never seen before, but you know something very secret and private about them, that comes from oh, who? I forgot their name.
No. I can’t think of his name. Oh. This great American Buddhist scholar, used to be his holiness as translator. He’s written many, many books.
Professor Jeffrey Hopkins, he said this is a talk I once heard from him. I thought that was really fantastic. But you know this really secret private thing about everyone. Everyone. But they just want to be happy like ourselves.
I mean, that’s just whole message that we’re all the same. If we could only remember that, there’d be so much more peace in the world. It’s pretty it’s so simple, but it’s very profound if we really remembered it and acted on it. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. You know, they just wanna be happy. Like, a pig eating dirt and someone in the most expensive restaurant in the world, they’re both just trying to be happy. Just the same thing. Same same.
So so as I mentioned okay. I did mention this, but I mentioned a lot of what Rinpoche often says what we should try to do every morning when we wake up. The first thing actually Rinpoche’s got quite a few first things we should think of. There’s about fifteen first things which take about three hours to think of when you wake up. It’s time to go to bed again by the time of all the things Rinpoche now wants us to think when we first wake up.
But one of them that Rinpoche said some years ago was that when we first wake up we should think that, well, today I have Rinpoche says, we should think that today I’m definitely going to die because we could. We are going to die. We could die at any time. I find it very difficult to think I’m definitely going to die today, but one could think I could die today. I could I could die today.
It’s very possible. It is very possible. I mean, just one of the brothers of one of the students here just died in an accident a couple of days ago, just completely unexpected. But that’s how people die. It’s not like it’s a plan.
Plan. It just happens. And no matter how much we think about it, it always is a shock that suddenly, in the in the most ordinary circumstances, people lose their lives. In situations where you think it wouldn’t happen, it shouldn’t happen, it couldn’t happen, it does. So we should think when we wake up that I I could die today.
So if that if that’s gonna happen, what should I do? And the answer is, what we should think is I have to practice bodhicitta because that’s the most meaningful, virtuous, beneficial thing to do. So if I die practicing bodhicitta, it’ll be okay. What does practicing bodhicitta mean? Well, of course it means working towards enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings.
If you tend to think of it like that, it starts to get a bit scary and very huge and too much. But there’s another very basic way of thinking about what bodhicitta is. That is a very ground down to earth level. What bodhicitta is is having the being wanting to give up the self-cherishing thought, seeing all its faults and wanting to cherish others and thinking today, I am going to give up or not follow the self-cherishing thought. Today, I’m going to cherish others as much as possible.
So that’s something manageable and realistic. And if we if we did that every day, bodhicitta would develop and enlightenment would come. So the the second the second and third aspects of points of Śāntideva’s method of generating bodhicitta is to reflect on the harm of the self-cherishing thought because the more we recognize it, we will give it up. Why? Because guess what?
We don’t want to suffer. And if we recognize that there’s something that we do that’s bringing suffering, we will give it up. The trouble is now we follow the self-cherishing thought believing it will make us happy. Of course, we don’t know we’re following the self-cherishing thought, but that’s what it is. That’s what we need to recognize.
And once we recognize the self-cherishing thought for what it is, we will start to give it up. And if we start to recognize how beneficial cherishing others is, since we want to be happy, we will start to adopt well, there will be a mind wanting to adopt it. And so step by step, we’ll be able to do that. We’ll I mean, actually, to do all these properly, we need to spend much more time and do it over and over again, but we’ll just do a little quick introduction to looking at the faults of the self-cherishing thought and the benefits of cherishing others. So, again, to make this meditation as effective as possible, it’s worthwhile to sit comfortably in the correct posture as much as possible.
And then free our mind of any kind of negative thoughts and feelings and agitation by doing the nine round breathing exercise. Or if you’re if you’re not familiar with that, just simply watching the breath. So then we build on that that neutral state of mind, a very powerful positive mind, firstly, refuge in the triple gem, being determined to take care of the mind and relying on the Buddha’s methods to do so. And we visualize Śākyamūni Buddha on the crown of our head as our source of refuge, inspiration, and guidance. And then from there, we extend that virtuous thought to the most virtuous thought of all, generating the bodhicitta mind, wishing to take refuge until enlightenment is achieved for the benefit of all sentient beings.
So to help us generate that state of mind, try and think of all sentient beings surrounding you, with with your mother of this life on your left, father on your right, family, friends, and helpers behind, harmers in front, and then as much as possible, thinking of all other beings of cyclic existence. And particularly trying to have that thought that particularly trying to have that thought that all these beings in their in their very nature, in their very essence, are only kind but only suffering. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Assembly. By my of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, Dharma and the Assembly.
By my of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. I 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. So we can begin by by reflecting that the very essence of self-cherishing is is that it’s based on — and why we can understand it is so harmful is — that it’s based on a wrong view of self, and we try to cherish or take care of that self that we believe to exist but is not existing. We try to make that self happy by following attachment or aversion and all the other disturbing thoughts.
And just try and identify your own self-cherishing. That what it does is that mind that as soon as we even we start to detect the slightest discomfort within ourselves or around us, anything that is in any way unpleasant, uncomfortable, disturbing, threatening, unpleasant, We try to instead of dealing with it in a skillful way, we want to distract ourselves from it. We want to ignore it, pretend it’s not there. Hide from it. And if we can manage to do that, we find something to something to distract ourselves, to entertain ourselves, then our self-cherishing convinces us that that thing, that person, that situation is good, is desirable, is is happiness.
And especially if we can escape from the problem, distract ourselves from ourselves quickly and easily, then that’s very good. That is wonderful. This is happiness. Ourself just check how our self-cherishing in extreme forms can convince us that even really harmful, destructive things quickest, easiest way to avoid some big problem. So our self-cherishing or the self-cherishing thought can convince convince us that even killing another human being is okay.
That that’s the answer. That’s the solution to the problem. self-cherishing can can convince us that suicide is the solution to our problem. Taking drugs is the solution to our problem. Just check how our own self-cherishing thought it it is the self-cherishing thought that only thinks of the present moment, the quick, easy present moment solution.
Our self self-cherishing doesn’t allow us to think of future consequences to ourself or others. Try and recognize from one’s own past behavior how the more we follow that self-cherishing thought that demands instant happiness, instant comfort, quickly and easily, the more we trapped in that way of thinking and behaving, the more we have created the opposite, which is that we can’t bear suffering. The more we want instant happiness quickly and easily, as soon as there’s a problem, discomfort, pain, suffering, difficulties, we can’t bear it, and we demand it goes away quickly, easily. And if it doesn’t go away quickly and easily, the more we can’t bear it, the more a problem it becomes in our mind. And the more it becomes a problem in the mind, quickly and easily escape, to be distracted quickly, easily right now.
And anything that can do that must be good. It must be okay. And we don’t think about the consequences. We can’t think about the about the consequences. We can’t think about the consequences in the future, even the future of this life, let alone the future lives results.
Results. We don’t think about the future consequences to ourselves or us because it’s all about me now or what seems to be me. So one can begin to see how truly harmful the self-cherishing thought is when we we start to investigate that all negative actions, all of the ten non virtues, killing, stealing, lying, lying, sexual misconduct, harsh speech, divisive speech, meaningless gossip, covetousness, ill will, holding on to wrong views. All of these negative actions, if you check, are motivated by the self-cherishing thought. And the self-cherishing thought convinces us that these negative actions perfectly okay because they bring their results quickly and easily.
So just check, analyze how the more we allow ourselves to be cheated by self-cherishing, the more we believe the lies that self-cherishing creates, the illusions it creates, the more we engage, activate our disturbing thoughts that bring us suffering now, create the causes for suffering in the future. self-cherishing looks like it’s gonna bring us happiness, but the actual result is suffering. And it’s the greatest obstacle to generating body all our good qualities that lead to bodhicitta and enlightenment. So then consider the very opposite mind state, which is cherishing others, cherishing others more than self. We instinctively tend to think, well, if I do that, how will I ever be happy if I only think of others?
I have to think about myself. I have to take care of myself. But the self that dominates our mind is the the wrong view of self for a for a start. So let’s investigate what cherishing others involves. How can we cherish others?
So instead of thinking about self, we think of others. Now how do we think of them? How do we cherish them? The only way to cherish them is with thoughts of love, compassion, with thoughts of tolerance tolerance and patience, forgiveness, with a mind of generosity. So by focusing more and more on others, cherishing others more and more, this activates more and more our virtuous states of mind.
And these virtuous these states of mind are the real cause of our own happiness. By activating those virtuous minds, they bring happiness. Activating those virtuous minds, they bring happy happiness into our mind the moment they arise, and they’re creating the cause for us to experience more happiness in the future. And just check how in order to engage in any all the ten virtuous behaviors, the virtue of not killing and the extra virtue of cherish preserving life, protecting life, nurturing life in order to avoid not stealing and engage in generosity and sharing. Sharing in order to engage in the virtue of not lying and the extra virtue of using one’s speech in really positive ways, one has to, in that moment, cherishing others more than self.
To not kill when we could kill, we have to be thinking of the other more than self. To not lie in that moment, we have to be thinking of the effect on other rather than me. So consider how every time we follow the self-cherishing thought, we are reinforcing the wrong view of self and is and creating negative karma. Every time we cherish others more than self, Every time we cherish others more than self, at the very least, we are not reinforcing the wrong view of self. We’re creating the space to develop the right view of self.
And in addition, we create merit. The basis of being able to generate bodhicitta, achieve liberation and enlightenment. The great bodhisattva Śāntideva says, whatever joy there is in this world, all comes from desiring others to be happy. And whatever suffering there is in the world, all comes from desiring myself to be happy. But what need is there to save much more?
The childish work for their own benefit, the Buddha’s work for the benefit of others. Just look at the difference between them. So bring the meditation to a conclusion by making a strong determination to be more and more mindful in daily life of the great harm of the self-cherishing thought and being determined to not follow it as much as possible and to be more and more mindful of the great benefits of cherishing others in order to be able to follow that mind more and more. So think the Buddha in the on the crown of your head is is very pleased with your meditation and shows this by dissolving into blissful golden light so that that light can pour down into you, blessing your mind to gain a clear realization of all the harms of self-cherishing, all the benefits of cherishing others more than self. 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 more and more. So we’ll take sorry. I’m a little bit confused with the time. I’m just a minute. I have to work this out.
So we finish at four. So we’ve got a kind of a almost fifteen minute tea break. Okay. Three three o’clock. For the afternoon.
So it’ll be a little bit longer than the others, not too much longer. And then I’ll just finish with a little bit of a talk, just a concluding concluding few points. So what we’re going to I mean, there’s many, many things we could meditate on in relation to the bodhisattva attitude, but I’ve what what we’ll do now is a little bit of meditation on patience because am I that bad? You’ve been practicing patience with me all this time. Okay.
Because this is one, like, one of the yes. It’s one of the six perfections. There’s perfection of generosity, which leads to perfection of morality, which leads to perfection of patience, which leads to perfection of perseverance, which leads to perfection of concentration, which leads to perfection of wisdom, which is the heart of the Buddha’s teachings. So it’s it’s kind of like the central perfection patience and is often said to be what for Bodhisattvas, one of the most of course, they’re all important, but in some ways, the most important for Bodhisattva because a Bodhisattva has dedicated their life to benefiting other sentient beings of bringing them happiness. And anger, which is patience as the antidote to, is most harmful to sentient beings.
So a bodhisattva certainly doesn’t want to harm even if they can’t be of a lot of benefit at the moment, a little bodhisattva. At least they don’t want to harm sentient beings, so they need to practice patience. So, of course, we as ordinary practitioners definitely learn to need to learn to practice patience, but especially if we want to follow the Bodhisattva path and adopt the bodhisattva attitude, we we definitely need to cultivate patience. And it is something like all spiritual qualities. They have to be cultivated.
They just don’t suddenly pop up in the mind. They have to be cult like, everything arises dependently. Nothing exists independently by itself. It arises dependently. So patience arises by depending on cultivating the causes for it.
If we don’t cultivate those causes, patience doesn’t exist. We have the potential for it, but the active quality won’t arise if we don’t cultivate it. Just being in an angry situation won’t make us patient. It will remind us that we should be patient. It will remind us that we should have cultivated cultivated patience, but it doesn’t make us patient.
We have to cultivate it, and we have to cultivate it when we’re not angry. The trouble is when we’re not angry, our self-cherishing tells us there’s no need to cultivate patience. There’s much much many more fun things to do. But since you’re trapped here now, we will close the door. We will cultivate patience.
So there are many ways to go about it, so there’s no time to cover all of these things, in this session. I’ll just try and cover some of the points. So, again, to make the meditation as effective as possible, it’s always worthwhile to firstly sit comfortably in the correct posture as much as possible. And then calm the mind by doing the nine round breathing exercise. If you’re not familiar with that, just simply observe the breath coming and going for a short time.
So then building on that that neutral mind, the strong, virtuous, positive mind of refuge in the triple gem, visualizing Śākyamūni Buddha on the crown of one’s head, and generating and cultivating as much as one can the bodhicitta thought to achieve enlightenment for the sake of others. And so it’s helpful to visualize all sentient beings surrounding oneself, starting with one’s parents of this life on either side, thinking of all sentient beings as only kind but only suffering. So in order to, achieve enlightenment, I have to follow the path, and that involves, avoiding all negative negative actions not only harm myself, but those they they lead to harm to others. So and by harming myself, creating negative karma, I’m creating obscurations, difficulties to follow the spiritual path. So so many negative actions are due to the to anger, so I need to cultivate cultivate patience.
I need to cultivate patience with the outside enemy, patience with my own inner difficulties. By cultivating these kinds of patience, I will then be able to develop the patience, which is perhaps in some ways the most important of all in achieving enlightenment, which is the patience of practicing the Dharma. So for the sake of all sentient beings, I will cultivate this mind. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, the Supreme Assembly. 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 Supreme Assembly. 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 Supreme Assembly. By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. So in this session, we’ll reflect on cultivating patience mainly in relation to so called enemy or harm.
But but by training in patience towards the enemy, this enables us to then be develop patience towards our own inner difficulties and developing patience in the practice of Dharma. So the the most basic way of cultivating patience is by cultivating a deeper and deeper awareness of how harmful anger is to oneself and others, all the disadvantages of getting angry. So just consider that when anger arises in our mind, it is painful. It is disturbing. And the Buddha discovered that the nature of a cause determines the nature of the result.
So the karmic result of anger, because it is in the nature of suffering, the karmic result can only be suffering. So every time we we we get into a state of anger, not only are we creating imprints to get angry in the future, but we’re creating these negative karmic imprints that can only bring suffering. Even if the reason we’re angry about some injustice to ourself or injustice towards others, that anger is a negative negative state of it’s a harmful, painful state of mind, so it can only bring suffering. So even if we’re trying to do something virtuous, there’s no point, and people are opposing us, no point to get angry because that anger is nonvirtuous, can only bring suffering. We may feel that that in some cases, it’s justified to be angry, such as when we’re an innocent victim and, for example, someone is trying to harm us, especially trying to kill us, then it’s okay to be angry to protect ourselves. But, actually, to die if we’re going to be killed, to die in an angry state of mind is the worst way to die.
Because if we die in in a negative state of mind, this is the condition for a negative throwing karma to ripen that can only bring the suffering of the lower realms. The worst an enemy can do to us is take our life. An enemy can never throw us into the lower realms. The only thing that throws us into the lower realms is our own lower negative states of mind, particularly anger. So not only does following anger create negative imprints that generate intense suffering in future lives, our anger has this very harmful effect of destroying our positive imprints, our merit.
And those positive imprints, our merit, what are going to bring about happiness while we remain in Samsāra, but especially that merit is needed as the condition to become free of cyclic existence, is the condition to achieve enlightenment. But every time we get angry, we’re not only creating negative positive imprints are so difficult to create, but so quickly destroyed by anger. And then particularly from a Bodhisattva point of view, one of greatest disadvantages of getting angry is that not only does our anger generate these negative imprints that bring suffering, especially in the lower realms, but even before those negative imprints ripen, those negative imprints act to obscure the mind. Our mind in its nature has Buddha quality, Buddha potential.
And what is obscuring that Buddha potential are the imprints of our delusions and the and our negative karmic imprints. And every time we get angry, we add to those negative imprints, obscure our mind even more. And what that means is that with the more obscured our mind is, the more difficult it is to meet the dharma. Even if we meet it with an obscured mind, it’s difficult to understand have faith in it. Even if we have faith in the Dharma, with an obscured mind, it’s difficult to understand it.
Even if we understand it with an obscured mind, it’s difficult to practice it. Even if we practice it with an obscured mind, it’s difficult to gain the true results. So the more we obscure the mind, the more we create obstacles to following the path that benefits sentient beings. And finally, one of the great disadvantages of anger, of course, is leads us to harm other sentient beings. The very thing that as a bodhisattva following the bodhisattva way of life, we’re trying to avoid.
And in addition, by following anger, creating negative karma, it throws us into the lower realms. While we’re suffering in the lower realms, there’s no way to benefit sentient beings, and we are postponing and delaying our following the path to enlightenment. And the great advantages of practicing patience is that it it means that we don’t create so much negative karma. We don’t obscure our mind so much. We don’t destroy our imprints, and patience enables us to bear the difficulties of difficult people.
It enables us to bear difficulties within ourselves, enables us to bear difficulties within ourselves. It enables us to bear the difficulties of practicing the path to enlightenment. And because we’re able to bear those difficulties, we those difficulties don’t stop us practicing. We continue to practice. Because we continue to practice, we’re able to develop our practice and actually gain all the stages of the path.
Whereas if we don’t have patience, the difficulties stop us following the path. We don’t progress. We don’t develop. We remain suffering in saṃsāra. So remember what the great bodhisattva Śāntideva said, Unruly beings are as unlimited as space.
They cannot possibly all be overcome. However, if I overcome thoughts of anger alone, overcome thoughts of anger alone, this will be equivalent to vanquishing all enemies. Where could I possibly find enough leather with which to cover surface of the earth? Yet wearing leather just on the soles of my shoes is equivalent to covering the earth with it. The great bodhisattva also says that there is nothing whatsoever that is not made easier through acquaintance.
So through becoming acquainted with small harms, I should learn to patiently accept greater harms. So patience begins to develop not only by understanding disadvantages of it and the disadvantages of anger and the advantages of being patient. patience can begin to develop by understanding what causes us to be angry. And although there are many, many different minor causes for anger, the underlying one is mental unhappiness, being discontented. Because our mind is discontented, because there is frustrated desire and attachment, we get angry.
Śāntideva says the fuel of mental unhappiness. So the more dissatisfied we are because of being under the control of afflicted desire and attachment, the more dissatisfied we are with ourselves, our life, our situation, the more angry we will become. The more prone to anger we will be. So the more we develop a contented mind that is not so much under the control of desire and attachment, the less likely we are to be angry. How can I have a more contented mind?
By making my life meaningful. How do I make my life meaningful? By the practice of Dharma. What is the most important Dharma practice? Giving up self-cherishing and cherishing others more than self.
Another way relation to thinking about the enemy themselves, the person that we blame for making me angry. So firstly, we we can analyze that why we get angry is we we we justify it and say that the enemy has made me angry. They have said something, done something, and that has made me angry. But the enemy doesn’t make us angry. It is our mind that does it.
It’s our mind thinking about the enemy, this this person in a particular way. And because we think about a person in a particular negative way, anger arises. That anger is painful, and but we blame that. We feel that that has come from the enemy. They are making me unhappy.
But it’s my own negative way of sinking that is painful. What makes the enemy appear in our mind? Or what is an enemy? An enemy is a person who goes against our self-cherishing thought. As soon as someone goes against our self-cherishing, we label that person enemy.
And as soon as we label a person enemy, they appear as the enemy, as the truly existent, inherently existent, real enemy, the really bad person, and we can’t bear that. And that mind that cannot bear that is anger. So it’s all a creation of our mind. Also consider why do we have enemies? Why do we come in contact with people who dislike us, who even want to harm us?
The very fundamental teaching of the Buddha on which everything is connected to is the law of cause and effect. One cannot experience an effect if one has not created the cause. If we create the cause, we experience the effect. To experience the effect of meeting a some a person who dislikes us, who wants to harm us, we have to have created the cause. Our mind, at some point, created the cause.
What is the main cause to create the effect of meeting the enemy? It’s getting angry. We get angry with someone. That is creating the cause to meet someone who dislikes us, wishes to harm us, gets angry with us. So why get angry with the enemy?
Because in a sense, we created the cause for them to exist. Especially consider that rather than focusing on what the enemy is doing to me, believing falsely that the enemy is making me unhappy and therefore getting angry about that, instead of focusing that way, if we focus in following the self-cherishing thought, we focus on what is happening to the enemy. Why is the enemy wanting to harm me? The only answer is because the enemy is suffering under the control of delusions. No one has the wish to cause harm if they are happy.
So the enemy is suffering. So the only valid response to suffering should be compassion, not aversion, not anger. The great Śāntideva says, if someone hits you with a stick, you don’t don’t get angry with a stick even though it’s the actually the stick causing the harm. We get angry with the person holding the stick because they’re the one wanting to cause the harm. But Śāntideva says if you investigate further in the same way as that that we don’t get angry with a stick, we shouldn’t get angry with a person because the person is is being held like the stick under the control of anger.
If we if we’re going to be upset or angry with anything, we should be angry with the enemy’s anger, not with them, because they are suffering because of their anger. The harm they’re creating me, causing me is nothing to the harm that they are causing themselves. So we can be patient towards the enemy, not only from the point of view of developing compassion rather than aversion, understanding the enemy is suffering. But we can also develop gratitude to the enemy because the enemy is forcing us to develop patience, reminding us to develop patience. The enemy is showing me that the real enemy is inside me.
The real enemy is my own anger. So the outside enemy is in a sense my best friend. So no reason to be angry. So we can bring this meditation to a conclusion by making a strong determination to be more and more mindful in daily life of all disadvantages of being angry, the the advantages of practicing patience, to be more and more mindful that those who seem to be harming me are actually causing far greater harm to themselves and are doing so because they’re already suffering. So they really deserve my compassion, not my aversion.
And if it wasn’t for my anger, I wouldn’t have enemies. So then recall the Buddha on one’s crown, imagining the Buddha extremely pleased with this meditation and all the effort one’s put in today in this little retreat, short retreat. So then imagine the Buddha shows his pleasure by dissolving into blissful golden light, which then is able to pour down in us, blessing our mind to be able to gain the realization of patience, not only to the enemy, but to all inner difficulties and especially the patience of practicing the Dharma. 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 precious — oh, sorry. May the supreme jewel bodhicitta that has not arisen arise and grow. May that which has arisen not diminish but increase more and more. Okay. Right.
Just a few more words to conclude. So the bodhisattva attitude, one of the many many ways to express it is that the bodhisattva thinks of themselves as the servant of all, the self-cherishing thought thinks that everyone else should look after me, but a bodhisattva is generating the mind thinking that they are the servant of all sentient beings. They exist to help sentient beings in every possible way. So this is something that we can try and cultivate. And Lama Yeshe, just to finish with a couple more things I want to say, but Lama Yeshe once said, I think this is the very last comes from the very last talk he ever gave, which was on amazingly, it was on bodhicitta.
So Lama said Lama Yeshe said, we should develop the the Mahāyāna mind, the wise universal vehicle, respect others as we respect ourselves, put others in our place, and share our time and energy with them, actually give ourselves to others. The ability to do so is our greatest gift and the highest human potential. Infinite kindness and sensitivity to the immediate and ultimate needs of others brings human totality, something that each of us can definitely achieve. And I I don’t know who said this, but it comes from the teachings. From the Lojong teachings, it says, cherish this is the Bodhisattva attitude.
Cherish others more than self. Cherish the enemy more than the friend. Cherish suffering more than happiness, and cherish sentient beings more than Buddhas. That’s the that’s the Mahāyāna that’s the Bodhisattva attitude in a nutshell. And just one more quote.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the retreat that Lama Zopa Rinpoche held in Bendigo in October last year was emphasizing emphasizing this daily meditation practice that he wanted all the students to do first thing in the morning. And and the very first thing in the morning, he said that we should think is this, which was transforming the mind into the motivation of bodhicitta for this and all future lives. So Rinpoche says, in daily life, at the beginning of each day, after opening your eyes so in other words, as soon as you open your eyes, think. This is what we should think. The eyes open, just barely open, and then one thinks, oh, I have to read this.
Should have memorized it. But until I achieve enlightenment and until I die, especially today, may all the activities of my body, speech, and mind, such as listening, reflecting, and meditating on the Dharma, walking, sitting, sleeping, and so on, not become the cause of suffering, but become the cause cause of happiness, and especially the cause to achieve the state of total enlightenment, that is a method for accomplishing happiness and benefit for all sentient beings. That’s the bodhisattva attitude. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Hope to see you again. Hope I didn’t frighten you away from this. Announcements? No. Do we have any announcements?
Yeah. I thought that that looked like an announcement. Look.