Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 108-minute session from the Discovering Buddhism course, Ven Thubten Dondrub guides practitioners through the foundational stages of the path to enlightenment, with emphasis on developing the right motivation and understanding suffering. After setting proper motivation through refuge and a blessing visualization, he reviews core concepts: impermanence, the certainty of rebirth, and the law of cause and effect. He then introduces the twelve links of dependent origination to deepen conviction in the need for liberation from cyclic existence. The teaching pivots sharply into the Mahāyāna perspective and bodhicitta—the aspiration to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. Dondrub walks through the psychological work required: overcoming the habit of dividing people into friends, enemies, and strangers by cultivating equanimity. He then systematically presents Asaṇga’s six causes and one effect method for generating bodhicitta: recognizing all beings have been one’s mother, recalling their kindness, wishing to repay that kindness, developing great love and compassion, generating the superior resolve to enlighten all beings alone, and thereby recognizing that one must become a Buddha. The talk is dense and meditative in tone, aimed at practitioners already engaged with Buddhist practice and willing to undertake serious inner transformation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2013 09 10 DB Presenting the Path Week 5 100913.mp3
UUID: 4a85b32c-0628-46fe-b022-b6572132c762
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: DB Presenting the Path (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2013-09-10
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 108.4 minutes
Words: ~12,839
So, good evening everyone. Welcome to our Discovering Buddhism for Tuesday night. We’re on class number five. So, we start to make the evening as meaningful as possible to make it a Dharma practice then from our own side it’s really important that we try to have the right motivation. And so the most basic motivation that makes something a Dharma practice if we want it to be is having the thought to use the teachings to turn the mind away from this life, so that we can achieve a good rebirth.
So that’s the fundamental spiritual motivation from a Buddhist perspective. But more than that we can have the wish to listen to the teachings in order to put them into practice, in order to become totally free of suffering. But beyond that the greatest motivation that we can possibly have is to want to put the teachings into practice to free our mind of all confusion, awaken all good qualities so that we can achieve enlightenment, so that we can repay the kindness we owe to all sentient beings. And that motivation arises from developing that deeper and deeper recognition of how we are interconnected with every sentient being. We totally depend on them and most particularly their kindness and especially the kindness of a mother which we’ve received from every sentient being during beginningless life, beginningless saṃsāra many many times.
And it comes from recognizing that these kind beings are like oneself trapped in cyclic existence but unlike oneself, most of these beings have far more suffering with far less ability at the moment to make sense of their suffering, to modify it, transform it or eliminate it. So if we think about those things on the basis of especially of having some faith in the Buddha and the Buddha’s teachings and which leads us to develop some faith in our own Buddha potential. Then we can start to develop this very sincere wish to achieve enlightenment for the sake of others. So please try and generate something along those that motivation or something along the lines of that motivation tonight, now, and to help us if you feel it’s worthwhile. Is the prayer of refuge in bodhicitta on page nine and as we say that prayer then to make it as meaningful as possible we think of the Buddha in front of us as the source of refuge, inspiration, guidance, the very embodiment of all perfect qualities.
And at the same time trying to have a sense, a strong sense of all sentient beings surrounding us. At very least thinking of those that we’re most connected to in this lives. So starting with our parents on either side, then family, friends and helpers behind us, those who harm us in front. Then as much as possible we open our hearts and minds to an awareness of all the other beings of cyclic existence. So at least trying to think of the human beings of this world.
And having that sense that all of these beings, the essential reality is that they are only kind but they are only suffering. So think no matter what, now that I have this precious human rebirth, no matter what, I must use it to free my mind, awaken all not just this life, all future lives, to become free of all negativities, awaken all positive qualities. So to do that I have to follow the path And to be able to do that successfully, I need to understand the path. So that’s why I’m understanding that’s why I’m studying this presentation of the path to enlightenment. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, Dharma, the supreme assembly by the merits I create through teaching the Dharma.
May I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings. So then if you find it helpful, imagine the Buddha being pleased with your practice and your motivation and showing this by now coming to the crown of our one’s head. So and then just for a short time, we can recite, just maybe three times the Śākyamūni Buddha mantra. And as we do so, imagine that this blissful white light and nectar pours down from the Buddha into us, freeing our mind of all confusion, all negativities, all suffering, all its causes. So then think the Buddha dissolves into blissful golden light.
And that golden light pours down into you blessing your mind. Awakening all the positive potentials of your mind. As a result awakening that sense of vast clarity, spaciousness, pervaded by great love and compassion, wisdom. And then we can reinforce that positive state of mind by just briefly doing the nine round breathing exercise. So that the mind can become a little bit more calm, clearer, concentrated.
So that we can use that mind to listen to and think about the Buddha’s teachings tonight. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So just quickly going over what we’re doing.
If we only think of this life, believe in the existence of this life then our mind is attached to the things of this life. But if by meeting, for example, the Buddha’s teachings, we start to become aware that we have a mind, that our mind is something that is going to go on forever. It will go beyond this life. It doesn’t stop with this life, but it goes on continuously, always giving rise to experience. We can then start to realize that we need to use this life to ensure that we get a good rebirth because a rebirth is coming and it’s in our hands to determine what kind of rebirth we have.
If if if we take, you know, control of our mind. If we don’t, then who knows what is going to happen to us. But since it’s so easy to create negative actions that lead to negative results, If we don’t control our mind it’s almost guaranteed to have a difficult rebirth, suffering rebirth. If we study the teachings more, get a deeper feeling for the teachings of the Buddha and the nature of cyclic existence, we start to develop the understanding that well maybe to go back. So and in looking for working for a good rebirth The crucial thing is understanding how everything one’s attached to wastes time on is impermanent.
So that will help us, renounce this life, renounce our obsession with things, meaningless or negative things, and turn our mind to what is really meaningful. And it will encourage us to rely on the Buddha, the Buddha’s teachings to take refuge. And the more we take refuge in the triple gem of Buddha, Dharma, Sangha this leads us to take refuge in our own inner wisdom and the potential of our mind. To see that as the source of all things and it will lead us to want to take care of our mind more and more. And the way to do that is to understand the law of cause and effect in order to be able to live one’s life according to it.
Because this will help us avoid the causes of suffering in this and future lives and help create the causes of happiness in this and future lives. But as we study the teachings more and more, become more familiar with our mind and its potential for suffering and happiness, we see that staying in saṃsāra, while the mind is controlled by delusion and karma, we may be able to get good rebirths, but we won’t experience we won’t be free of suffering, and we won’t experience genuine happiness. So that helps us to develop this great renunciation, wanting to be free of every kind of suffering and all its causes. And so that comes about by understanding more and more, reflecting more and more deeply on the suffering nature of cyclic existence which is one’s own mind controlled by delusion and karma. The more we see that while our mind remains controlled by delusion and karma, there will always be some kind of suffering and there will be problems and difficulties in our life.
It’s inescapable because the causes of those things remain in our mind. So we need to reflect on those things more and more and realise more and more that the causes of all our suffering lie within our mind in our disturbing thoughts. And the basis of those disturbing thoughts is this fundamental affliction in our mind which is ignorance that causes us to experience our self and everything in a false way. So when we start to really understand that, when we really get that more and more, this will cause us to develop great renunciation and want it will lead us to want to work for liberation to be free of cyclic existence. And one thing that helps us to reinforce that renunciation to increase it, make it more powerful is to study, to understand how we are propelled into suffering rebirth over and over again through studying the twelve links which I didn’t talk about last week.
Actually one of the most technical academic complicated subjects in the Buddhadharma and really to make any sense of it one needs to talk for, you know, give a few talks on it not just five minutes. But just very quickly if you happen to have your outline which I gave you about this. I don’t think I’ve got it here but anyway. The twelve links is explaining how one takes rebirth in cyclic existence. So the first link is the link of ignorance.
So because of ignorance we create negative actions but also positive actions. The negative actions lead to obvious suffering in saṃsāra. The positive actions based on ignorance lead to the so called happiness of cyclic existence as a human or in the god realms. But that happiness is not real happiness. It’s just the suffering of change.
Right? So once we follow ignorance that more automatically leads to the second link which is the link of karmic formations which means that we create these positive and negative imprints in our consciousness. This leads to the third link which is consciousness. So this doesn’t mean that we create consciousness as a result but it’s referring to the fact that now the third link is referring to a consciousness that now has a particular karma, karmic imprint in it. That particular throwing karma that has the potency when it ripens at the time of death to determine what kind of rebirth we will have.
So this, once that third link of consciousness bearing the karmic imprint is generated this leads to the next of the twelve links which is name and form. So this refers to the actually very specifically wait a minute. Name refers to consciousness and form refers to the body. So we are made up of a body and a consciousness. But this name and form particularly refers to the very beginning of the new life form that’s that’s going to take place in our next life.
In other words, the yeah. Well, let’s let’s just leave it at that for the time being. So once that link is established of the the new consciousness, a new basis of physical matter in the next life, What what develops is, for example, in the womb of a human being, in the embryo, in the fetus, the the sixth sense powers develop. The the the eye the eye power, the ear power, nose, tongue, body, and so on. And so once they are established, that inevitably leads at some point to contact where you have the eye you have the eye sense power or the sense power, the particular consciousness associated with it such as there’s the eye sense power, then there’s the eye consciousness, and then there is the object of the eye consciousness.
So contact refers to when those three things come together. And once that occurs, once there is contact between, just to keep it simple, example the eye consciousness and the objects of the eye consciousness or the ear consciousness and the object of the ear consciousness, taste consciousness, and the object of taste consciousness, have automatically what starts is the next link, which is feeling of which there are only three kinds, pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feelings. And once feelings start arising, that automatically leads to the next link which is craving because we crave pleasant feelings. We crave the cessation or that we crave this the continuation or or increase of pleasant feelings. We crave the cessation of unpleasant feelings, and we even crave the continuation of neutral feelings.
Yeah. Better? Okay. You have to tell me soon straight away. Don’t be polite.
Yeah. Because we have to record this properly. Yeah. And once that starts, that leads to the next link, which is called grasping, which is basically just a stronger form of craving. And once that happens, that link leads to the very next link, which is becoming.
I hope. Existence. Sorry. Yeah. Well, that’s another term for it.
Existence or becoming. So what this is you know, of course, we have craving and grasping at various times of our of of our life. But here, these two links of craving and grasping particularly refer to craving and grasping that arise during the death process in the last moments of a life. And that that craving and grasping cause that karmic imprint which is the second link which is being carried by the consciousness which is the third link. It causes that karmic imprint to start to ripen.
And so becoming is that link that refers to the moment just before the karma that throws us into the next life ripens. So it’s a little bit like a seed that is just just about to sprout. If you’re ever a kid, I don’t if they still do this at school, where you have a little bit of cotton cloth and cotton wool and you stick some wheat seeds in it, you know, and then you watch them, you know, and there’s a moment where it hasn’t sprouted yet, but you can see it’s just about the little green bit is just gonna pop out of the seed. So that’s what becoming or existence is referring to. And once that has happened the next link is inevitable which is birth.
And what birth specifically refers to is not actually, for example, in the case of humans coming out of the womb, it refers to fertilization of the sperm and the ovum which comes together because happens because consciousness is present. And once that happens, of course, once you have that, that leads to ordinary birth and once one is born, that leads to aging and death. Because once we’re born, we have to die. Everything that is depends on causes and conditions has to die, is impermanent. So birth occurs depending on causes and conditions.
This body arises depending on causes and conditions. So it’s impermanent. So there is aging and death. So once birth occurs, death has to occur. So you have aging and death and as the Buddha says in between birth and death there is old age, sickness, suffering, lamentation.
Yeah, all that horrible stuff. So once ignorance starts, once there’s a moment of ignorance it sets off this whole chain of the twelve links. So by reflecting on that one can get the sense of how inevitable rebirth is because of ignorance. Anyway, it’s a very complicated subject how that really works. Anyway, had to say something about it.
So anyway, the more we reflect on this, then this will help us to make the decision I am going to destroy ignorance. I’m going to free myself from suffering. So to do that, the only way to do that is to free my mind of ignorance. So when one develops that state of mind genuinely then this is renunciation. The great renunciation.
Which is what in the life of the Buddha when he left the palace he cut off his hair and said, you know, that’s it. I’m I’m not interested in being a king, having lots of palaces and wives and wealth and blah blah blah because it’s all impermanent. Everyone dies. There’s only suffering. I want to be free of all that.
So we have to get to that point. And it’s really about thinking about suffering. No one likes this. Everyone hates this. But it comes from thinking about how one has suffering and it’s inevitable while one has a mind controlled by delusion and karma.
And everyone we love is in the same situation. They are going to suffer and continue to suffer because they have delusion and karma and they’re not doing anything to stop it. Most people are living a life that is not in any way touching their delusions and karma. No matter how intelligent, successful they are. Having a billion dollars, a huge house isn’t touching one’s delusions.
Being healthy and strong isn’t touching one’s delusions, isn’t reducing them. It’s not in any way putting a dent in saṃsāra. It’s just perpetuating it. So now we move into the next tonight’s topic. I spent most of tonight on the old topic.
But yeah. So we have to anyway, just again to reemphasize this point, we have to think about these subjects again and again. These teachings are set out. You know, the teachings are set out to encourage us to meditate on them. The teachings are set out so that we reflect on the essential points and that we have to do this many, many, many times.
Many of the aspects of the Buddha’s teachings are very easy, I think, if we have the karma to understand and relate to. And people make the mistake of thinking, oh, I I I understand that. I know that. I believe that. I’ve got that.
But we haven’t. It’s just intellectual. And that intellectual understanding helps us to a certain extent but not enough. We have to get the realization. Yeah?
Which is somehow, you know, it’s difficult to define what a realization is but it’s something that is completely transformative and it lasts and it’s authentic. It’s not some it comes about by thinking, reflecting, but when the realization comes it it then becomes something a way of experiencing oneself in the world that is completely natural. You don’t have to think about it. We it’s just it it becomes part of us, becomes an established part of us. So that’s what we have to achieve.
And when we get all the realizations, then one’s enlightened. But there’s an awful lot of them to get. But, yeah, if we work at them, you know, it happens. As I’ve often explained before, and I’ll do it once again because maybe some of you haven’t. You know, here’s the Buddha’s teachings and this is our mind.
And the Buddha’s teachings, you you hear them and they bounce off like most of the hearer, you’re not listening to me thinking about supper or what’s on TV. You know, I could have been watching what so and so. Anyway, but, you know, if you hear the same things many, many times, you know, eventually, you know, it it goes into your mind a little bit, but then it falls out again. You we forget it. Yeah?
So what we have to do in meditation is you have to keep putting it in your mind, and you hit it, hit it, hit it, bang it, bang it into your mind until eventually it won’t come out. It’s stuck in there. It’s part of your mind. Yeah. And if we don’t do that, the realizations don’t come.
It’s something that one has to work at again and again and again. But the nature of the mind is through the power of familiarity, something that is not known at first and therefore is very difficult to understand or do. Through the power of familiarity. Eventually, it becomes something extremely easy to understand and do. We have a technical problem.
It’s okay? Right. I mean, sorry this probably sounds pompous or pretentious. But in my own case, thirty six years ago, I knew nothing about Buddhadharma. Thirty six, thirty seven years ago.
I didn’t know anything. Now I know something through the power of familiarity. I can even talk about it through the power of familiarity. I can even I even understand some of it. Yeah, that I didn’t understand before.
I don’t understand it much, but a little bit. Just through the power of familiarity, it comes. And I believe it. This is also amazing through the power of familiarity, things I thought was so weird and strange at first and difficult to believe. I believe through the power of familiarity.
So anyway, so now we’re moving into the next part which is the Mahāyāna aspect of the teaching. Well, it’s all presented from a Mahāyāna point of view. So firstly, psychologically we have to move we’re only thinking about ourselves mostly and our family and friends in this life. Yeah. But even sorry to put it very bluntly.
Even when we think about our family and friends, we think about our family and friends because they’re my family and friends. And it’s all about me. Well, maybe not all, but there’s a certain a large about, you know, why I love my family and friends is because they make me happy and secure and everything. Yeah. There’s a lot of me in all of that.
Yeah. There’s nothing very spiritual in in in taking care of your well, I’m sorry. I’ll probably get killed for this. In taking care of one’s family and friends. That that’s what, you know, all human beings do, take care of family and friends Oh, nice human beings.
Some people don’t take care of their family and friends, but it’s no big deal. Even animals take care of their family and friends. Yeah. It’s nothing very special. It’s only when we start to go beyond family and friends that something really special happens.
Something that one can put in the category of spiritual behavior perhaps. So firstly, we we’re thinking about just, you know, the essential thing is me, and therefore, firstly, we’re we’re confused in thinking about just this life. Then through understanding the teachings, think we have we realize we have to think about a good rebirth. Then we have to realize we have to get out of saṃsāra. Just a good rebirth is nothing.
We’ve got we’ve got to get out of saṃsāra. But but once we’ve developed that mind, we’re in a position to start to develop something really incredible, which is bodhicitta, where we can really think about others in a really amazing, profound, selfless way. Because and I know I’ve made the point before. It’s basically realizing how oneself depends on others. And others are suffering.
So as my teaching in the first teaching I received it was a month long teaching I received from Lama Zopa Rinpoche who is this being next to His Holiness there. And who is the spiritual head of this center in the FBMT organization. Once made this very simple analogy that you’re walking along in a forest with your mother and a tiger jumps out of the forest and you scramble up a tree and leave your mother to be eaten by the tiger. Yeah. You know, you’re up the tree watching, you know, oh, mom’s being eaten by the tiger.
I’m so glad I escaped. Glad it’s not me. You know, I hope you know. So how can we do that? How can we let our mother be eaten by a tiger?
The person who gave birth to us and gave us our body and our life and looked after us and suffered for us. How can we do that? If one could argue maybe we could you know, it’s okay because we don’t have the ability to kill stop the tiger, kill it or whatever, protect our mother. But the Buddha is telling us actually we do. We have Buddha nature.
We have this potential to become a Buddha. So how can we let others suffer? Those who we totally depend on. So while we’re in cyclic existence we totally depend on other sentient beings directly and indirectly in every conceivable way. And, but also to get out of cyclic existence the only way we can do it is depending on others.
There’s no way to practice any spiritual path without depending on others directly and indirectly. Every you know and the Buddha depended on others to achieve enlightenment. Everyone depends and to achieve nirvana. Everyone does. So how can we escape, get out of cyclic existence and leave everyone to suffer?
That’s the question. This is the Mahāyāna perspective. And the answer is we can’t. When we have the ability to help everyone. If I can remember my wonderful analogy, it’s like being in prison.
First we’re prison and before we meet the teachings, we don’t even know it. So we’re in prison and but we don’t know it. So we waste our life rearranging our prison cell, make trying to make it nicer, paint the walls, new new furniture. And what we don’t know about this prison is because we’re we’re only familiar with our little cell or, you know, the immediate environment is actually our cell is a really nice one. And, actually, we’re in a concentration camp, and we’re gonna be gassed later on, tortured and gassed.
Yeah. But we don’t know that because we have blinked, you know, and we’re just focused on rearranging our room, making it nice for me. So then at some point, because we meet the Buddhist teachings, we realize we’re in this concentration camp and that we need to not we have to stop wasting time painting the walls of the room, but we have to escape because we’re gonna get tortured and burned, screaming, and gassed. But but the, you know, in this concentration camp, it doesn’t happen once. You get, you know, tortured, burnt, gassed, buried, and again and again and again and again, life after life.
Get put back at the nice cell, then taken out and tortured, put back in the nice cell, burnt, saṃsāra going around and around. So then one decides, oh, I’ve got to dig a tunnel. Instead of painting the walls, I’ve got to put my energy into digging a tunnel out for me to escape. But then the Mahāyāna thought comes that rather than putting just all that energy into digging a little tunnel for me to escape, actually, if I put in a bit more effort, I can dig a big tunnel and get everyone out. That is the Mahāyāna thought.
That is bodhicitta. Because I have to, you know, I have to help everyone escape. Just because just as I fear the suffering of saṃsāra, this concentration, everyone else fears it, is is going to experience it. And all these beings have been immensely kind to me. I’m totally dependent on them.
So I have to help them escape. So I’m gonna big this build this big tunnel so we can all escape. So to develop bodhicitta there are two major methods of generating developing bodhicitta. Because to develop the mind of bodhicitta which is the wish to achieve enlightenment in order to stop the suffering of all sentient beings and lead them to perfect happiness. That mind just won’t suddenly pop in suddenly arise in our mind.
Yeah. It just won’t. One has to create the causes for us. It arises depending on causes. So there are two main systems of cultivating and maintaining bodhicitta.
One comes from a great bodhisattva, Indian master called Asaṇga who lived around the I think about the fourth century of this present era. And the other method was developed by another great Indian bodhisattva, great master called Śāntideva who lived in the eighth century of this era. So I’m going talk about a little bit about the first method by Asaṇga which is called the six causes and one effect technique of generating bodhicitta. So but before before we are able to begin to develop bodhicitta, firstly, as a basis for both methods of developing bodhicitta, we have to develop the mind of equanimity. Because right now, because our mind is controlled by the wrong view of self and we have self-cherishing where we see everything from the perspective of me in a very limited way in this very short sighted view of just wanting sort of chasing after happiness quickly and easily for oneself.
Because of that self-cherishing mind we almost automatically put everyone that we meet or think about into one of three boxes. That people are either friends, strangers, or enemies. Enemies doesn’t mean necessarily you super hate them. Here, just in this context, it’s someone you kind of don’t like, even a little bit. And that’s what we do.
We either have friends, strangers, or enemies. And if you check why is if you think of three people, this is one way to develop equanimity by the way. In meditation what you do is you pick three people that you know. One, a friend. One, who’s a a stranger.
But here a stranger doesn’t mean someone you don’t know at all. But someone you kind of know, but you you don’t you don’t really bother with them. You may see them in the street, on the bus, someone who works in the same building or same office as you do, but you don’t really talk to them, don’t care about them one way or another. But you know them. But you you you remain indifferent to them.
You’re a they’re they’re a stranger to you. And then you think of someone you know who you don’t like. Just a little bit. So also you pick three people. One, the friend shouldn’t be a strong friend.
Just a just a a little friend. A little enemy. Don’t someone you not you don’t pick you don’t start off with someone you really detest. Just someone you have a slight aversion to and then a stranger. And then you look at those three people and then you think you try and look see why in your mind’s eye.
Why is these are three human beings. Right? There are three human beings. So why is this one a friend? Why is this one a stranger?
And why is this one an enemy? They’re just three human beings. The answer I’ll I’ll give you the answer, but you can check out whether it’s true or not. Why this person is a friend is because when you met them, they said something that went along with our self-cherishing. So that’s a friend.
It could only be something very simple like just they smiled at me. Oh, I like people smiling at me. Friend. Why is this person enemy? Because they didn’t smile.
Don’t like that. Not only they didn’t smile, they kind of gave me a dirty look. Don’t like that one. Didn’t fit. Went against my self-cherishing.
And this stranger? They weren’t nice. They weren’t not nice. They were just kind of so so. So I don’t care.
Indifferent. That’s what we do, generally speaking. And we do it instantly. We don’t even really think about it too much. So it’s all done on what people do immediately and as soon as a person does that we label them friend, enemy, stranger and then it becomes permanent.
Based on that one thing, this is my permanent friend, permanent enemy, permanent stranger. And so we we we act or react to them, you know, to the friend. We’re friendly. So they remain friend. To the enemy, we we are kind of, you know, send out bad vibes.
They pick up on the bad vibes. So enemy remains enemy. Stranger, we don’t, you know, we ignore them, so we don’t get to know them. So they remain a stranger. And that proves I was right.
This is my friend. This is a stranger. This is an enemy. Yeah. That’s how we live our life.
But it’s completely so but so and that becomes the basis and, you know, to some extent what we’re doing is that our attachment tells us that my family and my friends are the most amazing people in the world. Right? These are the best people in the world so they deserve all my good thoughts and attention. And these are the terrible people and these people don’t count. But that’s not true.
That’s not reality at all. And this this process of seeing friend people as friend, enemy, stranger is is the the basis for our delusions to always operate. Desire for the friends, desire and attachment to friends, aversion to enemies, indifference to strangers. And so that’s creating more negativities but also that process is blocking our potential to develop genuine love and compassion. Because what we think of as love and compassion for our family and friends, much of it is actually attachment.
It’s not real love, it’s attachment. And it prevents us developing real love for everyone because that’s our potential. Because what is love? It is the mind wanting happiness, and it arises from seeing that, for example, oneself or others lacks happiness. So then you want them to have it.
But if you only focus on these people, friends, family, and you say, these are the good people, the rest are either strangers or enemies. Only these people deserve love. That isn’t love. That’s that is partial. That’s a partial kind of love.
Yeah. And of course having aversion to some people that blocks there’s no way to develop love when we have aversion. And even if you think about it when one is indifferent that is also a great obstacle to developing love and compassion. It seems very ordinary, bland, nothing wrong with being indifferent. But actually it’s a huge obstacle to developing love and compassion.
I don’t care about all these people. And of course, strangers are the vast majority. You know? How many friends do we have? I mean, some people on Facebook have what?
I didn’t know a thousand friends? But they don’t know them anyway. Right? But thousand people is not many. Even if they really were friends, a thousand people is nothing.
There’s an awful lot more people to like than a thousand people. Just human beings on this earth, even in this city. So while we have that mind, there’s there’s no equanimity. Our mind goes up when there’s friends, down when there’s enemies, indifferent when there’s strangers. You know, our disturbing thoughts are always active and blocking the potential for real love, real compassion.
So what we need to do to counteract that, the antidote to that is developing equanimity. Equanimity. Where one tries to where one cultivates this potential to have an equal an equanimous mind, an equal feeling, an equally positive feeling towards everyone. And the the main way with there’s not a lot of time now to go into the details of it. But the main way to cultivate it is to break down the old habits is to realize that these categories of friend, enemy, stranger if you think about why we put so much time and energy into friends is because we think they will always be our friends.
We just assume that this person will always be kind to me, I will always like them, we will always have a good relationship. And therefore it’s worthwhile spending time and energy and even money on them Because it’s always going to be nice. Maybe I shouldn’t give a very painful example, but you know there is people get married, they love each other, you know, and they’re going to live forever and have babies and everything together. And then people fall out of love and end up hating each other. You know, many people say, like divorce lawyers say, that divorce cases are some of the most brutal nasty, vicious things ever between people who originally, supposedly loved each other.
Yeah? So if these people who loved each other could see that a few years later they would hate each other, would they have got married? Would they have done the things they did? Maybe not. They might have had a much more equanimous attitude to the whole thing.
But we have this idea that these the it’s never going to change. They’re they’re never gonna change. My mind is not going to change. But in fact, I my mind can change. Other people’s minds can change.
Friends can become enemies. Enemies can become strangers. Enemies can become friends. We go to war with countries and those people become our enemies. Then the war stops, and then they become our friends.
It’s really quite crazy. So if we start to realize how it’s all impermanent, it’s all impermanent and all can change. If the enemy suddenly did something nice to me, do I have to still think of them as an enemy? No. But we always, because of our self-cherishing, we always wait for other people to do nice things to me.
Yeah. But if we, from our side, instead of treating the enemy as the enemy, treated them them as the friend, maybe they’ll change. If we stopped ignoring the stranger and got to know them, maybe we discover they were really nice people, much nicer than our friends, much more interesting. But it’s not even a matter of actually physically getting to know people and this or that. It’s it’s a mental attitude towards people.
And particularly, it doesn’t matter how people react to me from my side. I will be friend to them. We can still protect ourselves from any harm people may send towards us, but the best protection is protecting our mind. And the best protection for our mind is wishing them happiness. Because as soon as we wish negative things towards others, have aversion and hatred, who are we actually harming with our hatred?
Not the other person, ourself. So the best protection is wishing them happiness. And we can, you know and and and it comes from realizing, you know, the friend hasn’t always been friend. In past lives, they were terrible to me. So why am I so attached now?
The enemy hasn’t always been my enemy. In past lives, they’ve been my best friend. In future lives, they’ll become my best friend again. They’ll become my mother again. So why have I so much aversion right now?
The stranger has been my best friend in past lives, will become my best friend in future lives. So why am I so indifferent now? Is our self-cherishing only thinks about the what Lama Zopa Rinpoche calls the nearest moment? You know? I told you about the blade of grass, didn’t I?
Yes. I did. The movie. The movie. It’s called El Vera Madigan.
You know? If you hold a piece of grass up to your eye, you can block out the entire world. You just think about the nearest moments and everything else you forget. Don’t, you know, you don’t wanna know about. Not good.
So but if we think about this way, it can start to loosen these very fixed ways of thinking about others, ourself, and how we relate to people. But we have to train our mind to think like this, to realize that everything is impermanent. Everything can change. Friend can become enemy. Enemy can become friend.
So why get so attached? Why have so much aversion? So much indifference? It all can change. People can change.
I can change. And also, especially if we start to understand about emptiness, you know, it’s about how things don’t truly exist from their own side. But if if, know, if you take, it’s easier to talk about than actually experience it. But, you know, if you sit in meditation and your knees hurt, you can just think of it, you can try and think of it as just a sensation. Yeah?
But if you start telling yourself, oh, this is painful. Oh, oh, this is painful. Oh, this is really painful. Oh, this is really, really painful. Oh, I can’t bear this.
As soon as we say that, what was a pain or just a sensation, if you call it a pain, it becomes pain. And I don’t mean just saying the word, not like the new age where you do these days people like my age don’t have problems anymore, they just have issues. People my age have problems, but sorry. So just relabeling something in some ways is good but if the mind it’s really about the mindset. You know, if you think of if you really think of something as something, it becomes that something.
So as soon as you tell yourself, we tell ourselves, this is a pain, it becomes a pain. And as soon as we tell ourselves that this is unbearable, it becomes unbearable. Before, one moment before, it wasn’t. But as soon as we decide, our mind decides unbearable, it becomes unbearable. If we don’t make that decision, it just remains painful.
Or very painful, but not unbearable. And you check. It’s the same with someone talk like the boss talking to you, just pointing out you’ve made some mistake in work. And this is kind of you know, you feel a little bit uncomfortable. I don’t like especially other people listening, So you feel a bit uncomfortable.
Don’t like but the boss goes on and on and on, and the criticism gets worse and worse and worse. And, you know, you’re getting ups more upset inside. And then then and then then your mind says, it’s unbearable. And then you get angry. And then there’s the enemy.
Just before they were annoying, irritating, now I can’t bear this guy anymore. I can’t bear it. And then the mind explodes, and there is an enemy. Before it, they were just annoying, very annoying, okay person but very annoying starting to get a very annoying person. But now I can’t stand this guy.
I’m gonna kill him. Sorry. Yeah. One labels, and as soon as the mind labels, it is that thing for oneself. There is the enemy, a real, real enemy.
And this is the real friend, and this is a real stranger. And it’s all in one’s head. But we think it’s really out there. But we can change how we think. So we have to think like that to develop equanimity, to keep the mind at balance, to avoid what Lama Yeshe used to call the yo yo mind.
When there’s the friend, we’re happy. Also same with not just people, but this is particularly here in developing bodhicitta, it’s about people. But also it works with things. You know, when there’s nice things, oh, happy. When there’s bad things, unhappy, neutral.
So the mind goes up and down. You know, sunshine, happy. You know, rain, unhappy. You know, friend, happy. No friend, unhappy.
No equanimity. Yeah. And no space for love and compassion. So the basis of bodhicitta is developing equanimity. Equanimity.
Having that equal you know, if you ever have the good fortune to meet his holiness especially in person, but you know, if you hear his holiness talks, talk giving talks, he talks about his friends. I have this friend who said so and so. And it sounds like this is this person he’s known for a million years and they’re sort of super super friends. And actually often it’s just someone he’s met for five minutes. And I’ve had the good me me me me me.
I’ve had the good fortune of meeting his holiness a few times, being in the room with his holiness, sitting on the seat next to his holiness. And when you’re with his holiness, even though he he’s incredibly busy and he’s got a lineup of, you know, twenty other people to see, in the moment you’re with him, it feels like you’re the only person he’s thinking about, and you’re his friend. And and it’s genuine. It’s not an act. It’s completely because they his holiness has, know, apart from everything else, he has equanimity.
Yeah? He has this equal feeling. You are equally important. Everyone he meets is equally important. You know, equally deserving of being listened to.
And you’re you’re you’re his friend. There’s no doubt that you’re his friend. It’s very nice. So we can we have the potential to have that mind of equanimity. So that is the that is the, you know, the basis for developing bodhicitta.
Because if we keep distinguishing people as friend, enemy, and stranger, we will only want those people to be liberated, enlightened, and those can suffer. And those people, I don’t care what happens to them. But if while we have those attitudes, we will we it means our love and compassion haven’t fully developed. And if they haven’t fully developed, bodhicitta can’t develop. So, when do we stop?
Now? No. Hold on. What time what time is it? Oh, this is wrong.
Alright. Okay, tea break. Oh, no, just yeah. A question, two questions. No, no, you just build the tunnel.
Yeah. Because they will. Yeah. Yeah. Right.
Right. Yeah. You yeah. No. I mean one has to be very careful about this.
I mean, I think this happens with everyone who meets us, you know, any particular spiritual tradition and they think it’s wonderful and therefore everyone has to believe it and practice it. And that can be very dangerous and, you know, feeling the need to tell everyone how wonderful Buddhism is and you should be a Buddhist and practice Buddhism. It’ll help you a lot because most people aren’t interested And they won’t appreciate it. And they will will turn against you and Buddhism. So, that’s why we have to develop, great skill.
And that’s what a bodhisattva has. A bodhisattva has the skill to lead every being exactly in the path that they need at that time. The main thing at first is to work on oneself, but the attitude is working on oneself so that one will be able to develop the wisdom and compassion to be able to tap on the shoulder of the person painting their room and saying, well, actually this is a waste of time. But you you know, you have a person has to know when to say that, how to say that. Oh yeah, already yes.
To some extent. To some extent. But you But you get more and more skillful in these things. Yeah. Because many people think, oh, now I’ve met this path, I really should, you know, know, my job is to be one to do these things.
It’s really more about applying it to oneself first. Because also, you know, the best advertisement is being a good practitioner, being a good person. Well in Buddhism, are the Mahāyāna teachings there’s what is called equanimity and also equilibrium. So I think in English these words mean virtually the same but they’ve been used to translate terms that mean different things. And I’ll talk about that next week when we talk about Śāntideva’s method.
But equanimity is where you try and have this balanced attitude towards others rather than seeing them as friend and mean stranger as all basically the same. Whereas equilibrium is where you see oneself and others as the same. Here equanimity is where you see others as the same but you still see yourself as different. But then there’s a higher stage of equilibrium where you see yourself and any other sentient being as exactly the same. No different.
So that’s probably what what you call equality. Yeah. Teton. Is there some more people? Can you encourage them to Okay.
I know we’re supposed to have a discussion group, but I I talk too much and haven’t covered the main part of the talk. We haven’t got to the main part of the talk yet. So and I have to do it. Otherwise, there’s no homework to do, and that’s the crucial thing. And there’s a lot more to cover in the rest of the course.
So how to generate bodhicitta according to Asaṇga? Just very briefly is the first cause of generating bodhicitta is recognizing that all sentient beings have been one’s mother. So how can we do this? Basically it comes from understanding we have a mind. That our mind is is beginning is beginningless.
Our mind wasn’t created our body, of course, was created by our parents, but our mind wasn’t created by our parents. Our mind doesn’t come from our parents’ mind. It it it doesn’t come from our body. It doesn’t come from our brain. The only physical matter can’t cause mind.
Physical matter doesn’t have consciousness, isn’t consciousness. So it can’t become the cause of something which is of a completely different nature. The only thing that has the same nature as mind is mind. It’s a unique thing. And what causes?
Why does today’s mind exist? It exists because it is the continuum of yesterday’s mind. If yesterday’s mind didn’t exist, today’s mind wouldn’t exist. So why today’s yeah. Why this week’s mind exists is because it’s a continuum of last week’s.
Why this mind the mind of this year exists is because it is the continuum of last year’s mind. Why does the mind of this life exist? Because it is the continuum of last life’s mind. Yeah. The only thing that can cause mind is mind.
And one mind cannot cause another mind. Yeah. If if our mind was created by another being’s mind, it would have to have all the knowledge of that being’s mind. Because it’s mind. It’s that person’s mind.
It’s that being’s mind. But that isn’t the case. So our mind is something that arises moment by moment in a continuum. And our mind is beginning literally beginningless. It never started.
It has always existed. There is no first cause. This is the Buddhist view. Every cause has a cause going back and back into beginningless time. And so, our just like our mind right now is in a body, our mind in all previous beginningless lives was in some form of body.
And just as the body of this life was created by the mother of this life, our mind, when it was in all those other bodies, those bodies were created by a mother. So we have had beginningless, infinite rebirths. Therefore, it also follows that we have had infinite mothers. Not just one mother, but infinite mothers. So who are all these infinite mothers?
All sentient beings. So according to the sutras there has been time for infinite sentient beings to have been our Mother not just one time but many times. Every sentient being has been our mother, and not just once, but many, many times. This is the Buddhist view, which is particularly emphasized in the Mahāyāna tradition. That every sentient being has been our mother.
And so the only thing that so everyone in this room has been our mother. Everyone in this city, everyone in this country, everyone on this planet, everyone, not and not just the human beings, but every sentient being. All the cockroaches, crocodiles, sharks, snakes, worms, fleas, nits, mites, all these things, all of them have been our mother. Not just once, but many many many times. And the only thing that that distinguishes the mother of this life from any previous mother is time.
Just time. We think that the mother of this life is our real mother, but she is no more our real mother than any other mother. You know, when we were in another body, that mother was our real mother. The only difference is time. It also follows that every sentient being has been our father many many times.
Yeah. But the reason why and it’s been our brother, sister, you know, best friend, auntie, uncle everything. Many many times. The reason for emphasizing that every sentient being has been our mother is because in general, it’s not always the case unfortunately, but in general mothers give, what’s the word? Unconditional love.
So the reason for emphasizing that every sentient being has been our mother is it leads to the so on the basis of developing an understanding of that, that every sentient being actually has been our mother, the first cause of developing bodhicitta is to practice recognizing that fact. That when we not just have that intellectual information or believe in it, but to act on that by recognizing when we think, look, relate to other sentient beings to relate to them as mother thinking this is my mother or was my mother. I never know how to explain this properly or nicely. But, so anyway, my mother died many years ago. But that being, although she is dead, I still think of her as my mother.
Even if you don’t believe in past lives and your mother die you don’t have and you don’t have Christian or whatever views, everyone who has you know, everyone has a mother. And when their mother dies, they think, oh, this is my mother. My my mother my mother is dead. You know? But she’s she’s my mother.
She never stops being my mother. Yeah? In one’s mind. So also all the other mothers don’t won’t stop being your mother. Just like the mother of this life will die, all the other mothers died but they it’s the same.
They’re one’s mother. The only difference, as I said, is time. You know, after your mother has been dead ten years, you don’t say, she’s not my mother anymore. I never had a mother. Well, she stopped being my mother.
She doesn’t stop being your mother. So our mother from previous life, she died a long time ago. But does that mean she stopped being my mother? No. So actually every sentient being has been our mother.
So that the thing is to try and recognize that and think of the person rather than as friend. Firstly, we try and stop thinking of people as friend, enemy and stranger, but as like all friends somehow. But then the next stage is to be able to sort of see you know, really feel, believe, think, see the other person as this is my mother. And the reason for that so that becomes the first cause of generating bodhicitta. The reason for that seeing sentient beings as emphasizing seeing them as mother rather than brother or sister or father is to remember the kindness of the mother.
So we do that by thinking of the kindness of our mother of this life and then applying that that this the kindness that I received from my mother in this life, the love, the support, the help, the affection and protection, and everything that I received from the mother of this life, I received in the same way from every sentient being. Every sentient being. Absolutely for sure. So it’s really good to meditate again and again to take your mind back, to think of all the ways one one’s mother has been kind. So for people who had a unfortunately had a hard time with their mother, didn’t have a kind mother, or think they didn’t have a kind mother, my teacher Lama Zopa Rinpoche points out one thing to reflect on is that even the unkind mother was kind in one very crucial way.
Very, very, very, very kind, which is she gave you, she gave us our body. She didn’t have to. She didn’t have to keep us. Even in you know, now it’s much easier to have abortions and so on. In the past it was much more difficult in every you know, medically and socially and etc etc etc.
But even so, even then, people women got rid of babies if they didn’t want them. But my mother didn’t. So that was incredibly kind. Unbelievably kind. Because now I have the precious human rebirth.
And everything is possible because of this body that I have. So that was immensely kind. But also one thing to try and reflect for people who had a hard time with their mother is, to try and think that, one’s mother is just a suffering sentient being who, maybe the things she did that caused so much trouble and pain, she did thinking it was the right thing to do. Because people’s, you know, views of what should be done, how to look after children vary from, you know, a lot and with time. So maybe she thought that was the right thing to do.
Maybe that was her expression of love. May maybe it didn’t feel like it, but maybe that’s she was trying to take care of me. And another thing to think is that because my mother is a suffering sentient, a deluded, limited suffering sentient being, maybe that’s all she could do. Maybe she didn’t do a very good job, but maybe because of, you know, problems she has she had, that’s all she could do. She tried her best.
Maybe it wasn’t very good, but it was all she was capable of doing. Right? Because as a child, we we don’t think usually of we just I mean, in my case, I just expected my mother to be perfect. To love me, take care of me, to love taking care of me, to wash me, feed me, provide me with it. Never ever occurred to me that there was this was a problem.
Why should it be? It was me. Yeah. You know? But then you look back as an old person, then you realize, well, maybe, you know, your mother had financial problems, worries about this, health problems, you know, this and that.
But you don’t think of those things as a child. You just expect all of this stuff. But so maybe our mother, you know, she did her best. She tried her best. Maybe it wasn’t a great job, but she tried.
So it’s really important to try and think like that. But then especially to recognize all the ways one’s mother helped and showed her love. Which can be many small small things but, you know, it’s really really important. And the purpose for doing that is not just to focus on one’s mother but and love one’s mum more. But that’s one good thing.
But to try the purpose of it in this context is to actually try and see that actually when I was in another body, in another life, the mother of that life did the same kinds of things. She took care of me in every possible way. She gave me her body. She fed me from her body. She, you know, she protected me tried to protect me from every kind of danger.
She tried to educate me in the ways of the world so that I would be successful. You know? We all think we’re very smart, educated, cool people now, but it’s all because our mother taught us how to speak. She taught us how to wash, how to go to the toilet, how to put on our clothes, how to be a nice person and say thank you. Yeah.
So that people that we’re able to actually be accepted by other people. And we don’t smell, you know, because we wash reasonably. So our mother taught us all these things which we absolutely take for granted but are fundamental for our well-being and success. So our mother is immensely kind and every mother does the same kinds of things. Other mothers maybe did even more amazing things.
You know, mothers give up their lives for their children. Mothers prostitute themselves for their children. Mothers do all sorts of amazing things for their children. So sentient beings, when they were my mother, did that for me. And my human mother of this life was my human mother many times.
When I was an animal, the mother of this life was my animal mother. When I was a preta, the mother of this life was my preta mother. When I was in floating around in the god realms, the mother of this life was my godmother. Not godmother. Goddess mother.
Mother in the god realms. So she’s been my mother in every kind of aspect. But every sentient being has been like that. So that’s the second cause of generating bodhicitta remembering the kindness of mother sentient beings. Being aware of it, remembering it.
And the purpose for that is that leads to the third cause is developing this intense wish determination to repay that kindness. Because generally speaking, the more we’re aware of the kindness of another person, we want to repay that. We want to return it in some way. So by reflecting over and over again as deeply as we can on the kindness of others then it leads to the wish to repay it. So not only are sentient beings kind when they’re our mother, but fathers are also very kind in different ways.
And every sentient being has been our father. Also brothers and sisters are also kind in different ways and every sentient being has been our brother and sister. But also when even when sentient beings aren’t in a close intimate relationship with us, they’re also immensely kind in countless ways. You know? We depend on shopkeepers and bus drivers and taxi drivers and teachers and police and, did I say shopkeepers?
Garbage collectors. Everybody. You know, entertainers, people working in factories making this, that and the other. Nurses and doctors and dentists and everybody, they’re all incredibly kind. And one can say, oh no, they’re not because they do it for money.
They’re just it’s just their job. But it’s very kind that they do that job because if that person didn’t do that job, I’d be in trouble. And sometimes people don’t enjoy doing that job and go they go on strike and everyone gets up upset and unhappy because we need them doing that job. So it’s really kind that they do it even if they do it for money. But I think as I’ve mentioned before, you know, if you go into a shop, there’s a shop assistant working for money but they can be, you know, they can serve you nicely, not so nicely, not serve you, be very busy.
So it’s very kind when they serve you. Even if they’re being paid to do it. It’s very kind. Our teachers were very kind to teach us. They were paid to do it.
But it was very kind of them to do it. Not very much fun being a teacher. I can tell you. Used to do it for a while. Said I would never do it again but I ended up doing this.
But you’re you’re a much more nice mob to teach. Yeah. So one reflects on all those countless ways but especially the kindness of the mother because it’s just so amazing. Mother sentient being mothers are mothers and dads are really amazing what they do. So as part of that reflecting developing this wish to repay that kindness then one reflects, how can I repay that kindness?
Because the more we want to repay it we have to think, how can I repay the kindness even of the mother of this life? What would repay the kindness of my mother of this life? And you think of all all the meals our mother has cooked for us, and all the dishes she’s washed, and all the clothes our mother has washed for us, and all the hours she spent worrying about us. Of course, we get annoyed that she worries about us, but she can’t help it because she’s our mom. She has to worry about us.
That’s part of her love. It’s very irritating, But it’s because she loves us. She wants us to be happy, and she tells us to do all these things that we don’t want to do. But it’s a you know, she does it because she loves us. And even when you’re fifty years or sixty years old, she treats you like a little kid, but because you’re her child.
Because she loves you. Because she loves us. So what would repay all of that? What would repay that? So giving her a birthday card or a Mother’s Day card or a box of chocolates or a nice pair of set of hankies or flowers, not the three-dimensional stereophonic Dolby television set with attached washing machine and and and hair dryer and yeah.
Yes. Yes. Would it? No. It wouldn’t.
Not really. Nice to do. Actually, anything we do for our mom, our mom thinks it’s wonderful. But from our side, does it really pay her kindness? Because, unfortunately, all of those things I think I told this story oh no, it’s too long to take this.
Anyway, even if we gave our mother a million dollars, it wouldn’t repay that kindness. Because even with a million dollars, ten million, a billion dollars, our mother has to grow old, get sick, and die, and suffer. So wouldn’t it be wonderful to repay out the mother’s kindness by giving her happiness, real happiness, a happiness where there’s no suffering. That would repay her kindness. So then that leads into the next cause which is to develop great love for all sentient beings.
The mind wanting all sentient beings, just not, you know, not just friends, but strangers, enemies, not just humans, all sentient beings to have not just worldly happiness, which is the suffering of change, but real happiness, pure, everlasting happiness, and especially wanting them to create its causes. And and that great love which is determined, I will help them create those causes. Like you said, you know, at some point one has to help others understand what real happiness is, what the causes are, and to help them, guide them into creating those causes. So this is great love. And of course it comes from realizing that mother sentient beings are completely bereft of real happiness.
No matter how much success they have and good fortune and whatever, it isn’t pure, perfect, lasting happiness. It’s just illusory. It’s impermanent. It’s not going to last. But how wonderful it would be if mother sentient beings could have real happiness that that that doesn’t end.
And the more one wishes that, this leads to the next cause which these two are the first three are in a sequence. The next one’s love and compassion. Can you can develop love then compassion or compassion and love. They go together. But the more one wishes sentient beings to have perfect happiness, one will also develop great compassion by seeing that sentient mother sentient beings, the mother of this life, all mother sentient beings are suffering.
And the and and not only that, what is worse, they are creating the causes of suffering over and over again. And even though, you know, it’s not just people who are obviously suffering like the weak and the poor and the sick and so on. But even the most powerful, the richest, the most beautiful people, the most successful people, they are suffering. They are suffering because they’re subject, you know, like to all the six types of suffering, the eight kinds of suffering. They have a mind controlled by delusion karma.
So they are suffering. You look at all the rich people in Australia, I think they’re suffering. I think Clive Palmer is suffering. I think, oh, sorry, Mother sentient being Clive. Gina’s suffering, everyone’s suffering.
You know the billions of dollars. Actually I watched a program on television made by a young guy who comes from an immensely wealthy American family. He made it about his immensely wealthy friends. The life of being immensely wealthy. And at one point, one of them, it was about the only intelligent thing, was they said how stupid people are to think that because we’re rich we’re happy, that we’re not suffering.
And it was obvious they were. Anyway, it’s just a different kind of suffering. There’s the suffering of being very rich. There’s the suffering of being very poor. There’s the suffering of being beautiful, suffering of being ugly, suffering of being healthy, suffering of being unhealthy, suffering of being a man, suffering of being a woman, suffering of being young, suffering of being old, suffering of being the oppressor, suffering of being the oppressed.
Everything is a type of suffering somehow. One way, if you look at it, if you check, it’s all suffering. First noble truth. Samsaric existence is suffering. So when one starts to see that, then one you know, and this is happening to mother sentient beings, these incredibly kind mother sentient beings.
One can develop this great compassion, wanting beings to be free of every kind of suffering, all its causes, and that the special quality of great compassion is that determination that I’m going to help them be free of suffering. I’m going to help them stop. I’m going to help them to stop creating the causes of suffering. So then that leads to the next cause of bodhicitta which is called the Tibetan term is ‘Lhak Sam’ which means like the superior thought, the superior wish, the great resolve. His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, calls it universal responsibility because it’s the it’s a it’s an even more extreme thought.
In one way it’s like a crazy thought, but actually it’s the opposite of crazy. It’s the most sublime thought, which is that I not only great compassion and great love of the thought that I will help sentient beings create I will help all sentient beings create the causes for for happiness, and and I will help them create eliminate all the causes of suffering. You know, I will do that. I will, be involved. The great wish, the great resolve is the thought that I will do this alone.
I will enlighten by myself alone. Not with the help of all the other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, but I alone will do it. And the reason, you know, and and the the the logic of that is why do I alone have to enlighten everyone rather than leave it up to all the other Buddhas? Because there’s plenty of other Buddhas already doing this. But why is it necessary to develop that thought in a sincere way?
It’s because, since you’re not answering me, it’s because if if if he he got Arnold here. If Arnold lends me a dollar then I’m responsible to repay that dollar to him. But if if, Sasha gives Arnold if Sasha then gives Arnold a dollar, I still owe him a dollar. Right? I can’t think, oh, I don’t have to give him the dollar anymore because Sasha gave him a dollar.
I have to repay the dollar I got. So every sentient being has been immensely kind to me. So right now, there are infinite numbers of Buddhas benefiting sentient beings. Why? They are repaying the kindness they received.
That doesn’t abnegate. Is that the word? Abducate? No. Ab abnegate.
Abnegate. That doesn’t abrogate my responsibility to repay the kindness I received. Therefore, we have to develop the thought, I alone will repay the kindness of all sentient beings. I alone will help every sentient being achieve enlightenment. And we have to develop that thought sincerely, not as just cute words, but this kind of absolute, uncontrived, deep commitment, resolution.
I am going to enlighten every sentient being. Alone. And that leads so these are the six causes of developing bodhicitta because that leads to developing bodhicitta because you then think, well, if I alone am going to enlighten every sentient being, how am I going to do it as I am now as a deluded sentient being? It’s utterly impossible. So what do I have to do if I’m going to enlighten everyone?
Well, it means I have to get rid of all my delusions because they don’t help. They harm sentient beings. And I have to awaken all my positive I need to have perfect love, perfect compassion, perfect patience, perfect wisdom, perfect perseverance, perfect everything. Yeah? No self-cherishing, completely selfless, total omniscience.
I need to be able to read the minds of every sentient being so I know exactly what to say at exactly the right time to benefit them so I don’t make mistakes. In other words, guess what? I have to become a Buddha. Therefore, I will. That’s bodhicitta.
I have to become a Buddha to benefit, to repay the kindness of all mother sentient beings. So I will. And it doesn’t matter how hard it is, how long it takes. That’s what I’ll do because that’s what I have to do. Because sentient beings helped me.
Now my turn to help them. So that’s bodhicitta. bodhicitta is the has two aspects. One aspect is that that aspect not being able to bear the suffering of sentient beings, feeling the suffering of sentient beings as one’s own and unbearable, and wanting them to be totally free of it, wanting them to have perfect happiness. So that’s one aspect of bodhicitta.
The other aspect is the wish to achieve enlightenment because the only way to accomplish the first thing, freeing them of suffering, bringing them happiness, is to become a Buddha. Right? So these are the two aspects of bodhicitta. Want it? Yeah?
That makes sense? Yes? Right. That’s it. Cover the topic.
In a nutshell very very quickly. But there’s a whole module on this on how to develop bodhicitta so we’ll go into much more detail if you last the distance and come for that one. But that’s it in a nutshell. A question or two before we finish? Okay.
Right. Just before we finish it, I just like to promote the retreat again. So we’ve got two more talks, two more classes, and then on the Sunday of the last class is the retreat from nine o’clock in the morning nine until three thirty in the afternoon. So I would really hot oh, it’s on the Saturday this time. It’s on the Saturday of the the week of the last no.
There’s two more. There’s two more. Excuse me? What? There’s two more talks.
Right? Yes. Two more talks. Yes. Definitely.
Yes. There’s two more talks. And then yes. Two more talks. And that’s it.
And then the retreat. Yeah. So there’s a chance to do some meditations in detail like the equanimity one. So I’ll go in more detail of how to do that and the bodhicitta and meditating on suffering, which is always good. It’s great meditating on suffering.
Some various things. Actually, we won’t have time there won’t be time in the day to cover all the topics. We’ll we’ll try and do some of the essential points. Okay. And please so please book now so we know that, you know, there’s enough people for it to happen.
I hope enough of you will be interested. So try and, you know, schedule your other things another time so that you’re able to come for the whole thing if possible. That would be great and bring something vegetarian to share with everyone which is also another nice aspect of the thing and that’s a way to repay the kindness of Mother sentient beings. Offer some nice veggie food to them. Okay, thank you very much.
So we can dedicate the positive imprints, our positive understanding, positive imprints. May these become a cause for us to be able to actually generate bodhicitta so that we can then quickly achieve enlightenment in order to eliminate the suffering of all sentient beings and lead them to peerless everlasting happiness. So page nine, if you’d like to join in. 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 bodhicitta not yet born arise and grow.
May that born have no decline but increase forevermore. So