Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 63-minute teaching from a five-day retreat, Ven Thubten Dondrub guides practitioners through a foundational meditation on equalising oneself with others, drawn from Śāntideva’s Bodhisattva Way of Life. He explains why this practice is essential: equanimity alone—the absence of labelling beings as friend, enemy, or stranger—is not enough to generate authentic compassion and bodhicitta. Self-cherishing still divides us from others until we recognise that every sentient being, human and animal alike, possesses the identical wish to avoid suffering and seek happiness, and that all minds share the same fundamental nature and Buddha nature. He walks through the preparatory steps: correct posture, nine-round breathing with visualisations of blessings, refuge, and guru yoga, then leads the actual meditation by guiding practitioners to contemplate behavioural and motivational identity with others, the sameness of suffering and happiness, and finally the indivisibility of all minds in their emptiness. Suited for those already familiar with Tibetan Buddhist practice and committed to retreat discipline.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 29. Day 5 Meditation Equanimity.mp3
UUID: 00be1a9a-1dc1-4de3-8170-95fe84d6fc56
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: KI Retreat (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2005 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 63.3 minutes
Words: ~3,489
On equalising oneself with others. So this is part of the meditation, the practice of generating bodhicitta according to the system of Śāntideva, which is set out in the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra and the way of the bodhisattva. Śāntideva’s method of developing bodhicitta is called equalising and exchanging self with others. So Pabongka Rinpoche says this is an extremely powerful method for generating bodhicitta.
The other method, of course, comes from Asaṇga, the six causes and one effect technique. So in Śāntideva’s method, part of the process is equalising oneself with others on the basis of having developed equanimity. So I assume with all developed equanimity we don’t have friends, enemies and strangers anymore, just all equanimity to all mother sentient beings. On the basis of that we can practice equalising oneself with others. So I chose this because it’s also very helpful to do this meditation in relation to practising patience because patience with the enemy, because the mind creates the sense of enemy through a strong sense of the inherent self or the inherent other and there’s this huge difference, there’s no relationship between myself and others.
And because of that we label friends, enemies and strangers. But the meditation on equanimity helps us see that there’s no difference whatsoever, real difference, significant difference between oneself and any sentient being friend, enemy, stranger. There’s no real difference so why create a difference and get upset and so on. The enemy is exactly the same as myself which is so on. So this is a very nice meditation to do.
It’s very simple in its outlines. So we prepare ourselves to do this by first sitting comfortably in the correct posture as much as possible. And placing our awareness at the crown of our head and just moving our awareness down through the body to check carefully. Then we do the nine round breathing exercise to calm the mind, combining it with visualising the blessings of the Buddha coming in with each in breath in the form of very soothing white light, breathing out all the disturbing thoughts and all the obstacles to meditation in the form of black smoke with each out breath. Then generate a strong mind of refuge that recognises that our own mind is the source of happiness and suffering.
It doesn’t come from the outer world at all. So we have to work with our own mind to be free of suffering and and establish the causes of happiness. So to work with our mind correctly, skillfully, to get the very best results, we have to rely on the perfect, unbetrayable method, which can only come from perfect mind. So we take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. Visualizing Śākyamūni Buddha as the embodiment of the Triple Gem and the very embodiment of all the qualities of the Triple Gem.
So visualize Śākyamūni Buddha in front with a body of golden transparent light seated on lion throne, lotus sun and moon, all in the nature of transparent light. And then recognizing that life after life, I have depended on the kindness of others in every way, totally dependent, constantly receiving the support and kindness and help and protection of mother sentient beings. Most of these sentient beings right now are experiencing far more suffering than myself, with far less ability at the moment, not having a precious human rebirth. So therefore far less ability to do anything about their suffering. So I can’t just think about becoming free of suffering myself.
I have to work for them as well. I have the responsibility to repay the kindness I’ve received from them. No one else can repay the kindness. The Buddhas can’t repay the kindness that I have received from each sentient being. That is my responsibility.
And the only way I can meet that responsibility is to become a Buddha with all the qualities that can continuously benefit others, guide them away from suffering and lead them onto the path and along the path to their own awakening. So this is what I must do. So to encourage us in that, we think of all these kind sentient beings surrounding us, experiencing the different sufferings of the different realms. 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.
Reverently, I prostrate with my body, speech, and mind. I present clouds of every type of offering, actual and imagined. I declare all my negative actions accumulated since beginningless time and rejoice in the merit of all holy and ordinary beings. Please remain until the end of cyclic existence and turn the wheel of dharma for living beings. I dedicate my own merits and those of all others to the great enlightenment.
On page seventeen. The foundation of all good qualities is the kind of venerable Guru. Correct devotion to him is the root of the path. By clearly seeing this and applying great effort, please bless me to rely upon him with great respect. Understanding that the precious freedom of this rebirth is found only once, is greatly meaningful and is difficult to find again.
Please bless me to generate the mind that unceasingly day and night takes its essence. This life is as impermanent as a water bubble. Remember how quickly it decays and death comes. After death, just like the shadow follows the body, the results of black and white karma follow. Finding firm and definite conviction in this, please bless me always to be careful to abandon even the slightest negativities and accomplish all virtuous deeds.
Seeking samsaric pleasures as the door to all suffering, they are uncertain and cannot be relied upon. Recognising these shortcomings, please bless me to generate the strong wish for the bliss of liberation. Led by this pure thought, mindfulness, alertness and great caution arise, the root of the teachings of keeping the Prātimokṣa vows. Please bless me to accomplish this essential practice. Just as I have fallen into the sea of saṃsāra, so have all mother migratory beings.
Please bless me to see this, train in supreme bodhicitta and bear the responsibility of freeing migratory beings. Even if I develop only bodhicitta but I don’t practice the three types of morality, I will not achieve enlightenment. With my clear recognition of this, please bless me to practice the bodhisattva vows with great energy. Once I pacify distractions to wrong objects and correctly analyse the meaning of reality, it generates quickly within my mind stream the unified path of calm abiding and special insight. Having become a pure vessel by training in the general path, please bless me to enter the holy gateway of the fortunate ones, the supreme vajra vehicle.
That time, the basis of accomplishing the two attainments is keeping pure vows and samaya. As I have become firmly convinced of this, please bless me to protect these vows and pledges like my life. Then having realised the importance of the two stages, the essence of the vajrayana By practicing with great energy, never giving up the four sessions, please bless me to realise the teachings of the Holy Guru. Like that, may the Gurus that show the noble path and the spiritual friends who practice it have long lives. Please bless me to pacify completely all outer and inner hindrances.
In all my lives, never separated from perfect Gurus, may I enjoy the magnificent Dharma. By completing the qualities of the stages and paths, May I quickly attain the state of vajradhara? So having prepared our mind in this way, I would think that the Buddha is very pleased and because of that the lion throne dissolves into light, absorbing up into the lotus sun and moon, and the Buddha seated on these now comes to the crown of our head, turning to face the same direction as ourselves. So then we make a strong heartfelt request to the Guru Buddha for one’s mind to be completely free of all the obstacles, to correctly meditating on and realising the equality of self and others. Think the Buddha happily responds by sending this continuous stream of blissful white light and nectar from his heart into us, through the crown of our head.
This fills our whole being and washes away all those obstacles that take the form of black liquid that leaves from the lower part of the body. Then a continuous stream of golden light and nectar comes into us from the Buddha, blessing our mind to be able to correctly meditate on and realize the equality of self and others. So now we turn our mind to the actual topic. So even if we’re able to cultivate the mind of equanimity where we no longer create these strong divisions between sentient beings labelling some as friend, others as enemy and most as strangers, Even if we’re able to develop this mind of equanimity where we have this equal friendliness to all beings, still because of the self-cherishing thought, we create this, our mind still creates this division between myself and others that I am much more important. My suffering is far worse.
My need for happiness is far greater. Somehow I am inherently different and superior to others. When our mind is controlled by the self-cherishing thought, these kinds of beliefs arise. So this is a great obstacle to developing, fully developing the mind of love and compassion and therefore bodhicitta. And if we’re able to realise our potential for love and compassion and spontaneously express that state of mind, in that state of mind, we won’t get angry.
We won’t even need to patress patience because the mind just simply won’t get upset with other sentient beings. So this is very so recognising the equality between ourselves and others is incredibly important. So we can cultivate this mind of equalising self with others by analysing the fact that if we look at the behaviour, the outer behaviour of other sentient beings, human beings, animals and so The outer behaviour is very different. People do so many different things. And quite different from what I do.
And we think sometimes in our pride and whatever, How could people possibly do that? Why would they do that? I would never do that. But if we go beyond the outer behaviour and look at the inner motivation of why people are doing what they’re doing moment by moment, day by day, year by year. It’s simply what the motivation is simply trying to be happy.
That’s all. Every sentient being is continuously trying to do things, accomplish things, which they believe will bring happiness. Whether it actually does or not doesn’t matter, But there’s this motivation driving every sentient being to bring about what they believe is happiness. Some do very virtuous things, some do non virtuous things, some people do very intelligent things, some people do unbelievably stupid things to be happy. But the motivation is just the same.
And then if I look at myself, why do I behave the way I do? Why do I do the things I do? It’s just to be happy. That’s all. I’m just trying to be happy.
Why am I here right now trying to be happy? Other people are outside doing all sorts of things right now. Why? Just trying to be happy. So what’s the difference in what I’m doing and what other people are doing?
There’s no difference in the motivation whatsoever. Even not just between me and human beings, is there no difference, even between myself and animals. Everything they do is to try to be happy, to have some comfort, to have something to eat, and to have some warmth, protection, and so on, exactly like me. An animal just simply eats some grass. I make a huge complicated deal of eating lots of different things, all sorts of plates and cutlery, try and make it as expensive and fancy as I possibly can.
But the motivation is just to have some pleasure, just like a cow eating some grass or one of the kangaroos hopping around here. There’s no difference. Can we really find a difference? We’re just the same. The mind creating a difference is the source of all suffering.
So then if we think about the actual happiness that I’m chasing after when I experience it, that happiness in my mind, can I really say that it’s somehow different from the happiness that any other sentient being experiences, human, animal or otherwise? Is it somehow superior? And in what way? When I eat an apple, is my pleasure of eating an apple somehow superior to someone else eating an apple? And similarly, we can reflect that when I experience suffering, is it any different than the suffering others experience?
Somehow my self-cherishing thought believes that my suffering is somehow far worse, unbearable. But when any sentient being, human or animal or otherwise, experiences what they don’t want and there is suffering, It is just simply suffering. It’s something that is completely unwanted. Is there any real difference? Of course different sentient beings learn to deal with their suffering in different ways and through the Dharma practice one can learn to bear one’s suffering and transform it.
But the suffering itself, that experience is just the same. It’s something unwanted. No one wants any suffering. So again we can reflect and just check yourself that when we look at the outer behaviour of others we see again so many differences. But again if we reflect, what is the inner motivation?
There is the wish to be happy but also one’s behaviour of sentient beings is motivated by the wish to avoid suffering. Again, sentient beings do very foolish things to avoid suffering, very intelligent things, skillful things, unskillful things, virtuous, non virtuous, successful, unsuccessful. But the motivation is just that simple wish not to experience even the tiniest suffering. And isn’t that what I do? Isn’t that what preoccupies my mind?
So what is the difference between myself and others? The real difference. Not just between myself and humans but even between any animal, even a tiny insect. You put your finger close to an ant, it will run away because it doesn’t want suffering just like oneself. That fear of suffering in the insect, the fear of suffering in my my own mind, can we really say there is a significant difference?
And then we create divisions in our mind especially among humans with that social and family background divisions and so on. But the mind of a rich person, the mind of a famous person, a powerful person is the same as the mind of the poorest, most downtrodden person. It’s just mind. The body is different, born into a different family and so on. So many differences between bodies, different races and colors and so on.
But the mind is just the same. The conventional nature of mind, of every sentient being is clear and knowing. The mind of a human being is clear and knowing. The mind of a cockroach is clear and knowing. The nature of my mind is clear and knowing.
What is the difference? The real difference. The mind of a bodhisattva is clear and knowing. The mind of someone completely insane is clear and knowing. The ultimate nature of the mind of any sentient being is empty, empty of true existence.
The ultimate nature of my mind is empty of true existence. Is the emptiness of my mind somehow better than the emptiness of the mind of a cockroach? I have a better kind of emptiness. It’s the formless nature of my mind. It’s a better kind of formlessness than the mind of a mouse.
It’s just absurd. There’s no difference at all. And, of course, among different sentient beings, between human beings, between animals and so on, there are differences in the levels of obscuration of mind. That’s for sure. We can’t deny that.
Some minds are more obscure than others. My mind may be less obscured than some other sentient beings. But then there are many who have minds less obscured than mine. But what is obscuring the mind are our delusions, ignorance, attachment and anger and so on. So can I really say that my delusions are somehow different than the delusions of any other sentient being?
If there is ignorance, there is the potential for every delusion to arise at any moment when the conditions come about. So can I really say I have less delusions than others? We see with our self-cherishing someone doing something negative, and we think, oh, I would never do that. But actually we’ve done it many times in past lives, and we have the imprint to do such things in the future. So how can we make a real difference between ourselves and others?
Right now, have this very rare and precious human rebirth, the perfect human rebirth. I could think that this makes me superior to others. But it’s just momentary here, can be lost in any moment. If I look at any of my delusions, can I say that they are somehow different than the delusions of others? Do I have a better kind of anger than someone else?
I have a nicer kind of, a better quality anger. It’s just absurd. There’s no difference. Anger is anger. If it’s in my mind, another sentient being’s mind.
Consider how, no matter how obscured any particular mind is, no matter how obscured any particular sentient being is, human or otherwise, the very nature of mind is pure and perfect. The very nature of mind is Buddha nature. The mind of a human being has Buddha nature. The mind of an insect has Buddha nature. The mind of a preta being has Buddha nature.
The mind of this hell being has Buddha nature. My mind has Buddha nature. So why make a difference? It just produces suffering. So as you sit here right now, just allow yourself to become aware of the sense of I that we are always grasping at, the sense of soul that is existing in the very depths of our heart.
That sense of I that is always wishing to be free of suffering, always wishing happiness. That sense of I which is incredibly fragile and vulnerable. So just to really allow yourselves to be aware of that thought, the feeling that goes with it, that sense of the I. So then as you’re aware of that and hold that sense of your own self, then just simply be aware that everyone else sitting in this room has that same sense of I dwelling in their heart. Exactly the same.
That every human being that you have ever met, seen, know whether they are a friend, a stranger or an enemy always has that same fragile, vulnerable sense of self ever dwelling in their heart. There is no difference. It’s just this simple sense of I always there. Every human being on this planet has it. Every animal of every kind, insect and so on, has that.
Just be aware that there’s really no difference. How can there be a difference in that just simple thought and grasping at I? Śāntideva points out later on in the section of the this same text we’re studying that our body is made up of different parts, different shape, color, made of different things. But we see all those different things as all limbs of our body, all limbs making up the one thing, our own body, something very precious. Śāntideva says, Why can’t we see all other sentient beings whom we are actually interdependent with as limbs of our own life.
So we can bring our contemplation to an end, making a strong determination to practice more and more the mindfulness that focuses on similarities between ourselves and others and not the differences so that we can begin to understand more and more that there is no real difference between ourselves and others. The suffering of others is our suffering simply because it is suffering and unwanted. The wish for happiness of others is our own wish for happiness. Then recall the Buddha at the crown of your head, seeing the Buddha is extremely pleased with us, with our meditation. Visualize the Buddha happily dissolving into light, this blissful golden light coming down through the crown of our head, pervading our whole being, blessing our mind to gain complete and stable realisation of the equality of self with all sentient beings.
Then we dedicate the merit. Page twenty six. Precious O dear mind, not yet born arise and grow. May thine born have no decline, but increase forever Sorry. Habits took over.